These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Apparently, from about 1500 to 1800, life expectancy in Europe was between 30 and 40 years of age. Now the world average is about 73 years. In other words, humans have doubled their average lifespan in about two centuries. And I have half my life still to live.
2
I’d argue that entrepreneurship tends to make you more of a realist. It’s incredibly hard to build a successful, sustainable business while maintaining faulty notions about how the world works. As such, the pursuit of entrepreneurship is the pursuit of being less wrong.
3
If you can amass $1,000,000 in savings, invest it all and earn 5% interest – keeping in mind that the historical average annual return of the S&P 500 is about 7% adjusted for inflation – you’d have passive income of $4,166 per month indefinitely without touching the capital.
4
Watching this documentary and they show scenes from Amsterdam. That city is ridiculously beautiful, almost like every other city was made in black and white and Amsterdam is the only one in full-on technicolor. Gotta get back there again before too long.
5
Been doing the Mandela running for 15-20 minutes every day for several weeks now, building it up easy on the back. Felt the urge to get out and run in the rain this eve, Bruce and the boys in my ears. An hour and nine kilometers later, feeling on top of the world.
6
Rereading E-Myth. Actually never finished it the first time around, back in 2012. Don’t think I was fully ready for it then. But now I know I need to move on from the Technician role, been too caught up in that. The Manager and Entrepreneur in me need more air.
7
After dark, standing outside this shop with a name I can’t read, talking deep with an old friend, watching four kittens play in the corner, thinking how everything matters and nothing does. After the call I’ll go inside, buy two bunches of bananas, head home for the tea.
8
Samuel Beckett once said of Godot: “Why people have to complicate a thing so simple I can’t make out.” We often do that with art, taking from it what we will more so than what the artist intended. I suppose we often do that with reality too.
9
You pay more for a Kindle device if you want it ad-free. It’d be nice if they had that option for clothing as well. Pay a bit more and it comes without the branding. So you’d effectively be getting a discount if you’re willing to walk around flashing their logo, like a human billboard.
10
First time at the cinema in almost two years, barely anyone here. I’ve been tracking every movie I’ve seen and where for ten years now. 447 movies altogether, some repeats. That’s just shy of a movie a week on average. Been watching more since the start of COVID.
11
Down the creator coin rabbit hole. There’s a newsletter that has their own coin, gives you some when you subscribe, more when you refer others, perks according to how much you hold. Like a rewards program but with crypto. This might be the future.
12
A bit of success in business can be dangerous. There’s a temptation there to protect it, not take any chances that might mess it up. But if you keep doing the exact same thing for too long, others are likely to figure out a better way and make your thing redundant.
13
I have a nice addiction now to the step counter on my phone, find myself eager to rack up at least 6000 per day and get it to turn green. Back in January I was averaging 3600 steps per day. The last two months I’m averaging more than 9000. Gamification working in my favor.
14
Tbilisi has many courtyards, and within them you’ll often find a sports court. They recently renovated the one nearest to me, down there today shooting the basketball, a couple of auld lads chatting in Russian on the bench, two kids kicking a ball around at the other end.
15
Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville writing in 1835…
It is strange to see with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue their own welfare, and to watch the vague dread that constantly torments them lest they should not have chosen the shortest path which may lead to it.
16
Weird how the more you know about a topic, the harder it is to answer simple questions about it. It’s often the newbies who have the strongest convictions, whereas the experts will tell you “it depends.” You don’t really know your stuff until you can see some nuance.
17
There’s a subreddit full of stories of anti-vaxxers dying of Covid. Some tragic scenes on there, like the newborn baby on its mother’s casket, or the birthday well-wisher who died in the ICU. Don’t spend too much time browsing it or you’ll end up depressed.
18
A few months back I found a good therapist and started doing an hour-long call with him once a week. It’s been great for my mental health. Just having someone there to listen as I try put thoughts and emotions into words, shine a light inside my own head.
19
Spend $100,000 and you can buy a website that earns about $4000 per month. Think about buying a real estate property for $100,000. Unlikely you’d be able to generate $4000/month from that, even at full occupancy. Methinks I’d rather buy websites than real estate.
20
I reviewed Wealthy Affiliate in depth two years ago, was appalled with how poor the training and how cult-like the community. Signed up again recently. Nothing much has changed. Dunning-Kruger still in full effect with most of their members.
21
To me, the most interesting theory of the afterlife is that it’s whatever you believe it will be, whatever you think you truly deserve. So the devout Muslim gets his 72 virgins, the bad Christian burns in hell for all eternity, and the militant atheist experiences nothing.
22
I’m standing there thinking how I drank alcohol for a decade, then didn’t drink alcohol for a decade, then kinda started drinking alcohol again but not liking it much. Then I see the alien’s face in the toilet and I hit him in the eye.
23
Probably a good thing for mental health is to spend more time doing things we enjoyed doing as kids. For me, that’s playing basketball. Barely played much the past few years. But I’ve started shooting around a few times a week and it’s doing wonders for my mind.
24
The term gaslighting comes from an old movie, where a husband tries to make his wife think she’s going crazy so he can have her committed to a mental institution and steal her inheritance. The gas lights flicker downstairs, but he says it’s just her imagination.
25
Heard Dax Shepard say that he always feels better after an hour of exercise. Same for me. I have this hour-long routine I do every morning, exercise and meditation. Some mornings I really don’t feel like doing it. But I always do. And I always feel better after.
26
Some consider Mansa Musa to be the richest man who ever lived. He was king of Mali some 700 years ago. Yemen was considered one of the richest places on Earth about 2000 years ago. Everything comes and everything goes. Empires today, backwaters tomorrow.
27
One of my favorite things about working for myself and having that flexible schedule: going to public places when most other people are at work. Like my trip to the cinema in the middle of the day today. Dune in Imax. Me and about ten other people in the place.
28
Often my default when I hear a different opinion – especially on a taboo topic – is to pull back, even change the subject to avoid an uncomfortable conversation. Methinks a better approach is to become genuinely curious, lean in, try to understand why they think that way.
29
Much of entrepreneurship is trying to predict the future. Like a surfer out paddling, watching the water, positioning herself so she can catch the next big wave. The more time she spends out there, the more waves she tries to catch, the better her predictions become.
30
Joshua Foer writes in Moonwalking with Einstein…
“Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next – and disappear. That’s why it’s so important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to exotic locales, and have as many new experiences as possible that can serve to anchor our memories. Creating new memories stretches out psychological time, and lengthens our perception of our lives.”
31
Alarm bells ring whenever I see someone post something on social media along with the caption, “Just some food for thought.” It’s usually some half-assed conspiracy theory that sounds compelling to a 5-second attention span that doesn’t bother to fact check.