Hey friends!

Welcome to Issue 007 of Marginal Thoughts. Let’s dive right in.

The Meditation

Life is going to throw difficulties and unexpected situations our way.

It’s always been this way and it always will be.

Rather than focusing on what we can’t control, we should lean into what we can - our response to the external forces.

💡 What are some ways that you can practice this today?

The Blog

What I’m Reading - I’m continuing to build out my new site and am excited to share my reading page, which highlights current reads and my TBR, but also lists out all books I’ve read in the past several years. It’s a work in progress, but a quick way for me to pick a recommendation when people ask me for one.

Google IO Conference - Last week Google had their developer conference and announced some big changes for Gemini, agentic AI, and Google search. I wrote some thoughts around what they announced.

Fooled by Randomness - Book Review of Nassim Taleb’s book on why randomness and luck matter - and why we are so bad at interpreting them.

The Marginalia

Decisions to Make Before Agentmaxxing - This podcast gives great tips on some things we need to lock in before using agentic AI models like Claude Code or Codex to do a bunch of work for us. Key Takeaway: Agentic AI is great when you have some boundaries in place, but can be terrible (or produce more work for you) when you don’t.

Follow Your Dreams - This is a phenomenal interview between two very successful YouTube creators I’ve followed for several years now. Jeff Su was an employee at Google, but outlines his journey to full financial and career freedom.

Gratitude

I am grateful to be able to share information with friends.

-Ian