Danny Miranda

for those in pursuit of their highest version

Tuesday Treasure

Tuesday Treasure #27: enthusiasm, strangers, synthwave

by

Hello family!

Big week on the content front.

Finding a nice groove publishing podcasts, tweets, blog posts, and book notes.

Some pieces of content you may enjoy:

  • Podcast: #027: Jack Butcher – The Magic of the Internet – This was such a great conversation because we dived into some topics Jack hadn’t previously talked about. Stuff like his childhood, the magic of the internet, and mistakes he’s made along his journey.
  • Book Notes: The Winners Manual by Jim Tressel – This book is an absolute beauty. The biggest takeaway: when combining love and discipline… anything is possible.
  • Blog Post: Questions About 75 HARD – A Tuesday Treasure family member asked some great questions about the challenge. I write this to you on Day 68 so these answers are fresh.

Onto the treasure…

1. Think in verbs, not nouns

For those of you who are in the process of trying to figure out what you want to do with your life…

Austin Kleon provides some great advice:

1. Think back to what you were doing when you were a child.

2. Think in verbs, not nouns. What does this mean? Well, if you enjoy reading, writing, and arguing, maybe lawyer is the career for you. But if you want to be a lawyer for the prestige or you thought that’s what you were “supposed to do” …it probably won’t work out. Start with what you enjoy doing, let the actual profession figure itself out.

(Source: Not Overthinking – Ali Abdaal & Austin Kleon)

2. Talking to strangers

This quote comes from a study (via the wise and brilliant Rob Henderson):

“People on a public bus had a more positive experience when they talked to a stranger than when they sat in isolation and yet predicted precisely the opposite.”

Although this may be more difficult to do in the world of COVID, talking to strangers brings me joy.

Why?

Because our initial inclination might be to think strangers are more-often-than-not rude.

In truth, strangers are more-often-than-not kind.

When we connect with others, we connect with ourselves.

3. Morgan Housel’s writing is a gift

It’s pretty simple: when Morgan Housel writes, I read. I always learn something new from his stuff. You probably will as well.

His latest piece is about big lessons from history.

4. Two notes on enthusiasm

5. A look into the creative process

​David Perell and Jack Butcher have a criminally under-watched 45-minute YouTube video on Jack’s process.

If you’re a creator, it’s worth checking out: Making Ideas Visible: David Perell + Jack Butcher.

6. Synthwave

Recently got turned onto synthwave. According to Wikipedia, synthwave is “electronic music microgenre that is based predominately on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s.”

I’m currently writing this newsletter to this playlist.

Flow state unlocked.

7. Quote of the week

“We don’t make movies to make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”

–Walt Disney

That’s all for today folks!

Let me know what resonated in particular as well as anything going on in your life.

I send these newsletters out so interesting people (like you!) will respond, so I’d love to hear from you.

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #26: call, breaks, planets

by

Hey family!

I’m sending this newsletter to 500+ people for the first time.

That’s rad.

Thank you for opening this email. Appreciate you… truly.

Now onto the Treasure…

1. Call an old friend

One of the best things I’ve done in the past week was have a two-hour phone call with Tuesday Treasure subscriber Deedo.

When we get lost in a good conversation, we find ourselves in a state of flow where we completely forget about everything else in the world (that’s the reason I started the podcast).

It’s magical.

Let this be a reminder to call an old friend today.

Here’s a breakthrough insight I had as a result of this conversation…

2. Everything matters, nothing matters​

On the one hand, everything we do matters.

Especially when we’re pursuing the highest version of ourselves. The food we eat, when we go to sleep, how we perform in each moment. Everything matters.

On the other, nothing really matters.

We’re all just a bunch of chimps floating on a rock in space. Which means there’s no reason to sweat the small stuff (especially when it truly is outside our control). Nothing matters.

Can we hold both to be true? I believe so. And even moreso, the better we are able to balance these two… the better we can tackle life.

3. Take breaks (interesting fact of the week)

Today I learned…

National regulations require air traffic controllers to take a break every two hours.

Why?

Because if not, we’d have planes flying into each other. Performance decreases rapidly after 120 minutes.

What makes us think we’re any different?

We can break up our longer work sessions with walks, meditation sessions (even five minutes helps!), or yoga.

4. 10 pieces of advice from a top performing coach​

Something tells me if you followed these 10 rules, you’d end up in a pretty good place in life.

My favorite is:

0.08 Commit to staying consistent with a new habit for 30 days before raising the bar.

Reply to this email with your favorite from the list.

5. How many habitable planets in the galaxy?!

300 million, according to NASA.

This blew my mind.

Figured you might enjoy it as well.

6. We’re all one (quote of the week)

And this quote fits well here…

“The same things that make up stars make up us. We are all connected to the energy of a higher power, so in essence, having faith in the universe, or god, or whatever you want to call it is having faith in yourself and vice versa.”

~Russ, It’s All In Your Head

7. What’s on your mind?

I’d love to learn more about you. What’s on your mind these days? How’re you doing? I’ll respond to every message.

Talk soon.

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #25: rules, questions, social media

by

Hey family!

Welcome to the 25th edition of Tuesday Treasure.

(It seems like almost yesterday that I was just sending out the first issue of this newsletter to 45 beautiful souls.)

Let’s get to the treasure this week…

What Are Your Rules?

When this year started, I wrote down four rules to follow:

1. Discipline = freedom.

2. Show more love.

3. Dream bigger.

4. GRIND.

I share these because I’m curious… what are your rules? Do you have 3 or 4 lessons that guide your behavior?

The Social Media Problem

Tuesday Treasure reader Mike asked me about my thoughts on this podcast with Joe Rogan and Tristan Harris (of The Social Dilemma).

Here are those thoughts:

1. Harris is so convincing because he uses such strongmetaphors. Do you want to make a point? Compare it to something else. See points #2 and #3.

2. We have protections on the environment (i.e. national parks). But why not on our attention? For example, one change Harris recommends is it should be illegal to advertise to minors between midnight and 6am. Think of it like a “free zone” for kids who are likely using the platform because they are lonely or depressed.

3. Why did the United States stop using lead in their products –even though it helped spur economic growth? Because it was found to lower IQ by 4 points in children, which would eventually create a massive decline in GDP. By comparison, is social media making us 4 IQ points dumber? I’d venture to guess the answer is yes.

4. Political polarization is seemingly more widespread than ever before. Could it be because of social media? It seems likely. Social media is great at putting us into echo chambers.

5. Sharing your message gives you more hope. Harris said while working on this project, he felt hopeless about the future of social media. After releasing the film though, his despair turned to optimism. There were other people feeling what Harris was feeling. They were just doing so in silence. A great reminder that sharing your messge allows you to be a lighthouse for like-minded people.

Have you listened to the episode or watched The Social Dilemma? If so, would love your thoughts.

Questions To Ask

Tuesday Treasure reader Sean Connors introduced me to John Maxwell.

I’ve recently dived into Maxwell’s book: Good Leaders Ask Great Questions.

Here are some questions to ask anyone (you might hear some of these in future podcast episodes):

  • What is the greatest lesson you have learned?
  • What are you learning now?
  • How has failure shaped your life?
  • Who do you know whom I should know?
  • What have you read that I should read?
  • What have you done that I should do?
  • How can I add value to you?

The quality of our life is based on the questions we ask.

By the way, feel free to use any of these questions as a writing prompt to reply to this email. 🙂

Be Homies With The Voice In Your Head

I was just about to send out this email when I saw a tweet from Tuesday Treasure family member Dan Hunt about a concept I’ve thought a lot about…

Loving yourself.

Here is the photo published:

Such an important document to internalize.

(Underlines my own.)

New Podcasts This Week

This past week, I published three new podcasts. You can check them out below:

  • ​023: Madison Fischer. Madison is a writer, rock climber, and an absolute beast. She’s also a Tuesday Treasure family member. In this conversation, we spoke about how she thinks about high performance, what coaching has taught her (she’s only 19!), and two incredible books she recommended to me (Chasing Excellence, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth).
  • ​022: Chris Elmari. Chris is a brilliant individual. We dove deep on the spiritual journey, which led us down a path that created the longest episode yet. Amazing conversation.
  • ​021: Dickie Bush. Dickie is an excellent writer and fan of ribeyes. This was the shortest episode published thus far, but it was jam-packed with incredible insights for anyone producing content online or curious about writing on the Internet.

That’s all for today, folks! Hope you have a wonderful week. As always, looking forward to your replies.

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #24: democracy, podcasts, cities

by

Hey family!

I’m going to switch up the format this week.

Why?

I had a lot of links to share with you.

If you like it, it’ll stay. If it doesn’t, we’ll go back to the old way. Hit the reply button when you’re done and let me know what you think.

Here is this week’s Treasure!

1. Democracy works because of its systems. Future podcast guest Pat Walls takes a different approach to the election: the President doesn’t matter because the system works. (Democracy Is Systems)

2. How did Oprah become Oprah? The guys over at Acquired analyzed Oprah as a business. They dived into just why she was so successful. It’s a 2-hour podcast, but highly recommended. (Acquired)

3. Humans are a storytelling bunch. We create stories. And we remember these stories based on changes, significant moments, endings. This lecture by Daniel Kahneman will reconfigure how you think about your own memory. (The riddle of experience vs. memory)

4. Here are the coolest things David Perell found in 2018. It’s a hodgepodge of great ideas. In fact, I could’ve compiled this week’s Treasure with information from this post. Here are some of the topics included: the magnetic field of birds, the fastest growing, how maps distort reality, and the impact of different camera lenses change your face. I would be shocked if you didn’t learn something new. (Coolest Things I Learned In 2018)

5. Do cities speak to us? This essay is from 2008, but like most of Paul Graham’s writing… it’s timeless. He makes the case that every city whispers something to us. Graham believes New York says, “Make more money.” San Francisco says, “Be more powerful.” (After living in San Diego for year, it said… “Relax.”) (Cities and Ambition)

6. Mental Models 101 & 102. If you’re looking for two interesting British dudes talk about mental models, look no further. Immensely valuable podcasts from Modern Wisdom. (101 & 102)

7. 40% of Manhattan’s buildings could not be built today. Due to zoning restrictions. Thought this was such an interesting fact. Had to share it with you. (New York Times)

8. Books. Greenlights by Matthew Mcconaughey (33% memoir, 33% comedy, and 33% life advice. 100% recommended). Currently reading: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steve Siebold, The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino.

9. New podcasts. As always, three new podcasts for your listening pleasure: Ryan Mulholland, Jose Rosado, and Stew Fortier.

10. Closing note. Sending you love, wherever in the world you’re reading this. If you’re looking for more writing from me, you can check out the daily blog. I’ve committed to shipping a blog post everyday for two weeks straight.

What do you think of the new format? What was your favorite piece of Treasure?

To your success,

Danny

P.S. If you are receiving this email but you’re not subscribed, you can join the family here! I appreciate your attention and would be honored if you signed up.

Tuesday Treasure #23: meditation, power of words, news

by

Hello family!

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d be honored if you sent it to a friend. (If someone forwarded you this email, you can sign up here!)

Today’s newsletter focuses on meditation and mindset. We’ve got stories, statistics, and data.

Let’s get to the treasure!

How Long Does It Take To Get “Good” At Meditation?

Something people often say when they try to meditate for the first time…

“I’m not good at this.”

And I used to respond, “Well, you can’t not be good at it.”

But, I’ve come around.

They’re right. I’m wrong. You can suck at meditation.

That’s because meditation rewires your brain.

Here’s the good news:

It doesn’t take that long for the rewiring to happen. One study found measurable differences in the brain in just 11 hours.

I also recently stumbled across this blog post that breaks down how long it takes to notice particular benefits of meditation:

  • 100 Hours – less stress and anxiety; less fear; fewer feelings of loneliness; increased optimism; increased self-esteem; increased focus; improved immune system and energy
  • 1000 Hours – almost superhuman focus compared to coworkers, sense of being driven, aware, intuitive; will have experienced deep, psychedelic states; increased capacity to experience love; significantly higher tolerance for pain
  • 5000 Hours – much of your ego will dissolve; won’t obsess over emotions, if something comes up you’ll be able to drop it pretty much instantly; deep feelings of peace

But How Do You Meditate?

There are many different types of meditation. But here are two paths I enjoy:

1. Think of nothing. What is nothing? It’s that space before you go to sleep when you’re not dozzing off but you’re not fully awake. When you inevitably start thinking of thoughts… redirect your mind back to nothingness. Here’s the key: because you drifted away from nothingness is NOT bad. What you’re working on is your ability to recognize your own thoughts. So if you catch yourself thinking about your plans for tomorrow, don’t sweat it! Just recognize it and return back to nothing.

2. Let your mind run. Pay attention to your internal voice. Let your thoughts run. What I’ve often found when I do this for one hour is that I will eventually get tired of that voice and it will lead to nothingness. All roads lead to nothing. 😉

Both are great. One isn’t better than other. Try it and see if it works for you.

Don’t worry if you’re doing it “right.” Sitting down for the practice is doing it right.

Bill Buckner Actually Said This

Staying on the topic of the power of the mind…

Tuesday Treasure family member (and my cousin) Ben sent me this incredible story.

In 1986, Bill Buckner made arguably the greatest mistake in sports history.

A routine ground ball went through his legs in Game 6 of the World Series. The New York Mets won the World Series because of Bill’s mistake.

19 days before that happened, here is an actual quote from Buckner:

“The dreams are that you’re gonna have a great series and win. The nightmares are that you’re gonna let the winning run score on a ground ball through your legs. Those things happen, you know. I think a lot of it is just fate.”

What we say matters.

(Source: Trevor Moawad on Impact Theory)

The Election Is Bad For Your Health

What we consume also matters.

You may know this to be true already, but here’s a way to quantify it:

“[H]ospitalizations for cardiovascular disease in the two days following the election were 61 percent higher than in the same two days of the preceding week. The rate of heart attack increased by 67 percent and of stroke by 59 percent in the two days following the election. The results were similar regardless of the age, race or sex of the patients.”

(Source: The New York Times)

If You Watch Three Minutes of News…

And maybe you aren’t worried about a heart attack.

Perhaps this will convince you to pay attention to your morning consumption…

“Individuals who watched just three minutes of negative news in the morning had a whopping 27% greater likelihood of reporting their day as unhappy six to eight hours later compared to the positive condition.”

(Source: Harvard Business Review)

That’s all for today, beautiful people. As always, respond back with your favorite piece of Treasure. It really helps me curate and figure out what to send you next week. 🙂

Sending you all massive love!

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #22: Seinfeld, reality, 100 rules

by

Hey family!

Have a quick favor:

Can you respond with why you read this newsletter?

I’m trying to make this newsletter better and would love your feedback on why you read it (or why you skip it). Any response is appreciated. 🙂

Now to the treasure!

Insights From Jerry

Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld is a collection of jokes from when he started back in the ’70s to present day (there’s even some jokes about corona in there).

Three main thoughts:

1. Each joke was similar to a tweet. It was a short story that attempted to get the audience to laugh (or “like”) it.

2. You could actually see the quality get better as time went on. It helped that he sorted jokes by decade.

3. He loved the process of telling jokes more than anything. In Jerry’s own words:

Looking back, I like that I was successful. I’m happy I made money at it. But honestly, I swear I have really been in it for the laughs since day one, day two and every other day, including today.

Personally, I believe this is the hidden ingredient to be successful in anything.

The World Is All In Our Heads

Tuesday Treasure family member John replied back to last week’s Treasure about luck with an awesome, well-written email:

You know, I was thinking about this recently: when we get right down to it, the only reality we ever know is the one inside our heads…

..think of how our perspectives shape how we see the world. If I’m an anxious guy, I’ll find reasons to be afraid. If I’m loving and open, I’ll see that in others too. The world is a mirror, showing us something about ourselves each time we look into it.

What we perceive as reality is nothing more than a world we’ve built inside our heads (literally and figuratively).

Well said, John.

Dru Riley’s 100 Rules

Dru Riley writes an excellent weekly newsletter called Trends.vc to help founders discover new markets and ideas.

But before doing that, he wrote a blog post called 100 Rules on his personal philosophy. Here are a few of my favorites:

13. “Don’t read/watch the news. Skewed incentives.”

65. “The more you ship. The more you increase your chance of success. Throw enough against the wall and something’s bound to stick.”

82. “Play long-term games. Compound returns.”

94. “Put your name on it. This makes you try harder. Accountability.”

You can read the whole post here.

Quote To Ponder:

““Hold the plans loosely and be okay with anything that happens.”

–Jerry Colonna

New Podcasts

Three new podcasts this week, as always. Check them out below:

Outrageous fun. Had a great time recording, hope you have an equally great time listening.

That’s all for today, folks! Hope you all enjoyed reading this and have an incredible week on this little floating rock in space.

To your success,

Danny