You could do it when things get warmer. You could do it when winter is officially over. You could do it when things calm down at work. You could do it after things get settled. You could wait for permission, for an excuse, for help.
Or…or you could do it now.
You could stop putting off what you have been procrastinating. You could tackle what you know needs to be tackled. You could clean up what is screaming to be cleaned up.
As seasons change, as the clocks move forward, as new growth appears on the trees, there is room for other forms of renewal. This is the time, the Stoics would say. Right now is the time. Otherwise, we are, as Seneca said, the fool who is always getting ready. Epictetus, for his part, laid down a similar challenge: "How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?"
Everyone knows there are things we need to reset—to improve, to be better, to live better, think better. But maybe life has gotten in the way. Maybe you’ve tried but haven’t followed through. Maybe you’ve put it off, telling yourself that there will be a better time to do it.
But if not now, when?
It’s time to stop putting it off until later, waiting for it to just happen. Because it won’t. Someone has to take control.
That someone is you.
Forget the excuses you’ve made. Forget how rough the last couple of months have been. That’s what’s lovely about the idea of spring’s renewal. It wipes clean the winter we’ve just had. It’s a new ballgame. We’re only a few months into the year and we get a chance to start fresh.
That’s what we’re doing starting TODAY in the 2026 Daily Stoic 10-Day Spring Forward Challenge. It’s designed to help you refresh your commitment to your self-improvement, refocus on what’s most important to you, and renew your motivation. After a winter like the one we just went through, we all need a little push. We all need a little hope and a little momentum to get us going again—towards making every minute count and becoming the version of ourselves we know we can be.
It's not too late. Even though you may have procrastinated about signing up, you can still get your reset, right now. Take control.
Only a handful of hours remain to join us. Let’s get after it.
You’ll get 10 updated challenges designed to set up life-changing habits for 2026 and beyond.
Plus, you’ll be invited to TWO LIVE Q&A CALLS hosted by me, Ryan Holiday, where you’ll get an opportunity to ask me your questions and discuss the challenges.
Spring forward with me and thousands of Stoics from across the globe learning to live a life full of clarity and purpose.
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The pain you feel is a timeless pain, a common pain … You can find a way to connect with others, people who have been through this, too—or are going through it—because again, you’re not alone.
Over on his Daily Stoic YouTube channel, Ryan shares Stoic advice that’s useful for all of us parents—how to improve our focus.
You’ve got a lot going on in your personal life. You’ve got a lot going on in your professional life. You pick up your phone and you’re getting hit from every direction … we’re all extremely busy but it doesn’t feel like we’re getting anything done.
Amazing parenting books to read over spring break.
***
Thank you for being a Daily Dad reader! If any of our newsletters have helped you to become a better parent, please spread the word or forward these emails to other parents.
The 2026 Spring Forward Challenge has already begun—but there’s still time to join us and get your invites to the LIVE Q&A calls. Head to dailystoic.com/spring now to sign up!
PASSAGE OF THE WEEK:
There was nothing you could have done to prevent this or that bad break. But here you are. Facing it. That's life. Stuff happens. Then what?
Read: Stoop and Build ‘Em Up
YOUTUBE TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK:
If You Want to Accomplish Something Big, Watch This Stoic Advic
The 2026 Spring Forward Challenge has already begun—but there’s still time to join us and get your invites to the LIVE Q&A calls. Head to dailystoic.com/spring now to sign up!
PASSAGE OF THE WEEK:
There was nothing you could have done to prevent this or that bad break. But here you are. Facing it. That's life. Stuff happens. Then what?
The more you control, the worse you lead. In this conversation, Ryan talks with leadership expert Daniel Coyle about why the best teams aren’t run like machines, why connection matters more than control, and what Marcus Aurelius can teach us about leadership that endures.
Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium—unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content coming soon at dailystoic.com/premium
WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING:
Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of man.
It’s NOT TOO LATE if you want to reset with our 2026 Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge! We started yesterday, but this is the LAST CALL to join us and catch up in time.
SIGN UP NOW
Winter has a way of lulling us into bad habits and stagnation. We burrow deep into our comfortable routines. We’ve found a favorite spot on the couch, our go-to delivery meals, our perfectly temperature-controlled environments. We hide beneath jackets and sweats. We master the
It’s NOT TOO LATE if you want to reset with our 2026 Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge! We started yesterday, but this is the LAST CALL to join us and catch up in time.
Winter has a way of lulling us into bad habits and stagnation. We burrow deep into our comfortable routines. We’ve found a favorite spot on the couch, our go-to delivery meals, our perfectly temperature-controlled environments. We hide beneath jackets and sweats. We master the art of avoiding the cold, the wind, all the discomfort of the outside world.
They call it a velvet rut—soft and pleasant, but still a rut. And yes, for months of dark mornings and early sunsets, trudging through slush and scraping ice off windshields, it’s perfectly reasonable to seek shelter in these ways.
But you can’t stay this way forever! Just as seedlings must break through soil, we must break through our comfortable patterns. Nature doesn’t stay dormant forever—and neither should we.
“Stop wandering about!” Marcus Aurelius said to himself, perhaps on the eve of a new season just like this one. “Get busy with life’s purpose,” he commanded, “toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue—if you care for yourself at all—and do it while you can.”
Here at Daily Stoic, we believe in moving with the seasons. We believe in facing the winds of change head-on.
And that’s what I’m doing NOW (we started yesterday, but you can still join us if you act now!), with thousands of other Daily Stoic readers all over the world, in the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge. It’s 10 days of actionable, Stoic-inspired challenges to help you reset your life and refocus on what’s important to you.
We’ll do two live Q&A calls together as well, where you’ll get a chance to ask me your questions and we’ll discuss the challenges.
No matter how your year started, no matter what life has thrown at you, no matter how hopeless the world feels right now, spring is the time to do this—to refresh, to get back on track, to renew our motivation and get after it.
Every morning for the next ten days, join us—thousands of other people just like you, trying to be a little bit better. To clean out the stuff that’s getting in the way. I’d love to see you in there. You can sign up right now at dailystoic.com/spring.
We’ve already started, but there’s still time to jump in, so DON’T MISS THIS SECOND CHANCE. Let’s get after it!
You’ll gain practical tools to:
Clear your space and your mind
Create better systems for yourself
Accomplish what you’ve been putting off
Refocus on what’s important to you
Abandon what drains you
Reclaim valuable time for yourself
You’ll learn how to tackle:
Digital distractions—inputs that constantly pull us away from what matters
Commitment overload—saying “yes” to everything and spreading ourselves too thin
Making amends—cleaning the slate and mending your important relationships
Mental baggage—unfinished business, unspoken apologies, and unacknowledged truths
Break free. Renew your sense of clarity. Refocus on what’s important. Reset your life after your winter rut. Challenge yourself.
Unsubscribe (this is from everything) | Update your profile 906 Main Street #274, Bastrop, Texas 78602 | info@dailystoic.com is not a monitored email
(Hi! This is a bigger-than-usual edition of Everything Is Amazing, and it probably won’t fit in your Inbox, so you’ll have to click through to see the whole thing. Just click on the title and it’ll open the Web version for you.)Well, it’s official - the Ig Nobels are leaving the United States, at least for now.I’ve written before about my love of these satirical science awards - particularly how they invite winners in to share the joke, like lab colleagues good-nat
(Hi! This is a bigger-than-usual edition of Everything Is Amazing, and it probably won’t fit in your Inbox, so you’ll have to click through to see the whole thing. Just click on the title and it’ll open the Web version for you.)
I’ve written before about my love of these satirical science awards - particularly how they invite winners in to share the joke, like lab colleagues good-naturedly ribbing each other while respecting the important work they’re doing:
But the Ig Nobels are also intentionally daft. They make a priority of aiming for a LOL - like how, in the very first ceremony in 1991, then-US-Vice-President Dan Quayle won in the Education category “for demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education.”
(I also love their description of him: “consumer of time and occupier of space.”)
That’s the other side of the awards, the utterly merciless roasting - and it’s just as fun.
The 1991 Ig Nobel Prize for PEACE: awarded to Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb and first champion of the Star Wars weapons system, for his lifelong efforts to change the meaning of peace as we know it.
The 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for MEDICINE: awarded to James Johnston of R.J. Reynolds, Joseph Taddeo of U.S. Tobacco, Andrew Tisch of Lorillard, William Campbell of Philip Morris, Edward A. Horrigan of Liggett Group, Donald S. Johnston of American Tobacco Company, and the late Thomas E. Sandefur, Jr., chairman of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co. for their unshakable discovery, as testified to the U.S. Congress, that nicotine is not addictive.
The 2009 Ig Nobel Prize for MATHEMATICS: awarded to Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers — from very small to very big — by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000).
The 2020 Ig Nobel Prize for MEDICAL EDUCATION: awarded to [BRAZIL, UK, INDIA, MEXICO, BELARUS, USA, TURKEY, RUSSIA, TURKMENISTAN] Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Narendra Modi of India, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald Trump of the USA, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan, for using the Covid-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can.
(Wince.)
Now the Ig Nobels will be held in Zurich, beginning with this year’s ceremony on the 3rd September - and although the official (and perfectly believable) reason for this is the increasing difficulty in getting nominees to attend, I wonder if this isn’t going to feature in the awards? If so, I can understand the organisers not wanting to be in the U.S. when that’s announced….
So - for whatever reason, it’s all change after 35 years. And as a fan of the Ig Nobels and of utterly shameless listicles, I can’t resist the call here.
Here’s the first part of a roundup of thirty-five Ig Nobel Awards that tickle me no end.
1. THE 2012 IG NOBEL PRIZE FOR ACOUSTICS
You know when you’re on a Zoom call and the other person isn’t using headphones and hasn’t muted their audio, so you’re met with a slightly delayed version of your own voice every time you speak?
More than a decade ago, Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada first discovered what we’ve all now learned from bitter experience - that it’s incredibly annoying when this happens, and can instantly derail your train of thought.
The device they used to demonstrate this is called the SpeechJammer, and it was built with a noble purpose in mind:
“This technology ... could also be useful to ensure speakers in a meeting take turns appropriately, when a particular participant continues to speak, depriving others of the opportunity to make their fair contribution.”
This also made me realise we can do this manually!
Is someone in your already tedious work Zoom meeting just droning on and on, and you’re ready to ask them to finish their contribution before somebody dies? Simple! Just slyly unplug your headphones, nudge your speakers up to full volume and SpeechJammer the wretch until they splutter to a halt.
Oh dear, sorry about the technical difficulties, you say with hand-wringing contrition. But I think it’s fixed now. So, where were we?
(NOTE: you probably only get to try this once, or twice if your acting skills are up to the challenge. Choose your moment wisely!)
2. THE 2005 IG NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS
How much do you rely on the snooze button on your alarm clock or phone to get you up in the morning?
However, if you’re in the latter category as I am, and you want your alarm clock to absolutely, unambiguously get you out of damn bed the very first time it goes off, maybe you need the clock invented by Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology two decades ago.
It’s called Clocky, and it has one job - to infuriate you awake in the shortest time possible. Yes, it has a snooze button, but it also has wheels, and when that alarm rings, off it scarpers across your room in as fast and as random a path as possible…
Alas, there’s only one way to shut it up.
Thus its mission is accomplished, maybe adding hours of productivity to your workday - or even helping you meet the love of your life!
3. THE 2014 IG NOBEL PRIZE FOR NEUROSCIENCE
If you’ve been reading me for a while, you’ll know my soft spot for the human visual bias called pareidolia - which is how you can see Marlene Dietrich, Gillian Anderson or the Virgin Mary in the grilled cheese sandwich that Diana Duyser sold to GoldenPalace.com for $28,000 in 2004.
It’s also how you can see this aggressively drunk octopus:
But in 2014, the international team of Jiangang Liu, Jun Li, Lu Feng, Ling Li, Jie Tian, and Kang Lee, went deeper - asking what is actually happening in the brains of people who can see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.
As I said in my original write-up:
“There’s a region of your brain called the right fusiform face area that’s strongly associated with processing the patterns of human facial features, letting us spot the faces of our loved ones in a sea of strangers. And when it gets activated, it so easily drowns out other conflicting messages. It’s like a megaphone at a town hall meeting.
Only problem is: like every other process, it’s working with the same “corner-cutting” visual guesswork inputs. And it’s easily tricked into making mistakes, as with Upside-Down Adele.”
There’s clearly much more work to be done here. But any mechanism in the brain for heightening emotional connections to parts of the world around us - for making us care about it, in a way that motivates us into acquiring a sense of stewardship around it - is well worth learning more about.
Coming up after the paywall:
Dodgy car manufacturing…
madly excessive co-authorship…
an inventive (if highly inadvisible) way of tackling a snakebite…
Howdy howdy howdy!
I hope you had a good week! I enjoyed time with friends and family, ate some good food, and built some fun things too. Let's get into it!
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Web links of the week
contrast-color() beyond black & white
Stuff Everybody Knows: A guide to the rest of your web development career
Comprehension Debt - the hidden cost of AI generated code.
Two React Design Choices Developers Don’t Like—But Can’t Avoid
Somethi
This week I replaced a bunch of parts in my PC as well as my camera, and it took some effort. Desk configuration is always more annoying than you expect. I ended up blogging about my camera setup after tweaking it a bunch, and these are my latest PC parts!
RAM: Crucial Pro Overclocking 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory
GPU: Asus PRIME GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
Video editing has gotten MUCH faster already, which saves me a lot of time at work especially. I recorded this one about using GitHub Copilot to help me update parts of my app todometer that I had put off for literally years (I was so excited)!
Last thing: newsletter anniversary is coming up. If you want to offer a giveaway, respond to this email to let me know!
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This week's question: Given a text string and a pattern, implement a fuzzy string search using the Bitap algorithm that finds all positions in the text where the pattern matches with at most k errors (insertions, deletions, or substitutions). Return an array of objects containing the position and the number of errors at that match.
Example:
>fuzzySearch("the cat sat on the mat","cat",0);>[{position:4,errors:0}]>fuzzySearch("cassidoo","cool",1);>[]
(you can submit your answers by replying to this email with a link to your solution, or share on Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Mastodon)
After everything that’s happened in the last few years, including the world-changing pandemic that started six years ago this month (six years), we’re tired. After everything that’s happened in your life, after everything that’s gone wrong the last couple weeks, you think to yourself, “I can’t handle one more thing going wrong.”
Certainly, Marcus Aurelius would have related to the sentiment. Floods. Plagues. Wars. A troubled son.
After everything that’s happened in the last few years, including the world-changing pandemic that started six years ago this month (six years), we’re tired. After everything that’s happened in your life, after everything that’s gone wrong the last couple weeks, you think to yourself, “I can’t handle one more thing going wrong.”
Certainly, Marcus Aurelius would have related to the sentiment. Floods. Plagues. Wars. A troubled son. Personal health issues.
But the thing is, life doesn’t care. It has no time for your questions. It pays no mind to your limits.
“I don’t think I’m up for this,” the novelist John Gregory Dunne said to his wife as they left the hospital after rushing to check on their daughter, who had just been admitted. He was down about his career. He wasn’t feeling great about his own health. He was sick about his only child. He was worried it would be a long and hard road out for all of them. Joan Didion, his steely, stoic wife, responded with something we can imagine Marcus Aurelius reminding himself of in Meditations (premium leather edition here): “You don’t get a choice.”
Fortune behaves as she pleases, the Stoics said. Life disposes. It decides. The only thing we get a choice in is how we respond.
The BBC caught scam call center workers on hidden cameras as they laughed at the people they were tricking.
One worker bragged about making $250k from victims. The disturbing truth? Scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers.
Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft. That’s why you need Incogni: They delete your info from the web, monitor and follow up automatically, and continue to erase data as new risks appear.
Look, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be much in the way of a philosophical insight. If anyone could do it, and do it without much effort, it wouldn’t be very impressive.
Nietzsche said that his formula for human greatness was “Amor Fati.” “That one wants nothing to be different,” he said as a prescription, “not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.&rd
Look, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be much in the way of a philosophical insight. If anyone could do it, and do it without much effort, it wouldn’t be very impressive.
Nietzsche said that his formula for human greatness was “Amor Fati.” “That one wants nothing to be different,” he said as a prescription, “not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.”
Greatness is not easily in reach—by definition. Loving what has happened? Sure, it’s easy to love what is fun and wonderful. It is hard to accept the inconveniences of life—traffic, jerks, an AirPod dropped down a sewer grate—let alone the tragedies. How can you love a prolonged illness, an economic crash, a pandemic, a brutal violent act, a public humiliation, the loss of a dear friend or family member?
The answer is: Only through incredibly difficult work. It takes practice. It takes reflection. It takes perspective. It takes time.
Amor Fati is a challenge. That’s the whole point. It’s something you’re supposed to wrestle with, struggle with, asking yourself “Could that possibly even apply here?” It’s a formula for greatness because it demands greatness. It is out of reach for most of us—out of easy reach, anyway. We have to grow to grab hold of it, and in the end, it’s that growth that is probably the only redeeming part of the entire experience.
P.S. Our Amor Fati medallion serves as a tangible reminder to not just accept, but to love your fate—including the struggles that make you stronger. Reach for this medallion when you’re feeling like life has thrown more at you than you can handle, and remember: your challenges aren’t just costs, they’re investments in who you’re becoming.
A Centuries-Old Practice That Builds Strength Without Beating Up Your Body
What if just 9 minutes a day could make you stronger, steadier, and slimmer by April—without punishing workouts or extreme diets? Rooted in a centuries-old practice, Tai Chi yoga blends gentle movement, breath, and mindfulness into slow, purposeful steps that support the body’s natural systems.
After 40, intense exercise can increase injury risk and stress hormones, but this low-impact routine promotes sustainable fat loss and real energy gains. Even complete beginners can see measurable progress in weeks.
This is your chance to join me for a conversation about the ways ancient Stoic philosophy can help us to find wisdom, courage, justice, and discipline today.
Whether you’re looking for a blueprint for discipline, a strategy for stillness, or a map for resilience in these turbulent times, I’ll share these tools with you and take your questions live.
You’re already part of our dedicated community of nearly a million Daily Stoic readers all over the world—collectively the largest group of Stoics in history. Let’s get this community together for a live evening dedicated to Stoic wisdom. Join me for an in-depth conversation about philosophy, insights into my Stoic Virtues book series, and a rare opportunity to shop signed books, Daily Stoic medallions, and more from the Daily Stoic collection.
I don’t often get the chance to speak publicly, so tickets will go fast—reserve yours today.
VIP Package includes:
Meet & Greet with me, Ryan Holiday, before the show
Ryan Holiday is one of the world’s bestselling living philosophers. His books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Stillness Is the Key, and The Daily Stoic, have sold over 10 million copies. As host of The Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan has become the modern voice for ancient ideas that help people live better lives. His work has directly influenced some of the biggest names in business, tech, culture, and professional athletics.
Do you think everyone understood why Cato was so alarmed about Caesar? Do you think everyone understood why Thrasea or Agrippinus refused to bend the knee to Nero? Or why Rutilius Rufus made a legal martyr of himself when corrupt interests brought him up on false charges?
Of course they didn’t. In fact, Rutilius’ friends begged him to defend himself. Cato and Thrasea and Agrippinus were seen as obstinate, alarmist, even annoying.
People are busy. People are mi
Do you think everyone understood why Cato was so alarmed about Caesar? Do you think everyone understood why Thrasea or Agrippinus refused to bend the knee to Nero? Or why Rutilius Rufus made a legal martyr of himself when corrupt interests brought him up on false charges?
Of course they didn’t. In fact, Rutilius’ friends begged him to defend himself. Cato and Thrasea and Agrippinus were seen as obstinate, alarmist, even annoying.
People are busy. People are misinformed. People have skewed priorities and conflicts of interest. They’re not always going to understand. They’re not always going to get it.
Whether it’s politics or business or personal, you can’t expect everyone to see it like you do. Honestly, if they did, it would probably mean you’re heading in the wrong direction. That’s what Chrysippus said anyway—that if he wanted to follow a mob, he wouldn’t have become a philosopher.
Stoicism isn’t about being appreciated. It’s not about fitting in. It’s about doing what’s right. It’s about saying what needs to be said. It’s about being who you feel you need to be.
So if you’re waiting for your friends to understand you, if you’re holding back until you get approval from family members or colleagues, if you think your entire audience will get on board…you’re waiting for something that may never come.
Do what you believe is right. Do what you believe is just. The rest isn’t up to you.
Good News from the American West: Public lands, working lands, and clear thinking
A 14er access update, Texas conservation done right, and lessons from the mountains
Good News from the American West: Public lands, working lands, and clear thinking
A 14er access update, Texas conservation done right, and lessons from the mountains
⚡ For anyone who’s spent time huffing and puffing on the DeCaLiBron Loop near Fairplay, the Conservation Fund continues to do important work solving the access issues that have long plagued this classic 14er adventure.
⚡ Tickets for Portland’s 8 Seconds Rodeo go on sale March 30th. And if you’ve listened to my episodes with Ivan McClellan, then you know it’s not your standard rodeo. It’s more of a modern take that brings together Western sports, music, and culture in a way that’s aimed at expanding who shows up and how these traditions evolve.
⚡ I really appreciated (and needed) this essay from alpinist-extraordinaire Graham Zimmerman on staying grounded in turbulent times. Drawing from years in high-risk environments, he makes a strong case for focusing on what’s within your control, staying engaged without burning out, and resisting the pull of constant outrage and information overwhelm.
⚡ I’m a huge fan of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, and I found this candid conversation on conservation easements especially informative and useful. It gets into the practical side of how land is actually protected—legal structures, landowner incentives, and the long-term thinking required to keep working lands intact.
⚡ And for episode 300 of Mountain & Prairie, I had the opportunity to sit down with Sebastian Junger. We covered mortality, community, and the psychological side of risk… topics he’s spent decades reporting on and living through. Sebastian’s work has been unbelievably impactful for me, so it was a real thrill to sit down with him and chat. I'm thrilled to share this good news from the West-- there's tons of it out there if we just take a little time to look around. Thank you for signing up.
If you have a pal who could benefit from a weekly dose of good news, please share this email.
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Do you have something good to share? Send it to me! I'm always on the hunt for good news.
3-Item StatusCurrent Location: Milwaukee, WIReading: The Alternative by Nick RomeoListening: Running/Planning by CMATIf you have a moment, reply with your own 3-Item Status.New WorkThis week’s Let’s Know Things is about the Cuban Oil BlockadeThis week’s Brain Lenses essay is about Cognitive Shuffling & the pod is about the Region-Beta ParadoxI’ve also recent completed an update of all my iOS/macOS apps, if you’re interested in checking out the Truly Simple Tool
I’ve also recent completed an update of all my iOS/macOS apps, if you’re interested in checking out the Truly Simple Tools portfolio :)
Templates and Scripts
I have a general sense that—wherever we end up next, however our technologies and politics evolve, and whatever shapes our communities and systems and social norms and economic realities are nudged into as a consequence of those evolutions—it’ll still be beneficial to have a keen sense of self-knowledge.
By self-knowledge I mean an understanding of who we are, what we want, what we care about, our relative advantages and disadvantages in different spheres of life, a rough comprehension of our capacity to suffer and sacrifice and love and give and gracefully receive, and the priorities (and variables) that underpin and inform all of these things.
Beyond providing us with a more thorough awareness and appreciation of our own uniqueness (and consequently, that of everyone else on the planet), self-knowledge also contributes to our capacity for self-expression.
As our self-understanding grows, so does our ability to share that cognizance via conversations with our partners and friends, through our votes and other efforts to influence society, law, and governance, through our art, and even through what we’re willing to do to pay the bills (and the nature of the entities we’re willing to do those things for).
Going deeper than the superficial on this can require a fair bit of work, in part because much of what we think we believe or care about, what we consider to be “us,” isn’t actually fundamental to who we are. Throughout our lives, all sorts of (often well-meaning) entities give us templates and scripts to work from, and we adopt these beliefs, rationales, and routines because, well, why not? What’s the alternative? This lending of philosophical motivation starts young and never really stops.
Peeling off those outer layers to figure out what’s beneath them can be the effort of a lifetime, and it can be disorienting making progress, because rather than discovering some latent, long-suffocated belief system or portfolio of goals underneath all those inherited worldviews, many of us will instead discover a whole lot of nothing, not second, complete and more perfect self that’s been hidden away, waiting for us to uncover it.
From there, our second effort of a lifetime is to fill that nothing with something; but this time, we ideally opt for something more us-shaped.
I think a lot of people, by adulthood, has at least a shadowy sense of this undertaking, and has probably even taken a few steps toward figuring out who they are, sans all those external doctrines and dogmas.
Something that I’ve personally found to be helpful in this effort is semi-regularly stepping back and imagining that the forces that shape my life, my decisions, my sense of the possible and impossible, today, are no longer there.
Money is gone, politics have become unrecognizable (or unnecessary). Maybe we no longer need our bodies, or we’ve discovered other intelligent life that maybe has some answers (about the big questions) for us. Maybe we’ve achieved world peace and post-scarcity and now we just have to figure out what to do with all our free time.
If things were to be shaken up in fundamental ways, who would I be? What causes, what goals would be important enough to me that I would want to invest myself in them? What would shape my actions, my overall trajectory, for the balance of my life?
Then, stepping back to now, to this reality: what does that tell me about who I actually am, what I should actually be doing, and what I should actually be working toward?
If you want more links to interesting things, consider subscribing to Aspiring Generalist.
I’ve got two new apps in the works, to accompany the others I’ve made. One is a personal wiki for writers (and other worldbuilders) to keep track of all their in-world characters, locations, political factions, etc, and the other is this guy, a simple word tracker for projects (like books) and writing rituals.
What Else
I’m heading back out to Seattle in about a week and a half, and I’m already preparing for that, which mostly means doing double the normal amount of work so that I can really be there while I’m there, with as few deadlines and external responsibilities pulling me away from family time as possible.
I do have some fun meetups and other little social get-togethers between now and my departure, though, which should serve as nice pressure valves on what might otherwise be a too-aggressive work schedule.
Say Hello
New here? Hit reply and tell me something about yourself!
You can also fill me in on something interesting you’re working on or something random you’re learning about.
I respond to every message I receive and would love to hear from you :)
Prefer stamps and paper? Send a letter, postcard, or some other physical communication to: Colin Wright, PO Box 11442, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
5 Years of Lessons From Running My Own Bookstore
My wife and I were sitting at a cafe in Bastrop, Texas, looking across Main Street at an empty historic storefront.
“You know what would be amazing there?" she said. “A bookstore.”
We started construction on The Painted Porch the first week of March 2020.
Somehow, we didn’t lose all our money. It didn’t blow up our marriage. It’s actually been a great experience an
My wife and I were sitting at a cafe in Bastrop, Texas, looking across Main Street at an empty historic storefront.
“You know what would be amazing there?" she said. “A bookstore.”
We started construction on The Painted Porch the first week of March 2020.
Somehow, we didn’t lose all our money. It didn’t blow up our marriage. It’s actually been a great experience and, even more surprising, a pretty good business too.
Five years in, I’ve learned a lot—about business, about books, about myself. Here are some of those lessons:
Crazy can be a competitive advantage. Opening a physical bookstore in 2020 seemed crazy. Not just to me—everyone said so. Retail was shifting online, books were becoming digital, the pandemic was raging, bookstores were closing—not opening. But that’s exactly why it worked. It was crazy because no one else was doing it. It stands out. It’s different.
Look for disconfirmation. As I was thinking about doing the bookstore, I asked a lot of people why I shouldn’t do it. Not that I was looking to be talked out of it. I was asking so I could hear the concerns, the objections, the risks I hadn't considered. Every one of them raised something I hadn’t thought of and then was then able to address before opening.
Take some risk off the table. Most big, cool, intimidating things in life comes with a certain amount of risk. But just because you take a big risk doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to take risk off the table. A great piece of advice I got from Allison Hill, who owns Vroman’s and Book Soup in Los Angeles, was to make the bookstore a multipurpose space. The Painted Porch is of course not just a bookstore—it’s my office, my employees' office, the place where we record podcasts and film YouTube videos. So if nobody comes in and buys books, we're not necessarily losing money. Multi-use allows you to do more than you ordinarily would—across the board.
Think of it as an experiment. When I was kicking around the idea, Tim Ferriss told me to think of it as an experiment. Try it for two years, he said, and if you hate it at the end or it’s failing, then walk away. This piece of advice was so freeing. It gave me an out—which allowed me to bravely dive in. Because I wasn't betting my whole life on something, just a contained time commitment. Thinking of every venture, every project as an experiment is a great way to go through life. It lowers the stakes. It minimizes the downside. It lets you take a shot on something that otherwise might be way too intimidating.
Don’t trust conventional wisdom. One of the things I did while I was kicking around the idea is I looked up how expensive it is to start a bookstore. Search results said it was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars—way more expensive than I was interested in. But then I wanted to question whether that number was real. So then I went and looked up how expensive it was to start an ecommerce business—something like Daily Stoic. Search results said it was hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I’d spent to start Daily Stoic. That was really helpful—to learn, oh, these people don’t really know what they’re talking about. Or that there’s a cheaper way, a different way to do it. You don’t have to do it the way that everyone else does it.
Be okay with mediocrity at first. A problem with having really high standards or when you expect a lot of yourself is that it can be hard to start something new. It’s hard to be comfortable with something that’s kind of crappy or mediocre or not all the way there. But there’s a reason most tech start ups think in terms of a minimum viable product. There’s a great Hemingway line—we actually have a shirt with it, and I have a print of it on my wall—it’s one of my all-time favorite quotes: the first draft of everything is shit. I love how The Painted Porch is now, but it took years to get it to where it is. It’s been a continual process of improvement and growth and making changes.
Doing interesting things usually pays off. When I was starting out as a writer, an author gave me a piece of advice I’ve never forgotten: If you want to be a great writer, go live an interesting life. He was right. Great art is fueled by great experiences—or, if not “great” experiences, at least interesting ones. That was in the back of my mind with the bookstore. Even if it failed, I knew the experience of trying to open a small business in rural Texas during a pandemic would be filled with stories. And it has been. I’ve drawn on it constantly—in my writing, my talks, in conversations with people on the podcast. So when you have the choice between the safe, boring path and the interesting one, take the interesting one. It always pays off.
Have a unique proposition. Most bookstores carry thousands of titles. The best one in Austin, BookPeople, stocks over 100,000. We carry about 1,000. It was one of the best decisions we made. We only carry books we love. Not only did this make it cheaper and easier to run the bookstore, it makes us stand out. If people want a specific book, they go to a certain trillion-dollar e-commerce behemoth. If people want to discover new books and have a unique experience, they come to us. We are the only bookstore in the world with our selection.
Create spectacles. Before we opened the store, I was in Bucharest, Romania for a talk. My host took me into a local bookstore that had an enormous globe hanging from the ceiling. I watched as customer after customer came in to take pictures beneath it, before checking out with books. This inspired our now infamous book tower, which I designed to be built on top of an old, broken fireplace. It’s 20 feet tall and made of some 2,000 books, 4,000 nails, and 40 gallons of glue. It was not cheap. It was not easy. But it’s probably one of the single best marketing decisions we made. Invariably, almost every customer that comes in takes a picture of it—plenty more come in because they heard about it and wanted to see it.
The positive externalities are the best part. I’ve gotten a lot out of the bookstore. I’ve learned a lot…about business, about books, about what I’m capable of. Sales have been strong. But the most rewarding part has been what it’s done for other people. Putting books we love out in the world. Creating a gathering place for the people in our community. Building something that makes our small town a little better, a little richer, a little more interesting than it was before.
Beware of mission creep. Our original plan was that we’d have only a couple hundred books, only my absolute favorite books. But I'm always reading and discovering new favorites. So the temptation to add and add and add is always there. In the military, they call this mission creep—a gradual broadening of objectives as a mission progresses. If you are setting out on a project, it’s something to be aware of.
For everything you add, take something away. There’s a great story of Mark Parker who, just after he became CEO of Nike, called Steve Jobs for advice. Is there anything Nike should do differently? Parker asked. “Just one thing,” Jobs said. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.” “He was absolutely right,” Parker said. “We had to edit.” Because we’ve always done it this way, is not a good reason. Or in our case, because we’ve always carried this book, is not a good reason. We have to edit.
Have the discipline to not scale. At least once a week, someone asks if we're going to open a second location. And at least three struggling bookstores have reached out about us acquiring them. The answer is a polite no. "Do Not Go Past The Mark You Aimed For" is one of the most important laws in The 48 Laws of Power. Know when you’ve won. Know what enough is. Know your limits.
Behind mountains are more mountains. That’s a Haitian proverb I love. My wife suggested opening the bookstore in the fall of 2019. Then COVID delayed us a year. Then we didn't feel right opening for another year. Then a freak storm and some political incompetence shut down the power grid—burst pipes, busted roof. Then a global supply chain crisis made books hard to get. There’s the day-to-day stuff too: employees get sick, the internet goes out, shipments arrive damaged, a toilet leaks, the door won’t shut properly all of a sudden. But that’s how it goes. With most things in life, you don’t overcome one obstacle, you don’t get through the first, second, or third year of your business, and then suddenly you're magically done with obstacles. No, it’s one damn thing after another. Expect it. Work through it. Keep going.
Learn from the cats. When we were thinking about opening a bookstore, I bought a course from a bookstore consultant. I talked to friends. I talked to bookstore owners while on a book tour. I got a lot of advice, gathered best practices, and learned what worked for others. And yet, the single most popular thing about The Painted Porch is something that never came up…the cats. In 2021, we took a family road trip to Cerro Gordo, the ghost town Brent Underwood has been restoring—my kids are obsessed with his YouTube videos—and came home with two cats who have lived at the bookstore ever since. They’re literally the most popular thing about the store. As one Yelp reviewer put it: “Nice collection of books, clean, very comfy atmosphere, but I’m not going to lie to the great people of Bastrop…I come for the cats.” Lol. So yes, do your research. Yes, learn from others. But keep in mind, some of the best parts of any project are things you can’t possibly predetermine.
Don’t overlook simple solutions. There’s a tendency—especially when you care a lot about something—to overthink it. To assume everything has to be big, polished, expensive, professional. But great ideas can be cheap and easy too. One of my favorite bookstores in the world, Gertrude & Alice in Bondi Beach, puts sticky notes inside their books. Just little handwritten notes from employees about why they liked this or that book. No fancy plaques. No expensive signage. We started doing it at The Painted Porch too. It’s fun, it’s human, and customers love it.
Do things only you can do. Something that’s happened with Daily Stoic over the years is as it has grown, so has the number of copycats. And so we're constantly asking, what can only we do? With the bookstore, we're lucky to have authors constantly passing through to record the podcast. While they're here, they sign books. Sometimes we do live events with them. Those books, those experiences—you can't get them anywhere else. With AI tools making it easier and easier to copy and replicate and reproduce, it’s more important than ever to find and focus on the things only you can do.
Zoom out. When we were doing a small construction project at the bookstore recently, we moved an old antique bar and found some paint on the wall, covered in plaster. Carefully scraping it away, we found a date: January 16, 1922. What was happening in the world that day? Who were the people who stood there and supervised it being painted? What kind of business was in this space a hundred years ago? How many others have come and gone since? It was a humbling reminder: we're not the first people to try something in this building, and we won't be the last. Every project, every place, every person is part of something much bigger—something that started long before us and will continue long after.
If you’re successful, your people should be successful. Nothing feels better than distributing profits or raises to the team. If you don’t take pleasure in that, you're doing it wrong, prioritizing the wrong things.
If you’ve always wanted to do it…do it. This has happened to me more than once. When my wife and I moved to a farm, I couldn't believe how many people said, “I’ve always wanted to do that.” Same with opening the bookstore. People hear you have a small-town bookstore and they light up—“I’ve always wanted to do that.” Casey Neistat has a great line: “The right time is right now.” If you’ve always wanted to do something, do it. Stop romanticizing it. Stop overthinking it. Try it. Do it small. Do it your way. But do it.
There are many ways to measure success. One of the first things people want to know is how the bookstore is doing, whether it’s a success. I like to joke, my wife and I are still together, so yes, that’s a big win. We survived. We kept ourselves together despite it all.
The real answer is that early on, we asked ourselves, what does success look like? And we decided that success was going to be: becoming more community minded, becoming more responsible, becoming better organized, having more fun, making a positive contribution.
With any project or endeavor, there are many ways to measure success. Has it made you a better person? Has it made your community better? Did it challenge you in ways you needed to be challenged? What metrics actually matter to you? Remembering why you did something—and how you defined success at the start—helps you calibrate your decisions along the way.
Career advice is full of slogans; almost none of it is based on evidence. Much of it is actively harmful, and as a result, many people are squandering their impact.
80,000 Hours is the first book to look at what the data actually says about having a fulfilling and impactful career. It covers why "follow your passion" gets things backwards, which skills will increase in value in the age of AI, and why the highest-impact work is in areas most people have never considered.
I recently updated my app todometer to be styled with pure, native CSS!
Styling todometer over time
Changing the CSS libraries in todometer has been a real reflection of CSS styling history.
When I first built it more than 9 years ago now, that first initial commit had React, Electron, and Less for CSS. Less at the time was great for what I wanted (Node-based styling with nesting). It let me use variables (like this) and nesting (like this), and got the job done with some global styles.
Eventua
I recently updated my app todometer to be styled with pure, native CSS!
Styling todometer over time
Changing the CSS libraries in todometer has been a real reflection of CSS styling history.
When I first built it more than 9 years ago now, that first initial commit had React, Electron, and Less for CSS. Less at the time was great for what I wanted (Node-based styling with nesting). It let me use variables (like this) and nesting (like this), and got the job done with some global styles.
Eventually in 2020, I wanted more encapsulated styles, thus I wanted to use CSS Modules. Also at the time, wanting to keep my variables and nesting where I could (but also modernize), I switched to node-sass. When you look at the commits here and here, you can see the variables switching from starting with @ to $, and how I moved everything everything to their respective *.module.scss component (ultimately only keeping variables at the global level). The behaviors all stayed the same, just was more modern under the hood!
Yet another big refactor was due in 2023, when I got rid of all Sass and used plain ol’ CSS files, and postcss for transformations. node-sass had been deprecated, which really led me to reevaluating the styling stack, and CSS variables existed natively, so that was one less thing needed! That led me to where we were until earlier today, postcss-nested.
postcss-nested vs. postcss-nesting
These libraries sound almost exactly the same, but act different, and Chris Coyier talks about it a bit here. To save you a click, postcss-nested has syntax like Sass, and postcss-nesting has syntax like the CSS spec!
Given the history above, it makes sense how the transition happened here. Moving from Less to Sass to a more vanilla CSS approach, all while keeping the core of variables + nesting, is all I really wanted. The nested library back in 2023 let me keep styling almost exactly the same when I transitioned away from Sass, with the exception of variables (see the commit).
I switched in this commit today to postcss-nesting mostly to make sure that everything transitioned smoothly. It involved a laughably small change list, to just add & nesting selectors across some files.
Pure CSS, baby
The transition to fully native CSS for the entire app is possible now because CSS nesting is natively available! I probably didn’t actually need to do the “switch to postcss-nesting” step, but it felt like a good iterative one.
And since I did that iterative step, the only changes I did for a “fully pure” CSS solution was to simply delete the postcss files!
It’s about the journey, not the destination… but also the destination is cool
It’s really amazing to see how far we’ve come in browsers to be able to do these things without any libraries at all. Yes, I don’t have the most complex styles in the world, and yes, I’m really “only” using variables and nesting, but it’s cool that a “quality of life, nice to have” thing that I enjoyed nearly a decade ago is now a standard. Look at us go!
Nobody likes waiting. Nobody likes it when somebody else’s turn takes longer than you feel it should.
But you know what? That’s just how it goes.
The late ’40s and ’50s were rough for a young James Stockdale, as they were for many young military officers. Due to the rapid expansion and contraction of the armed forces after WWII, there was an enormous glut of senior officers that became known as “the hump.” It took years for these people
Nobody likes waiting. Nobody likes it when somebody else’s turn takes longer than you feel it should.
But you know what? That’s just how it goes.
The late ’40s and ’50s were rough for a young James Stockdale, as they were for many young military officers. Due to the rapid expansion and contraction of the armed forces after WWII, there was an enormous glut of senior officers that became known as “the hump.” It took years for these people to retire and make advancement possible for younger officers. This was frustrating, demoralizing, and difficult. Especially for people like Stockdale who were ambitious, ready to lead, ready for their turn.
But again, that’s life. It’s Marcus Aurelius having to wait twenty years for Antoninus to pass the throne to him. It’s the professors and executives who are hanging on to their jobs longer and longer, making it hard for new graduates to get those opportunities.
It takes longer than you think or want. It just does. And as we have said, this will require from you the virtue of patience. First, to resist the temptation to rush ahead or force things. Second, to learn while you are waiting.
Stockdale didn’t know what the waiting was preparing him for. Marcus Aurelius didn’t either. Neither do you.
But almost everything worthwhile—like wisdom, leadership, mastery, opportunity—takes far more time than we expect, than we want. The timeline is longer. The apprenticeship is longer. The climb is longer.
It won’t be easy. But who ever said it would be?
P.S. We share ideas like these for parents over at the Daily Dad (because parenting isn’t easy, either—but we can get better at it by applying Stoic virtues and being part of a supportive community of parents).
If you’re a parent and would like daily advice and meditations on raising kids—or know a parent who might benefit from it—sign up for our free Daily Dad email newsletter at dailydad.com.
Career advice is full of slogans; almost none of it is based on evidence. Much of it is actively harmful, and as a result, many people are squandering their impact.
80,000 Hours is the first book to look at what the data actually says about having a fulfilling and impactful career. It covers why “follow your passion” gets things backwards, which skills will increase in value in the age of AI, and why the highest-impact work is in areas most people have never considered.
Join Ryan Holiday for Daily Stoic LIVE, coming this summer and fall to cities across the US, Australia, and New Zealand.
Head to dailystoiclive.com to learn more and get your tickets today!
Get Your Tickets
***
They worked hard for it. They took it seriously. They liked it. They didn’t want to lose it.
Who would? Who would want to lose their position? Their identity? Their career or their home?
But when Helvidius was threatened with removal from the Senate
They worked hard for it. They took it seriously. They liked it. They didn’t want to lose it.
Who would? Who would want to lose their position? Their identity? Their career or their home?
But when Helvidius was threatened with removal from the Senate by the emperor Vespasian, he refused to refrain from his criticism. Rutilius was willing to be exiled. So was Agrippinus. They were not willing to trade their self-respect for maintaining their access. They understood there were fates worse in life than being cut off—in fact, they would rather be cut off from Rome than cut off from their values.
Courage is not an easy thing. It is not free. It is not without risk or sacrifice. That’s the whole point. If it weren’t, there would be nothing to be afraid of, nothing for fear to whisper in our ear about. Courage is about triumphing over that doubt—it is fighting to do what’s right, to remain consistent with what philosophy demands of us.
We are living, right now, in a world where leaders are not doing this and we are experiencing the consequences. Apparently there is not enough shame in the world to get them to change.
But what about us? Where is our bravery? Where will we draw the line? What will we put on the line?
I talked about building my Micro Journal in the past here, and how much I like having a distraction-free writing device for blogging, drafting things, and just getting ideas out.
Well… I liked it so much that I got another one! This one is called the BYOK (the Bring Your Own Keyboard). I got it on Kickstarter and it’s cool! It’s more portable than the Micro Journal in that it’s the size of your phone (and has a magnet in the back for stands that are compatible with MagS
I talked about building my Micro Journal in the past here, and how much I like having a distraction-free writing device for blogging, drafting things, and just getting ideas out.
Well… I liked it so much that I got another one! This one is called the BYOK (the Bring Your Own Keyboard). I got it on Kickstarter and it’s cool! It’s more portable than the Micro Journal in that it’s the size of your phone (and has a magnet in the back for stands that are compatible with MagSafe stands), and you can connect most keyboards to it (via cable or Bluetooth). I may or may not be typing on it right now, heh.
Here’s how it works!
It’s been a cool little device. I like that it’s mostly toddler-proof so far, and I’ve had fun trying it out! I think I prefer the syncing I have set up on my Micro Journal more so far, but the portability of the BYOK is pretty nice, and I like how much the team has been updating the firmware.
What habit can help improve your parenting, clear your mind, and change your life? Find out over on Ryan Holiday’s YouTube channel.
It is a philosophical practice. It’s one the ancient Stoics practiced, it’s one that parents have practiced for thousands of years, it’s one that’s helpful to physicists and artists and creators, entrepreneurs and priests and poets alike.
Thank you for being a Daily Dad reader! If any of our newsletters have helped you to become a better parent, please spread the word or forward these emails to other parents.
Join Ryan Holiday for Daily Stoic LIVE, coming this summer and fall to cities across the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Learn more and get your tickets at dailystoiclive.com!
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PASSAGE OF THE WEEK:
But almost everything worthwhile—like wisdom, leadership, mastery, opportunity—takes far more time than we expect, than we want.
Read: It Takes Much Longer Than You Think (or Want)
YOUTUBE TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK:
The Stoic Reason to Turn Down 17 Million Dolla
Join Ryan Holiday for Daily Stoic LIVE, coming this summer and fall to cities across the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Learn more and get your tickets at dailystoiclive.com!
This week on the Daily Stoic YouTube channel, find out what the Stoics believed about the cost of personal values.
There’s an expression: “It’s not a principle unless it costs you money.” So imagine having a principle you care so deeply about that you’re willing to forgo $17,000,000.
What are you missing by only seeing the world through one philosophy? In this masterclass, bestselling author and Harvard professor Arthur Brooks joins Ryan to break down the biggest schools of thought and reveal how they fit together in a way most people never see.
Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium—unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content coming soon at dailystoic.com/premium
WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING:
It is always better to admire the best among our foes rather than the worst among our friends.
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My sister got me a rainbow cardigan sweater a couple years ago for Christmas that is very fluffy and floppy. It doesn’t have pockets, it doesn’t have buttons, it just kind of drapes on me and is like a small blanket with arms. It’s not a practical sweater, but it’s cozy.
Because it’s not practical, I always have to remember to, for example, wear only pants that have pockets with it, so that I can put my stuff (phone, lip balm, etc) somewhere. I always have to wear
My sister got me a rainbow cardigan sweater a couple years ago for Christmas that is very fluffy and floppy. It doesn’t have pockets, it doesn’t have buttons, it just kind of drapes on me and is like a small blanket with arms. It’s not a practical sweater, but it’s cozy.
Because it’s not practical, I always have to remember to, for example, wear only pants that have pockets with it, so that I can put my stuff (phone, lip balm, etc) somewhere. I always have to wear certain shirts that don’t bunch up in a certain way when the sweater is feeling extra floppy. It’s just… not the most convenient sweater.
But hoo boy, my babies love my rainbow sweater. My oldest loves to sit on my lap and have me envelop her in it in a hug. My youngest loves to bury his face in it when he’s sleepy. Both of them love to pet it because it’s so soft. They admire the colors. They tangle their fingers in it and hold on tight to the loops. They flop with the sweater, and with me, and it’s the coziest thing in the world.
I love, love, love putting on this sweater. I get a little giddy thinking about how the babies will gravitate towards it as soon as they see the thick loops plopped across my shoulders. It’s impractical, and it’s weird, but it brings me the best warm cuddles ever.
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