01. Start with shorter books and build up your reading stamina. Possibly your ability to focus has been sapped by other media. Luckily, this is a problem with a simple solution. The more you read, the easier reading will become. 02. Carry a book with you. I find it very unsettling when I visit airports and everyone—babies, kids, parents—is glued to a screen. We spend a good chunk of our lives in DMV lines and sitting in diners. You can get a shocking amount of reading done in those spare moments. 03. Read before falling asleep. This is actually where I get most of my reading done. Resolve that for the next hour or however long, you’re not going to look at your phone. There’s something almost hypnotically soothing about reading in silence at the end of a day. 04. Reduce the level of non-book entertainments. This is the main reason most people struggle with reading, because we live in a world of infinite diversions. Harold Bloom said, “There are enormous obstacles to deep reading now. The tyranny of the visual is a frightening thing.” But once you realize those diversions are the very things keeping you from reading, it becomes easier to prioritize reading as a hobby. Books are both good for the brain (in the same way exercise is good for the body) and more emotionally rewarding than much of what we consume. 05. Keep a reading diary. It can be something as simple as jotting down the titles of every book you complete. Seeing those titles begin to add up is enormous fun, and will motivate you to want to keep reading. 06. Remember that reading is supposed to be fun. There’s a reason books were the chief entertainment for American pioneers and British coal-miners of the nineteenth century. We once had a massively literate working-class, and I believe we could revive a culture of reading for pleasure.

hit 40 and instantly started waking up at 5:55 am every day no matter how late i was up the night before what i didn’t expect is that it is great bc no one bothers you while you do your little writing in your little chair with your little ottoman

Finally reading Larry McMurtry’s LONESOME DOVE, which I’ve started several times over the years and abandoned—wasn’t in the right mood for it, I guess. This time, I’ve really connected with the novel and am enjoying it mightily.

theatlantic.com/magazine/arc… If you want to understand the legal structures by which fraternities indemnify themselves from their members’ conduct…

A Monday morning question for you: I'm not usually awake from 5am to 6am, but when I am I tend to enjoy it. Start the day slow. Watch the sunrise. Get a few things done before everyone else wakes up. Meanwhile, I am often awake from 10pm to 11pm and I find that I tend to use it poorly. Passively watching TV or scrolling on a screen. Late-night snacking. Generally focusing on things that are fairly unimportant. Trading the last hour of the night for the first hour in the morning would be a pretty high-value trade for me. Which hours of your day tend to return the most value and which ones tend to return the least?

Looking at peak performance in each category, who are the most impressive people?

Never give up when faced with difficulties.

Peterson Academy is excited to share Dr. John Vervaeke’s first lecture from Intelligence, Rationality, Wisdom and Spirituality. @DrJohnVervaeke explores the core components of cognitive agency, including intelligence, rationality, wisdom, and spirituality.

The percentage of young Americans who have no contact with other people on an average day more than doubled during Covid and has stayed high, shows @jburnmurdoch

Cape Town’s CBD has the highest concentration of independent coffee roasters in the country☕️ There are now 94 coffee shops and cafés trading in the Central City. That’s 6% of all retailers in the CBD. I recently got the opportunity to interview Haitham Mattar, Managing Director, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG Hotels & Resorts. He currently leads the operations and performance of over 210 hotels (including the Table Bay Hotel in the V&A Waterfront), as well as overseeing the strategic development of IHG’s plans with a pipeline of over 220 more hotels. He says that we are seeing an influx of Middle Eastern travellers coming to South Africa to enjoy our winters. For them, our winters are a blessing and an opportunity to wear winter fashion and coats that they can’t wear back home. Interestingly, he says they are also chasing the coffee. They love not only our coffee but also our friendly, talented baristas. Coffee shops have also become the unofficial meeting rooms and mobile offices for workers who’d rather work from a window seat than a formal desk. A place to strategise with colleagues and nurture customer relationships outside of the formal office. According to the State of Cape Town 2025 Central City Report, the CBD closed 2025 with 1,495 retail and entertainment venues, up 172 on the year before, inside a total business base of 3,547 companies trading in the CBD, the highest number ever recorded.

One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away. Stephen Hawking