Originally on substack: 12/4/24

Lately I’ve been listening through some of Chris Williamson’s older podcasts. Still good, they have a rough edge to them.

He said something off-handedly about one of his guests (a recovering alcoholic) asking him if, when he was working in the nightclub, if he could “Tell the people that were suffering.”

BAM that hit me. Both because I can see, every night, some people that I would say are suffering, and because I know I was suffering for so long and didn’t even know it for years.

All week I keep coming back to that question. I keep asking myself “Can I tell the people who are suffering…”

Also, this week I had a realization that I have once ever 2 weeks these days. The things I find annoying about my phone, or my computer, or life, just FIX THEM. I don’t know if it is a puritan work ethic, willing to put up with suffering, or just that I don’t think to fix things, but there is so much value in stopping and asking “Is there a better way?”

OpenTable app logs me out of the system all the time. It’s annoying to type in the email into the app (no auto fill on the home screen). But, I use it at work, and I need to have access in the moment. I knew of no better way.

Then someone mentioned text substitutions…game changer. I type in mwe (i.e. ‘my work email’) and it pops up automatically.

You life isn’t changed by the big things, but the small, daily improvements.

Also, I didn’t say it earlier, but my name is Andrew Roy, and I run a restaurant. I am studying for my advanced sommelier exam, and I also am obsessed with computers, programming, wine and philosophy. I’m trying to answer for myself how I can have a meaningful, fulfilling life working in a restaurant. I’m also super, weirdly, obsessed with War and Peace. If you want to see how I do, whether or not I end up figuring things out, please subscribe a follow along!