The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 51 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Pasricha: CDC reports US suicide rates are highest since WWII
“The CDC says they have not seen murder, not murder rates, suicide rates this high since World War II.”
Pasricha: Decision-making energy is replenished only by sleep and glucose
“Decision-making energy is a finite resource, and you know, there's that great book called Willpower by John Tierney, and it's a finite resource. When it's gone, and there's only two ways to replenish it, which is sleep and glucose”
Pasricha: Remote workers cannot feel tethered to their company community
“You need to have social connection at your job, and you don't feel as tethered to the community of your work when you don't meet or see anybody. Ever. Period.”
Pasricha: Turning off bright screens gives an hour of extra energy
“And you know what they're actually also finding, Shane, is that the bright screen, when it turns off, gives you about an hour jolt of extra energy.”
Pasricha: Modern Abundance Weakens Psychological Resilience and Spikes Anxiety
“We live in an era of infinite abundance, and I believe because of that, that's partly why we're seeing spiking anxiety rates, loneliness rates, depression rates, and suicide rates, because we no longer have that musculature.”
Pasricha: Build resilience by intentionally rigging games so you can win
“So in this global community, it's important to develop resilience by giving ourselves games that we can win.
Sign up for the marathon in the lowest, slowest category, tee off from the tees closest to the pin, rig the game so you can finally win something, and …”
Pasricha: Work and life operate as a flywheel, not a scale
“There is no such thing as work-life balance. When you hear that word balance, what you probably picture is a scale, like one of these things where, like, one side gets, goes down, the other side goes up. More in one pot is less than another. But he said, no, i…”
Pasricha: Traditional retirement is dangerous and I will never retire
“I don't believe people want to retire. I believe it's very dangerous. I believe you lose. A lot of the social connection, the stimulation of learning, and the story, which you could call an icky guy, and instead, you want to have purpose, and you want to be do…”
Pasricha: Decision-making energy is only replenished by sleep or glucose
“They say when you're done with your decision-making energy, there's only two ways to replenish it. Number one is sleep, and number two is glucose, or anything that turns into glucose in your body.”
Pasricha: NIMH reports 43% of people report having depression
“National Institute of Mental Health says that 43% of us are now saying that we have a form of depression.”
Pasricha: A three-prompt, two-minute morning routine reduces daily anxiety
“In the morning, when I wake up, I don't think we talked about this last time, I do a two-minute morning practice. So I grab a pen, piece of paper, or that yellow journal right behind you, and I simply write down three statements that Pull anxiety out of me. Ri…”
Pasricha: Studies show workers spend 31% of their time task-switching
“There's some studies that have come out and said, you know, we're spending 31% of our time today bookmarking, prioritizing, and switching between tasks as opposed to actually doing things.”
Pasricha: Everyone needs one completely untouchable day every week
“I have a philosophy that everybody needs one untouchable day per week.”
Pasricha: A satisfying career requires story, social connection, structure, and stimulation
“Story, social, structure, stimulation. Those add up and into A satisfying career.”
Pasricha: Smartphones should be re-engineered from push to pull devices
“It is designed to be a push device, and I have designed it to myself as a pull device, meaning that it serves me. I'm the master of that phone chain, and I have to do all these things.”
Pasricha: Nature immersion increases cancer-fighting NK cell production
“By immersing ourselves in nature, We actually do so much benefit to our mental health and our physiological health. We increase the production of NK, you know, cancer killing cells. We increase our heart health. We reduce our anxiety. We reduce our stress leve…”
Pasricha: Extrinsic Motivators Suppress Intrinsic Motivation in the Brain
“When we are exposed to extrinsic motivators, they literally hide the intrinsic motivators in our brain.”
Pasricha: Merely placing a phone between strangers dramatically reduces rapport
“They put a cell phone in between them, and it was not the cell phone of either person. It was not your phone or my phone. It was a dummy prop. It was just a half phone. But the presence of that physical device that nobody could actually touch or do anything wi…”
Pasricha: Projects cannot maximize sales, social acclaim, and self-fulfillment simultaneously
“I think of those three
Corners of a triangle as the success triangle, or the three S's of success, and I think of them like an old school wobble board at the gym.
Meaning, I don't know if you remember those old boards, you have to try to balance on it.
Well, y…”
Pasricha: Returning to intrinsic fun after a hit increases future success
“And so, I think your answer to how you follow up success is actually rooted in that essay, which is, you go back to fun. You listen to Diablo Cody, recognize you don't have to chase that goal anymore, and just lean into the fun, and guess what the ironic part …”
Pasricha: Longer Lifespans Shift Child-Rearing Math Toward Rewarding Years
“The percentage of my life that's the hard part, the diapers, the potty training, the crying, is, is reducing as a percentage of my total life. You ask anyone what the pleasure, the most pleasure parts are of having kids? Oh, when they're, you don't have to tak…”
Pasricha: Confidence requires a high opinion of both yourself and others
“What is confidence? My definition is a high opinion of yourself and a high opinion of others.”
Pasricha: Earning over $50,000 annually puts someone in top 0.05% globally
“If you make more than 5000 dollars a year, you're above the world average. If you happen to make more than 50,000, you're in the top 0.05%.”
Pasricha: Average person reads 100,000 digital words and gets 147 emails daily
“According to the University of California, the average person reads a 100,000 words per day today. It's called Instagram comments, Twitter feeds, blog rolls, news headlines, texts, alerts, and notifications, and the average knowledge worker receives a 147 emai…”
Pasricha: 10 Weeks of Weekly Gratitude Practice Improves Happiness and Physical Health
“Emmons and McCullough, 10 weeks of five gratitudes a week makes you not only happier, but physically healthier after 10 weeks, so we know it's a powerful punch to your brain to do that”
Pasricha: Distinguish objective facts from subjective emotional narratives
“Like, these stories become fact, and part of the language that you have to learn is learning to see the story. I failed biology is a lot different than I failed my parents. First one's a fact. Second one's a story. I'm an alcoholic is a lot different than no o…”
Pasricha: Being in a small pond boosts self-concept for a decade
“If you put yourself in a small pond,
Then your academic self-concept or how you think of yourself goes up for up to 10 years after you leave the pond.
So you think you're great for way longer than you're in that position.
And it stays with you.”
Pasricha: Disconnected 'untouchable days' boosted writing output 10x to 5,000 words
“Instead of writing 500 words through bits and spurts on a normal day, I wrote 5000 words. Like 10 days worth of writing in one day. A 10 X increase in my production.”
Pasricha: Checking email twice daily maintains perceived responsiveness while preserving focus
“If you just check email from nine a.m. To 10 a.m. And four to five p.m., well, I've done this study, that gives everyone the perception that you're always on, yet you've created a 10 a.m. To four p.m. Oasis of blankness, even though you're, like, still answeri…”
Pasricha: Gratitude journaling is ineffective unless entries are specific
“This is the practice of gratitude. We know from the research it's super powerful. Just write a few simple, specific things. We didn't talk about that, but they have to be specific. You can't just write family and friends. That doesn't do anything.”
Pasricha: Wired Founder Kevin Kelly Uses Desktop Lifespan Countdown Clock
“Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired Magazine keeps a clock on his desktop that has expected lifespan, subtracts his current age, measured in days. So, if the average lifespan, which it is, in North America is 30,000 days, and he happens to have lived 21,500 of them,…”
Pasricha: US suicide rate is 14 per 100k, double the murder rate
“The CDC is now saying that suicide rates are around 14 per a 100,000. Just to compare, murder rates are around six per a 100,000, so we are two to three times more dangerous to ourselves than anybody else is to us.”
Pasricha: Writing one chapter per month produced 10 books in 10 years
“The reason I've written 10 books and journals in the last 10 years is because every month I'm trying to write one chapter, so on a monthly basis it doesn't seem like much, but it adds up over time to, like, whole, full books, right?”
Pasricha: Threshold rules eliminated his urge to time ETF investments
“When I changed it to a rule-based approach, i.e., if X, if the number of dollars in checking account was over X, Move to Y, the savings account. The number of dollars in savings account is over Z. Move it to the investment. Those simple two rules avoided me fr…”
Pasricha: Inhaling tree phytoncides reduces cortisol and anxiety
“There, it turns out that there's a chemical that trees release, Shane, called phytoncides. Have you heard of this? P-H-Y-T-O-N-C-I-D-E-S. Phytoncides. When you're out in nature, Not when you're on a treadmill looking at a picture of the Muir Trail. I'm talking…”
Pasricha: 95% of people charge phones within arm's reach while sleeping
“95% of people right now are plugging in with an arm's reach of themselves.”
Pasricha: Living humans represent a 1-in-15 fraction of all who ever lived
“There are a hundred and fifteen billion people, Shane, who have ever lived in the world. If you're watching or listening to this right now, you're one of the eight billion people who are alive today, which means by de facto, a hundred and seven billion of the …”
Pasricha: Adding 'yet' to personal limitations reframes them into learnable skills
“The idea that you can add a yet to any sentence you can't do in your life, and you can learn to do it later.”
Pasricha: McKinsey finds 31% of the day is spent task-switching
“McKinsey says, 31% of our days are now spent bookmarking, prioritizing, and switching between tasks.”
Pasricha: Date one year before moving in, another before marriage
“I need to be dating someone for one year, a full year, before minimum, Before we live together. I need to be living together with someone for one year minimum before we get married.”
Pasricha: Anorexia study shows patients rotate sideways through doorways
“They studied anorexics, ok, and they asked people who had anorexia and people who did not A very simple, non-challenging question to answer, but something that mentally distracted them while they walked through a doorway. So they were not paying attention to t…”
Pasricha starts every morning with three specific journaling prompts
“Every single day I wake up in the morning and I write down three things. I write down I will let go of, I am grateful for, and I will focus on.”
Pasricha: 18% of people and one-third of college students report anxiety
“I believe it's 18% of people will say that they have a form of anxiety. I mentioned in college students it's even higher, one in three.”
Pasricha caps travel at 40 nights yearly with mandatory monthly family days
“We say, okay, Neil, you can go away four nights per month, four nights away from the house, four nights maximum for 10 months of the year. July, August for me is blacked out. That's 40 nights away from my house, about 10% of the year maximum. Then we have to h…”
Pasricha: Nolan Ryan and Cy Young hold records for wins and losses
“The guy that had the most strikeouts, Nolan Ryan, was also the guy that had the most walks. You know, like, ok. The guy that had the most wins, Cy Young was also the guy that had the most losses.”