m10n's comments

>Doesn't that tell you something right there? No, and a cursory Googling quantitatively debunks this bias, though it's obviously a convenient assertion to give a VC a little more reassurance on an early investment.

But really, are we all not just 'absolute strangers', 'random individuals from the internet', with a 'random early stage startup'... until we're not?

Our incredibly finite networks only form one way—by meeting new people—which has to happen somehow. Clearly there is a mutual vetting process before agreeing to work together; and extending beyond one's current network doesn't necessarily represent a failure of one (or one's current network) to satisfy each relationship. See also Joy's Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy's_law_(management)

The water is safe, the pipes it passes through are not.

Best-selling authors seem to be aware of this trend, because I keep coming across excellent but very, very short non-fiction books. Among those I can remember reading and would recommend, these are published in the past <5 years and are <150 pages (or <5 hour audiobook):

- Discrimination and Disparities By: Thomas Sowell

- A Colony in a Nation: Chris Hayes

- Between the World and Me: Ta-Nehisi Coates

(three very different takes on race relations in America)

- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry: Neil deGrasse Tyson

- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics: Carlo Rovelli

- When Breath Becomes Air: Paul Kalanithi

- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century: Timothy Snyder

- Requiem for the American Dream: The Principles of Concentrated Wealth and Power: Noam Chomsky

- Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now: Jaron Lanier

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While I wouldn't exactly recommend the book "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg (Gladwellian pop-psych productivity genre), I have several times remembered and successfully applied my one takeaway from reading it:

It's extremely difficult to break a habit, but a lot less difficult to replace a habit.

Meaning if I'm able to examine the habit (usually a compulsion or mindless ritual to pass time or ease some anxiety) and understand the role it plays for me or benefit I think I get by continuing it, even if I could never imagine just stopping it completely, it's surprisingly easy to just do something else [intentionally do a specific different thing] upon the moment of urge to doing the bad thing. Eventually I just forget about the thing I did before, and my life becomes easier and simpler.

Because you mentioned books, if you happen to have one of the classic bad habits of modern life (smoking, drinking, eating), I'm always amazed how often people cite reading Allen Carr's "The Easy Way"series as the absolute only thing that somehow, magically, against all odds, worked for them. https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0615...