Mental Models, Good Decisions & Better Content - Shane Parrish - #334

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Shane Parrish. He's the founder of Farnam Street, an ex-Canadian Intelligence Agency operative and an author. Farnam Street is one of my favorite blogs on earth. Shane has been a huge contributor to increasing the popularity of mental models and effective decision making over the last few years. And today, we get to dig into some of his favorite insights. Expect to learn how to pursue growth without feeling insufficient. Why everyone in Shane's company gets August off work. How to know when your ego is deceiving you. Why making a ton of money on Bitcoin doesn't make you a genius. And much more. Shane is a fantastic human. He's shaped my thinking quite profoundly over the last few years. And if this is your first introduction to him, you will really enjoy this. He's a very deep thinker. His insights around making better decisions, living a fulfilled life, really are timeless. And yeah, enjoy this one. Before we get on to any other news, Apple Podcasts recently updated their app and you may be struggling to find this show and many of your others. So do me a favor, whether you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, just open your phone, open up the player that's got this podcast on it. There's three dots in the corner. Press that, press go to show. If you are on Apple Podcasts, there will either be a big subscribe button in the middle of the screen or a plus in the top right hand corner. And if you are on Spotify, it'll just say follow. Press that. And no matter what Spotify or Apple Podcasts try to do to ruin their platform, you will continue to be delivered this podcast every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. You will never miss out on episodes as long as you've got that pressed. They can try to take our platform, but they cannot take our audio plays. That's how I'm feeling. Like William Wallace at the end of Braveheart. In other news, this episode is brought to you by MyProtein. They are the number one sport nutrition brand in the world with over 12 million customers. And I am still in love with their Clearway protein. This is the best protein that I've ever had. It looks like juice, it tastes like juice, but it has more protein in than most protein shakes. If you find that most protein powders make you feel heavy and sluggish and a bit bloated and a bit uncomfortable, this is for you. It is so easy to drink. I'm having it during my workout. And the orange and mango and the coconut mango are both phenomenal. Johnny is also a massive fan of the raspberry and cranberry. Go and try it out. You can get sample packs so you can try out each of the different flavors. Highly, highly recommended. Also, no matter what it is that you want from MyProtein, whether it be apparel, supplements, foods, accessories, shakers, whatever, you can get 37% or greater off everything site-wide. Go to bit.ly slash Modern Wisdom, that's B-I-T dot L-Y slash Modern Wisdom, and use the code MODERNWISDOM at checkout for that huge 37% discount. This is available worldwide. They ship across the globe, so no matter where you are, you can get this deal if you use that code. But only if you go to bit.ly slash Modern Wisdom. Go and upgrade your supplement game today. In other other news, this episode is brought to you by Reebok. Their brand new MyoNit shorts and T-shirts have just dropped, and they are absolutely phenomenal. They've got leggings, T-shirts, shorts, tops, hoodies, whatever it is that you are after, including their fantastic legacy lifters, their float rides. They've just brought out this vegan pair of float rides, which look unbelievable. And of course, my favorite, the Reebok Nano. All of that, you can get a 20% discount site-wide off everything by using the code MW20. Go to reebok.co.uk. This deal works across all of Europe. Sorry, America, I still haven't sorted it out for you. But if you are anywhere in Europe, you can get this discount. MW20 is the code and reebok.co.uk.
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Shane Parrish, welcome to the show.

**Shane Parrish** (4:40)
Thanks, Chris, glad to be here.

**Chris Williamson** (4:42)
My pleasure. So I fell in love with a tweet of yours from the other month, which said, if you're not obsessed with it, you'll never master it. Being obsessed with something won't ensure mastery, but not being obsessed will ensure you won't master it. What have you been obsessed with this year?