Last week’s challenge report:

Obviously, I combined the walk and the offline evening into one task.

I spent 55 minutes (not 20!) wandering through neighborhoods I had never seen before, pretending I was not looking into windows and open garages. I hope GTA VI will have graphics this good.

As for the purchases:

YouTube Premium. Unlimited music for the whole family, plus videos with no ads and free workout classes at home. Yes, I migrated all my playlists from Spotify with no issues. I wish they offered a lifetime purchase. Monthly charges still hurt.

Air fryer. I accidentally discovered that I love broccoli and asparagus. If you don’t have an air fryer, NEVER buy one. There is no going back.

Pull-up bar. Every time I pass it, I hang for at least 15 seconds (personal best is 90 seconds). My spine clicks - so satisfying. Side effect: I can now do more than 10 very slow full-range pull-ups. I started with five.

Jakub’s accomplishments are here: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecuriosprocrastinator

My picks for next week:

Report in a week. I’m curious how Jakub plans to prove any of this happened. Good luck turning “eating slightly less” into a reel.

If you’ve noticed, I avoid giving advice.

This is not humility.

I have no idea what will work for someone else. Most days, I am still trying to figure out what works for me.

For one full week, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get more done and become financially independent.

And here I am, still impressed by the number of zeroes in the Powerball jackpot...

But I have noticed one thing.

A lot of mistakes start when we copy people who are playing a completely different game.

We see what looks like a winning strategy.

But we rarely stop to check the rules.

I used to be very impressed by the perfectly organized productivity setups on YouTube.

The desk. The Notion. Even labelling system (for real!)

Then I realized that a productivity creator may earn money from talking about productivity, not from being productive. Well, that explained a lot.

Note taken: Look at what actually pays them.

Or…

Have you ever been briefly impressed by the wisdom of crypto bros?

Someone bought Bitcoin early and became wealthy.

That proves they bought Bitcoin early.

It does not prove they can identify the next Bitcoin.

Another note: separate repeatable skill from one lucky outcome.

Or…

I also nearly tried to match the pace of a creator who published several times a week.

Then I learned they had an editor, a designer, and a researcher.

I had tea, a blank page, and some notes in Obsidian.

Luckily, they did not suspect we were competing.

Lesson learned: check the starting position.

Or…

There is the cost of a bad idea.

A social media creator can post fifty weak ideas and wait for one to go viral.

Most people will never see the other forty-nine.

I send a newsletter.

The same people receive every single miss.

Considering a tattoo for my left palm: check the cost of being wrong.

After collecting enough notes, I finally turned them into three questions:

The biggest failures I’ve experienced came from either:

Sounds theoretical?

I have a recent example.

I watched someone finish a weekend yard project on YouTube and assumed the goal was to save money.

Two months, a few very looooong weekends, and one injured knee later, I learned they had experience, proper equipment, and the option to edit out the difficult parts.

Yeah, I did save money.

I also spent nearly every weekend doing work I never wanted to become good at.

I understood the project.

I had not understood the prize.

You are welcome to learn from my mistake. I already paid for it.

Till next time.

Dopamine Fracking - 6 min read.

“Dopamine fracking” is the process of extracting the most stimulating part of something and serving it repeatedly until there is barely anything left. I learned the term five minutes ago and have already diagnosed most of my phone.

Instructive As The Abattoir - 6 min read.

Someone else’s life worked out once. Naturally, it is now advice for everyone. This article makes a useful distinction: the warning behind someone’s advice may be worth hearing, even when their solution is not worth copying.

The Doorman Fallacy - 5 min read.

I like articles that make “more efficient” sound slightly less impressive. This one explains what can go wrong when we replace something based only on the most obvious thing it does.

This book explains why we stop noticing familiar things, even when they are useful or broken. Like a noisy fridge you only notice after it finally goes quiet. Practical, simple, and surprisingly useful.

I have mixed feelings about this setup. Beautiful office. A coffee machine in the office. And an Apple Magic Mouse, which I’ve tried to forgive several times and still find disgusting.

Question Before Project: Simon Sinek does not begin by deciding to write a book. Start With Why began with his loss of passion and Leaders Eat Last with questions about trust, and each became a book only after the idea held up through repeated conversations.

Same Team, Different Result Test: Simon Sinek developed the Golden Circle, his model for starting communication with why something matters, after noticing that the same creative team produced strong work for one client and weak work for another. He compared Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Harley-Davidson, wrote down the shared pattern, then researched it further.

Talk Before Writing: Sinek develops new ideas by discussing them with friends and teammates before turning them into talks, frameworks, or books, using conversation to test whether the idea is clear enough to continue.

Daily Help Request: Sinek’s company uses a daily huddle where people state what they are working on and ask for help when needed, making support requests part of the normal workday rather than a last response to a larger problem.

Values Before Revenue: Sinek evaluates clients during the first conversations and declines work when the relationship or values already seem wrong; he says he followed this rule even while living paycheck to paycheck because early stress usually continued into the work.

Importance Before Enjoyment: Sinek says he does not enjoy writing books and that one can take one or two years, but he accepts the process when the idea feels important enough to justify the time and effort.

Perspective, Not Instructions: Sinek stopped telling people what they should do and began explaining how he sees the situation instead, reducing defensiveness and giving the listener more room to consider the idea. This paragraph alone made the entire research process worth it for me!

Ask Even If It’s Just You: During a consultant’s presentation to senior executives, Sinek interrupted to ask for a simpler explanation because he did not understand the logic, and other executives then admitted they were confused too. Nobody wanted to go first.

Ever spent 40 minutes comparing options and felt less sure than when you started?

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