Logs
A collection of shorter posts and half-formed ideas. Extracts from my daily writing. Somewhere between diary entry and ‘publishable’ essay.
25 February 2026
15:55 — on intelligence.
According to Naval:
“The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.”
Which is kind of cool. You decide what you optimise for and you try to get it.
15:45 — apps I’ve already build and still want to build with AI:
Done:
Vitality app: I built a mini Vitality app with Strava API integration.
Rekindle: Also built a Readwise app using the Goodreads and Amazon APIs.
To do:
Daily logs: build an app that prompts me to write every day, creates a timestamp, pushes it through to Substack.
Daily planner: help me track big to dos, assign time to complete per task, plan day according to these big chunks of work and fit them in around meetings
Immoscout: Property scraper Munich. Help me see new apartments in the areas I’m looking for.
Expensify: email automation for expenses/receipts.
Calorie tracker (myfitnesspal).
Meditation or breathing app.
Recipe app for vegetarian food.
Insane what’s possible nowadays. You just need a good idea, good prompting and some patience and you can achieve what was previously only available to the secret world of coding.
15:43 — ran out of Claude credits so might as well do some writing.
Funny hey. To be in this world where it’s the new normal to co-work with an AI and when it’s down you feel less productive. Want to say I’m not dependent on it, maybe that’s a favourable read of the situation, but it does feel like a more efficient use of time to build Excel and crank out investment models with AI than without it. The question is what happens to the muscle you stop using.
23 February 2026
21:43 — Wow. Life moves fast.
Work: I’ve had a really good start to life at Proxima. My Dean says I was an exceptional student. And I believe so too. But for a long time, I was very frustrated in my career. It was really hard. I followed things that other people said were prestigious. And ended up being unhappy. I have now followed my own course. And I am so grateful for it. I go to work with a smile on my face. My mom can’t believe it. She always says I’m eternally unhappy (not sure if it’s fair, but oh well). I just know that the previous mode of my life didn’t work. Made me sad, made me feel caged. They questioned my decision to move to Germany, to quit, to start writing, to do the MBA, all these things. And now? I’m happy, I’m content. I did it. My wish for everyone else is to have such a cool, interesting, exciting, fun career. Really, it’s fun. It’s fulfilling. Feels like the culmination of 4-5 years of soul searching. I took the risk, took a step back, had lots of people question me, lost money and pay rises, but this makes it all feel worth it.
MBA: really believe it can be the pivot card. I always had the confidence in my ability but I landed up in an industry where I had no passion and didn’t feel like I belonged. The MBA gave me a chance to re-invent myself. Sure, maybe I’m starting at a lower level than I was before, sure, maybe I’m starting at a disadvantage to people who know the industry, but to completely change industries, completely change function, have a hard reset, that’s rare. Now I have ability x passion and I feel unstoppable.
21:30 — Reflecton on Lex Fridman podcast with OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger.
He talks about having fun. That’s so infectious. Feel excited by it. Say I enjoy this, I find it fun. Also just a good, down to earth dude. Knows life. Knows what’s important. Never did it for money, money was just recognition that he was on the right track, building something worthwhile.
28 January 2026
13:37 — collecting words/phrases:
A gaggle of kids
Genuflecting = To bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor or ground, as in worship.
Vaunted = highly or widely praised or boasted about.
Purview = Range of vision. Range of understanding or experience.
vis-à-vis: 1. in relation to: 2. in comparison with.
Non sequitur: a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement
proctor: an officer (usually one of two) at certain universities, appointed annually and having mainly disciplinary functions
equivocate: to use ambiguous, vague, or unclear language, often with the intention to deceive, mislead, or avoid committing to a specific answer
13:32 — on having a deep sense of happiness and content at work.
Feels good to do something meaningful. Been searching for this for a long time.
I also feel more empathetic, more patient with others. Less judgmental. Less guarded.
I am set free from chasing something, from “solving” my life. It helps me live as a “healed” person. I can exude more positivity. I can help others. I can see when they are suffering. I can hold space for them.
09:30 — David Whyte on Ambition.
Ambition is Frozen Desire:
“Ambition left to itself, always becomes tedious, its only object the creation of larger and larger empires of control; but a true vocation calls us out beyond ourselves, breaks our heart in the process and then humbles, simplifies and enlightens us about the hidden core nature of the work that enticed us in the first place.”
And:
“The ease of having an ambition is that it can be explained to others; the very disease of ambition is that it can be so easily explained to others. What is worthy of a life’s dedication does not want to be known by us in ways that diminish its actual sense of presence. Everything true to itself has its own secret language and an internal intentionality with a secret surprising flow, even to the person who supposedly puts it all in motion. Ambition ultimately withers all secrets in its glare before those secrets have had time to come to life from within and then thwarts the generosity and maturity that ripens the discourse of a lifetime’s dedication to a work.”
09:25 — on returning to yourself.
“We find that, all along, we had what we needed from the beginning and that in the end we have returned to its essence, an essence we could not understand until we had experienced the actual heartbreak of the journey.” — David Whyte:
Same idea as the Excalibur myth Guy Ritchie explains to Joe Rogan. You pull the sword from the stone, go on the journey, suffer, and return — only to realise the power was always yours. You just needed the journey to see it.
27 January 2026
09:45 — on the On the Art of Noticing
Listened to an extract on the Waking Up app by Rob Walker, where he describes the 5-4-3-2-1 Exercise. Pay attention right now to:
5 sights
4 sounds
3 touches
2 smells
1 taste
Makes you innediately present.
I’m realising how important it was to start a meditation practice in my 20s. I can see when I’m too deep in the video game — can sometimes unplug, notice when it’s not healthy. Other people close to me are always plugged in, not aware they’re lost in thought, lost in suffering.
Joseph Goldstein calls it “rope burn” — the painful feeling of holding onto the rope when it gets pulled through your hands.
Can I be better? Yes. Am I aware enough to know when I’m slipping? Also yes. That’s the starting point.
Log history
2025: Q1-Q4 2025
2024:
2023: