It’s a 1-page website that is basically a leaderboard where people pay to move their link higher up the page.

That’s it.

Someone bids more than you, they go above you. If you want your spot back, you pay more.

At the time of writing the first spot is going for over $14,000.

Yes, the creator has already made a good amount of money. It was at 100k last I saw.

You might think it’s ridiculous to pay that kind of money for a spot on a website.

But the top 3 links are currently getting 3-4k clicks/hour. That’s a lot of traffic.

This is actually a great ROI. Most people don’t realize how expensive it is to get traffic to your website nowadays.

The best part is that whoever pays to be in there will also do their best to promote it, which creates this kind of growth loop.

There are already dozens of copycat websites out there with similar mechanics. No point linking them here but basically every one went out and made their own version of this.

I remember seeing one for newsletters, one for X accounts, etc.

This is obviously purely hype based and I’m sure it’ll die out soon, but by then the creator will have made a good chunk of money while sending a ton of eyeballs to the buyers’ websites. Plus he could always pivot into something else.

There’s obviously luck involved in this but this was still a great idea and it’s insane how little you actually need to get something interesting off the ground.

Anyway, I think the whole thing is a good reminder for us to pay more attention to the stupid little ideas that pop into your head.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

Howon Noh - Great find. Kind of like Bryan Johnson, but a lot younger and with a different style.

Happy Scale - The best app I’ve found for tracking my weight. It’s free too!

Caffeine pills - When I don’t have the time to drink my tea I take one of these. Super useful for traveling too, way easier on the stomach and it’s always the exact same amount of caffeine.

Movie rec - According to IMDb I have watched 160 horror movies, it’s my favorite genre by far, I recently watched Undertone and thought it was a great. There was tension throughout the entire movie, no breaks. Really creepy in a good way.

Thanks for reading!

Find me on twitter and on youtube!

I’ve been making roughly one video a month for years now, and I’m always amazed at those that upload so frequently in roughly the same niche. Idk how they do it.

And honestly, I’ve contemplated it. Not weekly, that’s never going to happen, but at least bi-weekly.

More videos = more views = more revenue.

I could literally 2-3x my income by posting twice as often. So why don’t I?

I actually enjoy the process. The iteration of an idea, the research, the endless writing going over every word and mulling the structure of the video. That’s the part I actually like, and it’s the part that would get cut first if I tried to scale.

A video of mine takes about 3.5 weeks from idea to publishing. The bulk of that is research and writing, but there’s also a lot that goes into a video beyond that. Editing, thumbnails, and all the small stuff that eats up way more time than you’d think.

I could probably post twice, maybe three times as often if I let go a little. But I don’t think I could keep the quality where it is, and even if most of you wouldn’t notice or care, I would for sure.

And the truth is, I don’t think I have enough interesting things to say to make a video that often anyway, and I’m not about to make the same videos everyone else makes on the same topics, regurgitating the same things.

I also have other interests and passions outside this, and I don’t think I could do that and still keep up with the channel

So yeah, the channel will probably never grow anywhere near as fast as it could. Not even close.

And for a long time that bothered me, I felt like I was wasting momentum, but I’ve come to terms with it, and I’m happy with the way things are and grateful to have you here.

New things

I’ve shipped reading-time, my first Raycast extension. It’s the fastest way possible to estimate how long a text will take to read out loud based on the WPM you set in settings, see a 6 sec demo in my tweet here.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

Private Equity is buying up youtube channels - Really interesting video. It’s likely that at least 1 of the channels you watch has been acquired by PE. Makes you wonder how many have and haven’t let their audiences know.

Dune keypad - This just launched today on Product Hunt. Interesting product, nothing you can’t already set up with OSS and a macro pad but cool implementation.

Stop thinking - This came across my feed sometime last year, and I still think about it. If you struggle with racing thoughts and never have a clear head, listen to what he says. It’s only 3 min.

Thanks for reading!

In the past few months, AI has completely consumed me. And if I’m being honest, that’s a big part of why this newsletter went quiet. My bad.

I’ve spent most of my free time going deeper and deeper into these tools compulsively.

For a long time it felt like nothing was really moving in this space. Every new release was basically just a spec bump. Every few weeks a different model would top some benchmark, and nobody outside the AI bubble really cared.

Then it started to change.

By 2025, agents got actually good. Claude Code came out, and people started realizing what this stuff was actually capable of, but it was locked behind the $200 plan, so most people, myself included, just let it pass.

Then Claude code came to the plus plan, and this year everything went wild.

First, Open Claw came out.

I immediately installed it on my home server via Docker, and I got to exploring it. It was the first time in years that I was in awe of AI again. Even though it was not very good, it was sort of foreshadowing what was next.

Claude Code could already automate tasks, but you had to go to it. With Openclaw, you could set it to work in the background. It was the difference between having a tool and having an assistant.

But it still involved giving a FOSS project a ton of access, which understandably put a lot of people off.

And despite how useful people claimed it was, 99% were using it for little else than to summarize their calendar and email.

And the truth is, every update broke something. At least on my end.

Right around this time is when Claude started shipping like crazy.

Too much came out, I couldn’t even keep up with this.

But for most people, what mattered was Cowork, which was basically Claude Code but without the terminal, for everyone.

And this week, we essentially got Openclaw’s functionality in Claude, which kinda made Openclaw obsolete.

And all of a sudden, paying $100-200 for Claude Max went from absurdly expensive to kind of a steal assuming you have a real use case for it.

I canceled like 5 SaaS subscriptions (1of10, Award Travel, Parcel, Sequel and more) and replaced them with setups that are not just a lot cheaper, but better integrated into the tools I already use, and I can customize everything I want about them.

For i.e., I get fresh new outlier ideas for YouTube videos in a Notion page. (runs weekly for like <5% of the MAX plan).

I get emails/push alerts for flight award availability/packages/new shows and more for well <2% of credits.

And i’m not even getting into n8n. Or the research or anything else.

Just those alone basically pay for the max plan .

Claude is shipping at an absurd pace right now. Actually useful shit too. They already won over the more advanced users a while back, but at this rate I feel like even the masses will soon start using it over the competition.

I considered making a video going into this, but I genuinely can’t stand most AI content. It’s always the same overclaiming, overpromising snake oil bs.

It’s also probably a bad fit for my YouTube audience so I’m gonna start sharing more on Twitter @fromserg

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

Awaybook - Basically flighty for hotels. Very impressed with the UI/UX here. Has a great free version too.

Airexplorer - Crazy good Mac utility app if you manage a ton of files from different cloud services. It’s like rclone but with a GUI. This app has been around for years, can’t believe I just found out about it.

Scrollguard - Cool app that lets you still use social media on the phone but without the feed, so no doom scrolling. The free version is good enough here.

New 5k Monitor(not affiliate) - I was holding on for a refresh of the Studio Display that had a higher refresh rate (60 Hz in 2026 is honestly insane). But since all we got was a mediocre spec bump, the only 2 monitors that made sense if you wanted a glossy 5k display were either a $3500 Display XDR or a $600 Studio Display knockoff. I got the knockoff in the mail 2 days ago. Not bad, actually, its basically the same panel as the Studio Display, without the built-in stuff like webcam and speakers and with probably worse QC. But for 1/3rd of the price its hard to complain.

Thought provoking article - This still crosses my mind every now and then. TLDR - It argues that once AI starts wiping out white-collar jobs, spending will fall and the economy will weaken. Machines may keep producing value, but they don’t go out and spend money, so demand starts drying up.

Thanks for reading!

Browsers are finally interesting again, which is not something I thought I’d be saying in 2025.

When Arc came out, it was a huge leap forward and many companies implemented many of its features. It was truly innovative.

Then things went quiet for a few years. Until now. Because suddenly, it’s all about AI.

So much so that The Browser Company abandoned Arc, which had a very strong following and active community, to try and focus on their own version of an AI browser, which they are calling Dia.

At the same time, Perplexity launched Comet, an invite-only AI browser… unless you’re willing to pay $200 for Perplexity Max.

I’ve already given Dia a try and am currently trying out Comet since I got access to it a few weeks ago.

And while you’ll find plenty of videos glamorizing how “game-changing” it is (a phrase that burns my ears), the reality is a lot messier.

Sure, there are moments where it’s genuinely useful, like summarizing videos and hunting for an oddly specific e-mail in my inbox where Gmail’s search feature wasn’t able to.

But most of the time, it’s buggy and just slow. The demos are very sped up to make it seem like AI requests happened in near real time, when they didn’t.

They also showcase a bunch of things you can do with their models, and while it looks cool on paper, it’s not something I found myself using at all. They felt more like solutions in search of a problem.

And then there’s the business model. Perplexity doesn’t even pretend. They want as much of your data as possible.

Oddly, I respect the honesty. At least they’re not hiding behind shallow “privacy” buzzwords when we all know what’s happening anyway.

But even if the privacy were there, this is far from even making me consider switching.

Still. This is probably where all browsers are heading. And I have no doubt we will all be using some form of AI browser soon, just not yet.

Back to Arc.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

This piece of art by Grid Studio, I already had one of their pieces from 3 years ago, and this one is just as epic. They have a sale running until the end of the month and a wide range of frames.

Got this monitor bag half off. A good amount of Amazon products can be found on AliExpress for half the price, as long as you’re willing to wait a week or so for them. It’s also surprisingly good quality.

3D printed multiple of these things that slowly feed water into my plants. What a find!

Thanks for reading!

But if you think about it, when was the last time you willingly went to someone’s personal site? I’m not talking about a specific utility tool, like travel bookings, banking etc.

I mean going somewhere to read, watch, explore.

These days, most people get 100% of their content from social media.

Even long-form stuff gets read inside apps like Readwise Reader, Reeder, or Instapaper. Tools that strip away everything but the content itself.

No one is typing your URL into the browser bar. No one’s googling your name. And AI only made this worse now that you get an AI answer on most google searches.

Not to mention the amount of people skipping Google entirely in favor of ChatGPT/Perplexity.

The point is, almost no one is finding your website organically.

They’ll find you on social media.

That we can agree on, right?

They find you through an individual piece of content, a video, a tweet, an IG post, whatever.

And when you want someone to take action — buy something, book a call, read more, you’re not going to send them to your homepage. You will link directly to the product, the booking page, or the sign up form.

You might think you need a website for that.

You don’t.

Tools like Gumroad, Calendly, Substack let you spin up a clean, trusted landing page in minutes. No homepage. No blog. No “About Me” section that no one reads.

Plus you get to benefit from the familiarity and trust other people have of these platforms. Your product doesn’t feel like it’s coming from some sketchy corner of the internet. It feels legit, because the platform already is.

In fact, most things have platformized:

• You want to sell physical products? You’ll probably use Shopify.

• Digital downloads? Gumroad, Payhip, Lemonsqueezy.

• Courses? Teachable, Kajabi.

• Consultations? Calendly.

• Newsletters? Substack, Beehiiv.

So no, most people don’t need a “website.” They just need a place to point people.

Of course, this won’t apply to everyone. And there are plenty of good reasons to have your own website or your own store that you control. But that’s a problem most people would be lucky to have down the line.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

Superwhisper - Probably the best AI voice to text tool I’ve tried. I have it mapped to the caps lock key, and it’s insanely fast. Easy recommendation.

Rove Miles - This is a brand-new platform backed by Y Combinator that lets you earn miles on hotel/flight bookings that you can then transfer to a good amount of airlines. The return on this is honestly absurd. It just launched, and it’s VC funded, so I don’t expect it to stay this generous. I haven’t made any bookings yet, but I’m keeping an eye on it. Also - my link gets us both 500 miles (valid until 8/31).

Particle - One of those rare apps I can’t believe is free. I think this is the best news aggregator I’ve ever tried. It also gives you a political spectrum tool that shows you how the left, the center and the right leaning outlets are covering the same story. There’s not even a paid option, though I suspect that could change soon.

Thanks for reading!

But I’ve used it for 5 years now, and I still can’t get over how good it is.

It wasn’t always this good, though.

I won't bore you with the details, but 10 or years ago, Home Assistant was CLI only (no web interface), everything ran on YAML, and it only supported a handful of devices.

But the idea was the same then as it is today: a free, fully local, open-source platform to control all your smart home devices without needing Apple Home, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

Not only that, but to do so without needing a different hub for every product. No more Aqara hub, Hue hub, or whatever random bridge companies try to lock you into.

You know how when you buy a smart home product on Amazon, it likes to tell you that XYZ hub is “required”?

Not when you use home assistant AND the device runs on an open standard like Zigbee or Matter.

This lets you shop based on features and price, not ecosystems. The way it should be.
All while saving you money, as you don’t need 10 hubs in your closet.

And what’s crazy is that you can still integrate it with Apple Home, Alexa, or Google Assistant if you want to. There are even native features for it. It’s completely open, and you’re not locked out of anything.

I can’t believe the amount of people that NEED an internet connection to control their home, privacy concerns aside, it’s maddening to have an internet/power outage and not be able to control your home.

A good smart home shouldn’t even use the internet, let alone need it.

And usually, when something’s this flexible and private, you expect to give up convenience, or functionality.

But Home Assistant runs laps over any other ecosystem. The automations you can build are on a completely different level.

That was the main thing that pushed me over the edge.

It happened when I moved into this place and wanted to properly control the ACs. But the manufacturer’s app only let me do what the remote could: on, off, mode, temperature, etc. That’s it. No scheduling, no intelligence.

But I wanted to turn them to fan or cool given my room temperature, for them to shut off when I go to bed and start up again when I wake.

Simple stuff. Yet, only Home Assistant could make it happen. Locally. Reliably

And I recently switched to Raycast, I have a video coming on it soon, and was amazed at the Home Assistant extension. All of a sudden, I can control everything in my smart home from the launcher.

An entire page only shows you what you can do until the letter “c”.

What’s insane to me is that I can see every camera in my home with 2 key presses using the “cameras” command

My favorite command is “custom entities”. This lets me choose my favorite devices that I want to be able to control fast.

And setting this up takes 2 min, and it’s well documented here. All you need is your Home assistant IP and the Access Token.

You can install home assistant on cheap mini pcs, raspberry pis, an old computer you have lying around or any NAS appliance.

If you’re in the market for a new ecosystem to choose, the choice has never been this easy.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

- Hagglezon - For my friends in the EU - this lets you shop for the same Amazon product across all the EU stores, Germany tends to be the cheapest imo.

- Folder Preview - This lets you preview inside folders (and even .zip files). Pretty useful.

- Literally a radio - I can’t believe I’m saying this, but after the massive 12h outage we had in Portugal and Spain, I immediately bought a radio. During that day, I had to be sitting in the car to get the news. A $10 radio is all I wish I had. I had never been in an outage, let alone a >12h one. It can happen anywhere, and at least you’ll know what’s going on.

Thanks for reading!

It was a Prusa i3 Mk2, and it looked something like this.

At the time, this was pretty good. It offered auto-bed leveling, and support for multiple filament types. These two features alone were groundbreaking.

But there were so. Many. Problems. All the time.

I felt like I spent >90% of my time tinkering rather than printing.

There were websites where you could share STL files with others like thingiverse, but you needed to spend a lot of time slicing and doing trial and error.

I won't bore you with the details, but just know that it was a pain in the ass to print anything at all, for the most part.

Eventually, I just gave up on it and sold it at a loss.

I didn't touch a 3D printer for the following 7 or so years.

Last year, I bought a $220(!) printer from Bambu Labs. It's called the A1 mini.

And let me preface this by saying they have never sponsored me in any way and probably don’t even know I exist. I don’t even have an affiliate link to give you.

Anyway, this is what it looks like.

I was immediately blown away. I cannot believe how good this thing is for $220.

Because truth be told, I don't want to tinker with a 3d printer. I don't want to fiddle with the settings, I don't care to learn the ins and outs of it. I want to press a couple clicks and have it print something, and this does just that.

And btw, I don’t even know how to model, you don’t even need to. You can go on sites like makerworld and there's a sea of models for you to download and print.

It's been 3 months since I've got it and I already went through 20kg of PLA. Probably also why I haven’t uploaded as often, nor written this newsletter.

Most of the things I print are organizational items like this, this or this. But also functional ones like this, or this.

There's so much out there that, as I waited for delivery, I already had a long list of things I wanted to print.

What a difference 7 years made in this space. There's an abundance of models, much better software. Little to no tinkering needed and much cheaper filaments.

But after 3 months of continuous printing, I now have the printer off most of the time. And I treat it kinda like a regular printer. If I need something, I just turn it on and print it.

Just the other day I was getting annoyed with my AC remote in the bedroom always taking up space, downloaded this, problem solved.

My grocery bags kept falling in the trunk, got this.

My hats were always disorganized, this fixed it.

All in all, I'm pretty sure this printer already paid for itself. If you go online to places like etsy you'll find a ton of 3d models that people will happily print and ship it to you, but obviously these come at a cost.

A caldigit mount on Etsy costs about $20 after shipping and takes days to arrive. I printed mine for less than 70c in filament, and it took only a couple of hours.

So yeah, now that I think of it, this has already paid for itself, maybe even more than once.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing

BusyCal - After years of paying for fantastical, my renewal notice came up and I couldn't stomach paying a 6$ monthly subscription for it. It's just absurd, I capitulated and moved on to busycal. It's 90% as good and not a monthly subscription.

Hoog/fern/Atrium - Really enjoying these types of channels lately. They cover interesting topics and animate everything beautifully.

Adolescence - This was filmed in 1 take. Hard to believe. Enjoyable watch.

This is one of my absolute favorite things to do.

Some of these last for just a couple of hours, while others pull me in for weeks or even months of my free time.

My first real rabbit hole was when I built my first PC over a decade ago. There was so much to learn - how many cores did I actually need? Air vs. water cooling, which RAM to get, and at what speed? PCIe slots… it just kept going.

The constraint of money also meant that I had to spend even more time making sure I was getting the best bang for my buck. It was weeks, maybe even months, before I ordered the parts.

If you’ve ever built a PC, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

And honestly, researching all those little details turned out to be even more fun than putting it all together.

I go through a few of these holes a year, both big and small, and they all start randomly.

Like earlier this year—I was just going through the mail to replace an expired credit card, and somehow, that kicked off weeks of learning all about credit card points.

Or when I stumbled on a YouTube video that sparked an extremely long dive into Islam. I don’t have any personal connection to it, but I got genuinely interested, so I kept exploring.

These rabbit holes always seem to pop up out of nowhere, and before I know it, I’m deep into the next one. It’s almost like an RPG; you drop into this new world with zero context—no mechanics, no lore—and it’s up to you to figure it all out, and it’s extremely enjoyable.

Apple Notes is Finally Good Now

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

PPPeter - I've followed this guy since 2018 or so. Still makes me laugh in each video. Great videographer and storyteller.

MagSafe SSD recorder - This is the most seamless experience to record video externally on an iPhone. Got a chance to try this out before it launches on kickstarter and was very impressed. It's overengineered in the best way possible way. Our phones have gotten so good that if I was starting out my channel today, I'd just get this with a tripod and press record.

Affordable 5Gbe Adapter - For those running 10gbps network internally (or even externally!) There's now an affordable 5gbe adapter on the market, which is a feasible alternative to spending >$200 on a 10gbe adapter.

UNAS Pro - UniFi recently released their first entry into the NAS market at $500 with 10gbe onboard and 7 bays. This is a killer option assuming you're heavy into the UniFi ecosystem and don't care about running containerized applications/other services and simply want a highly performant file server.

M4 Mac mini - Honestly overpowered at this price point. This just became my go-to recommendation for anyone wanting a mac desktop experience. On a sidenote, base model macs now come with 16gb ram at a minimum, which should have been the standard at least 5 years ago.

Thanks for reading! New videos coming this month :)

I figured if I’m going to spend this much time reading, I might as well gain something from it.

But self-help books, with a few exceptions that I’ll mention in a second, are absurdly long.

It’s not that they’re long in relative terms, it’s that they’re unnecessarily long.

But the thing is, I understand why they do this.

Imagine a book that promises to change your life.

You pay $30 for it, you get it in the mail, and it’s 20 pages long. How would you feel about it?

99% of people wouldn’t even give it a try. And many of the ones that did, would read it in a day and return it the next.

They *need* to be long. Or at least long enough so that the reader feels like the price was worth it.

But now the reader has to sit through hundreds of pages to get 1 or 2 pages of value from it. And that’s if they’re lucky. Because the majority of self-help books could be summarized in a couple tweets.

And that’s if they’re even worth summarizing.

There are a few exceptions, though, that I found to be worth a full read.

Atomic Habits and The War of Art are two that come to mind, and I’m sure there’s more.

But the truth is that most self-help books are full of filler content to reach an acceptable page count.

Fiction (and many nonfiction books) doesn’t face this problem. You’re reading for entertainment, you don’t need to “get something” out of it. As long as the book is engaging, and you’re sucked into the story, it served its purpose.

There are other reasons why I mostly stopped reading self-help books a while ago, but this is the biggest one.

I’ll still read the odd one, but it needs to have a strong recommendation from someone that I admire and has a solid track record.

Most USEFUL Apps I Use As A Solo Creator

iOS 18: The Features You'll (Actually) Care About

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

Nothing really, I’m very picky about what I share with you, and to be honest, nothing stood out to me this month.

Thanks for reading :)

Some of the above may be affiliate links, using them adds no cost to you and helps support my work.

Whenever I come up with a project idea, big or small, I try (and often fail) to act on it immediately.

I always tell myself I’ll do it when I have time, but unless I make time for it, it just stays on the back burner.

I do this all the time. Here’s a screenshot of my projects on todoist. Each number is an idea that I’ve been putting off in different areas of my life.

My brain constantly tells me that it won’t be worth it, that I’ll have to refine it more, that it’s not the right time. And even - what will people think of it?

It’s so easy to go into analysis paralysis and staying exactly where we are.

It’s true that most ideas fail, but it’s so much better to let them fail and clear up mental space than to leave them lingering in our inbox. Plus, they only truly fail if we learned nothing from them, which is rarely the case.

If you’re on Twitter, you could not have missed Elon Musk trying out every idea that crossed his mind in real time. Some stayed, many didn’t. But the ones that worked maybe wouldn’t have, had he not failed with the others.

Whether you disagree with his decisions or not, you can’t deny the velocity and initiative he shows. Most established businesses in the same sector would take decades to test as many features as he did in just one year

Of course, this strategy shouldn’t be applied to everything, and he was heavily criticized for doing it with Neuralink.

But the point here is that he’s great at quickly cycling through ideas and “seeing what sticks”, and If he can do it with the whole world watching and with sky-high stakes, why can’t we do the same with our relatively inconsequential ideas?

Anyway, I’m making a conscious effort to change and thought I’d share it with you as well.

Mac Shortcuts That Actually Make a Difference

My Favorite iPhone Accessories - 2024

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

Awesome Habits - A fantastically designed habit tracker, that I wish had been available on Setapp before! If I could only have one subscription, it would be Setapp, and it’s not even close. Get 30 days of free trial for Setapp instead of 7 here.

The War of Art - There are a handful of books I reread every other year, this is one of them and ties in perfectly with the topic of this newsletter. Planning on rereading it this weekend.

Hoto Box Cutter - Really enjoying this brands’ products. Great minimalist design, high quality, and not outrageously priced.

Some of the above may be affiliate links, using them adds no cost to you and helps support the channel.

Thanks for reading :)

Even though I don't *sell* anything, I'm still selling you this newsletter, my videos, myself in interviews, in promotions, proposals…

It's hard not to think of it negatively, but it doesn't have to be like that.

As someone on the receiving end of the "selling", I've come to appreciate it, as long as it's being done in an honest way.

If you're able to identify a pain point and sell me the solution to it, you're adding value to me, and you shouldn't feel bad about it.

It has everything to do with putting yourself in the other person’s shoes and understanding what they want, which is easier said than done.

This is not something that’s easy to be good at, I am certainly not, and I’ve never found a resource that was legitimately useful on it, most just focus on sleazy tactics.

The best salesmen I’ve met in life were also the best judges of character, with very high levels of empathy and charisma. And I can tell you for a fact they didn’t learn it in a classroom or a book.

Mac Settings That ACTUALLY Make A Difference

Every App I Use To Stay Focused

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

rcmd - This is quickly becoming a favorite app. It essentially lets you launch different apps from your keyboard. And switch around them in a much faster than way than the traditional Alt-Tab.

Sharper - Solid flick by A24.

Concerns with 23andme (and others) - I’ve never done a DNA test, but this was eye-opening.

Under new management - I rely on a bunch of browser extensions. This alerts you when they change ownership, this is great as some companies have a horrible privacy track record, this should be a feature in every browser.

Thanks for reading :)

Because most of the problems that happen once tend to happen twice (this is true in more ways than one!).

I do a ton of work that requires solving technical problems. Some are straightforward, but others take me hours and sometimes days to fix.

Even if someone had the same problem as me, it’s not that easy to find a fix when you’re searching through thousands of posts about the same overall topic.

And sometimes you find a post on Stack Overflow or Reddit that had your EXACT problem. With a simple:

“EDIT: Fixed it, thanks”

…and nothing else.

Nothing is more frustrating.

It’s much easier to find solutions to the problems you’ve had if all you're searching for is your own solutions.

It doesn’t have to be only technical stuff. I’ve made tons of mistakes when I’m recording my videos, when I’m fixing something around the house, in my car, etc. And I document everything, so that if it happens again, I know exactly what to do.

You can document this in any note-taking app with decent search functionality. You don’t even need any fancy formatting, just an easy way to find it by searching the problem, and a solution clearly presented.

The PERFECTED Travel EDC (Summer 2024)

How I Setup My iPhone (So It Doesn't Ruin My Life)

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

Shortcut - iOS Reminders to Todoist - Todoist has always been terrible with Siri, as Siri always interpreted “todoist” as “to-do list”. So, in the past, I would use the stock reminders app to capture new things, mostly at night when I’m reading and my phone is in the nightstand, and I would then go through it in the morning and move them to todoist. I had enough of it the other day and made a quick shortcut that moves new items from the reminders app to todoist and checks them as complete in the reminders app. Then I just set a simple automation to run that shortcut every day at 5AM.

App - Recut - This saves me hours editing my videos. It automatically removes silences and cuts it all up for you. Probably adds up to 1-2h saved in each video. Can’t recommend this enough if you make videos. My link gives you $10 off.

Book - Dune - If you liked the movies, you’re gonna *really* like the book. Some movies/shows are so well-made that I find the book lacking. Given how well made both Dune 1 and 2 were, I went into this book fully expecting to be disappointed. But it somehow delivered. It adds new characters and explores their thoughts in a way that you just can’t replicate in a movie without doubling the length.

Travel Creator - Kurt Caz - Wow. I always liked watching travel content but over the years it really went down hill, everything became fast-paced cuts to appease the algorithm, always the same locations, same buzzwords being thrown left and right. I had completely given up on that genre until I found Kurt. What a breath of fresh air. My favorite of his, after binging 15+ of his videos, is this one exploring Dhaka, Bangladesh. It’s raw, you really feel like you’re there experiencing the kindness of the Bangladeshi people.

P.S. - I skipped last month’s newsletter. I simply had nothing worthy of sharing, and I hate pointless e-mails

Some of the links above may be affiliate links, they add no extra cost to you, and using them helps support my work.

That's all I found worthy of sharing.

Thanks for reading :)

The beauty of that quote is that it applies to so much in our lives, from relationships to careers.

And I think it's extra relevant now, in the age of AI.

AI may outwrite and outwork us, but it lacks our ability to truly connect with others.

Most USEFUL iPhone Apps I Actually Use

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

Movie - The Stronghold - One of the best movies I've seen in a while. It's crime movie set in Marseille, France. It’s based on a true story, and criminally(😉) underrated on IMDb.

App - Spacedrive - Keeping an eye on this as it develops (currently in alpha). This could be really useful for people like me that work a lot with cloud/NAS/external drives.

Clothing - This cardigan from Massimo Dutti was probably my best clothing purchase in a while. And I paid full price. It looks and feels as good, if not better, than those from higher end brands that add a 0 to the price.

That's all I found worthy of sharing.

Thanks for reading :)

I spent all of January traveling through Japan and Hong Kong, I had this planned for over a year, and I'm really happy with how it went.

It was my first time in Japan, and I thought it'd be interesting to share some experiences, since It's on a lot of people's bucket lists.

Japan is put on a pedestal, especially by other Asian countries, and having spent a lot of time in Asia, I couldn't be more excited to finally see it for myself. I visited Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. So here’s the good and the bad. But first, there are 2 myths that were absolutely not true:

The myths

• Cost. This was a pleasant surprise, as I had always thought that Japan was really expensive. It’s not as cheap as, say Thailand, but it’s far cheaper than most places in the US and EU. We didn't go during peak season, so I'll exclude the hotel prices, since they're definitely much more expensive during peak season. The exchange rate is also especially favorable for EUR/USD. In fact, it hasn’t been this favorable since the 90s.

  Every meal was delicious, and I think the most we ever spent on a meal was $50 for 2 people. Obviously, we didn't do any fine dining.

  Clothes were also much cheaper than EU/US and as a foreigner you can get tax back on the spot when you bring your passport, which was honestly the cherry on top of the cake. I bought enough clothes at Uniqlo to last me years.

  The only thing that stood out as expensive was, surprisingly, private transportation (Uber and such), but since public transportation is so good you don't ever have to take it.

• It is not a cash heavy society. I'm sure this was true before, but they accepted cards in 99% of places I went to, even Amex! The only exceptions were certain street food stalls.

The good

• The food. Wow. It’s really hard to overstate this, the food there was worth the trip on its own. Everything is great, but If you like raw fish, you're in for a treat. It's (obviously) the best I've had but also the cheapest. Especially if you're willing to eat in food markets like Tsukiji.

• The cleanliness. Everything is squeaky clean. Even public bathrooms.

• The kindness and politeness. Everyone is very thoughtful of others. Train carts are jam packed and everyone is in silence out of respect for others. No one J walks or litters. People are extremely polite to each other, I bumped into this guy on the road, it was 100% my fault, and he apologized profusely while bowing his head. It’s hard to explain, they really pay it forward.

• Public transportation. 10/10.

• The toilets. Once you get used to Toto smart toilets, it's hard to go back!

• 24/7 convenience stores in every corner.

• Nature.

The Bad

• Non - Japanese food. I spent so long in Japan that I started missing other cuisines. There aren't many options, and it’s nowhere near as good as their own cuisine. This is in stark contrast to places like Hong Kong, where you can eat some of the best Asian cuisines.

• Reservations are kind of a must. This was the one mistake we made in this trip. I don't really like to make a ton of reservations as I feel very constrained by them, but even during low season, many of the restaurants we had planned on going to had a waiting line. This isn't so much that they're really popular, but rather really small, some of them have no more than 4 tables inside.

• No trash cans. You can sometimes walk for hours holding an empty cup of coffee with no trash cans in sight. Some people even take their trash home. The key is to use the trash cans inside convenience stores.

Highlights

• Robot Café, which is a phenomenal idea and one of the best experiences of our trip. The robots are actually controlled by people with disabilities working from home. They have mics and you can communicate with them. They give people with disabilities a great way to socialize and be members of society even if they are, in some cases, bedridden. It was very wholesome and we had great conversations.

  

• Pig Café. A crazy café with about 20 pigs walking around. They lie on you, you can pet them, it was nice! As an animal lover, this was definitely one of the highlights

  

• TeamLab. Very unique. This is kinda like an interactive museum/art exhibition. You have probably seen pictures of it on social media. It’s worth the hype.

  

• Temples and Shrines

• Food. So much food.

• Matcha. You can buy a couple of years’ supply of high quality matcha at a fraction of the price!

I'm not big on anime, or I would have been in heaven. Same for Nintendo stuff.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing. This time focused on travel:

Airfly SE - This lets you plug your own earbuds into the plane’s entertainment system. Gave this a try, it works.

Travel cubes - Bought a bunch of these at Muji in Tokyo, and I’m happy with them. If you like to travel light and/or are extremely organized, you’re gonna like them too. I know a lot of people recommend the ones from peak design, but they seem way overpriced for what they are.

Video - This is why I actually pack my valuables inside my luggage with my own pin. Not foolproof, but makes me feel safer.

Thanks for reading :)

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. If I really want to do something, it seems pointless to wait for the turn of the year to do it.

In September, I set out to re-learn French. I've been meaning to get back to learning it for 7 years now, since I graduated from college.

But how should I learn it?

Going to a physical language school was not an option, I don't have the time for it, and to stay consistent I needed it to be as frictionless as possible.

Language apps weren't an option either. They're good. I actually use Duolingo every day when I have nothing better to do. But let's be real, it's a supplement, not a replacement for a real class.

Eventually, I landed on iTalki. It's like Upwork, but for language tutors. After a couple of trials, I found a tutor that I liked, and I've been having 2 classes a week with her.

It's really affordable because these aren't formal teachers, they're community tutors, usually students or professionals that do this part-time. So it's kinda like chatting with a friend that corrects you.

Unlike formal teachers, I’ve found community tutors much more pleasant to work with. There are no rules. Most of them will just adapt to you.

All I do with my tutor is talk. It honestly feels like therapy because the whole point is to get me talking, so they have to ask me questions. We also have interesting discussions on random topics and overall just have fun. I prefer to not have homework, so there’s none of that either.

^ This graph is just based on experience with zero evidence to back it up other than what I went through with other languages.

The hardest part of language learning is getting to B1. After that, growth becomes exponential because you can simply talk and get corrected. It stalls again at C1, but by that point, you can have any conversation with anyone, so it's not like you're painstakingly learning the basics just to get around.

I’m 21 lessons in, and it’s become a part of my routine at this point and something I look forward to.

If you decide to give iTalki a go, you can use my link for $5 off. This isn't sponsored or anything, just a stellar platform that I really enjoy.

My Most USEFUL Tech Purchases of 2023

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

Art - Grid Studio - This was a favorite in the last video, which I didn’t expect. I didn't even bother mentioning it in the video, but I do have a 10% off your first order with my link.

Comedy - Armageddon by Ricky Gervais - Not as good as his other special, Humanity, but I enjoyed it.

Video - Why coke at Mcdonald's tastes different - Self explanatory title, interesting watch!

Movie - The Man from Earth - Rewatched this masterpiece over the holidays. Proof that a successful movie doesn’t need a high budget. It’s a polarizing movie, you either love it or hate it.

That's all I found worthy of sharing.

Thanks for reading, and happy new year! :)

When I started my YouTube journey, I didn't even think about it, I just made videos on Obsidian as I saw that there was a severe lack of content on it, and it was, and still is, my favorite piece of software I've ever had.

But I wanted to try something new. Not because I no longer use Obsidian, I use it every single day, but because I saw myself starting to no longer enjoy only making videos about it.

And quite frankly, I began to realize that if I continued down this path, I would become more obsessed with flashy new plugins and adding needless complexity to Obsidian, rather than actually using it.

This goes against the conventional YouTube advice of niching down as much as you can. But that advice usually revolves around a paid course on the topic you're talking about. I have no interest in doing that anyway, and I've been told multiple times that my obsidian playlist was more useful than the paid courses people took on it.

Still, the majority of my subscribers found me through my Obsidian content. So I knew a good amount wouldn't be interested in other types of content.

Of course, it's not like I would be making DIY or gardening videos. But I was still wary of trying something new.

The initial views were significantly lower. But eventually, most of the new videos started to find their audience. And now, my Mac Apps video is the best performer I’ve had.

I love making videos and I hope to continue making them for many years, but I think it's super important to remain interested in what you’re doing. Even at the expense of lower views.

Since I only send these out once a month, happy holidays! :)

My New Video

Had quite the rant at the end of this one, glad it was well received!

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

Creator - Dodford - If you’re into cinema, Dodford makes probably the best actor-focused documentaries I’ve seen on YouTube. They’re masterpieces.

App - Workspaces - Great app to easily go between different workspaces on your Mac. This goes very much in line with my latest video. It also comes with Setapp. You can get 4x the number of free trial days for Setapp by using my link.

That's all I found worthy of sharing.

Thanks for reading :)

This was an inconceivable luxury at the time.

Remote work is much more common now, but in 2017, it felt surreal to earn a decent income without a daily commute. I felt that if I didn't embark on this journey, I was wasting the opportunity of a lifetime.

Asia was at the top of my list - with its kind locals, affordability, unbeatable food and safety, plus gorgeous places to visit.

So, like many do, I started off in Bangkok.

Let me tell you - Landing in Bangkok with my life packed in a suitcase was probably the most euphoric moment of my life.

Suddenly, I could go anywhere. And destinations that once took me 15 hours to reach were just an hour or two away.

But I was working. I couldn't just go on 3-5 day trips and keep hopping around. So I stayed in each place for at least 2 weeks, sometimes 4!

I don't want this to get too long, so I'll skip the many pleasantries from this wonderful trip.

But after 6–8 months of doing this, I began to feel mentally exhausted, more so than physically.

Maybe I was naive at the time, but there were a lot of things I hadn't foreseen.

The whole process of adapting to a new place, finding a gym, a phone plan, a favorite coffee shop to work from, maybe even making friends…

Only to then leave and start over was, to say the least, exhausting.

And that's assuming everything went smoothly in terms of finding a reasonable place, avoiding sickness, etc.

I ended up extending my stays in hopes of mitigating this, which helped in some ways but made goodbyes harder, especially if I'd formed a bond with someone. And longer-term stays often meant higher risk of booking somewhere I didn’t like for longer, as well as monthly visa runs and possible entry denials.

I initially thought this would be my life for a while, but after just over a year, I happily returned home.

During this time as a "nomad", I was torn between travel and work. I felt like I wasn't truly working nor truly traveling.

And I realize that's the whole point of it. But it didn't work for me.

Instead, I felt like I wasn't fully committed to neither my work nor my travels.

I much prefer having a place to call home where I spend the vast majority of my time, knowing exactly what to expect, for better or for worse. It also allows me to be more productive and creative, without the drain of constantly adjusting to new settings.

And when I do travel, it's purely for leisure, without the mix of work.

Many nomads I've chatted with over the years felt the same. Most returned home, some settled elsewhere as a base, but few continued the true nomadic life.

And while I don’t regret it in any way, as I would still be dreaming of it to this day if I hadn’t done it, it just wasn’t for me.

I felt this could be helpful as so many of us are now working remotely.

My New Video

Had a blast working on this, and I am glad you guys also liked it so much. :)

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

App - Eagle - Hard to overemphasize how crucial this app has been for my workflow. I spoke about it in my latest video at minute 13:00. I can’t recommend it enough if you’re a creative of any kind.

Newsletter - Maybe it’s because I’m nearing my 30s, but I'm starting to care slightly more about how I dress (even though I'm in a black T-shirt in all my videos), I’ve been reading WellBuiltStyle for a while now, and I’ve picked up plenty of inspiration, which I actually save using Eagle!

That's all I found worthy of sharing.

Thanks for reading :)

Even though it’s the same dollar amount.

And that sentiment is likely the same, even if we talk about gaining $200 vs losing $50.

The precise figure is unimportant, the point is that:

We value not losing more than we value winning

You may have already heard this, particularly if you work in or have any connection to the financial industry.

Most of us are risk-averse creatures, it’s in our nature.

But I think this goes beyond just money.

The happiness we get from watching the next episode of a show when it’s time to sleep is smaller than the pain of missing it.

When did you ever watch that one last episode and thought to yourself,

"That was awesome, I'm glad I did that."

It’s usually more like,

“Yeah, that wasn't worth sacrificing sleep.”

This is just a small example.

The pain of missing out is far greater than the happiness of being there can ever be.

But I think it’s a muscle and, just like any muscle, it can be trained.

My New Videos

Life After 5 Years Meditating - I never touched this topic before, but I was diagnosed with GAD and other anxiety related issues 5 years ago. I think we all have some form of anxiety, and after many years of trial and error, I found an odd way of meditating that finally moved the needle for me. I went over it in the latest video.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

1. Video - I thoroughly enjoyed this video from Sinbad, on 7 habits of highly effective YouTubers. If you happen to have, or want to start a channel, this is a great watch.

2. Product - Bought this MagSafe Wallet 6 months ago, but I wanted to wait to give it my seal of approval. No complaints. It was less than 1/4 of what Apple charges for their MagSafe Wallet, and it feels just as premium.

3. Shoes - 15+ years ago, my sister went to Berlin with her friends. They all came back with Birkenstocks, I laughed and said I would never wear such a thing. Bought a pair last month, and I must say it’s one of my best purchases this year. I went with their non-leather version, “birko flor”. Be warned - the breaking in phase is tough.

Thanks for reading :)

But one thing it isn't is quiet.

I don't mean quiet in the literal, external sense, but rather in the metaphorical, inner sense.

Even if you live in the countryside and the world around you is mostly birds chirping, the virtual world around you couldn't be more different. (No pun intended for tweets!)

We have notifications bombarding our devices 24/7, messages, tweets, calls, emails, app push notifications...

It doesn't end.

But most of us can't just live without them.

So what can we do about it?

1. Be very selective with what you let in your phone. There's a reason every service that has a website eventually gets an App. One of them is that it can't give you push notifications to your phone *unless* it has an app. Either delete the app or disable notifications.

2. Be ruthless with unsubscribing from emails you get no value out of.

3. Make use of "focus" ("focused mode" on Android) on your devices. These have gotten much better since the time when the only option was Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb. I have automatic modes based on time, apps opened, etc.

Reply to this e-mail letting me know if you'd like to see a video on this :)

How I Actually *MAKE* Smart Notes

I went over my full Zettelkasten workflow step by step in this 10-minute video 👆

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

📚 Literature-map.com - Great way to find writers similar to the ones you like. Simply type a writer's name, and it'll show you a bunch of other writers, the closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them.

🤖 Setapp now includes GPT-4 - If you're a Setapp subscriber, they just released GPT-4 access via TypingMind (one of their apps). No need to pay or register anything. Given that GPT-4 costs $20/mo, this feature alone makes Setapp worth it. I don't know how this is sustainable for them, but I'm not complaining. If you use my link, you’ll get 1 free month of Setapp when you subscribe.

📷 Belkin Continuity Camera Mount. - It’s great, but with a caveat, and that is the weight of your iPhone. I bought one for me and my partner and her phone is the regular 12, which is almost half the weight of mine (12 Pro Max), plus my case is also a little on the bulkier side. This makes mine a little harder to pull off on the M1 MacBook Air, hers, however, is flawless. Even so, I now carry it in my laptop case wherever I go.

Thanks for reading :)

If you're in a line of work that involves any creativity whatsoever, chances are you'll notice specific times when your creativity shines

For me, it's during the first hours of the day, regardless of when I wake up. Others may have more nuanced patterns, with clear peaks at different times.

Don’t get me wrong! I can still do my creative tasks later in the day, but I've noticed that it takes more effort and time to achieve the same quality of work.

Nowadays, I do my creative tasks right away and the admin stuff later, and this change has made a significant impact. The admin stuff is not creative, it's either done or not done. This means that by finding your creative hours, you are effectively stacking the deck in your favor at no extra cost.

Readwise in Obsidian

Now that Readwise has released Readwise Reader, there’s some nuance to using both in Obsidian. I also go over my custom readwise export settings.

Monthly Picks

A handful of new finds that I think are worth sharing.

💾 diskprices.com - This isn't a new find by any means, I've been using this for a long time, but I've received a lot of questions about where to find the cheapest hard drives since my video on Network Attached Storage went live. This is always my go to. Just choose your Amazon location and filter by the exact type of drive you're looking for.

💬 Beeper - I've finally got access to Beeper and I must say I'm impressed. You might've heard of Texts which combines all your messaging services (iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack, Instagram, etc.) into one platform so that everything is centralized. The problem is that Texts charges $12.5/mo (and that's billed yearly!) Which, in my opinion, is nothing short of outrageous. I don't have experience with texts, so I can't compare apples to apples, but Beeper does all I need for free. They state they will have an optional paid subscription down the line with extra features.

🧘‍♂️ The Optimal Amount of B.S. by Tom Greene - A good short read and one I try to remember every time a flight gets delayed, I'm stuck in traffic or any other "fun" stuff that I have no control over. Highly recommended.

Thanks for reading :)