Dan's Daily

I mentioned the other day that Maru and I are making a special effort for lunar new year.

Today I attempted to make Cantonese braised beef and daikon. It turned out really well, but the supermarket journey took a long time. More than three times as long as my typical trip.

The ingredients were new to me, I had no idea where they were in the Asian supermarket, and I had to double and triple check against my recipe to make sure I had the right things.

I usually get frustrated at wasting time, but I deliberately chose to enjoy the slower pace today. The effort, the work, the journey; was part of the reward.

The All You Can Eat seems nice at first glance. However, once you realise they have to take a shortcut on quality to deliver on price and quantity, the trade no longer looks so appealing.

Most good things in life require a trade-off. When you see an All You Can Eat type deal, it’s rarely worth it.

Before I come to any conclusion about how I feel about London, I check two things:

1. Is it January?
2. If it’s January, wait a few months

January in London can be tough. But come May, London is one of the most wonderful cities in the world with a beautiful summer ahead.

One thing I’ve found remarkable about having a tennis coach is the number of things they’re able to see that I would never have picked up on.

It makes sense. My coach has years of experience on me and has spent his life immersed in the subtleties of the sport.

My bad habits—small things I would never have noticed—he identifies instantly. He then gives me clear nudges and techniques to remove those bad habits.

It works for establishing good technique too. There are dozens of things that go into make up a great forehand, but he tells me to remember only two things. However, it is those two things that bring the whole movement together.

I’m relearning every week that there is so much value in what a great coach can see that you can’t.

Today is the first day of lunar new year. With my mum being Malaysian Chinese, it’s been a celebration in my family since as long as I can remember.

However, the odd thing is I’ve never made it my own. When I left home, I didn’t continue celebrating. I sent messages home, and went to a few gatherings with extended family in London, but I made very little effort.

That changes this year. Maru and I are making a point to celebrate. We’re decorating our flat and making traditional dishes. I realised that unless I make an effort, this special and unique celebration—that was very much a part of my childhood—won’t continue in our family.

I’m just glad I didn’t wait any longer to start!

When everybody is in the room, the energy is different. There’s no latency, no accidental muting, no multi-tasking.

There’s a heightened focus. The subtleties of language are easier to understand. The group is simply more motivated to engage.

It doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but I relish the boost when everybody is in-person.

I was recently talking to a friend who runs a film production company. We chatted about the huge amount of archival footage he has amassed over the past 16 years.

One interesting thing he shared was that video quality advances so quickly that footage older than 8 years old is generally no longer usable on modern projects.

I found that astonishing since the last time I properly made video content was about 8 years ago on the Mississippi River. All of my footage filmed in Full HD 1080p is now considered old school in a world of 4k, 6k, and 8k footage. And 24 frames per second has now bee eclipsed by up to 120 fps for super slow motion shots.

It’s amazing how far you can fall behind on the latest state of the technology when you dip out of it for even a few years.

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!