73: Notes To Self

Yo, it’s Luke!

I just moved into a wonderful house. I’m pretty jazzed about it. Don’t think I’ll live anywhere else in SF until I have kids or move to South America. If you ever visit SF, hit my line :)

That said, here is your weekly dose of 5 noteworthy ideas & things I learned about last week. Click on the blue links to dive further on that topic.

1. Hello October

Baked bread. Coffee. Red. Orange. Yellow. Pumpkin. Fresh morning air. MMmmmmmmm. Hello Fall :)

2. Feel Your Feelings (Daniel Kazandjian)

“’Feel your feelings’ doesn’t mean be more emotional. It means stop ignoring reality”

Ain’t this the truth.

3. What Wisdom Isn’t (The Culturalist)

“For Dostoevsky, the greatest danger to the intellect was mistaking knowledge for understanding.”

I used to be embarrassed when it’d take a while to get through an essay or book.

I’d have to re-read the same page. Then go back a page (because I was pretending I knew what was going on).

Now, I see that scrambling style of reading as the admission to developing a deep and rich mind.

Slow is fast.

4. Accessibility Is Beauty (Western Refugee)

I read the essay You Need To Start Approaching Beautiful Women, it was great. Basically no one approaches hot girls or applies to top paying jobs because they assume it’s out of their league.

And so the girls never get approached. The jobs get barely any apps. Etc. etc.

It was a good read.

Then, at the very bottom, someone commented this absolute banger:

“Energy moves where it’s received. Chasing longshots drains vitality; connection grows where curiosity is met halfway. Sometimes the wisest pursuit isn’t reaching higher, but choosing where your effort returns warmth instead of exhaustion.”

5. A Random Walk (Nikunj Kothari)

My new favorite writer wrote about the benefits of inefficiency.

I COULDN’T AGREE MORE.

Randomness is good…great even! It makes your life yours. Adds serendipity. Keeps things new. Slows time. Deepens your community ties.

Being random makes your life one of those tapestries that are totally unique. Otherwise, you might end up like a screenprint. One of many.

Here are some quotes that stuck with me:

• “We've eliminated randomness in pursuit of efficiency. But randomness is where new ideas live.”

• “Walked into a restaurant without checking Yelp. Just hungry, just stumbled my way there. It's now my daily spot. The owner knows my kids' names.”

• “I leave my phone behind on walks now. First week was brutal. Week two, thoughts I didn't know I had started surfacing. It was full of things I'd been too stimulated to hear.”

• “Write on blank paper instead of lined. Walk inefficient routes. Say hi to strangers. Build the thing that doesn't scale, doesn't monetize, doesn't make sense. The ROI of aimless walks doesn't exist. That's why they work.”

• “Every optimized moment is a moment you're thinking like everyone else.”

• “Your next breakthrough won't come from another framework or prompt. It'll come from the walk where you forgot your headphones. The project that made no sense. The conversation you weren't supposed to have.”

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.