The Top Lessons I Learned in 2024
From podcast experiments to AI-powered shorts, here’s what I've been up to
Biking whenever the sky turns blue - I even did a few cyclocross races this season!
Hello there,
My writing hours recently have gone towards updates on our sling bag business, and I love making the emails playful and lighthearted. How nice that I have no boss over my shoulding saying, “tone it down and be more business-like.” (Harumph!)
Since I’m a one-man-show, I’ve gotten a ton of value from LLM’s and AI to help with editing and clarifying - my favorite prompt is, “what parts of this writing is unclear?” I also ran an impressive experiment with NotebookLM from Google to turn a 150 minute climbing training podcast into a 10 min conversation.
One more experiment involved using AI-generated b-roll videos from Luma Dream Machine in an instagram reel (last 30 sec), which feels like the future!
I know these tools may end up filling our feeds with mediocre crap, but I believe they can be used for good. (E.g. Get a review summary of your favorite podcasts from last year — something I’m experimenting with.)
The Best of the Best: Useful Lessons I’ve Collected
I shortened my lessons learned from last year’s 100 to a much more manageable 24. Despite starting with a list of a few hundred - I save my favorite 10 ideas per week - for you, dear reader, I’ve picked my favorite 10.
Here they are with a few illustrations sprinkled in:
1) What you’re genuinely curious about comes through when you share your discoveries.
2) Make time for fun in business. It not only energizes you but often leads to the most inventive stuff.
3) A house with a beautiful view is the best investment because it offers well-being benefits that never wear off.
4) “Humor is a way to show you’re smart without bragging.” — Mark Twain
5) Belief drives action. And the bigger the belief the bigger the action. Seek out peers / articles / books / podcasts that increase your conviction for success.
12) Give away value for free and you’ll get exponentially more return on your investment than when you do something for money (especially true when helping powerful people).
13) “Don’t oversqueeze the dots.” (Ray Dalio) One data point can only offer so much information. Find more sources!
15) Revisit your goals, mission statement, or directional document often because even an airplane is off-course 90% of the time.
20) Capture ideas with a pen and paper whenever possible because it maximizes the embodied energy with handwritten words.
“This is one of my favorite ideas: that art contains embodied energy that we can unlock, activate, and tap into with our attention. Our energies unlock the stored energy.” — Austin Kleon
22) “The greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash.” — Robert Greene
Read the full post: 24 Things I’ve learned in 2024
Worthy & Remarkable
The Butter Bot is a robotic gadget inspired by Rick and Morty that chats with you and carries stuff as it drives around on its tracked treads (Raised $359k on Kickstarter already?!)
This Next Level Jump-Rope can also hold your airpods - a problem I didn’t even realize existed, but now I wonder what do other jump ropers do with their earbuds?! ($11k on Kickstarter)
The Verge tries Meta’s Augmented Reality Glasses - I guess I missed this announcement a few weeks back but this product is wild! (And never to be released?!)
Magnus Mitdbo Free Solos with Alex Honnold (again) - oh my!
One Thing from Me
I’ve been enjoying the ideas from Nick Gray, entrepreneur, ex-tour guide, and author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. He brought a harmonica on one podcast and he would interject with a tone before he said anything particularly insightful, which totally cracked me up!
I loved his advice on how to build (or maintain) your friend group — the best way to reach out to people over and over is to consistently invite them to things. Hosting events gives you infinite currency for invites.
I’m working on hosting more, but another great move is to buy extra tickets to concerts and invite people I want to stay connected to.
Connectedly,
Jono
PS - Ending on a light note, I’ve missed my time finding the best Showerthoughts post, so here are three to make up for it 😂
