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The Skill Journal ▶
Joined December 2024
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SAM ELSNER retweeted
AI can help you plan the next ten years while you avoid the next ten minutes.
You ask it about the business you “could” build, the skill you “could” learn, or he person you “could" become.
It gives you a beautiful answer.
For a while, you can see the whole thing working out.
Then you get started.
A step that took one sentence to explain takes you all afternoon to figure out.
So you try a few things AND you’re still stuck.
And wouldn’t you know it, another idea catches your eye.
This one looks much easier.
Well, sure. You haven’t experienced the difficult parts yet.
So you open a new chat.
Another plan. Another fresh start. You get to feel like you know what you’re doing again.
By bedtime, the work you got stuck on is still waiting.
Sound familiar?
Before you ask for another plan, go back to that unfinished task.
Make the next attempt small enough to finish today.
> Make a rough version
> Let someone try it
> Notice where they get stuck
> Change one thing and try again
Now you have something specific to ask AI:
↳ “People keep getting stuck here. What could I change?”
Try a suggestion and see whether it helps.
You have something to build on the next time you sit down.
The Skill Journal walks you through that kind of practice.
It’s a free 22-page handbook with a seven-day plan. Pick one skill you want to learn, then follow one small task each day.
Each task gives you:
> Something to try
> Something to watch for
> Space to record what happened
Most tasks take 10 to 15 minutes. Keep the blank logs and use them again next week.
Get your free copy. Open it to Day 1.
Give that skill the next ten minutes.
Get The Skill Journal free samelsner.eden.so/codex
You can LITERALLY:
> outgrow a life you once prayed for
> disappoint people by becoming yourself
> reach a dream and realize you want to leave
> lose beliefs that used to hold you together
> start over after everyone thought you’d made it
> miss someone you used to be
> grieve a future that never happened
> feel grateful and still want something else
> have no idea what comes next
> change your mind about who you are
And still have a beautiful life ahead of you.
You don’t owe your past the rest of your life.
SAM ELSNER retweeted
Stop doomscrolling. Build something meaningful...
Here's 11 Methods To Disrupt Your Dopamine Loops:
- Curate your interface and control your inputs
- Disrupt the habits that are causing you harm
- Turn that reclaimed time into creative momentum
tommy.eden.so/11-methods-to-…
Please study why people who feel fully ALIVE:
> follow interests they can’t explain
> let themselves be beginners
> leave room for unplanned afternoons
> have conversations that run past midnight
> make things without needing an audience
> keep parts of their lives unshared
> tell the truth before it becomes resentment
> let some questions stay unanswered
> stop turning every hobby into income
> forgive themselves for changing
> give up dreams they never chose
> choose friends they can be quiet around
> let a beautiful life look ordinary
AI can help you plan the next ten years while you avoid the next ten minutes.
You ask it about the business you “could” build, the skill you “could” learn, or he person you “could" become.
It gives you a beautiful answer.
For a while, you can see the whole thing working out.
Then you get started.
A step that took one sentence to explain takes you all afternoon to figure out.
So you try a few things AND you’re still stuck.
And wouldn’t you know it, another idea catches your eye.
This one looks much easier.
Well, sure. You haven’t experienced the difficult parts yet.
So you open a new chat.
Another plan. Another fresh start. You get to feel like you know what you’re doing again.
By bedtime, the work you got stuck on is still waiting.
Sound familiar?
Before you ask for another plan, go back to that unfinished task.
Make the next attempt small enough to finish today.
> Make a rough version
> Let someone try it
> Notice where they get stuck
> Change one thing and try again
Now you have something specific to ask AI:
↳ “People keep getting stuck here. What could I change?”
Try a suggestion and see whether it helps.
You have something to build on the next time you sit down.
The Skill Journal walks you through that kind of practice.
It’s a free 22-page handbook with a seven-day plan. Pick one skill you want to learn, then follow one small task each day.
Each task gives you:
> Something to try
> Something to watch for
> Space to record what happened
Most tasks take 10 to 15 minutes. Keep the blank logs and use them again next week.
Get your free copy. Open it to Day 1.
Give that skill the next ten minutes.
Get The Skill Journal free samelsner.eden.so/codex
A polymath who only reads and studies is a collector
> save the video.
> buy the book.
> learn the vocabulary.
> follow the expert.
> fill the folder.
Then try it where it lives.
Pick one skill, any skill, and find the place it actually happens. That could be a room with a guitar, a page someone will read, a field with a defender on it. Then, do it badly. Notice where it blurs and write it down. Then go again tomorrow.
I coached 1,000+ athletes, including NHL, NFL and Olympians. We made them stronger, more powerful and better conditioned. Some still played badly on game day. Same bodies, same training, different place.
Get good at one skill where it happens, then carry what you learn into the next one, and you become an enskilled polymath.
The Skill Journal is a free 7-day workbook. samelsner.eden.so/codex
Listen.
On April 25, 2025, my boss fired me.
My crime? I used AI to do the boring stuff faster. That way I could spend more time helping people. They called it lazy. (I call it being resourceful and smart. But nobody asked me.)
So I got another job.
On May 4, 2026, they let me go too. Why? I was the new guy. That's it. That's the entire reason.
Now, here's where most people blow it.
They say, "I'll start fresh in January."
Bullsh*t.
January is a date on a calendar. That’s it.
It doesn't care about you. And this time in your life? It won't come back. It just keeps ticking forward while you sit there and wait.
So I didn't wait. I kept building. I've coached over 1,000 athletes. And I've picked up skill after skill that nobody asked me to learn.
And here's what I know now:
> Your 9-5 is where you rebuild.
> Your paycheck pays for the build.
> You do not need a new year.
> You need one hour that's yours.
> Guard that hour like a junkyard dog.
Okay?
Now here's the ugly truth. Folks who wait for January quit by February. Folks who start now build something that lasts forever.
So start now.
P.S. Not sure where to start? I made something for you. It's called CODEX. It's a free 7-day notebook. Each day you do one real rep in one skill you already care about. No course to finish. No need to be perfect. Just proof, in your own hand, that you showed up. Grab it here: samelsner.eden.so/
This is absolutely brilliant, my friend. And I love how it's broken down. And it's honestly its so easy to rewire and resync your dopamine so that you can actually be productive.
Start before you feel ready: make step one too small to skip.
1. Pick what you'd do if nobody objected
2. Do 10 minutes today, same time tomorrow
3. Tell no one for two weeks
4. Score only whether you showed up
By day 14 you'll have proof. Proof is what readiness is made of.
Anything ever created started out with curiosity and playfulness. And anything that has ever been created follows the scientific method, where you have a hypothesis, you test it out, you come together and discuss what you figured out, and then adjust and do it again.
Gurus will tell you not to create something unless you validate it first. But that can completely crack your creative process in half.
You have to experiment. You can't just copy + paste everything otherwise your creativity will die. There are no valid and invalid ideas, only how you choose to spend your time.
HOW TO GET GOOD AT ANY SKILL (without reading another book about it)…
> Stop mistaking research for practice.
If your notes keep growing while your work stays the same size, you're stuck in prep. Prep feels like progress because it never fails.
> Shrink the rep until you can do it tomorrow. One loaf. One paragraph. One sales call. It should be small enough to finish and real enough to break. A rep that can't fail can't teach you anything.
> Do it where the skill actually lives.
A kitchen teaches you what a cookbook can't, because the oven runs hot and the flour's a little damp. A 2021 paper on enskilment says it plainly: "Learning is inseparable from doing and place."
> Write the question down the second something breaks. "Why did the bread collapse?" takes a book two pages to answer. "How do I get good at baking?" takes a whole shelf and still leaves you guessing.
> Before you buy the next book, ask what you'd do with chapter one tomorrow morning. If the answer is nothing, leave it on the shelf and go make something.
People making things ask very specific questions.
Why did the bread collapse?
Why does this paragraph drag?
Why did the customer leave?
Go make something. Read when it breaks.
Use some of the time AI saves you to learn the skill you keep putting off.
CODEX is my free 7-day notebook to help you get started.
One skill you care about. One honest attempt a day.
Get CODEX here -> samelsner.eden.so/
A person with nothing to say can now say it a thousand times a day.
That’s one of the stranger gifts of AI.
And it points to a problem that better tools alone won’t solve.
Once you can make almost anything, you still have to decide what deserves to exist.
Think about the work that stays with you.
A sentence that puts words to something you’ve felt for years. A song you start over before it has even finished. A simple invention that fixes an annoyance you’d stopped questioning.
Somebody paid attention.
They noticed something. Cared about it. Spent enough time with it to give the rest of us something worth having.
Now imagine giving that person the means to bring more of those ideas into the world.
There’s an opportunity worth getting excited about.
But look at what we’re tempted to do with every hour these tools save.
Fill it.
Another task. Another post. Another project. Until even going for a walk feels like something we ought to turn into content.
A private interest needs a business model. A conversation needs a useful takeaway.
We can get so busy finding uses for everything that we give ourselves very little room to discover anything else.
Perhaps some of the time we save could stay unclaimed.
Enough to follow a strange question. Learn something we’re terrible at. Talk to someone whose life bears no resemblance to our own.
Those experiences give us things to notice, question and care about.
And now we have extraordinary tools to help us do something with them.
That makes curiosity a practical advantage. So does taste. So does knowing another person well enough to understand what would help them.
The machine can help you make more.
Give it a life’s worth of things worth making.
A person with nothing to say can now say it a thousand times a day.
That’s one of the stranger gifts of AI.
And it points to a problem that better tools alone won’t solve.
Once you can make almost anything, you still have to decide what deserves to exist.
Think about the work that stays with you.
A sentence that puts words to something you’ve felt for years. A song you start over before it has even finished. A simple invention that fixes an annoyance you’d stopped questioning.
Somebody paid attention.
They noticed something. Cared about it. Spent enough time with it to give the rest of us something worth having.
Now imagine giving that person the means to bring more of those ideas into the world.
There’s an opportunity worth getting excited about.
But look at what we’re tempted to do with every hour these tools save.
Fill it.
Another task. Another post. Another project. Until even going for a walk feels like something we ought to turn into content.
A private interest needs a business model. A conversation needs a useful takeaway.
We can get so busy finding uses for everything that we give ourselves very little room to discover anything else.
Perhaps some of the time we save could stay unclaimed.
Enough to follow a strange question. Learn something we’re terrible at. Talk to someone whose life bears no resemblance to our own.
Those experiences give us things to notice, question and care about.
And now we have extraordinary tools to help us do something with them.
That makes curiosity a practical advantage. So does taste. So does knowing another person well enough to understand what would help them.
The machine can help you make more.
Give it a life’s worth of things worth making.