📗 David Kadavy | Time ➡️ Mind Management

Productivity + creativity is about mind management, not time management (a thread)

I sense and hope we’re almost at the end of the era of typing on a touchscreen. It was always a compromise, never good. It’s still infuriating.

I choose to believe that outside of the dopamine-doused dumpster fire of social media, there are millions of people who aren't interested in hot takes, don't even know what doomscrolling is, and are just quietly considering what book to read next.

Suppressing your emotions out of fear over how it might affect others is a form of trauma.

Having my last meal at 6pm (to optimize sleep) has had the added benefit of getting a couple hours of evening work or at least futzing around in. Reminds me of my youth.

Painters who exhibited at the Impressionist’s first renegade exhibition: Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro. Painters who chose instead to seek approval from the status quo once more: Fantin, Legros, Tossot, Henner. “Who?!” You ask? Exactly.

i wake up. something’s wrong with the clock on the wall. the numbers are jumbled. my hands aren’t right. i tell my wife. she responds: “that’s not just an observation—it’s a powerful insight.” i scream.

Can’t believe it’s 2025 and WhatsApp still doesn’t have a 0.75x speed on voice memos.

an old 18th century English word that should probably make a comeback

Very proud to announce the release of my book I illustrated and co-wrote with Carla Bruni, via Agate Publishing, now available for pre-order. Three years in the making, this book covers the earliest Chicago homes, decades of economic rise and fall, the bungalow belt, and more.

Renoir believed photography, “freed painting from a lot of tiresome chores.” Writers should feel the same about AI.

"To escape criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." —Elbert Hubbard

I will never understand why where someone lives has any relevance in their value to other people or their own self-worth.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his editor about “a young man named Ernest Hemingway.” “He’s the real thing.”

The Great Gatsby flopped and went out of print. It was revived in WWII when it was sent to soldiers in an Armed Services Edition. (155,000 copies! Only 25,000 had previously been printed.) Hard to imagine a world where reading is so central, so valued.

Weird that a baby walker is dangerous, considering the baby will be walking in a few months anyway. But it shouldn’t perform operations it can’t understand. Is this a metaphor for humans using AI?

Gym etiquette: Is there any time limit on how long you can use a piece of equipment? Or can you go ahead and do standing cable flys for an hour?

One reason, I think, people on dating apps are so miserable is believing an algorithm can find you an ideal partner is inherently neurotic. And nothing is a worse match than two neurotics.

The biggest mistake of secularism has been discarding with God foundational behaviors of religions: routine, contemplation, humility, gratitude, accountability, compassion, sobriety, judiciousness. Societies who practice these behaviors thrive. Those that don’t, disintegrate.

Everyone except you should read this book...