Chapter 23: August 2025 — It’s Time to Stop Reading and Start Doing

Well, as soon as you’ve read this.

Hi! Welcome to Chapter 23.

Become evil. Rule the world. Maybe drink tea first and sit down for a bit.

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

How do you say that you’re old without using that phrase?

I’ll go first:

My eyes are so bad that my favourite ereader is a 24 inch monitor.

That’s one of the many reasons that I listen to audiobooks.

You’ve got to protect your eyeball time.

Sorry, wrong meeting.

This is the secret post that goes out to paid subscribers on the 23rd of every month. Remember, as a paid supporter of Chapter 23, you've exclusive access to the complete archives. I've been writing on Substack since 2019. So there's lots of valuable stuff in there and even a few lifehacks and lessons learnt. Each month I like to share something from the archive. This month, Get Better.

Thank you for your support.

Much love,

James

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