The Sh*t They Never Taught You
Copyright
The Sh*t They Never Taught You
Copyright 2021 by Adam Jones and Adam Ashton.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner.
Rev. date: 15/02/2021
For information contact :
book@theshittheynevertaughtyou.com
www.whatyouwilllearn.com
Book and Cover design by Jack Turner (Hey Stubby)
Typesetting by Tash Simmons
ISBN: 123456789
First Edition: May 2021
Contents
Introduction
The Magic Pill
Limitless , starring Bradley Cooper, is a story about an ordinary bloke named Eddie Morra. At the beginning of the film, he is an all-round loser: he gets dumped by his girlfriend, has bags under his eyes, and is an ignorant alcoholic. Eddie's life is an absolute mess.
Through a series of events, Eddie gets hold of a drug called NZT-47. He pops a pill as he walks up the stairs to his apartment. In an argument with his landlord, he sees himself in an out of body experience. He thinks, " I was blind, but now I see ".
He opens the door to his apartment, and its a disgusting mess. Interestingly, the first thing Eddie does is clean the dishes, empty the trash can and tidy his house. With his new found intelligence, he played the stock market and made bank. He goes from a lazy bum to a supercharged genius.
At first, he was in awe at the power of this drug, but he soon realised its effects were quite simple: it made him clear on what he needed to do and how to do it.
NZT-47 gave Eddie the missing pieces of the puzzle. He now holds all of the ingredients required to achieve success in the modern world: he's happy, rich, hot, smart, a weapon in bed, and doing meaningful work.
Would you take that pill?
This is an important question we all have to ask ourselves. Most people spend their whole life convinced a pill like this doesnt exist. If you want a similar transformation to Eddie, there is a simple prescription available.
The Deal
Think of what $25 can get you these days. You might get coffees for a week, a few pints at the pub, an Uber trip to a mates party, or a movie ticket. These purchases will put a smile on your face and can brighten up a dull week. But the benefit or value of these purchases are of a short-term nature - you drink the coffee, get perked up for a few hours, then its gone.
Contrast that to something else you could invest your cash in: books. In return for handing over some of your hard-earned, you get to tap into the greatest brains that have ever roamed the planet. Authors devote their entire lives to studying and researching a single topic, and then they bundle up the most important information into a neat little package to share with the world. What bloody legends! Books are the most undervalued commodity on the planet.
But you probably already know this. Telling someone to read more books is like telling someone to make more money or lose weight. Wanting to do something and actually doing it are two totally different ball games. Were all busy with our jobs, our friends, our kids, plus we have to get some sleep, clean the dishes, go for a jog, and of course, we have to find the time for some Netflix and chill. All of the book recommendations youre getting keep piling up on the nightstand, but when you hit the hay after a long day of dealing with lifes obligations, you cant seem to find a good book that will tell you what you need to know to improve your life.
There are so many amazing books out there. But theres also a lot of crap. Some academics know their shit but cant make it digestible for the layperson like you or I. Some authors hit it big with a viral TED Talk or an appearance on Oprah, and a publisher handed them a juicy cheque to turn their 18-minute spiel into a 300-page book, which meant they fluffed it up with a lot of junk. Others just regurgitate the same old platitudes that add no value to your life.
If you can trudge your way through the swamp of crap books to find some gold on the other side, your life could change in an instant. Imagine reading about a brand new idea that was told in an engaging and entertaining way. Imagine taking the best nuggets of gold from the greatest minds in history and applying it to your own world. That would be a truly amazing pill.
The Sh*t They Never Taught You
Have you ever learnt something so simple yet so profound it made you think: why the hell didnt someone tell me this earlier?!
As avid book readers, it happens to us every couple of weeks. Ranging from simple ideas about how to save more money to more complex ideas about how the human brain plays tricks on us, there are a whole host of eye-opening ideas we were never taught when we were growing up.
For our entire adult lives, weve been searching for magic pills that could change the trajectory (and our ultimate destination) of our lives. And we found them hidden inside books. Weve packaged up the biggest ideas from over a hundred of the greatest minds on the planet. The Sh*t They Never Taught You is a compilation of exactly that - the shit they never taught you:
The Sh*t.
Hopefully, we dont have to spell this out, but were not referring to the stuff that pops out of your digestive tract on a daily basis. Were referring to the near-infinite mass of ideas floating out in the ether that could enter your brain. It is impossible to learn every single thing in one lifetime, but the more ideas you expose yourself to the better off youll be. Each new idea you pick up increases your chance of achieving your life goals. Theres plenty of shit out there to learn, and in this book, well be dishing up heaps of new game-changing ideas youve never come across.
They.
Who are they? Who teaches us? This is subjective. For almost everybody, to some extent, we learn from teachers. We spend five days a week at school for 13 years, or more if you go on to further study. Schools, teachers or professors teach us a hell of a lot. But their scope is somewhat limited. Most of us also learn a lot from the people around us as we grow up - parents, guardians, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbours, sports coaches, mentors. Each has their role, and each has a specific scope of what they teach us. Beyond that, we might get lucky with mentors popping up in unexpected places - perhaps a boss, a colleague or a family friend. In any case, the group of they that were exposed to is somewhat limited. By reading this book, were going to exponentially expand your personal circle of they to now include the smartest people in history. Youll now be learning from CEOs, billionaires, entrepreneurs, marketing gurus, hedge fund managers, philosophers, behavioural psychologists, anthropologists, historians and more. These legends and geniuses, the most influential authors on the planet, will be your new teachers.
Never Taught You.
No single person holds the worlds wisdom. Whoever the they were that taught you, they did their best with what they knew. Were not here to rag on them, but there is just too much out there to possibly teach. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to realise that they missed out on a lot of stuff. Were sure youve had a moment in your life that pointed out a gaping hole in your education, just like we have.
A Few Personal Introductions
Throughout the book, youre going to hear from two voices - Adam Ashton and Adam Jones. Well be referring to ourselves as I (Ashto) and I (Jonesy) from here on.
