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My dad was a carpenter. Well everyone called him that, but I know him for what he truly was. A craftsman. Be it his work with wood, or the little works of art and craft he made for us or his drawings in my book; everything he did, was slow, and measured, and full of deliberation and intention. Which is why this episode struck such a chord with me. Jocelyn articulates beautifully, exactly what my father did. I still remember his slight rankle, followed by this expression of sorrow, whenever I would rush him, tell him this much was good enough. Thank God, he never listened to me. He may not be here now, but everything he built, makes it like he is. ...

Seeing as you folks are reading my newsletter, I know I am preaching to the choir, but this article, summarises my thoughts on social media excellently! from the Art of Manliness, At first, it wasn’t so bad. But then I started noticing that I wasn’t seeing all the updates from pages I followed on Facebook. Come to find out, Facebook started changing their News Feed algorithm so that only the content Facebook thought you’d be interested in the most showed up in your feed. Facebook claimed they were just trying to help users sift through the firehose of information being blasted at them. Critics argued Facebook was just trying to keep people more engaged on Facebook because that makes money for Facebook. And that they were trying to force pages to pay money for their content to show up in the News Feeds they had once shown up in organically. I was just ticked that I wasn’t seeing all the stuff from Facebook pages that I had deliberately opted into getting updates from. ...

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.” ...

Lots of fantasy, a lovely book of poetry, a beautifully written nonfiction book. All this, on July’s list of books :) July Love Looks Pretty on You, Lang Leav (must read. in my imagination, leav is a talented younger sister, who has been through a lot more and writes her advice just for me, in her poems) Working, Robert Caro (if you haven’t read the Power Broker, you should if you haven’t read the Lyndon volumes, you should this book is Caro’s account of the work, that went into those works. the ceaseless toil, the thankless years, the people and their stories Caro is Caro, master of the craft. There are only a few explicit lessons here. but plenty if you care enough to read between the lines plenty if you make this an annual read, like i will) ...

Last weeks post seemed to have hit a nerve. Most of you seem to have opened it rather quickly. And then a few of you, complained! Rather quickly. “All this is well and good, but I want to say No, to other people! ” Well, I can help you with that too! Eric Barker, of Barking Up the Wrong Tree fame, has an excellent post on how to do just that! ...

Another James Clear pick today. How do you make it easier on yourself to say no? To stick to that diet? To stop goofing off and buckle down and study or work? Because, The ability to overcome temptation and effectively say no is critical not only to your physical health, but also to maintaining a sense of well–being and control in your mental health. We do this, by assertion rather than denying ourselves day in and day out. Not that I can’t do this. Just that I don’t. I am a person who eats good food. So I don’t eat junk food. I am a person who wants to be a programmer. So I don’t browse the web aimlessly all day. I am a person who wants his mind in his control all the time. So I don’t drink. ...