Thirty days ago I began a thirty day challenge to record my self every day. My goal was to become more comfortable in front of a camera with the hopes of posting on YouTube to build credibility. I chose that platform because of research I’d done regarding small creators in that community and the success of authentic non-edited videos.

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The thought was that if I could regularly create and post YouTube videos it would be the highest leverage activity and content I could create. Once you’ve recorded a video that can be repackaged and repurposed in many ways on other platforms and mediums.

It was a success.

It only took three days before I was comfortable enough to publish a video on YouTube. It took two weeks before I was comfortable enough to create a three day a week publishing schedule (M/W/F). It took thirty days to publish 11 videos.

What I Learned

Sustainable Habits

The habit of recording my self is sustainable and one I’ll continue moving forward. I’m sure I’ll miss a day or two here or there, but in general I plan to continue to record a video daily. All you need is your phone and I never regretted the activity. It allows me to test ideas and hone the way it’s communicated in a much quicker way than writing it down. I do a “voice” edit of all my writing—reading it aloud to hear if it sounds natural—and this short circuits that.

I still want to write, but I’m saving my writing efforts for my product (see below).

Incremental Improvements

My approach of starting with the minimum and getting a little better every day went extremely well. My first videos were vertical (one even hand held), then I switched to horizontal, then I added a thumbnail, then I used the built in YouTube editor to trim, then I worked on my hooks, then I focused on descriptions, then I moved into my car for better lighting/audio, etc. If I would’ve targeted for what I did for my last video I would’ve never gotten started.

I’ll add 13 more videos by the end of August and I’m excited to see where those incremental improvements get me.

Lifesmithing

I’m moving away from the term Lifesmithing. I didn’t have a solid name when I made my initial announcement and this came out of forcing my self to put a term out there. I have always wanted a term that my community could call themselves. I believe Getting Things Done, one of the most influential books I’ve ever read, has suffered from not having a term people can use to describe themselves. GTDers doesn’t roll of the tongue.

But the truth is I never got comfortable with lifesmith. It’s clunky to say and while I heard positive feedback about the name, it’s a jacket I don’t want to wear. If that’s true for my self, then how can I expect others to put it on too.

It also diluted and caused confusion with Commitment Theory—the philosophy that backs everything I’m creating. I still need a term to describe the practitioners of this philosophy. I’m moving forward with navigators. The idea there is that we’re all navigating the space of possibility.

We’ll see how the jacket fits, but for now it feels good.

Product

I shifted away from the Banish Scrolling Digital Booster Pack. I still love this idea for the long term, but it’s not feasible in the short term. My thoughts need to progress a lot further before they are digestible in the form that I want them to be. Since I’m prioritizing speed, I don’t want to spend the time to work through these problems.

I’ve shifted to a short book. The plan is to create a book funnel and give it eyeballs through PPC ads. My audience isn’t big enough to fuel this organically. That’s my long term goal, but while I’m building the idea of paying for traffic seems more sustainable. The idea would be to charge only enough for the book to pay for the ad spend with the hopes of driving a small percentage of that audience into coaching clients.

Like everything I’m doing, this is only a hypothesis that I plan to test. But I’ve got to write the book to get there!

Subscriptions Paused

Due to my current strategy of using YouTube to build credibility while writing a book to build authority I’ve had to pause weekly Thoughtspear essays. I’ve literally paused my subscriptions, so if you’re a paid subscriber you won’t be affected by this change.

Honestly, I wrestled with this. I had committed to posting every week and each person that subscribed I felt like I would be letting them down by halting posts. Especially the paid subscribers. At the end of the day though, I have to do what’s right for me and the project as a whole is a commitment I made to my self.

I’m not done writing. I still have a ton of content to create in the written form. There are just other things I need to focus on at this time.

Fun

The biggest thing I learned? It’s fun to record video and post it on YouTube. I’m sure the novelty of the platform and the tools that support it will wear off a little bit, but it’s been a blast so far. I love to learn and this is a real challenge for me. There is so much to dive into and get better at. Not just for YouTube, but the entire creator/attention economy in general.

Prolific creators must fall in love with the process. I wouldn’t go that far yet, but it’s definitely been fun!

What I Created

It’s worth sharing with you all what I’ve created in the past month. Don’t watch any of these videos unless you plan to watch them from beginning to end! When people click away from a video after starting it, YouTube takes that as a bad signal for the creator. Either watch it all or don’t watch it. Both are appreciated!

• What Happened When I Replaced One Scroll With Another [5:40] - My first video and still my most viewed (buoyed by my announcement I’m sure). I talk about how I stopped Facebook/Reddit but replaced it with YouTube. I share the three rules I put in place to ensure I don’t infinitely scroll. I need to revisit this one.

• I Relapsed (Scrolling)! Where Did My Sanctuary Go? [4:05] - Another story of how I fell back into an old habit because of a change in my situation. I plan to revisit the concept of sanctuary soon since this one didn’t perform well. I’ve realized by paying attention to Gary Vee (and he even says this) that he really only posts about three different things but keeps hammering them over and over.

• Cold Turkey Is Hard Mode – Try This Instead to Stop Scrolling [5:55] - My first horizontal video! The idea that you shouldn’t stop cold turkey is probably one of my “things” that I need to keep talking about. It’s not a sustainable way of making a change. Definitely will cover this stuff again.

• Why You Should Replace Your Phone With a Laptop [6:46] - This one did well probably because the premise is strange. You can see by all my titles here that I’m really trying to figure out this whole title thing.

• Scrolling is NOT as Distraction—It’s Something Worse [9:15] - I made my first real thumbnail for this video. Content wise, this is a sentiment that I want to get out a lot more. I paint scrolling as an obligation by defining three different types of commitments. Need to keep working on the messaging of this one.

• we built the web. now we’re caught in it [8:03] - This was one of my favorite titles. I went all lowercase with it because it reminds me of my early internet obsession with all lowercase. Something about that feels good. But it shows that just because I like it doesn’t mean it’ll get clicks. The idea here was that I grew up on the internet, we were promised this amazing thing and at the start it delivered. I grew up on the internet and it’s given me so much. Now it’s taking things away from us.

• Motivation and Discipline Are Dead Ends: The Empowerment Secret [6:44] - The first video I did in my car (because I was away for the weekend) and my worst performing video by quite a bit. That’s a shame because it’s some of my favorite content. Part of my “redefining” series where I actually define empowerment within Commitment Theory.

• i’m a hypocrite? (+cats) [4:12] - This was in response to jokes people in my life made about me trying to help people with their phone addiction by getting them to use their phone. This highlights one of my big differentiators. Most people try to quit things cold turkey which can work but has huge drawbacks. I’m focused on helping people use these tools intentionally.

• you’ll scroll forever without this [4:49] - I introduce my first “pillar of harmony” here. A pillar is the combination of a belief and a commitment. This one: Grace is mandatory (belief). Trust your self (commitment). It fell a little flat. It’ll come back!

• It’s Impossible to Find Purpose—Here’s Why [6:53] - Another one of my “redefining” series. This time I redefine purpose under the lens of Commitment Theory and try to explain why my definition has more power than the traditional definition.

• what this xennial discovered in the corn pit (about scrolling) [9:03] - Trying to go absurd with the title. I could probably stand to go even further but I couldn’t figure out the specifics in time. This is the most I wrestled with a title and it’s because I’ve realized that the title and thumbnail really are the most important thing. This isn’t a secret, every YouTuber will tell you that, but now I know it from experience.

What’s Next

I’ve been having a ton of fun figuring out YouTube so I plan to continue to post three times a week. That means I’ll keep recording a video every day, even if I have no plans to post it. It’s sort of cathartic. I will most likely miss weeks posting on Substack (paid subscriptions are paused). The content will vary. My writing time will be devoted to writing for my product.

I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts about what I’m doing. I know people read this but I’d appreciate knowing everyone’s opinions—good or bad.

The people I value the most are those that challenge me.

On June 30th, I committed to an experiment—to record a video every day for thirty days. This came after realizing that creating videos would be one of the highest-leverage activities I could do. It’s worth noting that I committed to recording, not posting, the videos. Relieving the pressure of posting gave me the space to get more comfortable with being on camera.

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I’ve never struggled with self-confidence, but putting your self out there—really out there—is a different story. When you’re engaging in a new activity, your brain predicts the worst as a form of protection. It’s just trying to keep you safe; it doesn’t know what’s going to happen. The only way you can overcome these fears is by dosing your self with prediction error. What I mean is, you need to give your brain new information to make predictions on.

In the case of recording videos, you need to actually record videos to demonstrate that there is nothing to fear.

It took me three days of recording to decide one was good enough for YouTube. Today, I released my fifth YouTube video, and I’m planning one more this week (I’m testing out a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule). This was partly aided by the knowledge that YouTube is pushing smaller creators who are doing minimal editing.

Music to my ears.

If I had to live up to the standard set by all the videos you see on YouTube, I’d never post. All the editing and optimization are exhausting to me. I can figure that stuff out, but when standards are high for a brand new activity, it paralyzes me.

I applied the MVP concept to this experiment and decided that I’d make each video incrementally better. For example, the video I made today was the first one where I set a thumbnail. Previously, I let YouTube set whichever thumbnail it wanted. I knew thumbnails were important, but the task was enough of a barrier to stop me. Once I figured out the mechanics of posting, it was easy to spend a little time making a thumbnail.

If you had told me last month that by the middle of July I’d be posting three videos a week to YouTube, I wouldn’t have believed you. It was only through embracing an MVP approach and making tiny experiments to test things out for my self that I realized this was an attainable goal.

What experiments are you running these days?

Last week, I began a thirty-day challenge to record—not post—a video every day for thirty days. The biggest battle so far? Mosquitoes!

The video I’m posting today is the third iteration of the same topic, where I discuss the situation I created to cut out at least an hour or two of scrolling every day. The first video I made on this topic was only about the rule I created for my self, and it took a few more recordings to introduce a personal story into the video. I’m trying to do more showing and less telling.

I wouldn’t say I’m completely comfortable on video yet. Maybe that will never be the case. However, I’ve definitely overcome my original “fear” of being on camera. I place fear in quotes because we all have a different definition and idea of fear.

I try to remind my self that fear is a prediction.

Humans are wired to predict. Since the dawn of man, we’ve used these predictions to protect us. Our brains take our past experiences and predict what’s going to happen in the future. It happens constantly—it’s how we navigate the world. But when it comes to things that we don’t have experience with, we fill the gaps with inaccurate predictions, many of which are to protect us from the unknown and to shield us from uncertainty.

Thousands of years ago, the unknown and the uncertain were dangerous. The modern world? Less so. Our brains will still predict our way out of a dark alley at night, but that same fear response works against us when we try anything new.

The solution? Dose your self with prediction error. Give your brain experiences to draw upon to fill in those prediction gaps. My brain now has ten days of video recordings, and it knows that nothing bad happens. If I would have committed to posting a video every day for thirty days, those experiences may not have been all positive. My commitment to recording was carefully created to create a safe and simple environment to get what I really want: to be comfortable on camera so I can post video on social media.

So far, so good!

I’m leaning into my strategy of “working in the open.”

I’ve committed to recording a video every day for thirty days. This is to get comfortable talking to the camera in service of my goal to start posting on YouTube. The key here is that I’ve committed to recording a video—not posting it.

But we’re three days in and I want some feedback. I recorded this one after five hours at the pool with my kids. I was fried. There are things I could absolutely improve—there is always room for improvement. I’m curious what y’all notice.

If you like it, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts.

But if you see room for improvement, I’d respect you if you shared with those with me. Publicly or privately, whatever is more comfortable to you. I’m begging you!

Also, if the content resonates with you, please leave a comment. If you’ve set any rules for your own social media use, I want to hear about them. If you’re still struggling to reduce your phone use, please send me a message. I’d be happy to cover your problems in a future post.

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"Are you a perks member?" they ask.

This question begins every interaction of the Caribou Coffee drive-thru. It's your standard loyalty program, the more you buy the more points you get. Then you can trade points for "free" drinks. All you have to do is give them your phone number.

Conventional retail wisdom is that you should make it as easy as possible to buy from you. Asking someone for their number at the start of every transaction seems to contradict this. But wait, we're just getting started.

The next step is to order, nothing crazy there. Then you drive around to the window. Here is where things fall apart. They thrust their point of sale (POS) system out to you at the end of a long stick. It hovers between the building and your vehicle, wobbling slightly as the person tries to keep it steady enough for you to use it. It feels like docking a space ship.

There are a couple of problems here.

First, I'm right-handed. I either have to rotate my body to put my card in the slot, or trust my left hand to do the job. I rotate awkwardly.

Next, if I get the card in properly—I'm happy to report I have over a 99% success rate—the worker knows they need to tilt the screen down so that I can read it. It's one of those screens that generates its own glare.

Finally, you press a few buttons. Normally, this isn't a problem for me. I can press buttons. But keep in mind this is hovering in the air, so each press meets no resistance. I would recommend that your buying experience works with gravity, not against it.

This little interaction shouldn't require four hands.

So why is this happening? I already gave you my number and I tip the same amount every time. Why can't I link my credit card to my phone number and have you text me to confirm the purchase? I could do this while I chuckle at people fumbling around with the POS. Even if it means I have to go to a website or install an app, I would do it.

You can keep the "perks points" or whatever you call them. Just make this experience less awkward. I'm begging you.

Here's how serious I am. I've looked up product jobs at Caribou more times than I care to admit. I would work there with the express purpose to see this feature implemented or find out who or what is in the way of it. Show me a feature that deserves to be ahead of this on the roadmap. I dare you.

This cannot be an insurmountable problem for humanity to solve.

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In one of my previous progress updates I mentioned I could predict even further backward in my pursuit of a Minimum Viable Product. I’ve been testing my ideas while networking but I haven’t seriously considered coaching. In my head, this always seemed like a big established program I would need to build over a long term.

But if I scope the engagement to the problem of scrolling, I have everything I need to get started today. So, I will.

I’m thrilled to have finally launched my first product: Banish Scrolling Guided Session.

The hardest part of this wasn’t the product, it was the copy that supports it. Influential writing isn’t something I’ve tackled yet, and learning a new skill is hard. While I’m doing my best to take an iterative approach in all areas, this one took more time than I care to admit. Please check it out!

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For Subscribers and Followers Only!

While I think $100 is reasonable for the service I’m providing, I am looking for social proof to pair with my offer. That’s why I’m giving away five free coaching packages for any of my subscribers, followers, or anybody they know personally.

If you or someone you know suffers with this challenge, please reach out to me directly. I’m eager to get feedback on my methods but I’m even more excited to help others overcome a challenge in their life.

Introduction

Below is the first essay of the first concept card within the Banish Scrolling Digital Booster Pack. Check my last update for more information about the product. There’s a lot here that needs an explanation.

What’s a pillar of harmony?

Over the years I’ve compiled things I believe to be true about the world and commitments that are useful for navigating it. I define a pillar as the pairing of a belief with a commitment.

Harmony is a set of four simultaneous states of being: stability, intentionality, integrity, and mobility. Stability is having systems to reach a stable state, intentionality is having a vision you are actively pursuing, integrity is having commitments aligned to your values and beliefs, and mobility is having the capacity to pursue your vision.

Why is language first?

In Out of the Funk and Into Harmony I laid the groundwork for lifesmithing as providing a mental model to make your own keys to your own locks. Specific words with specific definitions are the tools in which those keys are created.

Commitments are the core concept within my theory. In The Architecture of Commitment I make the case that language is essential to our special ability to make commitments.

What’s with the code comments?

I’ve developed some lore around this writing. I’ll explain why shortly. The main body of text is written as the personal diary of a character called the “artificer.” This diary was discovered by another individual called “lifesmith prime.” The code comments are this second character’s commentary on the text.

I’ve done this for several reasons:

• It softens the philosophy—I want this to be deep but not impenetrable.

• It differentiates the product—I want to stand out in a crowded market.

• It's more fun—I want to make it more enjoyable for me to work on.

I’ve heard that you should build products for your self. So that’s what I’m doing!

Pillar of Harmony #1 - Language

Language serves two functions.

Language compresses.

It simplifies the perception of reality. It sacrifices fidelity for practicality. It's a tool for reasoning about the world and our experience in it. Its absence would restrain our agency.

Language expresses.

It grants the navigation of possibility. It channels thought into intention. It's a tool to communicate to the world what could be and how we may get there. Its absence would restrain our aspiration.

/* The artificer defines expression as communicating about possibility, not reality. This highlights a core concept of the thoery: the interplay between reality and possibility. Reality is the system in which we live. Possibility is the set of all realities that we might obtain. A lifesmith's primary pursuit is navigating possibility—through thought and action. */

Language destroys while it creates.

I must harness it and wield it carefully.

Language has limits. Consider one's own accord. Our lexicon has thousands of words with a unique conceptual scaffold created from our own lived experience. To believe that we represent reality and navigate possibility with any accuracy is absurd. We don't lie, but don't possess the truth.

/* Think of a time when you lacked a word to describe something and used another in its place. It felt wrong, like something was missing. It's a recognition that even within one's mind, the limits of language are clear. We inherited our words and symbols while building our own concepts to back them. It might be consistent, but consistency is not accuracy. */

Multiply our imperfect compressions and expressions against the countless individuals that occupy reality. Billions of lexicons and scaffolds. Repeated encoding and decoding. An infinite constellation of miscommunication.

It's astounding that we've come this far.

/* Have you ever been in a discussion with multiple people from a different profession? After awhile, you notice they are using familiar words in different ways. It sounds like a different language—because it is. Everyone has a different language. */

Anything that has ever been accomplished—good or evil, important or mundane—was manifested by language. Its power and its peril demands a constant reminder.

I believe language shapes reality. Language forms the boundaries of both perception and aspiration. It affects our understanding of what has happened, what will happen, and what can happen.

/* There is a double meaning here. Language both shapes our perception of reality and allows us to shape new realities through the navigation of possibility. */

I commit to wield my lexicon. Language is a potent tool. Its ability to limit rivals its ability to liberate. It's our primary method of navigating possibility. It should be cultivated, developed, and wielded with care.

/* Consider the difference between telling your self you are "a procrastinator" versus "susceptible to procrastination" (a story about reality) or that you need to go to bed "early" versus "on time" (a story about possibility). Our words activate different pathways in our brain that affect our understanding of a situation. */

/* It's not positive thinking. It's intentional thinking. */

Reality awaits—it must be forged from possibility by language and its manifestations.

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Feedback Requested

I’m looking for any and all feedback to my approach.

• What stands out?

• What is confusing?

• What do you like?

• What makes you bristle?

Feedback is fuel for the engine of change. Throw some coal my way!

I have a dilemma.

My product could use some graphical flair.

I'm wrestling with whether I should use a tool like Midjourney. It's a question of ethics and morality. To be honest, I haven't developed a strong personal "code of conduct" in this new frontier.

I'm torn.

A part of me thinks the cat's out of the bag. These tools are out there and you either get on board or get left behind. It's pragmatic, but not ethical. I want my conduct to be aligned with my personal beliefs and values.

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Software Development

I'm a software developer by trade.

Does it bother me that AI systems are generating code on the back of previously written code?

Not really.

The software community was built on open source principles.1 If early software developers had pushed for intellectual property protections the world would be unrecognizable. The internet wouldn't function without open source software. There's no doubt my feelings about creation are influenced by the folks that laid the groundwork for the profession.

Does it bother me that these tools were trained on copyrighted material?

Not really.

After all, I was trained on copyrighted material. I'm allowed to use what I've learned to create new things. Like it or not, imitation is vital to the creative process. Obviously, the scope of training and the generation speed of AI systems dwarf my own. I wasn't trained on the entirety of human creative output.

We lack the vocabulary to describe this scenario.

I propose a new concept. The Estimated Time to Imitation (ETI)—the speed at which a work can be imitated.

This is the problem. ETIs are plummeting.

Fiction

From a writing perspective I'm in the same camp. LLMs by definition generate derivative works—watered down averages.

Let's imagine I wrote a fantasy series. If someone came along and started to sell their own fan fiction built off the universe? I'd be flattered. If they tried to convince people it was their own creation? I'd be annoyed. If their version became the canonical version? I'd be pissed.

Do my emotions matter?

Not really.

While ETIs regarding fiction have plummeted, it still takes time to read a book. Since imitation quality is low, consumers are careful with their choices. Visual art isn't so lucky, it's quickly consumed.

Non-Fiction

ETIs have the potential to be more damaging to non-fiction. We've already seen this happen to the marketing industry. But what about the realm of personal development? I've spent years developing my approach. An imitator stands to do a lot of damage.

I've already planned to open source some of my work. I've accepted there is potential for someone to come along and repackage it. If it's of any value, it's inevitable. You can't protect an idea.

Being first to market only starts the clock. That's all it ever did. After that it's a game of branding and community. Both of those are still in control of the creator. That's where my focus lies.

Digital Art

Visual artists must train their skills like any other creative profession. Physical art is protected for now, but the ETI of digital art has dropped to seconds. I can find a style I like, tell Midjourney to use it as influence, and generate images of whatever I want in that style immediately.

In the past, a commissioned piece of art would cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Now there is an alternative that drops that into the dollars range (or less). It's understandable that artists see this as damaging to their profession. I don't blame them. Their ETI has shrunk the most. But is there some point at which an ETI is acceptable? It's subjective where the line should be drawn.

Imitation was always possible.

Fish Ladders

Businesses often talk about moats—a term used to describe a company's economic advantage. A creator's moats are time, quality, and style. Generative AI turned those moats into waterfalls.

Forget moats—creators need fish ladders.2

I think of problems as opportunities. In many cases a problem boils down to incentives. This is one such case. What incentive does an artist have to create when ETIs are so low?

It's easy to reframe problems as opportunities. The first step is to figure out the problem. In this case it's imitation. Then you just ask your self a different question. What opportunity does imitation present?

I don't have enough money to commission art for my project, but if there was a way I could license an artist's style, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would be willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to do this. I'd gladly attribute the artist—I'd even share profits.

The model is no different than stock photography and unfortunately inherits the problem of attribution. It'd require changes to platforms to know whether a style was used as influence. There isn't a perfect solution to this problem, but it could be mitigated by making the process as seamless as possible.

A style marketplace flips the incentive by turning imitation into revenue. Artists could invest in their existing style or explore new ones. The problem changes from "why should I create" to "what else should I create." I'd wager this would be more profitable than selling individual works.

I see a path forward for creators in this new world. But does this give me permission to operate under the assumption that things will play out as I hope?

Not really.

Pledge

While I don't have the money to pay someone to create art for my project, I do have the desire. I can turn desire into reality by creating and satisfying a commitment.

I pledge to use a portion of the profits from this product to replace AI generated graphics with commissioned art or licensed imitations.

If my product doesn't make any money, the argument that I am taking money from artists loses its edge. If it's profitable, I'll put money back into the creative system.

It's not a perfect solution3 but it meets my litmus test for integrity. At least for now, it gives me a way through this mess.

Ideas

Some people describe me as an ideas guy. I've grown to say that I'm afflicted by ideas.

When you have ideas, there is always something else. Something simple sprouts into complexity. I'm the prince with a katamari.1 It's not enough to imagine a restaurant that serves just cheeseburgers, the idea grows into an international franchise.

I'm not complaining—but it does create problems.

It's hard to stay focused on an idea. Not because they don't interest me, but because they expand in size until they paralyze. I don't tackle one thing, I embark on a lifelong pursuit.

An idea is a prediction. My predictions tend to compound. When it comes to product development, planning too far in advance is futile. By the time you make something, reality has changed and priorities have shifted. New data renders predictions invalid. Planning one or two steps ahead is fine—knowing the big picture is useful—but too much detail is folly.

I've overcome my tendency to grow ideas by turning my predictions backwards. Instead of predicting what's next, I predict what comes before. I'll admit this is not easy—it takes commitment. The future of an idea is far sexier than what's required to get there. Instead of a process of addition, it's one of abstraction. It's not a planning exercise—that's boring. It's an examination of value by dissecting the essential pieces of a greater whole.

Product people call this working towards a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Since modern thought leaders require weekly content, even this simple idea has grown into a school of thought. There are some that say MVP should stand for Minimum Valuable Product, others talk about Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), Minimum Testable Product (MTP), or Minimum Viable Experience (MVE). Product hippies progress even further into Simple, Lovable, and Complete (SLC), Minimum Lovable Product (MLP), and Minimum Awesome Product (MAP).

The words are different but the goal is the same.

How can you validate an idea with minimal investment?2

False Starts

I can tell you with confidence that a book is not MVP. I know this because I did it. In 2020 I finished a first draft of a manuscript and promptly shuttered the project. It was a failure3 and I haven't looked at it since.

That project was called Refactor Your Life. The idea was to think of your brain as a computer and use software development principles to improve your life. Someone would examine their operations as "source code" and refactor them. Refactoring is a discipline software developers use to restructure their code. It's called that because "factoring" is a mathematical process of breaking down complex expressions. Sound familiar? Refactoring is about simplifying your original implementation—the same process as deriving an MVP.

It wasn't conscious, but while the project was shelved, my brain worked on refactoring it. Bits and pieces surfaced out of my notes. I broke some concepts apart and combined others. Eventually, I'd refactored the idea into something unique, something different, something that would differentiate me from traditional productivity and personal development advice.

I was ready to dive back in, but I didn't learn my lesson.

I began writing another book.

I'm lucky I couldn't crack it. I took five stabs at an outline. I wrote and rewrote chapters. The idea grew and grew. My approach is meant to be flexible enough that it can be used in a multitude of areas with a variety of entry points. That non-linearity doesn't lend itself well to a book. Then I decided to write it as gamebook. For the unfamiliar, gamebooks present the reader choices which leads them to different sections of the book.4 It took me longer than I care to admit that I was repeating the same mistake as before. I was creating more problems than I was solving. The idea had not been tested enough.

I needed to predict backwards.

The process was messy and time consuming but it was worth it. I landed on an MVP that would require a fraction of the effort. My plan was to test the ideas socially, either online or in person. I would identify what resonated and iterate from there.

In retrospect, it sounds logical. It was probably fear that got in the way. Fear of testing something unpolished. But that fear wouldn't be diminished by a book, it would only compound. One should consider the full scope of investment when testing ideas—which includes an investment in your confidence.

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Through my social testing I discovered the first tension I would tackle: scrolling on social media. From my previous product update:

The fact I don't have to explain the tension demonstrates its gravity and our struggles with alleviating it. The evolution of these platforms from social networks to social media highlights the perniciousness of the interaction. These systems no longer have a goal of connection—their goal is consumption.

The next question was how I would assist people with this tension. What product would I develop?. Let's start with its name: Banish Scrolling Digital Booster Pack. I'll explain it word by word.

• Banish - I'm leaning into my "white mage" branding. I thought this was universally known but I've discovered not everyone understands what that means. A white mage is a character class from the video game series Final Fantasy. They cast spells to protect and heal their party. My healing is focused on systems. Most of a white mage's spells are defensive, but Banish is one of the first ones that deals damage. It felt fitting. Scrolling needs more than defense.

• Scrolling - The tension potential customers would be experiencing. It's what's being banished.

• Digital - In pursuit of an MVP, digital is far more minimum than a physical product. It allows me to test viability with minimal investment. There is a physical future to the product if it's successful, but the content will remain digital to allow for future iterations where required.

• Booster Pack - A booster pack is a sealed package of cards. It's used in collectible and trading card games (CCGs and TCGs). Popular examples of these are Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon. This approach differentiates the product while fitting my strategy of building for my self. A booster pack will contain 10 to 15 concepts with a 5 to 10 minute essay accompanying each. There are two reasons I'm developing it this way:

  • Individuals with this tension are going to be on their phones and their attention will be under siege. The content must be short, but if it's too short it will be ineffective. People can pace themselves with separate cards. It could be binged in a matter of hours, or consumed over the course of a week or two.

  • I intend to reuse cards for future tensions. For example, one core concept is "commitment"5 and it will be necessary for nearly everything. While it's a little more difficult up front, packaging it into separate cards allows me to save time in the future.

I'm still kicking around on the delivery method. I'm leaning towards a PDF, but it could also be a website. It's going to be whichever is easiest for me to create. Eventually, I'd like to make physical decks of cards in the style of Pip Decks or Kitted. But the idea needs testing before I make that jump.

But Wait! There's...Less?

In the process of writing this I realized I could predict even further backward. I'll cover that in next week's post.

Question

I've been struggling with something that I'd appreciate feedback on.

Does the name lifesmithing resonate?

So far I've only heard one person say they like the name lifesmithing. I've got no ego about it—I'm approaching everything an experimental mindset.

Tell me what you think. Be honest! I can handle it.

Introduction

It's been a month since I introduced lifesmithing. My introductory essay explains what led to the announcement but is light on details. My vision is to help people develop self-healing systems for their life.

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If you're not familiar with the concept of self-healing systems, it's pretty much what it sounds like. They are syste…

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I keep a list of passion projects I've encountered online. Their complexities fill me with wonder and make me nostalgic for the early internet—a trove of hidden curiosities.

My current side project (Commitment Theory via Lifesm…

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"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer

A Short History

Nostalgia

In the late 1600s Johannes Hofer encountered Swiss patients with a variety of symptoms: sadness, apathy, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, loss of appetite, cognitive challenges, irregular pulse, gastro-intestinal issues, and more. …

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Forget nagging or lists; my wife discovered the ultimate loophole for getting me to do things—she sends me an email. She is careful when, why, and how often she leverages this power, but a few of times a y…

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Introduction

"We're almost there," I said to my wife as we passed yet another tourist gasping for air.

We'd taken a month away from work to complete a thru-hike of the Superior Hiking Trail. A commitment we made was to use any remaining time for a trip abroad. It gave us the motivation to finish ahead of schedule. Our destination? On…

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Imagine you download an app that shows you a visual representation of your concept of self. After calibrating, you see what appears to be a miniature ball bearing, smooth and serene. It's not as exciting as you imagined. The reviews made it sound more interesting. You notice a zoom se…

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I call it a funk but, let's be honest, I was depressed.

Under the traditional view of success, I had it all: a loving wife, two adorable children, our dream home, a high paying job, a prestigious title, a formidable team, a rental property, a craft beer blog, a fast car, and close friends and family.

I wasn't exactly sad, but I know I wasn't happy.

I was tired. I was anxious. I was restless. I was irritated. I was spent.

I was also clueless. It wasn't something I thought about at all. That's the tricky thing about depression. If you don't recognize when you're in it how can you be sure that you're out of it?

All I know today is that I feel different. I'm happy, relaxed, focused, satisfied, and energized. I'm also grateful for the past version of my self. It was his journey that gave me the understanding of how the descent occurred, and more importantly, how I found my way out.

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The Descent

Chaos is the word I explain to my depressive state.

It began with the pandemic. The chaos it introduced is self explanatory. Then our son was born—joining his two-year-old sister. Thirty minutes after giving birth, we purchased a 150 year old brick farmhouse and embarked on an extensive renovation. Politics happened—again and again. At work, I was getting anxious for a new opportunity. I was thrust one. Overnight, I was put into the pole position of a multi-million dollar acquisition. After the renovation—occasional nights and nearly every weekend for two years—we moved. Then we converted our old home to a rental property.

Between the pandemic, a new job, a home renovation, and two small children, there was no consistency, only challenge. Human beings have an incredible ability to adapt. But they have finite resources to navigate change—and I'd run out of them.

The Ascent

I was eating walnuts. One slipped between my teeth where a crown had been removed. I bit down. Pain rocketed through me. If you've had any tooth pain in your life, it was the worst of the worst.

A mild sense of euphoria followed.

That euphoric state was a stark contrast to the pain, but it provided a dose of clarity. That crown was set too high. I'd been biting down on it for years and it contributed to overnight clenching and grinding. My ascent wasn’t solely due to the removal of the tooth but it made me realize that small pains can add up to big problems.

That got me thinking. What other sources of tension could I alleviate? Knowing that iterative change is more sustainable than a compete overhaul, I asked myself: what could I do today that would improve my life tomorrow? I committed to removing the residue of the past few turbulent years—a period of chaos and transition that had taken its toll.

The Theory

When I finally examined my systems, I found ruins. I'd branded my self a "Productivity Wizard" online. Well, the wizard went to lunch and came back four years to an absolute mess.

Patching the old system wasn't an option. It had failed. The world changed. I changed. Something fundamental was missing. So I did what I always do—I overthought it.

The personal development industry has no shortage of advice. Some of it works, but the experience is like having a lock and being given a bag of random keys. There are keys that don't fit at all and others that fit into the mechanism but don't turn. You keep trying, waiting for that satisfying click. But there's no guarantee it will ever come.

You’re left with two choices: try another bag of keys or live with the lock.

My experience solving problems through software taught a more effective strategy. You don't solve problems by starting with solutions—you begin with a deep understanding of the problem. I may be able to find more keys that worked, but I'd be a better locksmith if I could learn to create keys for my own locks.

That's the core problem with advice: keys without knowledge of the locks. There are master keys for many locks and there are keys for specific kinds. When you find keys that work, you grip tightly, afraid to let them go. But what if you could understand your locks well enough to craft custom keys whenever you need them?

I couldn't start with a set of keys. I needed to understand the locks. This project required something foundational—a theory that modeled reality and our ability to modify it. A unified theory of change.

Commitment Theory.

My insight was simple but powerful: human beings are unique in their capacity to create and satisfy commitments. From this observation, the theory emerged, and from that foundation, I developed an approach that would adapt with me and the pressures of the modern world.

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Lifesmithing

I call this approach lifesmithing.

Its purpose is to provide the tools to pursue harmony—a state of self characterized by stability, mobility, integrity, and intentionality.

With it in place, I got to work. Over the next year, I accomplished the following:

• I shedded obligations, both to my self and to others.

• I spent more time with friends.

• I listened to the entire Taylor Swift discography.

• I invested in sleep.

• I removed my phone from the bedroom.

• I started writing again.

• I unfollowed any content that upset me.

• I renovated a rental property with my wife.

• I spent more time in happy places.

• I stopped drinking alcohol.

• I blocked Reddit and Facebook.

• I introduced an evening routine.

• I stopped using my phone at home.

• I stopped watching football.

• I started meditating.

• I perfected micro-napping.

• I started going to bed on time (not early)

• I started to wake up on time (not early).

• I started reading again.

• I started running again.

• I got a therapist.

• I overcame adolescent trauma.

• I discovered my purpose as a healer of systems.

Then I quit my job, and now I'm writing this.

It's easy to see that list as an unsustainable mountain of change. Looking back, it didn't feel like it. All it took was a long series of small commitments.

They say the best products are the ones you create for your self. While I believe I have keys that will work for many locks, I'm more excited to share with you all the ability to make your own keys. I want to share what I've learned about my self and the way in which I view the world. As a healer of systems, I want to help others navigate life and share my insights and ongoing discoveries.

If you're up for it, let's pursue harmony—together.

Let's start lifesmithing.

If you want to keep going, The Architecture of Commitment is your next step.

Popper's Three Worlds

In the 1970s, British philosopher Karl Popper was developing a way of examining reality that he called the Three Worlds. These weren't worlds in the traditional sense but rather conceptual realms. I'll do my best to explain.

World 1 is the world of physical objects and states. It's the inorganic—matter and ener…

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Me

Do you know what this means?

Quite by accident, we discovered Arlo thinks being the rotten egg is good. Since Ellen knows it's not, it comes in handy in tight situations.

ChatGPT

This phrase suggests an amusing or ironic situation where two people (Arlo and Ellen) have different interpretations or values regarding the same conce…

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I turned forty last year.

That age felt ancient to me as a child. I associated it with "over the hill" parties and "gag gifts." I didn't know what either of those things were, but they felt like a big deal. Besides an uptick in the number of birthday parties I attended and an increase in my browser magnification, my fortieth year was like any other.

It's tough to identify the years, days, or moments that introduced any noticeable change in my identity. There are few times in the last four decades that I look back and say "I was different before that." I associate only one of them with a movie.

The Ghost and the Darkness is a historical adventure film from the mid-90s. It stars two heavy hitters of the era: Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. The plot centers around a pair of man-eating lions that terrorized workers during the construction of the Uganda Railway. It's average at its best, forgettable at its worst.

The film made no impact.

I saw it a month after the start of my freshman year. Until that point, I attended a private school. In seventh and eighth grade we shared a few classes with the public schoolers, but we remained *others*. I entered high school as a "Wencie," a minor pejorative used to refer to the private schoolers. It was a tough spot for a freshman without a tribe.

My memory of the school year is spotty. I associate it with a general feeling of unease. A stretch where my sense of self shifted due to the whims of other children. But I'm not writing about that year. I'm writing about a single day in the autumn of 1997.

It must have been a Friday when I asked my new friend Adam to spend the night. Adam was one of the public schoolers. He was part of a group I'd bubbled into those first few weeks. I can’t recall my mental state, but I imagine we shared a similar sense of humor. It's something I still value in others.

I remember walking home from school with Adam. I rarely walked home. It's one of the few times I did. I didn't want to seem like a kid. Kids get picked up by their parents. High schoolers walked.

Never mind that driving is a quintessential high school experience. Adam and I walked.

I remember grabbing a Mountain Dew from the garage, kicking in the front door, and tossing the can up the stairs while I yelled "SNIPERS!" Adam shares this vivid memory. I left a hole in the drywall behind the door. I pretended like it was no big deal, like it always happened. Like I often kick my front door in and chuck a full can of Mountain Dew up the stairs.

We both knew it was a big deal. It only took 26 years to fess up.

I remember raking a pile of leaves and jumping into them from our maple tree. I knew every one of its branches. I had it mastered. And I needed to show my new friend Adam how good I was at climbing.

I still find time to drive by that tree. Not my house, my tree. It's possible I never climbed it again.

I remember renting a video tape from the Silver Screen. We had to ask Adam's parents if he could watch an R-rated movie. What a thrill! There wasn't a VHS on those shelves that we couldn't watch that night. We were kings of our new world. We settled on The Ghost and the Darkness, projecting ourselves onto Kilmer and Douglas.

It was the coolest movie we could find. To Adam's credit, he has never mentioned we had to watch it with my mom.

The movie was unremarkable. If it was a better film, it might have overshadowed my memories of that day. When someone mentions The Ghost and the Darkness—and it's almost always Adam that does—I remember that day in autumn.

The day I left my childhood behind.

But it's not gone. I can pick it back up.

The kids and I?

We've got a lot of climbing to do.

Survivor is one of my favorite television shows. It's without peer. No other game show has such rich characters, incredible cinematography, sterling challenges, and enough depth in strategy to tickle the hardcore fan without alienating the casual ones. That's not to say I don't have issues with it. After 45 seasons, there's plenty…

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