Table of Contents

• PART 1 - WORK

  • Blending Work & Play

  • Today, leisure is weaponized

  • Gamification

  • Book Recs On Blending Work & Play

• PART II - WELLBEING

  • A Second Nature Approach

  • Here’s what to expect…

• PART III - WONDER

  • Chaos…? You Mean Plot Development.

• That's it for this one.

WORK

Blending Work & Play

Let’s talk about fun for a second. The word itself is barely a few centuries old. Before that?

It didn’t exist.

That’s right. What we now consider peak enjoyment was once synonymous with words like ‘cheat, hoax & diversion’.

And before ‘fun’ entered the lexicon, activities like dancing, storytelling and games were extensions of a purposeful life. Celebrations revolved around key milestones like harvests or rites of passage.

There was no need for a word like fun because people didn’t compartmentalize their lives into “work” and “play.”

Today, leisure is weaponized

Post-industrial corporations study you, dissect your brain, and engineer a web of dopamine traps. Not to serve or entertain you, but to keep you hooked. They convince you that:

• Doomscrolling is rest

• Drinking yourself to oblivion is fun

• Gorging on post-natural junk food is rewarding

• And that work is hell, while escaping it is heaven.

They teach you that coping is the only solution to a life driven by uninspired work.

But haven’t you noticed?

Your problems don’t disappear because you ignore them. They only lead to a life where you never fully engage in quality work OR your rest.

So what’s the alternative?

Gamification

Stop playing the wrong games.

Create new ones. Write to yourself. Become your own marketer. Study yourself the way they study you.

Understand what drives you, hooks you and what excites you. Exploit that knowledge to your advantage.

Design a life so complementary to your unique nature, that enjoyment is the natural byproduct. This is how you reclaim your agency and control. By gamifying your life.

Here’s why:

In other words:

• Seek mastery

• Choose your own goals

• Become a vehicle of purpose

• Optimize for curiosity and learning

• View work as play—and leisure as the regenerative fuel that fires it

If that sounds like a lot, start here:

Book Recs On Blending Work & Play

• So Good They Can't Ignore You - Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

  In this books Cal Newport dismantles the passion myth: the idea that you need to “find your passion” to love your work. Instead, he argues that passion comes after you’ve built rare and valuable skills.

• Rest - Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

  Rest is a blueprint for turning downtime into a tool for recharging and improving performance. A really interesting take on how to use leisure to increase creativity and productivity.

WELLBEING

A Second Nature Approach

I think of creating and sustaining wellbeing in three parts:

1. Offense: Installing habits that lead to unlocking more mental clarity, connection, vitality, and energy.

2. Defense: Minimizing the risk of terrible outcomes by eliminating weak links.(Because even one weak link can finish you off—like alcoholism or poor sleep patterns)

3. Integration: How you merge your choices seamlessly into your life (without becoming neurotic).

Stay tuned—plenty of recipes, kitchen hacks, supplement stacks and health principles coming your way.

Here’s what to expect…

1. Animal based recipes, with plants used to bolster flavor and energy

2. Stocking and organizing your kitchen, so that nourishing choices are second nature

3. My experience and experiments with nootropics and supplements

4. Setting up your and lifestyle to optimize your circadian rhythms

WONDER

Chaos…? You Mean Plot Development.

Imagine watching a movie where nothing ever bad happened—no conflict, no challenges or nothing to overcome. The main character just wakes up, eats breakfast, and everything goes their way.

Riveting stuff, right?

Wrong.

You’d turn it off in ten minutes. Why? Because chaos is what makes a story worth telling.

Linear, left-brain thinking struggles to comprehend higher-order systems that appear chaotic:

If you’re struggling right now, remember: every great story has moments where the hero is tested beyond what they think they can handle.

Your story is no different.

That's it for this one.

Hope you found something that clicked. If you’re not already, follow me on X.

Until next week.

—JM