Daily Reads

Day 72 in the books!

Joined by Scott Grill to discuss his book, Travel by Star.

Scott shared wisdom on having an dream birthed in you, his process for finding each piece of it, and seeing it through to completion.

And reading his poem, “Unflagging.”

Enjoy!

Articles Discussed

"Travel By Star - A Novel Announcement"

Here’s a little more about Scott’s book, Travel by Star. You can find the amazon link to purchase the book in his announcement post.

"Unflagging"

Scott’s poem, "Unflagging," is worth reading before or after listening.

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71 days down!

Discussing self-awareness: good and bad. When it comes to yourself, you feel your focus—including people skills (EQ).

And worked through more of the idea of IQ + EQ = PQ. (In this context, you can grow all 3.)

Learning Skills + People Skills = Persuasion Skills

Articles Discussed

“Why mental health awareness can harm: Converging explanations for a societal problem”

Reminds me of the “TikTok Tourette’s” phenomena from a few years ago...

“Do These 5 Things to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence”

Focusing on “growing” your self-awareness towards the people skills you want to have is the biggest cheat code to growing your EQ.

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Day 70, trying a new take for the experiment.A one-off, pre-recorded “special edition.”

Been curious about Rumble’s premier feature and Substack’s schedule stream feature… Got to test them both today, with success.

But I would much rather go live—back tomorrow!

(Video starts about a minute and a half in…)

Articles Discussed

"Everybody Wants to Write a Novel. Nobody Wants to Read One."

Great article to read to help you keep perspective—on any type of writing (or talent).

And great advice on using your talents—sometimes letting go of the idea you have about them, and just putting them to work, is what opens opportunities.

"Day 120 writing tip, April 30th, 2026. The overlap of Poetry and Memoir"

If you do think you have a "book" in you, here's some advice to think about. And you can check out the blog post, linked under the advice post.

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Day 69 done!

Discussing Colonel John Boyd's PQ & his OODA Loop.

Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, repeated on loop to create change with speed.

IQ + EQ = PQ (Persuasion Quotient). PQ also matters for speed in influencing change.

Both matter for personal innovation.

Articles Discussed

“They Passed Him Over for General Because He Cursed in Front of the Wrong People. Twenty-Nine Years After His Death, the Pentagon Is Quietly Borrowing His Strategy to Defeat Iran.”

I had never heard of Colonel John Boyd until seeing this article shared. Incredible. He developed the OODA Loop, the F-16, and E-M Theory.

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68 days complete!

Discussing dealing with misinterpretations, people missing the point, and micromanagers on power trips—all in context of doing the hard things to overcome them.

And having fun along the way.

Plus a fun fitness challenge?

Links below. Have a great weekend!

Articles Discussed

"One time in the Army I requested to get a drivers badge."

What's obvious to you might go straight over someone else's head. Why "clarity is kindness" is a best practice.

Driving for "no less than 1 year" =

Driving for 1 calendar year?

Driving every day for a year?

Driving no less than 8,760 hours?

"My husband worked in D1 athletics when we were first married and one of the most insane stories of bureaucracy run amok is as follows:"

Lessons here on short-term vs. long-term thinking, over focus on tasks, and power trips.

But also an opportunity to illustrate how to introduce superficial change to people who are adverse to it. They never stopped buying ice cream... That didn't change.

"What radicalized you?"

This in an incredible example of how to respond to unjust obstacles and people in your work:

You stand firm in excellence in your work, respect in your rebuttals, and you continue serving people.

“The simplest 4-week program I've ever made. Free.”

Looks like a fun fitness challenge. Considering it myself, starting next week. Might do a scaled version of it—will still be doing BJJ, for example. Very impressed with the .pdf provided.

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Day 67 complete!

Discussing intrinsic motivation and focusing on how, in context of mental models.

And how to leverage the audience affect in your favor.

Links below—you'll want to give the first one a read for sure.

Articles Discussed

“If you don’t know what you’re good at, read this”

Stop what you're doing, and read this.

It's rare to see anyone write on transferable-talent concepts I call intrinsic motivation and focusing on how, and this article nails them both.

It discusses the mental models behind why you're good at the things.

“The Audience Effect: Why We Change When Others Are Watching”

There's always an audience, even if you're ignoring it. Might as well find and leverage the right one.

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Day 66 down, almost 2/3 of the way to 100.

Discussing belief as a skill you can strengthen—putting faith in action.

And, looking into the origins of consciousness in context of a universe fine-tuned for life.

Articles Discussed

"This excellent reframe goes deeper than “just” strengthening the certainty of your belief."

"His ‘Machine’ Could Uncover the Origin of Human Consciousness—And if It Truly Connects to the Whole Universe"

"...may not solve the 'hard' problem of consciousness: fully understanding our internal experience."

Seems like finding the origin and solving the "hard" part go hand-in-hand.

Also, finding what something is not is not the same as finding what it is.

"The fine-tuning of the universe for life"

Reading this excellent article, it seems like chance is guided by necessity, in turn guided by design—if you want to look at it that way.

How this might apply to our individual lives? We get to choose if we live our purpose and use our designed talents?

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Day 65 complete!

Discussing history and religious narratives...

Through leadership successions, beliefs, childhood anxiety, and studies meant to intimidate Christians into not sharing the Gospel.

Articles Discussed

"This is what happens when you give those at the top absolute power, and power is associated with ideological purity tests."

An ideological purity tests happens when ideology turns into religion.

"My Favorite Short History of the USSR."

Fascinating abbreviated history that makes you think.

So many parallels and lessons here.

"Children can face more anxiety when religion is lacking, according to study"

By "religion" they mean Christianity.

A safe assumption: Anytime you see "religion" referenced in a neutral to positive light a western media article, it's talking about Christianity.

"Former Christians express more progressive political views than lifelong nonbelievers"

This study uses confirmation bias to scare Christians into not talking about what the Bible says, because, you know, the people being brainwashed elsewhere by Progressivism might become... Progressive.

Biblical discipleship is needed more than ever.

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Day 64 in the books!

Discussing taking offense to go on offense, and strategic breaks for strategic breakthroughs.

For an experiment update: Going to try out OBS this week to see if it improves the stream quality. We'll see what happens.

Articles Discussed

“The Blink”

A great example of taking something personally in a healthy way that takes responsibility.

"Why a 20-Minute Nap and a Trick From Salvador Dalí Could Be the Secret to Your Next Big Creative Breakthrough"

Semi-sleep it off? I believe the more we find out about how the mind works, the more we'll see there's more going on when it comes to consciousness: spirit and soul

Also, sounds like an opportunity for prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit.

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Day 63 complete!

Having fun on a Friday discussing playing, building, and play-building in context of sports, industrial inventions, and scientific breakthroughs.

All while staying sober and whole—choosing to play while building.

Articles Discussed

“Sports Build More Winners Than Self-Help Books”

Taking an intentional look at how something helped you grow and develop can bring out more growth in you.

You may know sports (or fill in the blank) helped you, but can you articulate how? Here are some excellent examples.

“Gen Z Stopped Drinking — Here’s What They’re Not Telling You”

Interesting article providing perspective, statistics, and good news on Gen Z drinking less.

“Transcend Mechanics is Building a Matter Compiler”

This is fascinating and incredible. It looks like both hard-work-fun to invent and produce each new piece.

Also, several lessons you could pull out of these concepts on being whole versus bolted together, playing to your design (strengths), and more.

"What Physical ‘Life Force’ Turns Biology’s Wheels?"

A scientist worked 50 years to discover this breakthrough. That is incredible vision and consistency.

Also, biological wheels and gears confirmed.

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