Hey folks!

Happy Friday! I'm writing this a day early because Chandler and I have our last quarterly offsite of 2025 tomorrow morning (3 weeks late...) A couple things on my mind...

1. Science Of Scaling: Anybody ever read The Science of Scaling by Dr. Benjamin Hardy? I read it this week and absolutely loved it. The main idea is that for any organization to really focus, you need to create a BIG goal, and then shorten the timeline to borderline ridiculous - that will create organizational clarity far more than if you have achievable goals and long timelines. It's less about goals like quarterly rocks, and more for strategic direction and to help you think more aggressively. A simple exercise he proposes is:
a) What's a dream goal 10 years from now?

b) If you only had 3 years to accomplish it, what would you do?

I loved the whole book, highly recommend.

2. Flow Pomodoro: I haven't heard anybody talk about the Pomodoro technique for awhile, but it still rocks. The way it works is I'll work for 25min super focused, then take a 5min break, then repeat. After 4 or 5 sessions you get a 30min break. It works because 25min isn't enough time for your mind to "drift" so you focus, rest, focus really efficiently. What I like specifically about the timer I've been using is that when you're focused, it blocks all social media, distracting apps, etc... Highly recommend specifically for task-oriented stuff. AMA

3. Skipping Halloween: I grew up trick-or-treating every year; I can probably name every costume that I wore for Halloween each year of grade school. It's a really positive memory and something that was fun for our whole family. However three years ago we were trick or treating with our kids and we went on this street with just grotesque violent stuff in almost every yard, and watched as our 2yo started crying from fear from other kid's costumes. At one point Penny (7yo at the time) said "do we have to do this?" At that exact moment I stopped and said outloud "we're done" - and we haven't done Halloween now for 2 years. We've played with some new traditions like going out and buying candy and then assembling Lego sets at home, or meeting up with friends, etc... I feel like Halloween has gotten way weirder and grosser than it used to be and it's no longer something I'm into. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced something similar?

That's it for this week! Have a great weekend!

Best,

​
Blake

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