Happy weekend, readers.
I spent the last two weeks vacationing in Israel and Spain with family. It was wonderful. We played backgammon, soaked in the sun, swam in clear blue waters, walked around with nowhere to go, and ate our body’s weight in delicious food.
These things are supposed to make us happy, right?
Don’t get me wrong. I love to go on vacations. But it’s not what gives me long lasting happiness. What really makes me happy is when I’m useful. When I create something that others can use.
We treat happiness as the end goal, when in reality it’s merely a byproduct of usefulness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
You can make up your own useful activities. It doesn’t have to be big. Sustained happiness comes from small frequent positive experiences, not from intensity. It can be helping a pregnant woman who also has a two year old with a stroller, being there for your friend that’s going through a divorce, being thoughtful about how you lead a team meeting. When you do little things that are useful every day, this is what leads to true wholeness—and it doesn’t require taking expensive trips around the world.
🙏🏼
Sari
“People think you want them to do something or say something special...you don't. You just want them to be themselves, so you can be yourself.”
-John Lennon
caught my attention
If you have 2 hours to spare, boy do I have something for you. Naval was interviewed on Joe Rogan podcast and it’s full of ideas that will stir your mind, even if you don’t agree with them 🎧. I bookmarked a few:
Social media made us into individual celebrities, And celebrities are the most miserable people out there. You want to be rich and anonymous, not poor and famous. Not even rich and famous.
Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. If you're unhappy, you need to look at the underlying desire that makes you unhappy. We are biological creatures, we have desires hardwired. But, maybe you don't really need that desire after all. Pick one central desire of your life and let go of the rest.
A clear mind leads to better judgement, which leads to better outcome. So a happy, calm, peaceful person will make better decisions and have better outcomes. If you want to operate at peak performance, you have to learn to tame your mind.
We like to view the world as linear. 8 hours of work, 8 units of output. But it doesn’t work that way, the world is highly asymmetric. What you do, how you do it, who you do it with are way more important than how much work you put in.
Machines work constantly 9 to 5. Humans are not like that. You won't get rich by renting out your time. Even doctors and lawyers making big bucks are not scaling fast enough and will be left behind others that know how to compound.
The information age will reverse the industrial age: Most people will start working for themselves. If someone has to tell you when to show up at work, what to wear, how to behave then you are not a free person. People don't want money and riches, they want freedom.
The issue of job loss to automation is the transition speed of old vs new jobs. We want to protect the people, not the jobs. Most jobs suck. We are made for creative work.
Abigail Disney on what it’s like to grow up with more money than you’ll ever read. 💰Love this!
Wow, this is an insane plot twist 😮
Mary Meeker released her 2019 State of the Internet report, an annual must-read for me and I highly recommend you make the time to get a clear view of the state of the world and tech's place in that. It took about 80 years for Americans to adopt the dishwasher, whereas the consumer internet became commonplace in less than a decade. This is a good summary. 🖥
Watching Always be my Maybe on Netflix for some heart-lifting romantic comedy feels, and Fleabag on Amazon Prime, which is a little like Girls but for people 10 years older. 📺
Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, drops some wisdom on Farnam Street. 1) Be reliable. Unreliability can cancel out the other virtues. If you’re unreliable it doesn’t matter what your virtues are, you’re going to crater immediately. 2) Concentrate experience and power into the hands of the right people – the wise learning machines. 3) Use setbacks in life as an opportunity to become a bigger and better person. Don’t wallow. 💡
Startup Bibles is an evolving curation of internal processes and resources that successful companies have publicly shared: from their entire employee handbooks, their brand guides to their fundraising decks. 📚
This list of solo travel destinations crowdsourced by Ann Friedman is 💯
overheard on twitter
If you’re wondering who’s behind this newsletter:
My name is Sari Azout. I am a design-thinker, storyteller, and early stage startup investor at Level Ventures. I also run strategy for Rokk3r Labs, a startup studio. My mission is to bring more humanity and creativity to technology and business.
Want more?
Follow me on Twitter, Medium, and LinkedIn.
Know a founder i should meet?
Drop me a note at sari@level.vc
I always like to hear from readers, so don‘t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback with me at sari@level.vc (I read every email and reply only to those requiring a response.)
And, if you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to a friend, and encourage her to sign up at sariazout.substack.com
Thanks for being here!
Sari