Espresso Shots 6-14-26

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).

Programming Note

I met Gareth Dauncey briefly at DO Wales 2023, and we've spent the last several years getting to know each other over virtual coffee chats.

By trade, Gareth is an architect, but he also became a mental health advocate by recording his daily mood in color. He discover that, over time, the colors revealed patterns which helped him become more self-aware and better manage his mental well-being. In an effort to help others, he created Mood, an app that lets users 'see how you feel' with one click a day.

I was more than happy to participate recently in his "How do you feel today" podcast, where we had a wonderful conversation between friends on curiosity, mortality, technology, and what it means to live well.

It can be found on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

137) Steve Makofsky

Podcast Episode · How do you feel today? · June 8 · 31m

Apple Podcasts

The Latest Drippings ☕️

• A PR Hoax Created the Year's Hottest Rock Band. Imagine What It Can Do in Politics. One of the big ideas I've been experimenting with this year is the effect of systems across almost everything we do or understand. Back in 2024, I wrote in the post Your Goal Broke the System, that 'we often approach goals: we focus on one point and miss the more extensive system at play.' 2026 has been a re-realization on how systems often shape reality, wether via some cognitive bias (sunk cost fallacy or confirmation bias) or something even more malicious. In How Systems Shape Reality, 'One of the most subtle ways systems shape reality is through perception. What you notice is often determined by what a system highlights. What you ignore is often what the system does not emphasize', and this is a story of how a manufactured PR hoax pushed a band to top levels. 'Their ascension wasn’t organic. It wasn’t quirky quality rising to the top. Yes, the band had built up some momentum under its own steam, but their stratospheric hipness was all due to algorithmically manufactured buzz. Fake fans. Fake comments. Fake reviews. Bots pushing social media posts. The entire public discourse was seeded by a PR company to make Geese look as uncompromising and grassroots as possible.' Nothing seems real anymore.
• Nick Cave's Letter on Grief. I stumbled upon this video of Benedict Cumberbatch reading the famous letter written by Nick Cave on grief. 'Like ideas, these spirits speak of possibility. Follow your ideas, because on the other side of the idea is change and growth and redemption. Create your spirits. Call to them. Will them alive. Speak to them.' Beautifully written, and even more powerful spoken.
• More Molly Guards. More than you've ever wanted to know about molly guards, the little plastic safety cover you have to move out of the way before you press some button of significance. How they got their name is humorous, but not unexpected if you have a kid. :) Side note: feels like Claude Code needs a physical molly guard.
• The End Isn't Nigh. A good reminder: 'it is very, very, very, very unlikely that the literal apocalypse is coming anytime soon.' A great reminder from Oliver Burkeman, 'The point I want to try to drive home is very much not that life is safer and more secure than the heralds of the apocalypse would have us believe. It's the opposite: that human existence is intrinsically unsafe and insecure, all the time. Anything could happen at any moment, the future is unknowable, one day you'll die, and some people end up having vastly more traumatic encounters with these realities than others.' Momento Mori.
• Just Be Normal About Things. Oof; as a 'recovering' process/flow maximizer (and a quantified self maximizer), this post from Joan Westenberg hits home. 'Nothing is allowed to be small anymore. Nothing is allowed to be moderate, partial, ordinary, seasonal, boring, or just good enough... you can’t just go to bed earlier - you have to sleepmaxx. You can't just eat a balanced diet - you have to eliminate seed oils, and track your glucose, fear vegetables and consume Nothing but beef, drink raw milk, and talk about ancestral living and blue zones on your longevity TikTok. And of course, you can’t just exercise. You have to train like a tactical athlete, buy recovery wearables, plunge yourself into ice, supplement like a racehorse, and describe walking as zone two.' A must-read.
• What Freddie Mercury Rarely Watched. 'Freddie Mercury reportedly avoided watching footage of himself perform. He said it would make him self-conscious the next time on stage.' I really liked this post, and it's worth repeating: 'When attention shifts from the experience toward monitoring ourselves inside it, flow begins to break.'
• Ian's Is Still The Best Site For Tying Your Shoelaces. 'Ian Fieggen, who also goes by Professor Shoelace, is the guy who runs Ian's Shoelace Site, the internet's prime destination for learning how to tie your shoes.' If you want to know pretty much anything about tying shoes, this is the place.
• The Social Reckoning. I can't believe it's been 16 years since The Social Network was in theaters. And while I ditched Facebook in 2020, there's no denying the effect it's had on the world. I never thought we'd see a sequel, but here we are with The Social Reckoning landing this October. I can't wait to see Aaron Sorkin's take on what's happened to society since. Unfortunately, Jesse Eisenberg refused to return for this, citing 'He simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore, that he has his problems with the guy. He doesn’t like kids coming up to him in airports with business cards that say 'I'm CEO, bitch' for him to sign.'
• How To Read More. A humorous and thoughtful list of ways to read more. Starting with, 'Quit your job: working less than full time has freed up a lot of time to read and learn and do various other things.'
• Thinking Clearly About Software. I don't know about you, but until recently, my brain has been a bit foggy in 2026. Thinking clearly, given the daily bombardment of information and noise, has become more difficult than ever. I really liked a lot of the advice in this post. 'My philosophy MA supervisor, Karen Jones, used to tell me to think in slow motion. She was right, and the lesson applies doubly to tech. Slow down! The opposite of thinking clearly is frantically trying different things until the problem goes away. Instead, take no action, breathe, and think slowly and deliberately through the problem. This is intellectually hard, but the main challenge is actually emotional. You need to get comfortable with the problem just sitting there in your mind: the bug, or the incident, or the thing you don't understand.'
• No, I Won't Buy You A Coffee. I paused to read this one, as I have a 'buy me a coffee' link on my site. 'This irks me primarily because I'm so tired of rampant capitalization and constant advertisements. That's why I'm here on the indie web, to get away from all of that, and now you are here, begging me for my money.' I get it. I thought it was a nice way for someone to give a hat tip without a subscription.
• Refining Humanity. 'One of the best ways to evaluate your own understanding of a subject is to attempt to explain it to someone else. Through explaining things, we discover how much of the totally obvious world is actually full of ambiguity, mystery, and contradiction.' Another great read from the mind of Cory Doctorow, which explores how machines perform tasks by 'thinking' differently than humans, and how to define better what separates us from the machines.
• The Enthusiasm Equation. 'There’s lots of ways to be tired. The worst kind is the kind that leave you smaller. There’s another kind of tired, though. The tired that follows an afternoon helping a friend move. The tired that comes after making a meal for people you love. The tired that settles into your bones after staying too late around a campfire talking. You might arrive home exhausted, but somehow you’re renewed in a way that leaves you more yourself than you were before.' What a wonderful equation: joy + curiosity + action = momentum.
• I'm Still Becoming Someone New At 81. Nothing stays static, and continuous learning is a skill I always emphasize that people need to lean into. 'Choose something you would love to do and begin doing it. Jump in. Watch YouTube videos about it. Invest time and money in it and do it at least a little every day. And most importantly, hold the thought of what you want to do in your mind every day and don't let go of it.' It's never too late to start something new.
• Live Deliberately. 'One of my favorite words is deliberate: I long to live more of my life deliberately.' A good one to close things out this week.

Amor Fati ✌🏻