🧠 Thought of the Week
Practice What You Do
Economist Tyler Cowen recently posed a brilliant question:
What is it you do… that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?
We know what “training” looks like for athletes or musicians. But for knowledge workers? Not so much. Most of us just click through calendars and to-do lists between afternoon coffee runs. No warmups. No drills. Just...email.
Ironically, I treat my hobbies (guitar, golf, writing) like crafts to practice, drill, and track improvement for. But with my ordinary white-collar desk job, I often minimize work assignments as Tasks-to-Complete rather than skills to refine.
Probably because the idea of “training” for a desk job sounds a bit ridiculous. What am I supposed to do? Hit the gym and work on my email tone? Probably not. But we can build skills. We can sharpen our output, rehearse skills, spot our weak points, and deliberately attack them like an athlete works on their weak hand.
Here’s how I started doing that — not just for work, but for the kind of life I want to build:
I write every day. I also write to relax.
I read at least 20 minutes a day — non-fiction to learn, fiction to feel.
I skim Substack, The Free Press, X, and Kottke.org to keep my ideas wide.
I listen to podcasts, primarily for enjoyment, but more so to source interesting topics to explore — new voices, fields, books, exercise routines, supplements, products, and alternative viewpoints.
I co-host a podcast (The Observe & Rapport Show) where I discuss all the ideas I accumulated from the above activities, in hopes of spreading the knowledge, but primarily so that I can understand them better.
Publishing these conversations forces me to explain ideas out loud. I urge everyone to try doing a one-hour podcast, even if no one watches it. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and how you think.
I sometimes rewatch old episodes to cringe at my clunky explanations — and mentally rehearse better ones.
I’ve never been scared to jump into seemingly paradoxical activities or social circles. If I’m curious about something, I do it. This has made me immune to uncomfortable social situations.
All interactions come with a smile. The person on the other end almost always responds to it subconsciously. You don’t realize how rare this is until you start paying attention to it. Same goes for remembering names.
If I watch TV, I generally stick to stand-up comedy. I see comedians are modern-day philosophers. Also documentaries to learn about history and human nature.
Cowen’s question isn’t just about performance. It’s about intent. Are you treating your work — and your life — as something to master? Or just something to get through?
📰 Article I’m Reading
The Gender Gap in Reading [Deloitte]
These stats are wild:
The 10 bestselling male authors had 55% male readers and 45% female readers.
The 10 bestselling female authors had 19% male readers and 81% female readers.
Could explain why historically a lot of female authors wrote under pseudonyms or their first/middle initial (J.K. Rowling, George Eliot, R.L. Stine). Or just shows how female authors/readers skew toward romance novels, which men are allergic to.
h/t @alexandbooks
📚 Feel Good Reading Story
After Dan Pelzer died this month at 92, his children uploaded the handwritten reading list to what-dan-read.com, hoping to inspire readers everywhere. The list includes over 3,000 books Dan read from 1962 through 2025.
A Selection From Dan’s Reading List
Ulysses by James Joyce — Mr. Pelzer agreed with many readers of this modernist novel that it was “pure torture” — but he finished it
The Associate by John Grisham — Grisham is all over Mr. Pelzer’s list — this was the last novel from the prolific author of courtroom thrillers that Dan read.
The Power Broker by Robert Caro — When his daughter finally read this more than 1,000-page biography of a New York City bureaucrat, she asked her father what he thought. He told her he had never read it. But it’s on the list — one of several she supposed he had forgotten reading.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates — This 2021 book from the Microsoft co-founder turned Mr. Pelzer on to veganism in his late 80s.
For more titles, go to what-dan-read.com.
The Literature-Map is a data-art tool that helps you discover new authors. Just type in a writer you love, and it generates a visual map of related authors based on readers’ tastes—writers clustered together have a shared fanbase. Here’s a screengrab of my search for authors similar to Fredrik Backman.
🎙️ Podcast I’m Listening To
Richard Werner on The Tucker Carlson Show [Spotify]
This is by far one of the most interesting and thought-provoking interviews I have ever heard. World-renowned economist Richard Werner exposes a bombshell revelation about where money comes from. Shocker: banks create it out of thin air.
It’s shocking to listen to how made-up and fragile the world economic system really is. We tend to have blind faith that financial experts, economists, and the Fed know way more about the complexities of currencies, capital, and credit than us ordinary folks. But in this episode, Werner explains how fraudulent the banking system really is. Must listen.
📺 What I’m Watching
Your Friends & Neighbors [AppleTV]
AppleTV is quietly producing some of the best streaming shows. Jon Hamm takes over in this unique series, playing the role of Andrew Cooper, a hedge fund manager who, after being fired in disgrace from his high-paying position, resorts to stealing from his neighbor’s homes in the exclusive Westmont Village. I’m only three episodes in, but the story arc is fantastic. It reminds me a bit of Breaking Bad and Ozark.
💭 Quote I’m Pondering
The main reason to help children seek out books is this: if you cut a person off from reading, you’re a thief. You cut them off from the song humanity has been singing for thousands of years… We need to be infinitely more furious that there are children without books.
🎙️The Observe & Rapport Show
Episode #39 | HOKA’s, Epstein, Lacrosse [Spotify]
Keith and Kyle sit down to discuss the benefits of running and the pros and cons of the current biggest brand names in the sport, the Epstein controversy, the origins of Lacrosse as told in the fascinating book The American Game and why it's in everyone’s best interest to do as they do in Copenhagen and smoke some weed, drink some alcohol and go for a bike ride.
📚 Books discussed in this episode:
Follow us: https://observeandrapport.com/ | IG: @observeandrapport @keithsullivan_91 | X: @observeandrapport | TikTok: @observeandrapport @keithsullivan2 | Produced by Keith Sullivan
📚 Books on My Watchlist
🔗 Links to More Reading
Thanks for reading!
