i hate watching the news.
i hated it when i was a kid who liked cartoons, & almost 20 years later, my opinion hasn’t changed.
luckily, the big difference between then & now is that i don’t have to watch the news if i don’t want to — i have more control over what i pay attention to.
or at least i did, until i started doing more work at a local coffee shop recently.
usually, i arrive at 7:30am, which means i can get my favourite spot in the corner that faces a big window.
but the other day, i came late & had to settle for a shitty ‘peak hour’ spot that was pointed directly at a TV.
now, i consider myself to be a disciplined person, so i didn’t think much of it.
but as the minutes passed, i felt myself uncontrollably glancing up at the 60” 4K OLED TV that was beaming CP24 News & it’s colourful, ugly graphics non-stop.
for those unfamiliar, here’s what this ungodly channel looks like:
sitting in the cafe that day, it was my first time watching the news in years.
& all i can say is…
what the fuck are people doing to themselves?
watching the news to get an accurate picture of the world is like watching ESPN to understand why the Lakers are using a flat hedge instead of a switch on a 4-5 pick-&-roll.
if that made no sense to you, that’s exactly my point.
ESPN panelists get paid to talk about NBA teams.
they don’t get paid to coach NBA teams.
that’s because they’re better at talking than they are at understanding the thing they talk about.
the same concept applies to the news you watch.
but i won’t waste your time here writing about how the news is wasting your time.
so here’s my point in bringing it up:
you have a limited amount of energy each day.
what you use that energy to focus on determines what your life becomes.
which is why i believe you will only go as far as your focus takes you.
the reason i can say that with such confidence is because i’ve lived it.
as a teenager, i focused my energy on normal teenage shit:
video games
skateboarding
girls
& as a result:
i got good at video games
i skateboarded every day (ok it was a longboard actually but shut up)
i asked out a girl in grade 12 & we’re still together 7 years later!
then, in 2019 i began paying more attention to personal development.
i think it started when i had to make a vision board for a burner course i took, called The Science of Career Success.
unironically, that class was the most useful thing my $40k degree gave me.
making that vision board, i realized that all i wanted was stuff like:
work on something i give a shit about (helping people)
be in control of where i am & how i spend my time
get ‘rich’ enough to buy a gen 1 Tacoma
ironically, laying out my future for that uni course helped me see that the things i was focusing my energy towards — grades, credits, degrees — were not taking me closer to the life i actually wanted.
& as a result, i started reading books on how to start building that life.
1 chapter per week turned into 1 chapter per day which turned into 1 book per week, which is roughly where i’m at today.
the result?
only a few years later, i’m living the life that i put on my vision board:
i wake up every day excited to do work i care about (& it helps people)
i can be anywhere at anytime without having to ask anyone for permission
i could buy a gen 1 Tacoma in cash right now if i really wanted to
in other words,
the more i focused on building the life i wanted, the more of it i built.
makes a lot of sense when it’s written out like that, eh?
that’s why i’m so obsessed with the idea of controlling what you focus on.
8 of the top 10 most valuable companies in the world make their money by directly or indirectly owning your attention.
what does that tell you?
this shit matters, bro.
i’m writing to you from that same coffee shop as earlier.
but this time, i made sure to get here early so i could sit in my favourite seat again.
& i can’t help but notice, everything about this time is better than the last.
instead of focusing on all of the things that are wrong with the world right now, i’m focused on building something to make that world a better place.
writing instead of watching.
planning instead of worrying.
producing instead of consuming.
& it’s all because i chose to focus on the things that matter most to me.
remember,
you will only go as far as your focus takes you.
so what are you focusing on today?
in the last 6 months, i’ve been doing 1-on-1 video calls with a lot of you.
the goal was to ‘help unf*ck your life,’ & we had a ton of success.
but i noticed 1 problem that every single person i spoke to was battling against:
it’s always that damn phone.
my screen time was genuinely ruining my life for years.
but i’m happy to say, i solved that problem.
i went from 8+ hours per day on my phone to under 30 minutes per day now.
& i wanted to help you do the same.
so here’s the offer:
i built a paid program that will guarantee you get back 2 full weeks per year of screen time, or you don’t pay anything.
now here’s the bad news:
since this program involves working closely with me (1 on 1) over a full month, there’s literally not enough time in a day for me to help everybody reading this.
so, i’m opening up 3 slots at the end of this month, & i expect them to fill up fast.
if you want one of them, or you’re just interested in learning more, click here to join the waitlist & i’ll reach out very soon.
ok, now back to what you came here for lol.
some things i learned
the 2 beliefs that every successful person seems to start with
1 — the future can be better than the present.
2 — i have the power to make it so.a lab scanned & uploaded a fruit fly’s brain to a computer & it… worked?!?!
this is some real sci-fi shit that i’m not sure how to feel about. basically, Eon Systems used an electron microscope to scan every single neuron & its connections in a fly’s brain so they could digitally recreate it.
the result was terrifying & exciting at the same time — it achieved 91% behavioural accuracy when put in a digital simulation of the fly’s body.
it’s still super early, but we’re looking at a real possibility that one day, humans will be able to ‘upload’ their brains to become digitally immortal.
what will that mean for the world & life as we know it?
(don’t worry, it doesn’t matter yet — control what you can control)i finally tried ‘vibecoding’ & now i understand why AI companies are rich
i decided to pay for Claude’s $30/month plan to pair it with Google’s (free) Antigravity software, & now i can build any digital product my heart desires.
just last week, i built a website, a custom habit-tracking app, & even recreated a $150/month software that i can just use forever now.
i had almost 0 coding experience before.
just search up something like ‘Claude Code Antigravity tutorial’ & you’ll see what i’m talking about.
cool stuff i found
an underrated hobby
a while ago, i joined my mum on a birdwatching tour after her friend cancelled last minute, & it was genuinely such a fun way to spend the day.
you get to spend time in nature, slowing down & noticing all the wonderful little things around you, like the white-browed tit warbler.
if you don’t believe me, watch this & you’ll be hooked.
bonus: a picture of the sky my gf took this morning
that’s all for this week!
i hope you don’t hate me now that i’m selling something lol.
it’s genuinely terrifying to offer something here, because your trust in me matters more than any money i could ever make.
& that’s why i still haven’t taken any of the tempting sponsorship offers i’ve been getting, & why i won’t ever promote stuff that i wouldn’t promote to my family.
so even if you never give me a penny, just know that i’m gonna continue providing free value here every week, & i expect nothing in return.
thank you for spending a bit of your most valuable resources — your time & attention — here with me.
‘til next time.
~ liam (:
PS - if you already signed up, expect to hear from me soon. if you didn’t sign up yet, do it here!
‘man is born to live & not to prepare to live.’
~ Boris Pasternak