Prefer to read this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: In the Age of AI, Taste is the Moat I was listening to a fantastic recent episode of the Nathan Barry Show with David Perell (creator of Write of Passage and host of the How I Write podcast) last week when he named three reasons people struggle with writing: They don’t have any good ideas. They have good ideas, but lack the courage to say them. They don’t know how to write. The first one is an input problem, and...
10 days ago • 6 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: If the tool you want doesn’t exist, you can just build it Last week, someone in The Library (my paid PKM community) pointed me to a tweet by the co-founder of the Craft Mac app about a new quick capture feature they’re teasing in beta: Viktor Páli @viktor_pali Quick entry is coming soon to @craftdocsapp! Wherever you are on your Mac, just open it and capture your thoughts instantly - with full keyboard...
17 days ago • 5 min read
Prefer to read this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: A Healthy Vault Isn’t a Tidy One; It’s One That Actually Helps You Think When did you last open a note in your vault just to think? Not to organize, not to file, not to tag. When’s the last time your vault surprised you with a connection you’d forgotten you made? If you’re drawing a blank, it may be a sign that your Obsidian vault is in need of some TLC. It happens. Most people eventually fall into the same trap when...
24 days ago • 9 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: The Suffering is Optional Last month, I was listening to Gabby Beckford give her talk at Craft + Commerce, and she asked the question: If you could burn the rulebook, what would you change? I’ve been brewing on this for the last couple of weeks. And I think I’ve got an answer: I would remove the suffering from the creative process. To some, that may sound blasphemous. There are lots of famous books that...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: AI can give you creative superpowers. But you have to use it intentionally. There are two camps when it comes to using AI for creative work, and they can’t stand each other. Two little kids ready to fight. On one side, the purists refuse to let AI touch their writing. They’re fine using AI for mundane tasks, but the creative process? That’s sacred. To the purists, using AI in the creative process at all...
about 1 month ago • 9 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: You Don’t Have to Wait for Someone Else to Fix It Anymore A few weeks ago, an Obsidian update quietly broke one of my favorite plugins. A small tweak to the app destroyed every custom callout in my vault overnight. As frustrating as this was, it’s not the first time something like this has happened. Right before I released LifeHQ, a plugin called Query Control was broken in the exact same way. Last...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Prefer to read this newsletter in your browser? Click here. đź’ˇ The Big Idea: What James Clear told me about how he views using AI in the writing process Last week, I was in Boise for the Craft + Commerce conference. I always love going to Craft + Commerce, but this year was extra special because I got an invite to a private mastermind that happened the day before the conference started. Part of that mastermind was a 90-minute Q&A with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. James Clear, author...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: The better the tools get, the more the only thing that matters is what you bring to them. There’s a section near the start of Four Thousand Weeks that I can’t stop thinking about. Oliver Burkeman opens the book with a bold prediction made by the famous economist John Maynard Keynes. Back in 1930, Keynes stood in front of a room and told everyone that technology was about to make us roughly eight times...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: The Basics are Pretty Basic A few weeks ago, David & I were recording a Focused feedback episode, and the topic of a minimum viable productivity system came up. And it dawned on me that we really don’t need a whole lot to make sure that we stay focused on what really matters. A calendar. A task manager. A place for notes. That’s basically it. Every workflow, every system, every tweak and optimization...
2 months ago • 7 min read