Espresso Shots 12-14-25

It's that time again for my weekly update, which includes a short collection of noteworthy finds, posts that inspire, as well as a few reflections from the past week or two. I'll aim to land these in your inbox by the weekend, in time to pair with your morning coffee (or your preferred cup of inspiration).

The Latest Drippings ☕️

• How to Tell What's Real Online. I wanted to make sure to include this excellent video from Neil deGrasse Tyson in which he clearly walks though how you can, or can't trust things that you see online by sharing his personal checklist. Especially important in this day of ever-increasing online AI slop.
• In a post by Glyph, he writes: 'I'm trying to shift my perspective from 'there was a glorious computer revolution that empowered the user and disrupted authority and we have fallen from the heights of its transcendental grace' and towards the more accurate 'my formative years just happened to coincide with a period where a few technical innovations briefly conferred a small amount of power on individuals and labor, and capital has been efficiently reversing that small disruption ever since' but it sure doesn't feel like that... We should, by all means, do our darnedest to reclaim that agency, to use computers to lift up rather than punch down, and we have proof positive that it is possible, and we should draw hope from that.' Lots to think about in this observation.
• I Watch Podcasts on YouTube With My Apple TV. WTF?!. I love Jack's observation here, and I've been doing more of this as well. According to NBC News last December, 'more than 400 million hours of podcasts per month on their TVs in 2024.' Very curious to see the 2025 numbers. But instead of calling them "video podcasts", maybe they should just be called TV programs.
• Taylor Swift Makes Sure Never to Do This 1 Thing. Neuroscience Says She's Right. While my wife is the real Taylor Swift super-fan (and yes, the final show from the Eras Tour has been cranking in the house), I'm equally fascinated by the Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift. Her number 1 mental health tip: 'she keeps social media apps off her smartphone.'
• Don't Become a Connoisseur.. If anything, Joan's posts always make me think. 'The happiest drinkers I know cannot distinguish a Burgundy from a Bordeaux. The happiest programmers I know use whatever works without agonizing about whether something might work better. They are richer in experience than any connoisseur, even if their experiences are individually less exquisite. They read whatever looks interesting at the airport bookstore. They drink whatever their hosts are serving. They use whichever tool loads fastest. The enthusiast might not be as refined as the connoisseur. But they have a good deal more fun.'
• The Case for Crazy. Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits.. a fun read about behavioral and classical economics, 'his insight is that organizations get stuck on logic and reason because they’re incentivized to do so. In these systems, if you follow the playbook and fail, you can defend yourself for being logical. If you try something crazy and fail, you’re out of a job. Logic becomes the culturally safer bet. As companies grow, they gravitate toward it, closing doors to alchemy along the way. But leave a little room for crazy? That’s where the real leverage is.'
• The Three Principles of Self-Understanding. 'Creating is not a privilege reserved for the artistic few. It’s a birthright that we all have access to, and exercising it dissolves the boundary between you and the other.' As I approach 55, I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time just trying to understand things about life.
• The Chores of Ordinary Life. Rick Rubin has been a wealth of great ideas on how to unlock creativity. 'Notice where your thoughts and attention go when you’re not directly engaged in your craft. It’s about remaining open and receptive to creative inspiration, even when you’re involved in the chores of ordinary life.' Perhaps this is another reason I should start carrying around a pocket journal to jot those ideas down.
• Note Taking & Journaling Method. I'm always interested in 'how I take notes' post, because I kinda suck at it. And I personally declared PKM dead to me. Inspired by Journaling like a Spanish Fighter Pilot, 'The basic idea is to write down short brief updates of what you did at that time of day, generally one sentence or less. I later learned that this is close to a method called interstitial note taking.' Really interesting (and watch the video), I may give this one a roll.
• 10 Ways Your Coping Mechanisms Become Your Most Valuable Assets. One of my favorite quotes is 'through constraint you find freedom', and this post dives headfirst into several strategies for shifting coping mechanisms into superpowers. Great read.
• Never Waste Your Suffering. I cannot wait for Scott's new book, Rules to Live By, and am so glad he's writing this in public. In this week's post, he examines failing. American culture places shame around failure. We're taught to deny failure and to avoid talking about them. We don't put failures on our resumes or our dating profiles. We're told to pretend nothing has ever gone wrong in our lives... it's through examining failure that we grow.' Continuous growth - and remember, you are not static.

Amor Fati ✌🏻