Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

Rules and Duties

I enjoyed this piece from Shane Trotter on rules and duties to share with the young people in your life. Frankly, they're good rules for all of us.

He argues that people who have standards and expectations that they live by stand out from the crowd. This is most useful for kids who are still learning to navigate the world, but they're pretty useful for adults too.

These were a handful of my favorite rules from the article:

• Name your fears and face them.

• Know your appetites and control them.

• Be neither a cheapskate nor a spendthrift.

• Give as generously as you can.

• Focus more on the transcendent; disregard the trivial.

• True strength is a controlled temper.

The Information Diet

Speaking of focusing on the transcendent and disregarding the trivial, this is a good piece on improving your information diet.

Just like the food you eat builds (or breaks) your body, the information you consume builds (or breaks) your brain.

My pendulum has swung pretty far in one direction. I almost never look at social media, and I never watch or read the news. Sometimes I'm less informed than I should be, but I also think I'm happier than I would be otherwise.

Holiday makes some great observations in this piece, and it points to a question worth asking ourselves from time to time: what can I do to improve my information diet?

On Meaningless Careers

If you're a white collar worker like me, I think you'll identify with this one right away. Jack Raines points out the painful reality that many jobs are the equivalent of playing video games with an unplugged controller—you're pushing buttons, but nothing is happening.

Millions of people are trading time for a paycheck, and they know if they stop showing up, as Jack puts it, the show will go on.

Not necessarily an uplifting piece for a Friday but something interesting to think about.

Workout of the Week

Like many CrossFit workouts, this is kinda fun and kinda terrible.

"The Devil's Basement"

3 rounds for time:

• 1000m row

• 12 devil's press (35s/20s)

Rest 3 mins between rounds.

My best time 21:14. Let me know how you do!

Quote of the Week

“When deciding between two seemingly equally good directions, the posture with which you walk can matter more than which path you choose” - Emerson

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Talk soon,

Joe