In November of 2023, I shared an article about a personal planning tool called a Cyber Retreat. Tucked away in that article was a promise to myself…
For an incentive, I’ve promised myself a trip to French Polynesia when the rough draft is complete.
The incentive was for our Endurance Essentials book, which we will be publishing electronically and in hard copy. As of last weekend, the final draft is with my writing partner. Once he’s happy, I’ll share with the publisher of Going Long and see if she’s interested. We’re probably going to self-publish but, as she did an excellent job with my first book, I’d like to see what she thinks.
The way I got the project over the line was to write out a schedule and stick it on the entrance to my office.
The feeling of finishing a big project is relief. Before I finished my current book, I started my next book. On my to-do list is updating Live Long and Prosper (Free PDF), which covers the themes I share in this publication.
Articles are fun, books are tough. To make the process easier, consider finding a writing partner who thinks, and writes, differently from you. You’ll get a better product and have more fun.
Work Flow:
Free articles become chapters.
While publishing your articles, you’ll build your “free list” here on Substack and that will give you a feel for the potential market for your book.
Read chapters aloud before publishing online.
Pre-publish chapters to a paid list, here on Substack.
Make videos explaining key concepts from each chapter.
Once your online chapters are completed, expand them into a long-form style.
Copy the long-form chapters from Substack into a rough draft of the manuscript.
I used Word.
Take a break from the project.
This is a good time to think about, then start, your next project.
Come back and edit chapter by chapter.
As you complete the edit, circulate chapters to co-author(s) for comment.
Reflect their comments into a final draft.
Take another break from the project while the layout and design happens.
One last read… done!
Done for a couple years, until it’s time to do the next edition.
Knowing that there will be another edition, can be the nudge that gets you to declare victory (over this round) and publish.
The benefit of all the review, reading aloud, video summaries… is we get our story straight and have tightened our thinking. It’s like a self-administered graduate degree on your topic of choice.
Looking Forward
The book is related to something I’m excited about. Training a personal AI. It’s a project I’m preparing to undertake in my 60s, which arrive in a little more than 1,400 days.
Rather than working with other AIs, I’m thinking it is more useful to train a domain-specific AI. The domain being my knowledge base as well as my role within my larger family structure. Literally, I’ll be ghost in the machine, who has trained his successor.
Writers, remember to save everything. At my end. I have 25 years of writing. When I go back, I’m amazed at the quantity. There’s so much material.1
What are you looking forward to?
I ask because mid-February can be a tough time in the Northern Hemisphere. When I worked in the UK, I would schedule an early February trip somewhere hot and sunny. By the time my trip came around, I had been in the dark (literally) for a couple months. The Cyber Retreat article (linked at the top) is a good thing to do on your next trip.
…but sitting around planning doesn’t do much for my current vibe.
Looking forward, on the other hand, is a habit that does a lot for my current vibe.
From my 1,000 day horizon (discussed last time) to my plans for this morning (skiing with my son in Jackson Hole)… I have events that I’m excited to get done.
This excitement, this looking forward… is a habit, that can be learned. It’s as simple as (re)training where we focus our attention.
Vision 2030
Alongside my desire to train an AI, I’m fired up about the near future. The combination of fully self driving (FSD) vehicles and affordable high-speed satellite communications will give us the ability to be, and to work from, anywhere. A game changing approach to travel.
Travel Pods - overnight travel for business and other travelers.
Office Pods - mobile office set up, avoiding the hassle & downtime of airports.
Hybrid Pods - a combo of the above, appealing to the RV and WFH markets.
I see a massive potential market.
Consider how much you spend on vehicles, business travel and family travel.
Consider how much the current airport experience sucks and wastes your time.
… roll all that hassle (and money) into a single unit which gives you a bed & office on wheels.2
Highly attractive for a guy who likes to ride in great weather and explore the desert South West.
I’m 15 hours (drive time) away from Tucson (Mexican Border) and Glacier National Park (Canadian Border).
Santa Fe, Salt Lake City and Zion National Park are an overnight from Boulder.
FSD completely changes the mental calculus of fatigue, time and distance.
With that in mind, here’s a reminder to archive a copy of your social media posts, especially if you write long replies to good questions.
A quick search showed 16,500 private aircraft and 11 million RVs, average RV utilization of 3-4 weeks per annum. That is a massive amount of depreciating assets, that require operating costs and have associated labor.