Forward Tilt By Praxis

“In a room of 100 strangers, seek similarities. In a room of 3 friends, seek differences.” Popular wisdom warns against creating a bubble of similar friends. You often hear that you should make a diverse group of friends. That you should seek to spend time with people with different world views. This advice is overrated and over esteemed. Instead, when deciding who you work and spend time with you should focus on similarities. But once you've found those people, you should emphasize differences.  On every successful team, there is internal conflict. From the outside looking in everyone seems similar. They have a similar mission, similar values, and a similar perspective on life. But within the group, the approach they take to reach their common goal is hotly contested. There is beneficial conflict, differences of opinion, and a regular clash of ideas. Successful teams work together because of the deep similarities in their ideal future, but they work well together by emphasizing the differences in how they

Building a brand is important. So is sharing what you are working on and creating opportunities with marketing. But when you are working on branding and style you can’t forget about creating more substance. To maintain the balance between substance and style Isaac uses a simple heuristic. Two parts substance, one part style. For every one thing you are sharing and talking about publicly, you should be working on something else behind the scenes. If you are learning a language and creating and sharing content about it, you should be learning something else behind the scenes. In business, if you are marketing one feature, you should have at least one other feature that is just as good. This way there is always more to you than meets the eye. This way you are always over delivering. This way you are making sure that your product is so good and an experience so far beyond expectations, that your customers can’t stop talking about it. For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to dis

Willpower has limits. If the rewards or punishments are high enough, and you're in a situation long enough, you will eventually reach your limit. We live in a time where we have massive power to structure the incentives in our own lives. We can find new social circles, jobs, past times that have incentives in line with our values. You will be much stronger in life if you’re not swimming upstream; if your incentives are in line with your values it is much more likely you will live up to your ideals.  In this episode: Creating your own structural incentives Aligning incentives with values The incentives of politics The incentives of professors Who you need to please to get paid is who you will please  If it violates your core values, get into an environment when it is not incentivized You will be much stronger if you’re not fighting against the current For your free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth, go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

What do you do better than anyone? It is a question you should be finding the answer to. You should be looking at your life and your work and asking yourself, what do I do better than everyone I know? Once you have the answer you have a path forward. A direction to take your life's work. In this episode: What is the one thing that you are the best in the world at? That is the question you need to answer, but how to you answer it? The big idea behind Praxis What Isaac best in the world at?  For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

“You can be fast and erratic or slow and steady.”    “You can have a small remote team, but it won’t work with more than five employees.”    “You can think quick and shallow or long and deep thought.”    The world is full of these common dichotomies and life lessons. Some are true and valuable, but many aren’t. Accepting them can close down real possibilities.     These lessons apply to certain people in certain situations. You need to figure out if they are true for you. You need to figure out what the trade-offs are in your own life.    Don’t take common wisdom on faith. Don’t accept that you can either have this or that. See if you can have both.    In this episode:  Not accepting common wisdom on faith Running a remote company How to approach dichotomies  Finding out the trade-offs in your own life  For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt  

It’s good sales advice.   Ask clearly for what you want and then stop talking. It can be awkward to leave space. To just sit there. Our temptation is to fill it and when we do we talk our ask down.    It’s good sales advice because it leads to a clear answer; a yes, no, or something in between. But you will know the status, and you won’t be left interpreting what the answer meant.    But it’s more than just sales advice.    It applies in your daily life and the asks you make of others. And it applies to your relationship with yourself as a valuable tool for gaining self-knowledge and resolving internal conflict.    In this episode:  The value of sales experience  Ask and then shut up  Don’t say a thing after a dollar amount How to apply it to daily life Making clear asks of yourself Ask and then shut up as a way to self-knowledge Go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt to get a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth.

Derek Magill guest hosts this episode of Forward Tilt to share a story from a recent conversation with an aspiring brewer and entrepreneur.    This was a college freshman with the goal of opening a microbrewery--in his first year of a four-year college program studying Political Science. Taking on debt and spending a massive amount of time attending lectures on political science, when his goal was to be an entrepreneur in the beer business.    Stories like this are not uncommon. There are young people on college campuses all over the country spending tens of thousands of dollars on annual tuition for programs that have absolutely nothing to do with what they want in the long term. But still, these students haven’t questioned the idea that college is a necessary prerequisite to life.    What if you stop before making the college decision to ask what if there is a better way? What if there is an alternative? And what if I can do it better myself?   In this episode: Political Science degree as a prerequisite

This week’s episode is inspired by a common question. When you find a job posting that you want, but you only meet some of the qualification, what should you do? In this episode: Not being the perfect candidate Job descriptions and Frankenployee's Tradeoffs when hiring Giving yourself permission to apply Househunting wish lists The only things that matter when a company is hiring For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth, go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

From credit card security to sidewalk design, if you are creating something, you have to account for the patterns of the end user. Even the most well thought out, centrally planned, efficient and scientific plans will always fail if they ignore the patterns and tendencies of the end users. On this week’s Forward Tilt, Isaac explores some examples where human behavior can override planning and how to apply this lesson to life and entrepreneurship. In this episode:  Do credit card chips actually improve security?  Designing what makes sense to you vs. what works for people Metric vs. Imperial measurement  College campus sidewalks Emergent design  For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt 

Investing in your personal relationships and connections will bring you more resources than other investment ever could. This week on Forward Tilt Isaac dives into the concept of social capital.  In this episode:  What is social capital? Why most people undervalue social capital  How to build social capital The power of good relationships when starting a business  Money is only a tool to get things you want  For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

Integrity is being undivided. It is definiteness of purpose and singleness of mind. To live with integrity, you need to understand yourself and then act in line with who you are. This isn’t easy. It can be hard to gain that much self-knowledge. Even when you have a deep understanding of yourself, there are many decisions in life that involve picking between imperfect options. Living with integrity in these situations is about making a choice and living with it. Not filling yourself with regret, or becoming a victim, but accepting your choices and learning from them when you don’t like the results. This week on Forward Tilt, Isaac digs into what it means to live with integrity and how you can practice it in your life. In this episode: - What is integrity? - Being in line with your self - Being of two minds - Reducing the things that matter to you? For a free digital edition of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

What happens when you seize the opportunity to help a stranger? It could change your whole life. On this episode of Forward Tilt Isaac shares two stories about the power of small acts. First is a story of a spilled coffee in Starbucks that led to a kind act, that led to a friendship, that led to an introduction, that led to a bunch more introductions. Second is the story of an underground radio station in Poland. Both stories illustrate an important idea, that small everyday acts can have massive long term impact. In this episode:  The long-term effects of small actions Why it’s easy to underestimate the power of our network Polish underground radio Entertaining angels  Links: More detailed account of the blinking lights story For a free digital copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

"What kind of ideas are you hanging around with?"  There are a lot of factors that impact who we are today and who we will become. Genetics, childhood experiences, conscious choices and the people we spend our time around all impact us. A popular maxim speaks to the power of other people's impact on who we are and says "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." It speaks to the power that our community has to influence our behavior. Thinking about the five people you spend the most time with is a valuable tool, but what happens if you zoom in on traits instead of people. Often the people we choose to spend time with embody similar traits. This may make for good conversation, but it can hold us back if we are trying to change. They may be great, successful people, but they might not embody the traits you want to embody. If you want to improve your ability to communicate excitement, but you hang around with laid back stoic people, you aren't likely to change. This week Isaac explores

Forward Tilt Podcast - Playoffs    The motivation for great work should always be internal.    Doing great work shouldn’t be about impressing others or avoiding punishment, it should be about becoming the best version of yourself.    Great work is transformational. When you show up and do your best, you change who you are. That is why great workers are self-motivated.    The clearest example of this is when you are close to leaving a job. In the last few weeks, the consequences for slacking are low, and the rewards for hard work are little.    Most people see the drop in external motivation and start to glide. But for those whose goal is ascendance, this is just another time to do great work. Because those who are ascendant don’t do great work because of the rewards and punishments, they do great work for themselves.    Find out why on this week's Forward Tilt    In this episode:  - Kicking Ass 101 at the Praxis opening seminar  - Why you should kick ass even when you’re about to quit - Momentum and the playo

You can think of your life divided into three main categories. Work, social life, and family or love life.  As an entrepreneur, you can only have two. With a 9 to 5 job you could probably balance all three, but if you want to start a company, the commitment is so large that you sacrifice one of these areas. But it’s not just an upper limit.  If your entire life is work, then you burn out. You don't just get to pick two, you have to pick two if you want to stay healthy as an entrepreneur.  In this episode: You pick two of three areas of life You not only get to pick two, you have to pick two Responding to burn out  For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac of Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

Doing great work isn't about being noticed. You don't owe it to customers, bosses, friends, and family to do your best. You owe it to yourself. You should go above and beyond for what it does for you. In any task you do, you can choose to be good enough, or you can choose to be great. You get to choose the standards you hold yourself to. You do great work even if others won't notice because you notice. You will notice if you didn't do your best and you will know you could have done more. This week Isaac shares a story from a job in his teens about learning this lesson from his Aunt.  In this episode:  Isaac's Aunt, Heidi Setting your own standards Constant incremental improvement You owe yourself your best work For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

Just because it’s justified doesn’t mean you should do it. There are a lot of things in your life and the world that you would be justifiably angry about. There are good reasons to protest, to debate, to get angry. But just because anger is justified doesn’t mean that it is helping you. You gain power when you move past looking for what is justified and move towards what is working and within your control. In this episode: A recent article by a Praxis participant attracted unexpected anger Justified anger The Great Divorce Working within your zone of control For a free digital edition of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to https://discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

A handwritten thank you note is an excellent way to build social capital, but its impact goes way beyond goodwill.  Regularly writing thank you notes will change the way you see the world. It transforms your narrative about the past, it helps you remember all the good things people have done for you, and it improves your life today better as a result. In this episode: Life lesson from a local pastor The pain of forced thank you notes Why thank you notes are valuable beyond the obviousMake up excuses to write thank you notes Why you should make up excuses to write thank you notes For a free digital copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

There are people who are willing to sleep in their car to get what they want, and there are those that aren’t. This a useful heuristic for understanding people you want to work with, but it is also a powerful tool for understanding yourself. What are you willing to sleep in your car to get? In this episode: The sleep in your car test as a hiring tool What you can learn about yourself from the sleep in your car test Why are you pursuing the things you’re pursuing if you’re not willing to sleep in your car to get them? Sleep in Your Car Test Article: https://discoverpraxis.com/the-sleep-in-your-car-test/ For a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac For Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt

When you feel like you are held back by limitations, add more. You’ll be surprised by the sense freedom the extra constraints give you. It’s not always the case, but adding constraints can give you more freedom to create because they free you from making endless decisions. In this episode: Embrace the Shake TED Talk Getting job opportunities without applying Doing your daily tasks in half the time Writing a book in thirty days Parkinsons Law  To get a free copy of Forward Tilt: An Almanac for Personal Growth go to discoverpraxis.com/forwardtilt