Weekly discoveries: advanced Claude Code, agents, and life setup
A couple of weeks of tools, quotes, and books. Nothing here is an affiliate or a sponsor. Notes and timestamps sit with the video.
The setup I would actually copy is how I run Claude Code. Left window is the project manager. Right window does the work. I hand it nine or ten
GitHub issues and go for a walk. It has run four to five hours without me. I am on Claude Max, $200 a month. Bigger builds still happen in
Cursor, Claude Code in the terminal.
Train counts reps on the Apple Watch
I went back to an Apple Watch because it does more useful work than what I had on my wrist before. Train is the app. You load a workout. Motion detection counts the reps on bench, deadlift, whatever you are actually doing, and starts the rest timer. I stop tracking sets in my head.
Thirty-day trial, then about $5 a month. The product is now called Motra. Same job.
Zen Browser, Amethyst, and Excalidraw
Arc left active development. Zen Browser is the Firefox fork I stuck with. Open source, still shipping, Firefox extensions. Not as many as Chrome. This is the first time in seven or eight years I have not been on a Chromium browser. I tried Zen before and bounced back to Arc. I have now used it for about a month. The reason is small and I feel it every day: collapse the sidebar, hover the strip, keep more of the page. Arc ate that space.
Amethyst tiles the desktop. Open a
Warp terminal and it splits the pane. Cycle windows, jump desktops, throw a window to another screen. Default is full screen, which is the point. Three-pane works too: one large left, two stacked right. Free, open source.
Excalidraw is where scattered thinking goes. User flows, feature sets, a sketch of an iOS app I was considering. Colour if I want it. I use it to get the idea out, not to make YouTube diagrams.
Superwhisper modes for Claude Code
Superwhisper is dictation with modes, your own API keys, and custom instructions. Programming mode turns a voice note into a title, a summary of criteria, rules, and a test plan — the shape Claude Code can actually build from. That mode can switch on by itself when
Linear or Cursor is frontmost. Notion gets a separate note-taking mode. The formatter follows the app.
LM Arena and Gemini 2.5 Flash
LM Arena is the public model comparison. Anonymous battles, or a named pair: Grok 3 versus Opus 4.1 on a programming question. GPT-5 was high on the board. I thought that launch was disappointing. For vision, Gemini was winning by a long way. I have been using Gemini 2.5 Flash for image work. I tested it on Instagram: read the image, draft a comment, post. Accurate, and cheap enough to run at volume.
Gemini is the subscription.
ElevenLabs agents that call you
ElevenLabs now ships conversational agents. One idea I was building for myself: an inbox manager. Connect Gmail. Give it a knowledge base and rules for what counts as what. Attach a
Twilio number — a US number works — and set a Monday 09:00 call. It reads the inbox, summarises the actual content, and I say reply, unsubscribe, or archive. I hate sitting down to do that.
I also tried a mindfulness coach on the same stack. You change the prompt. The call is realtime. The interesting product shape is a thin SaaS on top of someone else's voice runtime.
SuperClaude, then Vibe Kanban
SuperClaude is a framework on Claude Code: slash commands, MCP servers, and agents it will fire when it thinks they help. Testing goes through
Playwright. Docs go through @context7. There are brainstorming and orchestration modes. Read the commands and the agents. I skipped that and got less out of it.
/sc test runs a pile of tests. You can edit the commands. I have. Free and open source.
Vibe Kanban is a board that opens a Claude Code instance per card. Four tasks, four instances, changes on Git worktrees, then you merge to main. Good on small UI work in parallel. It was about two weeks old when I recorded this. I am not using it for whole applications. Those still happen in Cursor with Claude Code in the terminal.
Two Claude windows: project manager and builder
The structure is GitHub issues plus Linear MCP. Two windows. Right side implements. Left side I treat as the project manager: list open issues, brainstorm, write the work up as comprehensive GitHub issues with the documentation of what done means. Then: fix all open issues, run tests, confirm they are done, come back to me.
That is how I get hours back. I have left nine or ten issues running and walked. Four to five hours. One night's screenshot was 52 minutes, then 12, then 18, then 45, on a single thread, moving to the next issue without me.
Test swarm when Claude is stuck
Claude skipping tests used to annoy me. I wrote a command called test swarm. It launches six testing agents at once. Each has different instructions so they are not six copies of the same pass. They attack one problem, write reports, feed the main thread, and a development agent loops until the reports are clean. Then the swarm runs again to prove it. Think-hard, sequential thinking. Forty minutes to an hour on a stuck bug.
The case that made me build it was Clerk auth. Middleware on one page would not sit down. Waiting on a single agent is slow. The way this pays is several projects at once: a project-manager tab and a builder tab per project, swipe between them, let them run. That is how I get value out of a $200 Max seat without sitting on the replies.
CLAUDE.md and 21st.dev
The largest quality jump was not a new wrapper. It was CLAUDE.md — global and per project — plus the docs around it.
21st.dev is a component library. Sort by popularity, grab a fancy button, or type "make me a SaaS dashboard." You can point it at a URL for inspiration. There is an MCP into Claude Code. I have used it on a couple of front ends.
Rent the villa. Solve your own problems
Raycast keeps clipboard history for 90 or 180 days. Command-Shift-V instead of a single paste.
I turned 30. At 28, just before 29, I semi-retired. A couple of months of that was enough. If you are not pushing, you are not staying still. Naval's line: you need to be in the arena. I work less than I used to. Walks are for ideas, not a sombrero on a beach.
Accessibility is ownership. If you are the only person on the island, you have the island. I would rather rent the villa — even at something like $20,000 a month — and have one job after the transfer: use the place. The owner has staff, maintenance, bills, insurance, and the country-specific problems that come with title. Same present-tense experience. Less downside.
Build for problems you actually have. Those are the only ones you understand well enough to charge for. Do not be fooled by complexity. n8n videos look clever. I have built automations for seven or eight years across businesses. Most of what gets posted does not solve a job. I once put a simple strategy in a course that I was using for over six figures a month, and people I knew were using for over half a million. Buyers skipped it looking for a more complicated machine.
If a change is not a 5% move, I do not focus on it. That is the filter when there are a hundred features you could build.
Travel kit: adapter, 140W brick, AirPods, router
A UK brand, made in Portugal. I spelled it Modal. Not Loro Piana money. About $100 a pair for the underwear. Stretch t-shirts in beech-tree fibre if they still make them. Links in the notes.
The travel adapter I keep buying: EU, UK, and US plugs that fold out, two USB-A, two USB-C at 20W. About €25. Not enough USB-C for a laptop on those ports — plug the laptop into the mains side. I have two. I will buy more. Pocketable next to a phone.
A 140W brick with three USB-C, one silver, one black. Fold-out prongs.
Walking headphones are AirPods with noise cancellation and no silicone tips. Four to five hours and the tips on the Pros start to ache. Smaller, lighter, you hear a bit of the road. Audio is fine for podcasts and books, not as good as AirPods Pro. Pros stay on the desk for music and blocking the room. If you still have a Lightning Pro case, Apple will sell you a USB-C case as a lost-case replacement. I did that rather than buy a new set.
The travel router is GL.iNet Travel Router: Wi-Fi 7, LCD for up and down, Ethernet on the back, fits in a hand. VPN on the router —
Mullvad or
NordVPN — with a kill switch, so the tunnel is at the network, not per device. Repeater mode in every Airbnb, or on a plane or in a café: the router joins their Wi-Fi, your devices join the router. In Southeast Asia I have seen 20 Mbps on the house router become 300–400 with an Ethernet cable into this one. Smart devices stay on your own SSID.
Books, four to six months, SafetyWing
Reality Transurfing is a second listen. Do not walk it. Sit with it. Pendulums: shared beliefs that are not true and still take energy. University as the only path to a good job is the example.
The Surrender Experiment I had not finished. A man who meditated, isolated, and took what life handed him instead of forcing a plan. I over-control. The book is the opposite of that habit.
What you believe about yourself shows up as behaviour. Lazy, hard-working, clever — it becomes a script. I try to notice when the script is pointed the wrong way. That sits awkwardly next to surrender. Both can be true in different weeks.
I hate the phrase digital nomad. For three years I did 10–30 countries a year. Too many. New barber every week. I want 4–6 months in one place.
Two policies I was looking at. SafetyWing nomad cover at $161 a month worldwide: GP and dermatologist visits, not surgery, plus chiropractic, dietitian, acupuncture, psychologist and psychiatrist — 10 visits a year, $5,000 cap. Fine on small claims in the Reddit threads I read. Hospital bills are where people said they fought payouts.
Genki Native Native is thinner on acupuncture and mental wellness and closer to medical-emergency cover for people who travel full-time. I was considering both: one for emergencies, one for the $5,000 of health credits.
What is the point of being clever if you cannot be lazy? Tractors exist because someone did not want to do the work by hand. Same reason I write the test swarm.
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Transcript
Today we're going to go over some of my weekly or it's actually been over a couple of weeks, but discoveries, new tools that I've used, quotes, books that I've listened to. Anything that I've found of value, I've distilled down into this video. And the goal is to give as much value as possible in the shortest time. Nothing here is an affiliate link or sponsor. Just things I've come across that I have found to be interesting, in a practical way. I'll put a link for this notion document in the description with timestamps so you can just skip through to stuff. The first piece of software is a tool called train.
This is an Apple Watch app. I've gone back from an app to an Apple Watch just cuz I found that this delivers more utility and more value. For anyone with an Apple Watch, you should try this out. It has motion detection that will detect your reps. You add in a workout and as you're doing any exercise like bench press or deadlift or whatever, it will automatically track your repetition. So, it knows how many you've done. So, it will start your rest timer automatically. I found this so good for not worrying about what exercise am I doing, how many reps have I done, how many more sets do I have left.
You're outsourcing it to this. Very intuitive. Definitely worth trying out. I think that it's a 30-day free trial and then it's like $5 $5 per month. Next app to move on to is Zen browser. So Arc has gone out of active development which was my favorite browser previously. This is an alternative in active development because it's open source based on Firefox the kind of foundation of the browser compared to Chrome which is supposed to be faster and have enhanced security. I prefer it and I have stuck with it.
The biggest positive for me, as small as this sounds, is that you can collapse the sidebar and I can just hover over my windows and have more kind of tabs down here. Whereas in Arc would take up more screen real estate, whereas Zen doesn't. I appreciate the extra screen real estate. It does also have Firefox extensions. Not quite as many extensions as are on Chrome, but this is the first time in about seven or eight years that I haven't been on a Chrome-based browser. I prefer it to Arc mostly because of the increased screen real estate.
I did try to move over to it a number of times and ended up going back to Arc, but I've now been using this consistently for the past month or so. The next tool is called Amethyst or a I've got no idea how to pronounce it, but it's a window tiling tool. I can split windows in my I can have like two panes. So let's say that I open up a warp terminal here. It will automatically split like that and I can split back into a single pane if I want to. I can cycle between windows and I also have different desktops using commands. I can automatically move this to a different screen.
The thing I like is it automatically opens everything for me in full screen is the biggest benefit. I can swipe through my windows as you've just seen. So, it's open source. Again, it's completely free. But basically, it's just to automatically resize your windows and you can easily you can have a three window split as well. So, you could have a large window on the left and two smaller windows on the right. Next up is Excalidraw. I'm sure people have seen this. It's a nice tool for visual planning.
I do find that I use this a lot more these days if I'm just scattered thinking I guess would be the correct name for it. Getting ideas out and exploring or planning things. You can change colors, get creative with backgrounds and make it more colorful. I just like this for chucking ideas down. And I've seen a lot of YouTubers are making videos doing explanations through this tool. I do it for exploring ideas, mapping out user flows, potential projects and different feature sets. This is an example of an iOS app I was looking to build. Next up, we have Superwhisper, a voice recording app.
The thing that is good, a dictation app, I should say. Sorry. So, the thing about this is you have different modes. You can integrate your own API keys and custom instructions. If I'm programming, I want to make a voice note dictate issues and it reformats it. I can say I want to build a specific feature and it's then going to reformat the output to give it a title, a summary of criteria, rules and test plan. So this is in a programming format for Claude Code to understand what is it that I actually want to build the test plan and rules being specific about what I want the AI agent to follow.
You can have this mode activate automatically. If I have linear or cursor open, it will be in this mode. In notion, I could set up another mode for note taking where it will reformat or change the text of whatever was in your voice note to be in a specific format. You can run through these dynamically based on your different open apps. Quite an interesting tool that I have been using in my programming sessions. Next is LM Arena. This is a comparison of different AI models and surprised to see GPT-5 up there. Actually, I thought that was quite a disappointing launch to be honest.
You can run comparisons of different models and it's also got a mode of you can do two anonymous models. So I can ask a question here. I can do template questions and AB test them and choose a different answer based on what two random models have assigned. So you can battle. You can also do comparisons where I can choose I want to see what the response from Grok 3 versus Opus 4.1 for example in like a programming question. They have their own leaderboard there. So, if you want a quick idea of what is the best tool to use, I'm really quite surprised to see GPT-5 there.
If you want to know what is the best tool to use for a particular job, like for example, Gemini for vision is winning by a pretty long way. Gemini 2. Flash, but I have been using recently as well for for image analysis and I found it to be highly accurate and super super cheap. It was 0.0000.6 6 cents per I was testing something on IG of analyzing an image and trying to generate an engaging comment that would then automatically be posted and that was done with 2.5 flash which I found to be really accurate and very cheap. Next up is ElevenLabs voice agents.
Anyone hasn't come across it you can now make conversational agents. I have a few different business ideas. For example, one of them was to make an inbox manager. You would connect Gmail via API. You can also give it a knowledge base, specific instructions or files on how you want the inbox to be managed or what classifies as what type of message. Then you can call the agent. It also has you can give it a phone number. So, you can use Twilio and give it, for example, a USA phone number and actually have it set to something like on 9:00 a.m.
every Monday, I want this AI agent to call me and we will go through my inbox together. So, on the call, it will tell me these are the emails that you have. Give me a summary of them of the actual content. Do you want to reply, unsubscribe, archive it? I really hate sitting down and having to actually go through emails and this was a tool I was going to build for myself. There's a mindfulness coach I was playing around with when I came across this. And so you can test the AI agent. >> Hey there. Thanks for taking this moment for yourself. Let's begin by introducing ourselves. I'm Joe. What's your name? >> Nathan.
>> Nathan, it's a pleasure to connect with you. I'm here to help you crush your goals. >> You get the idea. You can change the prompts behind it and have realtime conversations. And I think there's a really interesting opportunity for building out as I said here different kind of SaaS applications that are just leveraging technology that other people are building which is such an interesting opportunity at the moment. First off is SuperClaude a framework for Claude Code. This gives you different kind of commands and MCP servers that you can run.
It gives you a load of agents and it tries to automatically run the agents whenever it feels they will be beneficial. It's an automated system for running agents, but you also have your own commands and prompts, testing with Playwright, following documentation with Context7. You have different modes for brainstorming, orchestration. And if you do go ahead and use it, if you're using Claude Code, go through and read the commands and also read the agents.
I skipped this to start with, but there is a bit of a learning curve with it as with any framework and you'll find more value if you actually go through and just understand what are the available commands and how to actually use them. You can also make custom commands as well. If you put /sc test, it will run a load of tests for you. You have all these commands available and you can customize them. So, I have made my own edits to it as a tool. So, again, it's free and completely open source. Next tool is an app called Vibe Kanban. I'm not currently using it, but I did use it temporarily.
It's a Kanban board that connects to different instances of Claude Code. So, if you have four different tasks, it will spin up four different instances of Claude Code, make the changes, and push to GitHub worktrees. You can then merge those into the main branch of your application. I have tested it and I found it to be really good on like small smaller tasks. if you're making like UI changes and want them all to work concurrently and in parallel. I found it really good for that. It's quite it's actively in development, so it's quite a new tool. I think it's only been out for a couple of weeks.
I'm not using it for everything, but it's definitely something I'm keeping an eye on for the bigger tasks like building applications or software. I'm still working directly within cursor using Claude Code just in the terminal. The structure I use with Claude Code is a mixture of GitHub issues and linear MCP. I have two windows open. On the right hand side, this is the development window where tasks are being completed. And on the left hand side, I interact with Claude code as a project manager. So I say, can you list open GitHub issues? And it will go ahead and list all of the open issues.
Or I can say I brainstorm with Claude, map out ideas and say add all those tasks as comprehensive GitHub issues. Write up the documentation of what needs to be done and add it into GitHub issues. Then I would say fix all open GitHub issues, run tests, confirm everything is completed and come back to me. I have found this to be the way to get the most value out of Claude Code. This has been I've just been out on a walk for I don't even know how long and this has been running all along. I've had this run for up to like 4 to 5 hours. If I give it like 9 to 10 GitHub issues to go ahead and work on and resolve.
This is an example of okay, it's running for like 52 minutes, then for 12 minutes, then for 18 minutes, then for 45 minutes. This is just one that I found last night that I just thought I'd put in as a screenshot. But this will run for hours on end going and completing issues without needing any input from you. It will continue moving to the next task. Then I ask for a comprehensive report and to do a complete test of everything. Which leads me to another command that I have called test swarm custom thing that I made because the thing that I get most annoyed about with Claude is when it wasn't testing.
and I have now resolved this issue. But there were a couple of cases for example an authentication issue using clerk and it just wasn't quite understanding understanding the middleware and how to correctly handle authentication on a particular page. So anyway, I just basically got tired of being stuck on this one thing. So I built something called test swarm which is just a command and it will go and deploy six different testing agents.
They all have different instructions, so they're not all doing the exact same thing, but it will deploy concurrently that they'll run simultaneously attacking this one problem, each with a slightly different prompt trying to understand the issue. They all come back with their reports, feed it back to the main thread who then passes it on to a development agent. The development agent then loops over this until all of the issues are resolved. Then it launches the testing swarm again to go and check that the issue is resolved. and it will continue to loop over it until all of the issues are fixed.
It was just something interesting that I came up with. It basically throws all of its resources. It's in think hard. It's in sequential thinking mode to like really solve a problem that it's stuck on. And it does work. I can launch this and it will run for 40 minutes to an hour to go in and solve a problem. So, if I'm sitting here waiting for it to be done, it's slow.
But actually, I found the way to get the most value is to work on multiple different projects within Claude Code at once and work in this way where you have a project management tab and then a task completion tab for each project and you're just swiping through and and having them run for hours at a time completing everything. You hit your limits on I'm on Claude Max, $200. This has been the best way to get value out of Claude code without needing to be glued to the screen responding to things the whole time.
The other thing is like without going too much into this now but improving over your CLAUDE.md and your documentation. I have found the CLAUDE.md both globally and project specific have been the biggest improvements I've seen. Another tool I came across is 21st dev. This has a load of components saved a load of them. You can find trending components and sort them by popularity. You can find these things with like different Yeah, it's going to be like an animation or something. This is going to be a button. A fancy button. I did upgrade so it's logged me out.
You can come in here and write out any type of component you want. Make me a SaaS dashboard. You can give it inspiration from other URLs and it will copy it. They also have an MCP server you can plug into Claude Code. This has been an interesting tool for UI development on a couple of the projects. I've gone over multiple Claude windows. In terms of workflows, nothing crazy. I'm in Milan and doing a lot of walking, testing new ideas, reading mostly audio books, podcast, YouTube videos, and building a lot has been my main focus. So, a lot of building of applications mostly about what we're talking about now.
I really enjoy building some things with like AI agents, but for solving my own problems, which is how I'm testing how good these applications are. If they don't solve a problem for me, then I'm never going to bother releasing it. The tips, advice, and ideas I saw in a video that made sense. If you use Raycast, they have clipboard history for the last 90 or 180 days. Instead of command V, you can just do command shiftV, which will bring up your entire clipboard history. quite a useful shortcut. I've been exploring not aiming for retirement.
I just turned 30 and when I was 28, maybe just before I turned 29, I decided to semi-retire, but I've actually realized it's not the best route. Particularly in the middle ages, we should always be pushing for something, seeing personal growth, challenging ourselves in some way. If you consciously decide to stop doing that, if you're not improving or developing, no system remains the same. So, you're either ascending or declining. I noticed that maybe I would change my mind on this on in future, but it's not something to really aim towards.
This idea sold in books or on YouTube of like the goal is to like never have to work and just sit on a beach with your feet up with a mojito wearing a sombrero. It was good for a couple of months, but there was a video by Naval which was like, you need to be in the arena. There's a lot of truth to that. You need to be actively pushing and progressing. Take time to relax. I spend a lot of time walking and thinking. I work a lot less than I used to, but mostly when I'm walking, I'm exploring new ideas, listening to things, and looking for opportunities for leverage um for growth.
Another interesting quote I came across is accessibility is ownership. And this is it was such like a kind of interesting concept that I'd never thought of before. Whoever has accessibility to something is the owner of that thing at that particular time. Like it was an example of if someone owns an island, but I'm the only person on that island right now. From a physical perspective, the only time you're the owner of anything is when it is accessible to you. I've been exploring this idea of renting versus ownership.
I've come to the conclusion that you get most the upside by renting without a lot of the headaches. For example, with property, if I'm if I go and rent like a beautiful villa in wherever, some tropical island for $20,000 per month. Once I have paid that, my only job is the enjoyment of that villa. I have no other responsibilities, no other ties to the property. Of course, I have just spent that $20,000, but basically I get all of the kind of upside of things. Whereas, if you are, you have no other kind of exposure.
Your own your only job once you've paid that rent is to enjoy and get the most out of your property. Whereas for the owner, they have a ton of things to worry about. staff of the property, maintenance of the property, paying all of the bills, paying the insurance, particularly in some countries, you can get various problems related to properties. There's a lot of upside to renting property reducing complexity. Basically, you get the benefit, the upside, and limit your exposure, downside, and commitment by renting. Accessibility is ownership.
There's no difference of me being the owner of that property compared to me renting that property in the current moment. We're both having the exact same experience. Next up, focus on solving your own problems. This is something I've been working on. Whenever you're looking for business ideas, the only problems you truly understand are ones you have yourself.
So if you're trying to build an app or software to fix a particular problem, to make someone's life easier, solve a problem and therefore money, the best thing you can do is focus on problems that you truly understand and they are going to be problems that you have yourself. Next up is don't be fooled by complexity. Don't be fooled by complexity. People are often impressed by more complex systems, but it's going back to basics that often delivers the most value. I think there's a lot of truth in that. I'm guilty of some of this stuff as well.
But when I see videos on YouTube, particularly around automation and AI agents now that n8n has become a thing, I've watched these videos, but I just think what is the practical use case of this? Had exposure to automation. Their mind is blown integration, but I've been building these things for seven or eight years across multiple businesses. It's easy to see what actually delivers value and what is going to solve a business problem compared to what just sounds cool. This doesn't just apply to automation. It applies to everything. Be skeptical.
I find this in courses as well actually just from my experiences of selling information. One example was I included a strategy I was using to make over six figures per month and people I knew were using to make over half a million dollars per month. It was a simple strategy and people were expecting complex systems and AI and stuff like operating on on the back end in order to get it to work. People just overlooked it looking for something more complex. Actually, as I've gone over my entrepreneurial journey, there's a lot of beauty in simple businesses.
You should try to refine and make something as simple, deliver as most val value as possible in its most simple and most elegant form. when developing solutions to problems. So, we'll leave it there. A few other these are like purchases. This is a specific section I decided to make on just things that I bought that I found to be useful and maybe you will, too. This is a UK brand, but they make all of their stuff in Portugal. I guess it's slightly on the more expensive side. It's not Laura Piana prices. It's called Modal. M O D A L. The most comfortable underwear. All right. So, it's €9.
It's like $100 for a pair of underwear, but these are the most comfortable things you will find. I encourage you to get some. Also, these stretch t-shirts, if they still do them, I'll put a link in the notion thing. These, they are like the most comfortable thing ever. It's completely natural fiber made of beach tree, I think they said. And they are so soft. Next up is I hope you can see in the video. This is like a small travel um thing. So, it's got an EU plug socket that just kind of flips out there. It's got a UK one that comes out there. And it's got a US plug socket that comes out like this.
And then it has a US plug here as well. Two USB ports. I'm surprised they did USB cuz I don't know anyone that uses USB anymore. And two uh type-C ports on the side. The type-C's are 20 W. So, it's not enough to charge a laptop, but you can plug into here and you would be able to charge your laptop from here. Because I travel so much, instead of needing larger travel adapters, these are just so useful. I've got two. I'm going to buy more. It's so small. You can fit it in your pocket. Here's a comparison to the size of a phone. And this gives you an international plug with type-C on them. They're so good.
And they're like €25. Very cheap as well. Next, a charging brick. I've got one in silver or white and one over there in black as well. So, this is 140 W with three type-C. I've got the link there as well. And again, it's for travel. So, it flips out like that. Next up, these are not AirPods Pro. They're AirPods with noise cancellation, but without tips on the end. And the reason that I chose to take these is cuz when I'm walking, if I'm walking for like 4 to 5 hours, I find that like the tips end up I don't know, my ears kind of get tired or or like start to ache. Noise cancellation is insanely good.
I was really impressed. These are my walking headphones and I have my AirPods Pro here as well. You can see the size difference. These are much smaller, very light, and you don't get ear fatigue. The audio quality isn't as it's still very good, but it's not as good as the AirPods Pro. AirPods Pro I now use only for working because that's when I listen to music and appreciate the extra sound quality and the noise cancellation of blocking out distractions. But if I'm walking around listening to podcasts and audio books, you don't need perfect sound quality.
And if you want comfort, a smaller thing to fit in your pocket and to hear a bit more of the road and surroundings. So these have been a really good purchase. These are for working and these I keep at home. It's type-C because they released that last year finally. And another thing, if you have AirPods Pro with a lightning case, you don't actually need to upgrade the whole the you don't need to buy a new set of AirPods.
You can go to Apple and say that you lost your case and they will give you a new one with a type-C case, which is also what I did for my AirPods Pro because I hate having to carry around a lightning cable in AirPods Pro. Next up, I've got a router here. I don't think you'll see it in the uh video. This is a um I've spoken about these these before. I was introduced to them by a business partner. So, this is a Wi-Fi 7 travel router. It's very small. If you're traveling, this solves a few purposes. You can install a VPN on the router.
If you want to watch Netflix internationally or if you don't want people to see what you're doing, you can install a VPN. You can use Mullvad. You can use Nord. There's loads of different options. If I connect smart TV to the Wi-Fi, you're going to be able to watch Netflix in whatever country you're in. From that point of view, it's useful from a security perspective. Encrypting on the traffic level through the router itself rather than on the device level, I find to be I just find more security in it. And it has a kill switch that if the VPN isn't connected, it won't work.
You don't need to use public Wi-Fi anymore. It works as a hotspot or as a repeater. So you can connect this to work as a repeater either wirelessly or you can use an Ethernet port. So they've got a mobile app. So you just say, "I want you to repeat this Wi-Fi." Which is what I do in every Airbnb I go to. But it works if you're on a plane in a cafe. You connect the router to Wi-Fi and then connect to your own router. You have a a private connection. No one can see what you're doing. The other benefit is in a lot of countries that I visit, people have good Wi-Fi, but they have bad routers.
Particularly in Southeast Asia, you can take this router and buy an Ethernet cable, plug directly into their router. I've seen things go from 20 megabits per second download up to 300 or 400 just by using my own more powerful router. So, if you travel, this is like an absolute no-brainer. Both for security, both in terms of internet speed, general convenience. If you have any smart devices, rather than needing to connect to a new Wi-Fi every time, you just travel with your own personal Wi-Fi.
The speeds are much better than using the native router because it's Wi-Fi 7 based, and most devices aren't even Wi-Fi 7 compatible. But yeah, and it's also got like a LCD screen and it shows like the upload and download speeds and so on. You connect Ethernet in the back and it's very customizable that fits in your hand. Okay. In terms of books that I've been reading as well, currently I've listened to it previously, but going over it again is Reality Transurfing. This is a book that I feel is not really best to listen to whilst you're walking.
I find it's a book that you need to meditate over and absorb the information relaxed area to kind of just absorb absorb this book. Um but yeah, worth reading. Very long and on the spiritual side, interesting takeaways and things to kind of remind yourself about, particularly about there's a concept that they talk about in it's called pendulums, which essentially means um kind of shared beliefs that actually aren't true and things that kind of absorb energy or that people just kind of blindly follow because it's the uh accepted norm in society.
Like for example, a pendulum could be the idea that you need to go to university in order to get a good job and become successful, which in fact is isn't true at all. But yeah, interesting book. If you haven't listened, it's one worth um kind of I do think it's worth listening to on once in your life. And I'm listening to it a second time. So kind of refreshing myself on a lot of the ideas. Another book is The Surrender Experiment. I haven't quite finished it yet, but it's basically a guy who surrendered to life of he spent a lot of time meditating.
He ended up becoming like ultra successful, but just isolated in the woods, controlled the voice in his mind, spent a lot of time meditating. It's a true story.
And whenever something he would just surrender to what life would give to him rather than trying to control things which I am definitely a victim of trying to control aspects of my own life maybe life is trying to give you these things because that is the path you need to go down instead of thinking no I need to go this way the story is that he gives into things that at the time he didn't actually want to happen and wasn't interested in but by following those paths those opportunities that that life gave to him. Um it it all worked out very well for him uh in the end.
So it's about kind of surrendering to to what life um throws or maybe appears to throw at you at the time, but actually it's trying to uh ren you to head head in the right direction. This is a YouTube video on communication I found interesting. I'll put a link to this notion document in the description below. More on the philosophical side of things. A few interesting concepts I've been thinking of. So what do you believe about yourself? How do you view yourself in terms of your character traits, your identity and so on? It can be revealing in terms of how you see your own identity.
But then what you will also find is based on what you believe about yourself. This manifests whether it's intentional or not within your own life. If you believe yourself to be someone who's very lazy, you are naturally going to find that you end up being lazy because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The same if you believe yourself to be a very hard worker or very clever. And as I've starting to get older, I've noticed that my beliefs about myself change and it has an impact over it really does have a direct impact over who you are as a person, what I spend my time doing.
It's just something to be conscious of perhaps controlling and rewiring some of your beliefs about yourself to make sure that they are pushing you in the direction you want to go in. Although that is hypocritical based on the surrender experiment which is actually the exact opposite thing which is about surrendering and just kind of giving in to um to to what life gives you. Uh just a very short quote but if it doesn't have a 5% impact don't focus on it.
This is a good piece of advice for business when there's like hundreds of different avenues that you can explore on a very easy or different features that you could build a very easy fil filtering system is just to estimate how much of an impact is this actually going to have and prioritizing accordingly. This is another thought experiment that I came across in talks. Do you care what other people think about you? What are your true motivations?
The thought experiment is, would you rather that every person in the world thinks you are the best at sex, but in reality you are the worst at sex in the world, or you're actually the best at sex in the world, but everyone thinks you are the worst. And the reason that it's related to sex is it's quite a I don't know, it's something where men it's ego-driven. It's like a sensitive thing as well. Everyone wants to be good at sex and most want someone to think that they are good in bed. So this is just would you yeah just stop and think about it for yourself.
If you choose the answer of you want everyone to know for example and then think of all the things that come with that. So if everyone in the world believes that you are the best in bed you're going to have a lot of women that want to be with you but actually when they're with you it's then nothing but a disappointment cuz in fact you're the worst. Or would you rather have it the other way where everyone has this belief about you but actually they are wrong and it's not true. So what truth do you prefer? I know what my answer is. I'm not really concerned about what other people think about me.
I would much rather know myself truly and I care more about what I think about myself. Very interesting experiment.
Maybe there is no right or wrong answer but just interesting and being truthful with yourself on what option would would you rather have be loved by everyone but it's false or not loved by everyone but you possess that trait it applies to everything sex is just example in this case personal learnings I don't think I'm going to go into it now but just reality oh just very quickly like uh realities of being a digital nomad I hate the word digital nomad but someone who travels and works online It makes it sound like I'm a logo designer on Fiverr or something.
I'm again, maybe I'm just getting older, but just starting to appreciate the benefits that come with spending extended periods in one location. Over the past 3 years, I would visit anywhere from 10 to 30 different countries per year and it's just too much. And there does come to be quite a lot of downside. So, I believe that you're much better off going for extended periods of maybe 4 months per location, moving countries all the time.
It's fun, but after extended after like you you've been doing it for years, every week or couple of weeks, you need a new barber, you need to do all of these simple little things that we completely look over. It does get tiring. Now I'm looking at living in places for 4 to 6 months at a time so you can capture benefits of spending longer periods there. Two things I actually missed actually sorry was insurance. These are two things I'm exploring. SafetyWing and Genki Native. If anyone has any experience with them I would be interested to know. You can go into nomad insurance. Seems interesting.
It's $161 per month for worldwide insurance and you get a ton of benefits for doctor's visits, dermatologists, not for surgery. They cover chiropractics, dieticians, acupuncture, psychologists, and psychiatrists. You get 10 visits per year. It's a 5k per year limit. And it seems like a pretty interesting deal. But I was reading on Reddit some people in particular were having difficulties on getting payouts on smaller things. Like apparently on this smaller stuff it was fine but on bigger things like hospital treatment they were trying to get their way out of making payments.
And then the other one I found was Genki Native which is less on acupuncture and mental wellness. They don't cover things like that but it's travel insurance like medical emergency insurance for people who travel full-time. I think it's an interesting offer. If anyone has experienced or has taken up these, I would be interested to know because I was looking at doing both one of them for the medical insurance and one of them just you basically get 5k per year in credits to spend on personal health. But other than that, I hope that you learned something new here, something of value.
Finally, I will leave you with a quote. What is the point of being clever if you can't be lazy? A lot of innovation happens due to laziness. Whether it's automation, tools in agriculture, tractors, all different types of things. A lot of innovation comes from wanting to basically free up the time of us as humans, of the individual. So, what is the point in being clever if you can't be lazy?