5 Non-Bullshit January Challenges That Will Change Your Life

// A THREAD //

How to Price Your Services in a Way You Don't Get Busto

// A THREAD //

Whether you're a full-time freelancer or you just want freelance on the side you have to know your price so you don't get busto.

We will discuss the three most common ways how to price your services:

- Hourly rate
- Project rate
- Service as a product

But basics first.

Don't think about the price as a one-night-stand.

Rather build a very close relationship with it.

It:

- helps you to increase/decrease demand
- gives hints about how good/bad your service is
- positions yourself on the market

Know how to use this tool.

Cheaper ≠ Better

Imagine someone selling you a car for $350.

What would you think about it?

Exactly.

Set the fair price, not the scam inducing one.

The cheap price will bring you a specific sort of people.
- to be polite.

So always compete with quality, not price.

1. Hourly rate

This is the most straightforward way how to set your price.

How to set it?

The basic equation may look like:
[Monthly target profit ($) + All costs ($)] / no. of billable hours in a month

PS. Even if you're starting out don't get much lower under this price.

How to Think Better: 5 Robust Tips

// A THREAD //

We think all the time.

Yet, we don't spend much time thinking about HOW we think.

But this meta-level is required if you want to IMPROVE your thinking.

Thinking is the highest ROI skill you can build for life.

Let me show you five tips on how to do it.

1. Get bored

The great thoughts don't come to you when you're busy jumping from one task to another.

- Shower
- Walk

...those are the places where great thoughts tend to appear.

Take advantage and plan how to incorporate "boredom" into your life.

P.S. Meditation counts

2. Know your thinking biases

We as people have some predictable errors in our thinking.

You need to know them, so you can take them into account - and adjust.

Where to start?

@ScottAdamsSays book Loserthink
or Daniel Kahneman book: Thinking Fast and Slow

3. Use mental models

Mental models are general principles that you can apply to various situations.

I strongly recommend you to build your own base of those.

Where to start?

Blog: @farnamstreet

Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack

How to Read Better and Gain More From It

// A THREAD //

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.”

— Charlie Munger

...but maybe you don't and would like to.

That's why I put together this thread.

What will I cover?

1) The biggest myths about reading
2) Why should you read
3) How to find time for reading
4) How to gain the most from your reading

1) The biggest myths about reading

Let's start with briefly debunking some of the biggest myths out there.

"I don't have time for reading."
- We all have the same 24 hours. The reading may not be the priority for you, but that's a choice. The choice you made.

"Reading is boring."
- It doesn't have to be. As @naval puts it: "Read what you love until you love to read".

"Reading is procrastination."
- If you apply what you read, this is non-sense. And if you don't... I still think it's time well spent.

If you're feeling down lately, here's a quick test to figure out why:

👇

💖 Have you met up with your friends IRL this week?

🏋️‍♀️ Have you exercised today or yesterday?

🎨 Are you working on stuff that's meaningful to you?

🤝 Have you helped someone today with something you're good at?

I'm married to an Australian. I returned to Australia from the UK in October.

This is my experience of what happened to me when I arrived in the country during COVID.

I think it will help people understand how criminally bad our government's response has been. (a thread).

On arrival, passengers were escorted from the plane by armed police.

We were allocated a government-mandated hotel, and told to wait in a holding area.

Once processed we were led to a coach. Members of the Australian army lined the route to make sure no one tried to escape.

Once at the hotel we were taken off the coach one by one

An Australian police officer escorted me to my room, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I left it in any unauthorised circumstances for the next two weeks, I would be spending up to two years in an Australian prison.

During the next two weeks I was fed three times a day in polystyrene and with plastic cutlery. Below are some examples of the food. It was fine, but there was no control or choice.

After about eight days I was tested for COVID.

This was mandatory, and the first time I’d seen another human since the quarantine started.

Even though I was negative, I was told I could leave only once my 14 days of isolation were over.

I have a story to tell...

I won't name the person but it's related to someone I know digitally

I've been following him for a year or more

He owns a digital marketing agency and a sells some courses

He had tremendous growth rate on his social media

Everything was going good but today he's shutting down his agency

WHY?

Heavy expenses!

Started providing digital marketing services but

Instantly started running massive number of ad campaigns on his social media accounts

+

Used to pay around Rs 5-10 lakhs per month = rent in a posh area + employees

Result?

Shutting down today

He has a strong personal brand but at the cost of massive investments!

Be it on Ads or PR or some branding

I am a resident of Louisiana.
Tomorrow, I will drop hard copies of this letter in the mail, but I've emailed it to the GOP office and also to Senator Cassidy's office today.
*sorry for the run-ons and so forth.

Dear LAGOP:
Your tone deaf condemnation and censure of Senator Cassidy is misguided and alienating.
As it turns out, remarking that he is without a party places him in a privileged arena if our state’s Republicans are choosing to categorically deny the Senator his

elected responsibility to listen to evidence at a trial and cast a vote appropriate to his conscience.
Senator Cassidy has the ability to muster the courage it takes to be truly honorable, and extend the thought and reasoning it takes to make tough choices regardless of

subversive pressure being applied.
Unlike yourselves, Senator Cassidy has the capacity to read a room. The room he had to read most likely felt cold and lonely. The room he had to read most likely felt suffocating, and fraught with dubious outcomes for himself personally.

But he persisted with honor, and he persisted with valor. He deserves respect for that.
Perhaps reading that room is something for which you should take a look at doing a bit more closely. The Republican Party will no doubt see some changes in the next years.