How To Change Your Mind
Michael Pollan
Summary
If you're looking for a book to explain psychedelic science to you, read this. Pollan does a masterful job walking through the history of psychedelics and where we are today. He also discusses his own journey using psychedelics when he was initially very skeptical about their healing power.
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Set and setting are the most important for psychedelic experiences
The right psychedelic experiences tend to be transient and last for a while
‘Our task in life precisely of letting go of fear and expectations in an attempt to purely give ourself to the impact of the present’
Look up Trametes versicolour - mushroom that kills cancer
The biggest organism on earth is a mushroom - a honey fungus in Oregon that is 24 miles wide
Psilocybin causes decreased blood flow to the DMN which leads to ego dissolution (similar to meditation)
Under hallucinogens, your brain becomes more interconnected. Regions that didn’t use to connect are now much more connected
The key driver of psychedelic experiences is ego death
The posterior singulate cortex is the centre of the DMN
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Free E-book download here
