Welcome to the thirteenth edition of The Study Newsletter!

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm very picky at what articles I recommend in this newsletter.

Not only because I want you to get the best resources available, but also because I'm a big believer that what we consume greatly influences our minds and thus our lives.

But above all, I'm also really picky on what NOT to share here.

Most commonly, in other publications, you'll see links to big sites like the NYC Times or The Guardian. And while the stories in the just mentioned sites are good, I'm 99% certain that I'll never include a link from any of those sites.

Why?

Well, first, because everyone is sharing them. And secondly, which is more important to me personally, these institutions are already widely known. They are shared, and re-shared, and shared again. These sites are stuck on the first page of Google like gum stuck on your shoe on a hot summer day that you simply can't get off and you eventually simply learn how to live with. This may not seem like a big deal, but it's making it harder for smaller publications run by individuals to get exposure.

With my newsletter, I don't want to help the big corporation get bigger. I want to share articles from not so commonly visited websites. By doing so, I want to help people who are good writers get more eyes on their articles. Hopefully, this can positively influence their bottom line.

So, if you happen to know sites and writers that are not viral - but still good! - make sure to send them my way.

• The Evolving Self by Robert Kegan: Still one of my favorite psychology books. Here's a short snippet from the summary: "Who are you? When asked, people will simply state their name and probably their job title. "My name is John Smith. I'm 32 years old, I live in Canada and I work as an accountant." But is this really you? Are you your job? To evolve, you need to separate yourself from others and find the "individual" hiding inside. You're not your job or your possessions. You simply have them."

Become a Thinker: Unlock all of the book summaries on my site and get access to digital workbooks by becoming a Thinker: Join The Thinkers Club.

Interesting books I recently added to my reading list (and hopefully will read at some point):

• The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron: Recommended by a ton of creative people, this title is considered the book you need if you want to step out of the shadows and finally embrace the creative person inside you.
• 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Wright Helmer: 7 Powers gives business owners the tools they need to create solid foundations in the industry they operate. This book is for people who want an edge over their competitors.
• How to Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education by Scott L. Newstok: In this book, the author wants to show how mental play emerges through work, creativity through imitation, autonomy through tradition, innovation through constraint, and freedom through discipline. Scott Newstok distills enduring practices that can make learning more creative and pleasurable.

Interesting words from books and around the web:

• Elysian (adjective): Beautiful or creative; Divinely inspired; Peaceful and perfect.
• Uff Da (interjection): Used to express bafflement, surprise, relief, exhaustion, or dismay; An exclamation or interjection used to express dismay, typically upon hearing bad news. It roughly means "Drats!", "Oops!", "Ouch!", "Oh no!"
• Tarantism (noun): The uncontrollable urge to dance; Overcoming melancholy by dancing.

Simone de Beauvoir

Author of the widely read book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir was a controversial philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. Born on 9 January 1908, Beauvoir spent most of her life writing novels, essays, biographies, autobiographies, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. Her work earned her a solid position in the philosophy scene, which was mainly occupied by men in her time.

Big Idea: Gender is not predestined

Humans are born free and thrown into existence without a divine plan. This freedom is both a blessing and a burden. Our goal is to find our own life's meaning. But this burden feels too hard for most of us to carry - that's why a lot of people choose to obey the set rules and the set believes.

The above leads to the most famous line by Beauvoir: "One is not born, but becomes, woman." With this, she wanted to point out that society labels women and expects them to do, to behave in a certain way. For example, for many years, women were kept out of the corporate world (and not only) and thought that they should do housework and take care of the children. Her work became an essential feminist treatise and is still widely discussed and admired.

From my desk:

• What Is The Forgetting Curve in Psychology (And How to Overcome Forgetting)? "'Shit. I forgot!'" How often do you say these words? Me, personally? A lot. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re stupid. Simply, there is this thing called the forgetting curve. As mysterious as it might sound, the concept is quite easy to grasp."

From around the web:

• How to prioritize your project ideas: "Over the past few years, I’ve iterated on a system that makes it fun and rewarding to prioritize my project ideas, and it’s revolutionized my ability to make progress with my projects."
• You Are What You Think: "There’s a ‘secret’ that all great historical and present thinkers, philosophers, and high achievers have agreed to be a universal truth. This secret revolves around this simple idea: You are what you think."

Bounded rationality

Bounded rationality is the idea that we make decisions based on the information we have, not based on all the available information. For us, the decisions we make are reasonable because we take into account what we know. However, these choices are not perfect. As we don’t have perfect information - there are always unknowns - we are bound to make choices based only on the information that's available to us.

For example, a business owner doesn’t know for sure what other businessmen are planning to do, to create, nor what consumers will be willing to buy. Still, he needs to create products to generate income. That's why he will create something based on the information available to him.

What to find the perfect book for your loved ones (or yourself)? Try this online book-picker:

Books Make Us Better

I personally love the idea.

Thanks for reading!

Ivaylo Durmonski

Afterthought:

To be honest, I don't know if people actually forward emails. I simply saw that everyone creating a newsletter is having some sort of "forward email" text. That's why I decided to add one myself. However, don't feel obligated to do it. I'm saying this because you'll often see/hear things like: "Forward my email"; "Share my content"; "Like my content"; "Subscribe to my newsletter but don't forget to subscribe to my other newsletter, too!"; "Subscribe, like my video, comment under my video, knock on your neighbor's door and make him do the same to ensure that the AI running our lives will reward me while serving you more ads *evil laughter*".

With that being said, again, don't feel obligated to forward the email. Only if you feel that someone else might find it useful.