Am I Wasting My Time When I’m Reading?

Nik

Earlier this year I was really excited about a book: How Rich People Think by Steven Siebold. Apparently he had interviewed lots of millionaires and noted his observations.

I open the book and see it’s made of dichotomous statements. I flick through.

71.

Middle class believes ambition is a sin…
World class believes ambition is a virtue.

Uh-huh…okay.

72.

Middle class believes rich people are snobs…
World class believes rich people are guarding their consciousness.

Uhm…what? What the hell does that even mean?

As it turns out, the book is full of these platitudes. It’s all woo-woo and no meat. Inspiring? Sure. Except you won’t learn a single thing about how rich people think. But that’s the title of the book dammit!

Read More

This Is Life’s Worst Trap

Nik

Most of the time, life looks like above.

No matter where we stand, the grass is always greener on the other side. It’s that little patch of green across the horizon, where the sun always seems to shine.

  • A better job.
  • A beautiful woman.
  • A million dollars.
  • A Louis Vuitton handbag.
  • A sixpack.
  • A surfing vacation.
  • A new home.
  • A better habit.
  • A few more fans.
  • A piece of insight.

So we spend our days chasing the light at the end of our tunnel vision. We fight, we struggle, we complain, we throw others under the bus and we forget ourselves completely in the process.

Read More

What Are You Ashamed To Admit You Like?

Nik

Nerd alert!

  • Trading card games. I collected Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, Digimon cards, you name it, I was playing. Even placed 2nd in a tournament once. 😎
  • Animé. Case Closed, Cowboy Bebop, Shaman King, Naruto, One Piece, Dragonball, I even watched the Pokémon movies all the way up to 14 or so. Plus I collected those manga comic books. Hidden gem: Steamboy.
  • RPGs. Zelda, Final Fantasy, shitty RPG maker games, Diablo II, I play them all. I’m a sucker for a good story, even if the gameplay is meh.
  • Pop music. People always want to go to clubs with certain music only. HipHop, Dubstep, Deephouse. I’m like “who wants to listen to music no one knows the lyrics to? We need Selena Gomez & Backstreet Boys, folks!”
  • KPop, JPop and all kinds of weird, language-I-don’t-understand-but-don’t-care music. Includes country.
  • Sports cars. We don’t need them. They waste a ton of fuel. They pollute the air. But the sound of a roaring V8 and the look on the Prius driver’s face when you leave him in the dust are priceless.
  • Sweet cocktails. Let’s face it guys, we’d order them all the time if we weren’t so afraid of looking girly.
  • Frozen pizza. All you need to make me happy is a pizza from the freezer and an average movie. Good or bad, embarrassing nonetheless.

Looking at the list, I realize it’s not just part of the stuff I like. It’s most of it.

Read More

What Does Your Reading List Look Like?

Nik

I don’t have one. In 2016, I deleted my reading list and I feel a lot better since.

There’s a great movie called The Bucket List. It’s about two old guys with cancer, who make a list of dreams they want to achieve before they die.

I’m not the only one who thinks it’s brilliant. It was a smash hit. And it sparked a massive trend: bucket lists. Sites like “Places to see before you die” popped up. Everyone suddenly started “collecting experiences.”

Read More

The Evolution of How I Think About Money

Nik

I thought a lot about money this week. I think a lot about money every week, to be honest. Often not in a good way. I’m very paranoid about it. I tell myself it’s out of necessity, but that’s not true.

It’s really just a subconscious mechanism I use to motivate myself. To not lose sight of my goals. It’s efficient in that regard, but in no way is how I view money perfect. So I can’t give you “the ultimate way to think about money.” Because I haven’t found it.

What I can do is tell you how I thought about money at different stages of my life. Because there has been progress. Maybe you’ll recognize yourself. Maybe following my evolution of thinking can help speed up your own.

Let’s find out.

Read More

How To Improve Your Writing With 6 Questions

Nik

A writer’s job is to bring order to chaos. It’s our duty to descend into the cluttered world of ideas and then structure whatever insight we manage to wring from its hands.

Therefore, writing is by definition a messy process. The goal of this post is not so much to get you to adopt my version of it — although I will give you the tools if you wish to do so — but to get you to examine your own.

When I recently did, I found I constantly ask myself six questions about writing. Before, after and during. All the time. They’re definitely not a checklist. More of a blurry circle my mind spins in.

I want to show you those questions. Show you you’re not alone. Seeing my lose structure should help accept your own. Then, you can set out to find the little that’s there. So you can build on it. That’s the plan.

Let’s go.

Read More

What Did You Learn Too Late in Life?

Nik

My entrepreneurial spirit was fast asleep until late 2014 and it continues to take naps at the most inconvenient times. And so I learned too late…

  • That I could have made money selling Pokémon cards.
  • That I could have made money selling Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
  • That I could have made money playing video games.
  • That I could have made money recording myself playing video games.
  • That I could have made money selling on eBay.
  • That I could have made money starting a blog.
  • That I could have made money optimizing other people’s blogs.
  • That $17 for Apple stock was pretty cheap in 2008.
  • That $10 for bitcoin was pretty cheap in 2012.
  • That $400 for bitcoin was pretty cheap in 2016.

…and that’s just money. Don’t even get me started on love.

Read More

3 Things That Are Just Not Worth the Effort

Nik
Image via GQ.

I have repeatedly tried all three of these:

  • Day trading. It’s like sitting in a burning house, waiting for the fire to put itself out. Your mind will refuse to think about anything else all day, hoping you’ll scrape together those few extra %. Just make solid long-term picks and forget about them.
  • Online dating. You need a clever profile, a ton of swipes, a clever opening line and tell the same story 75 times. That’s a lot of work only to find out they’re boring in real life. Just live your life and keep your eyes open so you’ll actually see whoever comes along.
  • Calorie counting. You’ll either feel bad about your food or yourself. You won’t be present while you eat, thinking about all the data. Eating is meant to be recovery, not more work. Just try not to eat too many sweets and move a lot.

Occasionally, I get caught in a new wave of false enthusiasm, because I was bored or read an article and inevitably think “let’s give this another try.”

It always ends with the same question:

Why did I think it’d work this time again?

Why Do People Hate Reading?

Nik

When I was in 7th grade we read our first novel in class. Guess what “classic” our German teacher chose?

Drum roll pleeeeaaaase…

Friedrich.

Never heard of it? Ms. Mueller-Riemke would be aghast. It’s about a Jewish teenager in Nazi Germany who gets mobbed, bullied, becomes an orphan and then…dies.

It’s a hallmark of literature raising awareness about German history, which is great, except no 13-year old cares. I had enough problems with fitting in myself and that story definitely didn’t help.

Don’t get me wrong, the book has value, I just wasn’t ready at the time. Plus, nobody likes to be forced to do something. Especially not read.

Read More

What Was Life Like in 2000?

Nik

Oh man. The best year of my life. Easily. I was in 3rd grade. 9 years old. I’m sure I did a ton of awesome stuff, but I really remember just one thing:

Pokémon Red & Blue had been released in Europe just a few months before and the mania was insane. We spent every waking minute either playing Pokémon or learning how to get better at playing Pokémon.

Tuesday’s was Pokémon card game league at the local toy store.

Wednesday was game guide reading night.

Recess was trading and battling time.

Read More