I Almost Didn’t Write This

🤔 The Thought That Won’t Quit

The way we communicate is shaped by where we spend our time, who we surround ourselves with, and the unspoken rules of those environments.

I was listening to a comedian break down why some people get hyper-offended by certain jokes. His theory? The most easily offended are often the most suppressed, spending their days speaking under the careful eye of HR, trained to filter every word. When your daily language is sanitized, raw, unfiltered communication starts to feel dangerous.

So much of modern life revolves around policing speech instead of understanding context. But if you’re always filtering, are you ever fully thinking? What does that mean for creative thought? For new ideas?

💡 Idea Playground

Arcades need a revival, not as nostalgia traps, but as modern social hubs. A 2025 Arcade Experience. A space designed for movement, competition, and real interaction.

I live between two wildly different social landscapes. In San Francisco, everything revolves around hiking, if it’s not raining. In NYC, my friends and I will trek across the city just to find a place to play air hockey or ping pong. Where did all the spaces go where people could just show up and engage in something fun, physical, and competitive without needing to sit, drink, or scroll? 

The business case for bringing back interactive, non-digital play indoors feels stronger than ever. If someone’s working on this, I want in.

📚 What I’m Reading

📖 The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom reframing success beyond money. Intellectual, social, physical, and time wealth are just as valuable, if not more. It’s making me rethink my priorities.

📖 Straight to Hell by John LeFevre because sometimes you need a front-row seat to corporate excess and chaos. This book is pure, unfiltered madness, but beneath the debauchery, it’s a reminder that the rules of power are often arbitrary. And that confidence? Sometimes it’s the most valuable currency of all.

💬 Conversation Sparks

A friend in government, former military, now a senior analyst broke down the noise around USAID for me this week. On the surface, it looks like a bureaucratic money pit. But in reality? That “good cop” funding often keeps the doors open for the high-stakes operations that don’t make the news (and shouldn’t). Without it, the tougher plays wouldn’t even be possible.

It made me think: How often do we dismiss certain business decisions as wasteful when they’re actually strategic? We love bold, no-compromise moves, but real success often comes from patience, timing, and playing the long game.

🔍 Random Deep Dive

I fell into a rabbit hole on Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Antarctic expedition, and honestly? It’s one of the greatest leadership stories ever.

Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, got trapped in ice before they even reached Antarctica, stranding his crew for nearly two years. And yet, against all odds, not a single crew member was lost.

His secret? He didn’t just recruit for skill; he recruited for resilience, camaraderie, and adaptability. His infamous newspaper ad read:

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success."

And still, they came.

Shackleton understood that survival wasn’t just about rations and shelter. It was about morale, problem-solving, and knowing when to pivot. He didn’t let his men collapse into despair when Endurance was crushed. He kept them moving, kept them believing, and in the end, he got every single one of them home.