The Dice — 030

When I started The Dice back in May, I had no idea how far it would go—but here we are, thirty issues in. At this pace, we’ll reach issue 100 just in time for my birthday on April 19, 2026. Thank you for coming along for the ride.

This has been a year of making. I can’t think of another time I’ve created and delivered so much work—and I’m just getting started. With refined clarity and momentum building, I’m eager for everything 2025 will bring. The last two years have been a successful mission in FAAFO, with lessons learned and new energy to keep moving forward. Here’s to another trip around the sun, filled with a wide range of topics and distractions to inspire.

Be well. Be safe. And have a happy holiday season.

Rolling one last time in 2024...

Time is the prevalent theme that I hear from just about everyone I have talked to in the last month or so. Many folks I know feel they don’t have enough of it to do the things they would like to do. If you see yourself in those two sentences then I recommend making time to hit pause, All it takes is 10 mindful minutes. “From taking a breath to taking a sabbatical, a pause can be many things. And the good news is, even just a small pause now and again can make a real and lasting difference.” I recommend watching the other talks on this topic and reading the wonderful book Do Pause.

Earlier this week Brett and I shared our Replay and Reset boards with each other. It was both eye-opening and validating to our beliefs and impressions that we’ve had about working together in 2024. You can follow along with our experience in this week’s episode of The High Five podcast.

Three magazines come out this time of year that I look forward to reading cover to cover. They are Moncle’s The Entrepreneurs and The Forecast, and The World Ahead 2025 from The Economist. I find these issues are just the right amount of information and inspiration to consume in anticipation of the new year.  As a huge fan of editorial design, I also get a nice dopamine hit while admiring the design, typesetting, and illustrations in all three publications.

While we’re preparing for the future, sadly we must anticipate even more bias in our sources of news. Harvard economist Roland Fryer explains: “It's going to get worse. We're just not a public that wants to open up a newspaper in the morning and be challenged. My plea is to demand balanced news, but we've got to be willing to have that news come at us in a way that is not consistent with our own prior views. We've got to be willing to be curious and engage.”

It would also be a big help to remove our new sources from the grips of billionaires who aren’t “committed to the cause.”

With media bias in mind, there is another method for seeing through to the truth—travel. “The most frightened people are the people who have never traveled, whose worldview is shaped by commercial news media. And the people that are not afraid are the people who have been out there and met the enemy,” said world traveler and author Rick Steves in a recent interview with the New York Times. “When they meet me, it’s tougher for their propaganda to demonize me, and when I meet them, it’s harder for my country’s propaganda to dehumanize them. It’s a powerful thing.”

While Rick references his travel to places like Cuba and Iran, I believe this advice also pertains to domestic travel to get to know our neighbors. Especially those whose ideologies and perspectives we presume to understand. So, where are you going to visit in 2025?

This year I learned how to use AI productively to broaden my knowledge across a wide variety of topics. The most useful thing I find from using the robot is to help expose what I don’t know that I don’t know by simply asking, “What am I missing?” That single tactic has opened up many doors of learning and understanding in 2024. Gaining additional perspectives is the best use of AI I can think of right now. It can seriously enhance our abilities in critical thinking and sensemaking. On that topic, I have two must-reads for you.

Joan Westenberg on the need for reading and comprehension: “No algorithm can replace human wisdom and analysis. But no algorithm will need to if we have abandoned — wholesale — a millennium of critical reading and thinking skills.”

Patrick Tanguay on The power of critical sensemaking in shaping futures: “Critical sensemaking encourages us to ask better questions, embrace the messiness of reality, and develop the agility to adapt our actions based on past experiences.”

Speaking of learning, one of the exercises in our Replay and Reset exercise is to ask yourself, what do you want to learn in the new year? It’s an open question to get people to consider options beyond their jobs and careers. I have a few recommendations and ideas to inspire. First is Dave Gray’s School of the Possible, which is “a place to find and connect with interesting, creative people, doing interesting, creative things.” Second is a topic near and dear to me, how to launch an independent magazine taught by the people who publish the amazing Delayed Gratification. They also have another class on their unparalleled mastery of infographics. The third is from aforementioned author, Joan Westenberg with their book on becoming a creator. “DIY is for anyone who’s tired of waiting for a seat at the table. It’s for the rebels, the misfits, the creators who don’t fit into neat little boxes. It’s a guide to embracing independence, owning your creativity, and taking charge of your destiny.”

I also came across classes on building lifelike sculptures with LEGO and how to design a board game. Whatever your passion, I encourage you to proactively consider your curiosity and drive towards learning in the new year.

Alright, let’s end this year on a milder topic—Scoville levels and fried chicken. A favorite program at Storeyhouse is Hot Ones where celebrities are run through a gauntlet of chicken wings with hot sauce that increases in intensity and burning sensation all while answering well-researched questions that range from craft to childhood. The results are entertaining except for that one dude. Da Bomb is the most hated of the sauces hands down. It’s like watching people try to endure the chicken version of the Bene Gesserit’s Test Of Humanity.

That said, are these sauces really as hot as they are labeled? And why are the two hot sauces after Da Bomb not seemingly as bad? Howtown investigates the pepper world and confirms some suspicions I’ve had for a while.

Published in Tacoma, Washington while listening to A Lofi Christmas Vol.2 by Linearwave.