# Week 1 of October

*Rabbit holes, parent traps, and superlinear returns*

By [Last Week I Learned](https://paragraph.com/@jimmyonarticles) · 2024-10-06

---

*   [The Rabbit Hole](https://curatedrabbitholes.substack.com/p/the-rabbit-hole-issue-no51?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=278738&post_id=148276574&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3myxec&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email) 🕳🐰 [issue no.51](https://curatedrabbitholes.substack.com/p/the-rabbit-hole-issue-no51?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=278738&post_id=148276574&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3myxec&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email) - I aspire to this level of intentionality. What a thoughtful and creative approach to newslettering. Hats off to Patricia for curating a peaceful, innovative and beautiful publication.
    

> 1\. 💻 Open this issue in your web browser (not phone) at a time where you have at least 30 mins to read.
> 
> 2\. ☕ Grab hot tea or coffee
> 
> 3\. 👚 Change into something comfortable and ideally sit against some fluffy pillows, with your computer on your lap at a 45 degree angle
> 
> 4\. Light a candle 🕯
> 
> 5\. 💨 Take 5 breaths and listen to this meditation
> 
> 6\. Meditate on a question you have and run it by this iching reader
> 
> 7\. 🎵 Press play for music. Listen while you read this issue.

*   [The Parent Trap](https://brainbaking.com/post/2024/07/the-parent-trap/) - I'm hitting that age when many of my friends become parents. "I'm tired," is a constant refrain, said in a weary but knowing way. None of my friends would make a different decision, but the uniformity of responses tells me we need to invest more in parents. A child tax credit does not strike me as enough.
    

> Like I said, I’m tired. People generally respond with something nonsensical like it’ll get better, trust me. I’d love to trust you, but I’m tired, and I can’t think straight. Perhaps one of the reasons we’re having trouble is because we fell for The Parent Trap a year or seven too late; who knows. Next year I’ll turn forty. The thought of having to go through all this again, including the endless whining and screaming because of infant acid reflux is one of the reasons I quickly replied “haha just kidding”.

*   [I sold 50k books (and I didn't predict this either)](https://newsletter.pathlesspath.com/p/i-sold-50k-books-and-i-didnt-predict) - So many fascinating tidbits in here. I love to see behind the curtain, but more than that, I love the author's probabilistic predictions. I will be integrating these into my goals. What are the odds I fix the rear derailer on my bike? 0%.
    

> *   Some mainstream press will mention my book (25%) I don’t think this happened but Insider did do a short article on me in 2024.
>     
> *   A top podcaster that I haven’t will ask me to go on their show (determined by apple rankings) (25%) Yes, Lenny’s Podcast
>     
> *   I will appear on TV to talk about my book (5%) Nope.
>     
> *   I will decide to write another book by the end of the year (30%) Yes!
>     

*   [Startups Say India Is Ideal for Testing Self-Driving Cars](https://spectrum.ieee.org/india-self-driving-car) - The core problem of self driving cars is their reliance on models of the world. All those models break in India, resulting in self driving cars that process the world real time. Hats off to the work of Waymo, but the companies listed in this article are worth keeping an eye on.
    

> Swaayatt CEO Sanjeev Sharma says the video highlights the two major characteristics of Indian traffic that makes it so challenging. It is both stochastic and adversarial, which in simpler terms means that road conditions and driver behavior are almost entirely unpredictable, and that other road users are more likely to play chicken than give way.

*   [Superlinear Returns](http://www.paulgraham.com/superlinear.html) - Asymmetry is an idea I've spent the last 4 years pondering. I struggle to make my awareness of asymmetry in the world practical. Paul Graham does an excellent job of laying out real world advice for the mind bending impact of, as he calls it, super-linearity.
    

> Teachers and coaches implicitly told us the returns were linear. "You get out," I heard a thousand times, "what you put in." They meant well, but this is rarely true. If your product is only half as good as your competitor's, you don't get half as many customers. You get no customers, and you go out of business.

---

*Originally published on [Last Week I Learned](https://paragraph.com/@jimmyonarticles/week-1-of-october)*