#075: Work on Something Meaningful, Digital Hygiene, Most Expensive Thing You'll Ever Pay For

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to the 75th (!) edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

This week, we will take a look at a masterclass course on storytelling from one of the most famous living authors, the most expensive thing you'll ever pay for, 'digital hygiene' tips from the former Director of AI at Tesla, and more.

Let's dive in:

Work on Something Meaningful

​Peter Thiel recently shared the following (paraphrased) statement:

It's straightforward advice, but it gets to the heart of a deep truth when it comes to our vocation. We should never settle for anything less than work where we are irreplaceable. This may not always be an option in life, but it serves as a north star to remind us what direction to go towards.

What does meaningful work look like to you?

The Most Expensive Thing You'll Ever Pay For

​Recent research suggests that loneliness and social isolation can be as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Whether that figure is accurate or not, few can argue that isolation tends to cost us more than just health problems. Isolating leads us to fewer opportunities because we weren't in the room where a deal went down, costs us insights we never heard because we muted the conversation, and leaves us with less connections to our neighbors.

Codie Sanchez shared a short snippet of this phenomenon called the "Isolation Tax" and how it plays out in modern society. She writes about this in her newsletter, Contrarian Thinking, in an article titled "The Most Expensive Thing You'll Ever Pay For". It's a sobering look at how the U.S. has declined in face-to-face socializing and what the repercussions are.

One related book on the topic is Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam. In a world where we are more connected than ever with the internet and social media, why is it that we face increasing levels of isolation? Both Sanchez's article and Putnam's book serve as reminders that we must work to preserve our communities - for our good and all mankind.

Digital Hygiene From Andrej Karpathy

Digital security is somewhat of a theme this week (stay tuned for the next entry) and few are better equipped to recommend an ultra-secure setup better than Andrej Karpathy. For those unfamiliar, Andrej was previously the Director of AI at Tesla and was part of the founding team at OpenAI.

He recently shared a blog post titled, "Digital Hygiene" where he goes over the best practices for ensuring your data and privacy online is secured. The main topics he discusses are:

1) Password managers
2) Hardware security keys
3) Biometrics
4) Security questions
5) Disk encryption
6) Internet of Things
7) Messaging
8) Browser
9) Search engine
10) Credit Cards
11) Address
12) Email
13) VPN
14) DNS-based blocker
15) Network monitor
16) Work-life separation

There are far too many recommendations to fully list out here, but if you're interested we highly suggest reading the whole blog post. It takes a little under 5 minutes to read fully, and it will make reevaluate your entire computing setup.

Learn to Hack With pwn.college

Recently came across a resource called pwn.college, which describes itself as:

The material on pwn.college is split into different "dojos" that cover high-level topics. Once you complete the basics, you step into the 'core material' dojos where you 'earn your belts' and progress to the next topic. Those include: Intro to Cybersecurity, Program Security, System Security, and Software Exploitation.
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The material is designed to be tackled in order, but you're free to skip around to whatever is relevant to you. The coolest part? When you complete the dojos, they send you actual pwn.college-embroidered belts! Thank you @DeGatchi for putting this on my radar.

Brandon Sanderson On Storytelling

Steve Jobs is widely believed to have said, "The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come." So how do we become great storytellers? There are popular books like The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, The Power of Film by Howard Suber, Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull, Story by Robert McKee, and others that do a great job explaining the craft.

But one of my favorite resources I have been re-listening to is the collection of lectures taught by author Brandon Sanderson at BYU. For those unfamiliar, Brandon Sanderson is widely considered one of the greatest living fantasy authors, selling over 40 million copies of his books worldwide and raising over $41 million in the most successful indie Kickstarter campaign of all time.

In the lectures, he discusses general writing advice, plot, worldbuilding, short stories, characters, and even tips on publishing. My favorite lectures, though, are Plot (Part One and Part Two) and Characters (Part One and Part Two).

What makes characters likable? What constitutes an interesting plot? How are plots and archetypes from certain genres translated to others? It's a fascinating listen and can't recommend enough for those looking to refine their storytelling skills.

P.S Can you please respond to this email and bring it into your 'primary' inbox? You can say 'Hi!', tell us the last book you read recently, or what your favorite resource was from above.
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Always wishing you the best,

J.B.