Daily Reads

“Don’t Give Your Kids an Allowance. Give Them a Wall to Knock Down.”

The hammer is waiting for you to pick it up.

Put on gloves if you have to—remove the excuses.

Envision what’s on the other side of the wall that’s stopping you, and swing through it. Learn the proper form—be consistent.

What does this look like for you?

“Earn Momentum, Don’t Chase It”

Once you pick up the hammer and begin the swinging motion, momentum is inevitable.

Once you make the decision to run the system, momentum is inevitable.

You don’t even need to “feel motivated” to start—but you might find motivation builds with momentum.

Daily Reads

“nothing lasts forever... not even a bad haircut”

Having the right perspective on life (and on eternity) is an unlock for enjoying life.

And having gratitude is the unlock for the right perspective.

Gratitude is glue—it’s what holds things together.

“Your Heart Can Actually Build Its Own Bypass After a Heart Attack”

The capillaries are doing most of the work here.

Drawing a parallel to the pursuits of your heart, it can be easy to assume to the big things must be your focus...

When sometimes it’s finding the small things and the bigger part they play together.

“Your brain may not actually ‘make’ decisions”

At a minimum, this must be directionally correct.

Even if the theory laid out here is not it, decisions still must involve more than the organ in our head.

Because how would you explain where “deciding” comes from, when we are more than flesh and blood?

“NASA Just Found a Place Where Earth Microbes Could Survive on the Moon”

Reading past the headline, it’s clear that “survive” does not mean “thrive,” just “alive” in the minimalist sense of the word.

But still cool to consider and fun to read about.

Always worth it to practice learning and wonder—keeps you sharp and creative.

Daily Reads

“The $60 Billion Question Nobody In Leadership Development Wants to Answer”

“How” is often the piece missed.

“Why” is inspirational and sells. “What” is the outcome everyone wants. (Hopes and Dreams...)

“How” is the path to get there.

It’s the system to run that makes the vision reality.

Feel (Why), Flow (How), Function (What)

“Most creative people aren’t creative anymore”

Interesting article on creativity.

If you’re a creative person who feels like they can’t be creative anymore...

You have to make the time. Make it a system. And sometimes you have to reframe creativity.

(Obligatory language warning.)

“Untitled Haikus”

Two new-old untitled poems.

Daily Reads

“All for one and one for all!”

The Three Musketeers of Persuasion assembled in a Spaces last night. The American Debunk, Doc Hypnosis, and not-on-Substack Jeff Callahan.

While it is politics focused (and my live stream is not), you can learn a lot about people and persuasion if you can take a step back. The way these three discuss politics is great for that.

It also got me thinking about influence and carrying the legacy of those who came before us.

For example, there’s only one Scott Adams, and he influenced all three of these men. And each carry Scott’s legacy in a unique way. Even represented by three Scott Adams’ books, depending on how you look at it.

Jeff: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Doc: Reframe Your Brain

AD: Win Bigly

It’s poetic.

“Will power is blind men around an elephant.”

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th order volitions... Do you want to be the king of person who wants to want to make a difference?

Reframes, cost/benefit, and systems over goals will help.

“Write a Bad Book First”

Once you’ve got the reframe, have done the cost/benefit analysis, and have the system...

You’ve got to run the system, step by step.

You can adjust and redraft along the way.

Daily Reads

“Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games”

Seems like just yesterday when some people were saying robots could never do this.

But they’ll keep on improving...

For now, this new robot record feels like it could be beaten by a man within the next 100 years.

“Two national laboratories on Long Island have successfully used quantum entanglement to transmit information in open air, potentially leading to a revolutionary transformation for communications and information technology.”

What’s incredible about this is how they entangle the photons (or is it one photon?), and then how they transmit the information.

(There is no article linked, so I asked Grok how it all works.)

“Scientists Discover a Bizarre New Way Life Can Make DNA… Without DNA”

Another one of those discoveries that reveal how little we know about how life works—and how information is stored.

“Reality ‘snaps back to normal’ and time ‘slows down’ as world-famous machine stops”

What does this say about social contagions, influence, and people not getting a joke?

Daily Read

“Why The Latebloomer Always Overachieves and Outperforms Everyone”

Ed and I are the same age, and we both come from unhealthy family environments...

It can be tempting to compare yourself to others who have been forced to overcome, but you move forward by keeping your focus.

Make the most of every opportunity.

Daily Reads

“Scientists Discover a New Organ Hiding in The Skull”

If we’re still discovering organs inside our bodies, what else have we missed?

And imagine the innovations yet to be developed from these discoveries...

“Scientists just discovered a big limitation in lab-grown minibrains — they have a skewed ‘sense of time’”

When things don’t work as we expect, it’s an opportunity to learn something new.

What have we been missing about how and why the brain grows the way it does under normal conditions?

“A Quantum Computer Just Solved in 15 Minutes What Classical Computers Practically Can’t”

Sometimes problems that seem impractical to solve just need a new way of thinking.

“The Sleeping Giant: Why Grok Bot is About to Eat the Entire AI Agent Market”

Easy to understand article if you’re new to the concept of a “Grok Bot.”

“Grok Bot Is The Most Important Business Tool Of The Last 100 years.”

Interesting vision for what the future could look like. Several examples of recognizing time-limited opportunities, too.

Whatever does happen, there will be a lot of new opportunities in a world that looks very different a decade from now.

Daily Reads

“Man Obliterated When Court Obtains His ChatGPT Transcripts”

AI continues to improve, but it’s output is still reflective of how it’s used.

Even if (when) it becomes smart enough to produce the right output for the outcome needed (not stated), the human input—and human output utilization—will still differentiate.

“What the Aldi Quarter Teaches About Getting Unstuck”

There are a lot of things in life where purpose is worth far more than face value—like your quarter at Aldi.

Great perspective to keep when facing fears trying to hold you back.

Do you want to lose who you are (face value) or who you could be (purpose)?

Daily Reads

"Solving a Solved Problem”

A lesson here on seeing open opportunity where everyone else sees closed solutions.

And great examples of leadership development (her dad negotiating with her), strategy (where the solution was offered), and innovation loops (year over year adjustments).

“Your Customer-Centricity is a Corporate Ritual”

Excellent take on innovation from an engineer’s filter.

Having an eye for systemic inefficiencies opens the door to innovation that people need and want, but don’t know it.

Great frameworks in here that are transferrable to your own personal growth too.

Daily Reads

“Your Next Opportunity Is Already Coming. Will You Be Ready When It Arrives?”

Making the most of every opportunity means preparing ahead of time:

Stewarding what’s in front of you, setting a vision for the future, and talent stacking.

Talent Stacking = Opportunity Stacking

“‘Probably’ Is the Loophole Every Scam Walks Through”

“Probably” can be an opportunity or a warning.

If the opportunity skips the preparation, beware.

You can give into the temptation of “probably,” say, “I’ll try,” and plan to fail...

Or you can give yourself permission to prepare and act on opportunity.