Paul Graham on what to unlearn from college, Kobe Bryant's coach on showing up everyday, and the iPod’s inventor on the customer journey

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Paul Graham on what to unlearn from college

“The most damaging thing you learned in school wasn't something you learned in any specific class. It was learning to get good grades.

Getting a good grade in a class on x is so different from learning a lot about x that you have to choose one or the other, and you can't blame students if they choose grades. Everyone judges them by their grades — graduate programs, employers, scholarships, even their own parents.

The worst thing it does is to train you that the way to win is by hacking bad tests. This is a much subtler problem that I didn't recognize until I saw it happening to other people.“

Source: The Lesson to Unlearn by Paul Graham

2: Kobe Bryant's coach on showing up everyday

Tim Grover was the personal trainer of Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade, and a series of other NBA Hall of Famers.

“Do. The. Work. Every day, you have to do something you don’t want to do. Every day.

Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear. Otherwise, the next day you’re going to have two things you don’t want to do, then three and four and five, and pretty soon, you can’t even get back to the first thing.

And then all you can do is beat yourself up for the mess you’ve created, and now you’ve got a mental barrier to go along with the physical barriers.”

Source: Relentless by Tim Grover

3: The iPod’s Inventor on the Customer Journey

Source: Build by Tony Fadell

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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