Do you reflect?

Reflection is a superpower. I’m reading Marcus Aurelius’ journal, and I’m amazed by his ability to reflect on such a variety of topics, from metaphysical exploration to practical, razor-sharp outbursts like “What injures the hive injures the bee”.

I recommend Gregory Hays’s translation for its accessible modern English and his great introduction, which adds valuable context and insights. I’ll add it to my book recommendations.

I also recently read The Prince, and I was impressed by Machiavelli's breadth of knowledge.

Machiavelli was a virtuoso at processing historical data alongside personal, real-world experience. The Prince was written in 1513. Information was scarce by today’s standard, but perfectly assimilated by this well-read, well-travelled diplomat with direct access to intelligence and power… and the time for reflection: The Prince came out after his exile.

If you unplug it, who masters these skills today? Who could write The Prince?

Feels like we’re going deeper in the Information Age; the next Knowledge Age will need more of that sweet real-life experience to emerge.

Less simulation, more stimulation.

I aim to stop screaming. Completely. It looks so ugly. I don’t want to bark ever. Considering the various opportunities my bicycle commute offers, I’m doing pretty well so far…

Except with my kids. They are the ones I end up yelling at, while they’re the ones I love the most. How cynical.

Always remember how small their hands are before even raising your voice.

It’s called the ‘American Dream’ because you have to be asleep to believe it.

That’s how George Carlin closed the piece below twenty years ago, and it resonates more than ever.

The story says the standard audio CD length of 74 minutes was partly chosen because Sony’s then-president, Norio Ohga, who was a fan of classical music, wanted a CD to be able to hold the entire performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony without interruption.

Now imagine what kind of “Easter egg legacy” you could leave at your corporate job.

Talking about a corporate job, some of you still haven’t read this popular essay from a few months ago: The death of the corporate job.

It starts like this..

Last week, I had coffee with someone who works at a big consulting firm. She spent twenty minutes explaining her role to me. Not because it was complex, but because she was trying to convince herself it existed. “I facilitate stakeholder alignment across cross-functional workstreams,” she said. Then laughed. “I genuinely don’t know what that means anymore.”

She’s not alone. I keep meeting people who describe their jobs using words they’d never use in normal conversation. They attend meetings about meetings. They create PowerPoints that no one reads, which get shared in emails no one opens, which generate tasks that don’t need doing.

Enjoy.

The cost of an error is insignificant in the fail & learn part of a project. It doesn’t make sense to be risk-averse during that experiment phase.

I dare you. I don’t think I have ever passed it yet. There’s always that split second where my guard drops on a photo of Romain Gavras kissing EmRata.

Pairs well with No “should”, a game I’ll keep playing for the rest of my life.

I finally finished Red Dead Redemption 2 (dad’s life, IYKYK), and it’s one of the best pieces of entertainment I've ever experienced.

Each department did a stellar job. It’s a masterclass of storytelling, design, gameplay, research, and detail… It’s ridiculous at all levels. Watching the end credits length and the artists’ team dedicated just to the “Water“ or “Animals” elements is pretty self-explanatory.

As a tribute, here’s Captain Punch's work. The YouTuber edited the game’s cinematics with new camera angles and combined them with Led Zeppelin songs to produce this epic 38-minute short film that retells the entire RDR2 story.

My gaming road map from there: I started Days Gone, then I’ll go for Cyberpunk 2077, and when I’m done with these two, in 2027, GTA VI might actually be released. This is the way.

What a lovely initiative from youmattermarathon.org. Imagine having a few of these “you matter” cards in your pocket, always ready to be shared with a lonely person on the bus, the nurse who helped your son, or on a colleague’s keyboard.

Check their “100 Ways to Share a Card“ for inspiration, plenty of good ideas there!

And here’s a template to print them.

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