Surface Tension Newsletter
“Weekly insights on how to discover your strengths and build a life that fits”
The main topics that I write about are: career clarity, personal growth, and decision-making.
Surface Tension is a carefully researched, slowly brewed, story-driven weekly newsletter of connected insights, written to be read in under three minutes.
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Read previous issues of the Surface Tension newsletter:
2026
The Problem with Modern Non-Fiction Books
The success stories we read about in non-fiction books shouldn’t be taken as recipes for our own success, but rather as exemplars for our own path to mastery.
Date: October 7, 2026
Bloom Where You Are Planted
We often already have all we need to solve our problems; we’re just not flexible enough to recognise it.
Date: September 30, 2026
Productive Failure: How to Learn Your Way Forward
Sometimes, you have to get your hands on a problem to figure out how to solve it.
Date: September 23, 2026
How to Read More Books by Quitting More
Understanding why you had to quit a book reduces the odds that you’ll quit the next one.
Date: September 17, 2026
The Beauty Is in the Attempt
Having a goal, even a flawed one, can provide stability and a sense of direction. And if things go sideways, we can always adjust our course as we go.
Date: September 9, 2026
Domain Mapping: How to Create Exceptional Work
To create exceptional work, it is absolutely necessary to look beyond your own craft for inspiration.
Date: September 3, 2026
Why Facts don’t Speak for Themselves
Intuition comes before reasoning. So, changing someone’s mind begins with speaking to their moral values first, setting the table for logic to be served later.
Date: August 26, 2026
One Day Better
Having an endless pursuit anchored to every finite goal keeps us saner than blindly dragging ourselves from one finish line to the next.
Date: August 19, 2026
Failing Forward
Sometimes, it's worth holding on a little longer rather than giving up on something you've already poured years of your life into.
Date: August 12, 2026
Come Rain or Come Shine
No matter how willing or determined you are to make the most of your day, the wrong environment can imperceptibly leach away so much of your energy that, by the end of it, you’ll wrongfully blame yourself for the work of an unseen culprit.
Date: August 5, 2026
The Mooring Line
A little bit of resilience against the rough tides can go a long way.
Date: July 28, 2026
Get to the Chopper
Career fit does not come from inventing a new self. It comes from finding the best version of yourself within who you already are.
Date: July 22, 2026
The Invisible Co-Signer
Our future choices shouldn't be restricted by who we are today.
Date: July 18, 2026
What Kind of Guppy Are You?
Personal growth does not happen in a vacuum; it all depends on where you decide to practice it in the first place.
Date: July 10, 2026
You Are Not Born for a Job
Instead of blindly looking for the one job you were born to do, it's far more fitting to look for a better expression of who you already are.
Date: June 30, 2026
The Collection Unveils The Collector
The things we collect reflect the kind of person we are becoming, and the kind of person we hope to become.
Date: June 22, 2026
Repetition Is Not Communication
The truth is more effectively received when it has been delivered in a form the other person can actually relate to.
Date: June 16, 2026
At Least I Won’t Be Unoriginal
The value of meaningful work is going to be attached more and more to what makes us human in the first place.
Date: June 1, 2026
The Danger of a Fixed Perspective
The best kind of life lives in the grey areas, where we are able to alter the balance between two extremes, matched to the situation we are in.
Date: May 24, 2026
The Boundary Within
Progress very much depends on the boundaries we build around our attention.
Date: May 16, 2026
The Moving Benchmark
Being close to people who challenge your idea of “good enough,” and still want the best for you, will inevitably pull you toward a better version of yourself.
Date: May 14, 2026
The Selfish Beginnings
Any creative work often begins selfishly, but it only becomes truly meaningful when you sense the right transition point between making it for yourself and making it for others.
Date: May 4, 2026
Are we going to get replaced by AI?
The real danger is not AI itself. It is carrying yesterday's definition of skill into tomorrow's labor market.
Date: April 27, 2026
Kindle vs Physical Books
Reading on a Kindle instead of reading a physical book is not really a compromise. It is an easier path to the same destination.
Date: April 21, 2026
The Problem of the Wrong Fit
We're each disposed toward some set of skills. But some of us have a harder time finding ours. And part of why that happens isn't always about the person. Sometimes it's about the setting in which the person is being judged.
Date: April 12, 2026
Nature Versus Nurture
Getting good at anything is not impossible, but it is not equally possible at every stage of life either.
Date: April 3, 2026
What Monopoly Gets Right About Real Life
The real mistake is to think that the all-in solution to all the tradeoffs life throws at you is courage, when very often that is just one end of a spectrum, and the best possible outcome lives somewhere in the middle.
Date: March 31, 2026
It’s Better to Be Wrong Than to Be Vague and Confusing
Only the language that is precise enough to be wrong is good enough to be useful.
Date: March 22, 2026
Are You Standing Too Close to the Book?
Why the real reading begins after you finish the book
Date: March 16, 2026
How to Tell a Book from a Market Commodity?
Are books becoming profound nonsense?
Date: March 13, 2026
When the response become the damage
Outcomes often belong to the reaction more than the original trigger
Date: March 13, 2026
How to separate trade-offs from avoidable costs
There are no solutions, only trade-offs
Date: March 13, 2026