Dan's Daily

There is a popular quote often attributed to Einstein, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

The Library of Congress’ Folklife Centre believe the quote to be folklore, but its inspiration to be genuine. The first version of the quote seems to have come from a New Mexico Library Bulletin article from 1958. It describes how a woman had once asked Einstein how to prepare her child for a career in science. Einstein recommended ‘fairy tales, and more fairy tales’ because ‘creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist’.

My nephew reminds me of this quote: he’s constantly asking for stories. I only get to see him once every 6 months, so I relish the chance to tell him tales; some that I remember from my own childhood, as well as ones I make up on the fly.

I love seeing his mind connect the dots and his curiosity at work. I won’t go as far as saying I’m arming him with “intellectual equipment”, but that doesn’t matter. His smile and laugh is more than enough magic to warrant the effort.

The first time I set foot in a gym, I was perplexed by the mirror gazers.

They were the men and women lifting weights in front of the wall-to-ceiling mirrors.

I thought it was a vanity thing, and it made me feel all sorts of uncomfortable.

It wasn’t until my Personal Trainer spotted my poor lifting technique, and recommended I look in the mirror to ensure every repetition is performed safely, that I understood the purpose of the mirror.

It’s there to correct. To reveal weakness. To prevent injury.

The mirror isn’t there for vanity, it’s there for form.

Here’s a great quote from famed designer Dieter Rams, “Question everything generally thought to be obvious.”

Hidden within “The Obvious” are (1) assumptions that are no longer true, (2) problems we’ve learned to live with, and (3) standards that are below where they could be.

The Obvious, though, is sacred. The status quo earns its place for a reason—even if it doesn’t deserve it. It’s the pathway of least resistance. Questioning it requires us to put ourselves out there. To risk looking a little silly.

Fight the knee jerk reaction to suppress those questions. Great designs, products, and services depend on our willingness to do so.

My sister’s apartment complex has a resident’s badminton court, and I’ve been playing every day with my brother-in-law since arriving in Malaysia.

The last time I played was more than a decade ago, and the time before that was yet another decade, so I feel like I’m discovering the sport for the first time.

It’s such a great mix of cardio, strategy, and technique. The scoring—first to 21 points, and a point being won after every serve—is really simple and leads to fluid games.

I also feel it’s far easier to understand the quirks and idiosyncrasies of your opponent when playing badminton than when compared to other racket sports such as tennis, squash, or table tennis,

I’m going to find courts close to home once I’m back in London, as the cardio is definitely more fun than the treadmill!

We’ve been following the Football World Cup closely in our household—Maru is Argentine, and this is Messi’s last chance at World Cup glory.

The semi-final last night between Argentina and Croatia was football poetry. It took Argentina about 30 minutes to get going, but after that they looked untouchable.

There was one moment that stood out above the rest: Julian Alvarez’s solo goal; running from the halfway line, beating two defenders, and putting the ball past the goal keeper to score.

In the link above, there is a moment in the slow motion replay—just before he beats the last defender—where you can catch a glimpse of the wide smile on his face. This left such an impression on me because it communicates so much.

The battle was not yet won. Yet he was smiling.

There was still a chance he could miss. Yet he was smiling.

This was, undoubtedly, the biggest moment of this 22-year-old’s career. Yet he was smiling.

He was in a complete state of flow; having the time of his life despite the pressure.

Magic happens when we turn up with this kind of attitude.

I touched down in Malaysia a couple days ago. I’m staying with my sister who moved here with her family earlier this year—I’ve got a few weeks of remote work planned, and then a few weeks of family time.

Travel, time zone changes, and jet lag don’t usually disrupt my posting schedule, but I sat down to write yesterday and was falling asleep at the keyboard.

I was then reminded of the idea “just stay on the horse”.

It doesn’t matter if you’re at a trot, canter, or gallop, as long as every day is forward progress. And in daily writing like this, there is no destination, only a journey of indeterminate length.

Just stay on the horse.

I’ve worked with a number of people who have a “we’ll figure it out” attitude.

For them, no problem is too big. They approach each challenging situation with calm, care, and thoughtfulness. They methodically break down issues bit by bit, and slowly construct a plan to resolve them. They have a quiet confidence that exudes a “this too shall pass” and a “we’ll get through it” demeanour.

I try and emulate these habits because many problems end up looking small and distant when when seen through the rear view mirror. And a “we’ll figure it out” attitude helps makes the ride a little less bumpy.

What proportion of time do you spend adding vs. removing?

Adding feels good. It feels productive. It feels like forward progress.

Yet adding also leads to clutter, a loss of clarity, and increased complexity.

Few object to adding. Many seem allergic to removing.

Our work, personal projects, homes, calendars, and many other things improve when we assess and adjust our add / remove ratio.

One is easy to keep alive. The other has a reputation for being difficult.

The work we’re signing up to is decided at the point of purchase.

The same thing occurs with the projects and goals we take on in our personal and professional lives.

Before we roll up our sleeves and open the bag of potting soil, it’s important to think about, and pick, the right plant.

After more than 10 years with iPhones and iOS, I recently switched to a Google Pixel and am giving the Android operating system a go for the first time.

I’m enjoying it so far, but for an unexpected reason. Android is known for allowing significant customisation compared to iOS, especially at the operating system level (e.g., the Home screen). In exploring customisation options I came across an app called ‘Minimalist Phone’ that transforms the Home screen into a simple, elegant user interface.

Instead of seeing a wall of colourful tiles and being lured into browsing a host of different apps, the Minimalist Phone uses a combination of monochrome colours, shortcuts, and search functionality to help you get to apps only when you need them.

I’ve been using Minimalist for almost a week now and don’t see myself going back. If you’ve got an Android phone and try it out, let me know what you think!

Here’s what my Home screen looks like now.

Quite a few of you will, no doubt, have heard about ChatGPT by now. It’s been making waves across the tech scene, and for good reason.

ChatGPT is a prototype artificial intelligence chatbot built by OpenAI. From a simple prompt, it’s able generate shockingly detailed and specific answers.

Some are dubbing it the ‘Google Killer’ because when asked a question, instead of returning millions of websites via a results page (requiring the user to do the work!), ChatGPT summarises the best answers on the internet into a short and pithy response.

Some say it’ll kill homework for good. It can literally write a unique high school or university essay within 10 seconds on almost any subject under the sun.

It can also give you answers “in the style of” something else. Which is where I’ve picked my example for today. I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post in the style of dancullum.com on keeping things simple. This is what it came up with.

I’m impressed! The simple words, short sentences, and tight paragraphs are very much reflective of how I like to write.

But I assure you that even on my most tired of days I won’t resort to using ChatGPT for a post!

It does give me a lot of food for thought though about the AI advances that we’re going to see over the coming years. Whole jobs, industries, and markets will change. This is barely the beginning.

A house is far easier to keep tidy when at the end of every day we take 5-10 minutes to put everything back in its place.

Leave things out and about for a few days, though, and the mess adds up quickly. The accumulated mess can often take a few hours to unpick.

Tiny actions, every day, help to keep our houses, calendars, minds, projects, and goals clear of the clutter.

Everything from a luggage tag, to a Swiss Army knife, to insurance, is there just in case something doesn’t go to plan.

We prepare so the problem doesn’t hit as hard.

Or as Benjamin Franklin put it: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I seldom hear regrets when someone anticipates and prepares for the ‘just in case’ scenario.

The writer throws the ball.

The reader still needs to catch the writer’s idea.

Reading requires work, effort, coordination, and practise.

This simple idea is taken from Mortimer J. Adler’s excellent text ‘How to read a book’. The key idea of the book is a reader must be active.

Passive reading, and an expectation that the writer does all the work, is not how we learn and grow.

Time since the US Declaration of Independence was signed: 246 years.

Time for Pluto to orbit the sun: 248 years.

I’m marvelling at Pluto and perspective.