Red Carpet revelry [1-Dec-24]
Another dose of the interesting things from around the world...
Howdy there!
How is it December already?! In the past week or so, the city has been dressing up for the festive season with lots of decorations, lighting and installations appearing everywhere. I even attended my first ever red carpet event for the premiere of a festive musical! Hence, this week’s newsletter will be a bit more festive themed as a result and hopefully filled with some practical ways to help your holiday season.
Also, apologies for the typos in last week’s email - it was late, and I really wanted to send it, so proof-reading was a bit sloppy.
Is the festive sprit starting where you are? Hit “reply” and let me know! Housekeeping stuff below as usual!
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Creative update
Gifts for your favourite geek (2024 edition) -
Things I’m reading
Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferriss*
This is an ancient book in the modern-day context and I’ve read it a bunch of times already. Around this time of the year, I try to read through some of the classic books that have impacted me over the years- they are classics for a reason, after all!
While it’s easy to absorb the general gist of a book, I find the impactful ones are STILL useful on the second or third read. If you’ve done what it says, the second time around, you’ll notice more of the nuance and that’s what I’m hoping for this time.
Do you have any books that you’ve had a similar experience with? Hit reply and let me know!
Cool finds
I’ve mentioned these in the past but this newer model looks even more stylish and is much cheaper than the one I bought. Given it’s gift giving season, thought I’d mention it again. Otherwise, see below to get some other ideas!
Actionable insight
Brainstorming great gift ideas with AI
Even if you’re not tech inclined, I really recommend trying this activity. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, AI is now popping up everywhere. Some have embraced it wholeheartedly and use it every day (I’m in this group) while others don’t know exactly what to do with it. Hence, I’ll occasionally share a prompt (basically asking AI a question) to explore the possibilities.
This week let’s focus on a common problem: thinking up gift ideas. It’s often very difficult to come up with something and remain within budget, especially for people that seem to have it all. If you have this problem, use the following steps:
Copy the following but change the parts in [ brackets ] to the characteristics of people you want to buy for.
Generate 10 creative and thoughtful gift ideas under [insert budget] for a [insert age range] year old individual who is passionate about [insert interest]. Focus on unique, practical, and memorable options.
Head to ChatGPT
Paste it in and let the brainstorming begin. Congratulations, you’re now using AI!
If you’re already using AI, you might already be “collecting” useful prompts and may have a better one. If you do, let me know by replying to this email. If you’re new to AI, hopefully this is a little thing that shows you what you can do and how easy it can be.
Weekly Update
This week feels like it’s been a non-stop socialising extravaganza that has continued on from last week. There has been more coffees/dinners/catch-ups and parties than most of the previous year gone by!
This was a more “work heavy” week as well. Given that there are only a handful of weeks til operating rooms shut down for the year, it’s been a mad rush with surgeons that I work with adding on more and more extra lists.
It’s also been memorable for 4 specific reasons:
Darn good dinner
After seeing that there is a list of 101 great steak restaurants and then realising a number of the top ones are in Melbourne, a friend and I decided to visit one that I didn’t even know existed.
Long story short, it was expensive but as my friend said, “this is the best steak I’ve EVER had in my life!”
I have to agree.
I’m not a foodie and rarely do I think an expensive meal is worth it, but this was one where I can honestly say, I never knew steak could taste like that. If you happen to be in Melbourne, do check out Steer Dining Room.
One little comment
As you might have noticed, we have failed miserably to record the next episode of the randInt podcast. 😂 Time zones, start-up needs and other things have intruded the last 3 times (as I write this, Chandra called to see if we were recording an episode but we’re heading out for an Xmas event- thwarted again!)
But even with so much downtime, one little comment sparked our motivation to record the next episode…
Red carpet invite
One of the most unexpected of things happened with a friend inviting us to the premiere of A Christmas Carol. I’d been invited a while back but didn’t realise that a) it was the premiere and b) it was a red carpet event.
This was supposedly a “small” event, but considering how much buzz there was, it makes me wonder what a big event is like!
Overall, even as someone who doesn’t normally go to musicals, the show was excellent and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Thanks to Glamorazzi for the invite!
and for the last thing, head over to the blog…
Quote of the week
This week, from a historic American magnate of industry…
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