Hello and welcome to your weekly dose of actionable (and occasionally provocative) things.
Do you remember me whining last May - begging my wife to approve a 3D printer purchase?
Well.
Last week she made me buy filament in different colors.
Brutally. Nonnegotiable.
Now I’m on a deadline to print cute little gifts for her friends for International Women’s Day (is it a real holiday, or just a scheduled reminder that I’m never doing enough?)
The “best” part: she casually asked everyone their favorite colors… and didn’t give me a chance to properly present the already available color options.
So I learned about this assignment the way I learn most things - suddenly, urgently, and with consequences.
But I agreed immediately!
For two reasons:
The device (which I insist on calling “the tool”) has to work. I need it to prove it’s not a useless gadget.
This is going to become one of my core arguments for getting a home server: “You’ll thank me later.”
Because, as you can see, there’s already a case in point.
Honey, it’s Monday, and you just received this in your inbox.
I hope you’re reading it right now in your office.
Away from home - so you can have a full workday to cool off before you come back to the place where we live and I operate a loud plastic gift factory.
Get coffee. Breathe.
Everyone else… enjoy the edition!
Table of Contents
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Learn From My Mistakes
Short story of how I break life chaos into small, solvable problems - 3 min read.
Two minutes late = real consequences.
This story has been widely reported, though the exact details depend on the retelling.
A Greek passenger showed up two minutes after boarding closed.
Just two minutes late.
He begged the staff to let him on.
They refused.
He got so angry that he started arguing with security, escalated the whole thing into a full-blown scene, and ended up at a police station.
And then the story hits a twist.
At the station, officers told him he should “thank God,” because the plane he missed had crashed six minutes after takeoff.
Try letting your brain hold that without buffering.
One moment, he’s convinced he’s having the worst day ever because he missed his flight.
One heartbeat later, he realizes he didn’t miss the flight. He missed the disaster.
Later he posted a photo of his ticket on Facebook with the caption: “My lucky day.”
Now here’s the part I actually care about.
Not the headline. Not the chills. The skill I can practice without needing a dramatic plot twist from the universe.
Whenever something happens to me - amazing or ordinary, pathetic or annoying - I try to meet it with one sentence:
“This is good, because…”
Yes, it sounds a little corny. But it works because my brain loves to stamp things fast: BAD.
Case closed. Court adjourned. Day ruined. Next.
“This is good, because…” forces a tiny shift.
Someone said no to my idea. This is good, because I didn’t waste three weeks building something nobody wanted.
I’m stuck in traffic. This is good, because I can finally make that call I keep avoiding, or listen to something that doesn’t yell at me.
I’m feeling anxious for no clear reason. This is good, because it’s a cue to do the basics: water, food, walk, sunlight, then reassess.
I got rejected. This is good, because it saved me from the slow torture of “maybe” and “we’ll be in touch.”
I’m embarrassed. This is good, because it means I tried something that’s actually new to me.
I made a mistake. This is good, because it’s feedback I didn’t have yesterday.
I’m not getting replies. This is good, because my message probably needs to be simpler and more specific.
It doesn’t require me to pretend I’m fine.
It turns “this sucks” into “okay, what do I do with this?”
Because the real superpower isn’t “staying positive”.
It’s finding the usable part of what happened so I can switch from “why me” to “what now”.
If I want to stay stuck forever and step on the same rake over and over, I can keep seeing everything as negative, take it personally, and build a little victim-themed museum in my head.
If I want to move forward faster (and cheaper), I look for the good, and I learn.
Simple, but not easy.
Important note: “This is good, because…” does not mean “this doesn’t hurt” or “this is fine”.
It means: “Okay, what can I do with this before I start doom-scrolling like it’s my job?”
And no, this isn’t a lesson about being late on purpose.
It’s a reminder that I might be judging my days too early.
Till next time.
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Our favorite digital finds
Tools, apps, and services that actually deliver
Notchie is for when you want to sound prepared on Zoom without doing the whole “prepared” thing. Your notes sit right under your MacBook camera, so your eyes stop doing that guilty little side-glance. I used it for QBR a week ago. Easy.
This is a “stop guessing” button for the gym. Click a muscle on the body map, get exercises with videos and step-by-step cues, and suddenly you look like you have a plan.
My favorite feature is the inbox-as-a-Kanban-board thing. Drag emails into To Do, In Progress, Done, and suddenly, email stops pretending it’s not a to-do list.
Short & Sweet
Short articles worth your attention
Newton’s First Law Applies to Productivity Too - 3 min read.
If you’ve been “resting” on a task for three days, congrats - you’re following a law of motion. The article makes a simple point: motion creates motion… Curious? Start reading now.
The Ultimate Stoic Daily Routine - 6 min read.
This article is basically “adulting, but with Marcus Aurelius side-eye.” It gives you a simple structure for the day and a quick-start checklist, so Stoicism becomes a practice instead of a personality aesthetic.
Critical thinking is great, but in a world full of information we need to learn 'critical ignoring' - 6 min read.
Being “informed” is an attention problem. This piece shows how to stop feeding your focus to junk.
Add this to your shelf
If you're looking for something to read, this book's worth considering
This book is your appetite’s leaked user manual. A bariatric surgeon explains why “just eat less” fails, how hunger is regulated, and why modern food keeps you snacking. You’ll blame willpower less and biology more.
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A Workspace I Envy
A handpicked desk setup that caught my eye this week
OCD plus a subtle sense of aesthetics can turn the underside of a desk into cable-management art. I’m now considering stealing this exact “every wire has a home” setup for mine.
Behind the Persona
A deep dive into the quirks, habits, and backstories that shape icons
Drew Houston lost a USB stick and turned the annoyance into Dropbox. He co-founded it, ran it as CEO, and made file syncing so easy even I can’t ruin it. The twist is he built his company to save the rest of us from the exact mistake that launched his career.
Cool Facts About Drew Houston
OPP Inbox Triage: He labels email as OPP - “Other People’s Priorities” - so he does not accidentally turn his week into a to-do list written by strangers. He’ll reply days to months later.
No-Meeting Wednesday Shield: He protects one full day for uninterrupted thinking because “important, not urgent” work will never survive a calendar full of “quick” meetings. His litmus test was basically: if it’s truly urgent, schedule it on Saturday. Brilliant!
Urgent vs Important Discipline: He leans on the Eisenhower split (urgent vs important) because organizations naturally reward “reactive hero mode.” His fix is carving time for “important, not urgent” so you stop getting blindsided later.
Calendar Or It Doesn’t Exist: He treats exercise and self-care as scheduled commitments, not “I’ll squeeze it in.” His rule is blunt: if you cannot see it on the calendar, it basically does not exist.
Avoid Being Stupid: He repeats a Munger-style idea: you can get wildly successful by consistently avoiding dumb decisions instead of trying to outsmart everyone. It means he watches for what could go wrong and sticks to simple decisions that work again and again.
Thick Skin, Thin Skin: He listens to feedback, but he does not let it drive the car. His decision filter is first principles - examine inputs, not just loud outputs.
Low-Pressure Milestones: Early on, he framed Dropbox like “just another side project” so he would not suffocate it with expectations. Progress was a chain of moving goalposts - a demo video, then private beta, then the next milestone.
Watch-worthy clips
One video that got us thinking, and we think you'll like it too
This clip is a gentle roast of “optimize harder” culture. It argues that without actual goodness, the whole self-optimization project starts to wobble, like a standing desk with one short leg.
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