Newsletter

2023

Sep 24 | SIX at 6: The Three Layers, 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