On optimism, leadership advice, and nerdy stuff

Hello friends!

Phew, are the days rushing by this season or what? The past couple of months I've onboarded a new client, popped over to Sweden for a weekend, acted as a dictator tour guide for visiting friends and became obsessed with making my own granola. Some days were rainy and cold, others I was sweating on the beach. Drank more coffee than usual which is not great for my deep sleep, but it does make me happy.

I've also been busy with a side hustle project I'm very close to sharing with the world. It's taken up a lot of mental space and if we met these past months, you probably heard all about it. If not, I have a lengthy post planned to go with the launch.

And, I've also had time to save a bunch of links I'd like to share, so here we go.

🔬Is Andrew Huberman Ruining Your Morning Coffee?
Hoffmann vs Huberman was the internet battle I didn't know I needed, but I'm here for it. Watching people going to absurd levels of nerdiness fills me with a warm, fuzzy feeling, and tell me someone more nerdy than James Hoffmann.

As a bonus, this video illustrates and explains the scientific process and healthy skepticism very well (while making it entertaining).

🖌 Write and Write-Nots
To the surprise of nobody who knows me, I think a lot about writing. For my new assignment I produce a lot of text in both English and Swedish, and while I use and am eternally grateful for AI, I'm also aware of the slippery slope it can be to use it. As Paul Graham points out in this essay – writing is thinking. And I want to keep developing my thinking-muscle.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Meditation And Mindfulness Have a Dark Side We Don't Talk About
Having sat through three Vipassana retreats, where you do 100 hours of meditation each time, this article resonates. I've tried explaining my conflicting emotions on a practice that has both changed my life in the best of ways, but also caused me to disassociate in a very unhealthy way, and I'm sure I'll write more about it at some point.

🇺🇸 What Happens Now?
I have more to say post-US-election, but for now, I'll share this as a comforting read.

"I tend to agree with the British politician Enoch Powell (1912-1998), who observed that all political careers end in failure. I doubt that Trump, with his signature blend of inattention, impulsiveness, and incompetence, will avoid that fate."

📺 Understanding the Most Anxious Country in the World
Spoiler alert: it's Portugal. Where I also happen to be based. A country most of my expat friends moved to for the easy way of living you have here, for happiness. I had no idea about the anxiety levels here; nor could I have guessed what caused it.

🎙 How to Beat Distraction and Still Enjoy Life (ft. Nir Eyal)
A few weeks ago Mark Manson shifted his podcast from the generic dude interview format to being more of a discussion of topics with his co-host/producer Drew Birnie and I'm liking it!

One thing that stood out for me is the recipe for burnout. I've been adamant for years that it's not simply "working a lot" that causes burnout, and one pattern I've experienced and seen in others, is feeling disempowered. Nir calls it the combination of high expectations and low control. If you feel that you have agency, you can handle a tough workload. This is crucial. The times I've struggled the most with my mental health both at work and personal life has been exactly this, feeling like I had no control.

📺 Protocol Wars - The Fediverse Explained!
I’ve shared before about Activitypub which I find super interesting while not having quite enough technical skills to fully understand it. As a recent dinner companion had to experience, when I went on a half-an-hour long monologue trying to explain it and only made us both confused.

Then I listened to this episode and I recommend it to anyone frustrated about the state of social media. I'm excited for the future.

🎙 Airbnb’s Vlad Loktev on embracing chaos, inquiry over advocacy, poking the bear, and “impact, impact, impact” on Lenny's Podcast
A lot of solid leadership insights in this episode. “Let fires burn" is a painful lesson to learn, but for your own sanity, it's crucial. You can't do it all. This is what I tried to instill in the team of project managers I lead for a while, all of them younger than me, ambitious and smart – and all of them on the verge of burnout at one point or another, trying to do it all.

No job is worth your health, period.

Another thing I liked hearing was the emphasis he put on explaining why a decision was made, so the team is able to make more informed decisions themselves. Hugely important. I strive to give context and reasons for any decision. This also allows my team to provide better counter-arguments when they disagree, which most likely will lead to better outcomes.

🧌 What To Do When You Realize You Are The Toxic Person
I'm currently minimizing my content intake of self-development stuff, but I don't think I've shared Heidi Priebe's YouTube channel here before and it has been a very useful resource for me this past year. If you want to learn more about your patterns in relationships with both yourself and others, I'd recommend scrolling through her archive and see if something resonates with you.

Linking this specific video because, as she points out, we have all behaved in toxic ways and taking accountability for our own behavior is the only way to grow.

🎙The Unstoppable Power Of Reframing Your Experiences, Derek Sivers on Modern Wisdom podcast
Listening to Derek Sivers speak is like getting a shot of calm reasoning injected right into my nervous system. This conversation especially, since they are just focusing on this topic – how to reframe your experiences and choose your beliefs, or in short, "useful not true". One of those episodes I will come back to whenever I feel off-balance. Will buy his book on the topic too.

💫 Choose optimism
It's a short post, but I want to highlight it because I believe it's important and it follows Derek Siver's logic on choosing beliefs that serve you.

That's it for now!