You are probably a jerk in some way.

Hey everyone,

If you're new here, welcome to Never Enough, where I brain dump interesting stuff that has been on my mind over the last week.

I just launched my podcast. I’m fortunate to get to talk to interesting people for a living, and after 20 years of it I figured I should start recording some of these conversations. Go check out the first episode with my friend Sam Parr, host of My First Million, here:

Spotify / Apple Podcast / YouTube

I treat myself like a drug addict. But not with drugs, with my phone.

I have no self-control. I’ll often be enjoying a quiet moment reading a book or looking out at a view and suddenly, without even realizing it, I’m clawing for my phone in my pocket to check my Twitter feed.

After listening to this interview with Dr. Anna Lembke, I realized that you can become addicted—in the same sense you would to drugs or alcohol—to anything that stimulates dopamine...

Read the full essay →

“Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.”

That’s a line from one of the most profound books I’ve ever read, The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant_._ In just 128 pages, it summarizes the key lessons of human history in paired-down prose. Talk about cutting to the chase.

Here’s a few key ideas from the book:

• History repeats, driven by unchanging human nature.
• Geography molds civilizations' fates.
• Class struggles fuel historical change.
• Religion and morality shape societies.
• Civilizations rise and fall in cycles.

My pal David Senra just did a great episode on this book on his (incredible) Founders podcast here. If you haven’t listened to Founders yet, you are missing out. Each week, he summarizes a great book and ties its lessons to other great books and leaders.

My friend Mark Nichols said something that struck me the other day:

“There’s friends for reasons, for seasons, and for life.”

Which are your friends?

Hiring a CEO is a weird skill. Not that many people have done it, and those who have have only done it once (most people either run their company for life or only pass the baton once and then retire). Chris and I have done it dozens of times, and my inbox is often packed with people asking me questions about how to transition their company to a CEO. I finally broke down and wrote a little PDF on it for my paid Twitter subscribers. If you want to check it out, go to my Twitter profile and click the purple “Subscribe” button, then check out this subscriber-only tweet.

You are probably a jerk in some way. We all are.

But if you're anything like me, you aren't all that aware of it. You warp every situation to give yourself the most charitable interpretation. Our brains do their best to protect our egos.

A few years ago, my friend Mohnish Pabrai told me about a psychologist who'd done a 360-review on his entire life. So I hired him. Six weeks later, I had a shit-sandwich report from Dr. Jack Skeen that ended my marriage, broke my "histrionic" mask at work, and felt like 10 years of therapy in one month…

Read the full essay →

That’s all for this week…

-Andrew