Best birthday present, the art of reading books, and a deep dive into second brain stuff

It’s been an incredibly rough week.

I wrapped up my 1% Writer course and started going through the Hooked on Writing Hooks 2025 edition from Erica Schneider and Rob Lennon this week. After all I’ve learned form these people, I’m reminded how much of the fact that I’m still writing like there’s a paper bag over my head.

Also, my kids gave my wife strep throat in the middle of the week, and I have a feeling that I’m not very far behind now. Running the house solo for a few days can run you down, especially if you may or may not have caught the bug.

Other than that, though, I’ve had some rather powerful revelations about my self-limiting beliefs on my walks: one on marketing, and the other on making an offer...two things I’ve been viscerally terrified to do for years.

Here’s what I’ve dug up this week:

BlueSky Bit - this would be a huge mess with kids in the mix…

Medium Moment - It’s not the size of your library that matters, it’s this

Substack Sampling - Mine is held together with fishing line, duct tape, and some Crisco…

Prismatic Progress:

I’ve FINALLY hit a milestone for the first time since starting a family…

This week, I averaged SEVEN HOURS of sleep a night.

The price in tinkering with my schedule to achieve it?

My publishing streak.

Now that I have a template for what’s possible, the next thing to do is to mess with it until it becomes consistent. This is definitely one of the hardest things to achieve for a 9-5 parent that is clawing back time as the kids get older. The constant barrage of interruptions throughout the day because they rely on you for literally everything when it comes to survival gradually dwindles, and that is finally truly happening for us.

The other reason I got over this finish line is the shear exhaustion from fully taking care of the family as my wife recovers. It’s different now because I’m much more hesitant to ask my parents for support given recent events. And yes, I know that’s a luxury that is the reason my attempt at this whole thing is even remotely possible.

I’ve figured out my pillars:

• Identity - mind mining, philosophy

• Intentional execution - systems, frameworks, psychology

• Iterative improvement - knowledge theory, AI assistance, content creation

All of this is through the prismatic thinking process that creates the foundation for a digital heirloom.

It took me over two years of writing to get to this point. I couldn’t have done any of this in a different order or taken a shortcut to “hack” my way to it. Without writing my way to this point, none of it would make sense to me or resonate at all.

Just goes to show that you can’t blindly fill in the blanks of anything that draws you in to the journey. When you’re given a framework that guarantees the highest chance for success, you have ZERO clue in what to do with it.

Every time I thought “this is it”, there was another layer. Maybe this time is no different…

But like I said at the top, two huge breakthroughs happened this week.

I’ll share more about those after I wrap up the welcome email sequence.

Happy summer solstice!