Last time I was forced against my will to spend a week in the office for “team bonding” I wrote about my unwillingness to be dragged kicking in screaming into an office full-time.
This time I’m feeling even lazier than that and between my job, my software engineering course, and most importantly the cabinet I’ve been building I do not have a lot of mental bandwidth for creative writing. So I’m going to outsource the creativity. Here are a few links to articles, videos, podcasts, and music that has inspired me lately.
This is one of the coolest blog posts I’ve read in a long time. A list of things that you are entirely allowed to do. From hiring a personal assistant, to emailing famous people and asking them questions. Seriously, none of these things are illegal.
Completely Rebuilding an Old Table Saw
I know this probably won’t seem like an interesting video to most, if not all, of you. However, what makes this video extremely fascinating to me is not necessarily the table saw itself (although I’m looking to rebuild my own saw soon), but the style of thinking that the creator of the video displays in rebuilding it. The creator has limited tools and resources and designs a solution out of what he has at his disposal. This ability to create practical solutions out of common materials is far and beyond the element of woodworking that has attracted me the most. There are lessons in this that will extend beyond simple craftsmanship. Plus, the creator is hilarious and the production value is far above what it has any right to be.
Another article from my favorite author on Substack, Nat Eliason. Lists of lessons are a popular, although somewhat overdone, format for personal blogs but Nat demonstrates a level of wisdom throughout his writing that I find resonates with me.
Tim Ferriss interviews Andrew Huberman
Tim Ferriss is a personal hero of mine and I’ve been listening to his podcasts since before I graduated high school, but I go in phases of listening to the podcast regularly and tuning out for a few months. David recently sent me the link to this episode and I really enjoyed it. Huberman is so intelligent that I’ve found some of the podcast episodes I’ve listened to with him as a guest have felt daunting and hard to follow. Tim did a really good job of distilling and guiding the conversation. At this point in my life I’m more and less secure with my body and physicality from the perspective of aesthetics. I no longer necessarily want to be ripped so I can be attractive or confident. Instead a lot of my thoughts have shifted towards how can I live a long and healthy life and improve my vitality. This podcast digs deeply into that.
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity
After the Huberman podcast, I also listened to Tim’s episode with Peter Attia. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Huberman episode, but it explored the same topics. Attia is releasing a book that is a distillation of all he knows at the end of this month and I signed up for preorder. Obviously, I haven’t read it yet, so this isn’t a recommendation, but I will be reading it when it releases.
An artist that I’ve been hearing about but only recently started listening to is Elderbrook. This song has been on repeat.
We’ll call that a wrap for the day. I hope one of you gets some benefit from one of the above links. Cheers!