the one minute scoop
OK, you’re going to like this one. This scoop has 508 words. Is that short? Well, it’s 46x longer than a musk tweet, and 1500x shorter than the Holy Bible. So yea, I think we found the sweet spot.
Read time: 1 min 48 sec.
The Strategic Break
I’ve talked about this so many times but this story is one that is closer. This week someone asked me about the most counter-intuitive career move I’ve ever seen work. It reminded me of a story about a friend who did something that seemed crazy at the time: he took a strategic break from his career.
Here’s what made it fascinating - instead of chasing the next promotion or salary bump, he calculated the minimum amount he needed to survive. Just $200 a month. That’s it. He moved to Kigali, shared an apartment, and worked just enough to cover the basics.
Everyone thought he was crazy. His LinkedIn connections were posting about their promotions while he was eating Chapati’s and sleeping on an air mattress. But here’s the thing - he was playing a different game entirely.
So here’s the lesson: A year of focused exploration in your twenties can yield better returns than a decade of conventional work later.
The 60-Day Wake-Up Call
Speaking of games, we need to talk about something important. There are exactly 60 days left in the year. Most people are already thinking about their New Year’s resolutions, but I have a different proposition for you.
Frank Slotman, the former CEO of Snowflake, has this brilliant perspective on priorities. When someone tells him their top three priorities, he asks them a simple question: “Which one is it?” Because let’s be honest - if you have three priorities, you have none.
This got me thinking. What if we took these remaining 60 days and focused on just one thing? Not three things. Not five things. One thing.
I’ll go first. My one thing is optimizing my physical health. Not because I want to look good on Instagram (though that’s a nice bonus), but because I’ve noticed that everything in my life works better when I’m in peak condition.
The key isn’t making it complicated. For me, it came down to two simple changes: planning my day first thing in the morning, and going to bed early to avoid late-night snacking. That’s it. No fancy apps, no complicated systems.
The Bottom Line
The magic isn’t in finding the perfect strategy. It’s in picking one thing and actually doing it. Whether that’s taking a strategic career break or using these last 60 days of the year to make a meaningful change.
You don’t need to wait for January 1st. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to start.
Best, Christian
P.S. - Next week we are talking AI code editors - it’s better than you think and it might be the revolution we were waiting for.
“The only way to get stuff done is to do the work. Everything else is just preparation.”