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Life

Superpowers

In an interview, Warren Buffett was asked what superpower he would like to be granted. His response: “I'd like to have the ability to read faster.” I loved this answer, but when I shared it on Twitter, a few people said something like, “That's dumb. If you read faster, you won't retain the information.” Ah yes, but it’s not about speedreading per se—since he’s a fairly smart guy, I’m pretty sure that Mr. Buffett understands the concept that we don’t retain everything we read. It’s not usually nice to assume, but in this case it’s a safe assumption that he’s talking about actually learning faster—the ability to consume and apply more information in a shorter period of time.

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Life

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Always Get Back Up: Lessons from
Muhammad Ali

Tomorrow is the beginning of Black History Month in the U.S., where we celebrate the achievements of African Americans and honor our country's culture of diversity. Last year I wrote about Malcolm X, one of my personal heroes and a great example of non-conformity in the face of relentless pressure to back down. This time, I wanted to look at the life of Muhammad Ali, born as Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Travel

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Business Goals for the Travel Hacking Cartel

I was all set to go on national TV Friday morning to discuss travel hacking, but then I got a frantic message from the producer: “Have you been to Egypt?” Why yes, I said, I have—not checking the news, since I was thinking ahead to the segment for which they were interviewing me. The next message came three minutes later, saying they were dropping travel hacking in favor of Egyptian riots. Since bringing democracy to a country that has lived with a dictator for three decades is probably more important than earning a free plane ticket, I decided that decision was fair. I went back inside and changed into a t-shirt ...

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Travel

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Free Trip to Anywhere

Next week we're finally going to launch the preboarding phase of my first major business project in nearly a year, the Travel Hacking Cartel. On Monday I'll tell you more about it, and on Tuesday we'll offer a $1, 14-day trial to the first 1,000 people who manage to sign up. (After the preboarding phase, it will be available on a referral basis from existing members.)

But first! Let's have some fun and give away a free trip.

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Life

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How To Be Yourself

It's a good idea to be yourself, not only because everybody else is taken, but because trying to be anything else doesn't usually get you very far.

But how do you do it?

First, you have to understand what you have unlearned about yourself. This process can be disheartening, as you remember past decisions where you had the chance to be yourself but instead chose to be something different.

Since trying to be anyone other than yourself is usually ineffective, why not begin by deciding to do only what is true to your own inner compass? If you did it for just one day, what would that day look like?

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