Reducing my inputs

Hey y’all, I hope y'all had a good week. I'm back in the office this week after React Miami last week. You can hear all about my experience there on [this week's Mostly Technical episode](https://mostlytechnical.com/episodes/79-super-ultra-tilted). It was a lot of fun and very different from a Laracon. Speaking of which, [Laracon](https://laracon.us/) is at the end of July, and I will be emceeing that conference, so I hope to see you there. --- ### Thoughts from the week The main thing I've been thinking about this week is reducing my number of inputs. I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed with all of the work that I have to do and annoyed by some of the takes I’ve seen on Twitter (more on that below), so I've spent the last few days with Twitter blocked on my phone. It’s been surprisingly helpful. I use a little physical device called the Brick (you can find at [getbrick.app](http://getbrick.app)). It requires me to physically tap my phone onto it to unblock Twitter. It’s been a pretty effective system. I have noticed that my anxiety or distractibility has gone way down and my focus has gone way up. If you’re feeling overwhelmed too, maybe try reducing your inputs and see what happens. --- ### Tweets from the week [](https://x.com/mryoukhna/status/1914731054906400966) This would be the next step of limiting my inputs to get a phone like this. And I may actually do it. The only problem is that my phone controls my insulin pump; it reads from my CGM and manages my insulin delivery. So even if I switched, I’d still have to carry an iPhone—or maybe a super cheap Android device with no extra functionality. That said, this phone looks very appealing to me. No idea if it’s actually any good, but it does look appealing. --- [](https://x.com/BonesawMD/status/1915440627308712062) I've said it before and I'll say it again: nobody does the reading. Forty hours is not that many hours to become the relative expert in your peer circle. Figure out what the fundamentals are (usually it’s as simple as reading the docs or the source code) and actually study them. If you put in the time to understand the fundamentals, you'll become more effective than anyone else you know and you'll also be able to use AI better than everyone else you know because you understand the lay of the land better than anyone else. --- [](https://x.com/jhooks/status/1915495619373977986) I don't know many Python people, but Joel is an expert at producing learning resources and he's got this killer domain. If you are a Python expert and a good teacher, I would take this opportunity very, very seriously. --- [](https://x.com/ActionDigest/status/1914796559398801761) Back to the “limiting my inputs” thought from above. This piece of writing really helped me realize that maybe all creative work is fundamentally a grind. When I sit down to record a video, write an article, or even do some programming, it *often* feels like a slog. And I catch myself thinking, “Am I doing this wrong?” But hearing stories like this one is encouraging. It makes me feel like I’m not crazy. I’m just doing the work like everyone else. --- [](https://x.com/cityaestheticss/status/1915118206894936173) This is kind of a hysterical way to landscape a park, but I do really like following this account. I wish that here in the US our cities and towns were more human-friendly and had more stuff like this. So, it's a little bit depressing to follow this account, but mostly it's inspiring and I love seeing the different ways that cities can be built for humans. --- [](https://x.com/1000yearhouse/status/1914353490425520559) On the same theme, this account posts a lot of pictures about high-quality craftsmanship in residential architecture. I have some dreams of building a house someday, but not a huge desire, or maybe it's not something that I absolutely have to do. But if I ever do build a house, it's going to be using these principles of a timeless way of building. Plus, this guy posts a lot of great photos. --- [](https://x.com/Brumairian/status/1914834066349662616) I hate to leave you on a depressing note, but I have nothing to say on this one except that this is both devastating and beautiful. --- ### This week at Try Hard Studios **📚 Blog Posts** This week I published an article called "[You Can't Trust a Nice Guy](https://aaronfrancis.com/2025/you-cant-trust-a-nice-guy-dd6dbd28)". It’s the culmination of months or years of frustration of people telling me or saying in general that anyone who is nice must have ulterior motives and must be hiding something. That has really gotten under my skin, enough to the point where I finally wrote down my thoughts on it. In the article, I tried to focus on the difference between superficial niceness and working toward real kindness. I get that we live in a cynical world, but the idea that anyone trying to be kind and generous must secretly be a villain? That’s a mindset I’m pushing back against. There are people genuinely trying their best to be kind. It doesn’t make them perfect — far from it — but it certainly doesn’t make them the bad guy either. 🎬 **YouTube** **Building our business with AI** As I talked about with Ian on Mostly Technical, I’m trying to create videos that I’m excited about. Today I published a video on how we’re building a multi-million dollar education business with just two and a half people—powered by AI and automation. [Watch the YouTube video](https://youtu.be/BLMv8JKqP_8) as I break down the real principles, code, and prompts that let us scale fast without adding headcount. **🎙️ Podcast Appearances** I joined the Code & Content podcast to talk about what it’s like creating content inside a company versus going independent—and how freedom can actually make creative work harder. We also got into why good content is mostly grunt work, why I quit a high-effort project no one cared about, and how your online presence is basically an API you design for yourself. [You can listen to it here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SYhtWdaVhs) --- That’s it for this week! I enjoy reading all of your replies, so if you see something interesting or just have a thought you want to share, please hit reply and let me know. Talk soon, Aaron {{ ENV.unsubscribe\_personal | default: visitor.unsubscribe\_url | hyperlink: "Click here to unsubscribe." }}