Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

Well, here we go. 13 days until I have surgery to remove a brain tumor. The next several issues of Tinkering With Ideas that land in your inbox will have been pre-written and pre-scheduled.

Because the next issue will be only one day post-surgery, I doubt it will include an update. Surgery is expected to take 10-12 hours (yikes). But I'll try to get an update added to a subsequent issue, or send out a separate email.

If you'd like to follow the journey of Betty the Brain Tumor (yes, I named the tumor), you can read updates here.

1) Reflection:

I've been truly humbled by the support I've received since learning that I have a brain tumor. I'm fortunate to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Over the next few months, you'll see some of these people in Tinkering With Ideas (and on my blog and Substack), interspersed with some of my own content. It was important to me to keep content flowing, so I have enough to cover about 6-8 weeks of recovery.

But in reality, my recovery might be a lot longer. There's just no way to know. And if it is longer, does that mean I won't be able to write? Not sure. So I'm doing the best I can with the information I have.

2) Product

For a long time, I've used Reflect to write down a daily recap of the prior day's activities. I've always added tags (like #kids) so I can look back at prior notes about a specific topic. I even have a tag #sickness so I can keep track of the different ailments that float through our house.

Now, with Betty the Brain tumor, it seems even more important that I make notes and tag them so I can track how I'm feeling, any symptoms, etc.

3) Tip

I recently came across an old episode of Tim Ferriss's podcast (from 2017): Episode #214 - How to Design a Life. It's an interview with graphic designer Debbie Millman.

I listened to the entire thing (and recommend you do also), but toward the end, she talks about an exercise she does with students. She says to imagine that it's 10 years from now. And ask yourself: What does your life look like? What are you doing? Where are you living? Who are you living with? What excites you? What is your health like? What kind of clothes do you wear? And so on.

Write an essay about this one day, ten years from now. Start from the minute you wake up until the minute you go to bed. "Dream big. Dream without fear," says Millman in the episode. "And then, read it once a year and see what happens. It's magic."