ryeones™

terms of service

2026-06-13T08:45:01.615Z

ryeones.com — terms of service last updated: march 2026

this is a personal site. by visiting, you agree to the following.

content

all original writing, photography, and design on this site is mine unless noted otherwise. it is published under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — you’re free to share and adapt it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit me and use the same licence.

no warranties

everything here is published in good faith but provided as-is. i make no guarantees about accuracy, completeness, or availability.

external links

links to third-party sites are for reference. i’m not responsible for their content or practices.

changes

2026-06-13T08:45:01.599Z

https://www.instagram.com/takoconnects/

the diary of a ceo

2026-06-13T08:45:01.599Z

Episodes

Show

Blade Runner

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

No description provided

Catan

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

No description provided

Jazz

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

Genre

Parks

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

Places

Type

Sci-fi

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

Genre

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

No description provided

Well Made 145 Kevin Kelly

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

No description provided

Well Made

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

Episodes

Show

chicken rice

2026-06-13T08:45:01.595Z

it’s funny i want to use this as a almost like moc for all chicken rice place i’ve eaten at, or anything related to chicken rice for that matter.

Buy wisely

2026-06-13T08:45:01.583Z

Whenever I buy things I try to prioritize cost per use. Sometimes I consider other priorities such as cost per smile, cost per thrill, cost per externality, and cost per lesson.

Cost per use

Cost per use is a heuristic that helps me make decisions about most non-perishable purchases such as clothes, vehicles, tools, devices, and even services. How much will it cost me if I divide the price by its expected number of uses?

Cost per use accounts for longevity. Durable and repairable things may cost more upfront, but over time they cost less than things that break and need to be replaced.

For example, I buy wool socks from a brand called Darn Tough. They cost about four times as much as cheap socks, but they’re durable, comfortable, and have a lifetime guarantee.

How many times do you wear a pair of socks before they develop holes? It may sound silly, but if you amortize the price of each pair of socks over their expected number of uses, a good pair of socks is a worthwhile investment.

Quality

Price

Uses

Cost per use

Poor

$0.50

Good

$10

$0.20

Best

$20

200

$0.10

Not only will durable socks save you money, they also save you the hassle of throwing out old socks and buying new ones. Your time has value.

The best things asymptote to zero dollars per use over their lifetime. Not all products that have a low cost per use are expensive. Some things are both affordable and durable.

Cost per use can also be used to measure the value you expect to get out of services like gym memberships, healthcare, or all-you-can-eat subscriptions like streaming services.

How to assess durability

My aim is to have fewer but better things. These are some of the questions I ask of the things that I incorporate into my life:

Will it be as useful to me in the future as it is now?
Is it made of durable and maintainable materials?
Does it have a timeless style and aesthetic?
Does it age well, wear well, build a wabi-sabi patina?
Does it retain its resale value? Would someone else want to own it?
Can it be disassembled and repaired?
Does it have replaceable, non-proprietary parts that are easy to acquire?
Can it be powered with a standard plug or replaceable batteries?
Can it be modified and upgraded?
Has the maker existed for at least as long as I hope to keep the product?
Can it perform many jobs, or only one?
Does it have a guarantee?
Does it rely on other products or technologies that aren’t durable?

Not all questions are relevant to all things. Not all things need to satisfy every requirement. However, I feel better about buying things that check many of these boxes. A movement called “buy it for life” has sprung up around similar priorities.

How to estimate uses

To make purchasing decisions based on cost per use, you should try to guess how many times you will use the product. This sounds obvious, but it can be hard to determine, especially if it’s something you’ve never bought before.

If you are new to a hobby, like cooking or skiing, you may not yet know how many times you will use a piece of gear. It’s easy to significantly overestimate or underestimate how many times you will use something.

You should, however, be able to guess the frequency of use. Is this something you might use once per hour, day, week, month, year? This will help you determine your budget. How many dollars per month do you want to spend on this?

If you don’t know the frequency yet consider borrowing, renting, or otherwise trialing. Remember the ideal cost per use trends to $0. The most cost-effective choice is to not buy something you don’t need.

There is an opportunity cost to every dollar. A dollar you spend on a something that won’t get much use is a dollar you can’t save for something that will.

If you’re only going to use something once, then cost per use may not be the right heuristic for this decision. If you have disposable income, then the cost per use lens should nonetheless guide you towards something with good resale value.

The best things to splurge on are the things you use the most. If you sit on a chair eight hours a day, then a nice chair is probably a good investment.

Reducing the cost side

Durable things reduce cost per use by giving you more uses before they break. But you can also reduce cost per use by acquiring products at a discount. You may be able to buy second-hand, inherit, or barter.

Durable things can often be great second-hand purchases because they are durable, and may not be the current fashion.

Alternative heuristics

Cost per use is not the only way to make buying decisions. For things like consumables and experiences, you may need to approach the decision differently.

Cost per smile

How much joy can you get out of each dollar? Some things bring lots of joy for a small amount of money: ice cream, sunsets, nature walks. A cheap date can bring many smiles per dollar.

Some things have excellent cost per use but few smiles per use. I don’t smile every time I put my nice socks on. A few years ago I bought a fairly expensive electric road bike. It probably didn’t have the best cost per use, but it gives me the most joy per use of any product I purchased in recent memory. It’s worth it to me.

Cost per thrill

Some experiences have high intensity per dollar. A potency, concentration, or strength of experience. For example, foods can have high flavor per dollar — like hot sauce, pickles, curry, garlic, or mustard. Roller coasters, bungee jumping, or skydiving may give you a thrill per dollar that you can’t beat.

Cost per externality

Some purchases may have externalities that are incompatible with your values. For example, you may wish to buy organic produce, pasture-raised eggs, or fair trade coffee. You may wish to buy products that preserve privacy, reduce environmental impact, or support a cause you believe in.

You can choose to incorporate externalities into the cost that you are paying instead of letting that cost be borne by others, or by society at large. This may increase your personal cost per use, but it might help change how society values things, or simply make you feel good.

Cost per lesson

Knowledge has a cost. Sometimes that cost is monetary, sometimes that cost is time, sometimes that cost is pain. Sometimes it’s all three.

You might learn more about investing by purchasing a handful of shares in public companies than going to graduate school. You might learn more about making movies by trying to film one on your phone than going to film school.

Acquiring new ideas and perspectives can have a worthwhile cost. Being an early adopter of a product often has a poor cost per use, but its value is in the learning and experience per dollar.

huh, so what is this

2026-06-13T08:45:01.579Z

uhh haha good question.

its just an informal website,

a playground for my thoughts,

an archive, maybe even a blog, whatever.

this is mainly for documenting and sharing -

my two favourite hobbies, aside from many others.

no page here will ever be fully complete,

it will never be actually.

this is a space for imperfection and endless refinement ,

rawness and abstraction.

a place for communication with myself,

and for those who stumble across them,

and typos and sentences that end with no resolution,

and of course, lower caps

if you can’t tell.

at the moment, i’m championing for light mode,

i’ll question our friendship if you actually use dark mode (and android)

but just know that a couple months ago i favoured dark over light.

and of course, i like lower caps,

pastel colours, and emojis as well.

but at the same time, i’m a minimalist at heart

black and white,

nothing too extravagant.

this page could evolve too

i might wake up one day and decide i don’t want anyone reading this

and delete it all.

but i might also wake up one day,

and notion changes their terms of service

or developers no longer maintain this code 😭

who knows, even i don’t lol.

there might have been more things on here that i removed

because it was just a little too private for it to be in public

or it could just be the first time i’m writing anything here.

(its not, definitely not)

or i’m just making room for the mystery and possibility of all of the above

everything on this site is a work in progress

everything is a trial and error

i am not a writer, i can’t write for nuts

but i am a thinker, and problem solver.

i think deeply, and reflect on everything that i come across

no matter how big or small it may seem

i just like seeing where things can go

thank u for being here

dm me if u have any thoughts.

-how to get around this site-

not sure what brought you here, but i’ve set up a few ways to explore, so you’ll find something interesting no matter your reason:

changelog - to quickly get an overview overview of the most recent changes to the website
what i write about - check out my (topics i write about for top level) maps of content
graph view - let the interconnected notes below guide you through my digital garden

if you just want the latest scoop on what’s going on, check out what i’m up to now, which serves as a now page.

now page

2026-06-13T08:45:01.579Z

a now page is similar to that of an about page that you see on most websites, however there is a twist to it. about page tends to be set in stone, static page, which tells it audience about what the site is or what the creator of the site does. a now page adds a twist to your site by allowing your followers to sneak a peak into what you’re focusing on in life at every moment in time. it is meant to be kept as updated as possible, or at least at consistent time intervals.

derek siver popularised the now page, and gregory brown pushed for a now movement in which many people online with a website have also included a now page. here is his article about how the rationale and how it first began.

you can find mine here as well!

privacy policy

2026-06-13T08:45:01.579Z

ryeones.com — privacy policy last updated: march 2026

this site does not collect personal data, run ads, or sell anything about you.

analytics

i use basic, privacy-respecting analytics (no cookies, no fingerprinting) to understand how many people visit and which pages are most read. no personally identifiable information is stored.

external links

this site links to external services (instagram, twitter, substack, etc.). once you leave, their own privacy policies apply.

emails

if you email me at ryan@ryeones.com, i’ll only use your email to reply to you. i don’t add you to any list.

newsletter

if you subscribe via substack, their privacy policy applies.

cookies

this site does not use cookies.

if you have any questions, feel free to reach out at ryan@ryeones.com.

digital garden

2026-06-13T08:45:01.575Z

a digital garden is a space to

fomties

2026-06-13T08:45:01.575Z

my initial apple note entry

figuring out my twenties

idea came out on 30th july official at 715pm

110.80 usd 10 years domain

have also secured the domain as well as relevant social handles for future use depending on how it evolves.

at the moment, fomties™ is this current site where i share my thoughts and learnings in public, under a subdomain of my personal brand.

ryan tham

2026-06-13T08:45:01.571Z

ryan tham aka ryeones

telling stories.telling stories. sparks,telling stories. sparks, strategies,telling stories. sparks, strategies, sequences,telling stories. sparks, strategies, sequences, stories,telling stories. sparks, strategies, sequences, stories, systems,telling stories. sparks, strategies, sequences, stories, systems, spaces.

currently, i'm the content strategist & storyteller of seeksophie,currently, i'm the content strategist & storyteller of seeksophie, helping brands tell honest stories and connect with the people who matter.

outside of work, i'm building...outside of work, i'm building soffcopy™ and fomties™ -outside of work, i'm building soffcopy™ and fomties™ - the goal was always to get a 9-5, to fund my 5-9, to eventually escape the 9-5.

what is soffcopysoffcopy shares the stories of inspiring founders and creatives, offering alternate paths beyond the traditional route. and fomties?fomties is a personal archive documenting the messy, evolving process of figuring out my twenties.

both are projects i wish my younger self had found sooner and the stories i’d want him to hear.

previously, i studied...previously, i studied architecture at the national university of singapore andpreviously, i studied architecture at the national university of singapore and played floorball at a competitive level all my life.

i have an open invite - feel free to email me at ryan@ryeones.com. i check it once every few days. otherwise, feel free to connect with me on my socials (@ryeones), check out my portfolio, my thoughts in public, or my streams of consciousness.

oh and you can click meoh and you can click me, to find out about some easter eggs of the site

collections

objects

digital and analogue works of varying topics

movies

2026-06-13T08:45:01.571Z

bases renderer of movies

2 cor 5v7

2026-06-13T08:45:01.571Z

“for we walk by faith, not by sight.” - nkjv

3-2-1 content system

2026-06-13T08:45:01.571Z

3-2-1 back up rule is a system that is widely used nowadays.

3 copies. 2 mediums. 1 on the cloud.

this means for every file you own, ideally it should abide by this system.

have 3 copies of the file backed up.

stored in 2 different mediums - namely hard drive and offsite

and 1 on the cloud - cloud backup isn’t really a backup in traditional sense, but having that additional cloud sync can always come in handy.

similarly, this is a rule i will recommend whthis is the template for a notes layout on my website

the note name has to be the same as the title in the yamlen starting out again in creating content.

as much as there is a lot of value in sticking to one platform, learning the ins and outs, being consistent and getting good at it,

i feel that especially if you’re in for the long game, you are bound to want to be on multiple platforms.

so here’s the system adapted.

3 platforms. 2 formats. 1 newsletter.

so choose 3 platforms where you are comfortable with.

x, threads linkedin for text

instagram and tiktok for short form video

youtube for long form video

choose 2 types of formats.

formats in this case refer to both content format (text vs visual) and (short form vs long form)

and 1 newsletter.

newsletter is an essential part of converting your rented audience on social media to owned audience where you nurture them.

depending on your capacity, you can adapt this rule accordingly.

at the very basics, is to stick to one platform, be consistent and get good at it.

if you want to go a step further

i recommend one platform you are more comfortable with (text vs visual) and a newsletter

the ideal starting point would be what i recommended earlier

3 platforms. 2 formats. 1 newsletter.

of course this may not be easy at the beginning, but with the right systems in place

it will be much simpler.

books

2026-06-13T08:45:01.567Z

bases renderer of books

how to do everything you want in your twenties

2026-06-13T00:00:00.000Z

in my last piece, i made a case for serial hobbyism, as well as the need to overcome our commodified relationship with time because it cascades into a desire to maximize our productivity at the expense of enjoying guilt-free stretches of relaxation, hobbies, and unrushed quality time with friends.

“it is only once we can overcome the notion that every minute must be perfectly and productively spent that we can begin to be more present and open to spontaneous experiences. although i still love it when an event or vacation goes exactly as i envisioned, i’ve also begun to appreciate the happiness brought by having no agenda, no expectations, and no countdown timer to dictate how long i spend with a friend. in these kinds of ‘imperfect’ experiences, we are no longer under the tyranny of the ticking clock; instead, time dilates and accelerates freely in a malleable space filled with more serendipity, richer emotions, and fuller experiences of being.”

as much as modern culture is obsessed with constantly reaching new personal milestones or turning hobbies into side hustles, it’s a no-brainer to accept that time spent doing what nourishes is time well spent, regardless of the tangible outcomes. however, it feels incomplete to discuss mindsets around spending time & money on hobbies and other ‘for fun’ activities without addressing the bigger question of how to craft the lifestyles we want to lead. so, i decided to break it down into four different, though not mutually exclusive categories that constitute what i call the ‘pyramid of lifestyle.’

breaking down the ‘pyramid of lifestyle’

at the base, i put habits, forming the foundation of our personhood. these actions and attitudes are so integrated into our daily routines that they eliminate decision-making, which frees up precious brain space but makes them all the more difficult to identify and change.

next, similar to habits but more malleable are interests. i foremost characterize interests with consumption, as they’re about appreciating the value others have created, through activities such as reading about geopolitics, watching people exceptional at their sport or craft, and buying products that catch our eye.

in contrast to interests, hobbies are about creating this same type of value ourselves —
this is why i believe they enable a higher degree of personal growth, fulfillment, and self-actualization. for example, as much as i enjoy reading as a quiet solo pastime, what i read becomes much more fun and ‘sticky’ when i connect it to other areas of my life by synthesizing takeaways in a substack post or discussing it with book club friends.

finally, at the top of the pyramid are experiences, generally low-frequency luxuries that deviate from routines, and by the same token, offer often much-needed mental resets. i view experiences as self-care via immersion in a refreshing environment, with possibilities ranging from a simple spa evening to a whirlwind tour across the world.

…so what do i do with this?

at this point, you might ask: why agonize hours over the definitions and differences between these arbitrary categories? just go and do what makes you happy!

if only it were that easy. given that most of us don’t have access to infinite funds, we earn money by working some corporate desk job, which eats up the majority of our time and energy. in the u.s., we l(o|i)ve to work, so much so that lunch ‘breaks’ are a toss-up between ‘munch on salad grain bowl while clicking through outlook inbox’ and ‘check phone every 10 minutes while eating with coworker to be on time to the 1 pm.’ after clocking out, we spend our remaining few hours before bedtime on basic survival tasks like feeding and cleaning ourselves, and perhaps somewhere in between, we muster up enough motivation to fit in an hour of exercise, which we believe will off-set the combo of 8+ sedentary hours at the office and 3+ hours of horizontal rotting at home scrolling or watching whatever show meets our meager leftover brain capacity.

busy with survival, it’s easy to fall into lifestyles with little intention, and even if we begin to recognize discontentment or that our hedonistic escapes only bring temporary pleasures, we rarely give ourselves the mental space to reflect on what we could or should change to get out of this rut.

but this doesn’t have to be the norm.

coming down from the college high is rough for many of us because our unparalleled freedom is met with long and restrictive work hours; our large community of nearby friends suddenly gets spread across the country; and, well, we need to start adulting for real. despite experiencing all this, i’ve realized that i was lucky with my first job out of college; being in a stable position that caps my hours at 40hrs/week (excluding lunch breaks) has gifted me the space to develop greater awareness of what financial independence looks like, what healthy means for me, and in general, what types of experiences nourish vs. deplete me.

the pyramid of lifestyle is a framework borne out of a desire to overcome corporate fatigue; by bringing the key elements of lifestyle into sharper focus, we can take back the reins and lead lives that prioritize what nourish us. coming up on two years into my first full-time job, i’ve found that although all four levels of the pyramid are integral, not all are equally rewarding or labor-intensive. thus, with some work and mindset shifts, we can leverage the characteristics of each to our advantage.

tip #1: build good habits to make space for what you value

habits are double-edged swords that form the cornerstones of life. running on autopilot can lead us down a slippery slope, but with self-reflection, we can also configure our daily behaviors by establishing strong guiding principles. once we enter a maintenance phase in which we automatically make the ‘right’ choices for our well-being, we can eliminate the daily drain of decision-making, resisting temptations, and dealing with the repercussions of short-sighted decisions, thus create more space to do the things we’ve always wanted, whether starting that substack or finally getting into pottery.

figure out what ‘healthy’ means for you.

neglecting your health can not only shorten your lifespan, but also reduce its quality. everyone has biological differences, so i won’t go on preaching my *perfect* routine (this time, at least:p), but there’s plenty of evidence for universal health pillars such as practicing sleep hygiene, avoiding ultra-processed foods, and resistance training complemented by sufficient protein intake. the amount of health & fitness advice circulating nowadays is overwhelming; these are just my two cents on what has stuck after years of trial and error figuring out how to overcome feeling anemic and out of synch with my body. now that i’ve found ground rules that work, i’m able to spend a lot less effort maintaining a baseline of ‘feeling good,’ and dedicate more time to other important aspects of my well-being, such as scratching a creative itch or nurturing good relationships with friends and family.

transform learnings into identity-based habits.

i found james clear’s identity-based approach to goals from atomic habits particularly positive and sustainable because instead of focusing on outcomes such as “i want to lose 10 lbs,” clear emphasizes focusing on what kind of people we want to become, e.g. “a strong and active person…” and the process that’d help us achieve that, “…who exercises 4-5x/week.” i like to take it a step further and also think about the why — i love being active because it makes me feel stronger, happier, and more energetic.

ask yourself: what gives you sustainable energy?

if your job is unfulfilling but good enough to pay the bills, could you carve out space for passion projects outside of it? alternatively, if you’re putting all your energy into career growth, how are you showing up for the people around you? if you’re always tired after work or doing chores, what habits could you tweak to reclaim some time and energy?

tip #2: learn who & what from the available nourishes you

this is unexpectedly hard. our brains are ill-fit to handle the abundance of modern-day — the internet, the cracked food industry, and an ever-growing array of shiny consumer goods all give us far too many opportunities to enjoy rapid dopamine kicks. to see beyond the short-term gains from satisfying cravings and recognize the long-term effects of what we’re doing to our minds, bodies, and relationships, we can begin by getting more in touch with our bodies. sometimes, it’s as simple as noticing how being around certain people makes us feel. other times, the effects are delayed and more subtle, so it requires more mindfulness to, for example, prove to ourselves how much better we sleep when we spend more time outdoors or skip the late-night drinks.

write it down.

our memories fail us consistently. another dinner scarfed down barely looking at it, and we forget what it was by the next morning. another day of feeling tired, and we forget how we could ever be so full of energy. another night home alone, and we forget the great connections lying at our fingertips if only we got over our egos and reached out.

my habit of recording things might be mildly obsessive, but it’s also helped me remember and be grateful for so much more. a quick photo of my meal and company is a token of my appreciation of the blessing. as cringe as i found gratitude journaling at first, now i do it every night and even started doing monthly reviews to knit the narrative of who and what brings me the most joy. a notes page called ‘where friends are’ helps me keep track of faraway connections, often reminding me to hit up an old friend or scheme another couchsurfing trip.

availability is key.

no matter how good a hangout or one-off experience can be, if you can’t make it a regular engagement, you also can’t rely on it for long-term fulfillment. this applies to both people — it takes two to tango, after all — and activities. you can find low-cost ways to have fun even on a limited budget; some of these favorite activities include board game nights, bike rides, classical music concerts, fruit picking, tennis outside, and affordable community events & university resources like the brown design workshop. it will take some proactiveness, but with time, you’ll also begin to understand the different ways different people are available — some want to set a date weeks in advance, while others can only decide if they’re ‘in the right mood’ with a day’s notice. some might remain hobby friends; yet others might grow into multi-dimensional friends because they’re easy to engage in random fun activities. wherever your interests lie, lean into who & what’s available.

decouple materialism with happiness and prioritize personal growth.

having a financial safety net is crucial for our physical and psychological well-being. however, i want to believe that after reaching a certain baseline of financial stability, i can craft a life in which my capacity for fulfillment is independent of how much money i have. that baseline is something i’m still trying to figure out, but one thing i know is that i want to avoid falling into the rat race of consumerism and instead spend my limited resources on hobbies and experiences, which i’ve found best for gaining new perspectives, developing my crafts, and growing authentically as a person.

tip #3: embrace change — both in your surroundings and yourself.

our twenties are a time of change. this can bring many days of loneliness, dissatisfaction, and restlessness, but it’s good to remind ourselves that these are often things we forget are normal in our twenties. moving far away from my home and family in hungary after high school has meant detaching from everything i’ve known and exploring what the u.s. has to offer. although it’s scary to feel so untethered sometimes, i intend to make the most of this unique time in life when my parents are still healthy and i only need to be responsible for myself.

take things at your own pace.

many peers are beginning to settle into ‘the rest of their lives;’ paths with a clear line of sight to their definition of success: topping their performance reviews and securing that next promotion; getting pets, engaged, and married; putting together a down payment and spending the next ten years paying off their mortgage. while prioritizing this kind of stability is valid and attractive, i feel like it’s not the right time for me yet; i still have so much to see, experience, and figure out about myself. so, whether that means picking up and leaving behind different hobbies, moving to a new place, or embracing the ebbs and flows of others going through their own transformations, i’m full-sending this phase of self-discovery.

although moving at a different pace or in a different direction than those around us can feel isolating, i believe in the chinese notion of 缘分 (yuán fèn) — that important people have a way of making their way back into our lives, as long as we open ourselves up to it.

conclusion: carpe diem

i refuse to settle for a life marked by complacency, or a job that eats up my entire day and leaves me sapped of energy to show up for myself and those around me. for now, i don’t want to rush into committing to a boilerplate narrative i don’t fully believe in, especially if it will put everything else on hold until ‘after i retire’ — in fact, i hope i never have to retire because i eventually find work that doesn’t feel like work. maybe this eagerness for more will sizzle out one day, once i find what’s right for me, but until then, i want to make each day count, to explore all that the world has to offer, to dive into everything with passion and self-compassion, and, perhaps most importantly, to enjoy the ride with those i meet along the way.

now, i’d like to ask you: what are you doing today to build the life you want?

as always, thanks for reading:)

- jay

my newsletter will always be paywall-free. if you enjoyed this piece and would like to show your support via monetary means, here’s the link to buy me a coffee:) every like, subscribe, and coffee means a lot, so thank you!

how to do everything you want in your twenties

2026-06-13T00:00:00.000Z

Top 3 Quotes

\“you can do everything you want in your twenties — you just can’t do it all at once.\”
\“the secret isn’t balance. it’s seasons.\”
\“your twenties aren’t about having it all figured out. they’re about trying things on, seeing what fits, and learning to let go of what doesn’t.\“

3 Sentence Summary

the post argues that twentysomethings can pursue multiple passions and goals by organizing their lives into focused \“seasons\” rather than trying to balance everything simultaneously. each season (typically 3-6 months) is dedicated to one primary focus while other areas are maintained on autopilot. this approach allows for depth, prevents burnout, and creates a more fulfilling decade than traditional multitasking or the pressure to \“do it all.\“

Crucial Points

What are the crucial points in this article or video that make it iconic, ideas I want to remember for the rest of my life?

seasons over balance: structure your life in focused periods dedicated to one priority at a time rather than attempting to juggle everything simultaneously.
depth beats breadth: going deep on one thing for a sustained period creates more meaningful progress and satisfaction than spreading yourself thin across many pursuits.
permission to be unbalanced: you don’t need to excel in every area of life at once; intentional imbalance during specific seasons is a feature, not a failure.

Creator’s Purpose

the creator’s core message is that twentysomethings should abandon the myth of \“having it all at once\” and instead embrace a seasonal approach to life — focusing deeply on one priority at a time in 3-6 month cycles — to actually accomplish everything they want without burnout.

Content

Concepts

seasons framework: organizing life into 3-6 month focused periods, each with one primary goal
autopilot maintenance: keeping non-priority areas on minimal maintenance mode during seasons
intentional imbalance: deliberately choosing to be \“unbalanced\” in service of deeper progress
the myth of balance: challenging the conventional wisdom that you must balance all life areas simultaneously

Practices

define your season: choose one primary focus area for the next 3-6 months
set clear boundaries: decide what goes on autopilot and what gets your full attention
plan season transitions: map out which priorities will take center stage in upcoming seasons
maintain vs. optimize: keep non-priority areas functional but don’t try to improve them during off-seasons
reflect and rotate: at the end of each season, evaluate and choose your next focus area

Personal Revelations

How was this video or article relevant to my current life? Did it answer a specific question, enlighten me on a topic, etc.

The seasons framework lands differently when you map it to the actual project list: seeksophie is the day job (that’s the season by default), but on top of that I’m trying to run ryeones content, fomties, soffcopy, iht watchmaking edits, and 2026 japan trip planning simultaneously. None of them are moving at the pace they should. The “you just can’t do it all at once” line isn’t motivational — it’s diagnostic. The Substack by Jay fills in what the video leaves open: the pyramid (habits → interests → hobbies → experiences) means habits stay constant across seasons; it’s only the creative projects that need to rotate. So the real question isn’t which project to pursue — it’s which one gets this season’s primary creative energy, with everything else on explicit autopilot. The video also lands close to home because the premise of fomties — “figuring out my twenties” — lives inside this framework. The content is already here.

Video Logs (timestamp)

seasons vs current project list — seeksophie, ryeones, fomties, soffcopy, iht watchmaking, 2026 japan trip all active simultaneously; this is exactly the “can’t do it all at once” the video diagnoses
autopilot maintenance — the question isn’t whether to deprioritise some projects, it’s which ones go to minimal maintenance and which one gets full attention; right now none are getting full attention
depth beats breadth — the iht watchmaking bali edit that finished in one focused session vs the seeksophie reviews lagging 4+ days; depth is already the working model, it just needs to be applied deliberately as a seasonal choice
“your twenties aren’t about having it all figured out — they’re about trying things on” — maps directly to the 2026-06-02 conversation: the framework is done, the season to try it is now

Thoughts

The uncomfortable part of the seasons model is that it requires explicitly naming what’s on autopilot — which means admitting you’re not working on it this season. That’s hard when everything feels urgent. The Bartleby dynamic from the lindsiann – the paradox of being ambitious but lazy note applies here: if the weekly review has been flagged for 7+ consecutive days across multiple systems, maybe it’s just not the right season for it. The seasons model doesn’t fix that — it just makes the choice conscious. What the Jay Substack adds is the habit foundation: sleep, food, exercise stay constant regardless of which creative season you’re in. That removes the excuse of “I can’t focus on one thing without the rest falling apart.” The rest doesn’t fall apart; it goes to maintenance mode. The real work is deciding which project gets the season and holding the line on autopilot for everything else.

Review

The video and the Jay Substack are better together — the video gives the emotional permission (you don’t have to do it all at once), the Substack gives the structural foundation (pyramid of lifestyle, habits as the constant layer). Neither alone is as complete. The quotes carry. ★★★★☆

Future Plans

Questions

how do you decide which season to prioritize first when multiple areas feel equally urgent?
what does \“autopilot\” actually look like for different life areas (relationships, health, career, creativity)?
how do you handle unexpected life events that disrupt your planned seasons?
can this seasonal approach work for people with caregiving responsibilities or less flexible circumstances?
how many seasons can you realistically fit into your twenties, and does the approach work beyond that decade?
what’s the minimum viable maintenance for each life area to prevent complete deterioration during off-seasons?

Book Implementation

Habits

at the start of each season (every 3 months): name the one primary creative focus and explicitly write what goes on autopilot
when feeling scattered across projects: check which season you declared and whether what you’re working on is the priority or just drift

Dailies

what season am I in right now, and what’s the primary focus?
did I work on the season’s priority today, or did I drift into something else?

To Dos

define the current season (jun–aug 2026): name the one primary creative focus out of ryeones, fomties, soffcopy — write it down explicitly
write a rough season map for the rest of 2026: which project gets which quarter?
apply autopilot to everything not in this season’s focus — no new Notion pages, no planning sessions, maintenance only

pasir ris

2026-06-12T00:00:00.000Z

Trips

Location

Places

Location

simei

2026-06-12T00:00:00.000Z

Trips

Location

Places

Location

haneda airport

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

Trips

Location

Places

Type

Notes

it's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be is a handbook of how to succeed in the world: a pocket bible for the talented and timid alike to help make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible.The world’s top advertising guru, Paul Arden, offers up his wisdom on issues as diverse as problem solving, responding to a brief, communicating, playing your cards right, making mistakes, and creativity – all endeavors that can be applied to aspects of modern life.This uplifting and humorous little book provides a unique insight into the world of advertising and is a quirky compilation of quotes, facts, pictures, wit and wisdom – all packed into easy-to-digest, bite-sized spreads. If you want to succeed in life or business, this book is a must.Show more

summary in 3 sentences

sentence one
sentence two
sentence three

ideas/concepts

anything i find interesting that can potentially be a topic to dig further

personal reflections and future takeaways

looking inwards, how did i fare? and how will i want to improve?

notes

these will be notes i write as i’m reading the book itself
it should follow the structure of the book by chapters for the most part, taking down bullet points or things i find useful

highlights

either by copying readwise or manually inputting

japan

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

Trips

Location

Places

Location

osaka

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

trips

Location

places

Location

notes

sushiro tiong bahru plaza

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

Trips

Location

Places

Type

Notes

thailand

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

Trips

Location

Places

Location

tokyo

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

trips

Location

places

Location

notes

berlín y la dama del armiño

2026-06-09T00:00:00.000Z

episodes

s1 episodes -.- average

videos1

trailer

[

trailer 1:38

](https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3139029785/?ref_=tt_vids_vi_1)[trailer](https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3139029785/?ref_=tt_vids_vi_t_1)

photos57

+ 51 top cast42

pedro alonso

berlín

• 2026

michelle jenner

keila

• 2026

tristán ulloa

damián vázquez

• 2026

begoña vargas

cameron

• 2026

julio peña

• 2026

joel sánchez

bruce

• 2026

marta nieto

genoveva dante

• 2026

inma cuesta

candela

• 2026

luis callejo

santos

• 2026

david novas

samuel

• 2026

federico aguado

captain

• 2026

alberto barahona

sailor

• 2026

lina marquez

• 2026

carlos bernardino

moisés

• 2026

edu román

jimmy

• 2026

user reviews91

7.06.5k1

[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=2&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_2)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=3&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_3)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=4&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_4)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=5&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_5)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=6&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_6)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=7&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_7)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=8&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_8)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=9&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_9)[

](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt42178219/reviews/?rating=10&ref_=tt_ururv_histo_10)

featured reviewsarthurm-35

slow moving love triangle drama

i loved the original money heist / la casa de papel. unfortunately, every release since then seems to move further away from what made the original great.

instead of suspense, strategy, clever planning, and high-stakes tension, berlin feels slow and overly dramatic - almost like a soap opera in the style of general hospital. if that kind of relationship-heavy drama is what you enjoy, you may like it.

but if you are looking for the thrill, pressure, twists, and tactical energy of the original series, this is probably not worth your time.mushahida-3

destroyed the legacy of the money heist

a romantic drama with a garnishing of heist,that love triangle scene was embarassing to watch, total disaster. we never needed a prequel on berlin, we wanted it in professor or professor and berlin combined that why professor chose royal mint over bank of spain how they met palermo and how he met berlin and tokyo.junise-3

slow teenage love drama

i’ve been looking forward to a new series of *berlin* for ages, as i’m a fan of the *money heist* franchise.

however, this has nothing to do with the thrilling heists anymore, 80% if not more, is just bad romantic drama, like something between teenagers.

couples forgiving repeated infidelity, love triangles and so on.

the thrilling dynamic between hunter and hunted is completely missing. there’s absolutely no tension during the heist.

i’m only watching it because i’ve already got to episode 6 and now want to know how it ends. otherwise, it’s really bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.madao69

the finale saved it

well i gotta say i love the artistic nature of berlin and his combination of narcistic and romantic nature. loved the first season of it.

but in the second season they somewhat tried to touch the uncharted character of berlin and unfortunately they were unable to keep up with that and thus making the show dreadful.

however this is one of the shows which combine the artistic nature and madness of love and so i would love to watch more of it.

unexpectedly last episode made this better and i am happy for them.

folks just give this show some more chances without any bias, i am sure they would make this show better. also dont forget to watch it.szkpph

too much drama

honestly i expected way more from berlin. the show looked good and berlin is still a fun character to watch, but it felt like 80% romance drama and only 20% actual heist. i was waiting for the smart planning, tension, and twists like in money heist, but most of the time it was just relationship problems and flirting.

the cinematography and soundtrack were great, and some scenes were entertaining, but the pacing felt slow because of all the love story stuff. not terrible, just disappointing compared to what i expected from a heist series.

6/10.

the art of becoming

2026-06-08T00:00:00.000Z

there’s a meme that goes around the internet every few months: “ i love asking kids what they want to be when they grow up, because i’m still looking for ideas.”

it always goes viral. people quote it, screenshot it, and send it to the group chat. and every time it surfaces, i think the same thing: this is one of those memes that works because it’s not really a joke. it’s a confession covered up as a punchline. we laugh at it because laughing is easier than admitting we assumed the question had an expiration date, but it didn’t.

at some point, everyone has been asked: “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

this is a question meant for children. the idea is that there’s a moment — in our 20s, maybe — when we find a definitive answer for it, the answer will stick, and we’d be set. and you become an adult in society when you can answer this question quickly and concisely in a word that everyone will understand. i’m a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher…

but the meme is funny because we all know this is no longer true, at least not for most.

when i was around 12 yo, i had it clear, i wanted to become an architect. i could barely define what they did, so i asked around, googled it, and started researching books and magazines until the identity became clear.

don’t think it was that easy. i wasn’t a good student at all, especially if we talk about maths. but somewhere between denial and determination, made me keep persuading this path. until at 18, it became a reality, i entered architecture school almost by miracle, but when i did, it was like arriving in heaven. all conversations about creativity, design, and architecture. it was so unreal, i obsessed about it, it was my place until it wasn’t.

i had spent years building an identity around becoming an architect — the way i talked about buildings, the books i read, the way i dressed, the kind of person i became working at three in the morning. architecture wasn’t something i was studying. it was who i was. and then one day it wasn’t, and i had to sit with the fact that i had no idea who i was without it.

what followed was the kind of identity crisis that doesn’t have a clean name. not depression exactly, not a quarter-life cliché, just a long, quiet period of not knowing how to answer the most basic question anyone could ask me at a dinner. so what do you do? i had been so good at being an architect-in-training that i’d never noticed i was answering the wrong question my whole life.

because here’s what dropping out taught me.

i hadn’t lost my identity. i’d lost the answer to that question; society pressures you into defining. and the tag (architect, lawyer, doctor…) had been doing all the work of pretending to be an identity, which is why losing it felt like losing myself in the trade. if you build yourself on a tag, you are exactly as durable as that tag. when it vanishes, you disappear with it.

i notice this same trap everywhere now, at every stage of life.

the 17 year-old being asked to choose a degree before they have explored all the options, while everyone around acts like this is a normal thing to know for a person who has not yet lived alone or held a full-time job or, really, in any meaningful sense, met themselves.

the 28-year-old with adhd who has been called scattered their whole life, who has started and abandoned more projects than they can count, who is finally beginning to wonder if the problem was never their inconsistency but the fact that no single tag was ever going to define them. it doesn’t need a career. it needs a different question.

the 52 year-old who built a 25 year career inside one company, one industry, one version of himself, and just got walked out of the building with a severance package. he is not having a midlife crisis. he is discovering, late, that he was never the job. the job was the costume. and now the costume is gone, and he has to figure out what’s underneath it for the first time in his adult life.

different people. same unanswered question*.* same trap.

the trap is this: what do you want to be is a question about circumstance.

it depends on the economy, on your abilities, on luck, on timing, on whether the industry you’ve poured yourself into still exists in 10 years. it is a brittle question to build a life on, because everything it depends on is outside you.

who do you want to become is a different question entirely.

it is about the kind of person you are practicing being. the values you are sharpening. the way you treat the people in front of you. the standards you hold yourself to when no one is watching. the texture of your attention, your taste, your judgment. none of this is circumstantial. none of it can be made redundant by a layoff, a market shift, or a dropout.

the what will change for all of us, more times than we expect.

the who is the only thing you actually get to keep.

this is the reframe that pulled me out of the crisis after architecture, though i didn’t have the language for it then. i stopped trying to find a new what to replace the old one. i started, slowly and badly, to pay attention to who i was becoming through the things i chose to do. the work i took on stopped being about a title and started being about whether it was sharpening or dulling the person i wanted to be.

i don’t think this is a clever idea. i think it’s an obvious one that almost no one is taught. we are taught to answer the kid’s question, and then we are mocked for still not having an answer at 40. no one tells us the question was wrong.

this space is about the other question.

not about finding your purpose, or your passion, or any of the other words that have been worn smooth by self-help. about the slower, less glamorous work of paying attention to who you are becoming, and getting better at choosing it on purpose.

the art of becoming — because it is an art, with curation and taste and practice, not a formula you complete once and file away.

i have been working on this for myself for about six years. i don’t have it figured out. that’s part of why i’m writing — because the work doesn’t end, and writing through it is how i think.

if you are still looking for ideas about what you want to be when you grow up, i’d gently suggest you might be answering the wrong question. the one underneath it is harder, and better, and the one i’ll be writing about here.

i’m glad you’re here.

herman miller sayl chair

2026-06-07T00:00:00.000Z

herman miller sayl has innovative 3d intelligent suspension for full support & y-tower structure for spine alignment, free delivery in singapore. shop today!

i've lived more in my head than i've lived in real life

2026-06-07T00:00:00.000Z

Top 3 Quotes

“you convince yourself that you’re preparing when you’re actually avoiding” — the most honest description of what overthinking actually is
“clarity doesn’t come from thinking. it actually comes from doing” — the exit from living in your head is action, not more reflection
“feeling like time has passed but nothing has really happened” — the hidden cost of a life lived primarily in simulation

3 Sentence Summary

the creator reflects on a lifelong pattern of living more in his head than in reality — running full mental simulations of success, replaying past conversations, and practising ones that will never happen, all of which produce fake dopamine without real-world results. the hidden cost is that real confidence never builds because it requires real feedback, and time passes while actual life stays unlived. the turning point is recognising that clarity comes from doing, not thinking, and redirecting visualisation energy toward actualisation rather than simulation.

Crucial Points

living in your head is a trap because it gives you the feeling of progress without the substance — fake dopamine, no real feedback, confidence stays low
overthinking becomes an identity and then an excuse — once you label yourself an overthinker, it gives you permission to keep avoiding action
real life will always be messier than your thoughts — and accepting that messiness is the only way to actually live it

Creator’s Purpose

the creator wants to name something many people feel but rarely say out loud — that imagined life can quietly replace real life — and to push himself and the audience toward treating action as the only real source of clarity and growth.

Content

Concepts

mental simulation vs real life — running full internal scenarios that produce dopamine without external action
fake dopamine — the emotional reward from imagined success that substitutes for real achievement
overthinking as identity and excuse — self-labelling that justifies continued avoidance
clarity through doing, not thinking — action as the only reliable source of real feedback and confidence
the hidden cost of living in your head — missed opportunities, low real-world confidence, life feeling dull

Practices

notice when you are preparing vs avoiding — the feeling is the same but the outcome is different
redirect visualisation from passive simulation toward active manifestation — use the mental energy to move toward the thing, not replace it
accept that real life will be messier than your thoughts and embrace it rather than retreating back into your head
take action before clarity arrives — clarity is the result of doing, not the precondition for it

Personal Revelations

How was this video or article relevant to my current life? Did it answer a specific question, enlighten me on a topic, etc.

this video landed in the same week as lindsiann – the paradox of being ambitious but lazy, and they’re saying the same thing from different angles. “you convince yourself you’re preparing when you’re actually avoiding” is the most accurate description of how fomties and soffcopy have been sitting for months — fully simulated in my head, underdeveloped in reality. the fake dopamine point is the clarifying one: the reason it’s so hard to act is that the imagination already gave me the reward. the clarity-through-doing principle is the one i keep intellectually agreeing with and not applying.

Video Logs (timestamp)

mental simulation as fake dopamine — running full success scenarios in your head produces the same emotional reward as the real thing, without the real feedback; confidence stays low because the rep was never real
identifying as an overthinker becomes the excuse — once the label sticks, avoidance gets reframed as personality rather than choice
clarity from doing, not thinking — the therapy critique (all analysis, no action) applies equally to journalling and goal-setting loops; reflection without a decision produces more rumination, not more resolution
“you convince yourself you’re preparing when you’re actually avoiding” — this is the Bartleby principle stated more directly; the feeling of preparation and avoidance are identical from the inside
“feeling like time has passed but nothing has really happened” — the hidden cost that surfaces when you look back and notice how little was attempted vs imagined

Thoughts

the convergence with lindsiann – the paradox of being ambitious but lazy is interesting — both land on the same exit: action before clarity, not clarity before action. jett’s critique of therapy (you analyse without acting, so you stay inside the problem) is useful for thinking about how i use the vault sometimes — deep notes about a situation, no actual movement on it. the visualisation-to-manifestation pivot he describes isn’t mystical; it’s just redirecting the same mental energy that builds simulations toward taking actual steps.

Review

short, personal, and honest — more confessional than instructional, which works because the insight is simple enough that a long framework isn’t needed. the “sounds almost schizophrenic” self-awareness moment earns the whole thing. ★★★★☆

Future Plans

Questions

where right now am i “preparing” when i’m actually avoiding — specifically, which fomties, seeksophie, or ryeones task has been mentally simulated the most without a single real-world step?
“real confidence comes from real feedback” — which one thing, if posted or shipped this week, would generate actual feedback rather than more planning?
“feeling like time has passed but nothing has really happened” — looking at the last 30 days, where is this feeling most accurate?
can the visualisation energy around fomties be redirected toward actualization — what does the manifestation version look like as a concrete next step?
the therapy critique applies to some vault journalling loops too — which reflections have been circling without producing a decision or action?

Book Implementation

Habits

when you catch yourself running a mental simulation of a future success: name one real step toward that outcome and take it within 24 hours — the simulation is only useful if it produces a concrete move

Dailies

was there anything today that stayed in my head when it could have been real?

To Dos

identify the one thing most “lived in your head” right now — something fully simulated but never attempted — and take one concrete real-world step toward it this week
apply clarity-through-doing to fomties: instead of planning the format, record one test clip and let the 20% reveal itself in the shoot
notice which vault reflection loops are circling without a decision — name one and make a call on it before end of week

the best draft guide ever

2026-06-06T00:00:00.000Z

Top 3 Quotes

“just knowing how to draft can take your win rate from 50% all the way up to 90 or 95” — draft is the single highest-leverage skill in the game
“50% of people mess up draft by only looking at their brawler or the other team’s brawlers — you’re not looking at the bigger picture” — team composition context beats individual matchup thinking every time
“the meta is always changing, but the thesis and the core of draft remains the same” — learn principles, not brawlers

3 Sentence Summary

bobby breaks down competitive brawl stars drafting into five steps: understanding the seven brawler classes and their draft roles, applying those classes correctly to each game mode, staying current on the meta, recovering from bad teammate picks, and practising with live draft scenarios. the central insight is that most players think about draft as individual matchups when it’s actually about team-level composition — specifically, always having an anti-tank, knowing when to pick space makers, and using last pick to counter the opponent’s weaknesses. the video is built around principles that stay consistent regardless of which brawlers are meta, so the knowledge compounds over time even as balance changes.

Crucial Points

anti-tank is the foundation of every draft — you cannot win without one, and the best anti-tank available is almost always the correct first pick in objective modes
space makers are the gap between casual and pro play — understanding which brawlers create space and when to pick them is the single biggest skill separator
look at the team, not just your brawler — the most common drafting mistake is optimising your individual pick without accounting for what your teammates already cover

Creator’s Purpose

bobby wants to give players the actual mental framework that pros use to draft — not brawler-specific tips that expire with the next balance patch, but the underlying class logic and mode theory that makes good drafting decisions consistent and learnable.

Content

Concepts

seven brawler classes in draft: throwers, space makers (assassins), anti-tanks, control, snipers, tanks, support
two meta types: aggro meta (brawl ball, gem grab, hot zone, heist) and passive meta (bounty, knockout)
first pick principle: best available anti-tank almost always in objective modes
space makers as the key class separating casual from pro play
“getting ran down” — drafting a brawler with too little damage so the enemy just runs at you
bluestar brawlers in bounty — high-risk picks designed to force the enemy to push into you
last pick principle — always counter the opponent’s weakness or the map’s unthreatened class
the bigger picture rule — never draft based only on your brawler’s matchups, always consider the full comp

Practices

always first pick the best available anti-tank in objective modes
never pick a thrower unless it’s last pick or you have protection for it
in the 2-3 slot, take the next best anti-tank or a strong mode-specific brawler
in the 4-5 slot, take a space maker if the enemy has no counter, or a tank if they have space makers
use last pick to counter whatever the enemy team is weakest against
if a teammate drafts badly, don’t compound the mistake — find the brawler that balances the comp, not the one that doubles down on the same weakness
watch pro tier lists and balance change videos regularly to stay current on the meta
practise draft scenarios actively rather than just playing — pattern recognition is the skill

Personal Revelations

How was this video or article relevant to my current life? Did it answer a specific question, enlighten me on a topic, etc.

saved this as the definitive ranked play reference. the seven-class framework (throwers, space makers, anti-tanks, control, snipers, tanks, support) is the kind of structured mental model that transfers to better play rather than being another tier list that expires next patch. the broader principle — “the meta changes, the thesis doesn’t” — is the same argument that applies to content creation: algorithms change constantly, but the underlying mechanics of hooks, curiosity gaps, and value delivery are stable. knowing the framework beats memorising the current meta.

Video Logs (timestamp)

seven brawler classes — the structural vocabulary that makes good draft decisions consistent regardless of which brawlers are meta; learn this once, it compounds
anti-tank as the foundation — in objective modes, always first pick; the team without an anti-tank loses the fundamental contest regardless of individual skill level
space makers as the key separator — understanding when to pick space-creating brawlers is the single biggest gap between casual and competitive play
last pick as counter-pick — the final slot should counter the opponent’s unaddressed weakness, not optimise your own strongest pick in isolation
“stop only looking at your brawler” — the most common drafting mistake; team composition thinking beats individual matchup optimisation every time

Thoughts

the framework-over-meta-knowledge argument is the most transferable insight. bobby built this guide to outlast balance patches by teaching principles, not brawlers. the content parallel is real: a creator who understands why hooks work will still be relevant when the algorithm changes, whereas someone who learnt the current TikTok trend is expired by next month. the draft cheat sheet embedded in the note is worth keeping visible during ranked sessions.

Review

genuinely the most comprehensive draft guide in the Brawl Stars space — structured around principles that compound rather than tips that expire. the two weeks of production work shows in the depth. ★★★★★

Future Plans

Questions

in the next ranked session, am i applying the anti-tank-first-pick principle in objective modes, or defaulting to comfort picks?
what’s the seeksophie or ryeones equivalent of the anti-tank — the foundational content type that the rest of the calendar needs to be built around?
how quickly do the specific brawler recommendations expire vs the class framework — worth revisiting the meta section monthly?

Book Implementation

Habits

N/A — gaming-specific; apply the seven-class framework during ranked draft, not as a daily habit

Dailies

N/A — gaming-specific

To Dos

apply the first-pick anti-tank principle in the next 5 ranked sessions in objective modes and track win rate
during each draft, consciously identify which class is missing from the team before last pick — counter it, don’t double down on what you already have
save the draft cheat sheet image somewhere accessible for quick reference before ranked sessions

AI OS Full Setup Guide

2026-06-05T00:00:00.000Z

Welcome! Let’s build your AI Operating System.

Hey there,

Use this guide to get your AI operating system up and running.

By the end of this, you should be able to get your your AI tool connected in a future-proof way.

That means you’re not locked in, that it knows you and how to build skills to support you.

Good luck and stay connected! - Nick Milo

P.S. Want to shortcut this entire process and setup your AI system right away?

GET THE FULL LINKING YOUR AI COURSE HERE >>

Rewatch the Full Video

[

www.youtube.com

youtube/v=rRa9td4oe7k

](youtube/v=rRa9td4oe7k)

Revisit this video anytime for a quick overview. For the full setup guide, read on.

Section 1: Setting Up Obsidian (The Right Way)

[

www.youtube.com

youtube/v=z4AbijUCoKU

](youtube/v=z4AbijUCoKU)

Watch the video above for exact details on how to setup Obsidian so it’s ready to for you to make notes in and begin to use it with your AI tool.

Key Moments

[01:54] Creating a Vault & Linked Notes: This will get you up and running with your own Obsidian vault for your notes in no time.
[05:48] QUICK TIPS (do these ASAP): Be sure to change these settings immediately for some massive quality of life improvements as you work in Obsidian
[07:10] Most Common Mistakes (avoid these): These won’t just save you headache now, but it’ll also ensure you’re building this on the strongest foundation possible by avoiding these traps. Here’s my advice:
- Don’t import all your old notes
- Minimize plugins (at first)
- Don’t over-organize your space
- Don’t avoid hotkeys
[08:18] How to Make Notes Faster: The easier it is to work in Obsidian, the easier it is to work with your ideas, to use the AI OS skills and systems mentioned below, and to do your best thinking.
[10:06] How to Organize Obsidian (ACE): Whether it’s your own ideas or your AI OS skills and systems, you need to be able to find things.
- I use the ACE folder structure (Atlas, Calendar, Efforts) in my personal system, it’s really powerful (we use it in all of our Ideaverse vaults and the Linking Your AI Starter Vault) and you can use it as well by following this section.
- But whether you have some folders already or you’re building out a few yourself, you’re also welcome to personalize your folders to how you think and work. Just don’t create too much structure early on (as noted above in the common mistakes).
[12:21] Every Note Format in Obsidian: Obsidian can handle more than just plaintext. In this section, I run through what’s possible with adding images, audio, and more to your notes. When it comes to working with ideas, it’s opens all kinds of possibilities.

After you complete these steps, you’ll be ready to move on to the next step below.

Section 2: Setting Up Claude Cowork (The Right Way)

[

youtu.be

https://youtu.be/s3ccD6m6WKc

](https://youtu.be/s3ccD6m6WKc)

Watch the video above for exact details on how to setup Claude Cowork so it’s ready to use with Obsidian. [Add other details]

Key Moments

[00:32] Set up Cowork: The tools will change over time (remember when we only had ChatGPT via browser?), but this is still a great guide to get Claude Cowork up and running.
[01:26] Cowork for Organizing: See a quick example of how I sent Cowork to a folder of screenshots and have the AI tool propose a method for sorting them. In cases like these, it’s often better to hear the approach rather than having it execute it immediately.
[02:49] TIP: Get Better Results: The first suggestions are actually pretty broad guesses. It’s missing context. It doesn’t know me. See how to get better responses by getting Claude better context: in this case, access to my vault folder and asking it to review my actual notes.
[04:25] The About Me Brief: This is a quick way to start your me.md file. Help your AI tool gain even more context by building a personal dossier of your goals, values, ideas, and recurring themes so it can be an even stronger assistant. We’ll show a few additional considerations lower in the guide, but this is a great foundation.
[07:36] Create a Skill: This shows you how an individual skill works in Claude Cowork. At the time, I placed it in the Claude app, but we now recommend creating these as individual markdown files stored in your vault to avoid tool lock-in. I share more about this lower in the guide.
[09:10] Cowork for Writing: See how Cowork can support research and writing as it builds out notes within Obsidian. In this example, I use it to:
- Identify common themes
- Surface contradictions
- Pull out useful starting points

However, the whole time, while AI surfaces these ideas and sticking points, I’m the one who resolves them and will dig in for myself.

[14:33] Weekly Review in Obsidian: Watch as I point Cowork at my recent notes and active projects to have my AI tool create a holistic briefing on what matters, where I’m at, and what I might be forgetting. This is a great example of a useful skill that can support personal reflection and practical alignment with your goals. No coding needed, I just asked the AI tool in plain English and can adjust and tailor it further the same way.

By the time you finish this, you’re ready to move to the next step…

Section 3: Setting Up Your Maps

If you don’t have it already, we recommend creating an AIOS folder at the top level of your vault. This is where your AI tool can work out of. Along with those, let’s create a few key maps.

Me.md

The me.md file ensures that your AI tool understands you and how to work with you. This means your AI tool will have fuller context when working with you so you don’t have to keep re-explaining things.

This is such a critical file that it actually replaces my CLAUDE.md file entirely. Here’s what my CLAUDE.md file looks like: The biggest benefit of this approach is that nothing is locked into Claude or any other AI tool. If I want to switch to Codex or a different tool tomorrow (as long as it has folder access), I just point it to my me.md file and it’s ready to go.

Now more than ever, AI companies are trying to lock us into their systems and make it harder and harder to switch. Your AI OS folder is the drawbridge that gets you around their moat.

Below is the temporary me.md file that we include in our Linking Your AI Starter Vault: Initially, it mainly points out to the core three documents that the AI tool needs to navigate in the AI operating system.

If you have Linking Your AI

From here, the user can then run the AI OS Autobuilder System and it will begin to prompt the user with questions to further personalize it and help ensure your AI tool can work effectively as an assistant and more.

If you’re building this for yourself

We recommend at least having few key sections in your me.md file:

Links to the three core notes: Adding links and brief explanations of what the me.md, Vault Map, and Skill Map are ensures that your AI is always pointed in the right direction.
My Summary Statement: This is an AI distillation of who the user is. Ours is generated by a vault scan from the AI tool, but this can also be written yourself if needed.
My Working Preferences: This is the user’s daily working contract with their AI. Things like how to be addressed, tone, response length, and important rules can be noted here.
- I recommend adding thing rules such as ensuring AI asks before taking external actions, telling it to only create new notes in the AIOS folders, not allowing AI to rewrite the user inside notes, and any other non-negotiables you might have when working with AI tools.
The video above has a great demonstration in building an About Me brief.

Vault Map

The Vault Map answers a specific question: how should AI move through your notes? Think of it as your vault’s table of contents and manual.

Again, this is all about increasing the context that your AI tool has. It means you’ll be re-explaining less and increasing the speed at which it’s working within your notes.

It knows where your notes and ideas are located, it knows where it should be adding AI-generated notes from any skills you run (again, ensuring that they’re not intermixed with your own personal notes), and more.

You can see part of my Vault Map here: This is a great foundation, but you can take it even further. I have a section in mine explaining how to create notes properly, what note templates to use and when, where to place files by default, and more.

One of the big benefit of today’s AI tools is that you don’t need to code any of this or any of my AIOS files. I just add sections in plain English and it’s not just useful for the AI tool, it means I can go back later and personalize it even further.

This should get you on the right track, if you want exact details on my setup, check out Linking Your AI.

Skill Map

The Skill Map gives very clear instructions about what skills exist for AI, what they do, and exactly when AI should use them.

Again, and I want to emphasize this, keep your skills here****–in your notes. Not in Claude’s application, not in any other AI tool.

It might be more convenient initially to use their tool, but it makes it that much harder to switch tools later.

I use Claude to create these skills, I just ensure they’re created as markdown files in my vault rather than in Claude’s own ecosystem.

The Skill Map ensures that your AI tool, in my case, Claude Cowork, understands all of the skills and systems available to it and when to trigger them.

The Skill Map is also a great resource for you to zoom out and take a look at a full list of all of your current skills. Reflect on how your AI tool is supporting you and where you might want to explore creating a new skill or system.

In Linking Your AI, I’ve combined a few skills into a larger system that leverages several of them in larger workflows. Whether you’re managing individual skills or whole systems, the Skill Map is a great resource to manage them. You can see some of our LYAI Starter Vault’s Skill Map below: Note that while I didn’t screenshot additional skils and systems, that’s because I have all of them listed lower in this guide. ⬇️

When building your own skills, here are a few more tips:

Ensure each skill is its own note: that way you can easily point your AI tool to it.
In that note, spell out the purpose: what does the skill do, in one sentence?
Note triggers such as a phrase to invoke it in your AI tool.
Note dependencies it uses such as MCP, APIs, or tools.
Want some inspiration? Take a look at my list of systems and skills below.

Linking Your AI is a practical system to help you build your own AI assistant. Join now to create an assistant that understands your notes, supports your thinking, and saves you time. While LYAI instantly gives you 23 robust skills & 8 fully-functional systems, we also walk you through what makes a skill useful, help you personalize the existing ones, and guide you to build your own.

Linking Your AI

Take the power back from the tech lords.

Own your AI assistant.

Download the system. Follow the lessons. Build your powerful and personal Al assistant.

GET THE FULL LINKING YOUR AI COURSE HERE

“I wanted to use AI inside Obsidian and didn’t know how to set-up skills or give info to AI in a scalable and future-proof way.

This course taught me that workflow and also came with all the Skills and Systems already built in and proved, so it was just the thing I needed. I love it!”
- Jamie

Section 4: The Skills & Systems That Power My AI OS

I’ve shared some advice on building your own skills. I want to share a bit more about mine for some further inspiration. These are all of the skills and systems that support me today. You can see the individual skills listed below each system.

All of them are located within my AI OS folder which means should I ever decide to swap out Claude Cowork, I just need to take this Obsidian vault folder over to another AI tool and I’m ready to go. That’s the definition of future-proof!

🦾 AI OS Autobuilder System: Build your AI Assistant

me-builder: Builds the your personalized me.md file.
navigation-builder: Builds the 1st half of the Vault Map so that your AI can navigate your notes.
creation-builder: Builds the 2nd half of the Vault Map so that AI can create notes following your templates and standards.
skill-builder: The playbook your AI uses to create skills in a consistent format (and register them in the Skill Map).

🔱 Daily Trident System: Manage your day

daily-brief: Pulls in reference points (recently modified notes, active projects, emails, weather, etc) into one shared working doc between you and AI.
daily-log: Auto-scans Cowork sessions and Ideaverse file changes, writes timestamped entries to today’s log.

🏔️ Sherpa System: Map out a topic of interest

sherpa: Asks you universal questions about a topic and then builds a starter MOC in your voice.
style-guide-MOC: A powerful reference guide for what a well-shaped MOC looks like. (Used by the sherpa skill.)

♻️ Weekly Review System: Review your week

weekly-review: Analyzes the previous weekly review-preview notes, the current week’s daily notes and briefs, and fills out its own weekly review-preview note.

💥 Rock Tumbler System: Get fast feedback on your work

rock-tumbler: A thinking partner for any creative endeavor. Asks what kind of feedback you need, surfaces blind spots and tensions, never writes your final product. Built on the IDI framework and K. Anders Ericsson’s fast-feedback principle.
style-guide-writing-AI: AI trope blacklist — reference to avoid AI-flavored language in outputs.
style-guide-writing-me: the lightweight style guide version for LYAI students.

と Chronicler System: Save conversations

verbatim: Save an AI conversation word-for-word to a note (often a new note, but works for existing notes too)
summarizer: Summarize a conversation, meeting note, or transcript into a fixed structure (Summary, Takeaways, Topics, Next Steps, Transcript).
quick-append: Quickly append a chunk of an AI conversation to a note (defaults to the daily note, unless given a different note).

🧹 Janitor System: Maintain your notes & AI assistant

cascade: Propagate a *name change* across body text, frontmatter, paths, and scheduled tasks. Skips history files.
harmonize: Propagate a *convention change* across notes that have shared conventions (rules, formatting, headings, labels, structures).

navigation-janitor: The other side of `navigation-builder`. Audits the first half of the Vault Map and ensures all text, notes, links, and instructions are in alignment.
creation-janitor: The other side of `creation-builder`. Audits the second half of the Vault Map and ensures all text, notes, links, and instructions are in alignment.
skills-janitor: Audits your skill files against the schema defined by skill-builder. Fixes drift.

sanitize: Duplicate a note and produce a shareable version with personal details abbreviated, flagged, or removed.
collator: Reads a note, finds every wiki-link in it, and appends summaries of each linked note—resulting in a self-contained file for sharing that makes sense to others who don’t have access to the original vault.
courier: Duplicates a note from the user’s Ideaverse to another ideaverse (e.g., a team vault) for sharing.

Again, all of these skills and systems are included in Linking Your AI and the skill-builder skill makes it easy to start creating your own easily as well.

Linking Your AI

Take the power back from the tech lords.

Own your AI assistant.

Download the system. Follow the lessons.

Build your powerful, personal, and future-proof Al assistant.

GET THE FULL LINKING YOUR AI COURSE HERE

“I found the course to be very practical with some super pre-made work done for me that I only needed to tweak into my own system and world…

…I am coming out with a tremendous executive assistant, so thank you very much!”
- Bryan Thompson

Where to go from here

Build Your Own

Review this guide anytime to revisit my structuring advice, best practices, inspiration, and more.

You will have built a future-proof system that integrates with today’s AI tools and beyond and you’ve got the skills to create your own skills that support your work.

Get Linking Your AI

You don’t have to go it alone. This is what I do (for work and for play), and I’ve been in the weeds for months dedicating an obscene amount of time to create what I think is the best on-ramp for people to build an AI assistant of their own.

Check out the page linked below. I’ve built not just the systems and structure, but lessons that guide you along the way.

You just have to follow three easy steps…

Get a fully-functional AI operating system. Instantly save several months of your time and energy with a stress-tested and proven system.
Learn how to use it. You don’t have to go it alone. We guide you forward—making sure you learn the systems by using the systems.
Make it your own. Create your own skills, systems, and customize your AI assistant to meet your personal needs.

Linking Your AI

Take the power back from the tech lords. Own your AI assistant.

Download the system.

Follow the lessons.

Build your powerful, personal, and future-proof Al assistant.

GET THE FULL LINKING YOUR AI COURSE HERE

“I wasn’t sure where to start - ‘How do I link these things together? How do I get content from here to there? How do I capture what I’m working on?’

Well, now I know! You automated the hard stuff so that I can focus on bringing my best brain to the thoughts and tasks I want to engage with.”
- Katherine Ogilvie

Want a Sneak Preview?

The first two Linking Your AI lessons are available here for free!

These are two introductory videos–they are not the juicy, in-depth walkthrough videos–but you’ll still get a vibe and a quality overview.

Check out the style, guidance, and nuance in the course.

Most people new to us are surprised at high the level of quality.

If you like what you see, here’s what Lesson 1 looks like in the actual course. In the course, it’s not just a video pasted into a lesson. You get text, takeaways, and next actions. Plus, you can see many of the lessons on the right.

Like what you see? Join now.

Linking Your AI

Take the power back from the tech lords. Own your AI assistant. Download the system, follow the lessons, and build your powerful, personal, and future-proof Al assistant.

GET THE FULL LINKING YOUR AI COURSE HERE

“I feel much more confident in how I use and structure AI.

Before I was throwing things at it, experimenting and seeing what happens which was sort of useful but nothing hugely exciting.”
- Kelly Bloomfield

What Additional Linking Your AI Owners are Saying

“It has 100% reignited my passion to continue building out my PKM/second brain vault in Obsidian…

I’m very passionate about keeping my knowledge safe and somewhat detached from big tech, so this approach is exactly what I need.”
- Carlee Potter

“A positive outcome I had using LYAI was, that my research project developed much faster and got enriched by a lot.

Some boring (administrative) work was lifted off my shoulders. That allows me to have more time to think more deeply.”
- Alexander

“I have created skills I have been wanting to create for a long time and these skills are now fully integrated into my Obsidian vault. Doing this was quick and easy…

All together this class has been extremely empowering.

I feel I now have the freedom and tools to do amazing work.”
- Tom

GET LINKING YOUR AI TODAY

i wish i was a kid again

2026-06-05T00:00:00.000Z

on my sixth birthday, i remember throwing a tantrum because i was no longer five. i think i understood the impending pains of adulthood very clearly from a young age, although i really only have the words for it now at twenty-five.

lately, i’ve become acutely aware of the deeply unglamorous logistics of being alive and being an adult — changing my address, transferring utilities, writing taxes on a post-it note so i don’t forget to file by the end of the weekend. at any given moment i’m either surrounded by half-packed boxes or staring at a laptop trying to remember a password i created three minutes ago. there’s always some small administrative task blinking at me like the smoke detector in my apartment that needs a new battery.

i’m moving 3,000 miles away to new york city. i started a new job a few months ago. i’m trying to scale my creative work into something that resembles an actual life instead of a late-night hobby i apologize for having. all good things. all chosen things. all things i very much wanted.

and yet, somewhere between calling my bank for the third time and arguing with myself about how many sweatshirts a person is legally allowed to own, i had the most useless thought imaginable: i wish i was a kid again.

not necessarily in a sentimental way. or stemming from a desire for scraped-knees. i certainly don’t miss middle school or getting a slap on the wrist for incomplete homework. what i miss, i think, is the infrastructure of childhood.

as a kid, life simply occurred around you.

trips happened. holidays appeared. houses changed. you went places because someone told you to grab your shoes and get in the car. there was no visible labor attached to any of it. you never saw the planning, or the money, or the arguments over directions, or the quiet math your parents were doing at the kitchen table after you went to bed. you just materialized in new locations like a minor royal being transported between estates.

i keep thinking about long drives when i was little, how i would fall asleep, head against the window. i’d wake up and we were somewhere else entirely — a hotel with patterned carpet, a relative’s driveway, a beach town that smelled like sunscreen and fried food. it genuinely felt like teleportation. we were here, and then we were there, and i had nothing to do with it.

meanwhile my parents had probably been awake for hours, navigating traffic, paying tolls, hauling suitcases, figuring out where everyone was going to sleep. i was in the backseat eating gummy worms and asking how much longer every ten minutes, and if we could stop at mcdonald’s, like a tiny, unhelpful executive.

that was the arrangement: they did the work, and i got the experience.

it wasn’t just travel. everything operated that way. groceries refilled themselves. birthdays assembled out of thin air. christmas felt like a natural phenomenon, like rain or wind, rather than two exhausted adults staying up past midnight wrapping gifts and placing batteries into plastic toys.

as a child, you genuinely believed life just takes care of itself. which, in hindsight, is an incredible business model.

now i know exactly how much work it takes for anything to look effortless.

nothing in my current life just happens. if i want to go somewhere, i book it. if i want to live somewhere new, i budget for it, sign things, scan things, send things, wait for approval emails like i’m applying for a mortgage on the moon. even small pleasures come with a trail of tiny responsibilities. dinner is groceries and dishes and remembering to defrost something. a weekend trip is fifteen browser tabs and a mild headache.

adulthood, as far as i can tell, is mostly paperwork disguised as freedom.

the funny part is that these are all things i chose. no one forced me to move across the country. no one forced me to switch jobs or take my writing and creating videos more seriously. these were my ideas. my ambitions. the kind of decisions you talk about for years and then finally make while feeling brave.

still, there are moments — usually late at night, surrounded by half-filled boxes and that specific smell of cardboard — when i catch myself wishing someone else were handling the logistics. someone older and more competent could just tap me on the shoulder and say, don’t worry, it’s all arranged. just get in the car.

i’d like to show up to my own life the way i used to show up to vacations. slightly disoriented and holding a snack. no idea how much anything costs.

it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that my parents weren’t magicians. they were just tired. they absorbed all the boring, stressful parts, quietly, so i could experience the polished version. they let me believe the world was seamless because they were doing the stitching somewhere out of sight. mom and dad, if you’re reading this, thank you.

someone was always staying up later than they wanted to. someone was always paying. someone was always driving while everyone else slept.

now, when something good happens — when a plan actually works, when a new chapter opens up because i pushed it open — i can see every inch of the scaffolding behind it. there’s no mystery left. i know exactly how many phone calls and forms and small, tedious choices it took to get there.

it’s less magical, sure. but it’s also mine in a way childhood never was.

the other night i was sitting on my floor, surrounded by piles of things i’d decided to keep and things i’d finally thrown out, labeling boxes with a thick black marker like i was archiving evidence. it was quiet. no music. just the pulling of tape and the occasional car passing outside. it struck me that this — this boring, unphotogenic moment — is what most dreams actually look like up close. a bit ugly.

by midnight my hands were covered in that dusty cardboard film and i still had three more to go. nothing cinematic about it. just me, making sure my own life shows up where it’s supposed to.

so, i guess there’s no going back. at least there’s no homework.

ryeones™

terms of service

greg isenberg

internetvin

monopoly deal

obsidian

jun wei

misterleleboi

steven bartlett

scott yu-jan

seek sophie

takoconnects

the diary of a ceo

Episodes

Blade Runner

Catan

Jazz

Parks

Places

Sci-fi

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Well Made 145 Kevin Kelly

Well Made

Episodes

chicken rice

Buy wisely

Cost per use

How to assess durability

How to estimate uses

Reducing the cost side

Alternative heuristics

Cost per smile

Cost per thrill

Cost per externality

Cost per lesson

huh, so what is this

now page

privacy policy

digital garden

fomties

ryan tham

ryan tham aka ryeones

collections

movies

2 cor 5v7

3-2-1 content system

books

how to do everything you want in your twenties

breaking down the ‘pyramid of lifestyle’

…so what do i do with this?

tip #1: build good habits to make space for what you value

figure out what ‘healthy’ means for you.

transform learnings into identity-based habits.

ask yourself: what gives you sustainable energy?

tip #2: learn who & what from the available nourishes you

write it down.

availability is key.

decouple materialism with happiness and prioritize personal growth.

tip #3: embrace change — both in your surroundings and yourself.

take things at your own pace.

conclusion: carpe diem

how to do everything you want in your twenties

Top 3 Quotes

3 Sentence Summary

Crucial Points

Creator’s Purpose

Content

Concepts

Practices

Personal Revelations

Video Logs (timestamp)

Thoughts

Review

Future Plans

Questions

Further Reading

Book Implementation

Habits

Dailies

To Dos