Newsletter

2026

Jan 11 | SIX at 6: Situational Vs. Existential Problems, The Hole Inside, The Luxury Of Unhappiness, Missing Out, Cutting Daisies, and Lasting Happiness

Jan 4 | SIX at 6: The Law of the Universe, The Kahnweiler Technique, The Picasso Technique, Dopey Ideas, Hanging in The Laboratory, and A Motto

2025

Dec 28 | SIX at 6: Losing Every Other Point, Crappy Rejected Ideas, Catching A Wave, Not Lingering Over A Setback, Handling The Terror, and Bumbling And Failing

Dec 21 | SIX at 6: The Ordeal of Change, The Amount Of Enthusiasm, Doing It When You Don’t Want To, The Parts That Aren’t Fun, The Psychic Wall, and The Only Lasting Fuel

Dec 14 | SIX at 6: A Dividing Line Between Success And Failure, Staring At A Word, The Creating Brain, A Productivity Trick, A Night of Pure Boredom, and Periods of Nondoing

Dec 7 | SIX at 6: Ruining Breakfast But Not Lunch, Showering Off A Bad Day, Pulling Yourself Back Up, The Next Note, The Next Play, and A Prescription For Misery

Nov 30 | SIX at 6: The Common Denominator, Tricking Yourself, Turning Every Page, From The Neck-Down, Madame Butterfly, and The Big Secret

Nov 23 | SIX at 6: Mirrored Reciprocation, Nichols’ Turning Point, Nooyi’s Mentors, Huang’s Past, Honnold’s Brain, and The Fruits of Action

Nov 16 | SIX at 6: The Taste Gap, Closing The Gap, A Proud Failure, Staying On The F*cking Bus, The Frontier Of Uncertainty, and Being Bad

Nov 9 | SIX at 6: Resulting, An Inconsequential Ripoff, 99.9% Of The Time, The Bullseye, The Process Of Unmaking, and The Ashes of Life

Nov 2 | SIX at 6: Fields of Uncertainty, An Anti-Pep Pep Talk, 98.5% of Jokes, The Delusion Of Perfection, “That Won’t Work,” and The Greatest Disease The Mind Faces

Oct 26 | SIX at 6: Surfing Through Life, Fighting The Future, The Lost Generation, Agassi’s Hairpiece, What Everyone Else Is Doing, and Getting Lucky With The Weather

Oct 19 | SIX at 6: Start Close In, The Cab Ritual, Sounding Like Bruce, A Bird, A Brick, and Driving At Night

Oct 12 | SIX at 6: How He Does It, The First Rule of Compounding, Planting Seeds, Getting Back To Work, Tied Down, and The Marshmallows

Oct 5 | SIX at 6: Adopting Prejudices, An Inherited Enclosure, A Waste of Time, A Convenient Assumption, A Unique Style, and Folklore

Sep 28 | SIX at 6: Epiphenomena, Working With Enthusiasm, The Real Project, Man’s Search For Success, Where Confidence Comes From, and How Emotions Are Made

Sep 21 | SIX at 6: Relative Evaluations, Relative Deprivation, A Dreaded Question, A Ridiculous Comparison, What Everyone Starts With, and The Comparison Effect

Sep 14 | SIX at 6: Necessary Selfishness, An Invented Myth, A Negligent Emailer, A Common Mistake, A Missed Birthday Party, and A Gigantic Aspect of Survival

Sep 7 | SIX at 6: On Account of Relationships, King’s Muse, Sondheim’s Laugh, Lewis’s Eagerness, Guinzburg’s Belief, and Adam’s Lonely Paradise

Aug 31 | SIX at 6: Swing Your Swing, The Incorrect Way You Like, Some Essential “Me-Ness,” Not Ticking Every Box, “Alaska,” and A Special Quality Everyone Possesses

Aug 24 | SIX at 6: The Follow-Up, Staying With It, A Striking Lack of Talent, A Certain Kind of Personality, A Proud Failure, and The Second Effort

Aug 17 | SIX at 6: The Deceptive Nature of Things, An Unusual Asset, What You Don’t See, What’s Impossible To Know, The Things That Change Your Life, and Nonchoosing

Aug 10 | SIX at 6: Being Great Wherever You Are, Acing It Just For Fun, Acting Like A Singer, The Final No, The Frog Float, and What Chris Rock Always Tells People

Aug 3 | SIX at 6: The Reality of What Appears Magical, Solving The Problem Too Fast, How Dylan’s Songs Got Here, Glacial Processes, Whispering, and The Big Secret

Jul 27 | SIX at 6: The Third Chair, A Year of 365 Contributions, The Idea Of Unrealized Dreams, Cancelling Everything, The Curie’s Pact, and The Fruit Of Preliminary Work

Jul 20 | SIX at 6: Some Of God’s Best Work, Making Your Own Turn, The Roy Kent Part, What’s Missing, An Abnormal Brain, and F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jul 13 | SIX at 6: A Qualitative Phenomenon, Madame Butterfly, Focusing On The Wrong Things, Training Differently, Seeing Beyond The Numbers, and The Secret Of Everyone Who Has Ever Excelled

Jul 6 | SIX at 6: Unpacking, The Coffee Beans Procedure, Making Vs. Collecting, A Writing Profession, A Big Imagination, and The Real Life Of Appearances

Jun 29 | SIX at 6: Forms of Capital, Making Tea, A Missed Guess, A Cinderella Story, What Fortune Favors, and A Currency Like Gold

Jun 22 | SIX at 6: The Intellectual Dodge, BLOGDOC, From The Neck-Down, “In There,” A Game Of Tonnage, and Deceiving Yourself

Jun 15 | SIX at 6: An Unquenchable Unfolding, Making Contact With Reality, Jumping Over Your Shadow, Sailing To The Horizon, On The Frontier, and The Inevitable Fruit

Jun 8 | SIX at 6: All We Know About Anybody, The Follow-Up, The Best Defense, The Elephant, A Good Past, and A Grand Unified Theory

Jun 1 | SIX at 6: A Reign of Error, Good And Bad Air, Second Opinions, Running Out Of Luck, Phoebe Buffay, and The Effect Of Your Narrative

May 25 | SIX at 6: Step-Down Moves, Local Maximums, An Epic Losing Streak, A Trifling Genre, A Way To Prevail, and Turning Back

May 18 | SIX at 6: Supportive Resistance, Immovable Deadlines, The Catastrophe of Success, The Mother of The Ollie, Picking A Date, and Spinning Off The Planet

May 11 | SIX at 6: Above And Beyond The Human Condition, Eating Bad Fish, Fish In Water, The Nature of Every Profession, A Week Off, and Asking The Impossible

May 4 | SIX at 6: The Burden of Passively-Chosen Thoughts, Agents of Construction, Instinctual Behaviors, Internalized Voices, Forgetting To Panic, and A Note on “Camp”

Apr 27 | SIX at 6: Gains From Losses (And Vice Versa), The Hurt Locker, Wait For It, The Pleasure-Pain Balance, The Secret Wisdom of Trees, and Compensation

Apr 20 | SIX at 6: The Tyranny Of The First Try, The Passion Fallacy, The Period Of Not Being Good, Robert Greene’s Twists And Turns, The Grapes of Wrath, and A Bagatelle

Apr 13 | SIX at 6: Circumstances, Making It Undeniable, A Tragic Immobility, What’s Missing, A Detest Fest, and Traffic

Apr 6 | SIX at 6: The Art of Not Taking An Interest, The Mother Of All Questions, The Daily Confusion, The Feeling, The Freak, and Being Perceived As Foolish 

Mar 30 | SIX at 6: A Certain Personality, A Tragic Mistake, Taxi Drivers, Harvesting An Identity, The Rock Tumbler Metaphor, and The Stamp of Nature

Mar 23 | SIX at 6: So What, The Greatest To Never Win, The Science of Choking, Mental Jiu-Jitsu, Bad Poetry, and Who Cares?

Mar 16 | SIX at 6: Law #23, A Classic Error, A 50 Percent Athlete, A 5-Minute Interruption, Three Bonfires, and The Art of War

Mar 9 | SIX at 6: The Next Note, A Bad Take, A Low Moment, After Something Bad Happens, Banana Pancakes, and Raw Material 

Mar 2 | SIX at 6: What You’re Made For, John Lennon’s Tea, The Mundanity of Excellence, A Seminal Event, The Common Denominator, and Bob Knight’s Advice

Feb 23 | SIX at 6: The Central Question, The Valley of Death, A Come To Jesus Moment, Wasting Your Time, People Looking Past You, and Madame Curie

Feb 16 | SIX at 6: No Grand Plan, Insect Spray, A Hollywood Education, An Exercise In Suspense, The Microsoft Sound, and The Fittest

Feb 9 | SIX at 6: The Three Orientations, The Hardest Phase, The Practice Room, A Low Dread, A Little Drop, And A Game Of Tonnage

Feb 2 | SIX at 6: Staying Power, The Great Wave, The Carpenter, A Long-Term View, The Bus, and The Secret

Jan 26 | SIX at 6: A Radical Model of Transformation, A Desperate Movement, Inside Out, Wayne Gretzky, Virgil Carter, And Anatomy

Jan 19 | SIX at 6: Peer Norms, Puppetry, Hurt Village, Steve-O’s Rant, The Artists’ Colony, And Lewin’s Equation

Jan 12 | SIX at 6: The Wrong Measures, A Fundamental Trait, Getting The Bone, Following Up Success, Playing Like The Kid, And Not Burning Out

Jan 5 | SIX at 6: The Inverted-U, Killing Pleasure, The Goldilocks Zone, Too Much Cake, Immigrants To Wealth, and Enough

2024

Dec 29 | SIX at 6: The Joe DiMaggio Principle, A False Assessment, On Self-Respect, A Cinderella Story, The Most Drafts, and The Richard Pryor Illusion

Dec 22 | SIX at 6: Stretch, Find Out, Push The Limits, Bomb, Expand, and Move Toward Higher Levels

Dec 15 | SIX at 6: The Last War, The Gates, The Same Thing, Primal Fear, Winning Ugly, and The Lost Generation

Dec 8 | SIX at 6: Sentiment Override, Identity Paralysis, Flash Gordon, Talking Heads, Christopher Nolan’s Philosophy, and Setbacks

Dec 1 | SIX at 6: The Briefcase Syndrome, All There Is, Starting The Car, The Sound of Silence, What You Can Control, and What To Say To Frustrations

Nov 24 | SIX at 6: TIMSS, No Sign of Talent, The Driver’s Seat, The Sharkiest Waters, Simple Math, and Blaming Everybody Else

Nov 17 | SIX at 6: The Catastrophe of Success, The Great Curse, Getting Sorkinized, The Un-fun Parts, How To Not Rot, and The Human Condition

Nov 10 | SIX at 6: The Psychological Bog, Sailing To The Horizon, A Dynamic of Conditionality, A Groundless Fear, A Trip To Pluto, and Getting A Grip

Nov 3 | SIX at 6: The Vividness Bias, Lacking The Look, Perceived Labor, Wasted Effort, Visible Success, and The Invisible Work

Oct 27 | SIX at 6: Stopping Evolution, A Double Satisfaction, Alaska, A World of 3 1/4 seconds, A Pattern of Consistency, and Variance

Oct 20 | SIX at 6: The Luxury of Unhappiness, The Neck-Down, The Neck-Up, The Little Scared Kid, Dream Achievement, and Horace

Oct 13 | SIX at 6: Top-Level Grit, Suffering Strategically Managed, The “Things I Like To Do” Hierarchy, The People Ahead of You, Jewel, and When To Push Back

Oct 6 | SIX at 6: How To Be Accident-Prone, The “Genius”, The Cootie Department, The Swoosh, Nvidia, and The Byproducts of Something Special

Sep 29 | SIX at 6: Forms of Freedom, Making Less, Giving Permission, Seeing What Happens, Being Consistent, and Deep Affection

Sep 22 | SIX at 6: Relative Value, Megalopolis, Robin Williams, Advice Nobody Ever Takes, 25, and The Fisherman And The Businessman

Sep 15 | SIX at 6: The Twelve Labors, The Pains of Relentless Repetition, Infinite Options, A Game of Tonnage, The Next Thing, and The Blessing Of Labor

Sep 8 | SIX at 6: The Barrier of Convention, Why Not?, The Subtle Arts of Murder and Persuasion, Poisoned By Familiarity, Def Jam, and Making Your Conventions

Sep 1 | SIX at 6: Duration Neglect, Astronaut’s On Earth, Getting To Boring, The 0.000017%, The Process of Unmaking, and The Ashes of Experience

Aug 25 | SIX at 6: Attitude, The Stockdale Paradox, Good Luck? Bad Luck?, What You Don’t See, Christopher Nolan, and The End of the Story

Aug 18 | SIX at 6: Lay Theories, Friends, Frog Floats, What You’re Doing, Where The Mind Goes, and Crafting Your Narrative

Aug 11 | SIX at 6: Hyper-Intention, Oil!, Didn’t Mean It, A New Planet, Accidents, A Not-That-Funny Comedian

Aug 4 | SIX at 6: The Focusing Illusion, Bricklaying, Man In The Car, Expensive Purchase, William James, and The Legend That Encrusts Things

Jul 28 | SIX at 6: The Law of Reverse Effort, Mozart, The Godfather, The 1000, Chris Rock, and The Art of War

Jul 21 | SIX at 6: Assembling Firewood, Periods of Frustration, A Failure and A Loser, Shadow Careers, René Redzepi, and What All Persons Must Think

Jul 14 | SIX at 6: Aren’t You Afraid?, Vampire Weekend, Who Cares?, Like A Rolling Stone, House Money, and Hemingway

Jul 7 | SIX at 6: Get Off The Stage, The Audience, A Good Window, A Party Trick, A Show Business Story, and The Last Supper

Jun 30 | SIX at 6: Every Day, A Natural State, Harry Belafonte, Everybody Knows This, The Nature of Love, And The First Time

Jun 23 | SIX at 6: The Frozen Seas Inside, The Iceberg, A Divining Rod, Finding Your Discipline, A Complex Dance, and The Trip Inside

Jun 16 | SIX at 6: How?, A Gigantic Key To Survival, Don’t Tell Anyone, Keep Your Word, Rodney Mullen, and The Fire

Jun 9 | SIX at 6: The Opposite Is True, Man’s Search For Success, 99 Problems, Rest, What Not To Do, and The Little-Known Equations

Jun 2 | SIX at 6: Notes on “Taste,” What’s Hidden In Plain Sight, Pure Boredom, A Thick Accent, The Tide, and This Is Water

May 26 | SIX at 6: How To Conform, Get Trapped, Not Make It, Bother A French Guy, Be True To Your Interests, and Make a Life

May 19 | SIX at 6: Diverting a Meteor, One Caveat, The Last Place on Earth, Losing 140 Pounds, Career Trajectories, and Sailing To The Horizon

May 12 | SIX at 6: The Clothesline, Tom Brady, A Minefield, Attitude, The Lesson of ARPA, and True Character

May 5 | SIX at 6: The Boiler Room, 20 Years of Not Writing, Nightmares of Failure, Expectations of Success, Chair Upholstery, and The Delusion of Perfection

Apr 28 | SIX at 6: Pacific Salmon, A Heartbreaking Thought, The .01%, The Pinnacle, The Nobel Prize, and The Work Itself

Apr 21 | SIX at 6: Humanity Over Talent, A Good Past, Madison Ave, Spike Lee, Secret Knowledge, and An Old Greek Saying

Apr 14 | SIX at 6: The Correct Way, Avatar, Animal, A Fundamental Idea, People Who Are INTO It, and The Book

Apr 7 | SIX at 6: The Seemingly Frivolous, Reading A Tongue, Experiencing A Spoon, Authenticating Paintings, The Systematic Choices, and Great Revelations

Mar 31 | SIX at 6: The Same Speed, The Pain-Pleasure Balance, The Tide, Chris Sacca, The Secret Wisdom of Nature, and The Half Life Theory

Mar 24 | SIX at 6: George Carlin, Whispering, A Gentleman In Moscow, The Golconda, The Reality of So-Called Inspirations, and The Tedious Work

Mar 17 | SIX at 6: The Resistance, Eating Bad Fish, El Cap, A Designer With No Promise, A Cure For Resistance, and A Reverse Indicator

Mar 10 | SIX at 6: Fill Up To Pour Out, Bob Dylan, A Second and 34 Years, Saving Nike, Breaking A Barrier, and Strummer’s Law

Mar 3 | SIX at 6: Be What You Is, Maggie Rogers, The Source of Power, Your Distinctiveness, Your Style, and The “Forest Adventurous”

Feb 25 | SIX at 6: Pygmalion, David Beckham, Dor, American Recordings, Another Person’s Belief, and Santa Filomena

Feb 18 | SIX at 6: The Measure of Focus, A Double Satisfaction, A Gigantic Aspect of Survival, Greenlights, Wait For It, and The 23rd Law of Power

Feb 12 | SIX at 6: The Shadow, Andre Agassi’s Hairpiece, Finding Dwight, Quitting Chess, Getting Rid of Anxiety, and The Essence of Our Art

Feb 4 | SIX at 6: The Currency of Success, The Pixar Principle, James Cameron, A Sixth Sense, Thomas Edison, and Robert Greene

Jan 28 | SIX at 6: The Backwards Law, Game of Thrones, Adele, The 1988 Olympics, Novak Djokovic, and The Subtle Art

Jan 21 | SIX at 6: Confront, Anticipation, Hemingway’s Chart, Chair Upholstery, B.J. Novak, and Loitering

Jan 14 | SIX at 6: Prospection, A New Rule, The Pleasure-Pain Balance, Missing It, Wishing Away Time, and The Prospectiscope

Jan 7 | SIX at 6: The Power Broker in Your Life, Steven Spielberg, Dan Jansen, Cognitive Reframing, An Aggregate of Tendencies, and Crafting Your Narrative

2023

Dec 31 | SIX at 6: REST, The Sound of Silence, A Productivity Trick, The Tinef, The Initial Agitation, and Leonardo da Vinci

Dec 24 | SIX at 6: The Inklings, The Dream, Nowhereville, Free Fallin’, Dor, and An Extinguished Piece of Coal

Dec 17 | SIX at 6: Prestige, The Lord of the Rings, Austin Kleon, Bradley Cooper, Disneyland, and Motorcycle Maintenance

Dec 10 | SIX at 6: The Spokes of Success, That Thing You Do, Adele, Jay Wright, The WSJ Review, and The Whole Package

Dec 3 | SIX ay 6: Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention To, Aaron Sorkin, Jerry Seinfeld, Will Ferrell, Ton-goo-ey, and A Diving Rod

Nov 26 | SIX at 6: Swiss Cheese, In The Heights, Wylie Dufresne, STORY, Owning Your Style, and The Fallow Periods

Nov 19 | SIX at 6: Modified Emulation, Missing The Moon, Good Will Hunting, Studying Bobby Clarke, The Air Max, and The Work is the Win

Nov 12 | SIX at 6: Referred Pain, Space Man From Pluto, Shaun White, Ender’s Game, Beaver Hats, and Pinched Nerves

Nov 5 | SIX at 6: Talent Vs. Skill, Daily Terror, Greta Gerwig, Harrison Ford, Bob Dylan, and Negative Capability

Oct 29 | SIX at 6: Mental Fitness, A Great Writer, When Things Go Bad, The American Hotel, Rearranging Furniture, and Shaking Your Head

Oct 22 | SIX at 6: Getting Unstuck, Tom Brady, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mike Myers, Steve Martin, and Little Women

Oct 15 | SIX at 6: Environmental Priming, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, The Pixar Table, Twyla Tharp, and Patterns of Events

Oct 8 | SIX at 6: Anatomical Strengths & Weaknesses, David McCullough, Abraham Lincoln, Computer Animation, The West Coast Offense, and The Art Spirit

Oct 1 | SIX at 6: The Core of Cognition, Judgment, Creativity, Understanding A New Technology, Problem Solving, and The Brain

Sep 24 | SIX at 6: The Three Categories, The Philly Captain, A Fundamental Idea, Matt Damon, Hasan Minhaj, and The Win

Sep 17 | SIX at 6: Mundane Excellence, Comfortable Torture, A Dividing Line, The Reality of Creativity, Peanuts, and Paul Graham

Sep 10 | SIX at 6: Everyday Destiny, Forgetting To Panic, Mental Jiu-Jitsu, Puppetry, Second Opinions, and Crafting Your Narrative

Sep 3 | SIX at 6: Lead Measures, Tom Brady, Jerry Seinfeld, The Cat in the Hat, John Steinbeck, and A Currency Like Gold

Aug 27 | SIX at 6: The Fittest, Forrest Gump, Lionel Messi, Indiana Jones, Making The Gates, and Fitting To The Future

Aug 20 | SIX at 6: The Idea Gap, Hamilton, Toy Story, William James, Discovering The Possibilities, and The Worst Thing You Can Ever Say

Aug 13 | SIX at 6: Present Sensations, Dwyane Wade, Swimming Blind, Alex Honnold, Kitchen Confidential, and Generating Evidence

Aug 6 | SIX at 6: Homeostasis, The Nature of Love, Novak Djokovic, Alexi Pappas, Andy Weir, and The Two Impostors

Jul 30 | SIX at 6: Self-Assessment Biases, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks, An Insulting Lack of Confidence, Someone Else’s Belief, and A Good Word

Jul 23 | SIX at 6: Tree Growth, The Art of Patience, John Mayer, Sony, Sylvester Stallone, and D.N.F.L

Jul 16 | SIX at 6: A Minefield, Negative Capability, The Win, The Shoe Dog, The Dunce, and Saving Private Ryan

Jul 9 | SIX at 6: A Dramatic Need, Taking Candy, Acting, Ollying, Directing, and Getting Your Musts

Jul 2 | SIX at 6: Hip-Hop Clubs, The Movie Brats, Would You Laugh?, Bob Dylan, Avatar, and Paula Scher

Jun 25 | SIX at 6: Disciple of Experience and Wisdom, Lava Cake, James Cameron, The Hero, The Library, and The Real Thing

Jun 18 | SIX at 6: Ugly Babies, Jost and Che, How Bad Things Can Be, The Bus, De-Fucking The Script, and Randall Stutman

Jun 11 | SIX at 6: Runnin’ Down A Dream, Rocky, Oozing Toxicity, What’s Missing, Waiting For Permission, and Mike Myers

Jun 4 | SIX at 6: Where People Are, The Wrong Place, Where It Is, The Tape Recorder, The PLL, and Jay-Z

May 28 | SIX at 6: Universe Immersion, The Normal Behavior, Wonderful Puppetry, The Carpenter, The Great One, and A Grand Unified Theory

May 21 | SIX at 6: Match Quality, Anatomical Strengths, The Lesson of Buffett, Rick Rubin, Josh Waitzkin, and Jim Henson

May 14 | SIX at 6: Lagging Indicators, An Abnormal Brain, A Cinderella Story, A Second and 34 Years, Picasso, and Robert Greene

May 7 | SIX at 6: Isomorphism, Film Industry and Synergy, The Unified Theory of Deliciousness, 12 Notes, Playing Like Charlie, and An Advance in Knowledge

Apr 30 | SIX at 6: Autotelic, Hasan Minhaj, Rodney Mullen, Quentin Tarantino, Making It, and The Work is the Win

Apr 23 | SIX at 6: The Most Powerful Person, Aaron Sorkin, The Pixar Law, The Vogler Memo, The Two or Three Stories, and True Character

Apr 16 | SIX at 6: The Ultimate Skill, Visionaries, Why It Worked, The Rubik’s Cube, Pleasing Yourself, and Cutting The Bad Bits

Apr 9 | SIX at 6: Slalom Skiing, Fighting The Future, Dr. Seuss, Jimi Hendrix, Christopher Nolan, and Dressing For The Weather

Apr 2 | SIX at 6: Syncretism, Nirvana & Gap Band, Willy Wonka & Video Games, Saving Nike, Collecting More Dots, and Grazing in the Field of Culture

Mar 26 | SIX at 6: Sewage, The Mumble Track, Get Back, Ouija Boarding, The Down-Up Theory, and Throwing The First Pitch

Mar 19 | SIX at 6: Using Time As A Filter, The Beatles, Quick No Long Yes, The Chinese Farmer, Paula Scher, and Protection Against Wrongs

Mar 12 | SIX at 6: Harmony Hall, The Feedback Loop, The Education of John Adams, Fixing The Broncos, Chess Prodigies, and Getting Terrain F*cked

Mar 5 | SIX at 6: Art Eyes, The Benefit of Mr. Kite, The West Wing, Chop Suey!, Chopsticks, and Walking Past Ideas

Feb 26 | SIX at 6: Engaged Detachment, Kobe’s Airballs, Who Cares?, Low Stakes, Mike Nichols, and Nervous Breakdowns

Feb 19 | SIX at 6: Courtship Display, Dr. Seuss’ Empire, Casey Neistat’s Origin Story, Eli Witus, DRAM, and Becoming A Magnet For Opportunities

Feb 12 | SIX at 6: Golden Joinery, Bruce The Shark, Tap Dancing, Harry Truman, Mr. I, and The Seinfeld Question

Feb 5 | SIX at 6: The Secret Life of the Brain, R.E.S.T, The Unwatched Pot, The Can’t-Do-Anything Rule, Neil Gaiman, and A Dividing Line

Jan 29 | SIX at 6: Introjection, The Vulcan Mind Meld, The Beatles, The Great One, Joel Embiid, and Neil Gaiman

Jan 22 | SIX at 6: The Positive Manifold, The Silo Mindset, Pouring Concrete, The Sistine Chapel, The Neuroscience of Practice, and Joel Embiid’s G-Factor

Jan 15 | SIX at 6: Conceptual Ancestors, Seinfeld’s Shrine, A Thousand Faces, The Air Sole, A Wonderful Technique, and Combining Your Influences

Jan 8 | SIX at 6: Decomposition, Mammoth Tasks, Losing 140 Pounds, Steinbeck’s Stint, Bill Walsh, and Michael Jordan

Jan 1 | Six at 6: The Termites, The Artists’ Colony, Charlie Brown, Thomas Edison, The Unique Thing, and The Secret

2022

Dec 25 | SIX at 6: Blindness, Sleeping In Foxholes, Jackie Robinson, The Chronic, Walk This Way, and Big Wave Surfing

Dec 18 | SIX at 6: Attrition Warfare, Newton’s Peculiar Gift, Bus Stations, Steve Martin, The Dip, and Outliers

Dec 11 | SIX at 6: Darkness, Brain Breaks, Incubation, Unplugging, The Science of Downtime, and Making The Wagon Move

Dec 4 | SIX at 6: Gee-Whiz, The Brain, Raisins and Hydrogen Bombs, Leonardo da Vinci, Pencils, and The Capacity For Wonder

Nov 27 | SIX at 6: Pixar Movies Suck, Kobe Bryant, The Grapes of Wrath, Anti-Comedy, Starting With Shit, and Daring To Suck

Nov 20 | SIX at 6: Restriction, Aaron Burr, Narrowing Down, The Puppy Brain, Washing Machines, and The Most Miserable Humans

Nov 13 | SIX at 6: The Sweet Spot, Being The Freak, Henry Ford, Hamilton, The Red Thread, and Irrational Ideas

Nov 6 | SIX at 6: Medieval Swords, Matthew McConaughey, Mr. Beast, The Chicago Bulls, Neglecting Things, and Sending Reinforcements

Oct 30 | SIX at 6: Chemical Precipitation, David Foster Wallace, Walt Disney, Rick Rubin, Hasan Minhaj, and Ed Sheeran

Oct 23 | SIX at 6: Wildfires, Ice Ages, Drops in the Bucket, Compound Growth, The Nobel-Prize Effect, and The Art of War

Oct 16 | SIX at 6: Icebergs, In The Heights, Astronauts Not In Space, Miracle and Wonder, Being on the Bottom, and Fred Rogers

Oct 9 | SIX at 6: The Titchener Circles, Hurt Village, Stephen Sondheim’s Laugh, Tom Guinzburg’s Note, Lorne Michaels’ Audience, and Longfellow’s Poem

Oct 2 | SIX at 6: The Hierarchy of Attention, Reviewing The Tape, Authenticating Paintings, Mastery, The Paradox of Defects, and Seeing Through Illusions

Sep 25 | SIX at 6: 1 + 1 = 3, Pulp Fiction, Revolutionizing An Industry, Functional Decomposition, Functional Recomposition, and The History You Don’t Know

Sep 18 | SIX at 6: The Mere-Exposure Effect, B.J. Novak, Rules For Prolific Writing, Winning A Grammy, William James, and Learning Who We Are

Sep 11 | SIX at 6: The Gestaltists, Raw Material, Stand-Up Comedy, 50 Cent, 12 Notes, and Looking At The World

Sep 4 | SIX at 6: The Least Action, Leonardo da Vinci, Rigor and Relevance, Generating Ideas, Synthetic Startups, and Four-Minute Miles

Aug 28 | SIX at 6: If I Killed Someone, Disney’s Philosophy, Owning Your Style, Distinctiveness, Strange Tastes, and Your Signature

Aug 21 | SIX at 6: Products of Environment, Losing 250 Pounds, Rafael Nadal, Trying To Play Like Jerry, Habituating Postponing, and The Pygmalion Effect

Aug 14 | SIX at 6: Bad Advice Sounds Good, Expecting Nothing, Avoiding Prestige, Doing Tedious Work, Reading Slowly, and Piling Up Rejections

Aug 7 | SIX at 6: Career Vectors, Hasan Minhaj, Trajectory, The Top Idea In Your Mind, The Michelangelo Phenomenon, and Money’s Greatest Intrinsic Value

Jul 31 | SIX at 6: The Prohibition Theory, Gateway Habits, Morning Pages, Rearranging Furniture, Butter, and John Muir

Jul 24 | SIX at 6: Taking the Bullshit, A Kidnapping, Rule Breakers, Swans, Coaching Trees, and An Infinitely Repeatable Process

Jul 17 | SIX at 6: The Manifesto, Atomic Units, Reduce To Produce, Bushnell’s Law, Writing Simply, and The Guy Before Lincoln

Jul 10 | SIX at 6: Reciprocal Inhibition, Tip of the Tongue, Nostrils, Treating The Body Rigorously, Mitigating Strengths, and 99 Problems

Jul 3 | SIX at 6: Creative Incentives, Quantity vs. Quality, Aiming at Success, Moby Dick, Rodney Mullen, and Controlling The Effort

Jun 26 | SIX at 6: The Cunctator, A Mother’s Instinct, Fiddling With Fewer Nobs, A Break From Worrying, The Cubs, and Sloppy Meditation

Jun 19 | SIX at 6: Negative Capability, Lincoln’s Policy, Antifragility, Will Ferrell, Bets, and Maintaining Attitude

Jun 12 | SIX at 6: Revisiting, Einstein’s Talentlessness, Dumb Obsession, Wants Vs. Musts, Mindy Kaling, and Taking Pains

Jun 5 | SIX at 6: Getting Bored, No-Go Circuits, The Lion Vs. The Cow, The Most Dangerous Form of Procrastination, Moving Slower, and Stopping Points

May 29 | SIX at 6: Saying Sorry, Facts Becoming Truths, The Red Pill, Jack Harlow’s Branch, The Messy Middle, and John Steinbeck

May 22 | SIX at 6: The Rules, Consistency, The Personal Is Universal, Looking at the Parts, Myths, and the Four-Minute Mile

May 15 | SIX at 6: Butterflies, How To Be Exotic, Filling The Universe, Making An Inventory, Creative Maladjustment, and Seeing Everything as Fuel

May 8 | SIX at 6: What To Aim For, The Edge of the Frame, Sunk Costs, The Library In Your Head, Observing The Obvious, and David Mamet

May 1 | SIX at 6: The Highest Quality, The Great Excuse, The Center of Your Attention, Not Caring, Caring, and Playing Like Charlie Parker

Apr 24 | SIX at 6: The Reading Brain, DNA, The ‘90 Bulls, Chefs and Cooks, Striving For Perfection, and Reid Hoffman

Apr 17 | SIX at 6: Most Stories Wins, Efficient Labor, Not Following Passion, Macro-Contentedness, Floor Tiles, and Cracking Culture Codes

Apr 10 | SIX at 6: Steve Martin, Woodpeckers, The Helsinki Bus Station, The Third Peak, Andrew Carnegie, and The Value In Taking Away

Apr 3 | SIX at 6: Wayne Gretzky, Nirvana, Casey Neistat, A Paleolithic Theory of Procrastination, Going Deep, and Filling Work With Time

Mar 27 | SIX at 6: 3 Rules From Frank, Spending Energy, Napoleon’s Cupboard, Attention Residue, Ender’s Game, and Being Thought Stupid

Mar 20 | SIX at 6: Being Bad, Fly-Fishing, Deep Breathing Club, The Small Choices, Nonreligious Prayer, and Deadlines

Mar 13 | SIX at 6: Parallel Processing, Adapting to the Moon, Never Getting to Space, What Art Is, Tolerating Boredom, and Lorne Michaels

Mar 6 | SIX at 6: Word Economy, The Appetite For Action, Being Stuck, Churchill On Whistling, A Theory Borne Out By Sushi, and Re-Cognizing

Feb 27 | SIX at 6: The Happiest Person Anybody Knows, Bruce Springsteen, Second Opinions, Jerry Seinfeld, Swamps, and My Friend Buddha

Feb 20 | SIX at 6: How Emotions Are Made, Preventing Panic, Trusting The Preparation, The Miraculousness of the Pencil, Getting Past The Stranger, and A Theory of Intelligence

Feb 13 | SIX at 6: Getting to Boring, Asking the Right Questions, Creating A Sense of Awe, Note-taking, Tricking Your Brain, and Shaun White

Feb 6 | SIX at 6: Skin Thickness, Rick Rubin, Act Before You Think, Mouth Taping, Getting Lucky With The Weather, and Why It’s Better To Travel Than To Arrive

Jan 30 | SIX at 6: A Grand Unified Theory, Starting with Shit, Bruce Springsteen, The Common Denominator of Success, Seth Godin, and Passion

Jan 23 | SIX at 6: A Ghost Town Fire, The Theory of Deliciousness, Revering Great Art, This American Life, Controlling Your Thoughts, and Steph Curry

Jan 16 | SIX at 6: Wading Through Sewage, Week(s) Off, Sticking With The Banjo, Paul Simon, Vitamin C, and The Money Shot

Jan 9 | SIX at 6: What You Pay Attention To, Willful Will, Creativity, Ice Ages, Preparation, and Antonio Brown

Jan 2 | SIX at 6: Jerry Seinfeld, Leaving Work Behind, Dumb and Dumber, Trash, The Idea-Generating Magic of Doing Nothing, and Not Trying To Succeed

2021

Dec 26 | SIX at 6: (In)Ability, a Leadership Goal, Nondoing, Matt Damon, George Carlin, and a Big Key to a Lack of Anxiety

Dec 19 | SIX at 6: Unique Limitations, Oil Spills, Amnesia, Blaming the Weather, Solitude, and A Car Ride with Robert Greene

Dec 12 | SIX at 6: Pacing, Spike Lee, Mirrored Reciprocation, Coolness Under Pressure, Paul McCartney, and Falling In Love With Boredom

Dec 5 | SIX at 6: Novak Djokovic, Wind, Incubation, René Redzepi, Psychology in a Statement, and Hope

Nov 28 | SIX at 6: Viktor Frankl, Beaver Hats, Constraints, Kobe, Motorcycle Maintenance, and Mud

Nov 21 | SIX at 6: Rodney Mullen, King Solomon, Mathematicians, Enthusiasm vs Quality, Daydreaming, and Hemingway

Nov 14 | SIX at 6: Trees, Nails, Clint Eastwood, Missing It, Bumbling and Failing, and Filling Up

Nov 7 | SIX at 6: Pinnacles, John Mayer, Toenails, Short Knives vs. Jack Knives, The Good-Mood Hack, and Being Pronoid

Oct 31 | SIX at 6: Tarantino, NASA, Bus Ticket Collectors, Butter, John Mayer In Process, and Doing The Daily Stint