First Principles Laura Gao

Referenced -

TKS: https://referrals.tks.world/3pOzqdY



Connect: twitter.com/laurgao

There aren't many things that can be lost forever. But thoughts definitely can.



This episode's speaking is unedited - I didn't cut out any stumbles or stutters. I want this podcast to be an accurate representation of my speaking abilities.



Where I currently write:  https://postulate.us/@laura



Inspired by:



How I Use Learning in Public as My Personal Knowledge Management Strategy by Samson Zhang: https://www.samsonzhang.com/2021/01/27/how-i-use-learning-in-public-as-my-personal-knowledge-management-strategy.html



David Perell's notebook: https://perell.com/notebook/



Andy Matuschak's notes: https://notes.andymatuschak.org/



Postulate - an all-in-one tool for collecting and publishing your knowledge: https://postulate.us/



I also take notes as Tweets sometimes: https://twitter.com/laurgao

Do you like 1 minute podcasts?



I'm trying to increase value density of these episodes. I want to increase the ROI of your most precious resource, your time. Over the past months, I've worked to increase the quantity of content output. But I fear my quality has suffered. Do these podcasts actually provide value to anyone?



Thank you to Amy Li for contributing some of these thoughts!



Connect with me: @laurgao on Twitter. Or email: gaolauro@gmail.com

Here's a quick little sketch. Might make it into a vector design sometime.



You can either live life as a sequence of sprints or as a marathon. Choose wisely, my friend.

In which Risha and I talk about the importance of the activator mindset in our lives and how you can become an activator. Start activating your activator mindset ;)



Connect with Risha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/risha-shah-8316b1190/



# Referenced content:


Risha's article — Detecting cardiovascular diseases using machine learning: https://medium.com/swlh/detecting-cardiovascular-diseases-using-machine-learning-fb22bee681da



Do the real thing by Scott Young: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/05/04/do-the-real-thing/



"Published writing functions as a sort of spaced repetition" — Samson Zhang: https://samsonzhang.medium.com/how-i-use-learning-in-public-as-my-personal-knowledge-management-strategy-c249311aeb0f



Send me any thoughts, opinions, or roasts: @laurgao on Twitter or https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauragao/ (or email me gaolauro AT gmail DOT com)



Thanks for listening!



# Release notes


1. This episode is the first one with episode-specific cover art! Intention: so listeners can put a face onto the voice of my guest. Inspired by cover art from Justin Kan's podcast, The Quest.



2. Also updated the podcast cover art today to include my name.



3. Time spent: 5 mins planning/setup, ≤ 1h recording, 2h editing, ≤ 1.5h cover art. Total: 4-4.5h.



4. Recorded to published within a day ;)

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Gandhi



Shoutout to my Dad, Bernice, Jessica, & Ethan for convos about this topic that inspired some of these thoughts ;)



# Referenced content



Waitbutwhy on Mundane Wednesdays: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/life-is-picture-but-you-live-in-pixel.html



Justin Kan Reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/kr63rg/i_am_justin_kan_cofounder_of_twitch_worlds/



Some happiness Tweets: https://twitter.com/laurgao/status/1359172114641805317



Connect with me: @laurgao on Twitter and most places. Or email gaolauro AT gmail DOT com



# Release notes:



1. Surprised I was able to monologue for 30 mins. Never shall I ever fear not being able to fill an 8 min debate speech again 😂 However, I mostly planned for/expected this podcast to be 10 mins. I feared it'd be too short to be a full episode. I did not write any script, I wrote 22 lines of random thought dump bullet points setting out my intentions. Would've taken me 2 mins to recite lol. Here's what I spoke off of if you want to see: https://first.lauragao.ca/1863b71389134554ba927748e558f681



2. Thinking 7:15/20-7:30/35, Recording 7:30-8:10pm Feb 14, editing till 8:30/35. Release notes till 8:46. More release notes/uploading/final touches Feb 15 8:40-9:10. Total time spent on this episode: ~2 hours.



3. Didn't go heavy into editing. The only edits: a few mic clicks at the beginning were manually cut out. Only altered my speaking in 2 places: 1) In the beginning after intro I had a long ass pause while deciding what point to start with, 2. Ghandi quote - cut out my keyboard typing to look up the quote + a few stutters as I was looking for the quote. Shoulda said "ima look it up rn" so I could've kept keyboard noises, like Ethan did in the first episode of QCN. Other than those 2 cuts at beginning, I did not alter the content of my speech in any way. that's my goal. I want these podcasts to be authentic to my speaking abilities.



4. A change in this episode: outro music is no longer Bensound's Little Idea but same file as glitchy intro. Main inspo was the NISP podcast episode 1 had ending music the same as its intro music, which made for nice closure. Overall, many podcasts do that which kinda their whole podcast has one "theme" or vibe to it which feels nice.



5. A change in this episode: what I say in the intro. Old: "Hello and welcome to the first principle spodcast, a show where we talk about mindsets/philo/personal growth from the perspective of FPT. I'm your host Laura..." This came from The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. Or After On by Rob Reid? Now: "Hey, it's laura, and you're listening to first principles..." This feels more authentic mybe? Inspo is The Quest podcast by Justin Kan.



6. Yes, the mic has clicky noises. No, I have no idea the cause.



7. I did think about this topic for a while prior to this, maybe I've been thinking about this for the past month or so. I've talked to some friends about this. I wrote about some in my reflections. I was working on a spreadsheet my dad gave me to break down all the elements required for happiness. So this podcast came out spur-of-the-moment where I dumped all these thoughts in one place. To clear my head.



8. I was going to write a blog post about this topic, but talking is 10x faster than writing at delivering your message across. So I monologued about it instead. (Original: https://twitter.com/laurgao/status/1359296027061280779)