me until recent times

after deciding that i can just do things

mental masturbation and waiting to be ready or for perfection are the pitfalls i had

today i was watching shopping in japan when i overheard a small kid asking his father

*pointing to the display cases of luxury watches*
“arent these just watches?”

“yes,” said dad

“why are they so expensive? they can only tell the time, right?”

“yes,” sighed dad as he continued browsing

“can’t you just look at your phone?”

couldn’t help but laugh because the purity of the child is spot on

I tell you, if one wants to be active, one mustn’t be afraid to do something wrong sometimes, not afraid to lapse into some mistakes. To be good — many people think that they’ll achieve it by doing no harm — and that’s a lie, and you said yourself in the past that it was a lie. That leads to stagnation, to mediocrity. Just slap something on it when you see a blank canvas staring at you with a sort of imbecility.

You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything. The canvas has an idiotic stare, and mesmerizes some painters so that they turn into idiots themselves.

Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the truly passionate painter who dares — and who has once broken the spell of ‘you can’t’.

Life itself likewise always turns towards one an infinitely meaningless, discouraging, dispiriting blank side on which there is nothing, any more than on a blank canvas.

But however meaningless and vain, however dead life appears, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, and who knows something, doesn’t let himself be fobbed off like that. He steps in and does something, and hangs on to that, in short, breaks, ‘violates’ — they say.

Vincent van Gogh

https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let464/letter.html

this is a pretty good read on negotiation, a useful skill in everyday life

a study done by Neil Rackham on skilled negotiators

https://x.com/Kpaxs/status/1967806785294844179

[BR]

The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib

great concise marketing book with good tempo

most lessons are to the point, short and sweet, which makes reading it rather easy

main takeaways:
- customers will only know how good your product is AFTER buying it, and marketing gets them there.
- think like a farmer, not a hunter
- in the modern era, reputation is the most valuable commodity
- target emotions through storytelling and touchpoints
- and more that can’t be squeezed in here

fav quotes:

Small hinges swing big doors.

Money isn’t everything… but it ranks right up there with oxygen.

4/5
suitable read for entrepreneurs or marketers

how to be more agentic

i really liked the point on “moat of low status”

https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulfictions/p/how-to-be-more-agentic

10min walk immediately after eating

https://x.com/bryan_johnson/status/2004261855175627188?s=46&t=nluSw7cwYGx8zFxfoYi5Iw

agency > intelligence

https://x.com/karpathy/status/1894099637218545984?s=46&t=nluSw7cwYGx8zFxfoYi5Iw

[BR]

Obviously Awesome by April Dunford

quick read, less than 200 pages

to the point guide on April’s 10-step positioning process for entrepreneurs/marketers

main takeaways:
- short listing your best-fit customers to find your best position
- considering competitive alternatives and they do not have to be competitors. it can be something like “hiring an intern”
- 5+1 effective positioning

fav quotes:

The future isn’t a place we are going to go, it’s a place we get to create.

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

4/5
good material for entrepreneurs/marketers

happy new year all!

after reflecting on 2025 and goal settings for 2026, here’s some that i’m aiming to do this year!

- to read 15 books this year, 8 of which must be fiction
- to continue being intentional in living life (fitness, reading, etc.)
- to spend more time with family
- focus on savviness
- maintain high agency and to continue working hard (no room for complacency)

+ more in holistic aspects like spiritual, social, and mental

hope you’ve done your necessary reflections into 2026 too and i hope that we’ll be able to achieve them !

[cc]

the pause between stimulus and response is where presence is

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS-Py-sDT6x/?igsh=MWV4bDlyc253ZnpnMA==

Wabi-sabi

Wabi-sabi (侘び寂び) is a Japanese aesthetic and worldview centered on finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness.

Nothing lasts and nothing is perfect.

https://intojapanwaraku.com/culture/264627/

We’re all a bit racist

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/busting-myths-about-human-nature/201607/we-re-all-bit-racist/amp

Prejudice v Racism v Discrimination

by ChatGPT

had some good chats about racism and i’ve just realised that maybe my society throws the term racism a bit too much because there are distinctions (see above chatgpt)

question:
do you think minorities can be racist?

JUST IN - Trump invades Venezuela, ordering U.S. special forces' boots on the ground to secure Venezuelan military facilities — CBS

@disclosetv

period of tension is real

i think we’re witnessing in real time how we’re about to enter a hot war era

things are escalating gradually across parts of the world by superpowers

one wrong catalyst/trigger will likely start a full fledged war

just like the assassination of the archduke

quite scary to think