Friends, it’s been a minute. As a reminder, I’m Nick. When we last left off, I had co-founded an AI training startup called Exec.com and welcomed our second kid. As you might imagine, those life changes made it hard to maintain my publishing habit.
I’m excited to share that the Jungle Gym is back with a new format that should be easier to sustain. It also reflects the kind of newsletters I’m most enjoying right now.
I’ll still write essays periodically, but not on a regular schedule. Without further throat clearing, here are eight things for you.
Post Ranch Inn
Ash (my wife) and I recently got back from our 3-day baby-moon at Post Ranch. The resort sits about three and a half hours south of San Francisco and is one of the most serene places I’ve visited. Cliffs overlook the Pacific, surrounded by ancient redwoods. The rooms are pricey but worth it for a special occasion. The setting inspired us to finally pick the name of our third baby. Stay tuned for the reveal.
Living from a Place of Surrender
I originally listened to Michael Singer’s audio course in the early days of COVID. It helped me recognize that I wasn't the voice inside my head. Two kids and a company later, that mindset has been harder to access, so I've been returning to the source material. Most of the ways we try to improve our lives involve working hard to change our internal reality. Turns out it's a lot cheaper to change how you perceive the world unfolding in front of you.
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
One of my all-time favorite documentaries. My wife and I just rewatched it, and it definitely holds up. The story follows two grown men fighting over the Donkey Kong world record. It's one of those battles that gets so fierce because the stakes are so small.
Adam Neumann on Tetragrammaton
I think Adam Neumann got an unfair shake from the press. In this interview, he shares his account of the rise and fall of WeWork with impressive candor and perspective. I was inspired by the spiritual practice he developed, and I've adopted his mantra, "What a wonder."
Hire an expert in any subject
Here’s something I’ve been doing with Claude lately. When I need help thinking through a topic (taxes, kindergarten admissions, team structure), I give Claude the role of a highly paid consultant. Doing this changes the effort and rigor Claude puts into the work. It also reminds me that I can hire a PhD-level expert in any topic. When we were naming our third baby, I hired a "family legacy naming specialist" that dug into the etymology of our older kids' names and found patterns we hadn't noticed. Give it a try next time you need on-demand expertise.
Building an AI health coach
Speaking of Claude, I’ve been building a personal AI health coach. I used to be pretty skeptical about AI for coaching, mostly because I couldn’t understand how an AI could hold you accountable to anything. But I’ve been using it for three weeks and have my best nutrition and exercise habits to date. Two big things that surprised me:
While an AI can’t really keep you accountable, you do get hooked on giving it data in order to get better recommendations. That regular reporting habit serves as a great forcing function for making better choices.
You can build your own custom knowledge repository using any content that inspires you. I loaded mine up with all the health podcasts I’d always wanted to absorb but never had time for.
I’m planning to publish something longer on this topic, so stay tuned.
Rhonda Patrick on endocrine-disrupting chemicals
A few years ago, I read Countdown by Shanna Swan. It's about how endocrine-disrupting chemicals are quietly damaging reproductive health across the developed world. Rhonda Patrick covers the same territory in this episode, in a format that's easier to absorb if you're not ready for a whole book. These chemicals are in your cookware, your food packaging, and especially your receipts, and most people have no idea. This podcast is a good entry point. Then go read Countdown if you want to feel more freaked out.
WisprFlow
WisprFlow is an AI-enabled dictation tool that gets it right. I've been using it for long conversations with my AI health coach. You just talk and it transcribes cleanly into whatever app you're in. As a meta-note, most of this newsletter was dictated into WisprFlow during a walk, then cleaned up in front of a laptop. It's made writing feel more like thinking out loud, which for me is how the best stuff comes out anyway.
That’s it for this one. See you next time.
– Nick
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