Last year, I wrote about resolutions and the reward of just making some progress. I’ve set fairly standard resolutions the past few years – reading more books, improving sleep quality, reducing screen time. The usual. After years of similar goal-setting, those activities have become a part of who I am. James Clear refers to this as “casting a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” By trying to read 8, 12, 24 books, I was “casting votes” to become a reader. Now, I find reading replaces scrolling Instagram or watching regular-season basketball (admittedly, I'm still watching hockey).
The resolutions are not necessarily saying the reason I’ve become a reader, for example, but the forced reflection and exercise of goal-setting certainly helped. That was time I took to think about who I was, and who I wanted to be. This is precisely why I’m not anti-resolutions. Whatever catalyst you need to do some introspection is encouraged by me. I try to journal daily and monthly, to check in with myself and be sure I’m casting the right votes.
This year, I really only set one personal goal that feels like an evolution of past years’ goals. Think deeper. Over the past year, I found myself consuming content without consideration of how it made me feel, putting myself into arbitrary boxes that I didn’t necessarily think I fit, and accepting the status quo without any deliberation as to why it was.
Scroll through the #takes on Twitter or “photo dumps” on Instagram and you’ll see an abundance of square pegs fitting into square holes. Nuance and novelty seemingly replaced by Bored Apes and maximalist groupthink. My hope for this year is that I can sift through the bullshit, generate some original ideas, and cast votes for being an independent thinker.
"FORM" || feat. John John Florence
John John Florence and friends at Pipeline. That should really be all the convincing you need to watch this new short. The voiceover bit is a tad hokey, but it paints a beautiful rapid-fire history of the world’s most famous surf spot before shifting the focus toJohn John and his crew, including brothers Ivan and Nate, making it look way too easy (and no less scary) at Pipe.
—Justin
Why Almost Every Town In America Has a Thai Restaurant
This five-and-a-half-minute video is worth the small time investment to add to your repertoire and whip out the next time you eat Thai food, walk past a Thai restaurant, or hear the words “pad thai.” This channel is great and fits into a bucket I’m now calling “douchey jeopardy,” where you learn a lot about one thing that has little application aside from sharing when no one asked.
—Andrew
The New Yorker’s Tables For Two
While there is plenty of food media that I enjoy, I find that the one I’m most influenced by is The New Yorker’s “Tables for Two” column. It partly has to do with the fact that I consume it in print at a cadence that I can manage (weekly at most, since I, like most New Yorker subscribers, am wont to let issues pile up). But I think it’s really the diversity of restaurant choices that the magazine reviews. There’s a mix of new flavors of the month with local hole-in-the-walls. And none of it feels too precious or breathless. Most importantly, when I’ve gone to some of the featured restaurants, I’ve been appropriately “whelmed” (never under, sometimes over), which gives me the confidence to keep exploring their recommendations.
—Justin
Oh Fire (Now in Discord)
Two years ago, I started a music-sharing group in Salesforce Work Chat Slack. It was truly a p*ndemic haven, with daily listening parties and thousands of songs shared. This week, we made the switch to Discord, a company seemingly building more community-focused products. We are already approaching 50 users, with channels for over a dozen genres, as well as places to share playlists, podcasts, and more. Join us!
—Andrew