41.2021 Edition

What's up Reader?

I want to share an lesson this week that I had to learn the hard way almost 10 years ago.

I was staging at this restaurant called Oceana in New York City. After about 4 hours of prepping in the external kitchen, I had the opportunity to join the Garde Manger station to do some plating for service.

Standing there and watching the Chef de Partie give me a demo made it seem pretty straightforward: take some half-moon slices of cucumber and arrange them on some sliced tuna, and dot it with a purée of some kind (don't mind my lack of memory on what it was made of, it's not important to the story).

He confirmed with me that I understood what this plate-up entailed, and left me on my own while he got setup on other aspects of his station.

All of a sudden, I heard a new voice from over my shoulder, noticing that the sous chef was now watching me do this plate up.

I had devised a method of plating that felt productive: slice the cucumber, put it on a tray, move it over to the tuna, place it on the tuna, move the tuna to the tray, place it on the serving vessel, dot the purée. After watching just one of these workflows happen, I was quickly disciplined.

"Why are you touching it twice?" the sous chef asked me.

He showed me a pared down process that I used across the entire rest of my career. Touch each component once, plating everything up at the same time, and move it to the plating vessel in one swift move.

How often do we end up turning a 2-step move into 3 or 4? It doesn't seem like a lot to "just have one extra step" but when you map it out over a year, you're adding 50% more work to your process when you have 3 steps vs 2.

After that moment, I would consistently see it happening back in culinary school.

Fellow students would handle the same piece of mise en place multiple times before putting it where it needs to go, wasting valuable seconds during service. The root of these problems can often stem from frantic mindsets, disorganized environments, or just lack of asking the hard question of "is there a better way?".

Next time you go to do a frequently-done-task, evaluate your "touches". Chances are, there's either a step you could shave off entirely, or two that you could consolidate into one.

Highlights from the week to share 💥

To Read 📚

​VOLT ink - Now that Anna and I are moved in and finally able to unpack some boxes, I'm going through my cookbooks again. Our old place didn't have much sq/ft to actually hold a book shelf so I'm looking forward to having them more readily accessible now, and this one continues to be a favorite. Not because any of the recipes are "essential" but I think this is one of my favorite autumn-recipe resources to force myself out of a comfort zone with root vegetables, game, and bitter greens. I have the hardcover version but I feel confident recommending it now because the paperback is just $10 used right now.

​The Microwave Economy - David makes the case for how to live more intentionally in our on-demand world. Instead of bashing the state of the world and shaking his fist at the sky, he productively suggests ways navigate, including this 2x2 matrix which you might find helpful after you give it a read.

To Binge 📺

​Picking Nuggets with Naval - If you aren't on Twitter or don't particularly enjoy reading, this channel has curated a selection of Naval's more popular lessons and musings from live streams and presented them in a super binge-able format. Expect lessons on good-judgement, not caring what others think, and how discipline is over rated.

​The Problem with Side Hustles - Sara coming in CLUTCH with this vulnerable piece that really hits home for me. I've been slowly teasing through this newsletter that I'm tying up a bunch of loose ends with projects I've hoarded and shouldered over the past 18-24 months so that I'm able to officially head back into creating for myself again. It's one of the most terrifying decisions to "burn the boats", and it helps to know I'm not alone in these feelings.

To Peep 👀

​Hocho Knife Sale - One of you folks had a question about these knives this week and I've actually really enjoyed perusing their website. They've got a pretty solid 25% off sale that ends today with expedited shipping - I've got their slicers linked up because some of the blue handled and hammered products look like nothing else I already own.

​Typing Attack - I've shared on Twitter a few times that I've been working to improve my typing speed. Since I spend so much time at a keyboard, going from 105 WPM (words per minute) to up to 150 actually saves me a lot of time. After plateauing a bit, I discovered this game which is not only addicting (doesn't feel boring to practice), but is actually helping me improve through more complex word challenges and punishing pauses for errors.

Current experiment I'm running 🧪

I'm more than 5 weeks into this experiment so I can confidently recommend it: I'm using Superhuman for my email client.

I've got 3 inboxes to manage, and it can get overwhelming. I've also become a massive fan of using keyboard shortcuts with tools that I already use like Notion and Alfred, and that's Superhuman's main value prop.

Between easy calendar integration, fast labeling, gorgeous UI, and custom built split-inboxes that go beyond the standard Gmail offerings, I'm a massive fan and can't see myself going back. Plus, I went down this rabbit hole already with Hey.Com and wasn't as captivated so I feel at least remotely familiar with the alternatives.

It IS $30/month, which isn't cheap if email is just a mild annoyance in your life. However, if you're a business owner, pop-up host, content creator or executive chef who spends more than 45 minutes a day on email, I'm confident that this can pay for itself across the month. Not just in time saving, but eliminating the missed emails or buried inbox problems of your current workflow.

Going through their website right now puts you on a waitlist, but if you respond to this email and let me know that you'd like to give it a shot, I'll gift you a free month and I get one too. Plus, you cut the line, and can immediately schedule an onboarding call with a real person to make sure you feel comfortable with the features of the platform. Not sponsored, just a successful outcome from an experiment that I'm psyched to share with you!

Quote I'm Pondering 🤔

If you got value from me this week, I'd appreciate...

...a share of this newsletter! Links are below and I'd love to provide some value to a friend or colleague you think this would be perfect for.

👊Justin

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