[antifragile 4 🔥] Scott Adams on reframing your brain, St Francis hits on fatherhood, Humans of New York founder on valuable work, my best use of AI yet
#51: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.
Welcome to the 51st edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.
It’s a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind. Some weeks will have a theme, others will meander. Expect it every Friday.
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Here is this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:
Scott Adams 🧠 on reframing your brain
St. Francis ✝️ hits on the core of fatherhood
a perspective 📸 from the creator of Humans of New York on valuable work
my absolute best use of AI yet 🍷
+ AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨
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1.) Scott Adams 🧠 on reframing your brain
Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic series, has a wonderful way of thinking about thinking. So he wrote a book about it.
It’s called Reframe Your Brain, and it’s about identifying current ways of viewing things/situations/relationships that might be unhelpful, and simply reframing them in a way that’s more help.
It’s a foundational concept in coaching and cognitive behavioral therapy, just by a different name. But it can be powerful!
Here are a few of my favorites:
Energy vs Time
Usual Frame: I need to manage my time
Reframe: I need to manage my energy
“The energy I have for a task is more important to the outcome than the amount of time I have allocated to it. I can produce more in 15 minutes with the right energy than 4 hours with the wrong energy.”
Coming Up with Good Ideas
Usual Frame: I need to come up with a good idea.
Reframe: I need to release all my bad ideas as quickly as possible
Usual Frame: Focus on being excellent at a skill that has commercial value.
Reframe: Acquire skills that work well together and make you rare and flexible at the same time
Success
Usual Frame: I fail at 90% of the things I try.
Reframe: I only need to succeed 10% of the time.
Systems vs Goals
Usual Frame: Success requires setting goals
Reframe: Systems are better than goals
Chores
Usual Frame: Ugh, I hate chores
Reframe: I can do this chore in such a fun way that it feels like a game
Writer’s Block
Usual Frame: I can't think of anything good to write
Reframe: I can write something bad and fix it
“Never leave a page blank”
Plus a couple more general ideas that I love:
Good projects eventually become energy producers (but often need small, painful kickstarts). If after a while you're not finding energy boosts along the way, drop it and move on.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
The book is overflowing with cool, actionable ideas. If any of these resonated with you, I’d suggest checking it out.
2.) St. Francis ✝️ hits on the core of fatherhood
Wherever you go, preach the gospel; when necessary use words.
St. Francis of Assissi
I rediscovered this line in The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life, which I’ll write about next week.
But it’s lovely. And encapsulates what it is to be a father.
Whatever your “gospel” is, embody it.
Actions > Words.
3.) a perspective 📸 from the creator of Humans of New York on valuable work
(After leaving a lucrative job in finance to pursue photography)
Two years of my life were spent obsessing over money, and in the end I had nothing to show for it. I wanted to spend the next phase of my life doing work that I valued as much as the reward.
Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York
4.) my absolute best use of AI yet 🍷
I’ve barely touched alcohol since we had kids.
Even a slight hangover (which started kicking in after just 1–2 drinks) felt unbearable with little ones, so my wife and I basically cut it out…
…until we won a $100 bottle of wine at an event. 🏆🍷
We threw caution to the wind, popped it open, and had the loveliest time decompressing on the deck. I’d forgotten how much we enjoyed that. Hangover be damned!
But the next morning? No hangover. Turns out: not-cheap alcohol is magical. 😂 Only took 37 years to learn.
Problem was, we had no idea what to look for.
Enter our AI overlords. 😈
At the liquor store, I snapped a photo of the wine wall and told ChatGPT exactly what we wanted: a hangover-free red. Like magic, it recommended Pinot Noirs from colder climates (like Oregon).
One more night on the deck later… it worked! Lovely evening, zero hangover.
Sometimes, I’m happy to let AI do the thinking.
Cheers! 🍷
ChatGPT tightened this one up for me 🤖
AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨
Two last things for you this week:
Reframe an unhelpful way of thinking this week. Change it to your advantage.
Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥
With love,
Chris
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