Archives for May 2024

Yesterday I wrote about a 2004 Bill Gates quote, but I made a mistake and wrote ‘2024’ instead.

It was a small error, but it made the rest of the post confusing and undermined the point I was trying to make.

I used to have a rule where I would proof read each post aloud before publishing. I’d read slowly over each sentence and try to spot hidden spelling, grammatical, or logical errors.

I stopped doing it, and don’t have a good reason why. But yesterday’s post has reminded me that the simplest mistakes can be easily missed. And it’s also not the standard I want to hold myself to.

Time to proof read aloud.

In 2024, Bill Gates made a prediction that “Spam will be a thing of the past in two years’ time.”

A quote like this makes it easy to dunk on Gates, but I’m not here to do that. The world needs people with bold, positive visions for what the future could look like. And if Gates pulled his punches, we wouldn’t have Microsoft.

However, it makes me think about how everyone seems to have an opinion on AI right now. I’ve no doubt it’ll change our lives, but people claiming they know exactly how our world will change sound a bit similar to Bill Gates circa 2004.

Do you remember your parents loving the music of their generation and scoffing at how odd popular music was when you were growing up?

Apparently, this is a consistent and repeatable phenomenon. According the Department of Data at the Washington Post (see image below), Americans “like the music of childhood, and love the music of their teens”, but end up hating music produced after they turn 35.

It seems like we’re hardwired to love the music of our youth, and to find joy in the nostalgia it brings. However, I hope that in a couple years—when I’m supposed to start hating all new music—I’m able to buck that trend.

If we go in search of excuses, they’re easy to find.

We won’t even need to look hard, because unlike our keys, wallet, or phone—excuses appear without much effort.

But recognising mistakes, saying sorry, and figuring out how to do better next time. That stuff is hard. Mustering the courage to do these things is much harder than finding excuses.

So if an excuse will always be there when we want it, at someone point, we either need to embrace the role excuses play in our lives, or chose to do things differently.

My perspective on envy changed when I read Naval Ravikant’s perspective on the topic. His thoughts pasted below.

“Jealousy was a very hard emotion for me to overcome. When I was young, I had a lot of jealousy. By and by, I learned to get rid of it. It still crops up every now and then. It’s such a poisonous emotion because, at the end of the day, you’re no better off with jealousy. You’re unhappier, and the person you’re jealous of is still successful or good-looking or whatever they are.

One day, I realized with all these people I was jealous of, I couldn’t just choose little aspects of their life. I couldn’t say I want his body, I want her money, I want his personality. You have to be that person. Do you want to actually be that person with all of their reactions, their desires, their family, their happiness level, their outlook on life, their self-image? If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100 percent swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous.”

It’s not always that easy. But when I look at all that I have, and in particular the people that mean the most to me, I wouldn’t trade it. And envy’s appearance is more fleeting.

I’m appreciative of Naval’s insights. With a simple principle he’s helped shape how I view a complex, challenging emotion.

My former university faculty in New Zealand is a 5-storey monster.

It’s all windows; from the ground floor to the top.

The rumour was there is a full-time duo of window washers, taking them about a month to complete washing all the windows of the building.

Once they’re finished, they start again.

There are some decisions, that once made, you can’t go back.

In this example, when you decide to build something that is made only of windows, you’re signing up to a life of window washing.

It’s a simple reminder that some decisions stick with us forever.

Wells-next-the-Sea is the name of an English seaside town. When I heard its name, I went down an etymology rabbit hole.

The town was filled with freshwater wells, and so it was logically called ‘Wells’. But to avoid confusion with similarly named towns, the ‘next-the-Sea’ was added in the 1800s. Ironically, the town is not on the coast, but is located in an inlet surrounded by salt marshes and is about a mile’s walk from the sea.

There’s no magic to today’s post. Wells-next-the-Sea was an endearing name that caught my attention, and it immediately made me curious to understand its history and share it with you. I also wouldn’t have thought a name alone would do this, but it’s certainly made me want to visit.

On paper, the electric fireplace does everything a real fireplace does. There’s heat, light, smoke, and even a flue.

If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief, the electric fireplace can get pretty close to the real thing.

But some of the magic is missing. The pop and crackle. The effort to get the fire started. The time spent tending to the flame. The searing heat as you open the door to put on another log.

One isn’t wrong and the other right. They’re just different.

And as with many alternatives in life. Neither choice is wrong, they’re just different.

I visited Stratford-upon-Avon last week, something I’ve been wanting to do for over a decade. I performed quite a bit of Shakespeare in highschool and have since maintained a soft spot for his plays, so visiting his birthplace was a real treat.

During the visit, I came across one of his idioms that I hadn’t heard before:
brevity is the soul of wit.

Perhaps I missed it when I was younger because I didn’t care as much about writing and communication then. But now felt like the right time to discover it.

Writing every day is a constant reminder that it’s hard to keep things short and simple whilst still having something meaningful to say.

But pursuing brevity every day is a worthwhile challenge.

It’s easy to do.

To question ourselves. To second guess. To lose confidence.

The antidote is to just start. To put something down on paper. To ask the basic question. To be curious. To be open to being wrong.

Once the first draft is out in the open, we have a base from which to work. And the overthinking enemy has lost some of its power.

One of the best things we did during my parent’s visit to London was go to ABBA Voyage.

ABBA had a relatively short 10-year career, with their final concert in 1982. However, their music remains relevant with a whole generation of young and old fans that never got to see them live, which makes them a great candidate for a digital concert.

The four band members spent 5 weeks performing the concerts in suits that tracked their body and facial movements, and all of this was used to create “ABBAtars” for the digital concert. So it’s really them performing!

The experience is impressive from so many angles. From the staying power of the band and their music, to the technology, the investment, the infrastructure, and the vision to pull off a concert of this type and scale.

Despite all of that, the best part was seeing my mum sing and dance to the songs of her childhood.

Derek Sivers wrote in a recent post, “Personal non-commercial websites are an antidote to the spammy corporate web.”

I couldn’t agree more. Personal blogs are filled with flavour, perspective, opinions, and a rough-around-the-edges vibe. They’re handmade with all the blemishes on display.

And that’s what makes them great.

A little reminder to self: the rest day is just as important as the active day.

Even though I try and have more active days than rest days, getting the ratio between them right is essential. It’s not a hard rule either, and I’m learning to adjust the ratio based on how I’m feeling.

As we’re coming into summer, I’ve been buying sunscreen for the months ahead. Call it hitting my thirties or something else altogether, but I’ve become diligent during the past year at putting on SPF most days.

I recently learned about a 2023 UK parliamentary debate regarding Value Added Tax on sunscreen. It’s currently at 20%, like most products, but due to soaring rates of skin cancer, there has been a push to have VAT removed. Such a move would make sunscreen significantly cheaper and position it as an item of necessity; similar to how healthy foods at supermarkets are “zero rated” and don’t have VAT added.

Unfortunately, little progress has been made, and the current government has no plans to remove VAT on sunscreen. But it did get me thinking about how I’d welcome the presence / absence of VAT to be used more liberally by governments to incentivise consumers to make healthier choices.

It’s a subtle intervention that can be both carrot and stick.

I remember going to a restaurant with a confusing menu. There was a Mexican section, an Italian section, an American section, and an International section. In an effort to please everyone, the range of dishes looked bland and unappealing.

On the flip side, I love products and services that have an opinion. It doesn’t matter if I like the opinion. What matters is they had one, that they were thoughtful about it, and that they took a big swing.

At a minimum, have an opinion.