Welcome, as I attempt to explain this newsletter
I wrote down something I had learnt every day since 2018. Now I'm sharing these learnings with you.
In early 2018, I was laid off from a job I thoroughly loved. Caught in throes of existential angst and a crummy disposition, I wasn't much fun to be around.
A former mentor created a wonderful book list that now seemed like a good idea to explore. What started as me dragging across the pages of various business and self-improvement books soon erupted into a gusto of revelatory goodness. Several books, in particular, espoused the beauty of habits, compounding, and the power of reflection.
"People don’t really learn when you tell them something. They don’t even really learn when they do something. They start learning, start creating new neural pathways, only when they have a chance to recall and reflect on what just happened." (Michael Bungay Stanier, The Coaching Habit)
Inspired, I started a habit of recording a lesson a day.
Making a step forward by taking a few steps backward
As you might imagine from a practice so diligently self-imposed, there were times when the lessons were less profound than others. I recorded them all down.
The list grew quickly, and soon spanned the gamut of my easily-distractible interests.
Lessons were learned about crafting digital worlds, experiences, and startups. I dove into the history of typefaces and noodling around the keys with jazz piano improvisation. My mind went into consuming, deconstructing, and designing games. I recorded notes about building, leading, and uplifting teams and people, I found myself traveling in a lot of planes, to flying a lot of planes. I wrote about growing older and watching people you love leave. I fell and skinned my knees, as I learned how to human better.
All this, and much, much more.
What's this about being a coffee bean?
Not Everything is for me
Noting down lessons were not enough; real learning comes from reflection. This reflection necessitated a formal synthesis through writing. Writing helped me think. Ideally, I would also find a writing medium that could be shared for all the wonderful accountability reasons that came with writing publicly.
So, when the world was ravaged by a novel coronavirus, I decided to start a newsletter.
And it took me four years to get there.
Not Everything is for you, too
Meanwhile, my favorite social media platform decided to spontaneously combust in slow motion (RIP), and it became more urgent to find a new online roost for my less-pithy observations.
The bird site had its problems, but it provided a space for me to meet beautiful people with crazy overlaps of interests like mine. If I do my job right, this newsletter could become a new gathering place for those beautiful souls and others, like you, drawn here by a shared curiosity.
And if we first met on that wonderfully chaotic bird platform and you're now here, I owe you a big hug the next time we meet.
Not Everything thanks you
Sign up below, and every week you shall hear from me reflect on one learning from that trove of lessons. Taking a cue from Cal Newport, Quentin Tarantino, and You Don't Know Jack, the reflections will be amusing, sometimes pensive, often reflective, but always surprising (to me).
Comments are open. Subscribe and tell me what you think.
Thanks for being here.
-- David