Thursday, 15 October
Living Well 14 min read
On the long distance between wanting and doing, why the fire comes after the first step and not before, and the quiet urgency of beginning today
Most men aren't short of goals. They're short of a single first step, taken on an ordinary day, without waiting to feel ready. This is about why we wait, why the feeling we're waiting for never comes first, and how to turn the key anyway.
Begin readingCatching everything you want, choosing the few things that matter, and walking a straight line towards them — with Mark Joyner's Simpleology, Leo Babauta's power of less, and a pencil
The third brick — boxes inside boxes, the six lines that answered ten pages, and why the best systems are made of small things that fit together
On fixing things instead of replacing them — toasters, trousers, tea bowls, bodies and the people we love — and why a mended thing becomes more truly ours
Getting free of debt, of attention traps, of clutter and of the quiet chains in your own body and mind — one small link at a time
A field guide to building software that is secure by default — from the principles of 1975 to the xz backdoor, and from your own code down to the silicon
A simple, essentialist way to decide what matters in your digital life, protect it properly, and let the rest stay small
On living a life that matters — noticing small joys, putting down what you were never meant to carry, thinking like a curious outsider, and arriving at the end able to say: it was well worth it
The second brick — why remembering has a distance, what a racing driver taught the fastest programmers, and why your kitchen is already a cache
Apollo 11, the 1202 alarm, and the clearest lesson in essentialism ever written, in 2,048 words of memory
Free, simple ways to move at home that build on each other, rung by rung, for more energy and a longer, steadier life
Privacy and safety for a quiet digital life, from the family laptop to the code you write
Thinking for yourself in an age built to think for you, with a little help from some very old philosophers
On the shortness of life, the impossibility of doing it all, and the relief of choosing
The first brick — what a system is, and why every computer, program and database is built from just three simple acts
A Swedish habit of clearing the house, not to make it empty, but to make it lighter for the people you love
On letting tools into the house one at a time, and asking each one what it is for
On eating simply, cooking plainly, and the quiet strength of food that doesn't need a label