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The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday October 21st, 2022)

Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Sketch✎
Edition: Friday, October 21st, 2022
Sponsored by: You?

 

🎤 Listen to this email here:

#1.) Swipe:

I want to put this in my "Cool-Vintage-Ads-I-Want-To-Have-Framed" collection!

This is 1958 Fender Amps print ad that promotes Fender's musical superiority over other guitar amps. 

The imagery on this one is lovely!

fender-ad.jpg

#2.) Wisdom:

Good friends bring up hard conversations, even if it's unpleasant.

face-eyes-thinking.webp

If you see a bad habit a close friend is doing, it might be worth the difficult conversation to bring it up, because no one else will.

Often times they don’t KNOW they’re doing it, and someone telling them might be first step to solving it.

I've learned a few things when approaching this:

I’ve learned to first “ask” if someone wants feedback first. Only if they accept do I give it.

I also have learned to use the "Compliment Sandwich" where you start the conversation off with saying you love the person, and that's why you're bringing up this issue. Then you tell them the issue. Then you remind them that you are there to help with it.

In the past I've simply told people out of the blue, "YOU TALK TOO MUCH AND IT'S ANNOYING" and it can come off very abrupt and rude or like an attack 😬 

#3.) Interesting:

I'm currently doing a “Healthy Week” with some peeps that includes:

🧁 No added sugar
🍔 1,500 calorie limit on no-workout days
🌮 2,000 calorie limit on workout days
️ Cut back on caffeine

Everything has been super easy...except the caffeine thing. 

YEESH 😳

I went without caffeine for 2 days and it felt like I never “woke up", I had headaches (which I never get), and wasn’t motivated to work much.

I’m not against caffeine, but wow…didn’t realize cutting back would be so hard, I definitely was zonked 😬

caffine-withdrawal.jpg

The problem is I used to not drink caffeine on the weekends in order to "reset" my tolerance each week, however this year I've drank caffeine pretty much every single day. 

So I was drinking 300mg to 400mg a day (still safe range, but high). 

I cut back to under 200mg this week. 

Next week 100mg and under. 

Then periodic "tolerance resets" by either drinking no caffeine or weekends or switching to lower caffeine grade tea.

#4.) Picture:

Here's a fun recent purchase: A single speed bike! (Not a fixie, just single speed)

single-speed-bike.jpg

The main cardio exercise I get is riding my bike to my gym that's exactly 1 mile away. 

On the way there it's relatively easy, but on the way back it's ROUGH because it's alllllll hills with steep grades 😳

Since this is my main form of cardio exercise, I decided to buy an extra bike that's just ONE SPEED. 

No downshifting on hills to make it easier. My other bike has 21 gears to switch between:

double-speed.jpg

This new bike has ONE gear, see how simple the gearing system looks in comparison?

one-gear-bike.jpg

Benefits of this single speed bike:
✔️ Forces me to get better cardio.
✔️ The bike is super simple. Very few components.
✔️ Silent. There's no gears that whine, click, or make noise.

Downsides of this single speed bike:
𝗫 Not fun to ride on hills, you will get sweaty.
𝗫 Slow starting from a standstill. Takes extra time to cross the road.

It's incredibly difficult to pedal this thing up hills. I've had to literally stop and push off just to get momentum going if I stop....so it's working!

The whole point of this purchase has been to force me to push harder on these gym rides. There's no other option. 

If I don't push hard, I literally don't get home 😂
 

#5.) Essay:

Here's a cool way I've seen someone make new friends and meet new interesting people: By having a super interesting offer. 

Example 👉🏼

Two years ago me and my buddy Noah rented a house in Malibu, CA. and this guy Jon Senstrom reached out and asked us if we wanted to go spearfishing. 

OF COURSE THAT SOUNDED AWESOME! 

spear-fishing.jpg

Our house was directly on the beach (brag 😏) so he came over and brought alllll this stuff for us to go spearfishing with:

car-pick-up.jpg

He brought everything we needed including wetsuits, spear guns, weights, fins etc....

nev-getting-ready-to-fish.jpg

He gave us some training and taught us how not to die while spearfishing:

jon-noah-fishing.jpg

Here was the loot after going out!

fish-from-spear-fishing.jpg

He then spent the rest of the day teaching and helping us prepare the fish into sushi:

making-sushi.webp

making-sushi-2.jpg

Then we made some of the fish scraps into ramen!

ramen-fish-scraps.jpg

Jon said if he wants to meet someone, he'll offer to take them spearfishing, which is a pretty unusual thing. 

He's met so many cool people through this, and it costs him nothing! He already has all the equipment, he already has the know-how, and it's a super memorable experience for everyone. 

What a creative way to meet cool people!

#6.) Sketch:

"Crappy Marketing" is a fun way to get attention, and recently the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer got in the action. 

Check out this hilarious graphics designer request they did that went viral and got ~100,000 likes! 😂

They totally got inspiration from other marketing stunts like this and it totally worked!

graphic-designer-needed-new.jpg

I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
Sincerely, 
Neville Medhora

nev-head.webp

18 Comments

Recommended Comments

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

THANK YOU SO MUCH JASON!!

I try to make these awesome, and so glad ya like them!!

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

I just wanted to tell you that I FUCKING love your emails...they're as good as any substack newsletter that I've ever read. Endlessly entertaining and smart and of course I'm learning shit too. So thank you, sir. That is all. 

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

Wow this was an excellent email. So many stories I loved it!

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Why thank you so much Ellen, loved making it and sharing 🙂 

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

Re: Caffeine

Just a fun book/audiobook recommendation for you: This Is Your Mind on Plants, by Michael Pollan.

SO GOOD. 😉

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Oh I listened to his Joe Rogan interview and much of it was about caffeine, I liked his thoughts on it!

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

This is great, one of your best : ) yet, Thanks

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Why thank you Alan...that's so kind of you 🙂 

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Oh so interesting!

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

re: the Fender ad—The Birth Of Loud is an excellent book about the backstory of Leo Fender, Les Paul, & Paul Bigsby. https://a.co/d/exp1BSp

Also: totally down to chat.

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

I have been reading your emails for some time now and just want to thank you. 

Lately, I have used your emails before brainstorming. 
Your emails have helped produce some cool ideas and future plans I am working on.
I appreciate your work.

Enjoy your day, Neville.

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

That's so awesome John! I might make a cool way to organize all these hundreds of SWIPES emails soon 🙂 

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

Great email this week!

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Why thank you Preedee!

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

Good luck with the caffeine thing. don't be surprised if the brain fog kicks in and stays for way longer than you might expect. (tirst time I quit caffeine I was in rough shape for about seven months.) tapering makes things more manageable, but you can't fully escape paying the piper once you're addicted to the crap. anyways, you have the support of an internet stranger. and thanks for the emails. I enjoy scrolling through them each friday and stealing what pops out 🙂

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Thank you so much James!! 

I have got this advice from many people, and have moved to just tapering down. It made a huge difference right away. One cup of coffee gets me pretty buzzed now 🙂 

Guest Anonymous

Anonymous

I really enjoy receiving your Friday emails! 

The graphic designer sign. 😂😂😂 I’m still laughing on that one lol. Have a great weekend!

Neville Grand Master

  • Administrator

Those graphics design ads are so awesome 😂