The Exponential Power Of Slow And Steady Progress

Welcome to the July 2026 edition of...
What I'm Into, What I'm Up To
#69

I'm writing to you from a train.

And soon I will be on a different train, an Amtrak, with Asher and Ezra on our way to Pittsburgh for a few days of fun—just the boys. They can't get enough trains in their lives.

By the way, if you live in Eastern Canada, I want to say we are not thrilled about the wildfire smoke you're sending our way. But also, I can only imagine how much worse it is up there, so my heart and lungs go out to you and I hope for all our sakes the fires get put out soon.

We did this last summer too, a boy's only train trip, but to Philadelphia—a much shorter ride.

We use travel reward points to make these trips as cheap as we can get away with, and even though we're not great at optimizing it (Wendy's much better than I am), just using the points at all makes me feel like I'm getting away with some epic scam where everyone else pays full price and we slip a guy a twenty and duck in through the side door.

[Warning—unsolicited advice coming in 3... 2...]
My best financial advice to people of all ages, but especially in their 20s: keep your credit score high and pay off your cards every month. It'll make your life easier and open up opportunities that feel way above your pay grade.

And speaking of things that pay off slowly, over a long time...

What I'm Into...

As I mentioned in the Special Update a week ago, Greysuits turned 10 this month.

Wow! How has it already been 10 years?

On Amazon, it's got a 4.3 star rating from 218 people! That's kind of incredible. Goodreads is 4.2 from 116 people. That's so many more ratings than any of my other books and I think it's just because of how long it's been around. (Maybe also because it fits a little more clearly in a single genre.)

I'm thinking now about what comes next for that world.

There's been a sequel brewing since Greysuits finished now, but in my mind it always needed the Skytrails side of the story first, which took forever to complete. Now that that's done, I'm thinking a lot about how the story goes from here and how to turn a good book readers like into an epic series they will hopefully love.

I told Claude-3PO (my own personal robot assistant) the things I was thinking about mentioning in this email dispatch, and it kindly informed me of an underlying theme of 'staying power.'

And I realized, oh yeah, I do see that now.

Wendy and I just started a documentary series on HBO Max about Burning Man. As soon as it popped up, I knew we had to watch it. It's right up our alley. I like docs about cultural events and surprising trends and Wendy loves stuff about cults or people acting crazy, so it checks all the boxes.

We haven't even finished the first episode yet, but it's a little surprising how down to earth and, um, old, all the most deeply involved organizers and producers of Burning Man are.

The craziest character so far is Elon Musk's brother, who wears a cowboy hat and thinks of Burning Man as his personal religion and insists, during the 2021 debate about whether it should happen or not due to the Covid risk, 'The man must burn!'

Burning Man's been around a while now, and it's almost the consistency of the event (along with incredible dedication by very invested people) that has made it such a cultural phenomenon which people shape their whole lives around even though it only happens once a year.

I also stumbled upon an interview on Youtube with Andy Wilman, the fascinating producer behind some of my favorite shows—Top Gear (the British one, back when it was the original trio), Grand Tour (with the same trio), and Clarkson's Farm (with one of the trio). I could listen to him tell stories and talk about the behind-the-scenes of those shows for hours and hours and hours. I hope he writes a book and narrates it himself.

Again, he and his colleagues have just consistently been putting in the work over many, many years, and because of their consistency and dedication, they have gotten lucky and made a huge impact on the world. I think Top Gear was one of the most watched shows in the world at one time.

In our neighborhood we've gotten to know some people and I've been trying to create gatherings to bring neighbors together to hang out and get to know each other better. I mean, honestly, it's not just me or even mostly me. A bunch of us have done that at different times—throwing Easter egg hunts, Christmas parties, Thanksgiving dinners, cookouts, outdoor movie nights, S'mores parties.

But it doesn't feel like the get-togethers we've thrown at our house have been very successful. It's probably mostly in my head, and also because I'm a perfectionist. I can't help feeling like I should be doing more and trying harder and doing a better job. But I think this is also a consistency thing. Just keep trying, not aggressively, but persistently.

It's also a cultural barrier thing.

No matter what Americans used to be like in the olden days, I think most people today, at least in my demographic, are intentionally isolated from one another.

We have our routines, our personal space, our comfortable lay-on-the-couch-and-watch-tv evenings and weekends.

Saying yes to invitations to hang out with near strangers and subject oneself to potential and likely uncomfortable awkwardness is intimidating and exhausting. It's not a one time fix. It takes consistent small efforts over time, and that's what I need to get into my thick skull.

Also, it can't always be on my terms. Sometimes I'll have to stop in front of someone's house and make small talk. Ugh.

But what I know I don't want, more than almost anything, is to spend the rest of my life (or our lives) sitting alone watching tv at home. And, honestly, once the kids grow up and leave home, that could be our lives if we're not careful.

So better to put in the work now to grow some deep friendships where we live which will last (hopefully) the rest of our lives. Friendships are one of the most incredible features of our universe.

Speaking of our neighborhood, one of our neighbors was recently let go in the giant wave of Microsoft layoffs. She worked for Elder Scrolls Online, one of the longest-running and biggest MMO games of all time, for almost two decades.

She was shocked and heartbroken, as many people were, but has no regrets about the time she spent building the game and its community over such a long period of time. Which is really inspiring. Players she had never met before were leaving her messages about how much the game had impacted their lives for good. Which is also really inspiring.

Consistency over time.

It's a super power and everyone's got access to it.