Web developmentDesign principlesPersonal apps & toolsArduinoRaspberry PiHome renovationPlumbing & electrics
Lead & Help
People
Governance Engineers leadDeep consultingWorkflow efficiencyMentoringWriting for others
Body
Physical
5K training plan (20 weeks)Calisthenics entry programGymRope skipping (morning)Rowing (gym cardio)Outdoor cycling (seasonal)Bouldering (when ready)Cooking & food
Play
Creative rest
Legend of ZeldaPokémon (TCG, competitive)RuneScape (RS3 & OSRS)TerrariaSubnautica (queued)Silent Hill 2 (queued)Board games (~100)Best games curriculum
Sheet music literacyMusic theoryPiano techniqueEar trainingEmotional expression
Home & Family
Life
Renovation project (→ 2028)Protected time with fiancéeMarriage & family horizonShared cookingBoard game nights
The connective trait
Systems thinker — underneath everything
Draw trains you to see what's actually there — same muscle as debugging a broken workflow. Design principles transfer between sketchbook and screen — hierarchy, spacing, colour apply everywhere. Piano is a rule system with infinite creative expression on top — same logic as code or Pokémon meta. Cooking is systems thinking with immediate sensory feedback. All new domains teach you to sit with being a beginner — a skill that compounds everywhere.
Morning anchor — 2–3 hrs before work (protect ruthlessly)
~6:00–7:30
Wake-up & move
🪢
Rope skipping
10–15 min. First thing, before the brain is awake. No phone before this.
Body
🎹
Sheet music study
10–15 min daily. Treble and bass clef, note values, time signatures. Musicca.com or Teoria.com — no keyboard, no space needed. Renovation-proof.
Piano
~7:30–9:00
Mind & kitchen
📖
Read or write
20–30 min. Book, notebook, or philosophy. Phone stays away until 9am. Highest-leverage Mind slot of the day.
Mind
🍳
Cook breakfast deliberately
Not rushed, not grabbed. Cooking practice disguised as a meal. Music on, phone elsewhere.
Body
Workday — 9:00–17:00 (doomscroll danger zone)
Low energy
Replacement slots — have these ready before the urge hits
🔨
Micro-build session
15–25 min on a web project, Arduino idea, or design study. Tab pre-opened, friction already low.
Build
🐇
Intentional rabbit hole
One article, video, or concept on a domain you're exploring. Directed curiosity beats passive scroll.
Mind
✏️
Think on paper
Notebook open. One observation or idea. Stops the loop of thinking the same thought without a reference to build on.
Systems
🚶
Walk instead of scroll
10 min outside. The break your brain actually needs during low-stimulation work is movement, not stimulation.
Body
Sport days — 3× per week + gym rowing
Flexible
Slot into morning or after 17:00
🏃
Run or gym session
Day 1: easy run/intervals · Day 2: gym + rowing · Day 3: long run. Warm-up + cool-down non-negotiable (10–12 min each).
Body
Evening — wind down with intention
18:00–22:00
Evening rhythm
🍽️
Cook properly
Meal prep or fresh. Ritual, not task. Recipe list is your curriculum. Music on, phone in another room.
Cooking
🖊️
Sketchbook — not phone
10–15 min observational drawing. Draw objects nearby. Log the session, not the result.
Draw
🎮
Earn the game
Zelda, Pokémon, RuneScape, Terraria — after the day's anchors are done. Earned play feels clean.
Play
📔
Close the loop
5 min notebook. What did I learn, build, or notice today? Cements the day, feeds Sunday review.
Mind
Weekly anchors — protect these slots
Weekly
One per domain
🛠️
Deep build session
1–2 hrs on one project. Web dev, Arduino, design, or renovation. No switching. Progress over perfection.
Build
🎲
Board game night
~100 games, not enough sessions. One game per week or fortnight — scheduled, not left to chance.
Play
💑
Protected together-time
Consistent, non-negotiable. In the calendar. Not what's left over after everything else.
Home
🤝
Help someone
Natural instinct — just keep space for it. Colleague, community, write something useful.
Lead
🔁
Sunday review (15 min)
Did I live the week I said I wanted? What one loop adjusts next week?
Systems
Morning kickstart — daily
★
Rope Skipping
10–15 min every morning, first thing. Swap for a brisk walk on low-energy days. No phone before this.
Daily · 10–15 min
Gym cardio addition
🚣
Rowing (gym)
Full-body, knee-friendly. Add to Day 2 gym sessions. Great pairing with running — different pattern, low joint impact.
Day 2 gym · 10–15 min
Bouldering milestone
🧗
Bouldering — when ready
Active interest confirmed (wall climbing history). Not starting yet due to joint load. Milestone: when feeling significantly lighter and stronger through the running + gym plan. Book a trial session — don't wait for perfect.
Milestone: Phase 3 of running plan
5K Training Plan — 20 weeks · 3 days/week · Knee-friendly
Squats, hip bridges, calf raises + rowing 10 min + 15 min walk
Day 3
Long easy run
30 min continuous, conversational pace
💡 Run at a pace where you can hold a full conversation. If knees flare, swap a run for walk + gym. 8 hrs sleep — adaptation happens at rest.
2
Aerobic Build
Weeks 6–10 · Drop walk breaks, increase volume
~25 min 5K
↓
Day 1
Easy continuous run
25–30 min, no walk breaks
Day 2
Strength + strides + rowing
Gym + 4×80m strides + 12 min rowing
Day 3
Long run
35 min easy effort
💡 Strides: accelerate over 80m, hold briefly, walk back — not a sprint. 80% of running genuinely easy. Tendons adapt slower than your heart.
3
Tempo Work
Weeks 11–16 · Raise lactate threshold
~22–23 min 5K
↓
Day 1
Tempo intervals
5 min WU + 3×5 min hard + 5 min CD
Day 2
Light strength + rowing
Single-leg balance, lunges, glutes + 15 min rowing
Day 3
Easy long run
40 min easy
💡 Tempo = 2–3 words at a time. Warm-up mandatory. Consider bouldering trial this phase.
4
Race Ready
Weeks 17–20 · Sharpen, taper, goal attempt
20 min 5K 🎯
↓
Day 1
400m intervals
6×400m at 4:00/km, 90 sec jog rest
Day 2
Rest / light walk
Active recovery only
Day 3
Time trial / race
Wk 19: 5K TT · Wk 20: goal attempt
💡 Week 20: reduce volume 30% — trust the training. Race day: start at goal pace or slightly slower.
Calisthenics Entry Program — 7 tests
Work through in order. When all feel easy across multiple sessions — ready to level up.
01
Wall Shoulder Mobility
Heels, hips, shoulders against wall. Raise arms overhead maintaining contact. Work toward full overhead reach.
Mobility test · progressive
02
Passive Lat Stretch
Kneel at hip-height surface. Forearms on surface, forehead drops, hips push back. Breathe slowly.
Hold 20–30 sec each side
03
Superman Hold
Face-down, arms extended. Lift arms, chest, legs simultaneously. Squeeze glutes and upper back.
Target: 8–12 reps
04
Plank
Drive elbows into ground — active, not passive. Tense core AND glutes. Hips level: no sagging, no piking.
Target: 30 seconds
05
Dead Hang
Hang from bar, relaxed shoulders. Thumbs over bar. Build time incrementally — practice daily.
Target: 45–60 seconds
06
Hollow Body Hold
On back, lower back pressed into floor. Core activation raises limbs — don't force. Tuck knees to scale.
Target: hold with full control
07
Tibialis Anterior Stretch
Kneel, tops of feet flat, sit back onto heels. Lift knees for more intensity. Deep stretch along front of shin.
Hold 30–45 sec · 2–3 times
The kitchen is one of your favourite places. Cooking is systems thinking with immediate sensory feedback. Treat it like a domain with a curriculum.
Cuisines to explore
🇮🇹
Italian
Pasta technique, sauces from scratch, risotto
🇯🇵
Japanese
Umami building, ramen broths, sushi basics
🇲🇽
Mexican
Moles, fermented salsas, masa work
🇮🇳
Indian
Spice layering, curry bases, dal mastery
🇹🇭
Thai
Sweet/sour/spicy/salty balance, paste making
🇲🇦
North African
Tagines, preserved lemon, ras el hanout
🇰🇷
Korean
Fermentation, banchan, gochujang applications
🧪
Fusion (yours)
Cross-cuisine ideas from your own head — document these
Techniques to develop
🔪
Knife skills & prep
Foundation of everything else
↓
Learn
Brunoise, julienne, chiffonade
Precision cuts that affect texture and cooking time
Practice
Rock chopping, pull cuts
Speed and consistency come with repetition — cook regularly
🔥
Heat control
The most underrated skill
↓
Learn
Maillard reaction vs caramelisation
Why browning happens and how to control it
Practice
Searing proteins properly
Dry surface, hot pan, don't move it too soon
🫙
Fermentation & preservation
Patience as a cooking technique
↓
Start
Lacto-fermentation basics
Pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut — salt + time
Explore
Sourdough starter
A living, adjustable system — fits your instincts
🧂
Seasoning & flavour building
The difference between good and great
↓
Learn
Salt timing
Early salt seasons; late salt stays on surface
Learn
Acid balance
Finish dishes with lemon or vinegar to brighten everything
Explore
Spice toasting
Dry toast whole spices before grinding — transforms flavour
Cookbooks — your curriculum
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Samin Nosrat — the four elements. Read this before any other cookbook.
Read first
The Food Lab
J. Kenji López-Alt — science behind why recipes work. Systems thinking applied to cooking.
Queue
Jerusalem
Yotam Ottolenghi — Middle Eastern fusion, bold flavours, the kind of cooking from your own head
Queue
On Food and Cooking
Harold McGee — science of ingredients. Not a recipe book — a reference for understanding.
Queue
Personal recipe book
The goal: a physical book of your household's favourite recipes — easy to grab when you don't know what to eat. Built alongside cooking, not as a separate project. Add a recipe when you cook something you want to keep.
Play is not the enemy of depth. Your games exercise real cognitive muscles — systems thinking, strategy, pattern recognition. Intentional play: earned, present, satisfying.
Currently active
Legend of Zelda series
Exploration, puzzle systems, world-building
Active
Pokémon — TCG, competitive, games
Deep meta strategy, pattern recognition, competitive systems
Best games curriculum — complete like a reading list
Games often dubbed among the greatest ever made. Work through one at a time, with intention.
Shadow of the Colossus
PS2/PS4 · Minimalist design masterpiece. 16 bosses, no filler.
Someday
Disco Elysium
PC · Most literary RPG ever made. Pure systems thinking + psychology.
Someday
Planescape: Torment
PC · Philosophy as gameplay. "What can change the nature of a man?"
Someday
Hollow Knight
PC/Switch · Atmospheric metroidvania. Masterclass in environmental storytelling.
Someday
Outer Wilds
PC/Console · Exploration + mystery. One of the most original games ever made.
Someday
Return of the Obra Dinn
PC · Deduction puzzle. Visual design and logic in perfect combination.
Someday
Board games — protect the time
~100 games, not enough sessions. The problem isn't interest — it's scheduling. One game night per week or fortnight, in the calendar, with your fiancée or friends. The games don't play themselves.
Web development — active passion
Fully in flow here. AI-accelerated, zone-inducing, purely personal. No doomscroll risk when building.
Personal tools (you + small group)
Active
Ideas idle for years, now buildable with AI. Build first, optimise later.
Track: Build → Test & optimise → Learn frameworks via AI alongside
Flashcard app
Idea
Personal flashcard website for daily jargon and concept review across multiple topics. Manual card creation, shuffle and go — no algorithm, no friction. Fast daily review, not a study system.
Domains: Build (make it) + Mind (use it) · Stack: HTML/JS + localStorage · Next: spec and build with Claude
Arduino — rediscovery track
A1
Blink & sensor basics
LED blink, button input, potentiometer. Reactivate the muscle memory from college. One afternoon.
Start here
A2
Temperature + humidity logger
DHT22 sensor → serial monitor → data log. First useful thing. Can sit on your desk permanently.
Week 2
A3
OLED display project
Drive a small display. Show sensor data, a clock, or anything. Deeply satisfying when it works.
Week 3–4
A4
Home sensor → Pi bridge
Motion or environment sensor feeding into a home dashboard. Natural bridge between Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
Month 2
Raspberry Pi — project launcher
Home dashboard
Idea
Wall-mounted screen: calendar, weather, renovation progress, weekly review. Could run this dashboard.
Pi + small screen + browser in kiosk mode
Portable karaoke machine
Idea
Pi + screen + mic + speaker. Your own karaoke box for social evenings.
Pi + HDMI display + USB mic + speakers + Ultrastar Deluxe
RetroPie gaming console
Idea
Play the best games curriculum through an emulator. Pairs directly with your gaming backlog. Good intro Pi project.
Pi 4 + RetroPie + USB controllers
Home sensor network
Idea
Pi as hub collecting data from Arduino nodes around the house. Natural bridge between hardware tracks.
Pi + MQTT broker + Arduino nodes + Home Assistant
Home renovation — phased project
Renovation — current phase
In progress
Currently: chasing contractors, coordinating trades. Electrician will guide hands-on electrical work. Room renovations (flooring, walls, paint, ceiling) done by you and your fiancée.
Milestone: major upstairs done end 2025 · Full renovation: end 2028
Renovation as skills gateway. Plumbing and electrics aren't separate hobbies — skills you'll develop through this project. The electrician guiding you is the same model as the philosophy podcast before the primary texts: learn by doing, with a guide.
Design & visual thinking
D1
Design thinking fundamentals
Visual hierarchy, whitespace, contrast, alignment, repetition. The grammar rules before you write sentences.
Resource: Refactoring UI · Steve Schoger
D2
Typography
Font pairing, type scales, readability. One of the highest-leverage design skills most people never learn.
Resource: practicaltypography.com — free
D3
Colour theory
Hue, saturation, contrast, palette building. Applies to screen design and drawing — fully transferable.
Resource: Colour & Light by James Gurney
D4
Apply to your own projects
Redesign one personal web tool using what you've learned. Best design education is doing it on something you built.
After D1–D3
Currently reading
The Singularity Is Nearer
Ray Kurzweil — optimistic AI trajectory
Reading
Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari — cautious on information and power
Reading
Read these against each other. Kurzweil is optimistic about AI; Harari is cautious about its effects on power and truth. The tension sharpens your governance thinking more than either book alone.
Up next
That Little Voice in Your Head
Mo Gawdat
Next
When Languages Die
K. David Harrison
Next
How to Survive the World
The School of Life
Next
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius — paused, not abandoned. Return to any page when ready.
Paused
Systems thinking track
Thinking in Systems
Donella Meadows — the clearest articulation of systems thinking that exists
Queue
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charlie Munger — mental models as a way of life
Queue
The Fifth Discipline
Peter Senge — systems thinking applied to organisations. Directly relevant to governance.
Queue
Psychology & sociology track — why people do what they do
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman — cognitive mechanics of System 1 vs System 2. Already read.
Read ✓
Dopamine Nation
Anna Lembke — the reward circuitry behind compulsion and modern overstimulation. Already read. Directly underlies the anti-brainrot rules.
Read ✓
Kahneman + Lembke together give you the cognitive mechanics (why the brain takes shortcuts) and the neurochemical layer (why dopamine loops are so hard to break). Most of the anti-brainrot system in this dashboard is applied versions of what those two describe.
Influence
Robert Cialdini — why people say yes. Directly useful for consulting and leadership.
Queue
Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely — natural next read after Kahneman. How irrational patterns are consistent and exploitable. Good for governance and product thinking.
Queue
The Righteous Mind
Jonathan Haidt — why people are divided on politics and morality. Governance-relevant.
Queue
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk — how experience shapes behaviour. Builds empathy in leadership.
Queue
Draw & design reading
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Betty Edwards — the classic for observational drawing from scratch. Start here.
Start here
Refactoring UI
Wathan & Schoger — practical screen design. Immediately applicable to your web projects.
Queue
Writing — from zero, low barrier
The problem: you think about the same things multiple times without a reference point to build on. Writing fixes this — not by producing content, but by externalising thoughts so your brain stops holding them in RAM.
The system: one notebook, pen always next to it. No format required. A sentence is enough. Quick capture on Today tab is the digital version. The notebook is the permanent home.
The goal: when the same thought comes back, you find the previous entry, expand it, and move forward instead of looping. Ideas compound.
Piano & music learning track
P1
Sheet music literacy — start now
No keyboard needed, no space needed. Treble and bass clef note names, note values, time signatures, basic rhythm reading. Musicca.com or Teoria.com — free, interactive, works on any device. 10–15 min during a low-energy work break beats scrolling every time.
Active now — renovation-proof
P2
Ear training alongside
Interval recognition and pitch identification — ears and eyes developing in parallel before the keyboard arrives. Use Teoria.com or TonedEar. Headphones only, no space required. This makes everything click faster once you're at the keys.
Active now — headphones only
P3
Pick your first piece — decide now, not later
Choose one piece you genuinely love before the keyboard arrives. Find the sheet music, learn to read it, follow along while listening to recordings. You'll sit down at the keys already knowing the music — that changes everything.
Before keyboard arrives
P4
Get the keyboard — when renovation allows space
Collecting from your mother when the house has room for it. No rush — the sheet music and ear training phases are real progress. A 61-key weighted keyboard is enough to start properly. Simply Piano or Playground Sessions for guided structure once it arrives.
When renovation gives space
P5
First keyboard sessions
Hands separately first. C major scale. Proper hand position. 15–20 min daily — consistency matters far more than duration at this stage. You'll already be ahead: music reading done, ears trained, first piece chosen.
When keyboard arrives
P6
Music theory — intervals & chords
Once basic reading and playing are solid: major/minor chords, intervals, basic harmony. Where the systems thinker in you starts to see the underlying structure — the rules the music is built on.
Month 2–3 after keyboard
Two tracks. How to Live — Stoics, Aristotle, Existentialists. Practical and immediate. Reality & Knowledge — what can we actually know? Each thinker responded to the previous one.
The thinkers — click to expand
How to Live
Marcus Aurelius
121–180 AD
↓
Core idea: The Stoic split — things inside your control (reactions, judgments, character) vs. outside (events, outcomes, other people). Focus only on the former.
A Roman emperor writing private notes to himself about staying sane under pressure. Never meant to be published. Someone genuinely trying to be better, not preaching.
Start with
Meditations (Gregory Hays translation) — you've already started, return to any page
Philosophize This! Ep. 21–22
How to Live
Epictetus
50–135 AD
↓
Core idea: The Enchiridion — brutally short and direct. "Up to me" or "not up to me." Sort everything into one of these two categories. More radical than Marcus Aurelius. No softening.
Start with
The Enchiridion — free, ~30 pages, MIT Classics online
Then: Discourses (longer, deeper)
How to Live
Aristotle
384–322 BC
↓
Core idea: Eudaimonia — not happiness but flourishing. Exercise your distinctly human capacities excellently. Virtue is a skill you practice, not a feeling. Origin of virtue ethics.
Start with
Don't start with original Aristotle — too dense
"Aristotle's Way" by Edith Hall
Philosophize This! Ep. 9–12
How to Live
Albert Camus
1913–1960
↓
Core idea: The Absurd — life has no inherent meaning but we desperately want it to. The honest response isn't despair — it's revolt. Acknowledge the absurdity and live fully anyway.
Start with
The Stranger (novel, ~2 hrs) — ideas through story
The Myth of Sisyphus (essay)
Philosophize This! Ep. 99
Reality & Knowledge
Plato
428–348 BC
↓
Core idea: Theory of Forms — everything physical is an imperfect copy of a perfect abstract form. The Allegory of the Cave: we are prisoners mistaking shadows for reality. Sets up 2,000 years of Western philosophy.
Start with
Allegory of the Cave — free, 5 min read
The Apology — Socrates' trial
Reality & Knowledge
René Descartes
1596–1650
↓
Core idea: Method of doubt — strip away everything uncertain. The one thing you can't doubt is that you're doubting. "Cogito, ergo sum." Resets all of Western philosophy.
Start with
Meditations on First Philosophy — free, ~80 pages, surprisingly gripping
Crash Course Philosophy Ep. 4
Reality & Knowledge
David Hume
1711–1776
↓
Core idea: All knowledge comes from experience. But experience only gives us patterns — we never directly observe causation, only sequence. The problem of induction — still unsolved. Woke Kant from his "dogmatic slumber."
Start with
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Philosophize This! Ep. 30–32
Both Tracks
Immanuel Kant
1724–1804
↓
Core idea: We don't passively receive reality — our minds actively shape experience. Space, time, causality are structures we impose. On ethics: act only in ways you could consistently universalise. The hinge point of modern philosophy.
Start with
Don't read Kant directly yet
"Kant: A Very Short Introduction" by Roger Scruton
Philosophize This! Ep. 47–55
Recommended sequence
Week 1: Philosophize This! Ep. 1–5 + Crash Course Philosophy Ep. 1–3. Don't open a book yet — get oriented first.
First text: Meditations (Marcus Aurelius, Hays translation). You've already started. Return to it — read like a journal, not a book.
Follow the thread: Epictetus → Marcus Aurelius → Aristotle. Or: Plato → Descartes → Hume → Kant. Each was responding to the previous.
Reference: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu) — authoritative, free, better than Wikipedia for any thinker.
Brainrot wins through friction. These rules win by reducing the friction of the alternative — not by relying on willpower.
The three core rules
Phone out of reach in the morning. Not on silent — out of reach. Until 9am the 2–3 hr window belongs to you. One notification collapses the whole slot.
Replace, don't resist. When the doomscroll urge hits, the replacement needs to be ready: notebook on desk, book within reach, project tab already open, sketchbook visible. Willpower loses to friction every time.
Silence is valid. A 20 min walk or a meal eaten without a screen is integration time, not wasted time. The brain consolidates during rest. Design for it.
YouTube — intentional vs ambient
Intentional watching: videos tied to a domain you're exploring — cooking technique, design, philosophy, tech, gaming deep dives. These are real inputs. Finish the video, close the app.
The drift signal: you started intentional and ended up in Shorts. Notice it — the algorithm doing its job. The fix: close the app when the video ends, not when the next one starts.
Low-energy day protocol
Minimum viable day — three things only: rope skip in the morning · one notebook entry · cook one proper meal. Three things keep the chain alive without burning you out.
Boredom at work is a signal, not a permission slip. When you reach for the phone during low-stimulation work — notice it. The break you actually need is 10 min walking, not 40 min scrolling.
Gaming earns itself. Gaming as escape from a day you feel bad about vs. gaming as reward after a day you feel good about. Same game — completely different experience. The anchors make the game feel clean.
Weekly review — Sunday · 15 min
Did I move my body at least 5 times? (rope skip, runs, gym, calisthenics, walks)
Did I write something? Notebook entry, capture, article — anything externalised.
Did I cook most of my meals? Meal prep counts. One takeaway is fine. Pattern matters.
Did I learn something in a domain I'm exploring? Reading, video, practice session.
Did I help someone? Colleague, community, write something useful.
Did I create something? Built, drawn, cooked, written — anything made.
Did I protect time with Laura Alessia? Consistent, not what was left over.
What one loop needs adjusting next week? One specific change, not a full reset.