Wisereads Vol. 28 — Kelly Wilde Miller’s Creative Dysregulation, Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Report, and more
Last week, we shared Art for Money by Michael Ardelean, a Holloway book on creative freelancing. This week, we’re excited to share yet another full book: Creative Dysregulation by Kelly Wilde Miller, a guide to investigating chaotic creative output. We think you all are going to love this one.
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Most highlighted Articles of the week
Do literally anything
In the face of overwhelm or aimlessness, developer and content creator Aaron Francis suggests a simple solution: action. "The mere act of doing pushes back the tidal wave of thoughts. The problem is primarily emotional. I feel paralyzed. The solution is primarily emotional too!"
The Shirky Principle: Institutions Try to Preserve the Problem to Which They Are the Solution
Cambridge lecturer Dr. Shatz explores the Shirky Principle, which highlights how solutions often perpetuate the problems they're designed to solve. "British colonial officials in Delhi (India), set a bounty on dead cobras, in order to reduce the cobra population. However, this led citizens to breed the cobras for profit, and eventually to release them when the bounty was canceled."
My Simple Habit for Smarter Book Reading
Using expert critiques to discern the merits and flaws of his recent reads, author and programmer Scott Young avoids feeling hoodwinked by misleading arguments. "Most of what we refer to as critical thinking is simply knowing more about the topic being discussed. Experts can spot the fallacies in certain arguments because they’ve steeped themselves in the history of ideas and debates in the field for years… But therein lies our difficulty: how do you read a book like an expert without actually being one?"
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
How a Workspace Can Improve (Or Destroy) Your Life
Flow Research Collective's Rían Doris delves into how a minimalist workspace, or 'flow dojo', can enhance focus by reducing cognitive load. "Design an environment that will maximize your output when you're at your best and protect your lesser self from sabotaging your work… when willpower flags, your environment determines behavior."
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
Nassim Taleb spends 30 hours every week reading books
Alex Wiec of Alex & Books is known for his meta-reading listicles, sharing wisdom from influential minds like Nassim Taleb on rereading: "A good book gets better at the second reading. A great book at the third. Any book not worth rereading isn’t worth reading" and criticism: "Criticism, for a book, is a truthful, unfaked badge of attention, signaling that it is not boring; and boring is the only very bad thing for a book."
Most highlighted PDF of the week
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 2023 Annual Report
In his annual shareholder letter, Warren Buffett reflects on Charlie Munger's legacy and recounts Berkshire Hathaway's 2023 performance as if chatting with his sensible sister, Bertie. "The lesson from Coke and AMEX? When you find a truly wonderful business, stick with it. Patience pays, and one wonderful business can offset the many mediocre decisions that are inevitable."
Hand-picked book of the week
Creative Dysregulation
Staring down a graveyard of unfinished projects, Kelly Wilde Miller challenged herself to tackle an enormous project in just 5 days—her very first book, Creative Dysregulation. In writing this guide to sustainable creativity, Kelly uncovered a chaotic inner world that was keeping her from executing on her life’s work.
Creative Dysregulation is filled with prompts, experiments, and assessments to help creatives navigate their inner chaos and find a clearer, more sustainable path forward.
"Maybe you've created in the past but burnt out in the process. Maybe you've initiated an unruly amount of new projects without seeing any of them through the finish line. Or perhaps you've never allowed yourself to go from 'idea' to 'action' and instead have built a fantasy world of possibilities in your mind… I have done all of these things. I know them intimately. They are painful, especially when you've done them for years or decades. And they point to the heart of what I call 'creative dysregulation'."
Kelly is generously sharing the first version of Creative Dysregulation with the Readwise community. If you'd like to support her debut and gain access to later versions, we invite you to purchase a copy.
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Wild on Purpose
In her Substack, Wild on Purpose, Kelly explores cultivating self-wisdom and reveals more of her writing process. From An Unexpected Book Launch: "One should focus on one's actions or duties without attachment to the results or outcomes of those actions. By being detached from outcomes, we can focus on next efforts as opposed to the benefits, rewards, or success that may come (or not come) from those efforts. More simply, focus on your work and let go of the rest."