Scott Reyes' Blog

I am a big fan of what Shawn Blanc does with The Sweet Setup and his personal blog.

I’ve been looking for a way to bring my planning to my iPad. I have traditionally found it cumbersome, even with great apps like Goodnotes.

This PDF planner looks like it will give some structure to an iPad based planner, especially with the page linking. I am going to give it a shot, and I will let you know if I stick with it or go back to pen and paper.

Here is a great article on learning how to build wealth over time. I love how Nathan Barry breaks down the path between employee to marketplace. The reality is, making money is a skill that can be learned like any other skill, and it takes more time for some than others.

I especially resonated with the parts on:

1. Turning hourly freelance work into recurring packaged priced work.
2. Increased earnings don’t often translate into increased wealth.
3. Moving to a business that affords a higher degree of wealth building often means a temporary decrease of income.
4. It takes longer than you think it will. (I am experiencing this personally.)
5. The questions towards the end about where in the process you are.

Ryan Holiday writes excellent books. Ego is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way are my two favorite. These books are influenced by Stoicism, and ancient philosophy of mental toughness and being present.

What I love most about it is the idea that we can control our behavior and the framework it provides to be intentional.

He wrote aseries of emailsteaching about the basics of the philosophy, and it’s definitely worth signing up for and reading.

My two favorite emails are about daily journaling and remembering that we can die at any moment.

Go check it out.

I had the opportunity to see Kevn Kinney play a singer-songwriter set a few weeks about. I’ve always enjoyed Drivin N Cryin, but I only knew their hits.

I was struck by Kinney’s story telling in the songs that he played. I found him brilliant and comfortable on stage. He wasn’t trying to prove anything. He seemed like he was doing what he loved and was simply sharing his experience and feeling with everyone in the room.

Before the set wrapped up, one of the other performers told a story about Kinney. He said he was on tour with him and and woken up in a bad mood, hungover from the night before. He walked to the front of the bus, and Kinney was standing there holding little chocolate figurines. Kinney said, “Hey man. I was at the dollar store, and I saw these little chocolate figurines. They made me think of you, so I bought them for you.” The other performer said, “That’s the day I knew I would know this man forever.”

I couldn’t wait to listen to more of what Kinney had written.

I’ve been listening to “A Good Country Mile” frequently since that day. I’m in love with it. It captures a nostalgic feeling that I will try to explain:

It feels like sitting alone in a room, feeling the weight of all that’s good and bad, knowing all of that is for good, and knowing we are never really alone. I close my eyes, and I feel the room expand infinitely. There is so much space around me, and that weight I was feeling is off of me. It’s now in the air around me…expanding as the room expands. I open my eyes and the weight comes back to me, but not like a weight. Instead it is warm like a hug.

This is where great music, great art, great food, great books, and great conversation take me. It’s not sad. It’s not happy. It just is, and it’s right now, and there is so much comfort in that feeling. I wish I could sit in it always.

My mom made this soup for me as a kid. I was craving it, so I did my best to recreate if from the flavors I remember. It’s incredible how food tied to a memory feels exactly like love. I think it actually is love, so I am sharing it with you.

Ingredients

• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 2 chopped potatoes (1/4” by 1” strips)
• 2 sliced celery stalks
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 smashed garlic cloves
• 1 lime washed and halved
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 16 oz can of roasted diced tomatoes in juice
• 32 oz beef broth
• 32 oz chicken broth
• 1 lbs ground beef
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1.25 oz taco seasoning
• 1.5 cups rice
• 3 cups water
• 1 jar Goya Sofrito
• 4 tbsp oil

Seasonings

• Goya Adobo
• Salt
• Pepper

Soup Base

1. Heat a soup pot with 1 tbsp of oil on medium-high 
2. Add onion and cook for 4 minutes stirring occasionally
3. Add carrots and cook for 4 minutes stirring occasionally
4. Once the carrots and onions are softened, move 1/2 cup of mixture to a mixing bowl
5. Add potatoes, celery stalks, minced garlic, lime halves, half of the cilantro, half of the taco seasoning, half of the Sofrito, can of tomatoes, beef broth, and chicken broth. Cover and bring to a boil.

Meatball prep

1. Combine ground beef, eggs, remaining taco seasoning, half of the remaining cilantro, and bread crumbs to the mixing bowl with the carrot and onion mixture until everything is evenly distributed.
2. Set aside to allow mixture to thicken.

Rice

1. Heat remaining oil in a medium pot.
2. Add uncooked rice to heated oil. Cook, stirring occasionally until the rice turns light brown.
3. Add smashed garlic, remaining Sofrito, and three cups of water to the pot.
4. Once the water is boiling, cover, reduce heat, and cook for 18 minutes.

Finish soup

1. Roll meatball mixture into 1 inch meatballs and add them to the soup.
2. Allow the meatballs to cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

Serve

1. Place rice in the bottom of a bowl, top with soup and meatballs. Garnish with cilantro.
2. Brag to your friends.

The team behind the Top Restaurateurs podcast and I published the season one finale which consisted of moments we loved from the show. It’s got me thinking about a new format with more commentary for season two of the show.

I love hosting this podcast because I love interviewing people who run businesses, especially in the spaces my companies products serve. It’s opened up doors to speak to and get to know people who I never would have met had our team not decided to start a podcast.

Take a listen, and do yourself a favor: go back and listen to all of the season one interviews.

Prior to going to the moon, a computer took up an entire room. In order to land on the moon, a computer had to fit inside the cockpit of a rocket. In the end, they got it to fit inside a one square foot box.

If the goal was to make a small computer, I don’t think computers would have developed as fast as they did. But, the goal was beat Russia to put a man on the moon. Americans were scared of Russia having better technology and more power than the United States. As a result, the mission had purpose.

Now we have computers in our pockets that are more powerful than my first laptop.

Some of the best advancements, ideas, and achievements are the byproducts of working towards a goal.

So, pick a goal and work relentlessly towards it, and be sure to pay attention to the byproducts.

My approach to getting stuff done has always been to trust my intuition, move fast, and make adjustments.

Sometimes this creates a mess. Other times, I stumble upon something that I could have only discovered through taking action.

I would rather make errors of action than errors of apathy.

I was reading through Day One posts from the past and saw this one.

Two years later, this is not the case. Once iPadOS came out, I switched back to my iPad as my only computer. I have not touched my computer in over one month. The browser issue is fixed. I can edit videos in LumaFusion. I can edit podcasts in Ferrite. I could use Affinity Designer if I wanted to, but I found Fiver and 99 Designs, so I don’t mess around with design any more.

I find I am more productive on an iPad because I stay focused. It’s not as easy to switch between ten open applications. Windows cover the whole screen so I don’t get distracted by something else that’s open. I love Shortcuts. I love iOS apps like Ulysses, Day One, and Things.

Most of all I love how easy how little stuff I have to carry and how light my backpack is as a result.

Ultimately, my dream is to have one device for everything, and that dream keeps getting closer every year.

Efficiency is getting something done as quickly as possible.

Productivity is getting stuff done.

Too often these terms are confused. People say they want to be more productive, but what they are really saying is they want to get more done with less work.

The people I admire are people who produce. They produce good work, solid relationships, service to others. They are not worried about putting in less work. They are worried about making the biggest impact.

I want to be more productive.