The SpoonFed Ideas Newsletter

Every Sunday, I promise to give you three things.

• One idea.
• One action.
• One update.

All to supercharge your life and help you make use of the short time you have here.

the idea.

Delayed gratification. The crown jewel of productivity. Whether it's fighting procrastination, going to the gym or trying to learn a skill, there seems to be a general rule. The longer you are willing to wait, the bigger the reward that is eventually given.

Take the age old question... should I be an MD (doctor) or should I be a PA (physician assistant)?

People that end up becoming a PA usually say the journey to being a doctor is way too long.

That's not a bad deal all things considered.

But... if you are able to tack on a few more years of training, a little bit more heartache, a little bit more suffering (actually a lot more)... suddenly you are now looking at 300k to 800k a year. Some people make even more than that.

What would you do?

It all comes back down to your relationship with rewards. How long can you wait and stomach pain before you expect to be rewarded for your suffering?

If you're too present-oriented when it comes to rewards, you end up borrowing joy from the future.

But if you train yourself to be consistenetly future-focused... if you make this a central tenet of who you are... you are statistically more likely to enjoy bigger rewards in your life.

This same pattern is found everywhere.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with borrowing from the future. Some even question the institution of retirement, arguing you should spend more money and travel when you're young and healthy rather than wait until you're retired, old, frail and can't do much of anything at all except fart in your diaper.

If you're trying to optimize joy, happiness or in this case, good use of money over an entire lifetime, the question of do I enjoy the reward now vs enjoy it later probably is going to be different depending on where on the line you are.

And that got me thinking. What does the optimal reward graph look like?

That's why there's also a question of what you're trying to optimize for. I didn't do a surgical residency for this very purpose. Sure, I could've made a million dollars a years as a neurosurgeon, but then I probably wouldn't have time to write newsletters nor make youtube videos. You just have to realize what the trade-off is, what you're willing to give up and figure out what you want.

Either way, the central core tenet is the same.

Nothing in life is free. If you want a banana right now, the pile of bananas you get to eat later in the day is going to be a bit smaller as a result.

Just make sure you are growing the right bananas.

And also...

Make sure you don't die before you eat them.

the action.

What does the simplest productivity system ever look like? It's a single page. One column of wins and another column of losses. Anytime you do something that only benefits your future self is a win. Anytime you are selfish and do something for your present self, that's a loss. Tally these up at the end of every day and see how you do.

Now do this for 30 days and see how many days end up being a win. Do it for an entire year and there's no way you are going to be the same person at the end of it.

the update.

I am upgrading my patreon ecosystem to include a more robust offering. I'm going to slowly transform it into a one-stop shop for everything I have or will create. That includes exclusive patreon articles, videos that won't be published on Youtube, coaching and weekly accountability sessions, just to name a few perks. If that sounds interesting to you, please join me there!

I recently published a horror story there as part of the Infinite Memory System I am building. To entice you to hop on over, I'll include a little preview here...

I moved into the building because it was cheap and close to work. That’s usually a red flag, I know. But I’m not exactly drowning in options.

The place was old. Real old. The kind of building that had creaky radiators and wallpaper that seemed to sweat in the summer. But I was on the third floor, and it felt okay…

Until I noticed the elevator.

It had buttons for floors 1, 2, 3, and 5.

Where was floor 4?

At first, I assumed it was one of those superstitious things, like how some hotels skip the 13th floor. But this wasn’t some fancy international tower. It was a six-story building in Newark.

So, being the curious idiot I am, I asked the landlord.

He just stared at me. Not angry. Not annoyed. Just… blank.

“There is no fourth floor,” he said, a little bit too quickly. Then turned and walked away.

That night, I took the elevator to the fifth floor. Just to look.

When the doors opened, it smelled wrong. Like rotting wood and old water. But the hallway looked fine.

I opened the fire escape and looked over the railings, counting the landings.

One, two, three… four… five.

There was clearly something between three and five.

So I did something dumb. I walked down one flight of stairs, and stopped in front of what should’ve been the fourth floor door.

There was no number on it. Just a door.

Painted black. Not the rest of the building’s chipping beige.

New paint. Fresh. Clean.

I put my hand on the knob. It was warm.

Then it turned.

From the other side.

...story continues in my patreon!

Other links you may have interest in:

​substack for my long-form articles

​patreon if you want to support me

​store if you want some rad gear

​the perfect productivity system if you want a practical guide to supercharge your life.

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