📚 Craziest Book of 2025, Life Update, Book Giveaway, and more.

👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• This prank book I posted got 30,000+ likes!

• 20 Helpful reading tips from Naval Ravikant.

• If you have trouble quitting bad books, read this.

This week’s newsletter was made possible by Sherwood.

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Their ebooks, audiobooks, and low-stimulation shows are designed to:

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📚 Books + Life Update:

1) One of the Craziest Books I’ve Read

“When The Light Finds Us” is one of the craziest books I’ve ever read.

Judy Henderson, a single mother of two kids, was sentenced to life in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.

She spent 36 YEARS in prison until she gathered enough evidence and legal support to regain her freedom.

In prison, she survived 28 days in solitary confinement, an assassination attempt, and many other terrible situations.

While in prison, she used her time to become a certified fitness instructor, dog trainer, hairdresser, paralegal, earn her GED, and become a counselor for hundreds of other inmates.

And that’s only part of her story, the full story is even crazier. I highly recommend getting a copy of her book.

📖

2) How Writing My First Book Is Going (Spoiler: Hard)

Writing this book has been a roller coaster of emotions.

My first draft is due in September, and I’m only about 4 chapters in.

Some days I feel like I’ve written something great that can change a person’s life, and other days I feel like I’m writing the most boring book ever that will end up in the trash.

So far, there have been 2 major challenges:

1) Finding Time/Focus to Write

I’m a one-man operation, so I’m managing my Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, TikTok, LinkedIn, and newsletter all by myself.

I’m also reading twice as many books because I’m reading new books to post for social media and also old books as research for my book.

I’ve thought about going ghost for a few months on social media, but when I did that after my knee surgery, my social media engagement dropped by almost 50%.

The best thing I’ve done so far is join an online writing group where we meet up every morning on Zoom to say hi and write for 1 hour together.

It’s a slow and steady process, but showing up every day has helped me chip away at this massive project.

2) Finding Unique Stories/Perspectives

No one wants to read a book with stories they’ve heard a million times or the same old cliche lessons.

So I’ve been trying to read 25, 50, and sometimes even 100+ year-old books to find remarkable stories and perspectives.

This is also tricky because you can fool yourself into thinking there’s always more research to be done, and you end up spending all your time collecting information and no time summarizing or sharing it.

I think I need to stop reading so many books and articles and focus on creating instead of consuming (though that’s much easier said than done haha).

📖

3) 10 Short-Life Lessons I Try To Remind Myself Of Often

1. People are busy, distracted, and forgetful. Always (politely) follow up.

2. Every day you work out when you’re young, is one day less you’ll spend in the hospital when you’re old.

3. If you’re tempted to buy luxury products, just realize it will only impress people poorer than you.

4. Watch more documentaries and fewer reality TV shows.

5. If you don’t love the sweater at the store, you won’t love it at home.

6. The less sugar you eat, the sweeter your life will become.

7. It’s better to be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.

8. You can accept yourself, and also want to become better.

9. Be patient with results but impatient with action.

10. You might not feel like working out, but you’ll never regret it.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) I’m giving away 2 FREE signed copies of “When The Light Finds Us”:

• To enter fill out this survey here.

• One entry per person. I’ll announce the winners in next week’s newsletter.

2) If you’d like to be an early reader of my book and give feedback on it, join the waitlist here.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Here are 3 awesome (and free) newsletters I recommend:

1) Rob Henderson Ph.D: Rob is a psychologist who studies and writes about human nature. He’s the bestselling author of “Troubled” and coined the term “luxury beliefs”. If you want to better understand human behavior and social class, join 70,000+ readers here.

2) Jason Feifer: Jason is the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine. Every week he shares one tip that will help you become more effective at work and build a career or company you love. If you want to level-up your career or company, join 60,000+ readers here.

3) Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Anne-Laure is a neuroscientist and author of “Tiny Experiments.” Every week she shares a new science-backed strategy to help you become more productive, creative, or mindful. If you want to think smarter and live better, join 100,000+ readers here.

Your opinion matters!

Thank you for your support,

Alex W.