⛅ Life's not about looking good all the time
Also, a few facts about coffee, "Avengers, assemble", and habits worth telling stories about
1. Don’t worry about looking good all the time, just focus on achieving your goals
When I’m not writing or causing trouble on Twitter, I play project manager at an engineering firm in South Carolina. The past couple of weeks have been particularly challenging. I’m dealing with a cavil customer who constantly piles more shit on my plate, while simultaneously making it difficult to close existing open points.
Given the limited resources under my control and the schedule that I’m trying to follow, choosing the right problems to tackle is of the utmost importance. Of course, my customer wants (and expects) me to do everything ASAP, but as a project manager, I have to be realistic about what I can and can’t do.
That means not everything gets done, and it’s on me to deliver that message to the customer and project stakeholders. Though I would love to look like the hero all the time (as most of us do), many times that’s not the case, and instead of showing up to the party as Dr. Jekyll, they get Mr. Hyde.
But that’s OK. I’m not meant to be everyone’s friend in the field of project management. I’m there to get the job done - to make the hard decisions that others aren’t willing to make in favor of the greater good. Sometimes that makes me look like the hero, but most of the time I’ve got to be the monster.
Life’s not about looking good all the time, it’s about accomplishing what you set out to do.
2. A few secrets about everybody’s favorite morning beverage
Coffee ☕ (obviously). Three neat things you might not have known about the highly-caffeinated breakfast of champions:
Lighter roasts generally have more caffeine than darker roasts (caffeine gets cooked out throughout the roasting process). If looking for the most caffeine from an everyday coffee, opt for cold brew.
Coffee actually comes from cherry plants and the “beans” are really cherry seeds. Each ripened cherry contains about two seeds, which are picked and processed into coffee “beans”.
The King of Prussia, Frederick II, once tried to ban coffee so that people would drink beer instead. "It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects...My people must drink beer..." he wrote in a 1777 decree.
3. An “Avenger’s, Assemble” moment against one of the world’s most tragic diseases
A few weekends ago, the girlfriend and I watched Netflix’s new-ish documentary on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. I know, that’s a mouthful. Maybe we should stick to its more well-known (and less obnoxious) acronym, CRISPR.
CRISPR is a gene-editing tool, with A LOT of hype in recent years, that may be the secret to beating some of the world’s most tragic and deadly diseases, one which is Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s is an insidious disease that creeps up in aging brains, slowly dismantling a person’s ability to think and reason, and devouring their grasp on memories and reality. If you know someone who’s had Alzheimer’s, it’s a heartbreaking disease for both the victim and their loved ones. Despite many years of research, we still have no cure, let alone any effective treatments. It’s basically an accelerated death sentence.
Since this is a 😁 newsletter with plenty of 🌻 and 🌞, let’s get to the good news. The National Institutes of the Health (NIH) recognizes Alzheimer’s as one of humanity’s greatest tragedies, and quite frankly, has had enough of its shit. The NIH, in one of the most aspiring efforts in biology, decided to pull an “Avenger’s, assemble” moment and bring together the best of the best Alzheimer’s and stem cell researchers to nip this thing in the bud.
As the great Emporer once said, “We will watch your career with great interest.”
4. Quote to think about
“Don’t worry about looking good, worry about achieving your goals.” - Ray Dalio
5. Weekly Book Recommendation
I recently plowed my way through James Clear’s mega-hit Atomic Habits. For a while, I was reluctant to read this book because I had already gone through my habit transformation something like 5 years ago. I figured, “what else could there possibly be to learn?”
Well, turns out a lot.
James does a great job at weaving stories into practical advice, which explains why the book is as successful as it is today. After all, nothing beats a good story, and trust me when I say this book has plenty.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter. Hope you enjoyed it!
Best,
Jason Gutierrez
P.S. Follow me on Twitter for tips and advice on writing, self-improvement, entrepreneurship, and more!