Hey there! Thanks for coming back and reading our newsletter, hope you all had a good week. Michael is writing this one today, while Juan did his piece on podcasts, which I was sad to read about, as I get almost all of my information from listening to my dozens of podcasts 😅.

This last week I had a few company events/interviews, was a lot of fun, and so far I’ve gotten an unofficial offer for a data engineering position at a small data consultancy, which I’m starting to get fairly excited about, so I’m highly considering 🤔. And I also had a nice (remote) valentines with Lina 😁.

Juan met his first Mexican friend in Amsterdam and now they go out every weekend 🍾.

LIFE

The Life You Could Have

We all want to do big things and live a life we're proud of, not stuck in a boring routine where we don't achieve much. But when it comes to chasing what excites us, excuses pile up. We think we're not ready, fear we're not good enough, say we don't have enough time, worry our ideas are dumb, and fear what friends or family might think of them. Alex Hormozi keeps mentioning in his books and podcast that you shouldn’t let 'Tom' stop you from going after your dreams (replace ‘Tom’ with whatever person that comes to mind that you’re worried about knowing).

The book The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware is written by a nurse who watched many people’s last few months of life. She documented the regrets that each of them had. Hearing these regrets won’t be a surprise to anyone hearing them. They wished they hadn't worked so hard, had had the guts to say how they felt, had spent more time with friends and family, and had let themselves be happier. But now while we’ve been told these things time and time again, most of us will still be heading down a path that will end up with the same regrets. Why can't we use this knowledge to change our ways?

Whenever I am on one of my long travels, I hear from a lot of people that they also dream of travelling for long periods of time. Spending lots of time in different countries and getting to know people from different cultures. I ask why they don’t do the same… and that’s when the excuses come:
- They can't be away from their friends and family that long (they might miss someone’s birthday party).
- They don’t have enough money (even with fancy stuff and a nice house).
- They can't take time off work (though they could save up and quit).

If these are the things holding you back from your dream life, and there's a way around them, it's time to think hard about what really matters to you. Don't be scared to go after what you truly want. Let's learn from those who've been there before not wait until it’s too late to live the life we’ve always wanted.

— Michael

PODCASTS

Your Favorite Podcast is Lying to You

Source: The Downfall of Modern Podcasts - James Smith

You might have heard of Diary of a CEO. There is currently some controversy among their guests. They all are “renowned experts”, but they all seem to contradict each other. How is this possible?

One thing you need to understand is that podcasts are businesses. They are not vessels for you to get free information, although it may feel that way. While money is made through views on the platform, 60-80% comes from sponsors. And sponsors only pay for engagement.

Why is this an issue?
Well, the problem starts to become apparent when you look at guests. In the beginning, you want fantastic guests who can change people’s lives, but you will exhaust the number of great guests very soon.

How do I get engagement without the best guests?
You bring on guests who are not factually correct but will cause controversy and generate massive engagement and views. This leads to more revenue and a feedback loop that encourages more disinformation and outrage.

“I am honestly tired of all these health experts on this show. If I followed every advice of these guests, I would have to change my diet every week.”
- Commenter on Diary of a CEO

Podcasts used to be such an amazing way to enhance your knowledge, but now these revenue-driven podcasts are hard to trust.
Are these podcast hosts doing this on purpose? Or is it a consequence of running a business?
Regardless of the intent, the situation is only getting worse.

Here is a 2-minute video showing an example of this on Andrew Huberman:

— Juan

TAKING ACTION

Sign up to our Accountability Clubs

Want a community to keep you accountable? Willing to put your money where your mouth is? 😂

How it works:
💸 Everyone makes the same deposit at the beginning of the month.
✅ Every day you succeed, you get paid back a small amount from your deposit PLUS the money from others who failed that day.
❌ Every day you fail, your money for that day goes to people who succeed.
🗓️ It is 5 times a week. Month-to-month contract. You can join or leave at the beginning of each month.

March Clubs you can join:
🏋️ Exercise 5 times a week.
⏰ Wake up early during weekdays.
📵 Digital minimalism during weekdays.
📝 Signup to join for March

Updates from this week:

This week we saw improvements from the wakeup group. Went from 2 fails last week to 1 this week.

Digital Minimalism got a lot harder, with 6 fails total, 2 of them mine 😅.

And for the Exercise group everyone stayed really consistent and each got their 5 workouts in💪.

Highlights from Exercise Club: