WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #148
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #148 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
💵 1. New Video: 10 Shifts From $100k To $500k As A Solopreneur
A few weeks ago my client Seth asked me a great question:
“What are the core principles I need to know to go $100k to $500k/yr?”
This 60 minute video is my response.
You can watch the full video here, or catch the audio-only version on my podcast.
🍒 2. “Keeping Your Options Open” Is Not A Great Strategy – Article by Willem Van Lancker
Imagine a giant fruit tree with endless opportunities and possibilities hanging from its branches.
Looks amazing, right?
But here’s the catch:
The fruit is slowly rotting.
And for most people, one day you wake up, and realize you forgot to pick a piece while it was ripe.
Van Lancker calls it: “Option Rot.“
All the best things in life – love, skill, expertise – compound over time.
But ONLY if you commit to SOMETHING.
And our culture is an endless hallway of open doors.
Most people spend years marveling over all the things we COULD do, and never pick something to start.
Meanwhile, the truly successful are busy eliminating options, and channeling their energy toward the few things that compound over time.
As Van Lancker puts it: “Optionality is not freedom. It’s fear.”
🤖 3. 5 Hours Of AI Education That EVERYONE Needs To See (Even If You Hate AI) – From Andrej Karpathy
Whether you love AI or hate AI, you really need to understand how it works.
So I’m going to help you.
Last week Lorenzo Frankel (writer, consultant, comms at venice.ai) delivered a private training to my mentorship clients on AI.
He blew the lid wide open for many of them (myself included).
After the training, he shared two follow up videos on AI that I believe are 100% REQUIRED VIEWING for entrepreneurs.
The videos were published in the last few weeks by Andrej Karpathy, founding member at OpenAI (2015), Sr. Director of AI at Tesla (2017-2022), now founder of Eureka Labs.
This dude knows what he’s talking about, because he built many of the tools we’re now using.
Here are the videos:
⬆️ The first video explains the Large Language Model (LLM) AI technology that powers ChatGPT and related products. It covers HOW the models are developed, mental models of how to think about their “psychology”, and how to get the best use of them.
⬆️ The second video breaks down how he uses the tools himself, with many practical examples.
It will be very tempting to skip to video 2.
Resist the urge.
AI seems extremely weird when all you know it as is “a magic window where you type stuff in and words come out.”
Understanding how the tools are ACTUALLY built was a gamechanger for me.
I think it will be for you too.
🎨 4. 32 Objectives For Work By Jack Whitten, Painter
This image is the back cover of book called: Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed.
A Black man who grew up in the Jim Crow South, Jack Whitten arrived in New York in 1959 and began a wide-ranging exploration into the nature of painting and artmaking that would sustain more than five decades of work.
‘Notes from the Woodshed’ collects the artist’s notes from his work and is an intimate look at the artist in his element: the studio.
His 32 objectives for his work are powerful (you may have to zoom in to read them).
Some of my favorites:
3. Remove the notion of me.
12. Don’t ever beg for anything.
13. Except God’s guidance. And forever be free.
14. Learn to live by the philosophy of jazz.
15. Only fools want to be famous (avoid at all costs)
21. Avoid art-world strategies.
25. Balance the Appolonian and dionysion at 50/50.
26. I must change the course of art history.
28. Learn to hate the history of art and above all don’t trust it.
32. Remain true to my self.
You can learn more about Whitten and his work here.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week
💥 Comic I Bought This Week – Holy Lacrimony by Michael DeForge
😖 Why You’re Always Busy (But Never Productive) – Article by Nir + Far
📈 From The Archives: How I Built An Audience To 200k – Instagram Post
🗞️ Chapter 3 Of Tim Ferriss’ “No Book” Is Live – Read It Here
💬 Quote I’m Pondering – From Fear Of Life: The Wisdom Of Failure
“The emphasis in our culture is upon doing and achieving. The modern individual is committed to being successful, not to being a person.”