Work Less Wednesday: August 27

👋 Hey Reader!

This is issue #169 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.

📔 1. Short Book I Read This Week - The ABC Model Breakthrough​

The ABC Model Breakthrough is a short PDF book by Dan Sullivan.

Dan is the founder of Strategic Coach, and author of 10X Is Easier Than 2X (among many others).

In the book, Dan explains an EXTREMELY simple and intuitive productivity system that can be summed up in this chart here:

“Everything you’ve ever done, are doing now, and will ever do in the future can be understood as…”

❌ A. Irritating (Eliminate it)

👥 B. Okay (Delegate it)

✅ C. Fascinating & Motivating (Do it)

It’s easy to understand but difficult to implement because:

1. Most people are TERRIFIED to stop doing the tasks that are just “okay” for them in their business (especially when they make money)
2. It requires us to be “Emotionally Alert and Decisive” to actually be aware of what things we like and dislike doing.

It’s only 75 pages and worth a read.

​Check it out here.​

🫥 2. Why You Are Probably An NPC - Article by Gurwinder​

This 2023 Substack is both hilarious and true.

The thesis:

“It’s getting ever harder to distinguish humans from bots, not just because bots are becoming more humanlike, but also because humans are becoming more botlike.”

Here are the 5 types of NPCs:

👥 NPC #1. The Conformist - Conformists are the stereotypical NPCs. They trust the process by which society reaches consensus, so accept the mainstream view on all things. Whenever they’re in need of answers, they consult the top result of Google — typically Wikipedia — and accept whatever answer it gives.

🙅 NPC #2. The Contrarian - Contrarians are the antithesis of conformists: instead of believing whatever the mainstream believes, they believe the opposite. This is because they start from the position that society’s consensus-producing system is made to manipulate the masses.

🙏 NPC #3. The Disciple - Contrarians will often be tempted to put all their trust in a single, charismatic, anti-establishment demagogue. In so doing, they devolve into the oldest NPC species: the disciple.

🏪 NPC #4. The Tribalist - We lived in tribes for over 90% of human history. As such, tribalism is one of the most deeply hardwired of human instincts, and it frequently hijacks our quest for truth, so that other kinds of NPC tend to eventually evolve, or devolve, into tribalists.

⚖️ NPC #5. The Averager - Averagers think that by eschewing the excesses of the leftist or rightist, or of the conformist or contrarian, they avoid NPC behavior. In fact, averagers are not doing any more thinking than the extremists, and are therefore just as much NPCs.

What is there to do??

“People become NPCs because knowledge is infinite and life is short; they rush into beliefs because their entire lives are a rush. But there’s a better way to save time than speeding through life, and that is…”

​Read the full article here to find out.​

2️⃣ 3. Interesting Success Advice From Scott Adams - Become Very Good At Two+ Things

Interesting life advice from the Dilbert guy…

“If you want to be successful, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility.

The second strategy is fairly easy.

Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort.”

This tracks with my experience.

Stacking skills is a hack.

Although I would argue that in 2025, you probably need to be top 25% at 3-5 things in order to have success.

The good news is the internet makes it MUCH easier to get into the top 25%.

​h/t to Ines Lee for this one.​

✨4. Best Home Purchase In Ages - iWave-R​

We’ve been doing some work on the house recently.

As a part of that, we purchased a new product that has drastically improved our indoor air quality.

It’s called the iWave-R.

Here’s how it works:

Basically, the ions causing odor causing molecules to clump together and become larger.

They then get caught in your HVAC air filters (previously they would be too small and just pass through).

A few things I can report from the last few weeks:

• The air just generally smells CLEAN.
• We have 2 cats and you don’t smell them or their litterbox.
• Smells from cooking food go away MUCH sooner.
• Way less dust in the house.

It sounds like like magic, but this thing really works.

The device just fits inside your HVAC unit and runs constantly.

Our HVAC company installed it and the whole thing was like $800 with the install but you can get it online for ~$500.

​Check it out here.​

🖐 5. More Things I'm Into This Week...

📌 GoFundMe You Should Donate To - Noah Corraliza​

Noah’s father Ivan Corraliza is a close friend, an incredible music producer, and great dad of 4. Tragically his oldest son Noah was just diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. If you can contribute or share, it would be greatly appreciated.

🎧 What I’m Listening To - Imitation of War by Itasca​

🎙️ Podcast I Enjoyed This Week - Rick Rubin x Robert Greene (Really gets good around 45:00 when he starts talking about his recent stroke)

🐟 I Need To Buy This - Holographic Fish Tank​

💬 Solid Writing Advice I’m Pondering…

​- Laura Matsue Guenther​

How we can work together

When you’re ready, here are 2 free ways I can help you:

1. 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
2. 🛠️ 6-Figure Solopreneur Systems. Free email course. Steal the exact systems I used to run TWO multi-six-figure solo businesses in under 20 hours a week.

And 2 paid engagements:

1. 🏖 How To Work Less. From 2012-2023, I built a design agency that made me $500k/year, working 10 hours a week. 🏖How To Work Less gives the playbook. Enrolling now. (400+ past students. 5 stars)
2. 🧪 The Lab. I advise and mentor 6-7 figure Creative Solopreneurs. If you want to work closely with me (i.e. we speak 1-2 times a week), watch this video, the follow the instructions.