The Daily Recall

#29 How Systems Evolve Through Connectivity and Diversity — The Amazon Story

Hey friend, In this episode, I explain two principles you can use to improve any technical system and show how similar are a pack pencils, a paragraph of text, Amazon book store, and a web page. There’s no transcript for this episode, so either give it a listen or watch the video version here [https://youtu.be/IsQQrIKgmlA]. Happy Wednesday,-Vasili This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedailyrecall.substack.com [https://thedailyrecall.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#28 Why to Keep a Diary - How to Communicate With Your Future Self

Hey friend, In this episode, I explain how to write a diary that your future self will benefit from having. There’s no transcript for this episode, so either give it a listen or watch the video version here [https://youtu.be/mKRj1TQqt6U]. Enjoy your Tuesday,-Vasili This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedailyrecall.substack.com [https://thedailyrecall.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#27 How to Learn English on Autopilot

Hey friend, In this episode, I explain my system of language learning that can help you start thinking in English instead of translating. If you prefer watching, you can find the YouTube video here [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNQcRieYWqIdFLfjS6vbOCw/]. If reading is your thing, then enjoy the transcript below. Welcome to The Daily Recall show. I'm your host, Vasili. Today you will learn one simple trick that can help you become a native English speaker. I think that most people think about language learning wrong. They start taking classes, read text books, and go to English clubs. That’s how you can get some baseline but it won’t help you to become a native speaker. You keep translating stuff in your head. Real language learning comes down to one simple metric; how many times you think thoughts in a language that you're trying to learn. And the key to learning English - and any language - is to optimize for this metric as much as you can. This optimization boils down to a simple question - how many times a learning method prompts you to think in English. Traditional learning methods don’t offer much on this front. If you sit in a class with twenty other dudes and occasionally raise your hand, that’s not how you get many opportunities for thinking in English. And you have this torturous homework to deal with. Here're some better methods: * Start taking notes in English; this will prompt you to think in English each time you need to write something down * Write a diary * Change your default phone language to English * Read books * Watch movies * Get a job where you have to communicate in English Whenever you don’t understand a word, don’t look for a translation. Try to understand what it means from the context or go ahead and read the definition of this word from the vocabulary. But do not translate; that’s how you keep building this habit of thinking through translating that prevents you from becoming fluent. To recap - Language learning comes down to how many times you think in the language that you're trying to learn. The best way to learn a language is to design an environment that prompts you to think in this language. This approach is way more efficient than any other approach out there because it naturally integrates into your life. When you take an English class three times a week, that thing is actually artificial, and your nature will fight against that. But if you integrate these thinking prompts as routines into your daily life and keep them simple, you will do great. Thanks very much for reading and see you tomorrow. This transcript has been edited for clarity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedailyrecall.substack.com [https://thedailyrecall.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#26 How to Read Five Books Per Day

Hey friend, In this episode, you will learn how to start reading 1.8k books a year by spending just 25 minutes a day. If you prefer watching, you can find the YouTube video here [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNQcRieYWqIdFLfjS6vbOCw/]. If reading is your thing, then enjoy the transcript below. Welcome to The Daily Recall show. I'm your host, Vasili. Today you will learn how and why to read five books a day. When most people think about reading, they think of taking a book, diving in, struggling to figure out what the author is talking about, etc. When I think about reading, I think of it backwards from the purpose of the process. The purpose of reading is learning. This means that it doesn’t matter how many books you read; the only thing that matters is how much you learn from them. The quality of your learning depends on the quality of the material you learn from. Given your reading capacity of 10 books per year and five million books out there it's really dumb to read from cover to cover; you need more options to choose from. My approach is to scroll a bunch of books every day and read for understanding only what sparks my curiosity. It takes a few minutes to understand if a book is interesting enough to keep reading it; and you can do that by downloading a free sample from Amazon - no need to buy a bunch of books. And you can do that in a car, when waiting in line, etc. Remember - you're not learning yet. Curiosity works differently than understanding; it's like seeing a girl for the first time. You either like her or not; you don’t think about that proactively - "oh is she pretty or not?" Here's some math. It takes 2-5 minutes to scroll a sample of one book. 20 minutes a day. This gives you 1.8k books in a year to choose from instead of 10 that you'd otherwise read cover to cover. Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow. This transcript has been edited for clarity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedailyrecall.substack.com [https://thedailyrecall.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#25 How to Get More Done by Managing Energy Levels - Part 3: Adapt

Hi friend, In this episode, you will learn how to adapt to having no energy and win the time back by doing low energy work that has to be done anyways. If you prefer watching, you can find the YouTube video here [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNQcRieYWqIdFLfjS6vbOCw/]. If reading is your thing, then enjoy the transcript below. Welcome to The Daily Recall show. I'm your host, Vasili. This is the last day of a three-day series on how to get more done by managing your energy levels. In Part 1: Prevent, I explained how to prevent the problem from happening in the first place; how to always have a ton of energy. In Part 2: Fix, I outlined what you can do to get your energy back during the day. Today I will cover how you can adapt to this problem if you're not able to fix it. When you're in a low energy state, you can still do work. And the best thing you can do is to take care of things that you have to do anyways. Buy groceries. Take the trash out. Clean up your place. Because that’s how you can win the time back. If you have to do this work anyways, then by doing it when it matches your lowest energy state you're actually winning back time because you won’t have to deal with this stuff in the future when you will have lots of energy. But there’s a problem. When you find yourself in a low energy state, it's hard to figure out what kind of things you can take care of because you can’t think well. You need to have already thought. I recommend you keeping a "brain gone" list of things you can do when you find yourself in a low energy mode. Stuff like: process invoices, take the trash out, do house cleaning, do groceries - anything that doesn’t require energy but has to be done. Another option would be to do nothing. Rest. It's always a great option. You also get to recharge your mind by doing that and you will have more energy tomorrow. To recap - If you find yourself struggling with having no energy during the day and Part 2: Fix advice didn’t help, then you need to adapt. Take care of the low energy work that has to be done anyways. This will enable you to win the time back because when you get to a high energy mode again you won’t have to waste precious time on doing this low energy stuff. Take care and have more energy! This transcript has been edited for clarity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedailyrecall.substack.com [https://thedailyrecall.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]