Mental Pivot #58: Year’s Best
The best learning articles of 2022 (as determined by you, the readers) and a smattering of year-end book lists.
A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon, and by moonlight.
—Robertson Davies (Canadian novelist and playwright)
As the year comes to a close, I wanted to highlight some of the most popular articles recommended in the newsletter from the past year.
There were 40 issues of the Mental Pivot Newsletter in 2021, not including this week, and each issue had a clear “fan favorite” (based on stats provided by Substack for clickthroughs). Invariably, the favorite items, week in and week out, were articles focused on personal productivity, decision-making, learning, and self-improvement. That in itself is telling of what resonates most with the Mental Pivot audience.
What follows is a shortlist of 10 items I selected from those 40 issues. I’ve gone back to revisit them, and they’re well worth repeat readings. If you missed any the first time around, here’s your chance to check out these reader favorites.
📰 10 Powerful Life Skills for the Decade (Issue #18)
Neil Kakkar considers useful but generalized skills and thinking strategies like systems thinking, specificity, story-telling, efficient sequencing, and more.
📰 Do Less and Do It Better (Issue #22)
DJ Adam’s short piece about consolidating and improving on the skills you already have in a mindful and deliberate fashion.
📰 Don’t End the Week with Nothing (Issue #29)
Entrepreneur Patrick McKenzie offers practical advice on how to build personal capital (e.g., skill-based “human capital,” social capital, and reputational capital) whether you’re your own boss or a salaried employee working for someone else.
📰 The Best Note-Taking Method Is the One You Have with You (Issue #34)
Lorenzo Gravina eschews complexity for simplicity and immediacy: "If in your method of choice there is anything creating friction between you and this basic act, then I strongly recommend you try reducing it and seeing what happens."
📰 Writing Tools I Learned from the Economist (Issue #31)
Ahmed Soliman examines the compact and direct prose of The Economist. This is an exercise I’ve been wanting to do for some time.
📰 The Key to Find Time for Learning (Issue #37)
Scott Young offers practical strategies for fitting learning into your busy schedule. Strategies include: single-tasking, reducing friction, and eliminating distractions.
📰 How to Remember What You Read (Issue #42)
A solid overview by Shane Parish (Farnam Street Blog). There's nothing earth-shattering here, just a host of practical ideas for getting the most out of your reading.
📰 Follow Boring Advice (Issue #45)
Vitaly Pushkar lists 8 “boring” but powerful behaviors in this short piece. Mastering any one of these will take you to the next level.
📰 How to Think Like a Detective (Issue #50)
Norwegian detective Ivar Fahsing gives readers a crash course in improved decision-making. A sampling of the many concepts he explores: WYSIATI errors (“What you see is all there is”), the importance of abductive reasoning, The ABC principle (Assume nothing, Believe nothing, Challenge and check everything), exhausting all possibilities (no matter how improbable), systematic process of elimination, the “6-Cs approach”, and more.
📰 How Learning Works: Components, Systems, and Loops (Issue #53)
Roman Kudryashov explains key concepts related to learn in an especially clear and logical fashion. Among the components he defines as part of a greater system of learning: knowledge, experience, skill, performance, coaching, mentoring, and feedback. It’s an exercise in foundational principles.
This is the final edition of the newsletter for 2021. The newsletter will resume in 2022 (the regular format will also be back!).
If I don’t hear from you again in 2021, I want to wish all of you a happy new year!
Odds & Ends: Best Books of 2021 Edition
Bloomberg’s Best Business Books of 2021: Bloomberg asked CEOs and business executives what their favorite reads of 2021 were and posted this list of the 49 “most fascinating” titles of the year.
Five Books Best Books of the Year: Five Books is a site that asks notable experts to curate a quintet of book recommendations in their field. Among the curated collections for 2021: the best philosophy books, the best business books, and the best biographies.
Goodreads Reader’s Choice Awards 2021: Yes, it’s something of a popularity contest, but there’s still a great range of books represented in both the winners and nominee/finalist listings. The site also provides annual award results going back a decade.
NPR’s Books We Love 2021 Edition: NPR curates this list of hundreds of books that can be filtered and browsed by genre (e.g., food, history, mysteries, etc.).
Polygon’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021: “From sweeping space operas to deadly magical schools”—two of my favorite fiction genres.
Tim Harford’s Books of the Year: The author of The Undercover Economist delivers a list that overlaps with many of the topics covered by the Mental Pivot Newsletter.
Cross-Promotions:
Explosive Thinking: Sam Harris (the British entrepreneur, not the American neuroscientist) shares a thoughtful essay each week on the small but profound ideas that we overlook (e.g., bundling and unbundling).
The Sample: A newsletter discovery tool. Based on your interests and feedback, The Sample sends a new newsletter recommendation to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.
The Veggie Digest: A weekly newsletter about the latest trends in sustainable food innovation. My daughter, an environmental policy student, writes it and I periodically contribute to it.
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The best newsletter, masterpiece I love. Greetings from Poland