Espresso Shots 5-3-26

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 ☕️

• What Are We Doing to Ourselves. I picked up the book Amusing Ourselves To Death (and a good review) a few years back, and never found the time to get to it. After reading this post, though, it feels like I need to move it up in the stack. While the author, Neil Postman, stated in 1985, 'we've become fixated on entertainment; entertainment has pervaded politics and education and religion; and it's largely because of the television', this was written before the age of doomscrolling. I wonder what he'd think of where we've gone since. I also wonder if there's any connection with Roger Waters album of the same name.
• Why Your Life Feels Fake: An Antidote to the Life You Were Sold 'There are two versions of you walking around right now. One of them is the version you perform. The one with the LinkedIn headline, the job, the goals that sound respectable at dinner parties, the five-year plan you recite when relatives ask what you're doing with your life. This version is competent. This version is impressive on paper. This version is, statistically, probably miserable.The other version only shows up for about forty minutes on a Sunday afternoon. Usually, when you’re alone. Usually right after you’ve finished something you actually care about. You feel, for a brief and infuriating moment, like your life is actually yours.' A wonderful read, the concept of an Identity-Lifestyle Fit, an idea that suggests many people live lives dictated by inherited beliefs rather than their own authentic desires.
• Why Self-Help Rarely Works. In a similar vein, Scott examines the issues with the 'self-help' industry. The 'self-help industry wants your money, they are waiting for this moment to promise you there is something you can buy to fix even this problem.' I really liked his suggestions on actions that you can do yourself, including the advice 'to take time to just sit with your feelings and thoughts. Just sit. Just observe. Watch what happens in your mind when there is nothing to do. That's really what meditation is, despite the intimidating reputation that it has. Most things in life require us to do something, but meditation is literally doing nothing and being ok with doing nothing! It's fascinating how we struggle with nothing, when being ok with ourselves while doing nothing is usually the something we really need.'
• Why Your Second Brain Is Dead Weight. I've been saying PKMs are dead for years now, but I liked this fresh approach to the thinking, given what's going on in the AI space right now. Double points for his thinking around a knowledge audit: 'For 30 days, audit your knowledge spend. Pause the Notion Enterprise renewal. Archive the Confluence pages nobody opened. Turn off the daily highlight digest. Keep one proprietary folder per team. Keep a dated decision log. When the team needs something, ask the model and read the source. Decide and move on. Write down what got decided and why, and see what (if anything) is missed. Most folks miss nothing except the ritual of feeling productive. The ritual is the part that was costing six figures a year.'
• How to Apply Pixar's Three Pitches Rule. 'In short, directors were asked to develop three movie ideas, rather than one. If they developed only one, they often got fixated on it and could get stuck, even if it wasn’t working well. We all often fixate on our first idea, even though it isn’t usually our best. (The creative cliff illusion is named for the idea that we think our best creative ideas come first, and we’re usually wrong.)' A super interesting approach to writing, anything really. Looking forward to Dan's new book, Inside the Box, which is due out next week.
• Why I'm Not Worried About Running Out of Work in the Age of AI. The deeper I've dived into what's going on with AI lately, the more I've come to realize my initial take is spot on: If you lean into it with curiosity and creativity, you will find areas where it gives you back time. And that time can be used to fuel more curiosity and creativity. I also like that he brings up Jevons Paradox: 'When technology makes something cheaper or more efficient, we tend to use more of it, not less. When steam engines became more efficient, coal consumption didn't fall — it exploded because steam power became economical in far more applications. The same dynamic has repeated itself with computing, storage, and bandwidth. Every time technology dramatically increases our ability to do something, we don't run out of work to do. We discover many more things worth doing.'
• The West Forgot How to Build. Now it's Forgetting Code. Of course, when you offload your thinking, there's another cost: not learning how or why it works. This was a really interesting post that explores a few real-world examples when knowledge has died. 'I read the Fogbank story and recognized it immediately. Not the nuclear material. The pattern. Build capability over decades. Find a cheaper substitute. Let the human pipeline atrophy. Enjoy the savings. Then watch it all collapse when a crisis demands what you optimized away.'
• Taylor Swift Files to Trademark Her Voice and Likeness in Era of AI Deepfakes. I really like that singers and actors (Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Iconic Phrase to Stop AI Misuse) are stepping up to protect their voices and likenesses from AI misuse. 'Historically, singers relied on copyright law to protect their recorded music. But AI technologies now allow users to generate entirely new content that mimics an artist's voice without copying an existing recording, creating a gap that trademarks may help fill.' In the case of McConaughey, he's gone as far as trademarking some of his famous catchphrases, even, such as 'alright, alright, alright' from the 1993 film, Dazed and Confused.
• Everyone Is Playing Correctly. I love reading Game Theory and Infinite Game thinking pieces. This one in particular hits on the classic Prisoner's Dilemma. 'Two actors would both benefit from cooperation. But if one cooperates and the other defects, the cooperating actor loses. So, both defect, and both end up worse off than if they had cooperated. The individually rational move produces the collectively worse outcome.' Seems like a solid theme for most of how 2026 has been going.
• The Amazing Programmable Camera in Your Pocket. I can't remember where I heard 'the best camera you have, is the one you have with you', but I do believe it. A good look at the variety of camera apps and filters out there that emulate photographic features from cameras. I ended up buying a few of these I hadn't heard of, but Mood.Camera and Halide are two of my personal favorites.
• Movie Theaters Are Coming Back (for the Saddest Reason). An interesting look at the post-pandemic world of movie theaters (as well as a bonus link from the LA Times).
• How to Have the Perfect Week. A good thought piece on getting outside more. 'I’ve come to the conclusion that we humans ultimately are seeking two things: connection to nature and connection to community. This is not new, nor is it groundbreaking, but the inability of the material world to sustain us or fix us or make us happy is evidence we can’t escape or ignore our fundamental needs. Those needs are basic: We need to feel at home in the natural world and we need the company of community. When we have that—and I suspect only when we have that—we will rest easy.'
• The One Change That Worked: I Swapped Doomscrolling for Reading Comic Books. As a long-time comic book reader, I fully endorse this type of thinking. :) 'Who knows more about self-care than your inner child? Instead of reaching for my phone in the evenings, I picked up a comic instead. Reading them as an adult restored a sense of childlike wonder that transcended my anxieties. I found my quality of sleep started to improve. My dreams were more fanciful and less marked by the banal terrors of day-to-day life. I began to wake up feeling revitalised, free of the residual negativity from the previous night’s miserable doomscrolling. Inspired by the colourful imagery and ideas I found in comic books, I was able to channel a newfound sense of creativity into my own work as a journalist. I also felt less of an urge to check in on work channels after I left the office, as this had become valuable comic book time.' I think it's time I dig out a few of those old classics and give them a re-read.

Amor Fati ✌🏻