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- #136 – Greener Grass & War
#136 – Greener Grass & War
Quote, Podcast, Mental Model, Interesting Phenomenon, Tweet.
Dimitri Gremos
December 31, 2025
Good morning everyone,
Happy new year! 🎉
May 2026 be filled with good health, peace, and prosperity for us all.
Let’s jump in.
read online on my website
read time 3 minutes
#136 at a Glance:
Quote: A precondition for reading good books.
Podcast: Joe Rogan x Rutledge Wood.
Mental Model: The grass isn’t always greener.
Interesting Phenomenon: War & credit cycles.
Tweet: Enjoy the stage you’re in.
Quote I’ve been thinking about:
“A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”
Never feel guilty about putting a book down…
Time is our most valuable commodity.
Let’s not waste it on the mediocre ones.
Podcast I listened to:
The Joe Rogan Experience #661 - Rutledge Wood
Rutledge Wood is one of the hosts of Top Gear USA and he also has experience as a reporter for NBCSports and NASCAR.
This was such a cool chat from back in 2015 – almost felt like time travel.
As a long time fan of Top Gear USA, hearing Joe and Rut make predictions about cars, technology, and innovation “10 years from now…” was quite amusing since we are now living in the period “10 years from now”.
I also really enjoyed observing how Joe has altered his opinion on certain things and even the way he approaches topics; but I guess that’s inevitable some 2,000 episodes later!
One of those discussions where you forget to check your phone until it’s over.
[Duration: 2 hours 57 minutes]
Mental Model I’ve been thinking about:
The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
An idea I’ve been reflecting on, bookmarked by two quotes courtesy of James Clear:
"The grass is only greener if you're obsessed.
It's easy to talk yourself into a new opportunity because everyone else is excited about it or the upside seems high, but the energy that comes from hype is different than the energy you need to make something part of your daily lifestyle.
It might be a good opportunity on paper, but if it isn't the type of thing you want to spend all day working on, then you probably won't stick with it. And if you won't stick with it, then it's not a good opportunity for you."
Something really important to keep in mind as opportunities inevitably pop up throughout 2026.
New ventures always seem shiny and exciting at first – but that energy doesn’t last forever.
And the people who encourage you to pursue an opportunity – while they might genuinely want what’s best for you – won’t be the ones sitting next to you while you’re working into the wee hours of the morning, knowing full well that you have to wake up at 6:00 for work.
Talk and ideas are cheap.
Enthusiasm > motivation.
Best to hit go on opportunities that you truly enjoy and fire you up – because if it’s going to be a slog, at least it’ll be a downhill jog instead of an uphill climb.
"Greatness takes guts.
And often, it's the courage to eliminate the things you can do fairly well so you have the capacity to do one thing exceptionally well.
Have the courage to take more off your plate.”
Interesting Phenomenon I came across:
War & Credit Cycles
This was a depressing observation.
(h/t – Trader Ferg)
Tweet I liked:
Enjoy The Stage You’re In
Wherever you are, enjoy (and make the most of) the stage you’re in right now.
It won’t come again.
Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.
Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡
If you enjoyed this newsletter, it would mean the world if you could forward it to a friend or send them my website.
This goes a long way to helping me reach more people :)
See you in the next one,
Dimi