This story begins at night, with a girly scream. Trisha and I had climbed the Palace of Fine Arts to take pictures up where the spotlights are. She looks awesome, but I can’t get the composition right. So, I back up to the edge. And then I walk right off:

In my defense, I was using an old pirate trick. We were standing on a large grate above these huge lights. If I had to look at them, I kept one eye shut to preserve my dark vision. Having eyes calibrated to bright and dark really messes with your depth perception, apparently.

Flow is the secret to both insane productivity and deep fulfillment. It's not magic, though. Flow is a skill. 13 Flow triggers to EFFORTLESSLY do your best work:

Blood money. —Or— Why I challenged the fittest guy I know to a fitness contest. - I just sent issue 2 of my free newsletter. Here's what all but 162 of you missed:

The building is way out of the way. Past the U Haul drop-off, the Goodwill, and the dollar store. A bored security guard checks his phone from a folding chair in the parking lot. The place looks like a doctor’s office from the 90s, but smells like a hospital.

I went viral 3 times in my first 30 days on Twitter. Huge hack: Formatting your tweets. Here's how I do it 👇

Most people overlook the visual component of writing. Know what else people overlook? Large chunks of text. Formatting... • pulls the eye forward • makes complex ideas feel simple • stimulates the mind through variety Here are 9 examples of awesome tweet formatting to copy:

To be magnetic you don't have to be • charming • witty • attractive 8 habits ANYONE can use to instantly build charisma:

🔸 Be yourself and own it This isn't just about confidence. Charismatic people are next-level comfortable in their skin. People love originality. They crave to be themselves too. They love seeing you set an example. So just go for it.

9 and 1/2 lies your English teacher told you about writing: ⬎⬎⬎⬎⬎⬎ “Always begin with a clear thesis statement. Or at least an opaque one.” •

“You must use proper grammar or people simply won't take you seriously. Okay, now that you've fixed it, I still don't take you seriously because you're a kid.” •

I earned 7,000 followers in 29 days because I show up consistently. Same voice. Same values. Same topics. How to figure out your own personal brand (even if you don’t know yourself):

Thinking about who you are is a loaded and emotional process. So today, we're going to focus on one little slice of you. Who you are on Twitter. And specifically, how others experience you on the bird app. And while I don't love this term, we'll use it: Your Personal Brand

True stories, • Surrounded by a gang of knife-wielding pre-teens • Trapped 2-days in the Sahara in need of a hospital • Cornered by a militant hashish dealer who said I didn't pay Traveling builds character (if it doesn't kill you first):

🔸 Ancient society made leather in large vats of bird poop. Our tour guides gave us clusters of mint to hold as gas masks. They left their smiles in the leatherworks when they showed us out the back. Told us to 10x their fee. Thugs blocked the alley back to town. So we ran.

Most people fail at basic writing advice: "Show, Don't tell." You're either doing showy telling, or you think this doesn't apply to you, and you're wrong:

Showing-not-telling isn't just for fiction writers. Showing will improve your emails, your headlines, your articles, even chats to your colleagues in Slack and texts with your partner. Show more often, and... People's eyes will light up when you write.

You're doomscrolling and brainscrolling too much. Time to cleanse your mental palette. 20 stupid dad jokes (that are actually super smart):

The problem with kleptomaniacs is that they always take things literally.