By Colby Kultgen
Emotional Forwarding, A Brain Rot Scorecard, and A Very Important Cheesecake Innovation
Read online / Read time: 4 minutes
Hello friends!
We're back with your weekly dose of 1% Better.
If you're new here, this is the newsletter where I share my 5 favorite ideas, lessons, and discoveries of the week.
Let's not waste any time!
1. A tweet about emotional intelligence I can't stop thinking about
Oof. This one hit a little close to home.
There’s a term I’ve started using for this: emotional forwarding.
Something happens, you feel hurt or frustrated, and before you’ve had much time to figure out what’s actually going on, that feeling gets passed along to someone else.
Maybe through a text. Maybe through your tone.
I’ve been trying to catch myself in the act of doing this more often.
If something pisses me off, I try to give it a little time before dumping that feeling onto someone else.
Easier said than done, but that awareness is half the battle.
Holy crap, this is a great video.
It was sent to me, and honestly, I wasn't expecting much based on the title (I don't draw).
But wow, the advice in this video is something everyone should hear.
TL;DW
Basically, Campbell (guy in the video) was working for an artist who was acting as his mentor at the time. Campbell was very scattered with his own work and couldn't understand why he wasn't finding success.
Until one day the mentor sat him down and gave him this harsh truth:
"Campbell, you know what your problem is, one day you write a song, the next day you write a poem, and the third day you do a drawing, and none of it adds up to anything.
All you're doing is laying a single brick of a million different houses and expecting that one day it'll magically become a mansion."
Naturally, Campbell asked how he could fix it.
The mentor gave him this simple (yet life-changing) advice:
"Draw the same thing every single day."
So he started drawing the same bird over and over. Eventually, the repetition forced him to experiment, develop his own style, and figure out what he actually wanted to make.
Ok, that was a long TL;DW.
But this video deserves it.
3. A set of AI instructions everyone should steal
There’s a funny thing happening with AI right now.
Everyone wants to use it to help them write, but no one wants to read something that sounds like it was written by AI.
It’s quite the conundrum!
As someone who uses AI semi-regularly, I've definitely noticed some of the 'ticks' that pop up frequently.
- Excessive em dashes
- “It's not X, it's Y"
- Three-part lists used purely for rhythm (oops, think I just did this one).
Something I’ve done that has had an absurdly high ROI is giving my LLM a laundry list of these ticks to avoid.
If you use AI for any kind of writing, I highly recommend you do the same.
Simply paste the following into your LLM's instructions and tweak anything you want to fit your own writing style:
When you write or edit prose for me, follow these rules.
Constructions to never use:
- Em dashes. Use a period or comma, or restructure the sentence.
- The "It's not X, it's Y" contrast, or any variant: "not just X, but Y," "we don't have an X problem, we have a Y problem."
- The "No X. No Y. Just Z." construction.
- A question immediately followed by its own answer ("The best part? You don't have to start over.").
- Three-part lists used purely for rhythm.
Phrases and words to cut:
- Filler transitions: "Here's the thing," "Let's dive in," "Let's unpack this," "At the end of the day," "It's worth noting that," "In conclusion," "To sum up."
- "Remember:" as a standalone line.
- "navigate the complexities of," "in today's fast-paced world."
- Inflated intensifiers: "truly," "genuinely," "profoundly."
- "Quiet" as a decorative adjective ("the quiet power of").
- Polished-but-empty words: "delve," "leverage," "robust," "seamless," "tapestry," "realm."
Honesty rules:
- No "studies show" or "research proves" without a specific, real, citable source. If you can't cite it, cut the claim.
- No "most people…" or other unverifiable majority claims.
- Never invent a quote or attribute one to a real person without a verified source.
Formatting:
- Vary sentence and bullet length. Do not make every bullet the same shape.
- Default to plain, direct, concrete language.
Double-check everything you write for these mistakes.
How rotted is your brain?
In this recent podcast episode, Cal Newport came up with a pretty interesting way to find out.
He calls them cognitive KPIs, basically a few simple tests for measuring how fit your brain is.
- Reading endurance: How long can you stay focused on a challenging nonfiction book without switching to something else
- Contemplation control: How long can you think through a difficult problem, entirely in your head, while out for a walk?
- Written persuasiveness: How well can you argue for something you believe, while also fairly representing the other side?
He then gives benchmarks ranging from “brain rotted” all the way up to “cognitive weapon.”
For reading endurance, for example:
5 minutes or less = brain-rotted
30 minutes = roughly pre-smartphone average
75+ minutes = impressive
Cal’s whole point is that these abilities can actually be practiced and measured, instead of just vaguely trying to “focus better.”
5. A dessert I can't stop thinking about
I usually put something funny in this spot, but I just had to include this and say: WHY HAS NO ONE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE?
A few more things I'm into this week:
📚 Book I’m Revisiting: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
📰 Article I found fascinating: Building Without Predicting by Derek Sivers
🕯️ Candle I'm obsessed with: Santal Vanille by Voluspa
💭 Quote I'm keeping in mind:
"You have to be more afraid of wasting your life than of embarrassing yourself."
👀 P.S. I'm getting really into candles lately, so if you have any good recommendations please send them my way!
— Colby
