I am remarkably disciplined. Structure, control, gamified goals, delayed gratification paired with living a non-routine life and only committing to doing things that are important is a pretty good way to describe how I operate my life. It has helped me achieve some big fitness goals and maintain healthy lifestyle habits.

Now, I have a new habit I am trying to form, and I am stuck. Really stuck.

It took me almost two years, but I finally finished reading Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. In one of the last chapters, they discuss a concept that really resonated with me. It’s called the three I’s, which stand for Ideology, Ignorance and Inertia.

Olympic Weightlifting has quickly become a big part of my life - dedicating a couple of hours 3 times a week to something will do that!

So, when my life started getting chaotic (travel, moving, career changes), the preparation and anticipation for Tough Temple started to serve as an anchor of sorts. As I would start to spin out about future uncertainties, a common mantra was I’ll figure everything else out AFTER Tough Temple.

As a high performing anti-procrastinator, patience is low on the list of my virtues. Lately, however, the universe has been repeatedly teaching me that having my timelines disrupted bring the best blessings…

Here’s a terrifying article from the Washington Post. It’s titled: AI is more persuasive than a human in debate, study finds. Subheading: When provided basic demographic information on their opponents, AI chatbots adapted their arguments and became more persuasive than humans in online debates.

Here is my position on balance.

Balance is a worthy goal, but I don’t think we have a correct calibration of the scale on which it is measured.

This weekend I lost my community.

My weightlifting gym BASA (Baltimore Area Strength Athletes), run by Jason Morstein, permanently closed.

I feel dramatic saying this but it’s true.

Work chat channels are the worst. When left to occur organically, chat conversations are disorganized, nothing is tracked, and everything is forgotten in a day.

It has been exactly a year since I started learning how to play the bass. Other than some middle school experience with music/choir – I started from scratch.

TLDR: Being Obedient = Bad, Being Reasonable = Good.

I love working with Founders. There is a special kind of compatibility I can achieve with someone who is over-indexed on Innovational and Relational thinking because they balance out my Procedural and Analytical affinity.

However, as I evolve my portfolio of startups I work with, I am becoming more keyed into the type of person I want to work with. Here are my 3 Green Flags and 2 Red Flags that I look out for when chatting with a potential collaborator.

This year has been hard. Really hard.

It’s like 2024 decided to be 5 years at once. Maybe it’s a tax thing.

Lately, I’ve been having regular conversations with my mentor and friend, Simon Carcagno, and this man has been on a roll. He will make these, seemingly throwaway, comments and observations that worm there way into my brain and unlock and unblock these mental obstacles I’ve been struggling with since the beginning of 2024.

I’ve never been against gratitude. In fact, I have my whole trifecta of Love – Gratitude – Imagination and how it’s important to tap into all of them.

But I’ve got to be honest.

“Pro-bleeeeeemmmmm?!?!?” she exclaimed, while sticking a microphone taped to a golden mannequin leg into my face.

I stare at her, my eyes wide, slightly panicking while scrambling for a better way to explain what I want to say. I draw a blank. I resign myself to saying “existential dread”.

So there I was, minding my own business, when the Digital Wellbeing app on my phone decides to inform me that I’m spending an average of 15 hours a week on Tiktok.

Sir, I think at the app, how could you say something so controversial, yet so brave?

This concept, introduced by this episode of Fixable, has brought together some of my favorite things: mathematics and working smarter.

They say when you make a plan, God laughs at you. Then, God then sends a man to ruin your plan!

This blog post is inspired by a tiktok video created by @notwildin.

I will not help you.