Your New Years' resolutions are only as good as you formulate them.

Two insights from my coaching training and personal experience: How to say what you want so you can actually make it come true.

Here's to a happy, healthy, and fulfilled 2026.

shorturl.at/actSp

I'll be spending the next two weeks offline in an experiment in 90s living. I've got a Nokia that can only text and call, a stack of books, and lots of creative projects to work on.

Read about my experiment here: shorturl.at/S2Q1r

In the meantime, happy holidays to you and yours!

From the most recent edition of my newsletter, Seeing.

This week, I explore 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Sign up to join the journey!

Why read, if you can get an AI digest of any book?

This is the hack version of applying AI to our lives. It flattens culture and renders us imbeciles, unable to understand ourselves and where we come from.

Enlightenment gave us freedom by encouraging us to use our own minds. This is the opposite.

Does the internet change how we think? I’ve long had a hunch it does and also found evidence for it in my PhD.

I’m looking forward to diving into it with more detail with the book below. I just picked it up from the store and can’t wait to tear into it tonight.

New Status Symbols: Brick Phones
I saw this post on designer and entrepreneur Jade Holland Cooper's Instagram. I loved seeing the brick phone. Being selectively offline is the new luxury.

As technology's reach into our lives deepens, I'm convinced we will see more selective offline living.

Getting the right shot is a process…
#photography #blackandwhite

If you’re doing creative work and don’t like what you’re making, give it a rest.

Sometimes, you’re too close and involved to get a good view of what’s going on.

Let it sit for a while and come back to it when you can look at it with fresh eyes. It makes a world of a difference.
#creative #photo

Photos from my most recent newsletter on an adventure in the mountains. Read it here to see the rest:

open.substack.com/pub/johannar...

#photography #nature

Beautiful light in my bathroom this morning.
#photography #blackandwhite #abstractphotography

Photography is delicious play to me. I love to play with the shadows of power lines on the floor, for example.

Like with playing, it’s the best when you’re immersed in the process. Kneeling down, moving over juuust a little bit, turning your phone. And then, when you get the shot, it’s like magic.

In order to cultivate creativity, a sense of play is essential. It’s much easier to get into a creative state, when your juices are already flowing. When you’re open to play with ideas, the job is half done.

From my most recent edition of Seeing.: open.substack.com/pub/johannar...

Coffee, books, rain, and lots of ideas for things to make. A perfect Sunday in May.

I’ve been really enjoying Tommaso Ebhardt’s book on Miuccia Prada.

It sparked a reflection on beauty’s role in our lives that I share in my most recent newsletter. Read it below.