💪Finkel's Fast Five - Issue 102

 ISSUE #102 - January 10th, 2020

ONE

COMEDY - I had no idea who comedian Ronny Chieng was until a 30-second bit from his act showed up in my Twitter feed about 10 times over a few days. In a half-minute monologue, his frustration about being forced to have meaningless interactions with his wife's friends over and over builds to the point where he explodes and says he can't even muster the bare minimum that society requires to be polite anymore because he doesn't give a shit...and he's tired of pretending. His delivery. His timing. it's outstanding and many, many husbands and wives are nodding to themselves right now...  The act is from his Netflix stand-up special, Asian Comedian Destroys America!, and he covers a lot of ground, from spot-on observational bits about Americans and American restaurants' absurd use of napkins as a show of wealth, to clever takes on weddings, why Asians don't care about American holidays but love them, and why an Asian would be the perfect president. Funny stuff. Here's his site.

TWO

HAPPINESS - Neil Pasricha is a New York Times bestselling author and dubs himself as a happiness expert, which of course, sounds like total BS. He happened to be a guest on Shane Parrish's 'The Knowledge Project' podcast, which I like, so I listened to it because Parrish usually doesn't miss with his interviews and the description made me curious.  First off, Parischa is not a happiness expert in a 'touchy feely', spiritual, goofy way. The guy went to Harvard business school and he basically spends his time researching studies on happiness, then taking the analytics of what makes people happy and turning them into books and Ted talks. And he's got some great stuff. There is an actual formula of things you can do every day that will make you a certain percent happier according to studies (journaling for 10 minutes, reading fiction to start your day, etc...). I thought his most powerful concept involved what he calls, "Untouchable Days", which means setting aside a day (or morning if that's all you have) to work uninterrupted on what you care about. My one caveat with the interview is that I thought the first 20 minutes were strong and the last 20 minutes were strong, but in the middle he gets into his personal life and I fast-forwarded through a lot of it. Sorry, Neil. Here's a link.

THREE

DUDES - I labeled this section dudes because, well, it made the most sense for what I'm about to share, which is the end result of what a guy had to do as punishment for finishing last in his fantasy football league. The punishment is perfect, creative and at least half the guys reading this will propose this next year at their draft. I will let Cyrus Wittig explain:  "For my fantasy football punishment, I will be attempting the Waffle House challenge. I must stay in a Waffle House for 24 hours. For every waffle I eat, an hour is subtracted from my sentence. Please join me on this journey."  Here is the twitter thread in all its glory, including all the shots of waffles you can handle bro. Read it here.

FOUR

BOOKS - I bought this book a few years ago and was waiting to start it on January 1st because the book is set up for you to read one page per day, every day starting after the New Year. The book is called The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living.  It's written by Ryan Holiday (Ego is the Enemy, The Obstacle is the Way) and there is one entry/lesson in Stoicism in the book for every day of the year. Other than getting up at 5AM to throw weights around, swim or taunt other dudes who aren't awake yet, I'm not one for daily rituals or affirmations or anything like that. But I like Holiday's books and I like the idea of Stoicism so I figured I'd try starting this January 1st. And so far, I like it. I read one entry before I shower every morning. Takes 45 seconds max and it gives you a big idea about life to think about during the day. There's nothing magical about it. In fact, I'd say it's practical, if anything. If this interests you, check it out here.

FIVE

"Some things are in our control, while others are not. We control our opinion, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything of our own doing...Even more, the things in our control are by nature free, unhindered, unobstructed, while those not in our control are weak, slavish, can be hindered, and not our own."  - Epictetus 

NEW ---> Share the FF5 and get TREMENDOUS STUFF:  1 SHARE = Enters you into a raffle to win a free copy of one of the books I mention here in the FF5. I'll do a drawing every 10 issues, but you have to forward the FF5 to a friend to enter.  3 SHARES = 1 Abe Lincoln as Tyler Durden Fight Club Sticker - perfect for your laptop, office, fridge or on your squat rack like Tommy John  10 SHARES = 1 Official Finkel's Fast Five Coffee Mug like this one that my man Marlin won last year  25 SHARES = If you share Finkel's Fast Five with 25 friends who you think would like it, I will take you to the movies... (well, not literally) ...but I will Venmo you money for a ticket to your next movie, on me. We'll cap this at 4 people for now.  FORWARD TO A FRIEND RIGHT HERE  FYI: The sharing of the FF5 is cumulative... You don't have to share this e-mail 10 times if you don't want to. It can be 10 issues over 10 weeks or 10 months, whatever... The point is, please share it. We've grown from less than a hundred to a few hundred to a few thousand readers in under two years... Let's see how fast we can get to 10,000! - Jon

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