My name was in the Epstein files…

Hello friend,

Here's what I'm thinking about…

My brother sent me the worst possible text the other day. He told me I was in the Epstein files.

My stomach dropped. For what? How? I didn't even know Epstein!!!!!!!!!

Heart pounding, I clicked the link.

It turns out that Epstein had received a Twitter notification with a roundup of popular tweets.

Mine happened to be one of them.

Link to the document (Something tells me this email will have my highest open rate ever—I'm sorry, I'm a troll.)

In my last newsletter, I wrote about divorce.

Many readers emailed me, telling me they felt some of these feelings but weren't ready to separate from their partner. They wanted to fight—to work through their differences.

I might have something that could help your relationship…

Last month, Zoe and I sat in our den with our jaws on the floor, reading a CIA-grade dossier on our marriage that had been written by an AI that had never met us. That's how I ended up obsessively building Deep Personality at 5:30am every morning…

Read the full essay →

I accidentally bought a concrete company?

Warren Buffett has a great line. He asks college students in his lectures:

"If I granted you the right to buy 10% of one of your classmate's earnings for the rest of their lifetime, who would you invest in?"

Well, I stole his excellent question and I've gotten in the habit of asking it...

Read the full essay →

Speaking of AI disruption...

Last week I went on my friend Dan Shipper's podcast and we nerded out for an hour about how we're both using AI.

It's pretty shocking how good these tools are. I doubt anyone will be writing code (manually) within the next 3-5 years.

We talked about:

• All the cool ways we're both using AI to automate our lives and build products
• If software is now basically free… what's the moat?
• How AI changes what businesses are worth
• Why most software margins go to zero

Listen here: YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts

Can you burp?

You're lucky.

All my life, I couldn't. Ever. Not even a tiny one.

The pressure would just build and build, sometimes coming out as weird gurgling noises.

It was horrible.

For years, doctors dismissed me:

"You must be burping and just not realize it."

Ultimately, after a decade of frustration and brutal acid reflux, I finally cracked it.

It turned out that I had a rare condition called Retrograde Cricopharyngeal Dysfunction (the inability to burp).

I found a small group on Reddit of fellow NoBurpers (/r/noburp) and learned there was a highly effective treatment.

An endoscopic Botox injection into the throat.

I had to fly to Chicago to get it, but the effect was life changing.

Now, 5 years later, I can still let 'em rip.

No more pressure. No more gurgles. No more acid reflux.

I've met a few others with the same affliction, and we always hug as brothers and sisters. It's a bizarrely awful shared experience.

So, I wanted to send up a flare and write this here. If you can't burp: there's hope.

The doctor who helped me is Dr. Robert Bastian. He did my procedure in Chicago.

He's amazing, and if money is a problem, he can also do a cheaper procedure in his office without using the endoscope (which requires sedation and a hospital procedure).

There are also a few Canadian docs who know about this, but most will dismiss you completely. Best to find doctors listed on the subreddit.

Godspeed, my friends.

Random Stuff:

For the past five years, I've used YearCompass to figure out where to focus my energy and plan my year. If you're doing your annual planning, you should check it out here.

I absolutely loved Insomniac City by Bill Hayes. It's a memoir about the sudden death of a partner and what ripples out from there (including a long relationship with scientist Oliver Sacks). Made me want to move to New York ASAP. I pounded through it in a few days while I was on vacation, highly recommend.

I'm becoming re-obsessed with Microcastle, Deerhunter's 2008 masterpiece. It's one of my all-time favorites. Odd at first, but stick with it all the way through. Listen on Spotify

I'm re-reading The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene for the 3rd time. If you've ever been curious about psychology or human behavior, it is by far the most comprehensive and memorable book I've found. He writes it in his classic, authoritative style, and uses examples and stories to explain each psychological effect/disorder (for example, he uses Richard Nixon to exemplify the risk of the Jungian shadow). SO GOOD. The audiobook is also great, and has an amazing narrator.

A friend of mine put it well over coffee:

"The secret to a happy life: 1 wife, 2 houses, 3 stocks."

Adapt accordingly based on gender.

Victoria stuff:

• For years, my favorite sushi spot has been a hidden gem: Mutsuki-An. I grew up going there back when it was next to Oak Bay High, and have loyally followed it to Cadboro Bay. It's astounding to me that it isn't busier given how great their food is and how comfortable the space is. If you haven't been, you should. My current obsessions are the yuzu scallop carpaccio and the kushiyaki chicken.
• My friend Pax just opened a personal training gym in Oak Bay called Restore Human. It looks awesome and you should workout there.
• I need someone to take over running Tasting Victoria, our food publication. It's been sitting idle since June with over 30,000 subscribers and a pretty large social following. You: have great taste. Can run it all yourself (including sending newsletters, designing graphics, writing reviews, and finding sponsors). Love food and are willing to write honest reviews (even if they're brutal). This is not a paid job, this would be for someone entrepreneurial who wants to partner with us to turn it into something (equity). If you're interested, email my partner Ben.

That's all for now…

-Andrew