Dan's Daily

John Muir earned his nickname “Father of the National Parks”. He founded the prominent conservation organisation, The Sierra Club. It was his writing that eventually saw the US Congress pass a bill to establish Yosemite National Park.

I found Yosemite to be an awe-inspiring place when I visited at the tail end of last year. The sheer size of El Capitan and the ageless sequoias stunned me.

This John Muir quote really summed up my weekend there: “But in every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

Over the last few years, I’ve made it a point to practise changing my mind.

I aim to listen with greater openness, and to change my opinion if my original one was outdated or wrong.

The critical part of the process is knowing why I’ve changed my mind, and being able to articulate the reasons simply and plainly. If it passes that bar, then I’m reasonably happy I’ve changed my mind for good reason.

Positive progress in team environments is closely tied to the group’s ability to (a) ask hard questions, and (b) listen with an open mind.

Jeff Bezos gave an interview in 2001 and answered a question on stress. His point was that stress comes from ignoring things that you have some control over.

He describes how when he takes action—even a small thing like making a phone call or sending an email to set things in motion—his stress dissipates.

It’s awfully stoic of him. He’s focused on the things he can control, and subconsciously doesn’t get bogged down by things outside of his control.

Whenever I call my dad, he greets me with a big “Hello Buddy!”.

It’s a small detail that he probably doesn’t realise he does, but it’s his consistency over the years that continue to make it special. It’s an intangible habit that lets me know my call is always welcome.

In any effort to shed those Christmas kilos, consistent exercise and sleep are important, but it’s nutrition that has the biggest impact.

And within nutrition, it’s relatively easy to pick a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But where many a good laid plan goes awry is that mid-morning or late-afternoon nibble. A few crackers, a couple of crisps, a little fun-sized chocolate bar.

It’s that snacks that will get ya.

I’ve written about this concept before, but I was reminded of it recently and want to take it a step further:

When making pancakes, throw out the first one.

It’s your tester, your draft, your playground. You’re using it to figure out if the pan is at the right temperature, if you’re using enough batter, or if you’ve oiled the pan correctly. It doesn’t matter if it fails—you have a whole bowl of batter still to go.

And as I mentioned last time, this post isn’t really about pancakes, it’s an approach for making anything new. Don’t get too precious about the first version. In fact, be willing to throw it out so you get to the good stuff faster.

In October 2020 I wrote about one of our plants. We bought it for £1 and it had been with us for 3 years at the time.

It’s now been 7 years, and he still has a place in our home. As he’s grown, his stem has gotten taller, and the leaves have fallen off, but he seems to be doing alright!

In the UK, much like New Zealand and Australia, young people are eager—almost obsessed—with purchasing their first home. Home ownership is more than a financial investment, it’s a source of stability, it’s a status symbol, and it’s an expected milestone.

However, buying a house is what personal finance expert, Ramit Sethi, calls following the script. That’s because people often don’t question if buying a house is the right thing for them to do, they do it because it is what you do.

Maru and I have chosen to ignore the script and not purchase a property; at least for the moment. We’ve chosen to do so for numerous reasons. We like the flexibility of renting—if we want to move country, we don’t have to sell an expensive asset. We like predictable bills—rent is the maximum we pay, whereas as a mortgage would be the minimum we’d pay. We don’t like the idea of all our savings being tied up in a singular asset in a single geography that could be subject to the swings of a singular market. We also are comfortable investing in low-cost index funds where the long run rate of return is generally higher than home ownership in return for more short term volatility. Finally, paying interest on a mortgage is expensive, and I like not having to do that!

That being said, there may come a time when it may make sense for us to buy a home. But if we do, it won’t be a financial decision (e.g., buying in the hope that house prices will increase) but rather an emotional one (e.g., providing a stable location for a family).

This is in no way criticising those who have purchased a home. I’m thrilled for my friends who have done so, and they’re all very happy with their homes. It’s just not for us… yet.

Ramit Sethi has a great 1-min clip online that’s about as accurate an articulation of my rationale as it gets. If you’re interested in understanding more check it out here.

There’s a brand of eggs that I’ve been loyal to for 5+ years now: Burford Browns. Their defining characteristic is their gorgeous orange yolk. And when you’re on a mission to make the perfect scrambled eggs, no amount of skill can make up for poor quality ingredients.

However, I recently learned a fact about Burford Browns that has been a big disappointment. The reason why their eggs are so orange is because they feed their hens paprika. That’s it. That’s the secret.

All these years of buying premium eggs and now I find out it’s the paprika.

This one’s on me though. If I had the curiosity to figure out why the eggs are so wonderfully orange, I wouldn’t have overpaid all these years.

When learning how to strength train, everyone focuses on how to lift weights correctly. Once they learn an exercise, they move on to the next one.

But learning how to fail correctly should be the next thing people learn.

I’m grateful that a personal trainer taught me how to fail a squat. He made me practise it in a packed gym and everyone looked at me for the loud sound I made. But I needed to feel the sensation of releasing the bar and letting the weight fall off my back, I needed to understand what it meant to move forward out of the way, I needed to hear the clatter of the bar to the ground to not be afraid of doing it if I ever needed to.

Lift right, fail right.

Any policy, once set, risks being diluted when put into practise. It’s true for governmental policy, company processes, and even family rules.

People will eventually try and bend the rules, find an alternative interpretation, or make an exception.

The simpler, clearer, and more understandable the policy, the greater chance it has at succeeding.

Don’t wait for the plant to wilt before you water it. Don’t let its leaves turn yellow, or for the soil to harden, before you pay it attention.

The best time to water a plant is before visible signs of dehydration and damage.

The same goes for ourselves. We all need a bit of rest, relaxation, and fun to be our best. Don’t wait until you’re wilting.

I just watched Wicked Part 1, and it’s fantastic. As a fan of the musical (I’ve seen it three times), I was nervous about its translation to film, but I was unnecessarily worried.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are excellent leads. Their characters are believable, their singing technical, and they are fun! There was so much expectation surrounding this film, but they rise to the challenge.

The original Wizard of Oz was written in 1900, the first film adaptation in 1939, and then Gregory Maguire wrote ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’ in 1995. Maguire essentially wrote a fan fiction where he took elements from the original Wizard of Oz and created a revisionist backstory for the characters; in particular the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba.

It took eight years for that book to be adapted to a musical, and a further 20 years for that musical to be adapted to the film we have today. That’s an impressive 124 year journey from the original book. And given what Wicked the movie has accomplished, it really feels like the ultimate fan fiction.

I have a strong conviction there is a correlation between a person’s willingness to have difficult conversations and their personal growth.

As someone who previously avoided hard conversations, but has a wife who is excellent at them, I know that a willingness to have those them saves many headaches down the line.

I also see excellent examples of people in the workplace who can disagree agreeably. It allows them to make progress and decisions quicker than those who avoid confrontation.

The exact degree of correlation doesn’t matter, believing in its existence is enough for me.