Geography is Destiny

1. This quote

The clarion call for RTO (Return to Office) is making this even more acutely felt.

2. Say more with less

The best copywriter I’ve ever worked with, Fritz Holznagel, wrote 8 Letters or Less, a must-read for anyone who writes for work (PMMs, marketers, email warriors, I’m looking at you).

The rule? Only words with 8 letters or less. Sounds simple. Isn’t. But it works. Cuts the fluff. Gets to the point. Makes your writing hit harder.

3. Crowdsourced pitch decks

Here are 45 startup pitch decks from 2024.

While I love seeing real-life examples of decks that worked, I love even more seeing all the problems that startups believe need solving. It’s a quick and dirty way to tap into the zeitgeist, according to (supposedly) some of the most brilliant minds of this generation.

h/t Yurii Rebryk

4. One Good Thing

Instead of “Why me?”, ask “Why for me?”

Morning mantra: “Good things are always happening to me.”

Nightly check-in: “What’s one good thing that happened today?” Spoiler: there’s always something.

5. “Change works only when people believe it is happening for them, not to them.”

h/t Lex K.

6. “They give us half a life and think we won’t fight for it.”

— Helly, Severance, Season 2 Finale

One line, and it says so much. What is the nature of humanity? What makes a life real? Valuable? We’ve all debated these existential questions after watching Ex Machina, West World, etc.

Severance takes it one step further: what if the Other is you?

I kept thinking about Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro which quietly asks: what does it mean to live a life that was never fully yours? What happens when society accepts your labor, your body, your existence, while denying your personhood?

7. Keeping a decision log

A helpful practice to hone your skills in making decisions with insufficient data.

8. Fat Ivan fold-up door stoppers

9. “Listen to understand, not to respond.”

For the months of July and August in 2024, I upheld a vow of silence, involuntarily. I did not speak the entire time due to the trauma to my vocal cord from severe, prolonged coughing. As I sat in silence, unable to utter a single word, I was forced to take in every detail of each conversation around me—without the comfort of interrupting, clarifying, or offering my perspective. I’d prided myself on being a good listener, nevertheless this was a profound shift from how I typically engage with the world. It turns out, when you can't speak, you get to truly recognize just how much time we spend waiting for our turn to talk, despite our best intention, rather than understanding what’s being said.

There’s something humbling about having no choice but to simply listen. At first, I felt isolated, as if the inability to speak rendered me invisible in conversations. But as the days passed, I came to realize that this may be a blessing in disguise, a chance to be 100% present in a conversation as I wasn’t rushing to fill the silence.

10. Life’s sense of humor

The last time I touched this draft, titled (aptly, in hindsight) "Geography is destiny", was September 26, 2024. That same day, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and flooded our home, casting us into the unasked-for role of hurricane survivors. Six months later, we’re still piecing things back together. Sometimes life has such a sense of humor, you simply have to laugh.