I had a nice fourth of July weekend in the states with plenty of family around.
I also noticed I was dealing with a lot of guilt...
Guilty if I do, guilty if I don't. Driving on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to spend time with my family was something I wanted to do, but it competed with continuing to make progress on the book. So I delayed leaving by a couple of hours. When I finally did leave, I felt a little guilty for not leaving sooner, but I also felt guilty for leaving the book behind.
It took me 24 hours to realize I was having these feelings, and they were the cause of my exhaustion. I was finally able to process them by talking out loud and reflecting on what was happening. Once I did, it freed me from living in the cognitive inferno. I was happily present for my family and then able to get back into the book in the days that followed.
LYT Book Update (Jul 10, 2026)
I'm working on the notemaking and mapmaking chapters. The meat of the book. I have so many examples I can share. But which ones make the cut? Which ones are best for the book?
And how do I convey the progressive, propulsive power of a map of content? The workshop has all the animations and visuals that can't make the book, but one advantage of the book format is that I can break down parts of the thinking process in a slower, nicer way for the reader.
Additionally, I've been working on intuition-pumping ways of understanding the power of an ideaverse. I'm also starting to meet with book illustrators. (Thanks for all the suggestions!)
The Life Audit
Each month in the Knowledge Accelerator (soon be known as LYT Year) is centered around a theme to support your thinking efforts. It's crafted to give you what you need at exactly the right time. This month's theme is the life audit.
July is a month to zoom out. Gain perspective on your life and realign your efforts to live with more meaning and intention. Want some help? I'll be hosting a 90-minute event on July 14th designed to audit every aspect of your life.
A life audit goes beyond goals and outcomes. It’s a chance to ask whether the life you’re living is aligned with what actually matters to you. Leave with clarity on your life direction: what you’ve done & what you wish to do.
Audit your lived experience
Audit your relationships
Audit your work
Want to join us?
You can get access to this and every monthly event, along with all LYT products and offeringsincluding Linking Your AI, Ideaverse Pro, even the annual LYT Workshop coming up in February. Find out more about the Knowledge Accelerator here.
LYT Book Feedback Update (Jul 10, 2026)
The feedback keeps coming. We're over 1700 comments now. I had to put a pause on reviewing everything so I can keep writing the remaining chapters of the book. We are getting more comments for the later chapters, but it's still top-heavy.
If you're on our book team, feel free to keep reading and keep commenting, especially for chapters 4, 5, and 6.
If you want to join, Book Team East is full, but you can apply to join the next group, Book Team South. I will invite the growing Book Team South applicants into the book feedback when I have new chapters (either revised or new).
LYT Book Team Expectations
Manuscript Phase
Be a beta reader for the chapters you are sent and leave honest feedback in the book portal.
Regarding getting your name in the book, I'm working with my publisher on this, but if you give a reasonable amount of quality feedback in the book portal, my goal is to get your name in the book. There are already many of you who likely have just secured your spot in the book, based on the quality of your feedback thus far!
Launch Phase
Then during Spring 2027, if you really like the book...
Talk about it on social, in newsletters, to colleagues, family, and friends. But especially during the launch window to truly amplify the book's reach.
Review it within the first 1-2 days of launch on Amazon and Goodreads to have a hand in helping the book fly amongst the (five) stars. (This matters WAY more than you might think.)
Book Subtitle: Reflections and New Battles
Two weeks ago, the subtitle option that included "system" ("A system to organize thoughts, develop ideas, and create your best work") scored worse than the one that didn't. I asked why, and here are a few of your responses:
"System" STOPS the reader from noticing what comes after.
The "system" version got rid of two out of the three usages of "your"
Anyway, here are two new choices. Can you vote in each poll?
When everything looks the same. A few months back, Anthropic released a new tool, Claude Design, which made it easier for someone to create websites. The drawback, is that the tool, especially when someone uses it with the default designs, tends to look incredibly same-y across dozens of unique web pages and slide decks created by Claude Design. That it's essentially creating all new cliches. We're also seeing it in newsletters that are written using AI tools, trained on someone's past newsletters. Everyone starts sounding the same, even when they have something different to say.
It's also a big reason why I don't do either. One of the few things we have that's unique to each one of us is our voice. While writing this newsletter takes work, it's worth that effort to be able to connect and share with you.
It's also why Linking Your AI is designed to keep the user in the pilot seat, not an AI tool. AI can be great at assisting you, but it should never replace your voice.
Do you say y'all? I've seen this U.S. dialect quiz from the New York Times being shared again recently online, and it's always interesting to hear how accurate some are finding it and just notice and be more aware of all of the dialect differences across this large and diverse country. Actually, the questions themselves were sharing example words that I'd never even heard before for some descriptions. It's all pretty neat.
Join us for a 90-minute live session designed to help you zoom out, reflect on your life, relationships, and work, and move forward with more clarity. It’s one of the experiences included inside Knowledge Accelerator.
To respond to this newsletter, just hit reply. I love getting replies, and read all of them, but I have sadly come to the conclusion I can't realistically reply to most. Trust me, I hate this. But, well, Life puts limits on all of us. Thank you for your understanding. (And if you received this email from a friend, and would like to subscribe, please go here.)