FS | BRAIN FOOD
January 4th, 2026 - #662 - read online - Free Version
Welcome to Brain Food, your weekly signal in a world full of noise.
Tiny Thoughts
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A lack of patience changes the outcome.
**
Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you're smarter than you are.
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Superpowers you can choose:
- Ability to change yourself & your mind
- Not taking things personally
- Not needing to prove you're right
- Careful selection of all relationships
- Staying calm
- Being alone without being lonely
- Being ok with being uncomfortable
- Thinking for oneself
Insights
Regardless of who wrote this, there is a lot of wisdom in reading it:
"IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER,
I'd like to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies."
— Nadine Stair, 85 years old, Louisville, Kentucky
The point isn't to work more or less, to eat more ice cream or less beans, it's to be conscious of how you want to live your life and what you want to spend your time on.
The Knowledge Project
What better way to start the new year than this incredible episode with James Clear on how to build good habits and break bad ones.
This is one of my favorite conversations ever. James explains how habits shape our identity, how to make progress visible before it is noticeable, and how to design your environment so that your desired behaviors become your default.
Here are some Tiny Lessons from this episode:
1. "You cannot outwork the person working on a better thing."
2. "The cost of good habits is in the present. The cost of bad habits is in the future."
3. Intensity makes for a good story. Consistency makes for good results.
4. "Don't be the first to tell yourself no. Let the world tell you no first."
5. "If you're not outthinking them, you're not outworking them."
+ Available now Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Web/Transcript | X | YouTube
More from this episode ...
+ Read all 46 Tiny Lessons
+ Members have access to my highlights from Atomic Habits.
SPONSOR: reMarkable
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+ reMarkable took my annual review and made it into a beautiful PDF.
Thanks for reading,
— Shane Parrish
P.S. Move over, Lego.
P.P.S. If you live in the United Kingdom, Clear Thinking is the 99p Kindle Deal of the month.
P.P.P.S. The boxed set of The Great Mental Models is the lowest price I've seen. (US / Canada only).
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