17 Years to 1,600 Likes and Other Long Games

Jun 05, 2026

Going viral on X, honing intuition, the real problem with Michigan weather, Ambrosia founder crushes it with Keith Urban, the true fitness wins.

The Map

The problem with Michigan weather isn’t the cold.

The problem is summer and fall are unbeatable and unreplicable.

You can move away to a warmer climate. I did.

But it’s not the same.

Not the same cool breeze. Not the same sound the wind makes moving through the trees. Not the same pine smell. The grass feels and smells different.

So you can leave, and miss all that. Or you can stay, and put up with the rest of it. The cold, the clouds, the mud and snow. And find something good in that, too.

I did.

The Machine

The post and photo above were shared on X, and became my most “viral” post of all time1. I’ve been on the platform since 2009, and that’s the first time I’ve had anything go over 1,000 likes.23

I don’t know if I learned anything, other than Michiganders—current residents and ex-pats alike—tend to be parochial, love Michigan, and like that content.

Also, no matter what you post, someone will be mad. 99% of the responses were conversational and positive. But there was also “You’re a glutton for punishment, worst climate in the northern hemisphere!!11!,” “LOL the South smells like pine too,” and various posts deriding the condition of state government.

There’s lots of hand-wringing about the explosion of AI-generated content. To me, a simple antidote seems to just be a real person who posts real stuff.

I am making the bet that real people can still connect with other real people online, weaving through the AI slop like Han Solo through an asteroid field.

The Music

Are we going to talk Yacht Rock in this space every week?4

As if that would be bad.

Keith Urban, country music star and sworn enemy of Nicole Kidman fans, is working on an album of Yacht Rock covers. Here is Ambrosia co-founder and former lead singer David Pack, 73, just crushing “How Much I Feel” on stage with Urban:

No rattle in those pipes. Just as smooth as 1978.

The Muscle

Fitness marketing is broken. The industry runs on promises of one-time, large-scale change: dropping large amounts of weight, or hulking out on a muscle-building binge.

Real fitness is quieter, incremental, and lasts decades. This tweet reminded me of that:

Big-time health changes are great. Don’t get me wrong. But the initial transformation is the first inning of a lifelong game won with incremental progress, just like Rachel’s.

The Middle

Intuition is invaluable, and so difficult to hear.

Entire sectors of the economy are designed to separate you from intuition, to pay attention to them instead of you. And even when you push back against that, you’ve got to dig through a layer of endless mind chatter to get to the heart of it all, that small feeling of knowing.

Intuition ain’t easy.

I can think of major life decisions that I made largely on intuition. But I want more intuition in small decisions that lead to bigger things, also.

This article is worth a read, and the X account is worth a follow if you want to hear your intuition, also:5