Welcome back to Fundamentalised, All I can do is apologise for the pause in shared publications last weekend. I have a reason for this, which I’ll share now… It all started a little over a week ago - I went back to spend some time with my family in Bristol. After spending Friday night with them and playing cricket (and performing very well if I do say so myself) on the following Saturday, I headed out to the city centre that night. ...

Welcome back to Fundamentalised, The idea I have for you this week is not one that I talk about much but it is one that I think is extremely important. We’re going to go into methods for curating the content you consume on the internet. You see if you don’t keep track of who can put content in front of your face then you’ll become a target for attention algorithms, designed to keep you on the app they serve for as long as possible. ...

Most of the talk surrounding habits has to do with struggling to form them so today I’m going to break the mould and share some habits that I struggle quitting. I’m talking about the kind of habits that nag you in the back of your mind until you complete them, not feeling quite right until you’ve ticked them off. First, the physical habits that I’ve dialled in… Gym/physical training I’ve been going to the gym for over six years now and it’s something I’ve stayed completely consistent in, apart from a couple of occasions (the Covid lockdown in 2020 and extended travel last month). ...

I’d never travelled outside my own country before last month. Three weeks in Portugal and Italy later, there’s one clear thing… Travel solo if you want but don’t be solo. Do things with people - it makes everything so much better. This was something I was slow to figure out. I thought that just because I make most of my work efforts by myself, I could enjoy the sights and experiences in a foreign country the same way. ...

Welcome back to Fundamentalised, There’s one main way in which my writing has improved over the last year and a half since I started. It’s context awareness. The knowledge of where I’m writing and who I’m writing for. I’ve said before that ​I don’t look to incorporate new techniques in my writing​, preferring to try things out intuitively and judge the reaction from readers. This rules out much of technical improvement. In the future though, I’ll look to improve the intricacies of my writing rather than emphasising this fundamental. ...

Happy Friday, Thanks for being patient with me over the last couple of weeks while I was travelling. Here are some pictures for a peek into what I’ve been doing… I flew back from Milan yesterday morning, got a good night’s sleep and now I’m back and ready to focus on writing and creating properly. This was one lesson that I learned on the trip - to experience something in full, you have to de-optimise other areas of your life. ...

Hey again, As you might know, I’ve been travelling around a lot recently for the first time since late 2018 (I was 15 back then so it doesn’t truly count either). I’ve learned a thing or two from the more recent experiences. For a bit of a change, today I’m going to be sharing these thoughts in a short list format. Here we go… The best experiences are those in between what you think will be the main moments - the person you meet over dinner at the hostel, the quiet side street you find yourself on whilst exploring. You don’t make much progress on your work when you’re moving around. The only way is to find some time to settle down for more than a couple of days to fit in some time for an undisturbed few hours. Try out the things you’d do normally - hit the gym, find a coffee shop to work in, sit and read a book in the park. The fact that you’re in a different place will add a new texture to the experience. Write about what you’ve done and how you felt whilst doing it. Memories inevitably fade and it will be nice to look back on what you thought in the moment some years in the future. Getting roaring drunk is pretty similar wherever in the world you do it. Treat with caution because you’ll be wandering around aimlessly the day after too. Lots of people speak English but try to learn a word or two in the local language to show some respect for the culture. I’m not a frequent flyer, so not the most qualified person to be listening to. What I am is a new traveller so I’m experiencing all of this for the first time. ...

Hello again, Thanks for being patient with me whilst I procrastinated over sending this issue and the video issue for the previous week. I said that filming video wasn’t something that I’m confident with, and this showed in the time that it took me to get up and actually hit the record button. But it’s here now. I’ll normally share the previous issue’s video at the bottom of the current issue, but seeing as this is the first, I’m going to put it at this start of this one. ...

There’s a quote from Gustave Flaubert… “Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.” I heard it first in the book that changed my life - Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. However today I just want to explore this quote, rather than the contents of the book (if you want BASB content then go here). ...

The other day I talked to a friend - this particular friend has a knack for asking the most deep and sometimes prickly questions of anyone I’ve ever met. And he asked me this… ‘What’s it all for? What do you hope to get out of this work that you’re doing learning things and sharing it?’ Now if you’d asked me this a little over a year ago, at the point of beginning my newsletter and just having started earning royalties from the articles I’d been writing, I’d have answered ’to earn money'. ...