By Colby Kultgen
102 Lessons From 102 Books, Shohei Otahni's Goal-Setting Method, and The Coolest Photograph You'll Ever See
Read online / Read time: 4 minutes
Hello friends!
Welcome to 1% Better.
The newsletter where I share my 5 favorite ideas, lessons, and discoveries of the week—no fluff, just the good stuff.
Let's get right into it.
A goal-setting method used by the best baseball player in the world
If you don't know who Shohei Ohtani is, he's basically the Michael Jordan of baseball.
The single most dominant two-way player the sport has seen in a century.
When he was a high school freshman in Japan, he created this detailed 64-cell roadmap with one central goal: to be the #1 draft pick for 8 NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) teams.
And it worked.
If you're wondering, this is called the Harada Method.
Here's a quick breakdown:
- Choose one clear, meaningful long-term goal and a deadline.
- Break that main goal into 8 subgoals that cover different areas needed to achieve it.
- Break each subgoal into 8 specific actions, skills, or habits (filling the 8×8 grid).
- Turn the most important actions into a small set of daily routines and track them.
- Review your progress regularly, adjusting subgoals and actions based on what you learn.
Now this is a pretty intense exercise, which I definitely don't think is for everyone.
But I do think it's an amazing way to break down a big goal into something actually actionable.
Here's a template if you want to try it.
As part of his Foundations project, author Scott H. Young read 102 in the last year.
This post is a collection of the 102 most interesting things he learned from them.
They’re categorized into themes like:
- Fitness
- Productivity
- Money
- Sleep
- etc.
Obviously I can't list them all here, but I'll include a few favorites:
Regular exercise cuts your risk of an early death by 40%, roughly the same benefit as quitting smoking.
A sense of progress, in turn, is the most important factor to workplace well-being. (But in surveys, managers thought it was the least important factor!)
Start saving young. Warren Buffet’s amazing wealth is largely a function of his age, not his skill. If he started at 30 and retired at 65 (as opposed to the nearly 80 years of uninterrupted investing he has had), his net worth would be only $11 million (as opposed to $142 billion).
We’re overweight because we eat too much. The increase in calories consumed is enough to entirely explain the change in body mass.
The way to read faster is simply to read more. While the biomechanics of reading prevent reaching the insane speeds proposed by some speed readers, prior knowledge is a major enhancer of retention and fluency, which makes reading more productive and enjoyable.
Loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes.
Asking yourself “what went well?” at the end of the day can give you a big boost to your happiness.
Even having a phone nearby reduces our mental bandwidth and makes us seem less attentive in conversations.
The bang-for-your-buck of reading the full article is insanely high.
I bookmarked it immediately.
Brought to you by...
Last Tuesday I finished three books before breakfast.
(Okay, technically I finished three Shortform summaries, but the insights were 100% real.)
The difference between Shortform and other summary apps?
They have handwritten book summaries.
Crafted by real people who know how to distill complex ideas into something clear and actionable (no AI fluff).
1,000+ books available. These three changed how I think:
Use my link to try Shortform FREE + $50 off a membership.
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A few final thoughts from Warren Buffet
Some major wisdom dropped by Warren Buffet in his final letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.
I know this phrase is going to stick with me:
Decide what you would like your obituary to say, and live the life to deserve it.
A photograph I can't stop looking at
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12:49 PM • Nov 13, 2025
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This is just insanely cool.
Don't be surprised when this ends up as a lot of people’s new lock screen.
Have a great week!
P.S. Reply telling me what resonated most this week!
(I read and respond to them all)
