Work, Life & Growth

Brew Hardinge
Journals.

I pay close attention to people, conversations, and the moments that turn out to matter. This is where I write about what I'm picking up along the way — from the books I read, the work I do, and the people who've shaped how I think.

Latest

X: The Weak Link Problem.

Saturday, 20th June 2026. There's a lot of pressure on ambitious individuals to know what they want to be – to know exactly where they're heading and how they're getting there. Yet in most cases,

X: The Weak Link Problem.
01

Life Learnings

X: The Weak Link Problem.

Saturday, 20th June 2026. There's a lot of pressure on ambitious individuals to know what they want to be – to know exactly where they're heading and how they're getting there. Yet in most cases, such individuals know that they want success. They just don't yet necessarily know what success looks like. This

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X: The Weak Link Problem.

IX: We can almost never be greater than those we hate.

Thursday, 18th June 2026. The saying goes something like, "You'll never meet a hater who is doing better than you". This is an interesting philosophy that I heard when listening to a podcast that hosted David Goggins. In Goggins' journey, he learned that those who had the time to expend their energy on hatred towards

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IX: We can almost never be greater than those we hate.

VII: Identity is built before intensity is earned.

Monday, 4th May 2026. The urge to go harder, do more, build faster - before the foundation is there. I continue to reach for intensity before I have earned it. The post that arrived on my feed was something I needed to see, and it got me thinking. James Clear wrote that consistency needs to come before intensity. By building our

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VII: Identity is built before intensity is earned.

VI: How easy it is to drift off track.

Monday, 20th April 2026. The vision can be so clear, the plan can be set, yet I still drift. A commitment I had made to myself of reading one book per fortnight became an afterthought to late night YouTube videos. I'm not sure what caused this lapse in discipline, but I'm conscious of it. I initially

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VI: How easy it is to drift off track.

V: You can want more without resenting where you are.

Tuesday, 7th April 2026 The people most likely to achieve something significant are also the most likely to feel like they're achieving nothing. Ambition and frustration are the same coin. Ambitious people are always working on something. Ideas are generated, triaged and acted on. But most of them die. The passion fizzles and the idea quietly disappears. What

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V: You can want more without resenting where you are.

III: Regular water and fertile soil keeps a relationship healthy.

Tuesday, 31st March 2026. You might be thinking, "What does water and soil have to do with my relationship?" If you are fortunate enough to have found someone special - who loves you, treats you well and respects you - then you'll know that the connection you share between the two of you is alive. It is its

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III: Regular water and fertile soil keeps a relationship healthy.

II: Finding purpose in a world full of distraction and temptation.

Sunday, 29th March 2026 The twenties are the most consequential decade. I'm 40 pages shy of finishing my latest book, The Defining Decade by Meg Jay. It must be said that this has been a brilliant read, and the source of motivation to write this post. There's no doubt that the 20's years are

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I: Philosophy without execution is just entertainment.

Friday, 27th March 2026 The figureheads of Stoicism have been a major source of intrigue for me. Marcus Aurelius popped up on my radar a few years ago, when I came across Meditations, and began listening to the audiobook. I never made it far through the journal entries of the former Roman Emperor, but the philosophy that he (perhaps unintentionally)

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02

Books I've Read

Book #3: The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
Book #3: The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

Work, Love, The Brain and The Body; Meg Jay shares her fascinating takes on a vigorous and intentional approach to the twentysomething years in her book The Defining Decade. It's officially the end

Book #2: Replace Your Salary By Investing by Ben Nash
Book #2: Replace Your Salary By Investing by Ben Nash

Book number two! This marks the second fortnight in a row of sticking to my new goal of one book per fortnight. This time, the focus shifts towards building my financial literacy. Prior to reading

Book #1: Deep Work by Cal Newport
Book #1: Deep Work by Cal Newport

This one was interesting. So many valuable lessons from a clearly very educated human. I kicked off my brand new fortnightly reading habit on the 16th of February, after I asked Claude to create a

03

Workplace Learnings

2026

VIII: The SpaceX IPO & The Bet on Extra-Terrestrial AI Data Centres.

Friday, 12th June 2026. How does a $1.75T space program valuation unexpectedly add a complex new layer to the future of Earth's ability to accommodate AI? Something I didn't know - until quite recently - is that Elon Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, alongside Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever. The group launched the

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VIII: The SpaceX IPO & The Bet on Extra-Terrestrial AI Data Centres.
2026

IV: Meaningful work reaps meaningful results.

Wednesday, 1st April 2026 We spend roughly 10-15% of our entire life at work. The past 2 weeks have included moments of realisation that a lot of the stuff I get involved in at work is largely irrelevant, and non-meaningful; both to my role and to the person I am. In business, it is one thing to define

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IV: Meaningful work reaps meaningful results.
04

People I've Met

Profiles coming soon.