I’m experimenting more with the format of Artifacts so I’ll be playing around. This week, expect:

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A weekly trends and research newsletter exploring ideas and companies that are likely to leave a legacy.

1 Long-Form Lesson

My friend (and former coach) Minnow and I always debated the importance of rest. He would discuss its importance and how it’s just as productive as exercise or work.

While I understood this logically, it never sat well with me.

To me, rest was not a practice or a productive use of time but a reward. It was reserved for those who earned it – for the founders who had a big exit or the retired folks who worked all their lives.

Not belonging to either of those groups, I felt undeserving of rest.

I’m of the belief that when you’re just getting started and in the early stages of building a company, you probably won’t get to rest. You’re in survival mode. But you can only go full steam for so long before you run out of juice.

I’ve been running pretty hard for the last 4 years.

In fact, until this past month, I’d never taken more than a week off of work in my 10 years of working. (This is not a flex).

After securing a full-time job and fully transitioning out of my former work situation, I was able to take a real vacation.

My best friend was getting married in Hawaii, and we made a trip out of it.

It felt deeper than a vacation in a lot of ways.

For me, it was a reset—a rebirth, even? It was poetic in that I was returning to my place of birth after more than 20 years and after a long and difficult journey as a founder.

The best way to describe my time away was that I sank into it. I let myself be immersed in the stillness and the sand.

So, to answer my own question. Why is rest so difficult?

Rest is difficult for competitive, ambitious people because it appears counterintuitive to the mission. How does it make sense to slow down when everything around you demands more of you?

This is why rest, like exercise, good nutrition, and relationships, is a practice and a discipline and not a reward.

It’s a tool in the toolbox of ambitious people to go further for a longer period of time.

The ego wants us to believe that rest is a luxury afforded only to the elite, whereas I believe the top performers prioritized rest, and it helped them get to the top.

Less mind fucks and more sandy beaches.

We all know Lululemon and Alo and all the brands in between that have popularized athleisure as an accepted fashion trend, but I’m starting to see athleisure be redefined outside of apparel.

I recently came across The Painted Pickle in Atlanta which is a hybrid pickleball, park-like bar, dining, and gaming area in one space.

People are looking to integrate fitness with pleasure more seamlessly.

How do you take the golf clubhouse and bring it to more high-velocity sports? This seems like one iteration.

I think the underlying need here is social connection. People don’t just want to do the sport or activity – they want to build relationships.

It’s a modern-day church without the pews, the sermons, and the bigotry and with a paddle and cocktail in hand.

I heard about this app called UMax on My First Million. It’s basically an app that takes photos of your face and tells you what you can do to become more attractive. Yes, it’s paid. $6.99.

Shaan and Sam talked about this on the pod, but the underlying trend here is insecure men. Scott Galloway has been talking about the epidemic of lonely young men in the US. They’re not in relationships or dating.

This app (and ideas like it) gives them an easy, practical way to take ownership of themselves. Not that looks are everything, but if you’re getting rejected by women constantly or have low self-confidence, it’s something within your control to improve.

We’ll see if this sticks, but I think the underlying social trends and the accessibility of the tech make for an interesting moment.

My wife bought this for my 32nd birthday, and I’m so in love with it.

Yes, I’m cooking 👀

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