These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Haven’t left the apartment in two days. Haven’t needed to, haven’t wanted to. It’s late now, dark outside, sound of a neighbor playing piano. I should get to bed. In the morning I have to finish the newsletter then go find a wheelchair, or crutches, maybe a zimmer frame.
2
I see the Dunning–Kruger effect in my inbox almost every day, newbies emailing me eager to start complex online businesses, no appreciation of how difficult the task and how little they know. Can’t judge them too harshly though. I was like that myself starting out.
3
Never given an injection before. We read the instructions, watch a couple of YouTube videos, read the instructions again, then go ahead and get started. Only takes ten seconds, goes pretty smooth, no blood, sweat or tears. We’ll do it again tomorrow.
4
Legend has it that Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice between frequent interruptions in the family sitting room. The house received a steady stream of visitors, often unannounced, but only close family and friends ever knew of Austen’s sneaky writing habit.
5
My grandmother lived with us when I was in my mid-teens. She was very fragile, didn’t have long left to live. My mother looked after her while working a full-time job, raising kids and cooking dinners every evening. Looking back, I’m in awe of how she managed.
6
Some people get caught up looking for a perfect mentor, someone they agree with 100%. And if they see one tiny thing amiss in an ad or on a sales page, they write them off completely. With this approach, they’ll never find anyone to learn from.
7
Started keeping an investment diary. Any time I make an investment or decide not to, I write out my reasoning. I can check back later and see where I went right or wrong. A similar practice has been helpful with decisions in my personal life. Too easy to forget if you don’t write it down.
8
Reading a novel about a woman who made a deal with the devil. She’s pretty much immortal, alive for centuries. But the downside is nobody remembers her. Once out of sight, she’s out of mind. No friends, no relationships, no connection longer than a few hours.
9
Some people are naturals, or they get lucky. But more often when you see someone with a great physique, or an amazing relationship, or lots of money, or some other enviable thing, you can bet they have that thing because they paid the price.
10
Quantity vs quality. Would you rather have one amazing best friend and little social life beyond, or ten decent friends that you see regularly? Maybe that’s a false dichotomy. Seems some people easily manage to have both. But I tend to struggle.
11
In the morning I get a glass of water and drink it while looking out the window. I like to stay there until I see a person moving through the streets below. It reassures me that some kind of zombie apocalypse hasn’t kicked off overnight.
12
If you could split test life, what experiments would you run? I’d be curious to see what my life would have been like if I’d never picked up a basketball, if I’d snorted that line of cocaine, if I’d stayed in the US a decade ago, if that girl hadn’t messaged me.
13
Slowly getting back to normal as the patient recovers, becomes more independent. Periods of deep work had been hard to come by, and that was making me antsy. But the last two days we’ve made good progress on the user generated reviews. Aiming to launch by month’s end.
14
Working on this algorithm helps me better appreciate why Google Search is a black box. Has to be really. If they revealed exactly how it works, folks would be quick to find ways to manipulate it. Some things just don’t work well if everyone knows how it works.
15
Among the most important people you’ll ever have in your life are your kids. Given that, you could easily argue that it’s best to have kids as early as possible, simply so you can maximize the overlap between your life and theirs and spend more time with them overall.
16
Doesn’t happen often, but whenever I struggle to fall asleep now I pop in one earbud and line up a few episodes of this podcast on low volume. I’ve drifted off to bits and pieces of Sherlock Holmes, The Wind In The Willows, and The Secret Garden.
17
I’ve lost all respect for Trustpilot. They’re supposed to help consumers make better decisions. But their ratings are so easy to manipulate that they do the opposite. Twice this week I’ve come across shady companies with far higher ratings than they deserve.
18
As the savings increase, thinking to maybe buy a place to call home in the next year or two. But where? I like Georgia, plan to stay here a while. But then I look up the list of countries by natural disaster risk and wonder if Bulgaria might be a better place to settle.
19
Should you take the hard road? Sometimes you should. Because along that road you’ll likely find far more opportunities for learning and growth. And sometimes you shouldn’t. Because the easy road might get you to the same place without all the stress and hassle.
20
My last year of university in Ireland, I barely drank alcohol, passed up many house parties and nights out. My goal was to graduate with distinction and land a job in New Orleans. All through that year I told friends my next drink would be on Bourbon Street. As it turned out, it was.
21
User generated reviews stuff is coming together nicely now, on track to launch next week. But that’ll only be the halfway point. Can’t just build it and hope they’ll come. Thinking to pay $10 for each published review and aim to spend $10k total on that in 2 months. Should get things rolling.
22
I walk out of the x-ray room and back to the front desk, take out a clear plastic bag and present it to the lady there. The bag contains twenty used syringes. She says she’ll need to check with someone and disappears with the needles into the next room.
23
Like me, you’ve probably had a dream or fantasy come true, only to find that the real thing didn’t measure up to how you imagined it. Not always, but sometimes. Hard to know which dreams should stay as dreams, and which you should risk making real.
24
I’m constantly amazed by good movies and TV shows; for them to exist means hundreds of talented people had to work well together. For most of the past decade I’ve worked either solo or within a very small team. Not sure I’d fare well as part of a big production.
25
Apparently 40% of the US dollars ever printed were printed last year. And more people than ever are now investing in stocks and such. Brings to mind Warren Buffett’s famous words:
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
26
Old lady ahead of me at the checkout is looking through her purse, then putting aside some items. Flour, sugar, soap, toilet paper. Looks like she doesn’t have enough to pay for everything. Crosses my mind that I could buy those things for her. Maybe I will.
27
Coding teaches you humility. Happens often that I’m sitting there trying to troubleshoot something, thinking the problem doesn’t make any sense… but inevitably it turns out that it makes perfect sense and I was just too dumb to recognize it.
28
Watching that Nina Simone documentary again. If I could go back and time and see any one music act live, it’d be her. She led something of a tragic life, proving genius is a tough thing to handle. But the doc makes you wonder: how many little black girls like her never had a chance?
29
Easy to sound tough if you only tell half the story. For example, I broke a guy’s nose once. (Accidentally caught him with an elbow while playing basketball). And I once pissed on the front steps of a courthouse. (As a drunk teen, in the middle of the night, when nobody was around.)
30
Tomorrow, the first day of May. That might be the best month of the year. Everything coming alive, the promise of summer. This will be the 40th such month of my lifetime. I wonder how many more I’ll see, how many more I’ll remember to appreciate.