Win With Flynn

Welcome to a new series here at winwithflynn.com.

A recommengine is a recommendation engine, something I invented around the campfire in 2008. My friends laughed at me, not because it was a bad idea, not because someone else had already done it, but because I lacked any of the relevant skills to build such a thing. Nothing happened until now, and while this is a blog post and not a search engine filtered through personalized interactions and a social graph, it still may be of use to you.

What follows are the things I stumbled across over the past 12 months that you might find useful. The things that I’ve recommended to friends, family, coworkers, and now, readers. I’ll be doing this annually as my last post of the year.

1. Book: Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See. Terrific fictional account of two kids coming of age during World War II, and the struggle for information and communication as the primary weapon of war. Plus, it’s some of the best damn writing I’ve ever put in my head. Recently released as a series on Netflix but I’m telling you, they can’t possibly capture the excellence of Doerr’s writing. It’s a treat.

2. Video: Casey Weathers, How Good Am I? “’Good enough’ is a disease, and ‘not that bad’ is the battle cry of mediocrity.” Featuring former pitcher Casey Weathers and his path to be his best. It’s about the excuses people make, and the choice you can make, if you are willing, to try your best at something. If for no other reason than finding out the truth to a simple question, how good am I? Love it so much I transcribed it for further contemplation.

3. Talk: William Irvine, You Are Living the Dream Life. Irvine walks through the path to greater happiness, through reframing the life you live, and closing the gap between your current life and the life you dream of living. I love the talk so much I transcribed this one as well, hopefully William doesn’t mind. Use my promo code for a 30-day free trial of Waking Up and listen for yourself.   

4. Book: Peter Attia, Outlive. If you love someone, and you want to spend more time with them, you give the gift of Outlive. This is now my most gifted book. Peter did every podcast and media outlet under the sun, so you’ve probably heard some of the high-level ideas. I’m glad he shared so widely because a lot of people will not make it through the four hundred pages in any timely fashion. You should absolutely read the book but if your mind wanders, here are my highlights, notes, and actions.

5. Documentary: Shangri-La. This is a four-part series on the legendary recording studio and its current occupant, Rick Rubin. More than that, it gives you bite sized moments between Rick and the artists that visit Shangri-La, with candid insights on their creative process.  

6. Website: Warren Buffett Archive (cnbc.com). I’ve been reading about Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Berkshire Hathaway a lot over the past year, often listening to their annual shareholder meetings and painstakingly pausing, rewinding, and playing back portions to capture memorable lines. Welp, as they say, there’s an app for that. Or a website at least. Warren Buffett Archive has every shareholder meeting going back to 1994, with full video and transcript syncing.

7. Documentary: The Defiant Ones. Four-part series featuring Jimmy Iovine & Dr. Dre. They share their path to the top of the music business and their entrepreneurial success with Beats. This was rewatchable for me, and I got so much more out of it the second time around. The early life of both Jimmy and Dre are captivating and helped me connect several thoughts and ideas I had about compounding interests over a lifetime.

8. Podcast: Rick Rubin & Trent Reznor on Tetragrammaton. More Rick. But this time, not as the subject but as the interviewer. I’m not a huge Nine Inch Nails fan but after listening to this interview I am absolutely a fan of Reznor. He talks about the fear of failure, “A reoccurring theme in my life. Avoiding something that is scary. Because I’m afraid. And what I was afraid of then was finding out that I don’t have anything to say.” Reznor also touches on the creative process and the role of authenticity, “The first things I tried writing were shitty. And they were shitty because I was posturing. I wasn’t being honest with myself, and I was trying to play a role, put up a shield. And, obviously, it sounded like that.” Give it a listen. 

9. Podcast: Jocko Podcast with Ryan Holiday. A podcast guest who also has a prolific podcast can be a bit much, but it was fun to hear Jocko turn the microphone on Ryan. He ran through his early career, and his start in writing. As someone who has come to writing late in my career, I’m interested in learning about people like Ryan (and Jocko as well) who have found success in one area but made a complete shift to another as a second or third career. I wrote a post, Blank Slate, about starting over and it features ideas from Jocko and Ryan. 

10. App: Apple “State of Mind.” Part of the iOS 17 update included daily emotions logging inside of the Health App. How did you feel today and how do you feel in the moment are the two primary questions, followed by a number of options for what is driving the emotion. The app charts these emotions and drivers over time. You’ll be able to look back and say, “man alive I was stressed last summer, and again this fall, and I keep tagging that to the boss being in town.” And then, if you are brave, you can change something. I’ve done a similar non app version of this that I wrote about in the post, more green squares. I love this App as a modern update to that process.

11. Movie: Casablanca: Never even thought about watching this but finally pulled the trigger after learning more about the production in the documentary 100 Years of Warner Brothers. Unbelievable. Just perfect. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and a well-earned Acadamy Award for Best Picture. 

12. Blog: Hugh Howey’s Writing Insights Series. Four-part series from the writer of Wool. Hugh is a damn inspiration and one of the biggest success stories in self-publishing. He was kind enough to share what he has learned along the way. 

13. App: Readwise. This app solves a problem that I’ve had for many years. Reading retention. I love to read, I get a lot out of my reading, but once the book is done and back on the shelf, I don’t easily access those memories. Readwise will pull up your book highlights and notes as a daily flashcard. So, you’ll remember more of what you read and be able to connect the ideas across different authors and subjects, which is a lot of what I try to do on the blog. They also have a “reader” app that allows you to subscribe to various blogs and upload articles and documents for future reading and highlights. If you decide to sign up, you can get an extra free month (two total) if you use my referral code. 

14. Podcast: Huberman Lab, Master Your Sleep & Be More Alert When Awake. This single podcast helped me fix my sleep and improve my life. The key items being, wake/sleep schedule, morning light, morning movement, and caffeine intake timing. The fix? I started getting up at the same time, weekday, or weekend. I go on a one mile walk first thing in the morning to get sunlight exposure and kickstart my circadian rhythm. I wait at least 1 hour before my first coffee, and don’t consume caffeine after my two morning cups.

15. Food: Mike’s Hot Honey. This is me recommending something that was recommended to me. And they were right, so I’m paying it forward. Put this hot honey on your pizza and thank me later. 

16. App: FitBod is a fitness app that prescribes a workout each day based on your available time, style, recovery, and equipment. I love the variety and customization. I’m also thankful for the small incremental weight increases that keep me away from the classic bro move…stacking plates and throwing my back out. Try six free workouts using my referral code.

17. Musical Artist: Hania Rani is a Polish piano inspiration who pairs her playing with electronics and looping. I’m sure she would cringe at that description but it’s my blog. Her new album “Ghosts” dropped this year, but I stumbled across her via an outdoor show she did in Paris.

18. New follow: Billy Oppenheimer, a researcher for Ryan Holiday has a great newsletter and posts his multimedia content weekly to X and LinkedIn. It usually consists of a video clip from an interview along with a few related quotes. He then summarizes two key takeaways.  

19. Web App: Pomofocus.io. This is the first web page I open before writing. If you are not familiar with the Pomodoro technique, it is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. It breaks work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length separated by 5-minute breaks in work. Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato, which is rooted in the tomato kitchen timer initially used to set the intervals. 

20. Coffee: Chronic, from Doma Coffee Roasting Company in Post Falls, Idaho. Chronic is a roast that I brew, and I give as gift to any coffee loving friends. It’s the best damn coffee I’ve ever had. 

21. Upgrade: YouTube Premium. I had it locked in my head that YouTube was free and could not justify paying for it. And then they got me. .99 cents for 3 months and I fell in love. I spend more time on YouTube than any other app, it’s worth the price to avoid endless advertisements from Tide. 

22. Documentary: The Beatles: Get Back. For every music fan, Beatles fan, or creative. This documentary, directed by Peter Jackson, covers the Beatles’ creative process as they write and record fourteen new songs, culminating with a live roof top (illegal) concert and the subsequent release of their 1970 album Let It Be.

23. Journal: Day One. I journal daily, I write morning pages every day to clear my head and get my mind working. I’ve also used gratitude journals and one line a day journals to capture a general vibe for the day. Day One is a Journaling App that lets you easily add short entries and couple them with GPS data, pictures, audio, and video. I’m still a new user but I can see that it is creating a digital time capsule that will be interesting to revisit in future years. They offer free and paid versions. 

24. Essay: How to Become a Centaur. So much of the conversation in 2023 was about AI and the negative impact it will have on jobs, fulfilment, and education as we inch closer and closer to Skynet taking over. It turns out the Nicky Case had something to say on the subject 6 years ago, and it seems to hold true today. From the author, “The old story of AI is about human brains working against silicon brains. The new story of IA will be about human brains working with silicon brains. As it turns out most of the world is the opposite of a chess game: Non-zero-sum—both players can win.” I wrote a less awesome post on AI taking over if you have some extra reading time. But read Nicky’s first. 

25. Blog: Autotranslucence, Becoming a magician. A great read heading into New Years resolution season. Instead of setting incremental goals, a percentage increase to your net worth, or decrease to body fat, how about becoming a magician? In this post, the author describes magicians as people who are so advanced in a particular area, you cannot even begin to understand how they do what they do. And through these people, we can see a “lens shift” and move past linear improvement to a non-linear, or magical improvement. 

Enjoy, and we’ll see you next year!