Happy Sunday!

Trust you had a good week. I spent the whole week at my parents’ place in Kolkata. Good food, lots of free time, and no distraction. I also attended one of my best friend’s wedding there. Had loads of fun!

Now without further delay, here is your weekly Sunday Wisdom—a newsletter on the principles of life, strategy, and antifragility.

My New Article

The Tyranny of Small Decisions — Before it was a park, Boston Commons was a grazing pasture for cows. The local families used it collectively as a common land. Then a problem arose. Each additional cow that a farmer got benefited his family, but when all the farmers kept getting new cows, the commons started getting depleted. This article explores how even when individual decisions are rational, the cumulative results are sometimes neither optimal nor desired.

The past three editions of Sunday Wisdom: 14, 13, and 12.

An Advice For You

If you think you know how someone else feels, you should ask them to confirm. You shouldn’t assume you’ve got it right—you probably haven’t.

If you want someone to know how you feel, tell them in the clearest terms possible. Don’t make assumptions.

Being subtle about feelings is not the best idea, especially in high-stakes situations—be it in a relationship or at work. Err on the side of caution whenever possible.

Articles Worth Reading

The Ladders of Wealth Creation: A Step-By-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth — “What lessons do you need to learn to go from odd jobs around the neighbourhood to owning a real estate empire? From working as a freelancer to selling your own digital products? What about from working at Wendy’s to owning a SaaS company earning over $1 million per month?” 

How Busyness Leads to Bad Decisions — “When we’re stressed and feeling pressed for time, our attention and cognitive bandwidth narrow as if we’re in a tunnel. It can sometimes be a good thing, helping us hyper-focus on our most important work. But tunnelling has a dark side. When we get caught up in a time scarcity trap of busyness, a panicked firefighting mode, we might only have the capacity to focus on the most immediate, often low-value tasks right in front of us rather than the big project or the long-range strategic thinking that would help keep us out of the tunnel in the first place.”

Dating While Dying — “‘I’d rather be getting a bone marrow biopsy,’ I texted my friends before marching out to meet my first date in more than a decade. But I went. And it was fine. Fun, actually. So I stuck with it and dated some more. After one great date, I had a crushing realisation: I have only the present to offer, not a hopeful future. “You don’t know that,” a friend told me.”

Worth Thinking About

“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

As always, please give me feedback. Do you have any comments, questions, or tips that you wish to share? Anything that you liked in today’s edition? Let me know. DM me on Twitter!

Until next Sunday!

Best,
Abhishek

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