Hello again, Dear Reader.
In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.
Here are the latest interesting things I’d love to share with you.
Posting to New Zealand
As you may know, last month I offered to send one lucky reader my spare copy of the latest print edition of New Escapologist magazine, absolutely free. Well, I randomly selected a winner from everyone who emailed me and a nice chap named Ken was picked. He lives in New Zealand, and even joked about it in his email and said he’d understand if it was too expensive to do. There were many other people in the running, but no, his number came up. Who says the universe doesn’t have a sense of humour. Enjoy it Ken, and congrats.
It’s been a while since my last newsletter as I’m spending a fair bit of time thinking and preparing the “un-machined” project I mentioned last time. I think I’m nearly ready to put finger to keyboard and then hit send. As soon as it exists, I’ll share here too for anyone interested. But till then, a few things for you:
Something to watch
I’m quite late to the party on this, but my wife and I recently sat down to watch One Day on Netflix. It’s a romantic series, set in the 90’s & 00’s based upon the same day each year. 20 minutes per episode. It’s slow, gentle sometimes, fab cast…
…and it absolutely got me. You know when you read a book or watch a film or TV show and the characters move you, engage you and get in your head so much that they feel as real as actual friends? When you genuinely care and feel their elation or distress? It was all of that and then some. At one stage it had me in absolute bits. Very much recommended.
Something to read offline
Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity is out. I pre-ordered my copy as I’m that much of a fan. It’s theme resonates with me a huge deal. Modern work is built for distraction and if you struggle sometimes to actually get your work done, maybe it’s not you. A message I needed to hear recently. Cal also spoke on Tim Ferris’ podcast if you want to hear about it there.
Something else to read online
Ted Gioia’s piece How to Break Free from Dopamine Culture, talks about distraction, people who can’t function without phones, endless scroll addiction. All stuff that I already think a lot about. Point 5. ‘Only Connect’ is a belter. And lots of insight in the comments too.
That’s it for now.
Be kind and live well!
Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.