The Monday Read

Turn off the News Edition

Sometimes it’s okay to take a break from social media and turn the TV off. For me, this is one of those weeks.

I hope things get better. Take care of yourselves.

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (19,610 posts to date). Here are the latest active threads:

Charity drive

I’ve been donating to charity:water for quite a few years now. They do great work building infrastructure so that people can have clean drinking water. I can’t imagine not having access to safe water.

If that goal sounds like something you’d like to support, you can join me and sign up here.

This week’s books

Still reading Reacher books. Echo Burning is kind of annoying for the first half, but gets better. Without Fail is more consistent.

This week’s gear

My wife got some Apple earbuds this week, which reminded me of how much I love my Xiaomi ones. Under 4,000 yen, but you’d never know it. They work great, feel nice, and are inexpensive enough that I don’t really worry about losing them. Have bought them multiple times, once for myself and the rest gifts for friends and family.

  1. I don’t know if I agree with this, but it made me think: Forgetto Mori
  2. Blog post from the past: Shock Therapy: how a geological event helped cement my minimalist leanings
  3. Craig Mod doesn’t just walk and talk: Electric Bike Ride Oiso
  4. New post from my favourite Japan real estate blog: Last resorts
  5. Probably shouldn’t have sold it then: Apple thief
  6. Bravo: Lazy work good work
  7. This was also in Ministry for the Future: Serious, Salty Trouble Is Brewing Under Antarctic Glaciers
  8. The first story is classic Levine: Bored Apes Go to Court
  9. Pretty sure I need this too: What I Learned During My Three Days Offline
  10. Long but interesting: Paypal 20 years on
  11. This explains why running RetireJapan has been so valuable for me: Putting ideas into words
  12. I’m keeping an eye on this: Asia’s arms race: China spurs military spending spree
  13. Bunch of good quotes: Makes you think
  14. Big fan of both Cal Newport and Brandon Sanderson: Brandon Sanderson’s Advice for Doing Hard Things

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

The Monday Read, going out to more than 2,542 subscribers each week. Please share this post/email with friends/colleagues who may be interested in it.

If you were forwarded the email you can sign up to the list here.

4 Responses

  1. I somehow had never come across that CatForehead real estate blog (even though I had read some of their articles on Japan Times). Now I have my next few evenings of reading all planned out. What a fascinating website!

  2. Curious if you are still reforming/refurbishing your parent-in-law’s property? I read your blog posts on this topic, but then they petered out.

    1. Yes, we did that a couple of years ago.

      I probably stopped writing the posts due to sticker shock: wanted to forget how much it all cost 😉

      We ended up asking a local small company to do the job, it took a few months, they completely gutted and rebuilt the house around the same frame. Cost about 25m I think.

      From the outside it looks the same, the inside is completely different. Stealth renovation.