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- Learn About Yourself and the World - Letter to a Friend #7
Learn About Yourself and the World - Letter to a Friend #7
April 4, 2022
Hey friend!
Long time no talk - again. No apologies, I'm livin' life and reading a lot.
I am re-reading Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio. Highly recommend even if you are not interested in investing or anything of the sort. His lessons on making decisions (which we do hundreds of times a day and is hugely responsible for the outcome of our lives) are immensely valuable, at least to me.
What is also immensely valuable from his is the personality test he developed with Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, called PrinciplesYou. At this point in my life with a year left of school, I am reflecting on what I want to do in a year when I graduate. This requires thinking about what I am good and what I enjoy, and this test is the best I have found yet on giving accurate feedback as to what makes you tick, what you excel in and, perhaps most importantly, what your weaknesses are. I took it a few months ago and have reviewed the results many times since, and have always found them to be insightful and help my reflections.
Outside of this, I am reading a novel called Never. From the description: "Struggling to prevent the outbreak of world war are a young woman intelligence officer; a spy working undercover with jihadists; a brilliant Chinese spymaster; and the U.S. President herself, beleaguered by a populist rival for the next president election."
This one was recommended to me by one of my AirBnb hosts in Colombia who has read all 42 of the author Ken Follett's books, and it is completely different from anything I have read before. Beyond being a brilliant story and extremely engaging, it is based in reality and therefore gives insight into how these worlds of the CIA, Guoanbu (China's ministry of State Security), White House, and other hidden but influential organizations function. You can definitely tell the author did his research, so it feels like you are being entertained and learning at the same time.
That is all for today! If you decide to give one of these two a go let me know how you like them. : )
Hope you are doing well and, if you are in the northeast as I am, enjoying the incredible spring weather.
Much love,
Ryan