This is a saved copy of Chris Williamson's Three Minute Monday email\nnewsletter, which lands in my inbox every Monday. All credit to Chris —\nsubscribe at chriswillx.com.
Hi friend,
\nI'm coming back to the UK & Ireland with a brand new live show.
\nEdinburgh, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Exeter, London, Dublin (Sold Out), Newcastle & Belfast 🚀
\nGet your tickets now.
\nI've been thinking about how hard we try to control our lives this week.
\n\n\n\"Fear and ego—in other words, ignorance—are keeping your hand on the tiller. Release the tiller for whatever reason, and the steering takes care of itself.\" — Jed McKenna
\n
Just let that sink in for a moment.
\nWhat would life actually be like if you didn't grip the tiller so hard?
\n(The tiller is the handle that attaches to a rudder on a boat - it's the thing that steers)
\nI heard Aubrey Marcus say something similar in a video when he announced the release of his NYT Best Selling Book.
\n\n\n\"I spent so much of my life terrified of what I was going to become and whether I was going to be right here right now.\nGod, how much time did I waste afraid I wasn't going to be right here right now?\nIf I could change, the only thing I'd change about my whole life would be fearing less that I wouldn't get right here - the place I was going anyway.\nI wouldn't change all the mistakes and mishaps, I needed those.\nBut all the constantly worry that I wasn't going to make it, that took me out of enjoying the moment.\nIt took me out of enjoying these experiences, smiling or eating my lunch or doing whatever I was doing.\nKnow your mission, have faith you're going to get there.\nWherever you go, it's going to be alright.\nJust find ways to get out of your head.\"
\n
Beautiful.
\nHumour me for a second…
\nJust imagine that the outcomes in your life are predetermined.
\nImagine that where you're going to end up - the achievement of your goals, the attainment of your pursuits are predestined and you're going there anyway, no matter how much you fear or worry.
\nYou still need to work, you still need to do the things, but you don't need to fear about completing the work or worry about whether you'll do the things.
\nThe things you need to do will get done, and the ones you don't, won't.
\nHow differently would you experience life?
\nYou'd be able to just BE.
\nIn the world but not of the world.
\nDoing the things but not afraid of the things.
\n\n\n\"You observe events and you allow the flow of things to do the steering and you go where you go.\" — Jed McKenna
\n
I really think there's something to this.
\n\"Release the tiller\" is a mantra we all should be reminded of when we find ourselves gripping too hard to fears or expectations.
\nWhy fear about whether you'll get to the place you were going to all along?
\nI do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent.
\nThis week's upcoming episodes:
\nMonday.\nRabbit Hole - me, George Mack, Signull and Tim Ferriss work out if Tim dreams in Japanese, discuss the best area of Yankee Stadium to get a blown in and realise why remembering everything you experience would be a psychedelic hell. Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
\nThursday.\nIsabel Brown - something weird is happening to Gen Z, why is there a religious revival, what is going on with Trump's approval numbers and does everyone love or hate Alex Cooper?
\nSaturday.\nZach Braff - breaking down the creative process of Scrubs' star, how to stay resilient, the sacrifices of a 3-decade career in Hollywood and more.
\n1.\nA matchmaking service ran a survey.
\nAsked if they'd marry \"down\" on three axes, women say no far more than men, every time:
\n\"Marrying down\" is a near-dealbreaker for women and a non-issue for men.
\nConsistent across all three. — Jake Kozloski, KeeperAI
\n2.\nIf it doesn't fit, eventually it'll hurt wearing it.
\n\n\n\"One of the best pieces of advice I ever got:
\nIf you want a calmer life, you need to address small problems while they're still small.
\nThe cost of dealing with an issue rarely gets cheaper with time.
\nProcrastination turns uncomfortable things into unavoidable things.\" — Blake Burge
\n
3.\nChoose taste.
\nTaste is having the conviction to do something the algorithm wouldn't.
\n40% discount at Momentous' Annual Sale.
\nGet up to 40% off everything during the Momentous Anniversary Sale by using code CELEBRATE.
\nFibre+, Sleep Packs, Grass Fed Whey Protein.
\nAll my favourites are on discount, plus free shipping is available.
\nShop now before the sale finishes.
\nBig love,\nChris x
\nTry my productivity drink Neutonic.
\nPS\nThe feedback for last week's Mostly Wise episode was so good. Moar soon.
", "url": "https://dejesuz.io/three-minute-monday/2026/06/01/release-the-tiller", "title": "Three Minute Monday — 1 June 2026", "summary": "This is a saved copy of Chris Williamson's Three Minute Monday email", "date_modified": "2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Chris Williamson", "url": "https://chriswillx.com" }, "tags": [ "three-minute-monday" ] }, { "id": "https://dejesuz.io/three-minute-monday/2026/04/06/three-minute-monday", "content_html": "This is a saved copy of Chris Williamson's Three Minute Monday email newsletter, which lands in my inbox every Monday. All credit to Chris — subscribe at chriswillx.com.
I’m back from tour after 31 hours of travel to avoid an active war zone. It was the best tour I’ve ever done — Australia, New Zealand & Bali absolutely ruled.
\nThis quote has been in my head so much over the last few months:
\n\n\n“The rise of social media as the primary form of social interaction changed the way that we judge people.\nWe once used to judge people mostly based on their deeds, but in the age of social media we judge people mostly based on their words and opinions because that’s really all we see of them.\nSince we’re defined by our opinions, there is a pressure to have an opinion on everything.\nProblem is, people generally don’t have the time or the will to research everything they are expected to have an opinion on, so they copy the opinions of others.\nAnd the result of this is that there are precious few original thinkers.\nIn this way, the culture war is largely two armies of NPCs being ventriloquised by a handful of actual thinkers.”\n— Gurwinder Bhogal
\n
It’s the first half of that which has been so impactful on me.
\nThe gap between words and actions has never been bigger.
\nYou can be the least virtuous, meanest, most dishonest human on earth, but if you say the right things on social media, the world will be unaware.
\nNo one stress tests the words coming out of most people’s mouths.
\nWhich means that appearing good becomes more important than being good.
\nPerformative empathy is more rewarded than genuine empathy.
\nPosting about mistreated groups is more incentivised than helping mistreated groups.
\nWords have become more important than actions, because you can tweet the words without needing to do the actions.
\nIt’s the path of least resistance for everyone.
\nThis isn’t me saying that you can’t do good whilst posting about it online.
\nBut that many (maybe even most?) of the people who proselytise about how virtuous and caring they are, and how it’s everyone else who is evil/malignant/the enemy, are allowing their morality to stand on the shoulders of limited scrutiny.
\nBeware the people who only say good things, but don’t do good things.
\nI do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent.
\nThis week’s upcoming episodes:
\nMonday.\nErica Komisar - what is the psychological impact of divorce on children? How should custody work? How can couples separate while minimising damage on kids? So fascinating. Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
\nThursday.\nEric Jorgenson - the author of The Almanac of Naval Ravikant has written a new book - this time about Elon Musk’s biggest thinking tools, approaches, productivity philosophies and life hacks.
\nSaturday.\nMichael Smoak - how to overcome challenges, improve your resilience, move past your fear and work out if your friends are degenerates.
\n1.\nThe UK housing crisis is not going well.
\nIn order to alleviate its acute housing affordability crisis, London has been set a target of building 88,000 new homes per year over the next decade.
\nLast year construction started on just 5,891 - 94% below target, a 75% year-on-year decline, the steepest drop in the country, the lowest tally since records began almost 40 years ago and the lowest figure for any major city in the developed world this century.
\n2.\nNo one cares, and that’s amazing.
\n\n\n“Nobody is coming to save you also implies that nobody is coming to stop you.”
\n
3.\nWhy so many people throw vitriol around online.
\n\n\n“The key to understanding most online debates is that a lot of people take joy in being angry.\nIt's their preferred mindset because it makes them feel morally superior to the other side.” — Morgan Housel
\n
Tell your partner your thoughts early.
\nUnspoken expectations become premeditated resentments.
\nBig love,\nChris x
\nTry my productivity drink Neutonic.
\nShare this article with your friends here.
\nPS\nI got nominated for a Webby Award! Let's annihilate the voting please. It will take you 30 seconds.
", "url": "https://dejesuz.io/three-minute-monday/2026/04/06/three-minute-monday", "title": "Three Minute Monday — 6 April 2026", "summary": "This is a saved copy of Chris Williamson's Three Minute Monday email newsletter, which lands in my inbox every Monday. All credit to Chris — subscribe at chriswillx.com.", "date_modified": "2026-04-06T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Chris Williamson", "url": "https://chriswillx.com" }, "tags": [ "three-minute-monday" ] } ] }