Hello Rad Family!

December is upon us and we are weeks away from closing out the year that was 2020. Could you do us a solid? Our team is prepping our 2021 editorial and event calendar and we want to best address your needs with this 3 minute feedback form.

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Finally, we've got one last event on 12/8, a free Q&A on the building blocks of personal finance and investing, with the best-selling author (and my dear friend) Tara Schuster.

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Why optionality is overrated

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"So why do you make money?"

My question is often met with a dismissive stare. As if the answer is so obvious, that the question isn't even worth contemplating.

It's one of the first questions I ask during my coaching onboarding process. Yet scrappy founders, law firm partners and professional investors - who typically don't struggle for words - find themselves befuddled.

Then a light bulb goes off.

"Optionality. Money gives me tons of options."

I've heard this answer enough to respond with a gentle dose of snark:

"You know you can't eat optionality."

Keep reading (2 mins) →

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Here are this week's top reads:

// one

A pretty-good mathematical model of perfectionism

8 minutes | Jesse Galef
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Perfectionism makes sense. After all, who wouldn't want to deliver polished finished goods? But like an undefined relationship, it's actually quite complicated — "a complex interplay between effort, time, motivation, and expectations." If you're having trouble "letting go," these cheeky mathematical models will offer concrete first steps to finding what's "good enough."

→ Read the post​

// two

The difference between linear and exponential growth

4 minutes | RadReads
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The word leverage typically evokes the imagery of bankers behaving badly. But financial leverage (when used prudently) can be a force multiplier towards compounding growth and wealth. I explore how this concept extends beyond financial leverage — looking at managerial leverage and a funky third category: products with a replication cost of zero. (Don't miss the complete collection of 17 essays on $10k work)

→ Read the post​

// three

Does expensive wine taste better?

21 minutes | Kent Hendricks | @daniel_egan​
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What a delightful piece on why humans are so behaviorally bizarre. This is an age old question where the answer might scare us a bit. It turns out that in double-blind tests, even experienced wine drinkers rank cheap wines above their pricier counterparts. So, "if nobody can tell two wines apart at rates barely better than chance, why are some wines more expensive than others?" The conclusion may never let me buy expensive wine again.

→ Read the post​

// four

How to keep climbing the ladder while you work from home

5 minutes | The New York Times | @aprilrinne​
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How does one stand out in a crowded pond of Zoom thumbnails? With water cooler chitchat and happy hours becoming relics of the past, how can you demonstrate your contributions (without turning into that person)? I found the tactics on getting exposure and making interactions meaningful particularly helpful.

→ Read the article​

// five

A "Jobs to be Done" framework for startups

4 minutes | First Round Review
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Jobs to be Done is a marketing framework pioneered by the late HBS professor Clayton Christensen (here's a great 5 minute video on JTBD). It's pretty new to me, but the principles extend well beyond marketing - capturing the psychology underlying why customers/clients make decisions. The framework helps shed insights on consumers' "underlying human needs, motivations and struggles."
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→ Read the post​

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Below the fold

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ICYMI - TWO VIDEOS
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• A walkthrough of the $10k framework with the Masterful Manifestors crew.
• A video tutorial of the templates and workflows we use at RadReads to collaborate with my partner and VA Jaen.

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LAST WEEK'S MOST READ
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• ​How to turn 35 cents into a serendipity engine (Khe Hy on YouTube, 581 clicks)
• ​The rise and fall of Getting Things Done (The New Yorker, 380 clicks)

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And finally, how Quantum Physicist ballerina Merritt Moore learned to dance with a robot.

With gratitude,
Khe

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PS Make 2021 your best year YET by unlocking the productivity cheat codes (during our GTD bootcamp).
PPS Did someone rad forward this to you? Subscribe here.
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