Notes on Everything 560,278 words across 493 notes
My essays have no specific topic in common; the only commonality is that I wrote them. I call them my “notes on everything”. I write because teaching is the best way to learn. Writing helps me make sense of my ideas and straightforwardly express them.
A person who goes to a philosopher should carry away with him something or other of value every day; he should return home a sounder man or at least more capable of becoming one.
Seneca
I don’t consider myself a philosopher, but I hope anyone who reads my essays can return home a sounder person!
Essays · Short Thoughts · Artificial Intelligence · Blue · Books & Reading · Business · Decision-Making · Design · Economics · Habits · Health · History · Law · Learning · Mäd · Management · Materialism · Mindfulness · Philosophy · Photography · Politics · Productivity · Project Management · Simplicity · Stoicism · Stories · Strategy · Technology · Travel · Uncategorized · United Nations · Writing
2025
2024
- Habits & Goals
- On Action.
- Writing in the Age of AI
- The Choice to Have a Good Day
- Palermo.
- If You Don’t Remember What You Read, Is It Pointless To Read?
- One More Hour per Day.
- Today Is All We Have.
- Meaning & Responsibility.
- On The Importance of Documentation.
- If Reality was a Simulation.
- On How We Judge Historical Atrocities.
- “No” is a Complete Sentence.
- Wisdom is Following Your Own Advice.
- Trusting in the Long Term.
- JFDI vs DFTU
- Daily Message to Oneself
2023
- On Being Prolific.
- On Fake Startup Validation.
- The Bezos API Mandate.
- On Digital Transformation.
- Ambition vs Tranquility.
- All Work Takes 25 Minutes.
- Moving Towards What You Fear.
- Considerations on Redistributions of Wealth
- Meditation on Washing Dishes.
- On Continuous Process Improvement.
- Extracting Metadata from UNDP Public Audit Disclosures (v2).
- Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus.
- Will Solving Crime Become a Production Issue?
- Management of WIP.
- Absolute Accountability.
- On Afghanistan.
- The Boulder of Life.
- Planning Life Without a Plan.
- Commander’s Intent.
- Initial Thoughts on Human Rights.
- How Do We Know What is True?
- The Irony of Tragedy
- Boredom as a Strategy.
- A Life Unlived.
- The Three Types of Wealth.
- On El Salvador & Criminal Justice.
- On Project Timelines.
- 1 is more than 0.
- On the UN General Assembly Voting System.
- On Incremental Improvements.
- Further Thoughts on Infinite Workloads.
- The Philosophy of Train Travel.
- On Chaos.
- Extracting Metadata from UNDP Public Audit Disclosures (v1).
- LLMtext2excel.
- Automating Risk Registers at UNDP (v3).
- Increasing LLM Speed.
- Automating Risk Registers at UNDP (v2).
- Automating Risk Registers at UNDP (v1).
- Question and Answer AI on Documents.
- Confidence Scores On High-Risk Project Detection.
- Extracting Structured Data from Documents.
- Word Salads.
- Automatic Detection of UNDP High-Risk Projects (v1).
- Dictation vs Typing.
- UNDP Digital Standards.
- TNSTAAFL.
- Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.
- jSON Education Prompt for AI
- Leveraging Vector Embeddings in the Development Sector.
- We Reach the Same End by Discrepant Means.
- Doing What We Should Do.
- Thoughts on Retirement
- On The Simulation Hypothesis.
- Finding Quiet.
- The World’s Best Onboarding.
- There’s Always Too Much To Do.
- Initial Thoughts on Metacognition.
- Why Nothing Works.
- Right Now Is Good.
- Red Moon.
- A Philosophical Python (Chatbot)
- A Simple Python ChatBot.
- A Brief History of AI (Part 1)
- On-Device Large Language Model Progress.
- Breadth First Search vs Depth First Search.
- The Soul in the Concrete Jungle.
- On Socratic Ideas.
- Advice on Leaving Home.
- The Case for Government.
- Should All War Be Illegal?
- What is the Most Fundamental Skill?
- Feedback Loops in Strategy.
- The Future of Movies.
- On Professional Juries.
- City Development vs Beauty.
- Text Based Formats.
- How to Evaluate Product Ideas for the Public Sector.
- Inverse Thinking on Nuclear Weapons.
- The Game of Life.
- A Conversation with Lord Wotton.
- Defining Strategy.
- Thoughts on Strategy.
- Strategy vs Planning.
- On Marginal Improvements.
- Considering a 20s User Guide.
- Problems with Indicators.
- Should There Be a Limit on Interest Rates?
- Walking and Thinking.
- Initial Overview of Socratic Dialogue.
- An Initial Exploration of Democracy.
- On Anxiety in My 20s.
- Strategy vs Plan.
- On Government Technology Failures (Part 1).
- Observing Ourselves.
- The Information Ladder.
- Initial Thoughts on Defining Intelligence
- Notes on Public Sector IT Failures.
- Philosophical Meditation.
- Habits v0.03
- Involuntary Manslaughter (Part 2).
- Journaling is a Discussion with the Self.
- Additional Thoughts on Utopia.
- Habits v0.02
- Involuntary Manslaughter (Part 1).
- Habits v0.01
- Introducing habits.am
2022
- Reflections on a Year of Writing.
- Patience Revisited.
- The Pyramid of Learning.
- Habits & Streaks.
- AI & Jobs.
- Resistance Revisited.
- Reflections on Writing a Book.
- Thinking About Listening.
- Judges vs Algorithms.
- The Sunny 16 Rule (Part 2).
- The Sunny 16 Rule (Part 1).
- so you want to be a writer?
- Short Thought on Nuclear Weapons.
- On Voluntary Manslaughter (Part 2).
- Writing in Plain English.
- On Dictation.
- On Yearly Planning.
- Handling Criticism, Revisited.
- Brevity — Winston Churchill.
- Notes on “Writing Well” by William Zinsser.
- When Solitude is Useful.
- On Witnessing a Double Homicide.
- On Voluntary Manslaughter (Part 1).
- On the Cultivation of Purpose.
- On Homicide (Part 2).
- On Homicide (Part 1).
- Dealing with an Infinite Workload.
- Hard Work and Leverage.
- The Meaning of Meaning.
- On Solitude.
- Effort and Tourism.
- OpenAI Whisper.
- The Paradox of Law.
- 186 Billion Bits.
- The Future of War.
- Initial Thoughts on Custom Software Procurement.
- On Large Meetings.
- Further Thoughts: Cost-Per-Transaction Model.
- Kaizen and Compounding.
- The 100ms Rule of Latency (Part 1).
- A Decentralized System for Individual Trust.
- Should Wigs be Banned in Court?
- Harvard Referencing Guide.
- Company Assessment — Blue.
- The Next Process is the Customer.
- Three Components for GTM Strategy.
- An Additional Benefit of Meditation.
- DOPAMINE (Acronym).
- Minimalism Should Be Scary.
- A Framework for Building Products.
- Optimizing Landing Pages.
- Consulting and Long-Term Decision-Making.
- Thoughts on Strategy.
- Learning via Reflection.
- Why is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence?
- Initial Thoughts on Life Planning.
- Inefficiency Hurts at Any Scale.
- Clarity in Writing.
- Thought Experiment: Replication Machines v1.
- Initial Thoughts on Spaced Repetition.
- A Cut Finger.
- Manny’s Matrix: A Simple Product Prioritization Matrix.
- On City Life.
- The Psychology of Selling SaaS.
- Why Do We Punish Criminals?
- Actus Reus (Part 1).
- Further Thoughts on Simplicity.
- Initial Thoughts on Principles of Process Design.
- AR+MR-D = L
- The Importance of a Free Market for Ideas.
- Conquering the Little Barbarians.
- The Futility of Goals.
- Another Perspective on Materialism.
- IT vs Digital.
- Further Thoughts on Rivers.
- Travel is Good for the Soul.
- What is the True Cost of Red Tape?
- The Learning Spiral.
- The Ways To Think About Death.
- Everything is Interesting.
- Should It Be Illegal To Have Sex with Child Robots?
- Experiencies vs Narratives.
- What Money Can’t Buy v1.
- How to use Company Assessment Tools.
- Eisenhower Matrixes.
- Consistent Actions.
- Dealing with Frustrations.
- Sophisticated Simplicity.
- 7-S Framework Checklist Questions.
- How I write.
- The Room That Gives You Anything.
- What Can We Do With 1% Of Our Day?
- A Great Question to Ask Yourself.
- The Advantages of Small Organizations.
- Thoughts on Writing.
- On Leadership & Risk.
- The Mckinsey 7-S Framework.
- Lessons from Cold Showers.
- Avoid Perfection.
- Supply & Demand 101.
- SMART Goals.
- Project Management: First Principles.
- Further Thoughts on Fight Club.
- Exponential Thinking.
- Does Remote Work Enable Larger Meetings?
- On Lazy Thinking.
- Thinking Through Blue Pricing.
- My Answer to “Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?”
- SaaS Quick Ratio Explained.
- The Tannenbaum & Schmidt Continuum.
- Further Thoughts on Resistance.
- Why Work Is Important.
- The Big Five Personality Traits in Leadership.
- What Do Managers Do?
- What is Organizational Behaviour?
- Giving Customers No Choice.
- Where Are All the Failures?
- Why I Am Studying an Open Degree.
- Some Problems with Capitalism.
- Decisions vs Outcomes.
- On Delegation.
- Decision-Making 3.
- Thoughts on Development of the Self.
- A Simple Proposal To Save The Oceans.
- A Mental Model for Qualifying Customers.
- On Control (Revisited).
- It Could Be Worse.
- Why You Are Fooled by Magic Tricks.
- The Joys of Scheduling.
- Initial Thoughts on the Metaverse.
- Good Management in Invisible.
- Why I Take Photos.
- Autotelic Work.
- On Working Remotely.
- On Management Incentive Structures.
- The Toxicity of Productivity.
- The Indefensibility of Vegetarianism.
- Stable Habits.
- On Crossing a River.
- Crossing the Rubicon.
- An Overview of The Five Levels of Leadership.
- Initial Thoughts on Wealth.
- The Sweet and The Bitter.
- Monking Around.
- The Importance of Having a Life Philosophy.
- Done is Better than Perfect.
- Understanding Leisure.
- Moving Towards or Away.
- Initial Thoughts on Airline Economics.
- Decision-Making 2.
- UX/UI as a Proxy of System Quality.
- Decision-Making 1.
- The Curse of the Traveller.
- Pineapple on Pizza.
- More Thoughts on Flow State.
- 100 Small Changes.
- Fake Commercial Off-The-Shelf Software.
- Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365.
- How to Sabotage Your Organization.
- How I Overcame My Fear of Flying.
- Pyramid Expectations.
- Traffic Lights vs Roundabouts.
- Borrow Decisions From your Future Self.
- Understanding Insulin v1.
- How to Use YouTube.
- Meditation on the Last Time.
- Evidence of Being Wrong.
- Recommended Notification Settings.
- Searching for Opposing Views.
- Initial Thoughts on Nuclear Weapons.
- Appreciating Nature.
- Todo Lists vs Scheduling.
- Thoughts from 40,000 Feet.
- Ubiquitous Capture Devices.
- The Problem with Too Many Options.
- The Law of Triviality.
- Disagree & Commit.
- Prioritization For Leaders.
- The Types of Boundaries.
- Talent, Concentration, and Determination.
- On Incentives.
- Initial Thoughts on Bell Curves.
- Just Write.
- Initial Thoughts on Flow State.
- At What Cost — Again.
- Thought Experiment: A Transparent Society.
- Building A Wall.
- Keep It Simple.
- Experiencing a Dollar Bill.
- On Success.
- Does Quantity Give Significance?
- Cultivating Indifference.
- Thinking in Higher Time Frames.
- How to Be Content.
- On Holidays, Revisted.
- Holidays.
- The Tragedy of the Commons.
- Phnom Penh (2016).
- On Luxury.
- Startup CEO Focus Areas.
- Doing The Unscalable.
- How To Install a Calendar In Your Brain.
- Centralized vs Decentralized Systems v2.
- Vegetarian Diets.
- The Future: Utopia or Dystopia?
- On Deep Work.
- Five Steps to Minimalism.
- Everyday Opportunities.
- On Anger.
- On Doing Nothing.
- How Much is Enough?
- Lessons from Edge of Tomorrow.
- Opinions of a Time Traveller.
- Pyramids: A Waste of Time?
- Negotiation in Life.
- How I Overcame Writer’s Block.
- A Definition of a “Philosophy of Life”.
- How Long Does It Take?
- The Complexity of Simplicity.
- Centralized vs Decentralized Systems v1.
- Casco Viejo — Panama.
- Goodhart’s Law.
- f/8 And Be There.
- The Paradox of Being a Millennial.
- Thinking One Sticky Note at a Time.
- Initial Thoughts on Social Constructs.
- Western vs Eastern Happiness.
- The Bus to Abilene.
- Hitler.
- How to Live on 40 Tomatoes a Week.
- On Losing Things.
- The Tortoise and The Hare.
- Thinking Clearly.
- Motivation.
- Self-Doubt.
- Collar Colour.
- Government Financial Transparency.
- How to Carpe Diem.
- Be Your Own Consultant.
- How to Never Fail.
- Finding Yourself in Difficult Times.
- The Enchiridion of Epictetus.
- On Losing a Parent.
- Stop and Think.
- Problems Into Solutions.
- What’s The Worst That Can Happen?
- On Being Hungry.
- 80/20 Rule.
- Perfect Roast Potatoes.
- On Perspective.
- On The Value of Things.
- The Sustainable Development Goals.
- Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
- What is a Platform?
- What is an Intellectual?
- 90/10 Product Management.
- The Two Types of Work.
- Experiment: Four Day Work Week.
- The Power Of Waiting.
- Airports Are Stoic Tests.
- Consistency.
- The Map vs The Path.
- Parkinson’s Law.
- A Transparent Society.
- The First Ten Paying Customers.
- What Makes Me, Me? (And You, You?)
- A Discussion on Free Speech.
- Believe You Can Be Wrong.
- Being Cityless.
- The Real Cost of Cheap Shit.
- Three Hours in Rome.
- The Top 1%.
- Let The Arrow Fly.
- At What Cost?
- You Are On Earth.
- Questions to a Psychotherapist.
- Enlightened Hedonism.
- The Beauty of Silence.
- Recommended Daily Habits.
- On Utopia.
- Business Risks.
- Design & Taste.
- The Third Place.
- Everyday Stoicism.
- Filtering Out Time Wasters.
- Does Quantity Give Significance?
- Two Handles.
- Why Wake Up Early?
- Just Ask.
- Synchronous vs Asynchronous.
- The Philosophy of Sales.
- How We Treat Animals.
- Measure what matters, or don’t.
- Why .cc?
- Monotask: Do One Thing At A Time.
- Maxim: How To Spot Bullshitters.
- On Independence & Quality.
- The First Thing to Control.
- Cost-Per-Transaction Model.
- Maxims for Thinking Analytically.
- The Power Of Words.
- Placing a Focus On Direction.
- A New Paradigm for Productivity.
- Regret Minimization Framework.
- On Control.
- Making Time For Ourselves.
- A Straight-Forward Book Structure.
- Invictus.
- If.
- The Difference In Details.
- The Two Types of Decisions.
- The Importance of Strategy.
- The Future’s Opinion of Today.
- What Are Good Working Habits?
- Stress Revisited.
- Thoughts on Teleportation.
- The Fermi Paradox.
- On YouTube.
- Boredom.
- On Unwarranted Skepticism.
- Investing In Books.
- Business vs Morals.
- Patience.
- Fight Club Philosophy.
- Collecting Ideas.
- Attention & Advertising Trends.
- A Question Worth Asking.
- Great Customer Service – Mistakes.
- On Starting Again.
- Make Your Desk Tidy.
- On Double Ignorance.
- Trying to Find Silence.
- No Emails.
- The Promise of a New Month.
- Rules For a Better Life.
- The Ultimate Guide to Minimalism.
- A Gun To My Head.
- Should You Believe a Sales Pitch?
- Strategy vs Execution.
- On Delayed Gratification.
- The Philosophy of Sales.
- How We Treat Animals.
- The Inverted U Curves Of Life.
- Doing Less.
- Be a Lumberjack.
- Should You Go To University?
- Abstracts of 34 Via Montesanto.
- A Few Haikus.
- Burn Your Ships.
- Drinking Coffee is Lying to Yourself.
- One Step.
- Cicero’s Six Mistakes of Man.
- Our Relationship with Technology.
- Three Breathing Tricks.
- Overcoming Resistance.
- Ten Useful Stoic Exercises.
- The Washington Post Test.
- Controlling Emotional Responses.
- Why I Wear An Expensive Watch.
- Free Will: Initial Thoughts.
- Handling Criticism.
- Book Summary: Homo Deus.
- Book Recommendations.
- On Simplicity: How We Write.
- Hello World.