Have you noticed a recent trend? More and better AI tools are becoming available. While AI (artificial intelligence) has been around for some time, the tools that came out recently are smarter than ever. DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, for instance, can generate relevant images based on your text prompts. And ChatGPT is surprisingly good at answering your questions on a wide range of topics.

This blog, Life Optimizer, is about personal effectiveness. So, I’d like to share with you my thoughts on how to maximize your personal effectiveness with AI tools.

But before we get into that, there is a question that I’d like to answer: is the emergence of AI tools a threat to humanity? Will they eliminate jobs and take over the world?

Well, I believe that the short answer is no. Of course, AI tools might threat the existence of some jobs. But that has always been the case since at least the Industrial Revolution. New technologies constantly emerged that required people to adapt. But the overall impact is good, and people become more productive over time. I believe that’s also the case with AI tools.

Instead of threatening you, I believe that AI tools can boost your personal effectiveness. It can help you become more productive than ever. But you need to know how to make the most out of these tools.

Without further ado, here are my four tips on how to maximize your personal effectiveness with AI tools.

1. Stay informed about what tools are available.

Before you can use a tool, you need to know that it exists. So, keep yourself informed about what AI tools are available.

Personally, I often learn about new tools from Hacker News, but you can also search for AI tools on YouTube. Of course, there are many other resources out there. Feel free to share your favorite resources in the comments!

2. Know the capabilities of each tool.

To make the most out of a tool, you need to know its capabilities. YouTube is a good resource for this because you can visually learn how people use the tool. For example, search for ChatGPT tips on YouTube and you will find useful videos to learn from.

Many of the recent tools require you to give them good prompts to get the best results. For that reason, I like to take notes of the good prompts that I’ve found.

3. Know the limitations of each tool.

While it’s important to know the capabilities of a tool, you also need to know its limitations. Otherwise, you could assume that you get the correct output from a tool while it’s incorrect.

For example, at the time of writing, ChatGPT may give you incorrect results for things that require calculations. I would then be careful not to use ChatGPT for such cases.

Again, I often find about these limitations from Hacker News. You can also try to search <tool name> limitations on Google or YouTube.

4. Think about how a tool can best fit your workflow.

Now that you know the capabilities and limitations of a tool, think about how you can best use the tool. Everyone’s needs are different, so think about how the tool can best meet your needs.

For example, a blogger could use ChatGPT to get title suggestions for a blog post and use DALL-E to generate a picture for the post.

***

Keep in mind that AI technology is always progressing, and the possibilities keep expanding. So, keep refining your use of AI tools. Apply these four tips again and again, and you will become more effective over time.

Here we are near the end of 2022. Soon we will enter the year 2023. I think it’s a good time to reflect on what we have learned this year so that we can start the new year strong.

For me, a lesson I learned is the importance of taking risks to make progress in life. I already learned about this years ago, but this year I have a heightened awareness of its importance.

What about you? What lessons did you learn in 2022?

Please share your answer in the comments so that everyone can read it. Thanks!

What do you think is a key trait for thriving in this age? A good answer, I believe, is a passion for learning.

Let me explain.

I recently read Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein. It’s an insightful book about the history of finance. It covers topics such as the origin of paper money, the stock market, and banks. I learned a lot from the book.

One thing stated in the book is that for many centuries, people’s occupations barely changed. They mostly just did what their parents and grandparents did. The way people lived was also similar from generation to generation.

But this changed in the early 1800s thanks to the Industrial Revolution. It was a turning point in the history of humankind. It’s as if there were two different worlds: before and after the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was marked by inventions that increased efficiency, mainly in the cloth business. Cloth making was done by hand back then. As a result, clothes were very expensive and most people could afford only one or two sets of clothes.

In the early 1800s, machines were invented to make the process more efficient. This was good news for many people because clothes then became much more affordable.

But it also threatened the jobs of those who made clothes by hand.

This was the first time in history that there was such a dramatic change in a single generation. These people, called the Luddites, felt threatened by the machines. So what was their response? They made a movement to destroy the machines! Only after the government made destroying machines punishable by the death penalty did the destruction stop.

Well, guess what? The world didn’t slow down since then. Instead, it moves even faster than before. Just to give you an example, I remember how life was before I used the Internet; it’s almost unimaginable today! There was no Google; my only hope of finding the information I need was by getting physical books or magazines!

Today, however, there is an abundance of resources. For instance, you can learn just about anything you want from YouTube. You can buy and download e-books instantly. And there is a very thorough encyclopedia that you can access for free.

In such a world, what would make the difference between those who thrive and those who don’t? What would be the determining factor?

The answer is no longer the availability of resources. Instead, it’s the motivation to make the most out of those resources! Your level of motivation determines how far you will go.

That’s why I believe that a passion for learning is essential. If you have a passion for learning, you will be motivated to learn new things. Instead of thinking of it as a chore, you will think of it as an adventure. As a result, you will reap more benefits from the available resources.

Thomas Friedman used the term “the motivational divide” to explain the difference between those who are motivated and those who aren’t. I think it’s a good term to remember. Make sure that you are on the right side of the fence.

I’m currently re-reading The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. I’ve read the book years ago, but I recently felt the need to read it again. The book summarizes important principles for businesses that it calls “mental models”.

The term “mental model” was popularized by Charlie Munger, the investment partner of Warren Buffett. In short, mental models are the frameworks that you use to understand the world. Your mental model of something is your understanding of how it works. Based on that understanding, you can then make decisions.

Here is why building mental models is important:

With good mental models, you can have an accurate understanding of a situation and make the right decisions.

It’s an important thing to have, isn’t it?

But building mental models isn’t something that you can do just once and then be done with it. Instead, it’s something that you need to do continually. You need to constantly upgrade your mental models. It’s similar to developing software. Microsoft Excel, for instance, has been developed for many years now. It gets better and better over time. You should do something similar with your mental models. You should keep learning and improving your understanding of the world.

How should we build mental models then? Well, here are three tips on how to do that.

1. Find Some Role Models

When it comes to building mental models, I believe that having concrete examples is a good starting point. That’s why I recommend finding some role models. Find some people whose values and principles you admire. Then study how they think and work. These become your starting mental models that you can later adjust (see below).

The nice thing about having role models is they are concrete. These are real people doing real things in the real world. Not only can they teach you, but also they can inspire you. They show you what is possible.

You can have different role models for different areas of your life. You can also have multiple role models for an area of your life, each with different strengths.

2. Learn from Multiple Fields

In addition to finding some role models, you should learn concepts from multiple fields. Don’t limit yourself to just your current field. Instead, borrow ideas from different fields and combine them.

This is what Charlie Munger said (as quoted in The Personal MBA):

Just as multiple factors shape every system, multiple mental models from a variety of disciplines are necessary to understand that system… You have to realize the truth of biologist Julian Huxley’s idea that, “Life is just one damn relatedness after another.” So you must have all the models, and you must see the relatedness and the effects from the relatedness…

Combine the ideas you learn with what you learn from your role models. This way, you can come up with something that is yours, something that best fits your situation.

3. Experiment

Your mental models aren’t proven until you test them in the real world. Therefore, do something in the real world to test them. Do side projects, meet new people, launch a product. Then, based on the feedback, you can adjust your mental models as necessary.

Having the experiment mindset is helpful here because it will give you the eagerness to try new things and learn from them.

***

Building mental models can help you live a fulfilling life because it enables you to make good decisions. By finding some role models, learning from multiple fields, and experimenting, you will be able to build good mental models.

What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Leonhard Euler is one of the greatest mathematicians who have ever lived. Living in the 18th century, he contributed to many fields of mathematics. He was very prolific; when he passed away at the age of 76, he had more than 850 publications! Many of the mathematical notations that we use today were first introduced by Euler.

But I found something even more interesting when I read his story in Fermat’s Enigma: despite being completely blind in the last seventeen years of his life, those were his most productive years!

How could that be? How could he produce more when the situation was worse?

After reading his story, my conclusion is this: Euler had a winner’s attitude in dealing with adversity. He didn’t make excuses nor position himself as a victim. Instead, he was determined to keep going and made himself prepared.

Let’s start with the time when he went blind in one eye. He was twenty years old at that time. This is what he said about the situation: “Now I will have less distraction.” As you can see, he didn’t lament the situation. Instead, he framed the adversity as an opportunity.

The situation got worse, though. From the book:

Forty years later, at the age of sixty, his situation worsened considerably, when a cataract in Euler’s good eye meant he was destined to become completely blind. 

So how did he deal with it?

He was determined not to give in and began to practice writing with his fading eye closed in order to perfect his technique before the onset of darkness. Within weeks he was blind. 

Euler continued to produce mathematics for the next seventeen years, and, if anything, he was more productive than ever.

When the situation was getting worse, he prepared himself. He practiced writing with his fading eye closed. He was determined to take control of the situation instead of letting the situation control him.

In fact, he produced more, not less, when he was completely blind. How could that be? Here is an explanation:

Colleagues suggested that the onset of blindness appeared to expand the horizons of his imagination.

No longer limited by what he saw, he let his imagination explore new territories! He was more than just resilient; he was antifragile: he used adversity to make himself stronger than before.

I found Euler’s story inspiring. Adversity is inevitable in our lives, but how we deal with it makes a big difference. We could choose to make excuses. Or we could choose to be determined and prepared like Euler to thrive despite adversity.

I loved playing computer games. In fact, that’s how I first learned to code: by making simple games. Though I no longer spend much time on games these days, I’m still interested in the field.

That’s why I was excited when I found the memoir of Sid Meier. You might never hear of him, but he is a legendary game designer! His most famous creation is the Civilization series which started back in 1991. Today, decades later, the series is still going strong.

Civilization is famous for its addictive quality. You can see it yourself on its Steam page: many reviewers there spent 1,000+ hours on the game! That’s a lot of playing time. Its addictiveness and the time it takes are the reasons why I only play Civilization Revolution these days. It’s a simplified version of the game that takes much less time to finish.

In my opinion, the memoir is a good source to learn about creativity. Sid Meier is definitely creative: besides Civilization, he developed many other games in different genres. Many of them contain original ideas.

So what is the key to his creativity? What can we learn from him about being creative?

Well, based on the memoir, I concluded that there are four keys:

1. Have a diversity of interests.
2. Take a distance every once in a while.
3. Have a good partner to discuss with.
4. Be self-sufficient.

Let’s dig into them one by one.

1. Have a Diversity of Interests

A proven way to get fresh ideas is to cross-pollinate ideas from different fields. That requires you to have a diversity of interests. Here is an excerpt from the book:

The drawback of being able to isolate the interesting part of any given thing is that you are constantly interested by every given thing. I routinely find myself stumbling into new hobbies almost by accident, and as with my work life, I seem incapable of doing anything halfheartedly.

With his breadth of interest, he could imagine something new. A good example is a game he developed called SimGolf:

SimGolf wouldn’t have been as good if I hadn’t maintained an interest in music—and wouldn’t have existed at all if I hadn’t maintained an interest in golf.

He combined ideas in music, golf, and computer gaming to develop SimGolf. Here is another excerpt from the memoir:

A designer who’s only interested in games will find it very hard to bring anything original to the table, and I’m sure this is true in other fields, too.

So, if you want to be creative, be curious and develop a portfolio of passions. It will become a breeding ground for your creative ideas.

2. Take a Distance Every Once in a While

While having a diversity of interests is good, it’s not enough. You could be so busy with your day-to-day routines that it’s difficult for you to imagine something new. That’s why you need to take a distance every once in a while.

In Meier’s case, his most creative ideas often came while he was on vacation. The change in context gave him the room to get fresh ideas. He always brought a computer during vacations (even before there were laptops!), so he often developed prototypes right away.

In your case, it might not be a vacation, but you still need to take a distance every once in a while. Give yourself the room to imagine something new.

3. Have a Good Partner to Discuss With

New ideas are often raw at the beginning. To refine the ideas until they are ready for prime time, you need to have a good partner to discuss with.

In Meier’s case, he discussed many of his ideas with Bruce Shelley, a fellow game designer. Shelley could bring a different perspective to the table because he has a different background. While Meier’s background is in coding, Shelley’s background is in board game design. Their skills complemented each other.

Similarly, you should find a partner(s) to discuss your idea with. Ideally, they should complement your skills.

4. Be Self-Sufficient

To bring a creative idea to fruition, there are two ways: either you develop it yourself or you convince others to develop it with you. The first option requires you to have the different skills needed to develop the idea. But even with the second option, you should still have the different skills needed to develop a prototype.

Why is that the case? Well, because having a working prototype is a much better way to convince others than mere words! It’s especially true in fields like gaming where it’s often difficult to get an idea across with just words. By playing a prototype, others can feel the fun themselves.

That’s why Sid Meier believes in being self-sufficient. He is primarily a programmer, but he also taught himself graphic designs. He has musical skills too. With these, he can develop a working prototype without depending on others.

If you want to be creative, learn to be self-sufficient. Don’t let your creativity be hindered by the availability of others. Teach yourself the different skills needed. You don’t need to be an expert in all of them, but get good enough in them.

***

These are four keys to being creative that I learned from the memoir. To recap, you need to have a diversity of interests, take a distance every once in a while, have a good partner to discuss with, and be self-sufficient. With these, your creativity will flow!

What do you think is a defining characteristic of a good life? Well, I believe it’s fulfillment. The more you feel fulfilled, the better your life is. In fact, that’s the mission of Life Optimizer: helping you live a fulfilling life. 

So how can we live fulfilling lives?

We can answer this question from multiple perspectives, but here I’d like to answer it from the perspective of motivation. There are three key factors for work motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I believe they can also help you live a fulfilling life.

Let’s dig into them one by one.

1. Autonomy

This factor deals with the ability to control your life. The more you feel that you are in control of your life, the more fulfilling your life becomes. Here is what Michael Hyatt wrote:

Productivity should free you to pursue what’s most important to you. The goal, the true objective of productivity, should be freedom.

He then defined freedom in four ways:

• Freedom to Focus: the ability to do your task with absolute attention and no distractions.
• Freedom to Be Present: the ability to be fully present wherever you are (e.g. with your family) without being interrupted.
• Freedom to Be Spontaneous: the ability to drop whatever you are doing and respond to a new situation spontaneously.
• Freedom to Do Nothing: the ability to do nothing and just enjoy the moment.

As you go through your life, you may want to make decisions that would improve your freedom. For instance, given two job offers, you might want to choose the one that would give you more flexibility even if it pays somewhat less.

2. Mastery

This factor deals with the satisfaction of getting better at something. When you are realizing your potential, you will feel fulfilled.

There are two mindsets here that you need to adopt: the growth mindset and the steward mindset. The growth mindset believes that you can develop your abilities; your abilities are not fixed. The steward mindset, on the other hand, believes that you have the responsibility to develop your abilities. Together, these two mindsets can maximize your personal growth.

3. Purpose

This factor deals with having a cause that’s bigger than yourself. When you feel that you are making a difference, you will feel fulfilled.

So find a cause that matters to you and find a way to contribute there. Or think of what you are doing as your way of contributing instead of just getting something. If you work as a teacher, for instance, think of it as your way to contribute to future generations rather than just a job.

***

These three factors – autonomy, mastery, and purpose – can help you live a more fulfilling life. Improve yourself in them and you will feel fulfilled!

Any thoughts? Feel free to share them in the comments!

After working on it for a few months, I’m happy to announce that Habit Ace 3.0 is now available! Habit Ace is an iOS app I develop that helps you build purposeful habits. It’s the app that I’ve been using to optimize my life.

This new version adds support for Apple Watch. That means you can view your progress on your watch. You can also mark a habit as done right on your watch. Your data are synchronized automatically between your devices. 

I develop Habit Ace to meet my own needs. I’ve been blogging at Life Optimizer since 2006 but for years I didn’t know how exactly I should optimize my life. Eventually, I found that the best way to optimize my life is through daily, weekly, and monthly habits. For example, I exercise daily, track my expenses weekly, and read a certain number of books monthly.

With this app, the process becomes fun. Your goal is to get your progress charts completed and make your streaks as long as possible.

You can use the app for free but there is an option to upgrade to Premium (with a 7-day free trial). Click here to check it out.

One interesting concept that I read in Skip the Line is the difference between being resilient and being antifragile. The term “antifragile” comes from a book by Nassim Taleb but I read about it in Skip the Line by James Altucher.

I always thought that being resilient is good, but it turns out that being antifragile is better. What’s the difference between them? Well, being resilient means that when something hurts you, you bounce back to where you were before. It’s a good thing, right? But being antifragile goes one step further. Being antifragile means that when something hurts you, it makes you stronger than before. 

As you can see, it’s a subtle but important difference. It’s good if you are resilient because then you can keep moving forward despite a setback. The setback won’t stop you; you will recover from it. But when you are antifragile, you will do more than that. Instead of just moving forward as before, you will move forward faster than before. It’s as if you absorb the energy of your opponent!

A good example is the story of Colonel Sanders in starting Kentucky Fried Chicken. Here is an excerpt from my blog post:

He once had a successful restaurant. Life seemed good for him. But then something unexpected happened: authorities moved the highway junction in front of his restaurant to another site. As a result, the number of visitors to his restaurant plummeted. He eventually had to sell his restaurant. Worse, he was already 66 years old at that time.

After the failure of his restaurant, he didn’t have much—but he did have one thing: his fried-chicken recipe. So he decided to make the most of it. He decided to sell his fried chicken to restaurants.

Long story short, he started the world-famous Kentucky Fried Chicken. He experienced a big setback, but he didn’t let it break him. Furthermore, he didn’t just bounce back to where he was before; he ended up stronger than before. That is being antifragile!

So if you experience adversity, don’t just aim to be resilient. Be antifragile. Not only won’t you let the adversity break you, but also you will use it to make you stronger.

If you want to live a fulfilling life, you should cultivate your portfolio of passions. What I mean is that you should make room for different passions of yours and nurture them.

Why is this important? Because reaching your full potential will make you feel fulfilled. The keyword here is full. Reaching your potential in one or two areas of your life is good, but it’s not the same as reaching your full potential. To reach your full potential, you should make room for multiple interests of yours and grow yourself there.

Let me share my personal story with you.

An early passion of mine is coding. I started coding in 1994 after my parents bought me a PC. That’s 28 years ago! I didn’t have Internet access back then nor did I have anyone to teach me, so I taught myself using books and magazines. I wrote simple games and it was fun! Guess what? Today, 28 years later, I still code and I still have fun doing it!

I didn’t stop with coding, though. Investing is another passion of mine that I started in 2002. After getting my first paychecks, I wondered how I could invest my savings to get better returns, so I started learning about investing. I’ve been investing ever since and I also have fun doing it!

In 2006, I dived into yet another passion: blogging. That’s when I started Life Optimizer. I was excited to write about personal development back then and today, more than 15 years later, I’m still excited about it.

I have other passions that I develop since 2006 but you get the idea. You should cultivate your portfolio of passions. Find and nurture multiple interests of yours. Don’t let self-limiting beliefs hinder you. 

The starting point is curiosity because it gives you the eagerness to explore the world. You can then experiment with new things and dive into those that you find interesting.

Your life will be more fun and colorful this way. Not only that, but also you will feel fulfilled. Why? Because you are unlocking your potential day by day. You are unlocking the best version of yourself.

A book that I’m reading is Skip the Line by James Altucher. It has many interesting ideas, but here I’d like to share just one of them with you: reading books can give you virtual mentors. In fact, the author wrote that reading is a “superpower” because of it!

You see, we need mentors to get ahead in life. But in real life, your options are limited to those around you. Compared to the world as a whole, that is a very small circle. 

Moreover, there is the danger of getting stuck in a local maximum. You could try to reach the peak of a “hill” as defined by those around you without realizing that there are other “hills” out there with higher peaks! As a result, you could spend years of your time on the wrong “hill”.

Reading books is a good solution to this situation because it allows you to learn from a much wider circle. In fact, not only can you learn from the best people in the world today, but also you can learn from masters in the past! Isn’t that great?

Though these people are virtual because they don’t physically sit in front of you, you can still learn a lot from them. Why? Because they share their decades of experience with you through their books. It’s like listening to their stories while sitting next to them. You can learn about the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them. It can save you a lot of time because you don’t have to learn things yourself the hard way.

Why should it be a book? Can’t you just read an article or watch a video instead? Well, there is something a book gives you that is difficult to achieve any other way: depth. A book gives you the depth of someone’s experience. You will get not just the lessons but also the stories behind those lessons. These stories can give you the context and inspiration you need.

One thing to note: you need to read these books carefully. Don’t just read them quickly to finish them. Take your time to take notes and absorb the lessons. You might even want to reread them after some time. To be clear, not every book deserves this kind of attention, but if it’s a book that you consider important, then do it this way. This is how you can get the most out of your virtual mentorship.

Any thoughts? Feel free to share them in the comments!

We are now in 2022! To be honest, I’m excited about this year. I believe it’s a year of possibilities. There could be many challenges ahead, but I’m sure there are also many opportunities. It’s up to you and me to make the most of those opportunities.

To help you make the most of 2022, here are three simple things that you might want to do this year.

1. Read Books More

Notice that I didn’t say “read more books” but instead “read books more”. What’s the difference? Well, what I’m suggesting is not to increase the number of books you read but to spend more time on reading books.

If you simply aim to increase the number of books you read, you might tend to read easy books because you can finish more of them. That’s what happened to me a few years ago. But I believe that the important thing in reading books is the value you get from them, not the number of books you read. If it takes a lot of time to read a book but you get more value from it than three easy books, then go for it!

There are many options for easy entertainment these days, but reading books is investing in your future. 

2. Learn a New Skill

You can learn just about any skill as long as you put in the effort. Don’t let self-limiting beliefs hinder you. Instead of saying, “I’m just not good at graphic design”, believe that you can do it and start learning!

It’s my belief that getting to the 80% level of a skill is within reach for virtually everybody. It’s going from the 80% to the 100% level that requires a special commitment only the professionals can make. But the 80% level is good enough for most cases, and when you combine several of these skills, you can do wonders!

3. Connect with New People

The quality of your relationships plays a big role in your happiness. That’s why you might want to consider connecting with new people this year.

Notice that I didn’t say “meet new people” but “connect with new people”. Instead of just getting to know more people, aim to build a deeper connection with them. I know this is easier said than done, but it’s a goal worth aiming for.

***

That’s it, three simple things that you can do this year. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Here we are near the end of 2021. We will soon enter 2022. I believe it’s a good time to reflect on the lessons that we have learned this year. The lessons we learned this year will help us start the new year strong. So here is my question to you:

What life lessons have you learned in 2021?

Please share your answer in the comments so that everyone can read it. Thanks for being with me in 2021 and I wish you a great 2022!

A book that I recently read is The First Tycoon by T.J. Stiles. It’s about the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Inspired by the book, I wrote Appreciating Our Modern World a while back. Now, I’d like to discuss the courage to reinvent yourself.

Vanderbilt was born in 1794. Transportation was a big problem back then (as described in my previous post). In the early 19th century, the main solution was steamboats. With their steam engines, steamboats were far superior to schooners that came before them. Vanderbilt quickly switched from schooners to steamboats when the technology became available.

Over the next few decades, Vanderbilt built his wealth through steamboat business. He eventually controlled the two most important lines: the California line (connecting the East Coast to California) and the Atlantic line (connecting the East Coast to Europe).

But then a new trend emerged in the mid 19th century: railroads. 

With their speed and efficiency, railroads were becoming the main mode of transportation. It boosted the economy like never before because people and goods from distant places could now travel easily. 

Vanderbilt was already sixty-nine years old when railroads were booming in 1863. He already had a successful steamboat business. He was wealthy. But he realized that railroads were the next big thing.

So what did he do? Was he being complacent and just did what he had been doing?

He had a strong reason to do so. Remember, he was already sixty-nine years old. Most people already retire at that age. That’s especially true in his case because life expectancy back then was just 40 years.

But he did the exact opposite: he decided to go all-in into the railroad business! Far from being complacent with his existing steamboat business, he sold his boats so that he could devote his resources to railroads. He was widely known as ‘Commodore’ because of his steamboat business, but he was willing to leave that world behind. He didn’t attach his identity to the ‘Commodore’ title. He sold his last boat in 1864.

I find this inspiring. It’s not easy to leave your comfort zone when you are successful. It’s not easy to change your identity. But Vanderbilt did it. He had the courage to reinvent himself even at the age of sixty-nine.

The lessons?

1. Never be complacent. Don’t assume that what you have now is already the best. Keep yourself open to something new.
2. Be willing to leave your comfort zone when the time comes.
3. Be willing to change your identity if necessary.

I know these are easier said than done, but we should keep these lessons in mind. We should build the courage to reinvent ourselves.

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Knowledge is power. Benjamin Franklin once said that “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” I’m a big believer in self-education myself.

Related to that, there is a Blinkist Black Friday deal for you: for a limited time, you can get 50% off a Blinkist subscription.

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There are already thousands of titles in its library with new titles coming every week. It’s an app that you should consider for your self-education.

I’m currently reading The First Tycoon by T. J. Stiles. It’s a Pulitzer-prize winning book that tells the story of Cornelius Vanderbilt. From a humble beginning, Vanderbilt became the first tycoon in America. He was the precedent to other tycoons like Rockefeller and Carnegie.

It’s an eye-opening book for me. I didn’t know much about the world of the early 19th century so I learned a lot. A big lesson for me is not to take our modern world for granted. 

You see, we have so much convenience these days compared to those days. Transportation is a clear example. Here is an excerpt from the book (emphasis mine):

And transportation was a problem that deeply troubled merchants and lawmakers alike. The nation’s road network could best be described as barely in existence. In 1816, a Senate committee found that it was as expensive to move a ton of goods thirty miles overland as it was to bring the same ton across the Atlantic from Europe.

Can you imagine that? Moving a ton of goods just thirty miles overland cost as much as bringing them across the Atlantic! I was surprised when I learned this. Well, I guess I take our current road network for granted.

In addition to cost, another problem with transportation back then was convenience. Here is another excerpt:

John Lambert described how in upstate New York goods were carried in narrow, four-wheeled wagons, each drawn by a team of two horses. “It is a very rough method of riding,” he complained, “for the wagon has no springs, and a traveler ought to have excellent nerves to endure the shaking and jolting of such a vehicle over bad roads.”

Compare that to our cars nowadays. You barely feel that you are moving!

Another surprise for me was communication. Again, from the book:

News traveled only as fast as people, whether by messenger, the mail, or the shipment of newspapers. When George Washington died on December 14, 1799, for example, the news took seven days to travel the 240 miles from northern Virginia to New York.

Seven days. Today you can get live reporting from across the globe!

The conclusion? Sometimes we focus so much on what we don’t have that we forget to appreciate what we have. Reading this book opens my eyes to appreciate what we have today. I appreciate the convenience we have. I also appreciate the opportunities we have. We have a lot of things to be grateful for.

Building good habits is essential to living a fulfilling life. That’s why I’m happy to announce that Habit Ace 2.0 is now available! Habit Ace is an iOS app I develop that can help you build good habits. This is the app that I’ve been using to optimize my life.

You see, I started Life Optimizer back in 2006, but for years I didn’t know how exactly to optimize my life. I didn’t have a systematic way to do it. Only later did I realize that the best way to optimize my life is through habit tracking. That is, I set some habits to build and then track how good I am at keeping them. Doing this has made a lot of difference in my life.

I don’t just do daily habits, though. I found that I need to divide my habits into daily, weekly, and monthly. Why? Because some habits are better tracked on a weekly or monthly basis. For instance, I track my income and expenses weekly. But I aim to read a certain number of books monthly.

To implement this concept, I decided to develop an app. I’ve been building habit apps since 2011.

Habit Ace 2.0 is the newest version that aims to give you the best experience on iOS. Here are some of its features:

• Different tabs for your daily, weekly, and monthly habits for clear organization.
• Detailed view of your streaks to see when you succeeded and when you didn’t.
• A motivating widget for your Home Screen. Completing all your habits will give you a complete golden circle!
• Daily, weekly, or monthly reminders.
• Target count for a habit. For instance, you can set a goal of reading three books per month.
• Skippable days. For instance, you can choose not to do a habit on the weekends. Your streak will then continue through these days.
• Automatic backup & sync through your iCloud account.

As mentioned above, this is the app that I’ve been using to optimize my life. It makes building habits feel like a game. You simply aim to mark as many habits as possible and make your streak as long as possible.

Click here to check it out

Feel free to send me your feedback. Have a great day!

I recently read The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. It’s a book about how mass movements evolve. With a lot of historical examples, the book explains the patterns and common threads among them. It’s an insightful book and reading it was a great learning experience for me.

What I’d like to share with you here is not the content of the book, though. Instead, I’d like to share with you about the author.

You see, I didn’t know about Eric Hoffer before. But I imagined he must be a famous professor from a well-known university. I mean, what else could explain the depth of his insights? The True Believer is an influential book. Here is how Wikipedia put it:

The first and best-known of Hoffer’s books, The True Believer has been published in twenty-three editions between 1951 and 2002. He later touched upon similar themes in other works. Prominent leaders and social commentators who have remarked publicly about their interest in the book include American President Dwight D. Eisenhower as well as American Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary R. Clinton.

Hoffer was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983! With that kind of impact, it’s safe to assume that Hoffer was a famous professor, right?

Well, I was stunned when I learned who he was.

Far from being a professor with a doctorate, he didn’t have any formal schooling! That’s right, he had no formal education at all. Guess what his occupation was? He was a longshoreman. It was hard physical labor at the docks and that was his job. Even after the publication of The True Believer in 1951, he still worked as a longshoreman until 1964.

So how could he do it? How could he write such an insightful book despite his background?

The answer is self-education. Hoffer is a great example of the power of self-education. His life shows that self-education is transformational. It has the power to transform you if you are serious about it. 

Here is how Britannica explains Hoffer’s self-education:

Hoffer’s family was of modest means, and his early life was marked by hardship. A fall at the age of 7 left him partially blind until he was 15, when his eyesight returned. With the recovery of vision, Hoffer began to read voraciously. His mother had died when he was a child, and, when his father died in 1920, Hoffer, penniless, decided to go to California. For the next 23 years he found jobs as a migrant farm worker and a manual labourer; throughout this time he never stopped reading or lost his love of books, the only possessions he carried from job to job. He joined the longshoreman’s union in 1943 so that he could work only a few days a week and spend the rest of the time reading and writing.

Did you see how serious he was about his self-education? He made a determined effort for it. That’s why he became the man he was.

Self-education is powerful. But it’s up to you to tap into its power. Are you willing to do what it takes? If Hoffer could go that far despite his background, I believe there is no excuse for you and me.

What is a key factor for personal productivity? For many people, the answer is time management. Time management has even become synonymous with personal productivity. The assumption is that the better you manage your time, the more productive you will be.

But there is a missing element here. With good time management, you can allocate the time you need to do your tasks. But what about the way you use that time? Well, that’s a different matter! Let’s say two people spend one hour on the same task. One of them can make a lot of progress while the other one barely makes any progress. What makes the difference?

One possible answer is the level of interruption. The person who gets interrupted a lot will have less time to focus and therefore makes less progress. But let’s say both of them can work without interruptions. What else can make the difference?

Here comes the factor that I believe is just as important as time management, if not more so: energy management.

Given the same environment and amount of time, your energy level determines your productivity. The higher your energy level, the more you can accomplish and vice versa.

In The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, there is a good example of this from the days when Roosevelt was a student at Harvard:

The amount of time he spent at his desk was comparatively small – rarely more than a quarter of the day – but his concentration was so intense, and his reading so rapid, that he could afford more time off than most.

While not stated explicitly, I believe that his intensity came from his abundance of energy. Here is a comment from his father during that time that strengthens the case:

Theodore Senior, admitting to an “almost sinful” interest in his son’s progress, worried sometimes about the physical phenomenon he had helped create. “His energy seems so superabundant that I fear it may get the better of him in one way or another.”

Here is another excerpt from the book, this time describing Roosevelt as the president:

With his clicking efficiency and inhuman energy, the President seems not unlike a piece of engineering himself. Many observers are reminded of a high-speed locomotive… “He never stops running, even while he stokes and fires.”

It’s quite clear, isn’t it? We can see that an abundance of energy is a key factor for Roosevelt’s success. It’s not the only factor, but it’s an important one. It helped him get so much done. It helped him connect with people. It helped him become the leader he was.

The lesson is this: if you want to reach your full potential, manage your energy well. 

In Roosevelt’s case, it started with physical exercise. He was physically weak as a boy and had ill health. But one day his father gave him a challenge:

“Theodore,” the big man said, eschewing boyish nicknames, “you have the mind but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make your body. It is hard drudgery to make one’s body, but I know you will do it.”
…
Jerking his head back, he replied through clenched teeth: “I’ll make my body.”
…
The promise, once made, was adhered to with bulldog tenacity.

This is the turning point for him energy-wise. I believe that a similar transformation is also available for us!

Recently I changed the tagline of Life Optimizer to “Live a fulfilling life”. It replaces the previous tagline “Insights to reach your full potential”. Why did I change it? Well, I believe that the new tagline can better describe the mission here. It can give you a better description of how Life Optimizer can help you.

The previous tagline was pretty good, but it has a couple of shortcomings.

First, it could cause a misconception about what it means to reach your full potential. Some people might think that it means reaching the maximum level of wealth or fame. But that’s not what I mean. I never make wealth or fame my goals. They could become byproducts of what I want to achieve, but they aren’t the goal themselves. Instead, what I want to achieve is this definition of happiness: being able to live true to myself and realize my potential. So I want to minimize possible misconceptions.

Second, there is the word “insights” in the old tagline that I want to remove. The word is a good description of what I want to provide through Life Optimizer as a blog, but now I want Life Optimizer to be more than just a blog. In addition to my writings, I plan to develop a few apps and give them more prominent roles over time. Therefore, the word “insights” is no longer enough to describe what Life Optimizer is about. In addition to “insights”, there will be “tools”.

For these reasons, I believe that “Live a fulfilling life” is a better tagline than the old one. It uses the word “fulfilling” which describes exactly what I want to achieve in life. Here is a definition of “fulfilling”: Making someone satisfied or happy because of fully developing their character or abilities. Well, that’s what I want!

The new tagline also uses the word “live” which focuses on the result without limiting the way to get there. It’s no longer limited to just insights. Instead, the word “live” covers both the insights and tools.

So that’s the reasoning behind the new tagline. I hope you like it. Let’s live fulfilling lives!