5 October 2020
This week's additions focus on mindset, leadership, and founder stories, with new digests from Noah Kagan, Founders, and Deep Questions with Cal Newport. Highlights include 3,000 people walked past a crying woman. Not one stopped. Why silence and patience were Rockefeller's sharpest competitive weapons
Showing 13 digests for 5 October 2020.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Building kindness as a practice, not a personality trait
Noah Kagan
October 11, 2020
Identity & self-belief
7
Public speaking
6
3,000 people walked past a crying woman. Not one stopped.
Nice is reactive; kindness is proactive — and that gap is learnable.
One man sent 6,000 postcards. His daughters remembered nothing else.
John D. Rockefeller's lessons from a lifetime in business
Founders
October 11, 2020
Case studies
9
Hiring & recruitment
6
Resilience & grit
5
Why silence and patience were Rockefeller's sharpest competitive weapons
At 70, relationships mattered more to him than any deal he closed
The same business fundamentals — low prices, no shortcuts, face the truth — won every time
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Household productivity, task tools, and the reality of writing
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
October 9, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
8
Processes & SOPs
6
A physical collection box plus weekly planning eliminates household stress.
OmniFocus vs Trello: choose the tool with least friction for your needs.
Writer's block is what professionals simply call writing — everyone feels it.
Headline writing practice: formula drills for faster, better copy
Joanna Wiebe
October 9, 2020
Copywriting
9
Content marketing
6
Generate 20–50 rough headlines in one session using timed formula drills
Not knowing a product's value kills headline output — research first
Embarrassment and loss-framing formulas outperform abstract benefit headlines
Raising prices and going up-market: inside Gather's risky transition
Startups For the Rest of Us
October 8, 2020
Pivoting
9
Business models
8
Pricing strategy
7
Doubling prices while inbound conversion rate halved simultaneously
Cold email replaced lost leads in just six weeks of outbound sales
Why $50–$150 per customer leaves you stranded between two broken models
Founder interviews
Podcast
Patrick O'Shaughnessy on building OSAM, Canvas, and Invest Like the Best
Acquired
October 7, 2020
Founder interviews
9
Business models
7
Content marketing
5
Radical transparency in investing is a durable moat, not a liability
OSAM turned internal quant infrastructure into a bespoke portfolio platform
Curiosity-driven content compounds into competitive advantage without marketing
Automation & tools
YouTube
How to speed up a WordPress website in three steps
Ahrefs
October 7, 2020
Automation & tools
9
SEO
6
Three changes took a mobile PageSpeed score from 45 to 95.
Defer JS loading fixes most render-blocking issues without touching code.
Image compression and WebP conversion cut page size by nearly half.
Prospecting & outreach
YouTube
Seven Rules for Building Business Relationships That Generate Referrals
Bill Gallagher
October 7, 2020
Prospecting & outreach
9
Communication
8
Retention & loyalty
6
50% of people only give referrals when explicitly asked — silence costs business.
High-performing relationship builders benefit most from coaching; they see their own gaps.
Service-first mindset beats scripted sales; reciprocity delivers returns without calculation.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Ten years of therapy: lessons, frameworks, and when to go
Noah Kagan
October 7, 2020
Identity & self-belief
9
Work-life balance
6
Resilience & grit
5
Therapy works best when you bring specific problems, not open topics.
Good therapists reflect your behaviour back — they never tell you what to do.
Fulfilment isn't at the next level; it's already available right now.
Practical strategies for motivation, collaboration, and productivity in lockdown
How I Work
October 7, 2020
Motivation
9
Resilience & grit
7
Communication
6
Autonomy, mastery, or connection: diagnosing which is missing fixes most slumps.
Phone beats video for hard conversations and genuine emotional reading.
Six five-minute movement breaks outperform one long break for sustained energy.
Productivity & habits
YouTube
Nine business and life lessons from mountain biking
Noah Kagan
October 5, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Resilience & grit
7
Why practising deliberately beats just playing the game
First time hard, second time easy — fear shrinks the moment you act
Smile at the suffering: reframe hard work as something to lean into
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Household Productivity, Delegation, and Deep Hobbies
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
October 5, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Work-life balance
5
Automate household tasks and create trusted capture systems to eliminate cognitive burden
Delegate selectively: focus on reduction instead for solo operators like professors
Digital minimalism applies to personal life; reshape work using career capital when unfulfilled
Sam Colt and the revolver that built modern American manufacturing
Founders
October 5, 2020
Origin stories
9
Product-market fit
7
Pivoting
6
A flogged 17-year-old sailor invented the revolver's core mechanism from a ship's anchor winch.
The market pulls the product: Texas Rangers created demand the US Army refused to see.
Colt's factory methods seeded the assembly line used by Ford, GM, and beyond.