293 cousins, 1 island

happy monday tuesday!

a quick update to the 0 of you who asked: my next video is just a few edits + missing shots away from being uploaded. i think it’s my best one yet, so i can’t wait to see the finished product.

anyways, here’s what you came for!

a good idea

with this newsletter + my videos, i’ve found the closest thing to what i imagine a ‘dream job’ is. and yet, i still struggle to get started sometimes.

so why is it hard to do the one thing my head and heart are both telling me to do?

my best answer: it’s supposed to be hard.

because the work isn’t the thing i’m creating; i’m being created by the work.

you can prove that point simply by asking, which doctor would you rather have do surgery on you: one who got better grades in med school but never did the surgery before, or one who did the surgery successfully 100x?

the proof is in the pudding.

but nobody ever made pudding without getting in the damn kitchen!

i’m sure you’ve heard the expression, ‘quality over quantity.’ there was an interesting study done a while ago that challenged that idea beautifully.

basically, they took 2 identical groups of people who had never tried pottery. the first group was asked to focus on making a single perfect pot (quality), and the second group was told to make as many pots as possible (quantity).

as you might expect, the quantity group made way more pots. but by the end of the study, they were also making higher-quality pots than the other group, too.

why?

simply put, they were shaped by the act of creating. with each pot, they improved without even realizing it. quantity makes quality.

so yes, i’m definitely focused on the sheer quantity of things i produce. that’s why i’ve committed to these weekly newsletters and i’m working towards uploading a new video every week.

but with that being said, the first time i heard about that pot study, i think i missed the point. with all the focus on the quality of the pots being made, that’s what i started paying attention to.

but the truth is, it was never really about the pots.

it was about the people making them.

the work isn’t the thing you’re creating; you’re being created by the work.

some things i learned

1. the shipwrecked island where everyone is related
   there’s an island in the middle of nowhere, called Tristan de Cunha, that has 293 inhabitants who all descend from the same shipwrecked ancestors. take a look to see if you can find the tiny cluster of houses where they all live:

   

2. you can get an idea of how useful a treatment is with one simple number
   there’s a stat called ‘number needed to treat (NNT)’ that measures how many people need to take a certain treatment to prevent 1 bad outcome. for example, aspirin’s NNT for preventing heart attacks is 333, meaning that 333 people have to take it for 1 to be 'saved.

cool things i found

1. looking for good books to read?
   this website gives you book recommendations from celebrities + experts, based on any publicly available data where they mentioned them.

2. a gut-punch reminder of how short your life is: 4000 weeks
   this super simple website lets you create a visual representation of your life, with each week shown as a little box. i’d highly recommend bookmarking it and checking it out when you feel the urge to doomscroll on socials.

3. i’ve been getting into to house music for the first time
   this jazz house mix on youtube is a vibe, so i recreated it as an apple music playlist to listen ad-free

bonus: a question i really like

thanks again for tuning in.

i really am trying to be more consistent with this, so i appreciate your patience and all the nice messages you’re sending me. i won’t forget (:

~ liam

P.S. here’s me + Deeks chillin

(: