Newsletter

2023

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, Rule Books, and Doing The Daily Stint