Friday Links 07-12-21

From the Web

Bottom-Up Personal Development – One of the best articles I’ve read in the last few weeks, this is another one by Brad of 30sleeps. Bottom-up personal development means working on building the right habits and skills that work towards any goal. This type of self-improvement has been a priority for myself over the past few years as I’ve worked to slowly engineer the habits and skills I want.

Litany Against Gurus – I hate guru-worship and everything it implies. No person is perfect or can be seen as the answer to every problem. Occasionally I’ll get overwhelmingly positive e-mails from readers who praise everything I write. I’ll also get hate mail from people who don’t feel I have the authority to write about productivity, motivation or some other topic. I think both of these responses come from the same broken notion that sharing ideas belongs in the hand of a few elite experts, rather than regular people.

From the Archives

Enthusiasm – An early article I wrote about the benefits of being in an enthusiastic mood and ways you can encourage more enthusiasm in yourself.

From the Shelf

Faust – I finished reading the first part of this classic German poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It deals with the struggle of the protagonist, Faust, in his battle with the demonic Mephistophilus over his soul. Faust sells his soul to the devil on the condition that the devil can have his soul if he experiences a moment of true happiness, which Faust believes, will never come. I was disappointed to discover the version I had only contained the first part, so I’ll need to wait to get my hands on second half to finish the story.