We always have a choice

and the exhaustion of prediction

1. I continued my weekly tradition of plucking a memory and writing it out as a short story. This time, it’s about crossing a frozen lake at 5400m.

2. Your brain and LLMs share something in common: they’re constantly predicting what’s going to happen next. It’s useful, but it’s also exhausting. Meditation is a way of breaking free.

3. Time to kill a metaphor: Attention is not a spotlight.

4. It’s desperately easy to forget that we always have a choice.

5. An interesting pointer from Eckhart Tolle: What problem do I have, in this moment?

6. Learning to respect the magic and misuse of words is only going to become more important in an age of AI.

7. Outside of writing and coaching, I spent some time refreshing my personal finance app, moolah. I use Starling and tag my spending by category as I go. Later, I import the CSV statements into my app. It helps me stay on top of finances and scratches my coding itch. I run it locally, so I don’t have to send financial data anywhere.

8. I also leave comments on certain transactions in the Starling app, so reviewing bank statements is like looking back over a highly accurate journal anchored in money flows.

9. One track I’m re-listening to: Cathedral by MJ Cole. The whole album is outstanding.

10. One book I recommend: I finished Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks. 5/5. Funny, insightful and a joy to read. Applicable to anyone who wants to understand or tell stories.