Matt Holland
Thanks for visiting my home on the internet. I’m committed to sharing ways to think better, do better, and be better. These are personal thoughts, subject to change as I keep learning.
Move it up. Move up that call to your parents. A visit with an old friend. The trip to Spain. Building that new deck. Post that blog. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed so why not enjoy it today. If you’re able to, then do it now. I’ve begun to embrace this philosophy when and where I can. [...]
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Dear Bollito, I’m so excited to welcome you into this world. You’ve been a long time coming and will be in my arms soon. I have many hopes and dreams for the Dad I will be to you. It’s my most important role yet. I hope that as Dad I can help make your life [...]
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Hi friends It’s been a busy few months and I fell behind on my writing. My priorities have been elsewhere and probably will continue to be for the next while. But I wanted to share a catch up post. Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead “Marry [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: Almost everyone I’ve ever met would be well-served by spending more time thinking about what to focus on. – Sam Altman You must cultivate activities that you [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “Comparison is the thief of joy” – Franklin Roosevelt Shorten your to-do list by asking yourself “What is the worst that will happen if this does not [...]
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Learn, learn, read, and learn. – MVP My grandma passed away recently and I was very close with her. Her initials were MVP. Fitting. We had many chats about philosophy, psychology, math, and life. She was an avid learner and adventurer. I wish we could have spent more time together but we never lived in [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “The truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “It took a long time to get ahead. I will say, in retrospect, I’m glad it took so long because it was interesting.” – Charlie Munger [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.” – Aristotle “At your birth a seed is [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. Thinking is not only hard – it’s the [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: Cabeza. Corazón. Cojones. – Carlos Alcaraz “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou “There’s no one in the [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: 1. “Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide.” — Source 2. “A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.” [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected some to share with you: “Competence over credentials.” – James Clear “A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.” ― Hunter S. [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected 5 to share with you: “A society grows great when old men (people) plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in”. – Greek Proverb “It’s hard [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected 5 to share with you: “The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift [...]
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I like to ask a lot of questions. It’s how I learn. My last post was about asking the question, did you live well today? Today’s post is about pondering a new question, what will be obvious in retrospect? We all have blindspots in our thinking. There are many moments of [...]
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Did you live well today? It’s a reflective question my wife shared with me a while back and it stuck with me. It’s simple and straight to the point. It asks you to make an honest reflection on how the current day went. The hopeful answer is yes, I did live [...]
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Each month I keep a list of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and insights that I come across and find interesting. From this list I’ve selected 5 to share with you: 1. Shake off that erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it. Versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your [...]
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What value can you bring to the world? I woke up this morning thinking about the value that I bring to this world. This meant pondering about what I was contributing to my fellow humans. Was I doing enough? I decided that I can do more. I can add more value into this world if [...]
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You are not alone if you made a New Year’s resolution this year. You are also not alone if you find you’re not able to stick to your resolutions. Learn about the Fresh Start Effect and how to make your resolutions stick this year. It’s all about changing behaviour.
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People hold opinions and share them with great passion and certainty. These opinions are often shared instantly, widely, and in an over-simplified way. The right choice has become the safe choice. The safe choice has become the popular choice. The choice that does not get you cancelled. The thinking is done for you. Society has put less emphasis of the actions people take and more emphasis on vocalizing the right action.
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What gets you up in the morning? Not your alarm. Or your kids. Or anything else like that. Think of what draws you into the world to begin your day.
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I’m halfway through my goal of posting 50 pieces of content. Currently I’m writing about one article and creating one YouTube video every 2 weeks, which puts me right on schedule. However, it’s been a challenge and it’s time to take a break. Or at least not post as frequently. I’ll be back soon and will continue to work on content in the background.
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I’m turning 30 this year and what better way to celebrate than to share with you 30 thoughts for my future 30 year old self. In no particular order, I bring you these thoughts.
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Welcome to part two of my information advantage series. Humans have looked for advantages to get ahead of others throughout history. It’s a part of our competitive nature and why we are the dominant species on the planet currently. I believe a big part of our dominance is our information advantage. What has really given us the edge has been the areas of information I’ll be discussing here: knowledge, unlearning, application, and usefulness.
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My thoughts about information and how I think about it as a mental model. This is part one of a two part series where I’m exploring the topic. Having better, faster, newer, and more accurate information gives the receiver an advantage. As a competitive species we’re all looking for an edge. It’s the selfish nature of our genes that drives this competition to survive and thrive. When we are able to look at information objectively I think we discover knowledge. Information turns into knowledge and knowledge creates power. Power is having a relative advantage.
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I stumbled across the Stoic philosophy going down various internet rabbit holes several years ago. The concept, philosophy, way of life, school of thought, or however else you choose to look at Stoicism, has positively impacted my life and so I wanted to share it. I wouldn’t consider myself a Stoic but I apply certain principles, especially related to mindset, on a daily basis. It provides a framework to influence my perspectives and internal state of mind.
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A more personal post where I overview the 10 principles I’ve developed over time to help guide my decision making. I’d always had random ideas on principles to use to determine the actions I take but formalized a list in 2016. It’s evolved ever since then. I’d encourage you to write a preliminary list of your own principles before continuing to read this post. There are no guidelines or rules for developing your own. The only characteristic of your guiding principles that matters, in my view, is that they are true to you.
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Find out the 5 best ways to be productive that you can implement today. Productivity is something that can be improved and I’ve provided the formula to do that. Production happens when thoughts, ideas, information, and knowledge (inputs) leave the mind and turn into something else through actions (output). The output can be in the form of words on a page, an edited photo, a new home, or anything else being created. These creations provide value for yourself and others.
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Explaining the mission of my side project with some personal stories. Remember to think better, do better, and be better. The mind and thinking are complex topics. To me thinking feels like a blend between the physical world and something beyond ourselves. There is no escaping the fact that your thinking is influenced by your body and environment.
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In Buddhism, the 5 hinderances impede or get in the way of forward progress in meditation and life. They are obstacles that challenge you. It’s important to pay attention to what is happening when you feel their challenge. By identifying the hindrances, you can get a better sense of what caused them to arise. Then figure out how to overcome them.
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We want to spend our time on interesting content. Whether it is something we are consuming (what others create) or something you are producing (what you create). The mind naturally pays attention to what is most interesting. I’m going to provide you with eight ways to create interesting content by thinking different.
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Focus is a learnable skill. Channeling your thoughts and actions to one activity can dramatically improve your productivity. If you’ve watched the movie Limitless you’ll have seen this narrative dramatized. Focused work is attention to one activity for an extended period of time. There are three related terms tossed around for this topic.
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Humans write to persuade, inform, tell stories, and change history. Writing is more impactful than ever with vast and instant distribution. On the internet (or before the internet), one person’s writing can change the trajectory of the world. I’m writing more in 2021 because it will clarify my thoughts. I want to think better so I can do better and be better. It’s also fun to look back on what I’ve previously written.
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First principles thinking allows you to think clearly and think for yourself. By definition, a first principle is a basic thought that cannot be reduced further. You can learn how to incorporate this into your thinking tool kit and I will show you three ways to start. In my (current) opinion, on the journey to “think better, do better, be better” understanding reasoning from first principles is step number one.
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Do you hear that? That’s your mind. It never shuts up, does it. I’ve blogged about my thoughts in the past and think that the time has come again to put them out into the universe. There’s no one listening yet but I’m doing this for me. I want to write to help clarify my thoughts on various topics.
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