Edge #24 - Enjoy the Journey!

What I’m Reading

I’m re-reading Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order. It feels like there’s a lot of instability around the world at the moment. Many countries are facing economic challenges by way of high debt.

It’s easy to feel confused and that we’re facing an unprecedented situation. However, in the book, Dalio studies nations around the world going back 500+ years and argues economic conditions repeat over and over again in cycles.

I feel it shines some light on the challenges policymakers face, the possible scenarios in future, the repercussions and how we got here.

Resource of the Week

Tomoe River paper has long been regarded by many in the fountain pen community as the best.

The brand has been through quite a journey. Founded in 1981 in Japan by Tomoegawa, initially used for printing bibles, Tomoe River soon developed a fine paper for fountain pen enthusiasts and artists.

Traditionally, higher gsm (which is the weight) paper is associated with quality, typically printer paper today is 90gsm. What makes Tomoe so special is they developed a paper that was only 52gsm while preventing any bleedthrough or feathering.

In 2019, machine #7 which produces Tomoe River paper went down, and Tomoegawa decided to decommission the machine due to declining demand. For a while it seemed it was the end of the brand, however fortunately late last year Tomoegawa decided to sell the rights to a different manufacturer, Sanzen and retailers are starting to restock.

It has an airy crisp feel, there’s great feedback against the nib, it manages to show off the shades of the ink and gives it a sheen. I hope more people get into this hobby in this increasingly digitised world. A photo from my journal below:

Quote

"As far as life philosophies go, "The right time is right now" isn't a bad one. Most of us would benefit from a greater bias toward action.  If you move fast, you can try more things. And if you try more things, you're likely to find something that works for you."

James Clear

Thoughts

It’s very common nowadays for people working full time to have some sort of side hustle or project alongside, especially readers of newsletters like this. Nowadays with the abundance of info out there, the trouble isn’t finding something to devote your attention to but what to say no to.

When it comes to these projects, I’ve learnt over the years that enjoying the process is vitally important.

To make a side hustle successful it takes a lot of things, it has to have that perfect balance between your skillset, what you want to make or do and the market needs. Finding that sweet spot can take a long time.

It’s not like a regular day job where you put in x and you get y. You could be working weeks, months even years all the while giving and giving with little to show for it. Typically for example in the creator economy, very few creators are overnight successes, the majority that ‘make it’ tend to have stuck with it for a long time and outlasted the competition and improved their craft over time.

For my TikTok for example, I’m treating it almost like a video game, where I can see progress in real-time. You don't play a game with the sole purpose of maxing out your level, but because it's fun.

It boils down to learning to enjoy the process and not hyper-fixating on the outcome.

Remember: what you spend your days doing, is what you spend your life doing.

Hit reply if you have any thoughts, suggestions or comments, otherwise see you next week!

Hans