68: Rules Aren't Real 📐
Dispensing with the status quo is the key to escaping mediocrity.
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67: Not all that glitters 🪩
In one morning I came across three stories that made me think twice about the ‘metaverse’. It’s not some abstract future dystopia—it’s already here. Many of us already inhabit mini-metaverses full of personalised algorithms, and few of us are ready to take off the headset. The first...
66: Win the small hill ⛷
Sometimes in order to win the game you're optimising for, you must lose the ones you've been told were important.
65: What you want for dinner 🍽
How often do you revisit ideas you believe to be common sense? When thinking of possible ways we could develop our thinking or improve our lives we naturally gravitate to new ideas instead of investigating existing patterns. When you start thinking from first principles, a lot of things you might...
64: Constraints and consistency 🎲
People become great by being creative within the boundaries and persisting when others might quit.
63: Nobody cares 📵
Sometimes you will be out in the field, pushing the limits of expectation, on the verge of changing the world, and not a single soul will care. The masses often sleepwalk through innovation. You can only make great things if you’re willing to be ignored and unafraid of going...
62: The hard thing about hard work ⚒️
Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourite authors. If he writes something I’m going to eat it up. But not immediately. Because Brandon likes to write big beefy books that could double as self-defence weapons or stools for small cats. He writes a LOT. He recently surprised his entire...
61: It Sounds Better Over There 🎋
Whenever words are carried by saltine winds over vast expanses of water, they somehow gain the magical property of resonating clearer in our minds. This is why we seem to fall head over heels in love with wisdom from faraway lands. It explains our obsession with Ikigai. It’s why...
60: The Sum of our Parts 🧩
No one human knows how to make a pencil from scratch despite it seeming like a fundamentally basic thing - something every child can use. To construct something as simple as a pencil takes mining graphite, cutting wood, shaping metal, and figuring out whatever modern erasers are made out of....
59: Greener Grass
The Sword of Damocles has become synonymous with imminent danger and the threat of sudden calamity - but that’s only half the story, and perhaps the wrong half to focus on. If you’ve never heard of Damocles before, you’re in for a treat! The story of Damocles...
57: The Power of Impostors 👻
What the heck is an impostor anyway? Someone who is not supposed to be there. An impersonator. A copycat. A covert intelligence gatherer. Uninformed. Uninitiated. Uninvited. Maybe that’s you. It’s definitely me—but maybe there’s power in that. The ones who are different I am not supposed...
A Tree in the Woods
If the cameras turn off, do the Kardashians still exist? People are designing their lives and actions around black camera lenses, hoping that an audience will exist on the other side. People stand alone in rooms swinging their arms violently and making faces at the wall, because TikTok promises their...
56: Finding your passion 🔮
People spend their lives chasing passion. We have dreams of what life should be like. What it could be like, once we find the magic that's missing. We all want to get paid to do something we love. And we want to be paid well for it! To achieve the...
55: Almost Invisible 👻
We quickly get used to the sound of alarm bells. My smart watch keeps vibrating, every single hour, reminding me to stand up. I turned on the feature because I know sitting for too long is unhealthy. And when I say I know, I KNOW. I know it in my...
54: A glass half full 🥃
Is the glass half empty or half full? Apparently, your answer indicates whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. I think that’s silly. It’s a question of orientation, not optimism. Are you picking it up or putting it down? What’s your motivation in the scene? Are...
GPS Navigation: A Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Optionality
If you've ever relied on a satellite navigation system (or "Sat Nav") to get you from point A to point B, you may have noticed that they're not always the most intuitive. Sure, they'll usually provide the fastest route on average, but they often overlook one important factor: optionality. Sat...
Less is More: The Power of Simplicity
The Sony Walkman was a game-changer when it hit the market in 1979. It was the world's first portable tape player, allowing people to listen to music on the go. But before it even launched, it sparked controversy. It had no recording function. It may be hard to imagine in...
Why Being the Best in a Narrow Domain is Key to Success
When a product tries to do too much, it often sacrifices quality and reliability in the process. In fact, as soon as you hear of a product doing more than one thing, you’re inclined to think it’s merely passable at one and pretty terrible at the other. If...
🎙Building in Public with Kevon Cheung
David speaks with Kevon Cheung, an author and content creator. Kevon runs a course, Build in Public Mastery, to help entrepreneurs show their work publicly to build up their brand and superfan base. He wrote a book, Find Joy in Chaos, to help entrepreneurs build their online presence so opportunities...
Zoom in for Clarity
Sometimes, in order to see the bigger picture, you have to zoom in. In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a young girl is assigned to write an essay. She only needs to write 500 words and can pick any topic. But she’s stuck. She struggles to come...
Drilling For Luck: The Secret to Getting Lucky And Staying Lucky
I’m not sure if you believe in miracles, luck or serendipity, but all three of them struck one Sunday in a tiny Nebraska church in 1950. It's a cold March in Nebraska. We're at the West Side Baptist Church. Choir practice starts at 7:15. The Reverend comes in...