Hi y’all,
- Sometimes these newsletters take hardly any time at all and are a joy to write. This week is not one of those weeks - I had to coax every word out of the keyboard and several times considered skipping this week. Not to get too self-help about it, but having the thought “just skip it” is why I didn’t. Publishing this thing consistently is still a habit I’m trying to lock in, and part of that is showing up even when I’m not sure the result will match my own expectations. You can’t wait for the stars to align.
- Which reminds me of something I’ve been trying to keep in mind about putting any type of work out there: the 70% rule, which I was introduced to via an old issue of Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter, The Imperfectionist. I come back to it a few times a year. It’s a cousin of “perfect is the enemy of good” - the idea being that once you’re roughly 70% happy with a thing, you ship it. You get more work out, you learn from the misses, and you starve the perfectionist streak.
- Part of why this week is hard is that I’m more tired than normal, as we’re a little under a month into being parents. I’m still refining the theory, but I’ve noticed an unmistakable overlap between light hangovers and simply having a newborn. In both you wake up at an odd time (earlier or later than normal), groggy and a little confused. Then during the day you’re in a bit of a fog and need to remember to drink plenty of water to fight off a small headache. Both are improved by a nap.
- Best thing I cooked this week was braised chicken thighs - I played off of this recipe but added a leek, some roma tomatoes, and bacon. Had it in a dutch oven for a few hours on my oven’s slow cooker setting. Couldn’t recommend riffing on something like this yourself enough - feels like the perfect dish for fall.
- This is one of my favorite YouTube videos I’ve seen recently - it documents a journey from Washington to Alaska on a kitted-out jetski. It brings a “hitting the open road” feel to ocean travel in a way I don’t think I’ve seen before (and I watch probably too many sailing videos). One caveat: I’m not sure how smart it is to cross open water solo on a jetski, so I won’t recommend you run out and do this. But I appreciated being brought along for the ride.
- My song rec for this week is “Lights & Music” by Cut Copy (Spotify, Apple). Been a fan of the band since hearing “Going Nowhere” in Afterlame, the 2004 Robot Food snowboard film. This one’s worked its way back into rotation the last couple of days. And, as a reminder, all the song recs are here.
Joey
Member discussion