In today’s age, what I see is this 👇

This is not new. Subscriptions have been around for centuries, and the most popular one used to be the newspaper. If you think about it, it does make sense: it is delivered daily, its contents change depending on what happens in the world, and people need to make a daily effort to ensure that you receive your newspaper. It is not something you can pay once and own forever, like a music album used to be (hello Spotify 👋). The plot twist came through the digital era, when “online” businesses proved to investors and shareholders that they are way more scalable and profitable than a business that gets money once.

The gap between old business models and new ones is so wide that many “older” and physical industries are figuring out a way to introduce a subscription. When a brand like BMW tries to charge for heated car seats (then eventually reverses course), HP introduces an app to control how many pages you can print or even Amazon delivering a package turns into a subscription: it signals a desperation to tap into our money 🤑.

Why is subscription so crucial for a business?

• 🔁 Predictable revenue: Creates recurring income, making cash flow easier and the business more stable.

• 🤝 Stronger customer retention: Keeps people engaged over time instead of relying on one-time purchases.

• 📈 Higher lifetime value: Increases the total amount a customer is worth by extending the relationship.

• 🧩 Better product evolution: Encourages constant improvement based on ongoing customer feedback.

• 🚀 Easier growth planning: Makes it simpler to invest, hire, and scale with more confidence.

• 🎯 Deeper customer relationships: Turns transactions into long-term relationships, increasing loyalty and trust. It’s also harder for human beings to opt-out once they are in (due to psychological biases).

• 💡 More “upselling” opportunities: Opens the door to add-ons, reducing quality over time, etc.

All the above brought the World Economic Forum to create a video with the following infamous frame. A smiling man with a caption You’ll own nothing. And you’ll be happy.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t feel very happy that everything is turning into a recurring bill. Even when it is not the case, for example with my MacBook Pro, software updates over time make the device obsolete sooner than its actual lifetime. Even home ownership is getting out of hand, with more and more people priced out and likely never owning a home in their lifetime and instead paying a subscription called rent.

It is challenging to give tips in this context because, as consumers, we have lost are losing this battle and I cannot see the trend reversing. For software, preferring open source is one way, but it is inconvenient for non-tech folks. The only thing I can advocate for is creating awareness of where your hard-earned money is going. Because be sure of one thing: 99,9% of businesses out there have the smartest people in the world trying to figure out how to take money from your wallet.

Your weekly tip: At the of this month, audit your expenses. Check your subscriptions and recurring monthly costs. Do you really need them? Is there a fixed cost alternative? Whenever you can prefer the one-time purchase instead of a recurring one.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who spends carelessly 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Recently, I had a conversation with a fellow entrepreneur: a highly motivated individual, so in his case the above tip was not helpful. His issue is different. Being a perfectionist, he is frequently indecisive, overthinks a lot, and this eventually causes him to waste a lot of energy and move much less ahead than if he just made a decision and then course-corrected later. He has this pattern not only in business but also when it comes to relationships, etc.

I am in no position to preach, as I am closer to that type of attitude than being a pragmatic “go-getter.” I’ll just share something that has helped me several times in life when I felt “paralyzed,” endlessly analyzing pros and cons.

As humans, we are wired to feel losses twice as strongly as potential gains. This was crucial for survival. Imagine taking a chance on eating a fruit and then finding out later that it was poisonous.

This has now been well researched and is called loss aversion. Being aware of it, what should we do? My approach is to realize that most decisions in life are reversible, very few are not.

As an example, I am at a pivotal moment in my entrepreneurial journey and had to decide whether I should double down on what works and keep doing unfulfilling work that pays well, or instead follow my intuition and heart and finally do the meaningful project I have been postponing because I need more resources. This is typical loss aversion, with other fears also playing a role.

Here is my framework when I start feeling I have been spending too much time making a decision 👇

• 📝 Name it: Write down in one sentence what you need to decide about.

• 😨 Identify the fear: Pick what you fear of losing if you take the decision: time, money, comfort, status, or certainty.

• ⏳ Analyze the cost of waiting: Inaction is a decision too, and it often costs more than we admit.

• 📊 Think in probabilities: How likely is the worst-case scenario going to happen?

• 🪜 Make it small: Test the idea with a low-risk step before committing

• 📅 Set a deadline: Give yourself pressure so indecision doesn’t stretch on forever

• 🔮 Regret minimization: Pick the option you’d be happier to live with later

• 😇 Accept imperfect decisions: You do not need certainty to move forward

All of the above shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes, so you have no excuses to be indecisive about being indecisive 🤓.

Recently, I have simplified further: follow my heart and think through the steps to get back up if things don’t go well. In the initial business decision I had to make, I eventually realized that, at least for one year, I can give it my best shot and if it doesn’t work out, guess what? I’ll get back to doing the boring work that was keeping me safe.

I wasted quite a lot of hours and energy on this decision. I hope I can save yours because most of the time, in today’s comfortable world, it is not worth being a victim of loss aversion.

Your weekly tip: Most decisions are safely reversible. The reason you may feel stuck is that you fear what you may lose twice as much as what you may gain. Do a quick analysis and move forward.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who needs to move forward, whether in love or work 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Some folks are fascinated by the prospect of endless travel and, don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty amazing to experience different cultures, people, places, food, etc. At the same time, it’s often a lonely journey. Unless you’re really on vacation and keeping busy all the time (which I don’t recommend for other reasons), there are frequent moments when you are alone with yourself and your thoughts.

We already talked about the benefits of a brain dump when planning to get clarity 👇

Today I’d like to focus on one of the most important tools we have available when it comes to thinking about our lives and making sure we are steering in the direction we want: journaling.

I started journaling in Dubai in 2020 as a way to better understand myself during a very stressful period in my life. Since then, I have kept this practice. I am not obsessed with it, so I no longer do daily rituals, but I try to journal at least once per week.

When I journal daily, I’ll admit I feel better overall, but weekly is the balance I found before I start seeing negative consequences from not doing it.

So how do you journal?

• 📜 Take a damn piece of paper

• 🖊️ Take a damn pen

• ✍️ Write

Yep, it’s as simple as that! In a world that tends to overcomplicate everything, this can stay simple. You are not aiming for anything: get your thoughts out instead of letting them fight and rot in your brain. Some people prefer to journal about emotions, others about things they should get done, and others a mix of everything. You do you!

Some folks, me included, may have a hard time starting with a blank sheet of paper. In that case, you may want to consider having a few prompts to get you started. These are some of mine:

What would I like to accomplish today that would make it a success?

How do I feel? Is there any emotion I’d like to inspect?

What did I learn this week?

What are three people or things I am grateful for?

If you are not intuitively convinced of its benefits, and mind you, I was skeptical too, here are the main ones:

• 🌱 Clarity of thought: Helps you manage racing thoughts and organize what’s on your mind, making them feel more manageable.

• 🧠 Emotional release: Gives you a private space to process feelings, reducing mental buildup and helping you feel lighter. I found this especially effective before heading to bed.

• ✨ Self-awareness: Reveals patterns, triggers, and habits you might not notice in the moment,deepening your understanding of yourself and helping you grow.

• 🎯 Better focus: Clears mental clutter so you can prioritize what matters and approach the day with more intention.

As a final note, since I know a couple of people will ask me: I do use a digital note-taking app (Obsidian) for daily journaling when I do it, but I keep my weekly journaling pen and paper. There is something about connecting your brain to the gesture of writing with a pen. The page you physically write on becomes an act of material creation that typing on a keyboard doesn’t provide. I’ve monitored this and concluded, at least for myself, that journaling with pen and paper is superior to its digital equivalent.

Your weekly tip: Build an habit of journaling. It will help you get clarity, process your emotions and become a more aware and better version of yourself 🧘.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who may need to slow down in their life 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Over the years I introduced a few things I do throughout my day to help me cope with this: from blinking more frequently (we subconsciously blink less as we stare at a screen) to focusing far away for a minute every 20 minutes. All this helped, but it’s very nerdy and you need to “exercise” this self-control until it becomes second nature and unfortunately that takes time and practice, which I understand most people are not willing to put up with.

Let me give you something more practical. Long ago I decided to take a daily 15-minute break to watch the sunset. My brain tried to convince me that 15 minutes of nothingness every day would cause my business to fail: since that was a ridiculous argument, please don’t come up with similar excuses 🫵. By the way, the Dutch even gave a name to this, it’s called Niksen.

I did this in several of the cities I have visited over the last decade and there is something about watching that show that not only rests your eyes but also makes you feel “alive”. What I am trying to say is well encapsulated in the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar D. Friedrich, part of the Romantic movement of the 1800s.

Especially if you live in a city, having the opportunity to reconnect with the world outside even for a brief moment can do wonders. We weren’t meant to be enclosed in a shoebox from morning until night, from work to Netflix and chill.

Here are a few sunsets I witnessed during my break (no filters and I am a bad photographer!). Your tip awaits after this magic journey 👇

Your weekly tip: If you spend most of your day starting at a screen (monitor, TV, mobile), create a 15-minute break for yourself with no screens in sight. Just you and the world around you. My pick: witnessing the spectacle of a sunset.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who may need to lower their screen time 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

And here we are, already halfway through the year, with little time left to accomplish anything significant.

Motivation is the “drive to do something” and it generally stems from two broad categories:

• Intrinsic: the activity is done for the pleasure of doing it. This is typical of hobbies, for example watching your favorite TV series or playing an instrument. These are activities you do because you find them interesting, meaningful, or satisfying.

• Extrinsic: activities generally done as a means to an end. Think about chores like cleaning the house or going to the dentist (I still have to meet someone who enjoys it 😅). These are activities we generally do for some form of reward, like money, power, praise, or status.

Research suggests that people are often more persistent when an activity feels meaningful, enjoyable, or personally important. Extrinsic motivation can still be effective, especially in the short term, but motivation tends to be more sustainable when people feel autonomy, competence, and connection to what they are doing.

As you can imagine, nothing is black and white: motivation can be mixed. For example, I personally enjoy going to the gym, but at the same time I’m also motivated by looking good (😎) and staying healthy.

Ideally, we would all be better off if every activity we did were intrinsically motivated, but life unfortunately doesn’t work like that. The best way to approach something you don’t really want to do is to make it more pleasurable or fun.

Here are a few ways:

• 🧠 Reframing: connect it to a personally meaningful goal, or try to find intrinsic elements within the task.

• 👔 Autonomy: turn the activity into a challenge or a game that makes it more fun. If the activity is repetitive, try to add some variety.

• 🤩 Reward: upon completion, reward yourself with something you enjoy. This can be a double-edged sword, as you may become dependent on the reward over time.

• 🎯 Mastery: focus on skill growth rather than just the outcome.

• ☕ Environment: try to put yourself in a more enjoyable setting, e.g. read emails in a coffee shop.

• 🫂 Accountability: share the activity with someone else, do it together (e.g. running), or let them support you.

• 💖 Emotional Awareness: be gentle with yourself, understand why you don’t feel like doing it, accept it, and get started anyway. Often, action itself helps create motivation once you overcome the initial block.

Personally, I’ve used a combination of all the above. The most powerful ones for me have been reframing, environment, and accountability. For example, every Saturday morning I treat myself to a coffee shop and go through all my pending emails until I hit “inbox zero”. To get in shape, I’ve always worked with a great personal trainer: when you’re paying, you show up. Lastly, for my most difficult business decisions, I always remind myself why I started and where I want to go. When I think about my mission, the rest becomes more doable and bearable :)

Your weekly tip: Tap into your intrinsic motivation. What do you enjoy? Double down on that. If you have to do something driven by extrinsic motivation, try reframing it or using other methods to make it as bearable as possible. Motivation comes and goes, so accept that you’re not a robot. Be gentle with yourself, but keep pushing toward where you want to go.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who may need a motivational boost 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

“What do you think about the person I hired?” Proceeds with an angry rant when negative feedback comes → Chilling effect: no real interest in feedback

“I know you are someone that cares for me. When I need you, you will be there for me” → Guilt trigger: frames your care as an obligation

“I care for you so much, you instead don’t” Repeated continuously to build a narrative even when not true → Narrative gaslighting: repeats false victimhood to rewrite reality.

“This can’t be solved, let’s move forward and talk about something else” → Avoidance/dismissal: excludes you from the conversation and moves on

This is a vast topic that could deserve its own newsletter 🤓. Deception and manipulation are stories we’ve heard since Adam and Eve: there’s a rich literature and lots of popular culture about them.

In the spirit of Don’t Panic I’ll focus on one tip and, given the topic, I’ll add a bonus one too. I am no expert in psychology, but I’ve encountered these patterns repeatedly in both relationships and business as I pursue my mission in the world 🥷.

Note that all the examples above could be positive or neutral depending on context, tone, whether they are repeated, body language, etc. Detecting manipulation is difficult because it often depends on patterns over time and can produce false positives.

What has helped me so far:

• 🫂 Friendships: Talking to someone who genuinely cares for you and, ideally, is not involved in the situation and can be neutral helps you see whether anything is wrong. A good friend will ask questions that let you reflect and interact more clearly with the “manipulator.”

• 👔 Coach/Psychotherapist: It may be expensive, but in business this can be an ultimate cheat code. A professional support can help you avoid costly mistakes. You can’t know everything; learning through experience alone can take a long time and be painful.

• 🦧 Gut Feeling: Sometimes our brain is limited by biases and stress, but you can tap into an ancient form of wisdom: your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, even if you can’t consciously explain it, slow down, take your time and combine it with other strategies.

• 🧐 Actions vs Words: Manipulators are often skilled with words. Try to stay focused on actions.

I am blessed to have a varied group of very close friends (love you guys 🫶): they keep me grounded. If I put together all their lives experiences, across cultures and countries, I definitely have a edge compared to many people: it’s my superpower. If you don’t have a strong friends circle, I feel you; because life is much harder without that support.

Your weekly tip: If you feel off when interacting with someone, slow down. Watch actions more than listen to words. Rely on close friends for a genuine, neutral point of view to help you see the situation more clearly.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend that may need to hear this 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

If you pick up my phone you’ll notice it’s always in “black and white” (or more precisely greyscale). Why? As a knowledge worker, I spend about 10–12 hours a day on screens. On days packed with back-to-back calls, I would reach night time with my eyes feeling burning and dry, like my eyelids were glued to my eyes 😵‍💫. That pushed me, years ago, to try something I saw randomly online: disabling color on my phone.

When you turn your screen from colorful to colorless, all the visual stimulation that goes into your eyes is suddenly gone, making the screen less interesting. Have you ever noticed how cats are fascinated by moving elements on the screen and can be fixated on them for long? It’s such a thing that the Blue Man Group dedicated an entire track to the phenomenon. We humans are not immune to this dynamic 🤓.

What shocked me the most was an app like Instagram, which is highly visual, going from super addictive to almost “boring” with this basic change. Judge for yourself 👇

This reminds me a bit of a friend of mine who can’t stand black-and-white movies. He finds them extremely boring, maybe he has a point 😅.

For work sometimes I do need to see things in color, this is where creating some form of shortcut is helpful to quickly switch colors back and forth. You can easily create them on both iOS and Android.

Initially I tried greyscale from 9 PM to 7 AM, basically trying to reduce evening/night eye strain, but then realized how effective it was for me, so I now keep it on 24/7. My phone usage wasn’t that huge before this change, but I can tell it’s much lower now. I used to binge-watch reels on IG when I was doing cardio; now I don’t. I just sit with myself and my thoughts (scary in 2026, I know!).

Your weekly tip: To reduce visual stimulation and phone addiction, turn on greyscale: your eyes will be grateful (iOS, Android). If you don’t want to commit fully, enable an automation for the evening hours, and if you like it, double down for the entire day like I did.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend whose eyes may be strained 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

I have plenty of techniques and activities I have learnt over the decades to deal with anxiety and stress 🤓. Whenever you run a business, anxiety is your best friend: it drives you forward, warns you of upcoming challenges, and at the same time keeps you human and grounded in your human needs.

There is one tip that I was never able to make into a “routine” myself, but every time I try it again I am mind-blown by its efficacy, maybe you can do better than me: welcome to paced breathing.

Breathing is something we do passively without thinking about it. When we interfere with this natural pattern, either during the inhale, hold, or exhale phase, we “wake up” our nervous system to listen and be attentive. Try for yourself for 4-5 breaths 👇

What just happened? By putting an emphasis on a longer exhale you have engaged the parasympathetic system (the one that controls “rest and digest”) and promoted deeper relaxation 😌. In these modern times, with the amount of inputs thrown at us, we are constantly stimulating, through shallow breathing patterns, the “fight and flight” system. Even when we are not consciously stressed, by breathing a certain way our mind and body register stress signals.

There are a few other methods that I mention for completeness so that you can do further research:

• 📦 Box Breathing: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds (though the nose) and hold again for 4 seconds before the next inhale.

• 🧘 Relaxing Breath: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 6 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds.

• 🪖 4-7-8 Variant: same as the relaxing breath, just a stronger hold.

Don’t Panic instructions:

1. 🔰 First timers: just try a couple of breaths.

2. 🩻 Keep your back straight.

3. 🫁 Inhale for 4s through the nose.

4. ⏸️ Hold for 6s (let it go if you feel too rigid).

5. 😮‍💨 Exhale for 8s through the mouth.

6. 🫄If you notice your breaths being shallow, try to focus on raising your belly button.

7. ➕ Increase progressively until you can do a 2-3 minutes.

Your weekly tip: Sometimes our breathing is signalling stress to our body. Slow down: inhale for 4s, hold for 6s and exhale for 8s. Do a couple rounds and you should feel more relaxed.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who may be stressed🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Then once, the following happened: I had a connecting flight from Dubai to Rome via Amsterdam: all on the same airline (if case you are interested…KLM 🙄). Guess what? The flight from Dubai arrived in Amsterdam 1.5 hrs late. I reached the gate and the Amsterdam-Rome flight had already departed 🤦‍♂️. Through no fault of my own, I missed the connection.

They rebooked me on a much later flight. I was annoyed because it disrupted my schedule and work, but after I calmed down I decided to explore the airport (Schiphol is pretty cool). Given that I had so much time, I discovered you can pretty much run your life from many modern airports. Some have sleeping pods for naps, some have good spas (Bangalore’s new terminal and Ho Chi Minh City’s airport are good examples), and many even have hotels if you need to stay overnight. I slept at an airport hotel once in Colombo and wow: it’s a game changer to wake up, shower, have a proper breakfast and get aboard 😎. The only thing I have not seen yet is a gym, but I do not think we are far from that becoming common. Modern airports are micro-cities where you can carry on with your life without major disruption.

This experience made me realized that instead of constantly rushing on a tight schedule, and adding stress to my mind and body as I cross time zones, I now go to the airport a few hours early. I no longer distinguish strictly between international and domestic flights, but if you do want to set different rules, make sure there is at least a one hour difference between the buffer you decide for yourself. Generally for domestic flights you don’t go through immigration and security checks are less crowded, so it’s overkill if you do like me and go a lot early. If your laptop is enough to do your work, I’d still argue go early.

There is a downside. Airports want you to arrive early so you spend more time there. They are designed to encourage you to open your wallet and buy goods and services that often offer worse price/quality ratio than in the city.

Your weekly tip: Flying is stressful for the mind and body. Do not add to it by trying to nail perfect timing or race the traffic. Go early and chill.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who travels🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

It’s easy, especially if you tend to overthink, to start weighing countless variables and factors, both foreseen and unforeseen, until you end up in a state of analysis paralysis.

This is a good reminder of one of the best computer science classes I had at university. During a software engineering course, our professor said, “When dealing with complex requirements, make sure to keep it simple. Actually, make sure to keep it simple, stupid.” Coming from a generally serious professor who rarely cracked a joke, that sentence stuck with me. I later discovered it’s attributed to Lockheed aircraft engineer Kelly Johnson.

The anecdote goes that, when designing a jet aircraft, Kelly threw a bunch of tools on the table and asked his design team to make sure the jet they were building could be repaired using only those tools and nothing else. That reflects a typical combat situation, where not everything will be available. Keep it simple, stupid, or you may lose the battle.

I’m in a similar situation now: a handful of tools and the risk of over-engineering a solution that I’m going to change again soon anyway. As highlighted in the last tip, “Be water, my friend” is another angle from which to look at it. Being flexible right now, is more important than making the perfect decision.

Your weekly tip: Many popular sayings capture the idea that “done is better than perfect”. So keep it simple, stupid, and move on to the next thing.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who overthinks 🫰(feel free to send it back to me 🤡)

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Don’t Panic 😱

The end of history illusion is a cognitive bias that affects people of all ages. In the original study published in Science, participants ranged from 18 to 68 years old. In plain English, the bias goes like this:

It’s easier to remember the person you used to be than to imagine the person you’ll become.

If you think you’re immune, think again. This bias is linked to several limitations in how our brains work. A few of them:

• 🧠 Memory needs data: The past self is easier to access because memory gives us real examples, emotions, and stories to hold onto. We can recall who we were, but we can’t recall who we haven’t yet become.

• 🔮 Imagination is blurry: The future self has to be constructed from scratch, but the brain struggles to simulate detailed future preferences, values, and identities.

• 📌 Present moment projection: Current feelings, tastes, and priorities are treated as if they’re more stable than they really are. What feels important today gets projected into the future as if were permanent.

• 🧩 Need for coherence: The mind prefers a stable, coherent identity. Believing “this is who I am” feels psychologically safer than admitting that our values, goals, and personality may keep shifting.

• 🚫 Blindness to the unknown: Many future changes come from events we cannot yet predict, like new relationships, loss, work changes, illness, success, failure, or aging. Because we cannot imagine these clearly, we underestimate their impact.

• ✨ Feeling "finished”: We generally like to believe we’ve grown into a wiser, better version of ourselves and that we have done most of the work.

I’ve seen this bias at play in my own life more times than I can count. At 15, I promised myself I would first become a billionaire☝️ and only then buy a house. Today the last thing I want to do is buy a house and lock myself into one place. Or take the first time I visited Dubai, I thought: “Wow, this is the future…clean, safe, luxurious. I could see myself living here”. Four years later, after actually living there, I was describing it as one of the most inhumane places on Earth (great for holidays though! 🎢).

I’d argue life is a lifelong journey of figuring yourself out. There is no final You.

Your weekly tip: Embrace change → it’s inevitable. Forgive your past mistakes, that was a different You. Leave room for optionality in long-term decisions. You may feel you won’t change, but you will. Be water, my friend.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who thinks too rigidly. Things change 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Gut health, in particular, is so complex that some consider it almost an ecosystem in itself. Trillions (yep, you read that correctly) of micro-organisms live there 🦠 and co-operate with your body to help keep you alive while you keep feeding them. This evolutionary strategy is known as mutualistic symbiosis. We hunt for food, and part of it goes to them. In return, they help keep our digestive system working, break down certain compounds for us, and get rewarded with the nutrients they need to survive: it’s a good deal.

Research in this field is still developing, but we already know something our mums intuitively knew: eat a variety of vegetables and fruits. The American Gut Project, which started in 2012 and involved around 15,000 participants, continues today under the Microsetta Initiative.

Taking care of your gut is crucial as it plays a significant role in many key functions of our organism:

• 🥗 Digestion & Fermentation: Breaks down food your body can’t fully digest, especially fibre, turning it into useful compounds.

• ⚡ Nutrient Absorption: Helps your body absorb nutrients and supports the production of certain vitamins and metabolites.

• 🛡️ Immune Defence: Trains and regulates the immune system, helping it react to threats without overreacting.

• 🧱 Gut Barrier: Supports the intestinal lining, helping keep useful nutrients in and harmful substances out.

• 🦠 Microbial Balance: Keeps harmful microbes in check by competing for space and resources.

• 🧠 Gut-Brain Axis: Sends chemical and nerve signals that can influence mood, stress, appetite, and energy.

  • This is often underrated but you can intuitively feel it when you eat processed foods or overdo carbs without enough fibre → brain fog 😶‍🌫️

So, what’s the main takeaway from the study so far? In simple terms, consuming around 30 different plant types per week is linked to a richer, more diverse gut microbiome, which is generally considered a marker of better gut ecosystem resilience and overall gut health. And that’s exactly what we want, so that all the functions above 👆 can work well.

As mentioned in the last tip, I’ve bypassed the nutrition problem almost completely. The restaurant that prepares my meals already factors in this requirement. Some weeks, we may still fall short by a few items, and that’s when I usually add an extra fruit salad or a yoghurt-based bowl.

Your weekly tip: Aim for around 30 plant-based items per week. This can include a diverse mix of vegetables 🥦, fruits 🍎, legumes 🫘, whole grains 🌾, nuts 🥜, seeds 🌻, herbs 🌿, spices 🌶️, and aromatics 🧄. When you include all these categories, it’s easier than it sounds. But if you’re currently below this number, you may consider adjusting your diet.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who is realising gas too frequently 🫢🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

From the 20th century onward, with the advent of industrialization and global trade, most of us began purchasing food through (super)markets, where that trust factor is not as strong. The 24/7 access we expect to all types of food, even when they’re out of season, means our food often comes from a wide range of distant places, where transport safety and shelf life become concerns. At the same time, we’ve gradually become worse at using our own senses to judge food quality.

In roughly 200 years, we still haven’t found a perfect solution to this problem. The closest system we have is called the Codex Alimentarius, a collection of international standards, guidelines and codes of practice that are generally voluntary unless adopted into law. The EU has clearer and more harmonised consumer food-labelling rules than other jurisdictions, but there is still work to be done.

As we move through increasingly uncertain historical times, understanding how this works will become even more important, both to keep yourself safe and to reduce food waste (and, as a result, your grocery bill).

So what do we have for now?

• 🔝 Best Before (or BB): Consume before this date if you want to ensure the product’s freshness (taste, texture, smell, crunchiness)

  • Food is generally still safe to consume after this date.

• 🗓️ Use By: Do not consume after this date, especially if it’s fresh food (e.g. meat), ready-to-eat food, or packaged fresh food (e.g. salad).

  • Food may still be safe to eat, but if you can’t confidently rely on your senses, you should not eat it.

• 🧑‍🔬 Sell By: You may bump into this on eggs or milk, it’s not really for the end consumer but for the food distributor to know when to remove from shelf if unsold.

One caveat: these dates are generally set by the food business operator and/or the manufacturer. Of course, it’s in their best interest to choose appropriate dates, because either the product won’t taste good anymore (and you won’t buy it again), or it may be harmful to your health, which can lead to legal consequences.

The real “hack” is to avoid overstocking fresh food. Try to buy only what you need for a few days, eat it while it’s fresh, and then restock. Instead of stockpiling fresh food, you can rely more on canned and frozen items, since their shelf life is much longer and they often remain safe past expiration dates if properly stored and unopened.

Personally, for the last few years, I’ve been in the fortunate position of outsourcing this problem, since I have a restaurant preparing and delivering all my meals daily (fresh, not packaged!). But in the rare cases when I do cook for myself, I still follow these guidelines.

Your weekly tip: For the best taste, consume food by its Best Before date. For safety, especially with fresh food, consume it by its Use By date. Avoid buying fresh food in bulk, and encourage yourself to shop more frequently.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who stocks food like a supermarket 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

For something done so frequently, you’d expect most of us to have an efficient setup. If that were true, there would be no tip today: welcome to clipboard history 📜.

Have you ever copied something, then copied something else… only to realize you need the first thing again? Most people work around this by creating a temporary note/document and dumping everything there.

If you work in tech (like me), clipboard history is non‑negotiable. We’re copying and pasting constantly, and I want quick access to anything I copied: not just today, but even a week ago. Example: I needed a link I had sent to a friend and remembered it had something to do with “debtors”.

How to get clipboard history:

•  MacOS: Clipboard history isn’t built in, so you’ll need a dedicated app 😭

• 🪟 Windows: Clipboard history is built in (a crappy one 😅). Turn it on via Settings → System → Clipboard. A quick tutorial here.

• 😎 If you are cool (me): Raycast has, in my opinion, the best clipboard history right now. The basics are free; if you want to keep history forever (like I do), you’ll need the paid plan. Windows folks can get it here.

There are plenty of alternatives, just make sure you choose a modern clipboard manager, because it comes with useful extras like previews, search, filters, and more. When I say “modern”, take a look at the short Raycast video below (I know I know…I really think it’s a great product otherwise I wouldn’t insist) to see what I mean 👇

One last example: while I was writing today’s tip, I had to do a bit of copy-pasting myself…

Your weekly tip: If your work involves a computer, start using clipboard history. Push through the initial friction, future you will thank you. You’ll work faster and you’ll be far less likely to lose something important you copied.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who works with a computer (I guess 90% of them?!) 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Sleep is one of the topics dear to most people in the audience. Many of you struggle with poor quality sleep and are actively trying to find solutions. I have been playing around with loads of variables when it comes to sleep and I can say that in my life, apart from a few stressful moments, I have always slept well 🤞. I’ll share what has worked for me, in typical Don’t Panic style: one practical tip at a time!

One of the best changes I have made to my routine was to introduce a 30-min buffer before going to sleep. During my first few years building my business, I remember literally shutting down the laptop and, still with a “burning” feeling in my eyes 🫩(dryness from staring at a screen for too long), going straight to brush my teeth and sleep. I thought it was efficient and responsible as I wasn’t wasting time watching some TV series I would forget about in a few weeks, but instead maximizing my time allocated to sleep.

When I started living by myself I was free to make tweaks to my environment and routine, and decided to introduce a 30/45-min gap between closing the laptop and sleeping. During this phase I mainly:

• 🚰 Stop drinking water

• 💡 Switching off most lights and/or dim them

• 🪥 Brush my teeth

• 🧖 Skincare routine

• ❄️ Switch on AC/cool down room temperature

• 📖 Read a book and/or journal

I will expand on these specific actions in the future but the most important is that the wind down:

• 🌚 Shift towards sleep: Gently signals your body to transition into sleep mode, making the process feel natural rather than abrupt

• 🥱 Melatonin release: Avoids suppressing the melatonin your brain is already naturally releasing and gives more time for its distribution

• 😵‍💫 Eye relaxation: Reduces the strain on your eyes accumulated from hours of staring at screens, helping them relax before rest

• 🧠 Mental decompression: Gradually quiets the mental engagement that keeps your brain wired, making it easier to let go of the day

Sometimes I am travelling or overwhelmed by work and can’t do all of the above. At least, I always make sure that I switch off any screen at least 30 minutes before sleep. When I do so I can see a significant difference in sleep quality (i.e. longer deep sleep duration), any time I don’t do it I can notice and I always tell myself “never again I am going to sacrifice my wind down routine” 🤞. Just for context, I spend ~12 hours staring at a screen throughout the day.

As some of you already know, there are loads of supplements (e.g. melatonin, magnesium etc.) to help your body fall asleep. I personally think such things should be a last resort if you have tried everything else, because we don’t really understand sleep well enough to grasp the implications of anything we introduce that affects that equilibrium.

Your weekly tip: try adding a wind-down routine. Avoid starting at a screen at least 30-min before heading to bed (yep, this includes watching TV). Even if your sleep doesn’t improve, your eyes will be thankful.

Don’t forget to send this tip to a friend that struggles with their sleep 🫰

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I also (in)evitably got into the habit of regularly using a cologne (I prefer something lighter), especially when going to fancy places, whether it was Dubai Mall or a high-end restaurant.

I immediately noticed that spraying it on my neck would irritate my skin and cause a burning sensation. There wouldn’t be any visible marks, so I assumed it was “normal.” Later on, I looked into it and discovered that perfumes are not always skin’s best friends, especially for individuals with sensitive skin. They can cause:

• 😖 Irritation: Ingredients like alcohol or certain fragrance compounds (e.g. citrus oils) can cause itching or irritation.

• 🤧 Allergic reactions: Some people may be allergic to specific perfume ingredients (e.g. linalool, limonene, benzyl alcohol), which can lead to rashes.

• ☀️ Photosensitivity: Certain fragrances (e.g. citrus-based or bergamot notes) can make skin more sensitive to sunlight, potentially causing burns or hyperpigmentation when exposed to UV rays. Imagine that in Dubai’s weather.

• 🌵Dryness: The alcohol in perfumes can dry out the skin, especially if applied frequently.

Even if you don’t experience obvious irritation, it’s still worth being mindful about where and how often you apply perfume. Fragrances can be harsh on the skin over time, especially on delicate areas like the neck (thin skin). There are now plenty of alternatives on the market, including alcohol-free perfumes, solid perfumes, and cream-based fragrances. These options can feel gentler on the skin because they often avoid the high alcohol content found in traditional sprays, which is usually what causes that immediate stinging or dryness.

If you’re in doubt, the safer approach is to simply spray perfume on your clothes. The downsides are a less powerful fragrance, since your skin doesn’t “react” with the perfume, and the risk of damaging the garment. Make sure to test it on a hidden area before committing to this approach.

If you really want to keep spraying around your neck, wrists, etc., make sure your skin is properly moisturized, and if possible, avoid direct sunlight exposure on those areas.

Your weekly tip: We all want to smell good, especially in social settings. Either opt to spray your perfume on your clothing, or if you want to keep spraying directly on your skin, choose an alcohol-free perfume or at least make sure to moisturize your skin, as that will act as a protective barrier.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who smells too nice, chances are they’re damaging their own skin 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

I was recently building an alternative to Loom a tool that lets you seamlessly record your desktop and add your beautiful face to the video. It’s used for tutorials, sales presentations and the like.

While building it, I realized the player wasn’t showing the video duration. I found that frustrating, because you don’t really know how long the video will play. So I decided to ask AI to integrate that part. Here’s what I asked:

In the player display the total time of the video so that user can see how much is left

Here is the before 👇

And here is the after 👇

Do you notice anything different? We finally have the duration in place, but we also have a purple color that popped up, the font has changed, we no longer see the three dots next to the fullscreen button, and the control buttons are now below instead of above. I didn’t request any of these changes 🤷‍♂️.

Why did this happen?

• ㊙️ Lack of meaning: AI doesn’t really understand what I asked. It breaks the text down into tokens and generates the most likely continuation given its training and the provided context.

• 🎲 Stochastic model: AI is not deterministic. If I send the same prompt again, next time it might turn the bar red because it has “seen it” on YouTube, or it might add the duration like I asked without any extra changes. You can’t predict exactly what you’ll get back.

• 🧑‍🏫 Assertive: To keep you engaged, AI often gives answers confidently, without expressing doubt, so you don’t question its authority and instead feel like you’re working with an expert that knows everything.

So when I asked it to add the duration, it parsed the request, “reconstructed” the surrounding code, and gave me the closest answer it could. Keep in mind: even when you ask “sum 2 + 2” AI doesn’t understand the question, it has simply learned that the pattern 2 + 2 is typically followed by 4.

Of course, the companies building these models know their weaknesses and work hard to reduce them, for example, by making certain associations more deterministic so you don’t start doubting whether these models are actually intelligent. Despite being useful, they are not actually “smart”. A bit like the smartphone (see what I did there? Smart isn’t it?!).

Your weekly tip: As you use more and more AI in your life, remember that the underlying models are non‑deterministic. They don’t really understand what you mean. It feels like magic, but it’s not: they’re just very accurate prediction machines. Don’t throw your brain away yet 👉 it’ll be handy the next time a prediction goes off the rails.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who’s addicted to AI, maybe they can use it with a bit more awareness 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

What I found interesting is how we ended up with the “10.000 steps a day” target in the first place. In 1964, around the time of the Tokyo Olympics, a Japanese company seized the opportunity to market a pedometer called Manpo-kei. The product team had to choose a target number for users, and eventually settled on 10.000 because it was catchy, memorable, and even looked visually appealing in Japanese (😅).

After that launch, countless apps and products adopted this magical number and, long before influencers were a thing, shaped the habits of millions of people around the world. And yet, we had to wait until around 2019 to see studies clearly highlighting the actual correlation between step count and health. Pretty insane, isn’t it?

You might think today’s tip would be to check your sources and question the things you follow religiously in life, but we’ve already covered that 👇

So today, I want to focus on a practical suggestion: make sure you move every day. We are biological machines meant to move, not sedentary pieces of furniture meant to consume. Especially now that “office” work is so common, using step count as a minimum daily activity target is a helpful benchmark. If your step count stays well below the recommended range for years, you’re essentially trading comfort and convenience for your long-term health.

These days, you can track your steps with almost any smartwatch. Most smartphones also have motion sensors. Or maybe you can get a 20$ pedometer! 😂

And, to prove that I walk the walk (pun intended), here is my step count for the past year 🚶

Your weekly tip: Aim for around 8.000 steps per day. You can achieve this with roughly 70-80 minutes of walking (a bit more if you are a 🐢). You don’t have to do it all at once, feel free to break it up throughout the day.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who doesn’t move much. At the very least, get them to walk the walk 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

If you look back at your intentions for this year, most likely you are falling short in one aspect or another. Not because you are not capable, but because it’s human to not be able to accomplish everything we aim for. When this happens, our brains are wired to convince us to give up. Why? Because the brain evolved, for most of its evolutionary history, in an environment scarce of resources, so only brains that were very careful with resource and energy allocation were able to survive. As soon as the brain senses the struggle, if it’s not tied to immediate survival, it starts considering the energy spent not worth the potential reward.

So now what? Your biology is doing its best to convince you that: it’s not a big deal that you didn’t progress much as per your plans, that it’s okay, and that you will figure it out later or worse, it will suggest you give up altogether and move the goalposts to something else. The last one is the most dangerous: you keep moving the goalposts to feel good and avoid facing the harsh reality, as you get to start fresh on a new goal you haven’t failed at (yet 🤡). Imagine living a life where every time you fall short on something you wanted to do, you pivot so that you don’t feel bad and get to “start again”. You’ll spend an entire lifetime not accomplishing anything, just briefly chasing one thing after another (if that keeps you happy, by all means keep doing it, just make sure you are doing it with awareness).

For the rest of us who would still like to move forward, what can we do? Behavioural psychology would suggest:

• ❓Explore the why → Reconnect with why you set your goal in the first place. Why is this important to you? If you want to lose weight, why is that meaningful? Do you want to look better for yourself? Feel better?

• 💡 Is it still relevant? → Things change and it’s normal to adapt the plan: in fact, being adaptable is a core skill for a human being. Just make sure you are not falling for your own brain’s traps.

• 🔍 Learn from the (lack of) progress → If it’s something you really want to accomplish but haven’t been effective at, try to be very specific about why that’s happening. What can you learn from it so that you can improve in the coming weeks?

Personally, I struggle with this as much as anyone else. My “whys” are generally very strong and I follow a routine that helps keep my actions “relevant” (more on this in a future tip 🔮). Where I still need to improve is focusing on learning and iterating on my mistakes, because attributing the lack of progress to myself (e.g. I should push harder, that’s why it’s not working) is the default option, rather than something that enables further action (e.g. Why is this happening? What can I do to fix it?). The first approach is so vague that it doesn’t contain much actionable information; the second one challenges me to be specific and really think about why things are not moving: Were my expectations wrong from the get go? Am I not taking the right steps? Am I lacking some specific knowledge?

Your weekly tip: If you feel you are falling short on your goals, make sure to reconnect with them. Why do you have these goals in the first place? Are they still relevant? What can you learn from how things have gone so far? Write a full page with all these thoughts, and for the last point, be specific enough that it becomes self-evident where the problem lies and why you are stuck.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend who is struggling to move forward 🫰

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Don’t Panic 😱

Let me be clear: as much as I may have personal views on wars, religion, and other topics, Don’t Panic is meant to be neutral. Any suggestion or tip should be applicable regardless of your nationality, political views, or religion. Some tips may be gender-specific or involve other personal criteria, but those considerations will always be science-based (e.g. the amount of sunscreen you should apply depends on your skin tone). I’ll do my best to highlight those nuances. Alright, enough with the disclaimers, let’s get going!

On the 1st of March, missiles struck a primary school in Minab, southern Iran, killing at least 153 people, mostly children, and wounding nearly 100 more. An Iranian acquaintance I met in Dubai shared a reel on Instagram claiming this was carried out by Iranian forces to be blamed on US and Israeli military. Out of curiosity, I opened the comments section and, between 80% bots and 20% real users, it was nearly impossible to gauge the overall sentiment or understand who believed what.

This episode made me reflect on the countless times I’ve come across information, especially on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, that was complete nonsense and easily fact-checkable. We live in a world where so much happens every second that no individual can possibly keep up, and given our biological limitations, we probably shouldn’t even try.

I chose this specific example because it represents perhaps the worst category of misinformation. Deception, false information, and propaganda are tools of war, used by all parties involved. During an ongoing conflict, contradictory narratives can coexist simultaneously, and it’s extremely difficult to witness a tragedy and immediately arrive at an explanation that holds up from every angle.

This person works in a luxury salon in Dubai: I wouldn’t consider him naive, he is still someone successful that managed to grow his career abroad. Now, imagine the vast number of people with even less critical thinking tools. We are living in a world where our information sources are so fast at delivering garbage entertaining content that our opinions, as a consequence, become low-quality too. I started to feel a little hopeless, until I reminded myself that the last thing we should do is give up → Don’t Panic.

Here are my non-science-backed suggestions on how to navigate this:

• 🗞️ Cut the news: Traditional media has repeatedly proven itself to be a vehicle for propaganda, regardless of where in the world you live. If you enjoy biased narratives, by all means keep watching your favourite TV channel or reading your favourite newspaper.

• 🗑️ Trash information from social media: It’s not worth it. You’re getting one useful piece of information for every hundred reels you scroll through. You are trading your time and mental clarity for noise.

• 🔻 Reduce your information overload: Your brain was never designed to process global events 24/7. Did you know there is an ongoing civil war in Myanmar that has displaced approximately 3 million people, with around 15 million requiring humanitarian assistance?

• 🏢 Follow international and independent sources: Some organisations and independent journalists genuinely strive to remain objective and report truthfully. I remain cautious, as access to reliable information is increasingly restricted but they are still a better starting point.

• 🗣️ Talk with your community: This is, for me, the most valuable approach. Many times a thoughtful conversation with a friend has helped me refine or even completely change my point of view, especially when they pointed me to a credible source I could verify myself.

As you can see, I don’t have a perfect recipe or a definitive solution. Access to trustworthy, unmanipulated information is one of the biggest challenges we face today, and I hope this has been an opportunity to reflect on how it shapes our lives, our thinking, and the way we show up in the world.

Your weekly tip: Be mindful of the information you feed your brain, especially when it comes from traditional or social media. Practice arguing both for and against your own point of view. Don’t overwhelm yourself with everything happening in the world 24/7 but when something matters to you, talk about it with the people around you. Your world may be small, but it’s the one that truly counts.

Don’t forget to share this tip with a friend and spark a conversation 🫰

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See you next week, until then…

Don’t Panic 😱