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By Colby Kultgen

99% of People Benefit From This Technique, Increasing Luck Surface Area, and Very Bad Advice

Read online / Read time: 4 minutes

Today at a Glance: • How to increase your luck surface area • A problem 99% of people struggle with • A tool to cut your typing time in half • A few pieces of very bad advice • A decision-making filter for a better life

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How to increase your luck surface area

This past week, I've been trying something...different.

I made it my goal to strike up a conversation with ten strangers every day.

In line at the café.
At my morning run club.
Between sets at the gym.
​
No agenda.
Just a simple compliment, observation, or "Hey, how's your day going?"

Why, you ask?

Because I want to increase my luck surface area.

I realized I simply wasn’t exposing myself to enough randomness in my daily life.

I wasn't creating enough opportunities where luck could find me.

Now, not every one of these conversations led to something amazing.

Some were awkward. Some were forgettable.
But that’s the point: you only need a few to hit.

My results so far:

• 11 new contacts
• 4 new book recommendations
• 2 business opportunities
• 1 birthday invitation

And that was just one week.

My challenge to you:

Think of a way you can increase your "luck surface area" and execute on it for the next 7 days!

I would love to hear your results.

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A problem 99% of people struggle with (and how to fix it) - Thread from Stephen Timoney​

Extremely useful thread on the concept of "Closing Open Loops".

Stephen describes open loops as:

They can include:

• Bills not paid
• Books you didn't finish
• Projects started and not completed
• Unresolved emotional/relationship issues

Basically, anything left unfinished in your life.

Stephen compares this to having too many tabs open on a computer.

You can try to get something done, but you will be constantly bogged down by the open loops running in the background.

Here's the solution:

1. Set a timer for 30 minutes
2. Dump every open loop you can think of onto a paper/document
3. Do/Drop/Delegate (the important part)

​​80% of your list can probably be dropped. Be ruthless.​

The remaining 20% should be delegated or done in the next 14 days.

​I challenge you to take 30 minutes this week to identify and start to close the "Open Loops" in your life.

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A tool to cut your typing time in half
​Sponsored

No tool has saved me more time in 2025 than Flow by Wispr.

I've promoted it a few times, and for good reason.

It's an AI-powered voice keyboard that lets you speak naturally and turns it into clean, well-punctuated text anywhere: Slack, Gmail, Notes, you name it.

Why I love it:

• No filler words or awkward transcriptions
• Learns your go-to phrases, names, acronyms
• Quiet mode = no awkward stares when you’re dictating in public
• Syncs with your computer for easy note-taking

Exciting news: Flow is now available on your iPhone.

​Try it out for free right now.​

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A few pieces of very bad advice - Article from Morgan Housel​

Morgan Housel is one of my favorite writers.

If you haven’t read The Psychology of Money, stop what you’re doing and go get it right now (seriously).

He also writes banger blog posts like this one, which is an excellent exercise in Inversion Thinking.

As Housel puts it:

Instead of asking, “What’s the best advice I could give someone?”​
Ask, “What would very bad advice sound like?”
​

Here are a few of my favorites from the article:

​Read the full thing here.​

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A decision-making filter for a better life

Obviously, there's a lot of nuance missing here.

But overall, this is a pretty dang good decision-making filter.

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😂

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If you made it this far, I have a small request:

Reply with one emoji to sum up how you felt about this issue.

Have a great week!

—Colby

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