How to Be Good at Life by Ben Meer
This page includes sources and additional context for ideas in the book. If you notice an error or missing attribution, please email book@benmeer.com so I can get it right. Thanks!
more than three hours a day: In this trial, young adults reported using their smartphones for roughly three hours per day on average. Extrapolating from three hours daily (around 1,095 hours per year) over sixty adult years, this equals approximately 65,700 hours—about 7.5 calendar years, or roughly ten years of waking life assuming eighteen waking hours per day. Christoph Pieh et al., “Smartphone Screen Time Reduction Improves Mental Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” BMC Medicine 23, no. 107 (2025), https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-025-03944-z.
“It’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight”: Tim Ferriss, interview on Huberman Lab, hosted by Andrew Huberman, “Tim Ferriss: How to Learn Better & Create Your Best Future,” June 19, 2023, https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/tim-ferriss-how-to-learn-better-and-create-your-best-future/.
The crowd at the Beacon: Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill, written by Jerry Seinfeld, directed by Joe DeMaio, aired May 5, 2020, on Netflix. For a transcript see “Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill,” Scraps from the Loft, May 6, 2020, https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/jerry-seinfeld-23-hours-to-kill-transcript/.
Long before the cameras roll: Dave Itzkoff, “Jerry Seinfeld Is Making Peace with Nothing: He’s ‘Post-Show Business,’” New York Times, May 4, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/arts/television/jerry-seinfeld-netflix.html.
“don’t break the chain”: The “don’t break the chain” story was popularized by a 2007 Lifehacker post recounting advice allegedly given by Jerry Seinfeld about marking an X on a wall calendar for each day of writing. In a January 2014 Reddit AMA, Seinfeld downplayed the characterization, and in a later interview he described the idea as “not really a game … more of a stat.” Tim Ferriss, host, The Tim Ferriss Show, podcast, episode 485, “Jerry Seinfeld—A Comedy Legend’s Systems, Routines, and Methods for Success,” December 9, 2020, https://tim.blog/2020/12/09/jerry-seinfeld-transcript/.
“the audience dumps a bunch of data on you”: Ferriss, “Jerry Seinfeld—A Comedy Legend’s Systems.”
“I think I could solve”: Seinfeld’s full line is: “I think I could solve just about anyone’s life, and I don’t care what you do, with weight training and Transcendental Meditation” (quotation slightly condensed in text). Ferriss, “Jerry Seinfeld—A Comedy Legend’s Systems.”
it was reported that Seinfeld: “Jerry Seinfeld,” Real-Time Billionaires profile, Forbes, accessed June 22, 2025, https://www.forbes.com/profile/jerry-seinfeld/.
40 percent of your daily actions are habitual: Wendy Wood et al., “Habits in Everyday Life: Thought, Emotion, and Action,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no. 6 (2002): 1281–97, https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendy-wood/wp-content/uploads/sites/183/2023/10/Wood.Quinn_.Kashy_.2002_Habits_in_everyday_life.pdf.
That’s when deliberate mode: On automatic versus deliberate modes of thinking, see Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 20.
infections dropped from 11 percent to zero: Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (Metropolitan Books, 2009), 37–43.
It’s called Gall’s Law: John Gall, The Systems Bible: The Beginner’s Guide to Systems Large and Small, 3rd ed. (General Systemantics Press, 2012), 80.
Future You just wants tacos again: Studies show we actually prefer familiar foods when tired or stressed. See Edward Leigh Gibson, “Emotional Influences on Food Choice: Sensory, Physiological and Psychological Pathways,” Physiology & Behavior 89, no. 1 (2006): 53–61, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.01.024.
“A system is never the sum of its parts”: Russell L. Ackoff, “2003 Ackoff Seminar, Part 1 of 4,” Huntington Beach, CA, posted 2003, by Deming Cooperative, YouTube, 1:22:25, at 20:21, accessed January 25, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ooqJ-pOH4.
ending a 108-year drought: Tom Verducci, The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse (Crown Archetype, 2017), 10.
the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials had a bird problem: Steve Twomey, “The Memorials’ Unwanted Tourists,” Washington Post, April 13, 1990, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/04/14/the-memorials-unwanted-tourists/2e93469f-c779-4a46-b08e-1b46d287e38e.
all without a single ugly metal spike: Though a six-week trial proved Messersmith’s hypothesis correct, tourists complained they couldn’t see the monuments at dusk. More than thirty years later, the monuments still wear away faster than necessary. Sometimes even perfect solutions fall victim to politics.
Novak Djokovic traced his fatigue: Novak Djokovic, Serve to Win: The 14-Day Gluten-Free Plan for Physical and Mental Excellence (Zinc Ink, 2013), introduction, “The Diet That Transformed Me,” Kindle.
After LASIK surgery: Woods first underwent LASIK in 1999 and later had a second laser eye procedure after his vision began to slip about eight years later. Gary Van Sickle, “Corrective Measure: Woods Improves Vision,” New York Times, May 20, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/sports/golf/20link.html.
the eagle population rebounded: For the estimate that bald eagles in the lower forty-eight states fell to about 417 known nesting pairs in 1963 and rebounded to more than 71,400 nesting pairs (about 316,700 individuals) by 2019–2020, see U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, “America’s Bald Eagle Population Continues to Soar,” news release, March 24, 2021, https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2021-03/americas-bald-eagle-population-continues-soar.
the Iceberg Model: Ed Cunliff, “Connecting Systems Thinking and Action,” The Systems Thinker, accessed January 25, 2026, https://thesystemsthinker.com/connecting-systems-thinking-and-action/.
“Comforting, in that the solutions”: Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (Chelsea Green, 2008), 4.
we’re better at advising others than ourselves: Igor Grossmann and Ethan Kross, “Exploring Solomon’s Paradox: Self-Distancing Eliminates the Self-Other Asymmetry in Wise Reasoning About Close Relationships in Younger and Older Adults,” Psychological Science 25, no. 8 (2014): 1571–80, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614535400.
step back and imagine Mr. Spock: Inspired in part by a comment from Reddit user @godspeedmetal: “Might get buried, but my dude in my head is literally Mr. Spock from Star Trek, and I don’t avoid him,” reply on r/AskReddit, October 4, 2019, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dcxylq/comment/f2d3w6c/.
the Five Whys method: Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer, 2nd ed. (McGraw Hill, 2020), 46–47; and “Five Whys,” ASQ Quality Glossary, American Society for Quality, accessed January 25, 2026, https://asq.org/quality-resources/five-whys.
helped transform Japan: Japan’s shift from a producer of low-quality, inexpensive goods to a symbol of manufacturing excellence resulted from broader quality initiatives such as statistical quality control and kaizen (continuous improvement). Svetoslav G. Georgiev and Seiichi Ohtaki, “An Analysis of Japan’s Quality Movement from the Meiji Period until the Present Day: A Synthesized Perspective,” Asian Journal of Business and Accounting 13, no. 2 (2020): 49–92, https://doi.org/10.22452/ajba.vol13no2.3.
Byron Katie developed a powerful method: Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (Harmony Books, 2002), 19.
When an elephant is young: Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer, The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, rev. ed. (HarperCollins, 2015), 97.
roughly one-third of your nation: The PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency reports that 26 percent of Dutch land lies below sea level and that over half the country is vulnerable to flooding. “Correction Wording Flood Risks for the Netherlands in IPCC Report,” PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2007, https://www.pbl.nl/en/correction-wording-flood-risks-for-the-netherlands-in-ipcc-report.
For more than eight hundred years: “Dutch River Defences in Historical Perspective,” Environmental History Resources, January 21, 2006, https://www.eh-resources.org/dutch-river-defences-in-historical-perspective/.
Louis XIV’s army thundered toward the Netherlands: Britannica, s.v. “Dutch War (1672–1678),” accessed January 25, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/event/Dutch-War; Dutch Water Defence Lines, UNESCO World Heritage, “Origin,” Hollandse Waterlinies, accessed April 5, 2026, https://www.hollandsewaterlinies.nl/en/story/origin.
Dutch water experts: On the Netherlands as a go-to source of flood-control and sea level–rise expertise for cities from New Orleans and New York to deltas in Asia, see Jeff Goodell, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World (Little, Brown, 2017); “Dutch Dialogues® New Orleans,” Waggonner & Ball, accessed January 25, 2026, https://wbae.com/projects/dutch-dialogues-new-orleans/; and Chris Iovenko, “Dutch Masters: The Netherlands Exports Flood-Control Expertise,” Nautilus, May 29, 2019, https://nautil.us/dutch-masters-the-netherlands-exports-flood-control-expertise-237412.
earned nine NBA All-Defensive First Team honors: “Year-by-Year NBA All-Defensive Teams,” NBA.com, accessed February 15, 2026, https://www.nba.com/news/history-all-defensive-team.
“Protect yourself at all times”: “In the ring, you have to protect yourself at all times,” quoted in Nick Parkinson, “Floyd Mayweather at 40: A Great Quote for Each Year of His Life,” ESPN.com, February 24, 2017, https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/18755368/floyd-mayweather-40-greatest-quotes-celebrate-40th-birthday.
“I want to live in a way”: Eric Jorgenson, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness (Magrathea Publishing, 2020), 183.
The leading causes of premature death: “Leading Causes of Death,” CDC/ National Center for Health Statistics, September 17, 2025, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm.
90 percent of heart attack: Salim Yusuf et al., “Effect of Potentially Modifiable Risk Factors Associated with Myocardial Infarction in 52 Countries (the INTERHEART Study): Case-Control Study,” The Lancet 364, no. 9438 (2004): 937–52, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17018-9.
people who got six hours of sleep: Hans P. A. Van Dongen et al., “The Cumulative Cost of Additional Wakefulness: Dose-Response Effects on Neurobehavioral Functions and Sleep Physiology from Chronic Sleep Restriction and Total Sleep Deprivation,” Sleep 26, no. 2 (2003): 117–26, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/26.2.117.
the 3-2-1 formula gives: The original 3-2-1 structure was introduced by high-performance coach Brendon Burchard (“3 hours no food, 2 hours no work, 1 hour no screens”). Dan Go later popularized a widely used variation that replaces “no work” with “no liquids” to improve sleep continuity. All versions share the same goal: reducing late-evening inputs that disrupt restorative sleep. Dan Go, “Free Guide: How to Get Quality Sleep 101,” The High Performance Journal (blog), March 10, 2023, https://www.dango.co/blog/how-to-get-quality-sleep-101.
we’ll walk in circles, even when: Jan L. Souman et al., “Walking Straight into Circles,” Current Biology 19, no. 18 (2009): 1538–42, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.053.
Research shows that when people are stretched: Peerasit Patanakul and Dragan Milosevic, “The Effectiveness in Managing a Group of Multiple Projects: Factors of Influence and Measurement Criteria,” International Journal of Project Management 27, no. 3 (2009): 216–33, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.03.001; Annika Zika-Viktorsson et al., “Project Overload: An Exploratory Study of Work and Management in Multi-Project Settings,” International Journal of Project Management 24, no. 5 (2006): 385–94, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.02.010.
close enough to matter: Piers Steel and Cornelius J. König, “Integrating Theories of Motivation,” Academy of Management Review 31, no. 4 (2006): 889–913, https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2006.22527462.
scored about 50 percent higher in reported achievement: Psychologist Gail Matthews found that participants who wrote down their goals achieved significantly more than those with unwritten goals (mean achievement scores of 6.44 versus 4.28 on a 10-point scale—approximately a 50 percent difference). Gail Matthews, “Goals Research Summary,” Dominican University of California, 2015, https://www.dominican.edu/sites/default/files/2020-02/gailmatthews-harvard-goals-researchsummary.pdf.
“He is the reason I do what I do”: “One-on-One with the Great Beyoncé Transcript,” Yahoo! News Australia, October 11, 2011, https://web.archive.org/web/20140714113707/https://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/transcripts/a/10444014/one-on-one-with-the-great-beyonce-transcript/.
Her first music producer sat her down: Beyoncé, quoted in Evan Minsker, “Beyoncé Writes Tribute to Michael Jackson on Five-Year Anniversary of His Death,” Pitchfork, June 25, 2014, https://pitchfork.com/news/55709-beyonce-writes-tribute-to-michael-jackson-on-five-year-anniversary-of-his-death.
“When I saw him move”: Michael Jackson, quoted in Matthew Bigg, “Michael Jackson Praises James Brown as Inspiration,” Reuters, August 9, 2007, https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/michael-jackson-praises-james-brown-as-inspiration-idUSN30265084/.
activates the same motor circuits: Giacomo Rizzolatti and Laila Craighero, “The Mirror-Neuron System,” Annual Review of Neuroscience 27 (2004): 169–92, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230.
boosts your productivity by 15 percent: Michael Housman and Dylan Minor, “Sitting Near a High-Performer Can Make You Better at Your Job,” KelloggInsight, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, May 8, 2017, https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/sitting-near-a-high-performer-can-make-you-better-at-your-job.
“We are mirrors”: Brad Stulberg (@BStulberg), “We are mirrors. The people with whom we surround ourselves shape us, and we shape them, too,” X (formerly Twitter), January 21, 2024, https://x.com/BStulberg/status/1749078098975293471.
Chris Sacca, early Uber investor: “Go to all the meetings you can, even if you’re not invited to them, and figure out how to be helpful. If people wonder why you’re there, just start taking notes. Read all the other notes you can find on the company, and gain a general knowledge that your very limited job function may not offer you. Just make yourself useful and helpful by doing so.” Tim Ferriss, Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers (Harper Business, 2016), 166.
In music education: Tim Ferriss, “How to Finally Play the Guitar: 80/20 Guitar and Minimalist Music,” Tim Ferriss (blog), December 11, 2012, https://tim.blog/2012/12/11/how-to-play-the-guitar/; and an Ed Sheeran interview demonstrating that many pop songs can be played with the same four-chord progression, discussed in “Ed Sheeran Proves You Can Play Every Pop Song with Four Chords,” UNILAD, May 24, 2024, https://www.unilad.com/music/news/ed-sheeran-four-chords-pop-song-theory-824786-20240513.
“You must understand that”: This line is widely attributed to the samurai Miyamoto Musashi and often cited from The Book of Five Rings as “You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain,” but careful comparisons of reputable English translations do not find this sentence in the original text; instead, it appears to originate in Stephen Kaufman’s 1994 interpretive version.
better than sporadic longer sessions: Micah Cearns and Scott R. Clark, “The Effects of Dose, Practice Habits, and Objects of Focus on Digital Meditation Effectiveness and Adherence: Longitudinal Study of 280,000 Digital Meditation Sessions Across 103 Countries,” Journal of Medical Internet Research 25 (2023): e43358, https://doi.org/10.2196/43358.
Southwest Airlines proved this in 1972: “A Turning Point: The Birth of the 10-Minute Turn,” Southwest50.com, accessed February 14, 2026, https://southwest50.com/our-stories/a-turning-point-the-birth-of-the-10-minute-turn/; Jesse Cole, host, Business Done Differently, podcast, episode 5, “Nuts!: Fun and Loving Secrets Behind Southwest Airlines’ Success with Kevin Freiberg,” Yellow Tux, February 2020, https://findyouryellowtux.com/nuts-fun-and-loving-secrets-behind-southwest-airlines-success-with-kevin-freiberg-ep-5/.
its revenue more than tripled: The BrickNerd team identifies LEGO sets 4757 Hogwarts Castle (2004) and 8421 Mobile Crane (2005) as among the first sets with numbered bags; see Michael J, “How LEGO Instructions Have Changed Over Time: A Forest of Discovery,” BrickNerd, October 17, 2022, https://bricknerd.com/home/how-lego-instructions-have-changed-over-time-a-forest-of-discovery-10-17-22. LEGO’s annual reports show revenue rising from Danish Krone (DKK) 7,934 million in 2004 to DKK 28,578 million in 2014—an increase of more than threefold. The broader turnaround involved product refocusing, licensing, and operational changes rather than solely the introduction of numbered bags; see Annual Report 2004, LEGO Group, 2005, https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/aboutus/assets/blt07abb4b8a3da3f39/Annual_Report_2004_ENG.pdf; and Annual Report 2014, LEGO Group, 2015, https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/aboutus/assets/blta425337e673c7461/Annual_Report_2014_ENG.pdf.
She mentally broke the race into bite-size sections: Jane McGuire and Jenny Bozon, “What Are the Best Mental Strategies to Use During a Marathon?,” Runner’s World (UK), August 26, 2022, https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/marathon/a27052391/runners-visualisation-marathon/.
seven pieces of information at a time: George A. Miller, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information,” Psychological Review 63, no. 2 (1956): 81–97, https://doi.org/10.1037/h0043158.
one of the most powerful motivators we have: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, “The Power of Small Wins,” Harvard Business Review, May 2011, https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins.
Shrink a habit until: BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (Harvest, 2019), 5; James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Avery, 2018), 162.
regulates circadian rhythm and improves energy: Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman recommends getting morning sunlight to help regulate circadian rhythm and supports delaying caffeine about 90–120 minutes after waking (on most days) to improve energy and avoid an afternoon crash by aligning with the body’s natural cortisol awakening response. Andrew Huberman, “Using Light for Health,” Huberman Lab Newsletter, January 24, 2023, https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/using-light-for-health; Andrew Huberman, host, Huberman Lab, podcast, “Using Caffeine to Optimize Mental & Physical Performance,” December 5, 2022, https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/using-caffeine-to-optimize-mental-and-physical-performance.
the Habit Loop: Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Random House, 2012), 19.
It was December 16, 1930: Walter Mittelstaedt, Herman “Baron” Lamm, the Father of Modern Bank Robbery (McFarland, 2012), chap. VIII, “Clinton; or, The Wheels of Chance,” Kindle.
more than $300,000 today: Based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, $15,567 in 1930 is equivalent to approximately $302,132 in 2026. “Value of $15,567 from 1930 to 2026,” CPI Inflation Calculator, accessed January 28, 2026, https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1930?amount=15567.
you stop doing the things that will get you there: Gabriele Oettingen and Doris Mayer, “The Motivating Function of Thinking About the Future: Expectations Versus Fantasies,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no. 5 (2002): 1198–212, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1198.
global case study in anticipatory design: Vasundhara, “How Japan’s Rail Network Survived the Earthquake,” Railway Technology, June 27, 2011, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/feature122751/.
without a single passenger fatality: “A Milestone for the Shinkansen: Fifty Years of Bullet Trains in Japan,” Embassy of Japan in the UK, accessed April 5, 2026, https://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/webmagazine/2014/11/shinkansen.html. The article notes that in its first fifty years of operation (1964–2014), the Shinkansen carried more than ten billion passengers with a record of “zero passenger fatalities.” Subsequent analyses of the system’s performance over more than sixty years of service confirm that there have still been no passenger fatalities resulting from collisions or derailments.
Temptation Bundling for Exercise: Erika L. Kirgios et al., “Teaching Temptation Bundling to Boost Exercise: A Field Experiment,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 161 (2020): 20–35, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.09.003.
The Two-Wallet Stash: @pm_me_ur_bamboozle, “LPT: Get yourself a ‘home wallet’ and a ‘carry wallet,’” r/LifeProTips, Reddit, March 17, 2022, https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/tgp22j/lpt_get_yourself_a_home_wallet_and_a_carry_wallet/.
music you loved around age seventeen hits hardest: Iballa Burunat et al., “Memory Bumps Across the Lifespan in Personally Meaningful Music,” Memory 33, no. 10 (2025): 1196–216, https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2025.2557960.
Identity Diversification: Kudos to Brad Stulberg for introducing me to this concept; see Brad Stulberg, “The Key to a Strong Identity: Diversify Your Sense of Self,” The Growth Equation, October 21, 2023, https://thegrowtheq.com/rugged-flexibility-and-diversifying-your-sense-of-identity/.
Michael Phelps dove into the water: Duhigg, The Power of Habit, 114–15.
what psychologists call “implementation intentions”: Peter M. Gollwitzer, “Implementation Intentions: Strong Effects of Simple Plans,” American Psychologist 54, no. 7 (1999): 493–503, https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493.
two to three times more likely to follow through: In one exercise study, an implementation-intention (“If–Then”) plan increased the share of participants who did at least one twenty-minute exercise session over the following week from about 35–38 percent to 91 percent—roughly a two- to threefold jump in follow-through. Sarah Milne et al., “Combining Motivational and Volitional Interventions to Promote Exercise Participation: Protection Motivation Theory and Implementation Intentions,” British Journal of Health Psychology 7, no. 2 (2002): 163–84, https://doi.org/10.1348/135910702169420.
Research from the Gottman Institute: Kerry Lusignan, “Love Smarter by Learning When to Take a Break,” Gottman Institute, updated January 16, 2026, https://www.gottman.com/blog/love-smarter-learning-take-break/.
I’ll do 4-7-8 breathing: Andrew Weil, “Breathing Exercises: 4-7-8 Breath,” posted by DrWeil.com, video, 5 min., 38 sec., accessed January 25, 2026, https://www.drweil.com/videos-features/videos/breathing-exercises-4-7-8-breath/.
“The more relaxed, the faster you run”: Carl Lewis discussed the role of relaxation in peak sprint performance in interviews throughout his career. Jeff Benjamin, “Carl Lewis Teaches ‘The Perfect Method,’” RunBlogRun (blog), December 2017, https://www.runblogrun.com/2017/12/carl-lewis-teaches-the-perfect-method.html.
“Consistency over intensity”: Brad Stulberg (@BStulberg), “Consistency over intensity,” Twitter (now X), January 13, 2023, https://x.com/BStulberg/status/1613906836834353153.
As brain coach Jim Kwik puts it: Jim Kwik (@jimkwik), “On the days you only have 40%, and you give 40%. You gave 100%,” Twitter (now X), October 17, 2022, https://twitter.com/jimkwik/status/1582072454528147456.
Half his head is freshly shaven: Plutarch, “The Life of Demosthenes,” in The Parallel Lives, vol. VII, trans. Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (1919), https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Demosthenes*.html.
ordered the ships burned: Popular accounts say that, upon landing near Veracruz in 1519, Hernán Cortés ordered his ships destroyed so his men could not retreat. Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s eyewitness narrative likewise reports that Cortés had the fleet scuttled rather than literally burned, but later retellings turned this decision into the iconic “burn the boats” image. “Cortés Burns His Boats,” Conquistadors: Cortés, PBS, accessed January 28, 2026, http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/cortes/cortes_d00.html; and Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. J. M. Cohen (Penguin, 1963).
the Spanish still say “quemar las naves”: “Quemar las naves” is a modern Spanish idiom meaning “to cut off the possibility of retreat,” similar to “burn one’s bridges”; see “Quemar Las Naves,” Aprendemás Rápido, accessed January 28, 2026, https://aprendemasrapido.com/en/idioms/7095f6d3-722e-4399-a039-b33945313a8e.
It won her the 2025 Grammy for Best Rap Album: Mankaprr Conteh, “How Doechii Made a Mixtape That Could Be the Best Rap Album of the Year,” Rolling Stone, September 5, 2024, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/doechii-mixtape-alligator-bites-never-heal-interview-1235095506.
Ulysses tied himself to the mast: Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics, 1999), 272–73.
upward of 35,000 decisions daily: Jim Sollisch, “The Cure for Decision Fatigue,” Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2016; Grant A. Pignatiello et al., “Decision Fatigue: A Conceptual Analysis,” Journal of Health Psychology 25, no. 1 (2018): 123–35, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6119549/.
Status quo bias means we: William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser, “Status Quo Bias in Decision Making,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 1, no. 1 (1988): 7–59, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00055564; and Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Penguin, 2009).
Parkinson’s Law says work expands: Cyril Northcote Parkinson, “Parkinson’s Law,” The Economist, November 19, 1955, https://www.economist.com/news/1955/11/19/parkinsons-law.
actor Hugh Jackman writes about his ideal: Tim Ferriss, host, The Tim Ferriss Show, podcast, episode 444, “Hugh Jackman on Best Decisions, Daily Routines, The 85% Rule, Favorite Exercises, Mind Training, and Much More,” June 30, 2020, https://tim.blog/2020/06/30/hugh-jackman-transcript/.
Talking about the goal creates: Peter M. Gollwitzer et al., “When Intentions Go Public: Does Social Reality Widen the Intention–Behavior Gap?,” Psychological Science 20, no. 5 (2009): 612–18, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02336.x.
Consistency bias drives us to match: Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, rev. ed. (Harper Business, 2006), chap. 3, “Commitment and Consistency,” Kindle.
“You can’t be normal and expect abnormal returns”: Jeffrey Pfeffer, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First (Harvard Business Review Press, 1998), ix.
“If ‘relax’ isn’t on my calendar”: Serena Williams, interview by Gayle King, “Life After Tennis: Serena Williams on Business Ventures, Family and Her Farm,” CBS Mornings, February 1, 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/video/life-after-tennis-serena-williams-on-business-ventures-family-and-her-farm/.
“I want my percentage”: Nicole LaPorte, “How Serena Williams Conquers Her Daily Schedule Without Breaking a Sweat,” Fast Company, December 15, 2020, https://www.fastcompany.com/90581950/how-serena-williams-conquers-her-daily-schedule-without-breaking-a-sweat.
if you put the big rocks in first: The classic productivity metaphor; see Stephen R. Covey et al., First Things First (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 98.
Jack Dorsey famously themed his days: Kevin Kruse, “The Jack Dorsey Productivity Secret That Enables Him to Run Two Companies at Once,” Forbes, October 12, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2015/10/12/jack-dorsey-productivity-secret/.
It’s called productivity dysmorphia: Anna Codrea-Rado, “Do I Have Productivity Dysmorphia?,” Refinery29, September 9, 2021, https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2021/09/10640493/what-is-productivity-dysmorphia.
Burkeman’s 3-3-3 Method: Oliver Burkeman, “The Imperfectionist: 3/3/3, a Method for Structuring the Day,” newsletter, accessed May 17, 2026, https://ckarchive.com/b/e5uph7hx43mn.
“Your mind is for having ideas”: David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, rev. ed. (Penguin Books, 2015), 277.
Follow Japan’s 80 Percent Rule: This practice is traditionally known in Okinawa as hara hachi bu (“eat until you are 80 percent full”). Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer: Lessons from the Healthiest Places on Earth (National Geographic, 2023), chap. 7, “The Power 9,” Kindle.
Your brain is 73 percent water: “The Water in You: Water and the Human Body,” Water Science School, U.S. Geological Survey, May 22, 2019, https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body.
Even mild dehydration around 2 percent: Matthew T. Wittbrodt and Melinda Millard-Stafford, “Dehydration Impairs Cognitive Performance: A Meta-Analysis,” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 50, no. 11 (2018): 2360–68, https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001682.
Aim for 0.5–1 fluid ounce: “Hydration: Why Is Water So Important?,” VA News, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, July 26, 2019, https://news.va.gov/63689/hydration-water-important/.
“Only thoughts won by walking are valuable”: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ, trans. Thomas Common (Digireads, 2021), “Maxims and Arrows,” section 34, 17, Kindle.
wired to be alert when standing: Gregory Garrett et al., “Call Center Productivity Over 6 Months Following a Standing Desk Intervention,” IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors 4, no. 2–3 (2016): 188–95, https://doi.org/10.1080/21577323.2016.1183534.
“The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic”: The full quote is “Efficiency is highly overrated; goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks, and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.” Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier (Viking, 2023), 109.
NSDR (non-sleep deep rest): Andrew Huberman, “Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Guide to NSDR,” Huberman Lab, accessed January 2026, https://www.hubermanlab.com/nsdr.
Jackson Pollock finished: Jason Bailey, “Art and Death: How Many Paintings Could Jackson Pollock Have Made?,” Artnome, August 27, 2017, https://www.artnome.com/news/2017/8/26/art-and-death-how-many-paintings-could-jackson-pollock-have-made.
Andy Warhol produced: “Paintings, Sculptures, and Drawings,” Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, accessed February 14, 2026, https://warholfoundation.org/warhol/catalogue-raisonne/paintings-sculptures-drawings/.
In 2010 alone, Warhol’s work: “Warhol is now the god of contemporary art. He is indeed, it is said, the ‘American Picasso’ or, if you prefer, the art market’s one-man Dow Jones. In 2010 his work sold for a total of $313m and accounted for 17% of all contemporary auction sales.” Bryan Appleyard, “A One-Man Art Market,” The Economist, November 18, 2011, https://www.economist.com/1843/2011/11/18/a-one-man-art-market.
protect your zone of genius: I first encountered the term “zone of genius” in Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (HarperOne, 2009), 113.
a single decision today could eliminate: “In many cases we can learn to make one- time decisions that make a thousand future decisions so we don’t exhaust ourselves asking the same questions again and again.” Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Crown Currency, 2014), 126.
Save More Tomorrow program: Richard H. Thaler and Shlomo Benartzi, “Save More Tomorrow™: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving,” Journal of Political Economy 112, no. S1 (2004), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/380085.
Eliminate-Automate-Delegate sequence: Rory Vaden, Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time (TarcherPerigee, 2015), 149.
The “Hell Yeah or No” test from Derek Sivers: Derek Sivers, Hell Yeah or No: What’s Worth Doing (Hit Media, 2022).
“Getting older is all about knowing a guy”: Brock Wilbur (@Brockomole), X (formerly Twitter), February 3, 2024, post no longer available. See also Chase Dimond, LinkedIn post including a screenshot of Wilbur’s tweet, “Getting older is all about knowing a guy,” accessed January 28, 2026, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chasedimond_getting-older-is-all-about-knowing-a-guy-activity-7160816472196354050-d82O/.
Harvard Business School study showing: Ashley V. Whillans et al., “Buying Time Promotes Happiness,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 32 (2017): 8523–27, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706541114.
washes dishes by hand every night: Bill Gates (@thisisbillgates), “Hello Reddit – I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Microsoft founder. Ask me anything,” r/IAmA, Reddit, February 10, 2014, https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1xj56q/comment/cfbvjzo/.
repetitive manual tasks can be therapeutic: Adam W. Hanley et al., “Washing Dishes to Wash the Dishes: Brief Instruction in an Informal Mindfulness Practice,” Mindfulness 6 (2015): 1095–103, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-014-0360-9; Jill Riley et al., “The Benefits of Knitting for Personal and Social Wellbeing in Adulthood: Findings from an International Survey,” British Journal of Occupational Therapy 76, no. 2 (2013): 50–57, https://doi.org/10.4276/030802213X13603244419077.
drove straight into Lake Huron: Katie Forster, “Woman Follows Sat Nav and Drives Straight into a Lake,” Independent, May 14, 2016, https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/woman-following-sat-nav-canada-drives-straight-into-lake-huron-ontario-a7029131.html.
Park rangers call it “Death by GPS”: Greg Milner, “Ignore the GPS. That Ocean Is Not a Road,” New York Times, February 11, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/ignore-the-gps-that-ocean-is-not-a-road.html.
In 1989, a young composer: Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel, directed by Francis Hanly (BBC Studios, 2022).
Zimmer’s Pirates of the Caribbean scores: The Curse of the Black Pearl soundtrack is officially credited to Klaus Badelt, with Zimmer credited as producer. Zimmer was contractually committed to The Last Samurai and unable to take the primary composing credit, though he is widely acknowledged to have composed the main themes, including “He’s a Pirate.” Zimmer took over as sole credited composer for the sequels. “Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer: He’s a Pirate,” BBC Bitesize, accessed January 25, 2026, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zmvf3k7/revision/1.
buying back your time makes you happier: Ashley V. Whillans et al., “Buying Time Promotes Happiness,” 8523–27.
about fifty minutes a day: Laura Zimmermann and Michael Sobolev, “Digital Strategies for Screen Time Reduction: A Randomized Field Experiment,” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 26, no. 1 (2023): 42–49, https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2022.0027.
calls this the paradox of choice: Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Ecco, 2003).
Consider the Jam Experiment: Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper, “When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79, no. 6 (2000): 995–1006, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995.
satisficing, a concept from economist Herbert A. Simon: Herbert A. Simon, “Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment,” Psychological Review 63, no. 2 (1956): 129–38, https://doi.org/10.1037/h0042769.
wearing a Speedo LZR Racer: “The Technology Behind Speedo’s High-Tech Swimsuits That Challenged the Olympics,” Engineering.com, December 2, 2020, https://www.engineering.com/the-technology-behind-speedos-high-tech-swimsuits-that-challenged-the-olympics/; Lianne McCluskey, “One Decade Later, Do We Miss the Full-Body Tech Suit?,” Swimming World, February 19, 2019, https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/one-decade-later-do-we-miss-the-full-body-competition-suit/.
Marie Poulin gave me a wake-up call: Marie Poulin (@mariepoulin), “My take is that people look for technical solutions to what are actually *human* issues. Switching from one tool to another doesn’t solve procrastination, prioritization, overwhelm, or over-commitment, because these are generally emotional challenges, not technical ones,” Twitter (now X), February 13, 2023, https://twitter.com/mariepoulin/status/1625285685627453441.
“You have to standardize before you can optimize”: Clear, Atomic Habits, 164.
The Upgrade List: This system was inspired by a post on Twitter (now X) by Dickie Bush, where he described keeping a “frustration list.” Dickie Bush (@dickiebush), “Recent life hack I’ve picked up: Keeping a ‘frustration list.’ I have a pinned note in my phone that I write down little things that nag me. Chargers not working, work that drains my energy, tiny areas I could improve. Then every month I batch an hour and tackle that list,” Twitter (now X), March 15, 2023, https://x.com/dickiebush/status/1636162942528790528.
“The notes are right underneath your fingers”: Christopher Loudon, “Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx: Genius Loves Company,” JazzTimes, September 13, 2024, https://www.jazztimes.com/news/ray-charles-and-jamie-foxx-genius-loves-company/.
Dating coach Rachel Greenwald: The opening dialogue is a reconstructed paraphrase based on Rachel Greenwald’s account in Why He Didn’t Call You Back: 1,000 Guys Reveal What They Really Thought About You After Your Date (Crown, 2009), 10–12.
93 percent of people think they’re above-average drivers: In this study’s U.S. sample, 93 percent of respondents rated themselves as more skillful than the median driver. Ola Svenson, “Are We All Less Risky and More Skillful Than Our Fellow Drivers?,” Acta Psychologica 47, no. 2 (1981): 143–48, https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(81)90005-6.
Homeowners were nearly five times more likely to: Julie Goodhew et al., “Making Heat Visible: Promoting Energy Conservation Behaviors Through Thermal Imaging,” Environment and Behavior 47, no. 10 (2014): 1059–88, https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916514546218.
when spending is tracked and made visible: Marcel F. Lukas and Ray Charles “Chuck” Howard, “The Influence of Budgets on Consumer Spending,” Journal of Consumer Research 49, no. 5 (2023): 697–720, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac024.
Stanford-led review of twenty-six pedometer studies: Dena M. Bravata et al., “Using Pedometers to Increase Physical Activity and Improve Health: A Systematic Review,” JAMA 298, no. 19 (2007): 2296–304, https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.298.19.2296.
they run an after-action review: “FM 7-0: Training,” Headquarters, Department of the Army (2021), K-1, https://www.first.army.mil/Portals/102/FM%207-0.pdf.
upload profile pictures and get anonymous feedback: “New Research Study Breaks Down ‘The Perfect Profile Photo,’” Profiled (blog), Photofeeler, January 9, 2023, https://blog.photofeeler.com/perfect-photo/.
car wash loyalty card: Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Drèze, “The Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort,” Journal of Consumer Research 32, no. 4 (2006): 504–12, https://doi.org/10.1086/500480.
“Not everything that counts can be counted”: This quote is widely misattributed to Albert Einstein, but evidence points to sociologist William Bruce Cameron as the originator; see “Quote Origin: Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts, and Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted,” Quote Investigator, May 26, 2010, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/26/everything-counts-einstein/.
“10% of people will find a way to take anything personally”: Ferriss, Tools of Titans, 534.
Praise in public. Criticize in private: This is a widely recognized leadership principle commonly attributed to Vince Lombardi. See Lin Grensing-Pophal, “Praise in Public; Criticize in Private,” HR Daily Advisor, November 13, 2020, https://hrdailyadvisor.hci.org/2020/11/13/praise-in-public-criticize-in-private/. For a modern discussion, see Kim Scott, “Why Praising in Public and Criticizing in Private Is Key to Giving Feedback,” Radical Candor (blog), April 4, 2022, https://www.radicalcandor.com/blog/public-praise-private-criticism/.
nineteen words can unlock someone’s potential: Adam Grant, “Adam Grant’s #1 Phrase to Unlock Potential,” The Big Think Interview, October 24, 2023, https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/failure-adam-grant/.
I first heard about Life Dinner: Brad Feld, “Life Dinner,” Feld Thoughts (blog), March 7, 2008, https://feld.com/archives/2008/03/life-dinner/.
“it takes all the running you can do”: Hat tip to Shane Parrish at Farnam Street for introducing me to the Red Queen Effect, which inspired the opening of this chapter. His article applies the idea to the need to evolve to stay relevant in business, whereas I use it to highlight the importance of stepping off the treadmill to make sure you’re headed in the right direction in the first place. Shane Parrish, “The Red Queen Effect: Avoid Running Faster to Stay in the Same Place,” FS (blog), accessed January 28, 2026, https://fs.blog/the-red-queen-effect/; and Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871; Project Gutenberg, 2008), chap. 2, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12.
anticipatory anxiety: Charlotte Huff, “Understanding Anticipatory Anxiety During Key Life Transitions,” Monitor on Psychology 56, no. 4 (2025), https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/06/anticipatory-anxiety.
reflection improved performance by 23 percent: In a field experiment at Wipro, a tech-support call center in Bangalore, India, newly hired customer-service agents in training were randomly assigned either to keep working or to spend the final fifteen minutes of each training day (days 6–16) writing and reflecting on what they had learned. Over roughly a month of training, agents who reflected scored about 23 percent higher on a final training test than those who spent that time working instead, even though the control group had fifteen more minutes of “real work” each day. Giada Di Stefano et al., “Learning by Thinking: How Reflections Can Spur Progress Along the Learning Curve,” Harvard Business School Working Paper 14-093 (2014), https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2414478.
The 1-in-60 Rule: I first encountered this metaphor in Clear, Atomic Habits, 17, which helped popularize it for personal change. For the underlying flight-navigation principle that being one degree off course leads to about one mile of lateral error after sixty miles of flight, see UK Ministry of Defence, “AP3456—The Central Flying School (CFS) Manual of Flying,” vol. 13, “Maths & Physics,” chap. 4, “Flight Navigation,” accessed February 11, 2026, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e18bd31ed915d3b06f2b7b4/Volume_13_Maths_and_Physics.pdf.
I call it the Drift: I first came across the concept of drifting in Gretchen Rubin’s work, where she uses the term to describe the failure to make deliberate choices. See Gretchen Rubin, “Are You Experiencing the Happiness Challenge of ‘Drifting’?,” GretchenRubin.com, July 6, 2021, https://gretchenrubin.com/articles/are-you-experiencing-the-happiness-challenge-of-drifting/. I use the term here in a related but distinct sense to describe the gradual erosion that occurs when systems are not actively maintained.
“Once a week, do a thorough review”: David Allen, Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life (Viking, 2003), chap. 41, “Too Controlled Is Out of Control,” Kindle.
Researchers call it the S-curve: For an application of this pattern to individual learning and careers, see Whitney Johnson, “Manage Your Organization as a Portfolio of Learning Curves,” Harvard Business Review, January–February 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/01/manage-your-organization-as-a-portfolio-of-learning-curves. A related S-shaped pattern appears in innovation research, where Everett M. Rogers showed that the adoption of new ideas and technologies in a population tends to follow an S-curve over time; see Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed. (Free Press, 2003), 23.
jump to the next S-curve: Paul Nunes and Tim Breene, Jumping the S-Curve: How to Beat the Growth Cycle, Get on Top, and Stay There (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).
the theory of constraints: Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, 3rd ed. (North River Press, 2004), 94–102, 113–19.
Three months is long enough to make real progress: The idea of treating roughly twelve weeks (about ninety days) as a self-contained “year” to drive focus and execution is developed in Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months (Wiley, 2013).
periodize with cycles of intense training followed by recovery: Tudor O. Bompa and Carlo Buzzichelli, Periodization of Strength Training for Sports, 3rd ed. (Human Kinetics, 2015).
improve faster and avoid stagnation: Tyler D. Williams et al., “Comparison of Periodized and Non-Periodized Resistance Training on Maximal Strength: A Meta-Analysis,” Sports Medicine 47, no. 10 (2017): 2083–100, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0734-y.
Japan’s 80 percent rule: Buettner, The Blue Zones Secrets for Living, chap. 7, “The Power of 9,” Kindle.
“Wake up. Hit snooze four times”: Dan Koe (@thedankoe), “Wake up. Hit snooze 4 times. Stare at your phone. Roll out of bed. Make coffee. Sit in traffic. 8 hours of unfulfilling work….” Instagram, March 2, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/CpSm4JfrxLL/.
adding plants to a workspace: Marlon Nieuwenhuis et al., “The Relative Benefits of Green Versus Lean Office Space: Three Field Experiments,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 20, no. 3 (2014): 199–214, https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000024.
When millions of people struggle: Management theorist Peter Senge makes a similar argument that many persistent organizational problems are systemic rather than the fault of individuals and that “structure influences behavior.” Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (Crown Currency, 1990), 65.
Jerry Colonna poses the hardest-hitting question: Jerry Colonna, Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up (HarperBusiness, 2019), 30.
Be hard on the problem and soft on the person: This line is adapted from the quote “Be hard on the problem, soft on the people” in Roger Fisher and William Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Houghton Mifflin, 1981), chap. 3, “Focus on Interests, Not Positions,” Kindle.
“Unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments”: Variations of this saying have circulated for decades within Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step recovery communities, most commonly as “Expectations are premeditated resentments.” Neil Strauss helped popularize the “unspoken expectations” formulation in The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships (Dey Street, 2015), 254, where he attributes the phrase to his therapist, Lorraine.
each additional negative word increases clicks: Claire E. Robertson et al., “Negativity Drives Online News Consumption,” Nature Human Behaviour 7, no. 5 (2023): 812–22; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01538-4.
Don’t prove that something isn’t bad for you: For a version of this idea applied to systemic, potentially ruinous risks, see Nassim Nicholas Taleb et al., “The Precautionary Principle (with Application to the Genetic Modification of Organisms),” working paper, New York University Extreme Risk Initiative, September 4, 2014, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1410.5787.
before he died, he discovered one more level: In his later work, Maslow described self-transcendence as a motivational level beyond self-actualization. Abraham H. Maslow, “The Farther Reaches of Human Nature,” Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 1, no. 1 (1969): 1–9, https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1970-17664-001; and Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, “Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification,” Review of General Psychology 10, no. 4 (2006): 302–17, https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.10.4.302.
“expand the boundary of caring”: Meadows, Thinking in Systems, 195.
Stephen King writes two thousand words every day: Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Scribner, 2000), 154.
“I write only when inspiration strikes”: This quote is widely attributed to W. Somerset Maugham, though quote researchers note that similar versions have also been credited to William Faulkner and Peter De Vries and that the original source is uncertain. See James Charlton, ed., The Writer’s Quotation Book: A Literary Companion (Pushcart Press, 1991), which attributes the remark to Maugham.
James Clear has an assistant change his social media passwords: James Clear, “How to Automate a Habit and Never Think About It Again,” JamesClear.com, https://jamesclear.com/how-to-automate-a-habit; see also his book Atomic Habits, 175.
“shitty first draft”: Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Vintage, 1995), 20.
the same technique World War II fighter pilots: This protocol was developed for military pilots to improve sleep and performance under stress, later referred to as the “military sleep method,” as described in Bud Winter, Relax and Win: Championship Performance in Whatever You Do (A.S. Barnes & Company, 1981), 24–38.
UCLA study on household clutter: Darby E. Saxbe and Rena Repetti, “No Place Like Home: Home Tours Correlate with Daily Patterns of Mood and Cortisol,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36, no. 1 (2009): 71–81, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209352864.
“I’m trying to pare down decisions”: Michael Lewis, “Barack Obama to Michael Lewis on a Presidential Loss of Freedom: ‘You Don’t Get Used to It—At Least, I Don’t,’” Vanity Fair, September 5, 2012, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2012/09/barack-obama-michael-lewis.
3-Minute Celebration Blitz: Fogg, Tiny Habits, 155.
the average office worker checks email: Gloria Mark, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity (Hanover Square Press, 2023), 15, 120.
3-21-0 Method: Kevin Kruse, “How Millionaires Manage Their Email,” Forbes, October 17, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2015/10/17/how-millionaires-manage-their-email/.