Learn From My Mistakes

Short story of how I break life chaos into small, solvable problems - 2 min read.

I noticed something: it’s wildly satisfying to stop the microwave at 0:01. No beep, no mental bruise. Just that fake surge of triumph - like a movie hero defusing a nuclear bomb with one second left.

But it’s a fake win. It's a control illusion: you controlled a beep, not your day.

Half the time I’m loitering by the microwave instead of, say, washing veggies or slicing cheese. (Okay, we mostly buy it pre-sliced. Which is a whole other newsletter, because those slices often fuse together and I end up tearing the whole brick anyway. Same pain, more drama.)

Still with me? Respect! 

Because I’m rewinding this branching plot back to the point: fake wins. 

If one beep feels like victory, what other nonsense makes my brain throw confetti?

I kept score for a week.

After some soul-searching, here’s my list:

• Meticulously rearranging app icons for “peak productivity.” (No work happens.)

• Emptying the Trash on my MacBook multiple times a day and calling it a cleaner work environment.

• Inbox Zero via mass-archive without reading a thing—technically my inbox just migrates to a “Read” folder. Once I wrote that out, I questioned my sanity. (Obviously, I shouldn’t.)

• Saving 47 articles to Read-Later Mountain.

• Turning on Focus Mode - then checking notifications manually. Have you ever done that?

• Adding 3 books to a wishlist instead of finishing one chapter.

• Watching a productivity video about not watching productivity videos.

• Double-pressing the elevator button to assert dominance over physics. My conspiracy theory: most “close door” buttons are fake - an adult fidget to keep us distracted.

• Force-quitting all phone apps to “make it faster.” A classic move from my Windows-era trauma.

If I decide (for some reason) to wedge it all into my morning routine - hot sauna, a one-hour meditation, a 20K run, heavy lifting, journaling, and a cold plunge (trying to impress you with my wild imagination) - I'm legally allowed to call it a day and binge YouTube.

But do I want my attention going that direction? Honestly - yes! It's a neat way to avoid (okay, defer) stress.

Will it make me a better person? Sure: busier, calmer and satisfied - less annoying to my family. 

Nice dopamine.

Any dollars? That's the million-dollar question. Literally!

Stopping the beep is cute. Stopping the bleed of attention? That's what pays the bills (I hope, and this is the only time when hope qualifies as a strategy). 

So here's my experiment for this week: triggers!

Three tiny laws

1. No progress theater before lunch.

This one will hurt. To help, I’ll prep Future Me the night before: desk tidied, kettle filled, teapot cleaned, doc open, and the first task written at the top.

2. Add one, remove two.

Libraries shrink; focus grows. My Read-Later zoo gets capped at 10 books. Adopt a new title? Release two back into the wild.

Same for articles/apps: one in, two out. Minimalism - but with teeth and claws.

3. Resurface the rules daily.

Morning: treat them like Terms & Conditions I actually read.

Evening: tally violations and cringe respectfully.

Interim outcome: yesterday I refreshed package tracking zero times. The package still arrived. Apparently, vibes aren't a logistics provider.

Till next time.

Our favorite digital finds

Tools, apps, and services that actually deliver

Short & Sweet

Short articles worth your attention

The Grand Encyclopedia of Eponymous Laws - 24 min read.

Think you know Murphy's Law? That's season one. This mega-roundup corrals 193 eponymous "laws" - from Godwin and Streisand to Brandolini - split into Internet/Computer/Misc, i.e., your ready-made vocabulary for labeling chaos and winning arguments you shouldn't be having.

How losing all my free time forced me to rethink productivity - 11 min read.

Out of free time? Congrats. That's the productivity coach you actually needed. This piece shows how time scarcity forces you to quit fake "busy" work and chase Value-Aligned Productivity - doing the few things that hit purpose, growth, and flow so your hours finally count.

The surprising secret to flow - 5 min read.

Flow on demand? Spoiler: it’s not vibes - it’s progress bars.
Scott’s “secret” is delightfully unsexy: set the difficulty just-right and add shamelessly visible markers of progress (yes, like video games) so even dull work becomes sticky.

Add this to your shelf

If you're looking for something to read, this book's worth considering

If a door has a big handle that makes you want to pull, but it only opens when you push - that’s bad design. This book shows why everyday stuff confuses us and how to fix the design so it's obvious.

A Workspace I Envy

A handpicked desk setup that caught my eye this week

If I sat here, I'd 10x my output (of perfectly curated desk photos).

Behind the Persona

A deep dive into the quirks, habits, and backstories that shape icons

Cool Facts About Estee Lauder

Gift-with-Purchase, on Purpose: Estée hard-wired sampling into the business and helped normalize the “gift with purchase” playbook in prestige beauty. Free minis that convert curiosity into full-size sales and repeat visits. The company still calls sampling a key promotional lever in filings, showing how that bias to “try before buy” became institutional.

“Tell-a-Woman” Word-of-Mouth Engine: Her famously direct mantra “Telephone, telegraph, tell-a-woman” summed up a decision to prioritize demonstrable results and peer advocacy over heavy ad spend. She learned that once you physically show the effect (even by literally touching the face), you win the sale and the story travels.

The Bath-Oil Hack: In 1953 she reframed perfume as a bath oil (Youth-Dew) so women could buy it for themselves without waiting for a “gift fragrance,” turning an occasional spritz into daily ritual and runaway volume. That simple reclassification decision opened a market and rewired purchasing behavior.

The (Probably) On-Purpose Spill: The often-told origin tale has Lauder “accidentally” smashing a bottle of Youth-Dew on a department store floor so the scent would sell itself - scrappy guerrilla PR to force a “yes” when buyers hesitated.

Hands-On Training, Everywhere: While her husband ran the books, Estée personally traveled to new counters, handpicked saleswomen, and trained them in service and grooming - embedding consistent standards through direct coaching instead of memos. That “founder on the floor” habit became a productivity multiplier across stores.

Packaging as a Decision Tool: She chose that distinctive green-blue packaging because it looked good in virtually any bathroom (i.e., it wouldn’t be hidden in a drawer) - a tiny choice that increased daily visibility and usage. Decades later, she could still flip major packaging calls by intuition (famously pushing “Beautiful Pink”), signaling speed over committee drift.

Distribution = Strategy: Rather than chase pharmacy shelves, she went straight to salons and then prestige department stores, using the counter experience to elevate price, service, and trust. Picking the channel first, then building the brand around it - was a deliberate operating choice.

Watch-worthy clips

One video that got us thinking, and we think you'll like it too

The “social lubricant” meets friction from science.
Kurzgesagt’s brand-new Alcohol is AMAZING flips the party myth inside out - uncomfortable stats and clear mechanisms, delivered with their ruthless animation. So you can’t say you didn’t know.

Enjoying the newsletter? Please forward this issue to a friend who might enjoy it too 😊🙏🏻

It only takes 10 seconds. Making this one took us 9 hours…