Ways of Looking #13 (September '25)
In this issue: DATs, probiotic sinus powder, Life: A User's Manual, upcoming trends, and Rationalist cults.
Welcome to Ways of Looking. Roughly every month, I send my friends links and summaries for anything I’ve written recently, plus a few things I’m enjoying.
Check out my more regular writing and reply to this email anytime. Thanks for reading.
What I wrote last month
On the application of high effort — on how putting an unusual amount of effort into ordinary situations can yield unreasonably good results, why most people don’t, and how you can fix that.
DATs are misunderstood: why they (sometimes) make sense — publicly-listed Digital Asset Treasury companies are all the rage right now. Most people don’t understand the concept (and reasonably so!). Here’s how I think about them.
Upcoming trend predictions (September 2025 edition) — a scattered assortment of trends I think may be coming over the next few years, from fragrance-free to “sila,” pets rights, and citizen science.
Free site and layout planner mini-app — I wanted a very simple visual editor to lay out a room and a piece of land on grids. I couldn’t find a good one, so I built it. Try it out!
Doors and keys — the latest addition to the Useful Ways of Looking series, on how journeys of change involve a you-specific sequence of lessons, and ways to deal with that.
Costeading: Don’t scroll Zillow alone — I built a social layer on top of Zillow so you can save and categorize homes with your friends & family and discuss them. Zillow should have this!
Theory of Constraints for AI — a mental model for how to increase the quality of your AI interactions by recognizing your potential bottlenecks (tools, context, prompting).
AI Captain’s Log — usual not-quite-weekly updates on my usage of AI, including my cranky views on AI-generated collateral.
Also: I’m now just over 1 year into consistently writing essays (and this newsletter!). I’ve written quite a few posts, so on my blog homepage, I added categories you can filter by (including “Best-of”). Check it out!
What I’m enjoying
Articles:
Fell in a hole, got out. by Tony Stubblebine. Gory-(financial)-details-included recap by Medium’s CEO of how they dug themselves out of a deep ditch. Rare to get this much visibility.
God created the real numbers by Ethan Heilman. Compelling meditation on man-made vs. divine concepts, and the perhaps-counterintuitive nature of how “weird” each may seem.
Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults? by Ozy Brennan. It’s a good question!
You can try to like stuff by Dynomight. A worthwhile experiment.
Book: Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec. Sounds like a self-help book; is actually an incredible work of puzzling fiction. Perec was a member of the French Oulipo, a group of authors and mathematicians who wrote under varied self-imposed constraints. Perec himself famously wrote The Void, which is an entire book that seems normal other than the fact that it doesn’t include the letter “e” once. But I like Life: A User’s Manual much more — its constraints are in the story-telling itself. I won’t spoil it :)
Product / Experiment: Lanto Sinus Probiotic powder. n=1, but I’m pretty sure using this powder once or twice every couple weeks has reduced my sinus inflammation sensitivity by 80%. I’ve had a bunch of sinus issues and this is the most effective intervention so far I can point to! Your mileage may vary.
About me: I’m a multi-time founder (Eco, Lightwork Home Health, CoinList, Sidewire). I’m currently spending time on: Eco, Lightwork, building interface0, investing at Amity, supporting FreeWorld, hacking on a few other products, and advising great companies and founders.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.
— Andy