57: Notes To Self (”Best Of” Edition)

Yo, it’s Luke!

Happy New Year my curious friends!! 💃 🕺

As you know, your boy went down a lot of rabbit holes this year. Strap in, because in this edition you’re getting the very best stuff I found. Click on each link to dive further on that topic.

1. Essays

• Everyone Is Numbing Out - encapsulates today’s cultural slop and general problems with beautiful language and apt analogies.

• The Great American Poisoning - slaps you in the face with the real reason Americans are fat & diseased (hint: food systems + corrupted institutions of trust).

• The River of Life - my anthem for embracing impermanence in life, has proven very useful for grappling with uncertainty.

• Andy Weir’s Short Stories - so many fun 3-7 min reads.

• Ron Conway Explained - profile on a legendary investor who approaches professional life in an similar way to me (nice to know there’s a blueprint!).

• Business Production Framework - really good model on how businesses work.

• What the humans want is responsiveness - the best description of charisma / presence I’ve found to date.

2. Books

• $100M offers - the sales bible.

• Leviathan Wakes - epic 1st book to a space opera, The Expanse Series.

• Canoeing with the Cree - true story of two high schoolers going on a 2500 mile canoe trip from Minneapolis to the Arctic Ocean.

• Stream to River, River to Sea - the story of Sacagawea told from her perspective.

• Think On These Things - I re-read quotes from this every week.

3. Videos

• Swing dancing couple - goals.

• Voila - beautiful enough to make you cry.

• 3 random strangers make an awesome song - I love humans.

• Ball Is Life - almost friday tv has funniest skits on YouTube, and this one’s my favorite.

• Luna Lounge - niche Galaxy Lo-Fi community / world, check out the descriptions and comments to see what I mean.

• Jeremy + Trump/Biden on Kill Tony - both are hilarious.

• 2014 Spurs Ball Movement with Classical Music - basketball is such a beautiful game.

4. Podcasts

• Mike Posner - epic life story of someone who had it all, then lost it and came out much more grounded.

• Calley Means - enlightening stuff on America’s metabolic health crisis.

• Brent Beshore - great thinker talking business and life.

• Jessie Itzler - his life & business stories get me fired up!

• Fastest Way To Get Promoted - MFM guys sharing non-obvious tactics for being a killer employee.

• Alan Watts Speeches - the eastern philosophy goat talking w/ Lo-Fi or house in the background. Tasty.

5. New People I Admire

• Jessie Itzler - life resume, energy for life.

• Nick Gray - authentic, friend to many, his life is just him pushed out to the world.

• Jason Fried - been playing long-term, positive sum business games for 20 yrs.

• Kevin Dahlstrom - top-tier shape at 50+ yrs old, family man, successful at business

6. Movies

• Inception - finally got around to watching this all-timer.

• Tenet - mind-bending, and good.

• Deadpool 2 - tasteful sarcastic comedy littered through + great fight scenes.

• Sicario (and Sicario 2!) - great action movie with a pretty well developed plot.

7. Music

• Fred again’s set on his friend’s London rooftop - start your next weekend with this in the background.

• Fuerza Regida - favorite Mexican music album.

• Vicente Garcia - favorite new Latin artist, pop + rap + singer-songwriter.

• Jackman - great lyrical rap by Mr. Harlow.

• Sexy Dark Night Lounge - playlist with house, afro, brazilian, reggaeton, & beats.

8. Purchases / Tools / Apps

• italki - app where you get matched with a tutor in almost any language. Usually $5-10 an hour. 1:1 conversation or lessons, you decide.

• Anki app - I’m using it to memorize 1000 most common phrases in Spanish. It uses spaced-repetition to make this possible with just a 5-10 min short daily-ish habit.

• Empower PER - personal budgeting app.

• Arc Browser - way better browser than Chrome, it’s more sleek, intuitive, useful, etc.

9. Little Activities

• Staring at a full moon.

• Dancing in the living room.

• Chatting with one stranger every day.

• Saturday morning adventures / long runs.

• YouTube compilations of walk-ons getting offered a scholarship.

• Walking and looking at architecture while listening to French music.

Thanks for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday! If you liked this edition, send it over to a friend who would like it too 🤝 

Cheers,

Luke

PS: you can find more rabbit holes here & my writing here.