The world is one big distraction
Distraction is the only real enemy left — shiny objects, 9-to-5 culture, politics, gossip. Even this post is one. Focus is turning into a practice, like the gym, and the people who can hold it will win the next decade.
The off-world economy
The off-world are the people going off technology, off the feed — and it's a growing group. When attention leaves the feed, where does the money go? Real-world events, and whoever does the leg work.
Most of my week is content distribution
I do marketing and AI implementation. The thing I do most every week is content distribution. The numbers from my own automated projects, this week and at the peak, and the four steps I use to run it.
Why are people fighting the data centers?
People are fighting the data centers. Fair concerns — power, water, jobs. But the benefits column barely gets discussed: curing diseases, understanding the brain, a doctor and a tutor for everyone.
Today's card was Gorilla
Today's Brotherhood Oracle reading was Gorilla — on dimming your worth, calling ambition dangerous, and giving your genius away for free. Set the first price yourself. Free is a different price, not a low one.
What is culture?
What is culture? It's what's trending in everyone's mind. What's hot right now. Eight signals, in order of importance. Score yourself: how many could you have named before reading?
Put yourself in the path of serendipity
Serendipity is positioning. Go to the event by yourself, go find the opportunity, connect with others — the path is that plain.
Someone in my daughter's class will marry a robot
Right now robots look like C-3PO — obviously a machine. But what happens when they have silicon smiles and a personality you pick? Someone in my daughter's class will marry one.
How to be in society without being a consumer
The average date night runs $200. That's crazy. Six ways to be out in the world with people you like without spending it. Pick one for this Saturday.
Questions for couples
For when date night conversation has gone quiet. Six playful questions for a couple who's been together a while — including the one about getting arrested.
Questions for when you meet people
These are the seven questions I ask the first time I meet someone — the third one is the one that stops people in their tracks.
Questions for a date
Small talk gets you nowhere on a date. These are the ten questions I actually ask — plus a few deeper ones for when the conversation is already flowing.
The stupid way is genius
Try this exercise: what if you're too stupid to figure it out yourself? Then whose advice would you take as fact? The best entrepreneurs I've met just do what good advisors tell them, longer than anyone else.
The best city I've lived in
I've lived in San Salvador, Medellin, Saigon, Bali, Bangkok, Tokyo, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver to name a few. People ask which was my favourite. It always comes down to the people I shared my time with.
Business news is a soap opera
Anybody who follows the Elon vs OpenAI fight and talks about it can never talk shit about the Kardashians again. It's the same gossip chasing. Business news just moves stock prices too.
The phone and the computer are going to disappear
The phone and the computer are going to disappear. Instead of opening an app to find a burrito, your agent just orders it. So what's the device that replaces the phone? Maybe there isn't one.
What Vancouver's marketing job market looks like right now
About 180 new marketing postings a week in Vancouver. Median posted ranges: coordinator $55,000–$65,000, marketing manager $93,700–$124,200, director $140,000–$170,000. Who posts the most, which days, which cities. Numbers from my job-hunting machine.
Balance society's needs with robots
What if society sorted its base needs — housing, food, care, energy — and pointed robot labor at each one? A sketch of how basic income funded by robotic output could work, and where the opportunity sits inside it.
We all have ADHD now
Autism and ADHD weren't diagnosed much in my era — the teacher hit you until you did the task. It forced compliance through fear. Today the whole environment is built for distraction. Here's what I do about it.
People respect angry. I have a hard time with that.
People respect angry. Look at Steve Jobs, look at Elon. I have a hard time with that — I need to be liked. The real fix is the independence.
You have to break the rules to be creative
If you lean on AI for your creative practice, you're staying inside the rules — AI was built from what already exists. Real innovation needs a practice of thinking outside of it.
The economy, in one sentence
The economy is smart people paying beautiful people to sell things to insecure people. On any given day, you're probably all three.
I want the Elon jersey
Fanatics should sell the entrepreneur jersey. I want the Elon one — infinity number, rocket on the back — with the profits going to a nonprofit the entrepreneur picks.
People pay fitness coaches for the energy
Clients pay a fitness coach for the push, the accountability, the loud LETSS GOOOOO — the meal plan is already free online. Show the push.
Coffee shops inside stores. Genius.
Aritzia's A-OK Cafe, Ralph's Coffee, Tiffany's Blue Box Cafe. A coffee shop in a store buys you longer dwell time near the merchandise, plus a branded cup walking free advertising through the mall.
The way to make friends
There are two doors into friendship: an intense shared emotion, or continuity — seeing the same people over and over. Run clubs open both at once.
Want motivation to lose weight? Take your shirt off
There's a feeling that shows up the second the shirt comes off. It's either pride or shame — and shame, felt on purpose and on repeat, is fuel. (Worked for me.)
Upcycled clothing is the new luxury
One-of-one pieces made from clothes that already existed are becoming a status symbol. Like the oversized era, it's on-trend and budget-conscious at the same time.
Netflix's next growth is a free tier
Streaming has stopped growing — some platforms are losing subscribers. My guess: Netflix's next growth comes from a free tier. Ads, a small catalog, first seasons only.
The trade craft is shining
As AI automates the white-collar jobs, the trades are getting cooler — shorter study period, real demand, work that can't be automated. I want my daughter to be a nurse.
Speed to quote is a closing opportunity
If it takes you two weeks to send a quote and your competitor takes two hours, you lose deals your price could never explain. The first decent quote in the inbox frames the whole deal.
I deleted the internet
I deleted the social apps, then the internet at home. The house got calmer — we're drawing and reading books. In the future we'll talk about this era the way we talk about smoking.
Community comes from the soul
Fifteen years ago I thought about starting a religion. It became a blog called The Art of Thanks — and it taught me the three ingredients: shared language, rituals, and a leader who embodies them.
Sell your own product
Selling other people's products teaches you what your customer needs — you trade margin for information. Then build your own: courses, ebooks, products.
Lucky breaks happen with people
I confess: every success I've ever had has been partnerships. Three ways to meet people, and what to do when you get there.
I started running at 46. Three tips from a lifetime of injuries
Run with your hips, get shoes that match your arch, and learn to run backwards. Three things that made running finally stick.
The online shopping assistant is coming
A person on the page who greets you, walks you through the site, and dresses you in the item before you buy. The chatbox grows into a guide.
This might be the last car I ever own
Autonomy drops the cost per mile, power trends toward free, and ads cover the rest. My prediction: transportation is heading to free.
The robots are coming. How to profit
Every new machine needs an industry standing next to it. Three ideas: fleet operators, onboarding as a service, and the maintenance and insurance layer.
Why I built the Brotherhood Oracle
I wanted an oracle deck that spoke to me — bullet points on where to place my attention today. So I built it: 43 Messengers across five realms.
AI, then robotics, then quantum, then space
The waves are lined up, and each one will arrive with the same end-of-everything headline. The fear is the tell — it shows up right before the opportunity.
You'll be measured by the agents you manage
Headcount was the old scoreboard. Now it's how many agents and workflows you can run — with the open list of workflows worth building, three already live.
The App Store leaderboard tells you the era
It used to be all social media apps. Now it's all AI apps — plus two Microsoft apps that probably just leaked a giant corporate deal.
Soon: social interactive ads
A character uses a Swiffer in the movie and a Buy Now button shows up on screen. YouTube tags Amazon products. The scene is becoming the shelf.
What is wealth?
I made the list as fast as I could think it — a smile, my legs, peace with my eyes closed, the extra guac. Nothing on it had a price.
We can do the same for ecommerce brands
New drops posted everywhere, price drops announced, sold-out pieces taken down — the dealership machine pointed at clothing and jewelry brands. Even the ads are automated: the product image is the creative.
We built a social media machine for car dealerships
A car lands on the lot in the morning; by the afternoon it's on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google — and nobody typed a word. Sold units come down on their own.
I researched the women's menopause market — this is what I learned
A client lost a good employee to "mental health issues" that turned out to be menopause. I went down the rabbit hole and came back with three business ideas — they're yours to take.
The future is all about taste
What you see daily shapes you — and you get to shape yourself by your taste. When music is AI-generated, I won't follow an artist, I'll follow someone's Spotify taste. Curate your feed on purpose.
Companies hiring marketers are basically looking for content creators
Marketing today is brand, content and ads. Brand is already live, ads are mostly AI work — content is the job. The younger marketers who grew up in the apps have the advantage.
So, how much are shops making inside ChatGPT?
Etsy's stock jumped 16% the day the Buy button launched. Six months later OpenAI killed it. Where the real money for shops actually is.
We built a job-hunting machine
A client couldn't keep up with applications, so we automated the hunt — a scraper pulls Vancouver marketing roles from 8 sources, and an AI engine scores the match.
My personal investing update machine
I wanted a daily update on the companies I'm watching — price, sentiment, top news, and a running $100/week portfolio simulation. So I built one.
Workwear is in — or maybe I'm just late to it
Every eighteen months someone announces workwear is having a moment. It's been having one since 1943 — and the resale market tells the real story.
Running, Training & Hyrox are becoming so trendy, that the stores need to upscale
Hyrox sells out arenas and run clubs have waitlists — but the stores still look like warehouses. Think mahogany shelves, gold structures, the Ralph Lauren type stores.
I'm really into the oversized era
And I'm sad that it's coming to an end. A short history of the big fit, five reasons it stuck, and the pendulum already swinging back.
You really are the average of the people, ideas and environments you spend your time with
Two parallel roads, four forks, same 24 hours. The road you pick creates your reality — and who you become.
Why you should visit El Salvador!
The culture. The beach. The volcanoes. The food. And of course — the people.