Learn From My Mistakes

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

Willpower is a cheat code.

It’s the least trustworthy thing in my toolbox. It lets me down.

• Morning me swears “no late snacks.” Night me opens the fridge at 6 p.m. for a few spoons of Greek yogurt. Close the fridge at 8. My stomach is full of protein and carbs. Mostly carbs. Dude, seriously?

• Or “No cookies today.” Then my sweetheart wife brings macaroons, which are only good when fresh. Wife wins.

• Or “Fifty pages tonight.” YouTube says hello with a fresh review of a gadget I’m dreaming about (still convinced every household must have a 3D printer). Which leads to impulse purchases. Filament for the printer isn’t going to find its way to my home by itself!

My life is full of “accidents.”

But my wife calls them “serendipities.” “Hey, Alex, cheesecake bites at Costco were 50% off!”. Case in point: we love people not because - we love despite.

Some authors say willpower is a “muscle” you train. If we take that literally, bad news. Muscles grow during rest, not the workout (science!). Nice try, authors.

So I ditched my trust in willpower and started disconnecting input from output.

The truth of life: the further the result is from when you put in the effort, the stronger the temptation.

Most real results are lagging. Muscle, money, skill. They show up late.

One workout changes nothing (fine, it changes how sore you’ll be).

A hundred dollars invested won’t make you rich overnight. No exceptions.

This is rough. I know. I feel your pain. I’m in it too!

So I stopped refreshing the scoreboard and put outcomes on “airplane mode”.

Workouts. 

Easiest for me - cheaper than therapy.

I train 2 to 4 days on, then 1 day off. Just follow Matt D’Avella’s 2-Day Rule: “never miss two days in a row”.

If possible, avoid the scale. That worked for years until we put one in the bathroom. Now I see it daily and can’t skip it. You do you - and learn from my mistake.

Don’t like workouts?

Great alternative: don’t get fat. Simple. Not easy.

Finances. 

My employer auto-skims a slice of my pay into retirement.

If I touch it early, I pay a penalty. Beautiful friction.

The rest lands in our bank account, where I still try to save. My wife hears “challenge accepted” and sets new records on Amazon Prime. Respect.

Skills. 

Hardest one because I compare myself to others.

“I’m competitive” is a lame excuse, but I use it.

So I started measuring outcomes less by imagined quality and more by quantity.

Remember that Pottery Class story parable?

This newsletter is my pot #54. If you’re curious how ugly pot #1 was, peek here.

Attention!

If this newsletter made you smirk or think, forward this edition to a person who could and must do better.

Why?

Because suffering alone is not cool anymore.

They’ll see this sentence too. Be proud and own it. One share moves the needle. Just one forward helps a lot.

If you send it to two people, you owe us a beer.

Appreciate you, no sarcasm this time.

Referral done. Same motion builds everything.

Do. Repeat. Wait.

It works for gym, diet, skills, business, investing.

Do. Repeat. Wait.

Then results show up like a package you forgot you ordered.

Conclusion for my visual readers: constant dripping wears away stone.

Till next time.

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Short & Sweet

Short articles worth your attention

Your 10-step plan for achieving a creative breakthrough - 14 min read.

Not mystical. Not guru stuff. Just a practical recipe: get stuck on purpose, collect novel info, take a walk, then verify you are not delusional about your “breakthrough.”

Once You're Laid Off, You'll Never Be the Same Again - 13 min read.

Think your extra-mile heroics will save you? This one shows why you’re still just a row in an Excel table and how to spot the layoff tells before the email hits.

The productivity paradox: Why I cut my tech stack in half - 9 min read.

Your “productivity” stack is secretly a part-time job. This piece shows how to cut it in half with three ruthless questions, a quarterly audit, and a 30-day “cooling off” list so shiny apps stop moving in without paying rent.

Add this to your shelf

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

Humans are predictably irrational - we lie to “be nice” and then wonder why trust erodes. Sam Harris makes the annoying case that telling the truth actually simplifies your life and fixes a lot of social gymnastics. And he does it in ~100 pages, so you’re out of excuses.

A Workspace I Envy

A handpicked desk setup that caught my eye this week

The tilted ultrawide is basically a control deck from a spaceship. Sleeping on that idea.

Behind the Persona

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

Cool Facts About Jack Ma

Priority Rule: In a 2014 investor letter he set the order “customers first, employees second, shareholders third,” and used it to settle trade-offs on products, hiring, and budgets. It’s the default when decisions conflict.

LQ Hiring Bar: At Davos 2018 he pushed IQ + EQ + LQ (love quotient) as the promotion filter, noting women held about 37% of Alibaba senior roles. He treats LQ as the tiebreaker for leadership calls.

AliDay Feedback Loop: He turned May 10 (Taobao’s 2003 launch date) into an annual ritual to review wins and failures from the prior year. It’s a built-in cadence for reflection and course corrections.

Delegate the Technicals: “I know nothing about technology… I only know people,” he repeats to justify hiring specialists and pushing decisions down. He focuses his time on narrative, priorities, and morale, not specs.

Intensity Norm: In April 2019 he called 996 (9am-9am 6 days/week) a “huge blessing,” signaling that crunch periods are expected during scale-up. It’s a cultural constraint that prioritizes speed when chasing product-market fit.

Mission Filter: He uses the mission “make it easy to do business anywhere” as a yes/no gate. If a proposal doesn’t lower friction for merchants or buyers, it loses budget or gets killed.

Watch-worthy clips

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

Hate when plans blow up by noon? This clip shows Cal Newport’s simple time-block grid and a “collection” box so you stop task-switching and keep moving.

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