Which Would You Subscribe: Hbr / the Economist / Farnam Street?

Before spending money on a subscription, buy an inexpensive notebook at the grocery store and use it to do pre-mortems, post-mortems, and to track your reasoning contemporaneously with your decision making. That will have a much bigger positive effect than simply receiving or even dutifully reading information from any of those sources.

And for one, Farnam Street essentially suggests doing the same thing.

i subscribe to economist podcasts and occasionally read the print magazine. it doesn't improve my decision making skills or leadership, it is sometimes informative but mostly a form of entertainment.

Farnam Street for sure.

Honestly, books are good and all, but I would try and build a network of one or two mentors.

I was always reluctant to ask people for mentorship or help, but when someone reached out to me for questions, I helped them immediately. I don't think I'm that much of an outlier in terms of helpfulness, so I'm sure other people are just as happy to help.

I would try and reach out to people whose business you admire but that aren't competitors. Make sure you close the loop and tell them how what you tried based on their advice, how you benefitted etc.

Financial Times and NewYorker

HBR

I often find myself disagreeing with HBR recently, and some of the articles don't even use reliable data. I feel it's a little above mainstream sources like Forbes/Business Insider.

There was some good stuff; it had the best explanation of the Business Model Canvas and how business models worked, but that's the one memorable thing I got from HBR. I'd say pick one of the others - I'd second the recommendation for Financial Times.

The Economist is fantastic for world news, especially for regions that go underreported in US media, but it doesn't sound like what you're looking for.

The Financial Times

Just read business books if you want to improve your decision making skills and leadership books, of course, network etc.

Those publications' content are ephemeral and age quite fast, you don't learn much that can help you develop over time.

Those subscriptions aren't very helpful on what you want to improve, they are good for you to understand the current economic scenario and new hypes and booms, and each have their own biases. I'd prefer HBR over the others.

They are also good for you to keep up on subjects so you can talk with other people that are business types.