Siam was never colonized by Europe, it was colonized by Bangkok.

I found this blog post to be much better at getting the point across: https://tombedor.dev/human-attention-and-human-effort/

I recently bought a PS5 Pro in anticipation of GTA6. I’m pretty shocked at how boring and lifeless big modern AAA games are. I feel like I’m basically playing a cinematic sequence in a Marvel-slop movie.

“ A game idea should be at least 90% mechanics and less than 10% story. Any more than 10% story is a red flag.” -Tynan Sylvester

Everything is just an Unreal engine demo now?

Beauty standards, for example, track directly alongside what a body looks like when the owner has free time to spend on leisure. For example, a tan in some cultures used to be ugly and pale skin more beautiful because a tan meant you worked outside in the sun and pale skin meant you could be inside, doing a higher status job or not working. Now, pale means stuck inside working and tan means going outside for leisure. This is suddenly changing, because “being healthy” means you have time to do this.

In the media and art we consume, the amount of human effort involved drives how much we subconsciously value it. Subtle indicators of human involvement in writing, for example, will make us like the writing more. A video clearly made by a real human will be more entertaining. Just like a meal cooked at home by some with passion for the art will always taste better than a chain restaurant meal, even if the restaurant meal is technically more complicated or uses better ingredients.

As AI takes over more and more, its direct output and stuff that smells like its direct output is going to be less and less desirable.

There is a TON of market opportunity in business for people who truly understand this.

Having a nice library of paper books, for whatever reason, has worked a lot better for me. I think it’s passively seeing them around the house and in the background always considering what is next.

This last round I couldn’t decide what to dig in to after I’d finished True Grit, so I spent a few minutes browsing what we had on hand and it was just… a very pleasant experience.

Also, unless you pirate ebooks or have access to a library that offers them, used paperbacks are actually much cheaper than buying ebooks.

Here’s what I did: 1. Install Jomo on the phone. There are other apps, but basically it makes me wait 5s before I can open a brainrot app, and then I can only use it for 5min, and every time I do this I have to wait an additional 5s. It resets at midnight. This introduces the necessary friction.

2. Paper books. The house is now full of paper books. Book seems interesting? Buy it. Books everywhere. Real books.

3. The actual habit. I stack habits. Right now I have a daily workout routine. First thing I leave the house and either run or go to the gym. I bring my book, and afterwards go to the cafe across the street for a coffee. At night, I read before going to bed. Once you finish a few books this way, you’re in. TV now is actually hard to pay attention to, and I feel kind of… dirty doomscrolling now (like eating junk food, it tastes good but you feel gross during the experience).

If you want something to start with: https://bookshop.org/p/books/true-grit-charles-portis/5ac454...

I’m probably just exaggerating and remembering selectively.

If you want to wait in line for something actually worth waiting for: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GodS2ozgTYR1K4kGA?g_st=ic

I always get the pad kapow with half crispy pork and their sour pork soup. My wife gets the pad kapow with glass noodle. Their spice levels are accurately described. If you are not tolerant to spice, definitely get one of the lower levels, they aren’t over the top and the dish does need some chili.

Also, feel free to get in touch for more places to go and things to do (lived here for over a decade): firstname.lastname at gmail.

The funny thing is, this place got famous a dew years ago, so you now have to wait in line for hours to have this perfectly normal bowl of $2 soup. I didn’t really mind because even if there was no line I’d probably eat here once every 3yrs when I was hungry and happened to be in front of it.

But this is relatively common in Bangkok and actually one of my favorite places was recently headshotted by fame. They serve pad kapow, which domestically is the most commonly eaten and beloved dish amongst Thais. This place managed to elevate the dish without getting snooty about it, reasonably priced, fantastic ingredients, consistent quality, great service, hygienic, and just excellent in all regards. It’s a 10min walk and my wife would go there to eat multiple times a week.

Unfortunately a YouTuber made a video about it and now all of the YouTubers who pass through town make a video about it and there’s a 2hr line at all hours. I’m happy they found success, but also obviously annoyed despite the selfish nature of these feelings.

We now order it for delivery every couple months.

Usually the stuff that goes viral doesn’t bother me- the tourists need to eat somewhere, and living here I have much more ability to find good food than they would, so it kind of works for everyone that they end up concentrated in a few places that I don’t miss.

But I do dearly miss the pad kapow at Gapow Tapae (if you’re passing through Bangkok get there 20min before they open and wait in line, it’s worth it).

I immediately thought Sandwich made it. Some of their stuff like https://youtu.be/5GeR8XTWR3M?si=RX-NBCMicnUPw1jA is so good I just periodically watch it.

If The Browser Company folks made that video, their superpower is really marketing and you are actually correct. But I feel like it must have been an agency.

In sports like skydiving and technical cave/wreck diving people often assume you get an adrenaline rush doing it and that’s what draws people in.

Not the case (for me at least).

Rather, when you get good enough to be competent at these there’s no adrenaline. Adrenaline is when you are operating beyond your skill level. The satisfaction comes from calm, cool, collected execution, with the knowledge and training that allows you to avoid the dangers and do something exceptional with a much lower risk profile than an outsider would assume.

It’s also fun to play with gear (toys).

If you’re going for PMF and traction… It needs to have all sorts of Nikita Bier onboarding juice, remove all barriers and friction for not only the person setting this up but most importantly their companions. Time to first usefulness is currently minutes. It needs to be seconds. And then layers of social sharing work so that the content this app generates is stuff that will be easily shareable on Instagram. And then layers of contact adding stuff for vitality.

Then your next problem is people don’t go on trips that often, so at best your users can only use it in spurts a few times a year.

And your reward for all of that is then figuring out how to get money out of these users. Ads?

None of that should be bad news. It’s good news. The hard truth is this is not a marketable piece of software. It’s a classic tarpit.

You’ve clearly built something that YOU love and are passionate about. That’s awesome. Keep building it, and get that little burst of dopamine when you add a feature that you love that is perfectly designed for exactly 1 user, the only one who matters.

And then when a profitable idea pops into your head you know what it will take to bring it to life. And if it’s a truly great idea, one that helps your users make money, it wont need any of the soul crushing growth hacks described above, people will beg you to use it and put up with all manner of warts and bugs because it helps them make money.