Espresso Shots 9-21-25

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 ☕️

• Start Right Before You Get Eaten by the Bear. I had never heard of the principle 'start right before you get eaten by the bear' before reading this article, but it instantly ended up in my commonplace journal. 'When you become aware of [this principle] you start noticing how much time we all waste on backstory. You start noticing how other people’s backstory is not helpful as they think it is. Which helps YOU realize that your backstory is probably not as necessary as you think, either.' A great tip that I need to be mindful of any storytelling in the future.
• No One Cares About You, and That's Your Superpower. 'We waste so much of this little life worrying about what other people think, when the truth is, they're not thinking about you at all.' Or as Seneca said: 'We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.'
• Sneakers Remains Robert Redford's Most Underrated Performance. I was sad to hear the passing of another legend, Robert Redford, this past week at the age of 89. I remember seeing Sneakers in the theater, and agree with this post, 'as Sneakers repeatedly shows, Robert Redford was a movie star, remarkably handsome and blessed with endless charisma.' If you've never seen it (and odds are you haven't), give it a watch - it holds up today as one of the best hacker movies made. And remember - it's all about who controls the information.
• Wallet Voting. You've heard the term 'vote with your wallet,' but the reality of that is often not valuable. 'You cannot vote with your wallet. Or rather, you can, but you will lose that vote. Wallet-votes always go to the people with the thickest wallets, and statistically, that is not you.' Here are some better alternatives.
• Carrot Weather Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary With a Wild Musical. Ok, I didn't see this one coming, but my favorite weather app just dropped a 10th anniversary doosy that's simply brilliant.
• The Shape of Time. Perhaps it's an artifact of getting older, but I probably spend too much time, thinking about - well, time. I wrote, back in 2021, 'I know that I want to start using time as a focal lens to provide a way in thinking deeper about experiences; a method to know yourself and provide guidance on how to improve relationships and change reactions in the future. Time can be a form of currency, that needs to be used and fostered wisely.' This post, examines various 'new faces of time', which I found super interesting.
• Boring Is Good. I love boring. While this post in particular focuses on some of the AI tech and LLMs, it gets to the place where most technology lands: 'Ultimately, a mature technology doesn't look like magic; it looks like infrastructure. It gets smaller, more reliable, and much more boring.' Boring is good.
• Onion CEO Ben Collins Hasn't Given Up on Print — or Buying Infowars. I am a subscriber to the paper edition of The Onion since it launched, and have been reading the online version for as far back as I can remember. But the comment in this interview that really stuck with me is, 'the point for us is to build a business that we like and we can build on top of.' Simple, yet brilliant.
• The Truth About The Legality Of Owning A Kangaroo In The US. TIL that you can legally own a Kangaroo in the state of Washington, you need a permit.
• The Last Days Of Social Media. Having deleted my Twitter/X account years ago, and my Facebook account even further back, I completely agree with this article on how 'social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion.' Plenty has already been written about the toxic, addictive, and divisive nature of algorithmic feeds, and the best course of action (imho) is to consume more decentralized content: blogs, fediverse, podcasts, etc. 'The problem is not just the rise of fake material, but the collapse of context and the acceptance that truth no longer matters as long as our cravings for colors and noise are satisfied. Contemporary social media content is more often rootless, detached from cultural memory, interpersonal exchange, or shared conversation. It arrives fully formed, optimized for attention rather than meaning, producing a kind of semantic sludge, posts that look like language yet say almost nothing. We’re drowning in this nothingness.' I've found my own mental health has been way better since escaping the nothingness.
• Why Grandmas Stopped Buying this 70-Year-Old Beloved Boxed Mix. Wild - To cut costs, last year, Betty Crocker cake mixes shrank from 15.25 ounces down to 13.25 ounces. Apparently shrinkflation is a real thing that's screwing up recipes passed down through generations.
• How To Effectively Pitch Constraints. I am a tremendous fan of leveraging artificial constraints - 'You may be surprised at what new possibilities open up around you when you remove the distractions.' Here's a great read on more effectively 'pitching' the use of constraints in workflows.

Amor Fati ✌🏻