I’m two weeks out from my first half marathon, and I’m buzzing. My body is coping well with the training and I feel confident in my plan for race day.
However, I don’t have a target time. My goal is to finish the race and enjoy every kilometre.
I can worry about performance later. This time, it’s about finishing and having fun. Nothing else.
Us humans have harnessed fire for hundreds of thousands of years. Fire provided our ancestors with warmth, protection, a means of cooking, and light—and it’s likely many of them survived due to fire’s helping hand.
It’s no surprise to me then that the dancing flames have an almost-hypnotic and calming effect over us.
I write this post whilst sitting by a fire in a cosy cottage in the English countryside, I feel my face run hot from the strength of the blaze, and I have a book by my side that I’m about to pick up.
I’m content.
I’ve been casually reviewing restaurants on Google Maps for the past three years and decided to have some fun with a recent review.
The subject was a pub in the Cotswolds called George & Dragon that cook their fries to perfection. The fries were so good the whole table thought some sort of sorcery was afoot.
Inspired by the pub’s name and their fries, I wrote the following review:
“This pub is a gem! The pie was delicious. And I don’t know what they do to their fries but the chef (presumably named George) must’ve made a pilgrimage to the alter of crisp at the summit of Mt Fries, slayed a dragon, and offered a particularly generous gift to the Spudman because they were cooked to perfection.”
I made Maru chuckle, and that was good enough for me, but I was thrilled when I saw the restaurant’s reply come through:
“I am George, the courageous dragon slayer and fryer of the finest chips! It was an honour to serve you, dear customer. Keep our chips close to your heart, and remember whenever you crave potato perfection, you will always find it here at The George & Dragon!”
I love it when brands and companies are willing to have a bit of fun.
I love this quote from Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher when talking about his brother’s voice.
“Mine’s half a Guinness on a Tuesday. Liam’s is ten shots of tequila on a Friday night.”
The metaphor says so much in so few words. And it’s true. I tried to sing along with ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ today in the car and Liam’s voice has a depth and richness of tone that’s hard to describe.
But ten tequilas on a Friday night is pretty accurate!
The topic may seem banal, but I’m going somewhere with this.
I’ve been on a multi-year hunt for the perfect scrambled eggs.
Everyone has their own ideas on how to make them. Some prefer a fluffy, soft, golden cloud, and those people would be correct. Others prefer a dry, leathery mess.
I recently came across three Michelin star chef Marco Pierre White’s video on how to make scrambled eggs. One of the things he says, seemingly to the eggs and the camera at the same time, is “only a fool would rush scrambled eggs”. The heat should be low and slow, and you shouldn’t need to move your pan on and off the stove to get the right cooking temperature.
The eggs don’t require a vigourous whisking with a fork prior to going in the pan. Not does the spatula need to be in a hurry. What’s needed is patient, deliberate movement while the eggs do their thing.
Although this post is ostensibly about scrambled eggs, it is really about craft and care, and how even seemingly small things are worthy of an immense amount of effort.
It’s okay to start with a bit of guess work on a blank piece of paper. Most new and hard things often don’t have a map to follow.
At some point the guess work needs to turn into an estimate, maybe a plan, or even a commitment. At some point, guess work no longer becomes an excuse.
This makes sense, because when people succeed, they never give call it guess work.
I was recently reminded that when we make a decision we’re simultaneously saying ‘yes’ to one thing, and ‘no’ to everything else.
If we keep this idea in mind when making decisions, all of a sudden the bar for what we spend our time and energy on goes up dramatically.
I had a wonderful time in Prague last weekend with Maru and my in-laws. It’s a city famous for its beauty, and it more than delivered. I loved walking its streets, seeing its historical sights, and visiting its cafes and restaurants.
My two top highlights were (1) a tour on the history of the Jewish Quarter and the Jewish people in Prague, and (2) learning about the life and work of author, Franz Kafka—I loved eating in Cafe Louvre and Cafe Savoy and imagining him talking philosophy, politics, and writing with his friends.
As I’ve written about recently, I’ve been taking photos on film. Here are a few of my favourites of the wonderful Prague.
If you’ve ever played video games, you’re probably used to seeing the message “Game Over”. You’ve tried to beat the level, or a boss, but you either aren’t powerful enough yet, or you’ve yet to nail the mechanics.
But Game Over doesn’t mean your game is actually over, it’s an invite to try again. You weren’t good enough this time, but the game expects you to improve, to overcome, to learn from your errors, and to eventually succeed.
Maybe Game Over isn’t just for video games.
We visited Winston Churchill’s home today, the beautiful Chartwell House and accompanying gardens.
Great care has been taken to leave the house unchanged since Churchill’s death, and the volunteers are eager to share their deep knowledge about the place.
One thing that stood out to me was Churchill loved painting. He picked it up at 40 years old, and painted over 500 canvases.
He once said, “If it weren’t for painting, I could not live; I could not bear the strain of things.”
It was amazing to see this side of the man, and how he leaned so fervently into this creative pursuit at an age when many wouldn’t consider trying.
“Pay in four installments over the next six weeks,” says a buy now, pay later advertisement on the tube.
At the bottom there is the small print: something something about “unregulated credit”.
Nevertheless, the consumer shrugs, buys, and borrows from their next paycheck.
I get frustrated with euphemisms like “unregulated credit”.
I wish the risks of these products were more clearly stated.
Such as, the Financial Conduct Authority does not keep tabs on this business, they’ll likely charge you higher interest rates, their terms may be vague and hard to understand, they may not adhere to responsible lending practises or have a complaints process, you may wind up in a debt trap, suffer anxiety from aggressive collection practises, and your credit score could suffer.
Maybe we’d think differently about buy now, pay later if the ads were a little more honest.
I’m a big fan of any work where someone takes something complicated and makes it simple to understand.
Maybe it’s because I know it’s hard, or because I know it’s valuable, or because I know a lot of care and craft is required to do it.
Whatever the reason, when I see it, I enjoy it. I sometimes deconstruct it. And I try to learn from it.
The US election is in a few days, and understanding the electoral college system isn’t straightforward. So I appreciated this BBC article which breaks down how the system works and what each candidate needs to do to win. If you’re interested in understand it better, it’s worth a read.
There’s clearly thought, care, and craft that’s gone into producing this article, and it’s worth sharing and recognising.
This ain’t a science, but I believe success is closely correlated with one’s ability to tolerate frustration.
Success often—but not always—comes after doing hard things. And hard things are often frustrating. So the more we’re able to tolerate frustration, the more hard things we can handle, the greater the probability of success.
Cherry picking happens when someone chooses and presents the data that best supports their argument.
For example, if someone points to discrete cold weather events as evidence against global warming, whilst ignoring the mountain of scientific evidence of long-term temperature changes, they’re cherry picking.
Cherry picking often isn’t deliberate or malicious either; it is easy to do because we all want to believe the story in our heads.
It takes discipline to (1) avoid cherry picking, and (2) be on the hunt for it when others share their analysis and recommendations.
Sometimes the data speaks, and sometimes it punches you in the face.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the Tesla Vehicle Safety Report.
In Q3 2024, cars running on Tesla’s Autopilot had one crash per 7 million miles travelled vs. the US average of one accident per 670,000 miles travelled. In the most literal sense, Tesla’s Autopilot is an order of magnitude safer than the average.
Looking at my own situation, I have a “normal” second-hand car. It’s ten years old and has no frills; no lane assist, no blindspot signals, and certainly no autopilot.
But given the lifetime risk of dying in an automobile accident is 1 in 93, the next time I buy a car I need to ask myself: what am I willing to pay to reduce my automobile mortality risk by an order of magnitude? Perhaps the Tesla will end up feeling cheap when compared to the peace of mind it provides.