Jonah's Journal (Messengers, Denver, Mediocrity)
Welcome back!
I missed out on last week’s newsletter for a variety of reasons. One of them was because I was upgrading my website! My site is now at the domain “jonah.is” and has the potential for fun sentence-style syntax like “jonah.is/running” or “jonah.is/writing”. jonahfoss.com still works, rest assured.
Another reason Jonah’s Journal didn’t get out last week was because getting back to school is taking a lot more energy than I previously remembered.
Finally, I have recently been struggling to feel like what I’m saying is… worth saying. But I’m still saying it.
Messengers
“There are no unique messages, only unique messengers”. Ali Abdaal
Sitting in a stuffy coffee shop close with a friend I hadn’t seen all summer didn’t seem like the place that I was going to find the motivation to write this newsletter.
My friend was looking for some more structure in his life, and as the person who he had known to have a history in and interest in building habits I was the person whom he approached for some advice.
I told him that he should:
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differentiate the place that he does schoolwork with the place that he relaxes
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strategically restrict himself in some areas of life to increase his freedom in others
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try different strategies and copy routines from people he admires
And so on and so forth. He replied, “I know this sounds cheesy, but you should really actually start a podcast”. I balked.
I was flattered but told my friend the world doesn’t need another podcast, especially not one hosted by me. What I did feel the need for though, was to remind myself that what I’m teaching about isn’t obvious to everyone.
Concepts like digital minimalism and lifestyle-centric career planning are important structures in my life, but I don’t to consider how valuable teaching about them can be because they’re so ubiquitous in my own life.
I’m back writing this newsletter with some renewed confidence that what I am doing is making a difference, albeit at the scale of a 112 readers. If even one of you reads and benefits from something I’ve written or shared, I’ve achieved my goal.
Media
Making A Home in Denver (link)
My favorite YouTuber, Kraig Adams, has moved to Denver from NYC. It’s the start of a new chapter for him in a new city, and there are so many elements of his lifestyle that I aspire to replicate in my own. Enjoy this cinematic slice of life!
What is the point of self help? (link)
Why do we even embark on journeys to improve our life anyway? Hosts Demetri and Chantz explore how they think ideas surrounding “self-improvement” are connoted and address their theories about why feelings of mediocrity are on the rise in an age of material abundance.
Final thoughts
On Saturdays I lay out everything I’m planning on doing in the coming week. Digitally, it takes up close no storage on a server somewhere and passively sits there. On paper, it takes up two full standard letter size pages and is overwhelming and stress-inducing. Funny how my scale of what I consider to be productive or busy changes when the medium by which I track it changes.
Until next time,
Jonah / jonah.is/optimizing