Danny Miranda

for those in pursuit of their highest version

Tuesday Treasure

Tuesday Treasure #21: running, Twitter happiness, luck

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Hey family!

This week’s Treasure features a few different studies on isolation, the happiness of Twitter, and luck…

But first, something that is near and dear to my heart…

Run For An Incredible Cause?

Every year, my parents organize a walk/run for autism awareness called Jack’s Run. (My cousin, Jack, has autism.)

This year, the walk/run is virtual. That means you can sign up!

If you’d like, you can do so here.

All money raised goes to autism awareness and research. It would mean the world to me if you could donate or participate in the race. 🙂

Isolation = Smoking?

It’s no surprise that isolation is bad for us (it is a form of torture, after all).

But did you know just how bad?

Research has shown that the impact of social isolation on our risk for disease and death is similar in magnitude to the risk associated with smoking regularly.

(Sources: Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010; House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988)

The Average Happiness Of Twitter

Perhaps the isolation explains why the average happiness for people on Twitter has been on the decline this year…

(This graph was created by Hedonometer, which uses the content of tweets to figure out how happy people are on any given day over the past 11 years. Pretty cool.)

Harry Dry Will Be A Household Name

Recorded a conversation for the podcast with Harry Dry.

Here are some facts about this brilliant new Tuesday Treasure family member:

Here’s my favorite quote from the aforementioned resource:

Sometimes, when I’m questioning myself, I like to imagine what Steve Jobs would have been like at twenty-one years old. I have this vision of him ignoring the herd, pulling apart electronics in the family garage, dropping in on extra calligraphy classes for the sake of it. And his friends are asking him, ‘Why are you bothering with all this stuff, Steve?’ And Steve tells his friends that Henry Ford would do these sorts of things. And his friends would tell him, ‘But Steve, you’re not Henry Ford.’

I’m betting Harry Dry will be a household name (similar to Steve Jobs or Henry Ford) when all is said and done. Refer back to Tuesday Treasure 21 to show proof that you were on the bandwagon before it was cool.

Boxing Champ Serenades Wife

Harry actually sent me this short video of Tyson Fury singing to his wife. Including it here because it’s not every day you see a 6-foot-9-inch, 254-pound man belting his lungs out inside a boxing ring.

And it turns out… ol’ Fury is actually quite good!

Less than 60 second video that will likely put a smile on your face.

How Lucky Do You Consider Yourself?

Tuesday Treasure reader Yiannis Kefalas reminded me of an incredible study this past week.

Richard Wiseman asked participants… do you consider yourself “lucky” or “unlucky”?

Then he had them to count the photographs inside a newspaper.

“Unlucky” people took two minutes.

Lucky people took seconds.

Why?

Well, on the second page, there was a large message that read, “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in the newspaper.”

Unlucky people missed the message. Lucky people got it right away.

What’s the lesson?

Simply considering ourselves “lucky” can open us up to opportunities that are right in front of our eyes.

That’s all for today folks. As always, I’d love to hear your favorite piece of treasure.

To your success,

Danny

P.S. I published three new podcasts this past week… you can check them out here.

Tuesday Treasure #20: everybody, habits, writing

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Hey family!

Hope you’re well.

This past week we published three new podcasts. New episodes of The Danny Miranda Podcast will go live Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

You can check them out here (or wherever you listen to podcasts):

Let’s get into the good stuff..

Everybody Matters

Legendary football coach Jim Tressel was in his first semester of college.

He sat down for a pop quiz. After breezing through all the questions, he arrived at the last one…

“What’s the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”

He had no idea. Nobody did.

One student asked the professor if that question was going to count toward the grade.

The professor replied…

“Absolutely. In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say, ‘Hello.'”

It was a lesson Jim Tressel never forgot.

(This lesson comes from The Winner’s Manual by Jim Tressel. Really enjoyed it. Notes will be going up on the site soon.)

A Lesson From The Creator Of The Computer

I’ve always inherently known that I preferred working on a computer vs. an iPad or a phone.

But the quote below explains exactly why that is the case:

“I’ve been against Macintosh company lately. They’re trying to get everyone to use iPads and when people use iPads they end up just using technology to consume things instead of making things. With a computer you can make things. You can code, you can make things and create things that have never before existed and do things that have never been done before.”

–Russell Kirsch, creator of the computer

This quote comes from a 2012 blog post by Joel Runyon called “An Unexpeced Ass Kicking.”

When Small Habits Compound

If you’ve ever bought something at Starbucks, you’re expected to spend approximately $14,099 at Starbucks over the course of your life.

That was slightly mindblowing to me, particuarly because of how low the average order value is for a normal Starbucks order.

What’s the lesson?

Our small habits can create massive consequences for the businesses we support.

It’s also true in the personl sense.

Every time we workout, we’re making an “investment” into building the person we want to be.

Over a lifetime, our habits will play a massive difference in our lives.

Writing Tips From An Incredible Tweeter

I had the pleasure of speaking to The Hustle writer Trung Phan on the phone last week.

I asked him why his writing was so good.

Here was some of advice…

  • Get your reader to laugh within the first three minutes (I probably failed with this newsletter)
  • Mix up styles. Trung spent the first decade of his career working in finance (dry writing). Now he works for The Hustle (comedic writing).

You can check out some of his tweets on unintended consequences (a thread with 5,000 likes) or Elon Musk (Elon actually responded to his tweet).

Trung is a legend. I look forward to having him on the podcast soon.

Erik Spolestra Putting In Work

I love the idea of putting the process on the pedestal. The stuff that we don’t see but that created the person we know today.

For example, Erik Spolestra is the head coach for the Heat in the NBA Finals.

But the year I was born (1995)?

He was working in the video room for the same team.

Check out this photo of him analyzing game film back in the day:

Just goes to show what we see today is often the result of compounding over years and decades.

That’s all for today, folks!

To your success,

Danny

P.S. I want to make this newsletter even better. Reply below to let me know why you read this email every week and what you think I could improve. I look forward to hearing from you!

Tuesday Treasure #19: smile, meditation, videos

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Hey family!

This week’s treasure features the power of a smile, the science of meditation, and a couple pieces on videos.

But first…

Welcome To My Podcast, World

This past week, I launched a podcast. Currently, there are five episodes available for download. New episodes will drop Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Here’s my commitment with the podcast: 100 episodes will get published.

So far, the reviews have been absolutely incredible. I’ve been overwhelmed with the support. You can check them out here.

If you haven’t listened yet, I’d love your feedback!

The Power of A Smile

This blew my mind:

Researchers at the University of Michigan flashed one of three images for less than one hundredth of a second in front of participants: a smiling face, an angry face, or a neutral face. The subjects then had to indicate whether they liked a randomly selected Chinese symbol (the participants didn’t speak Chinese). Most preferred symbol that immediately followed the smiling face.

(Source: The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli)

What does this mean?

1. The positivity of those around us is important and impacts us. Therefore your positivity influences others.

2. We are capable of being influenced in ways we do not even understand.

3. Smile more.

How Does Meditation Actually Work?

Meditation is really odd, if you think about it.

You sit down, focus on your breath (or nothingness), and then your brain actually changes?

That sounds fake.

​This thread, from Tuesday Treasure reader Kunal, displays the science of the practice from the perspective of a skeptic.

Some key points that stood out:

  • Why meditation increases empathy
  • Why most people fail to build the habit (lack of instant gratification)
  • 10 minutes for 10 days is better than 100 minutes once every 10 days

The entire thread is worth checking out.

The Most Watched Video In The History of the World

Video, as a medium of consumption, is relatively new. Never before has the world been able to consume video so effortlessly.

YouTube is the leading video provider on the Internet.

So that would make the most watched video on YouTube… the most watched video in the history of the world.

And would would that be?

Well, it’s the Despacito music video… which has 6.9 billion views.

Growth Hacking On Steroids

On the topic of videos…

Eric Decker (not the football player) is an up-and-coming YouTuber.

He started 2020 with 50 subscribers. Now he has 600,000 people following his work.

How?

He leveraged other celebrities and YouTube creators to create virality.

This one story in particular showed his guts:

Decker knew Logan Paul (a popular YouTuber) was trying to get rid of his extremely, extremely expensive couch. So he took out a $17,500 loan. And showed up to Paul’s house with the intention of making the money back with by going viral with his “Buying Logan Paul’s $17,500 Couch” video.

It was a bet on himself. And it paid off handsomely.

If you’d like to learn more into Eric’s thought process behind this idea, you can watch this video.

That’s all for this week.

As always, respond back with your favorite piece of treasure.

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #18: cold showers, Facebook experiment, global village

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Hey family!

The Danny Miranda Podcast launches in 1 day.

This week’s Treasure features stories about cold showers, changing your mind, a questionable Facebook experiment, and what would happen if we shrunk the population of the world into a 100 person village.

Let’s start off with a quote…

Quote of The Week

Self-discipline is when you tell yourself to do something and you don’t talk back.

–W. K. Hope

Change Your Approach

Last week, I was discussing the benefit of cold showers with a fellow Tuesday Treasure reader.

He told me that he tried it but “couldn’t” do it. After less than 5 seconds, he felt the need to jump out of the water.

But then I received an update from him:

After our conversation I tried again, however this time with a different approach. I started on warm, closed my eyes, and slowly adjusted the handle towards cold in incredibly-small increments. If I began breathing fast I would intentionally relax it, and encourage myself by thinking “this is barely different than the last temperature, and you were able to handle that just fine”. Once my breathing relaxed,I went on to the next colder increment. Eventually I reached for the shower handle to turn it colder, but was surprised to realize that there was no more room to turn – I had reached the end. I audibly laughed. “That was easy”.

(Bolding my own.)

So many lessons from this story:

  1. If you don’t succeed, try again witha different method.
  2. When in doubt, focus on the breath.
  3. Encourage yourself in the face of a challenge.
  4. Use gradual increases to make gains.
  5. Take cold showers.

It’s Okay To Change Your Mind

My cousin is a bright 19-year-old (he reads Tuesday Treasure, afterall).

This past weekend, we were talking about players kneeling for the national anthem.

I won’t bother to let you know what he currently believes… because it doesn’t matter.

What does matter was that he said:

“I used to believe this and now I believe that. Here’s why.”

In our society, we tend to associate changing our mind with flip-flopping. With something we shouldn’t do.

But this couldn’t be further from the truth. When you change your mind, you’re actually letting others know you can consider the possibility you were once wrong. That’s a valuable skill to have, especially in a world that is rapidly changing.

The Facebook Experiment

700,000 people entered into a Facebook experiment in 2012 without knowing it.

The goal of the study was to figure out if people’s emotions were impacted by those they interacted with online.

For some, Facebook blocked posts with negative words (e.g. “sad”).

For others, Facebook blocked posts with positive words (e.g. “happy”).

What did they find?

If you were in the group that blocked the negative words, you used slightly more positive words.

If you were in the group that blocked positive words, you used slightly more negative words.

This experiment caused an uproar in the scientific community for ethical concerns (nobody in the experiment was aware they were being studied).

But the research is important for us because it lets us know we should…

Ruthlessly surround ourselves with positive words. With people who bring us up. Books that inspire. Social media accounts that spread love. Newsletters that feed us knowledge. 🙂

Our own mental wellbeing is at stake.

The Global Village

Shrink the Earth’s population down to a village of 100 people.

By continent…

  • 60 Asians
  • 13 Africans
  • 12 Europeans
  • 9 Latin Americans
  • 5 North Americans
  • 1 Oceanian

Of those 100 people…

  • 50 would be female
  • 50 would be male
  • 67 would be non-Christian
  • 33 would be Christian
  • 20 would earn 89 percent of the wealth
  • 25 would live in substandard housing
  • 17 would be unable to read
  • 13 would suffer from manultrition
  • 1 would die within the year
  • 2 would give birth within the year
  • 2 would have a college education

These numbers have likely changed since 2008, but the point remains the same:

When we bring the world down to a size we can comprehend, it allows us to have more empathy for others because it makes us realize how lucky we are.

(Source: The Winner’s Manual by Jim Tressel)

Photo of the Week

This photo comes from my Aunt Dede, who sent it to me before reading last week’s Treasure… where I mentioned Daniel Bourke’s quote: “The ultimate test in life is not seeing whether or not you can avoid the darkness, it’s seeing whether or not you can dance with it.”

Keep on dancing, folks.

That’s all for today.

As always, hit the reply with your favorite piece of treasure.

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #17: everyday, rest, routines

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Hey family!

The next week is exciting…

The 75 HARD group kicks off in three days (currently 79 members).

The Danny Miranda Podcast launches in eight (with three or four episodes).

But for now, let’s dive into the treasure.

You Don’t Decide Once, You Decide Everyday

​Eric Jorgenson published this tweet almost 3 years ago.

Today, The Navalmanck launched.

When I was going through his recent podcast with David Perell, he mentioned how he thought when he decided he was going to write the book that meant he was automatically to finish the book.

It is, of course, never that simple.

He realized you have to make the decision every day that you’re going to honor your commitments.

In Eric’s words:

If you decide you’re going to go do a hundred pull-ups, you don’t decide that once, you have to decide every day to keep training and keep training and keep learning.

Brilliant.

Eric will be a guest on The Danny Miranda Podcast… and I’m really looking forward to reading the conversation.

The Odd High Performance Trick Used By Top Tennis Players

You ever wonder what separates the great tennis players from the mere average ones?

Well, apparently Jim Loehr did.

At first, when he looked into this, he got frustrated. He couldn’t find a difference between what players were doing while they were playing the point.

But then he had an “A-HA!” moment.

Instead of looking at the serves, the forehands, and the backhands… he started to analyze in between the points.

He found that better the player, the better they were at resting in between a point.

Their heart rates lowered. They didn’t angry. They composed themselves.

This made only a marginal difference in the first few minutes of the match but a noticeable effect in hour three or four.

This isn’t just important for tennis players though.

How you can apply this?

Think about different areas of your life – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual – and ask where you need to rest better. Are you going too hard on your workouts, your work, your relationships? The better (and more efficiently) you rest, the more likely you are to perform well.

(Source: The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz)

Life Lessons From A Data Scientist

Upcoming podcast guest Daniel Bourke is a machine learning instructor, YouTuber, writer, and a dude with an awesome accent.

I was reading his article on 27 microlessons for life and was struck by so many pieces of wisdom.

Here are some of my favorite takeaways (although the entire artircle is worth reading and internalizing):

  • “I’ve noticed nothing I can get excites me as much as the things I can create.”
  • “Most undervalue the power of the follow-up.”
  • “Begin your next mission as if you had already succeeded. You will be called crazy, obsessed, a lunatic. No matter. They are observers, if they are not standing beside you in your journey, their views do not matter.”
  • “Reject is far more tolerable than regret.”
  • “The ultimate test in life is not seeing whether or not you can avoid the darkness, it’s seeing whether or not you can dance with it.”

Do any of these resonate? If so, hit the reply and let me know!

A Website of Daily Routines

I’m addicted to figuring out what top performers really do.

People like Jocko Willink, The Rock, P. Diddy.

And then I stumbled across this website called Balance The Grind.

After going through more than a handful of the articles which note their daily routines, here was common theme:

Relentless work ethic. Work harder, longer, and more consistently than your competition to achieve incredible results.

Maybe cliches are cliches for a reason?

Andrew Cuomo’s Secret

Larry King knew Andrew Cuomo was a rising star in 1994.

So much so that King asked his father (then New York Governor Mario Cuomo) why his son was such a sophisticated, well rounded young man?

The elder Cuomo replied with an unexpected answer:

“All four of Andrew’s grandparents lived until he was thirty. Two of them are still living.”

Communicating with people older than us is an incredible way to expand our own worldview.

Let this serve as a gentle reminder to call or talk to someone older than you today. 🙂

That’s all for today, folks.

I hope you enjoyed reading this week’s Treasure as much as I enjoyed sending it to you.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

To your success,

Danny

Tuesday Treasure #16: podcast update, listening, Elon Musk’s cold call

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Hey family!

Quick update on The Danny Miranda Podcast… eight episodes have been recorded. Aiming for a launch date of September 16 or 23.

Recording the episodes have been fun and it has made me respect what professional interviewers even more (more on that a littlelater).

It’s certainly not easy. But like anything, the more you do it… the better you’ll get.

And since a friend asked what my goals were with the podcast, I’ll share them with you as well:

Publish 100 episodes.

After 100 episodes, I have the option to stop if I want… but not before shipping 100.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let’s get to the treasure!

On Listening

I’ve been thumbing through The Book of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurti. I just started it but it’s clear this man has thought deeply about how we think and what we do.

This has been my favorite quote thus far…

“We do not listen simply; there is always the intervening screen of our own thoughts, conclusions, and prejudices… To listen there must be an inward quietness, a freedom from the strain of acquiring, a relaxed attention… It is only in listening that one hears the song of the words.”

To listen is a form of meditation itself.

You can’t be focused on what you’re supposed to do later today. You can’t be projecting your own thoughts onto the conversation.

You must be fully in the moment.

Larry King: Lessons From Talking To More Than 60,000 People

Here are five tips you can apply today from How To Talk To Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime by Larry King:

  1. Be honest.
  2. The greatest question is “Why?”
  3. Stay open.
  4. Avoid yes/no questions.
  5. To be interesting, be interested.

The Best Video I Watched This Week

Came across this on Twitter.

This dad asked his son, “Why don’t you smile in pictures?”

His son gave a response that made me think.

The son explained that if he’s happy, he’ll smile. But if he’s not in a great mood, he’s not going to pretend to be something he’s not for the sake of a photo.

It made me think about social norms… and how sometimes children have a different outlook because as adults, we get desensitized to the norms of our own culture.

(You can watch the whole video here.)

Specialization vs. Generalization

In seventh grade (age 13), I had a music teacher.

He was talking to the class about his regrets…

“I wish I spent more time devoted to one instrument. If I had any piece of advice, it would be to stick to one instrument and practice it more.”

He was talking about specialization vs. generalization.

Specialization is the idea that in order to become a master at something, you need to do something for 10,000 hours. This has been popularized by Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

It makes sense. It’s easy to remember. But maybe it’s not the whole truth?

You see, I’ve been reading Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World by David Epstein.

Epstein makes the case that that we are better off pulling from seemingly unrelated fields before specializing in one.

He uses the example of Roger Federer – whose childhood sports included skiing, basketball, badminton, wrestling, and skateboarding. Federer credits his exceptional hand-eye coordination to playing all these sports.

Interested to get your perspective… where do you weigh in on the generalization vs. specialization argument?

Elon Musk’s Spectacular Cold Call

Elon Musk called rocket expert Jim Cantrell with a proposition: help me acquire Russian rockets.

Here was the actual transcript…

Let’s take a quick moment to analyze this…

First, here are my credentials (“I’m Elon Musk, I’m an internet billionaire”).

Second, here’s what I want (“humanity needs to become a multi-planetary species to survive”).

Third, here’s how you could help me (“I want to save humanity and need your rockets”).

It’s short. Simple. Succinct. Either you’re going to help him or you’re not. But neither party is going to waste time.

Maybe something to keep in mind as you’re reaching out to people?

As always, respond back with your favorite piece of treasure from this week!

To your success,

Danny