Hi!

OK, this "monthly" newsletter has dropped off embarrassingly – the last one was in June.

But hey – we're here now, and (if I say so myself) there's some good stuff in this one.

Reminder: You're receiving this either because we know each other in person, or because you signed up for updates after reading one of my books. If you're not interested, unsubscribe without fear! I'll never even know.

🤘 Punk as f**k

Most people take one look at me, or learn that I write deep-dives about the economic system, and think: clearly, this guy used to play bass in a punk band.

And they'd be right.

We were called Sniper Wolf (cool name hey?), and I can tell you this without fear because this was the era before YouTube or even MySpace.

Our singer couldn't sing, our drummer couldn't drum, and I had a habit of getting so drunk before shows that I could barely stay upright.

BUT! Our songs (which I didn't write) were actually good. So, with midlife crisis in full swing, I decided to get one of them re-recorded.

I fired up Fiverr.com, and sent an old demo of the track to Ben in Egypt, who (for $50) re-recorded all the instruments. Then Fernando in Argentina recorded the vocal, and I added my own bass and backing vocals.

The result? Pretty much what I always had in my head, even though we were never competent enough musicians to pull it off. Sadly, although I'm sure we have lots of Screaching Weasel and Angry Samoans fans on this list, I'm not emotionally secure enough to make it public.

In an increasingly AI world (which, full disclosure, you'll hear a lot about for the rest of this email) it was so cool to be able to bring something to life by collaborating with actual real people around the world.

📚 Can I give you a free book? (Yes there's a catch)

The paperback of my book Seven Myths About Money comes out in January – and I want to get it off to the best possible start.

I was at an author event last week, where someone said the best way to get the Amazon gods on your side is verified reviews with photos. So to give the algo a nudge, here's my proposal:

• I'll send you a £10 Amazon voucher so you can buy the book for free
• You'll leave an honest review, including a photo (you don't have to be in it! It can just be an underlined sentence, etc.)
• I'll post you a signed bookplate, so your free book becomes a signed free book

If that sounds like a good deal, pop your details here and we'll make it happen!

✅ How to get good at anything (guaranteed)

Over the past few years I've learned a new language, built muscle, run marathons, taught myself to build apps, and learned to play the piano.

I have no particular talent for any of these things. But I have one killer advantage in my favour – which I wouldn't swap for any level of genius or natural aptitude:

I'm consistent.

And if you have consistency, you don't need anything else.

I've written my first blog post in years about this – click here to read it.

⚽️ Let's get physical

Over the summer I got a group of newsletter readers together for a "definitely not a match" kickabout. In my 40s I can't be dealing with tackles and shin pads, but kicking a ball around and meeting new people was a lot of fun.

We're going to be doing it again (maybe wait until the Spring though hey?), so let me know if you're interested in joining – it'll be a weekday lunchtime within walking distance of King's Cross.

In common with everyone else in London, I got into Padel this summer too. I normally play at Canary Wharf or Vauxhall, so get in touch if you (A) want to join sometime, and (B) aren't very good.

📝 Using AI to be a better human (Part 1)

My friend Sam is one of those annoying people who remembers everything you ever told him – then asks thoughtful questions about it next time, making you feel bad for thinking: "shit, what's his wife's name again?"

I mentioned this to him one day, and he told me the genius-level system he used: straight after seeing someone, he jotted down a summary of the conversation in a note on his phone.

"Huh, so easy yet so wildly effective!" I thought to myself, then promptly didn't do it at all for the best part of a decade.

If you're sensing a "but then AI came along" moment... you're right.

I already had a largely ignored list of contacts in Notion, with the odd snippet of information I'd managed to write down. And then a nice man called Will told me that you could use something called an MCP (don't worry what that means) to connect it to Claude.

So now:

• Immediately after seeing someone, I use voice to ramble into Claude what we talked about
• It creates/updates their record in Notion, all nicely formatted and cleaned up
• Before seeing someone, I can ask Claude to give me a briefing – and it pulls key points from Notion, along with some suggested areas to follow up on

This removes all the friction, and I'm reasonably optimistic now that I'll keep it updated. So now if I don't know your kids' names, it's purely that I don't care. (Kidding.)

I set custom instructions for ChatGPT to be less agreeable, and now it's just being a dick about everything for no reason.

📆 Using AI to be a better human (Part 2)

OK just one more AI thing.

One of my most annoying attributes as a husband is making plans for an evening out, then not thinking to tell my wife about it until a couple of days beforehand.

Now I could work hard to be more thoughtful and considerate, but as I've tried and failed to do that for something like 20 years, I figured it was time to embrace AI.

So I got ChatGPT to write me a Google Apps Script that:

• Detects new events in my calendar that run past 5pm
• Creates a copy and sends her an invitation
• Monitors for changes and deletions, and updates her version accordingly

This was a niche problem that you probably won't suffer from, but that's the point: it's now so easy to develop tiny little pieces of software that solve your exact weird problems.

And in my case, avoid the need to do deep self-work – which is always a bonus.

👋 Over to you!

That’s it for this time.

The whole point of this newsletter is to stay connected to friends, meet new ones, and throw some ideas into the world to see what sticks.

So if anything here sparks a thought - or you just fancy a catch-up - hit reply!

I’d love to hear what you’re building, thinking about, or trying to figure out right now.

Speak soon,

Rob

p.s. You can also follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.