Mental Ooze: Grasping for focus on an ocean of distractions.

As you read this letter, you are going to see a lot of my fragmented mind. I will share with you my hundreds of interests that are on a rotating jukebox rack, that shifts like sand in my mind. I often am distracted and juggling various thoughts simultaneously yet missing the present and the task at hand. It could be something of urgency and obligation. I could be in another world, living in some reality that is likely never to exist. Or I could be merely chewing the cud of a brilliant idea I want to make and share with the world. Often this happens as I talk to people. It could be anyone, and it makes no difference, my boss, my friend's, my parents or my wife.

My mind wanders constantly, and I struggle to stay grounded in the present, with what's in my hands. I will say however, writing has helped me make sense of it all. I am certain it will help you too. Writing is thinking with your mind and visualizing details and nuance what you might have missed if not written.

I had various ideas for this week's newsletter, but nothing stuck that I wanted to focus on. This is often the case for me with my writing and art. So now i will go through various topics. This is starting out as a garden of my mind. My diary at times, a place to share ideas with you, and a place to iterate good ideas and eventually have an anthology of something both useful and entertaining. A place to create and reflect and to build upon what i learn. I hope this provides value, entertainment, or inspiration for you, whoever you are to go and do something, make, act, build, live.

The reason I'm here now, writing, is for the sake of consistency and forming a solid habit for my writing. It doesn't matter if its bad, it matters if I moved and attempted the thing. It is the same for writing, creating a product, or working out, its habit. That's why i will write even if i am uninspired. I plan to develop as a writer, so I'm simply going to write. Even if it isn't right!

Just start the project already and learn when your on the road!

I have found that people could care less about if someone has all the answers or knows what they are doing. They want data, they want results, they want to know of your experience, and if you bothered trying at that thing, it matters less if you won or succeeded in that thing and more on your ability to show up and try.

Start a project already and then go and research, that way the project will give you a frame and will aid your learning more than just taking a course or reading a book in a hope to learn something.

Readers care about one thing when they read.

"What's in it for me?"

This is a core element of most writing regardless if its educational or for entertainment. I learned this from Dan Koe, a master of online education, personal branding, social media and content. The topics he talks about are broad but he synthesizes ideas and blends disciplines in a way that i haven't quite seen before. The awesome part is with his many interests he finds a way to create something of value out of it and to build a massive audience who likes to learn and wants to grow. I have hundreds of interests and several i share with dan and this is why his work has kicked my ass into gear to actually make my dreams a reality.

There are a handful of meta skills he recommends his viewers learn that helped him on his path.

• Writing

• Speaking

• Marketing

• Sales

  After taking his Writers bootcamp in March of 2025 I learned a great deal about writing content and building a personal brand around my interests. I still have much to practice and learn from still in its curriculum. But now i am confident on how i will build an online business. Dan told us in the bootcamp "its good to be overwhelmed" because it means your being stretched to your limit and this is how you level up and grow and learn. I encourage anyone interested in entrepreneurship to check out dan Koe's YouTube channel. This is how I learned about him.

My product ideas range from small digital products to physical products or things I use or need myself that I know would benefit others. Also, books and online courses is my direction I intend to go. With my day job in the propane industry and focusing on this in the mornings and evening I will have something, hopefully to build a business around, and eventually replace my salary. I will soon get to a point of making content more around my homesteading journey and help motivate young people to homestead as well and conquer battles they face with mental health and reducing stress and fear of trying in life.

A conversation with a friend

So I was at church on Wednesday and looked at 2 books by C.S Lewis that caught my eye.

• Surprised by Joy, the shape of my early life.

• The Abolition of Man

Then the associate pastor passed by me in the bookstore, and we started to chat about journals he ordered. Then I mentioned various journal ideas I have had and how that is a potential product I would like to sell.

Why journals one might ask? Well I can confidently say I carry a journal around with me everywhere even when its unnecessary, and possibly inappropriate to do so given the occasion like eating with a group of people I visit with. I write more than anyone I know personally. But my writing thus far has had little fruit and lacks meaning or utility for others. Besides logging states of depression, notes at church I don't read, complaining and ranting about "How bad my life was and how unhappy I was due to circumstances".

Then again, maybe it had some fruit as it helped my mind dump itself and offload thoughts and ideas and worries to clear up bandwidth for other things.

Simple but effective Reading Hacks

Back to the story, I was talking about how I would read and get through books when i can actually focus on one. Here are some simple hacks to improve your reading and increase your efficiency.

1. use two bookmarks, one where you start and a second where your end goal is. For example, page 1-15.

2. pick a goal and time you can commit to daily and scale from there.

• 5 or 10 mins is a good start if you don't read at all but want to.

• I shoot for 30 to 90 minutes depending on the time I have available.

3. Set a timer, record the page you start and end on. You can now see how fast you read.

I read about 13 to 15 pages an hour. My rate is about the same for a novel, or nonfiction book.

4. Take notes on what you read, record things that interest you which can be later used to accompany you in your own writing journey in forming new ideas of having nice references or quotes to use.

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Topics I studied this week briefly and wanted to write essays/ newsletters about but couldn't choose. Eventually I will write on these.

• Landrace seeds

• Dry Farming

• De regulation of homesteads and small farms

• Planned obsolescence

• Right to repair

• Localized manufacturing

• Cottage industry

• A cottage industry for the modern world using high+ low tech

• Durable products

• Something else I want to write about in my letters is called gentrification, which is the economic displacement of a local community who is priced out and forced to leave the place they grew up. Or stay and live in poverty, due to the wealthy who come and restore sections of cities and towns that are run down or just older. The wealthy also buy up real estate shooting up rent and home value. Making the gap between renters and owners larger. That is the story of my hometown Ventura, CA. I am certain it is the story of your hometown as well, especially if you are from anywhere that is desirable to live.

Here is a nice excerpt from a book I started reading the other day.

-The alchemist, Paulo Coelho.

" He recognized that he was feeling something he had never experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever. With the girl with raven hair, his days would never be the same again."

Why does this stick out to me? Because for so long i wanted two completely different things, to settle down and be a homesteader in one area. And to do van life and travel across the country and continent even. Clearly this was me contradicting myself. I knew it at the time, yet I wanted both for years. I also tried for so long to make it work living near family in So Cal. Due to the economic infeasibility, it didn't work. Between me and my wife our family keeps moving across the country. Just over 8 months ago have given that idea up and I have finally found peace.

By the way in my writing, I will pull from many sources and authors, i study many fields. I believe in Jesus and am a Christian, but I do not limit my reading to the bible or only Christian books. If you think I am a heretic because i quote Confucius’s, Aristotle, or Allan watts then your free to believe that. If you started reading something of mine because i mentioned AI, transhumanism, the giants, the apocrypha or mysteries of the past, megalithic structures, and leave when I mention the gospel then my writing might not be for you. My interests will have a broad scope.

I have a massive library, ranging from farming and homesteading, to history, science, the occult, ecology and environmental science, self-help, Psychology, finance, classical literature of the world, studying other religions as a means to understand other culture and view better and give me a way to better explain my views to others. I also like books on learning, as well as reference books, field guide on wildlife and plants. I will talk about economics as i understand it, geopolitics, socioeconomic systems, church history, dinosaurs, dragons, and honestly anything to do with prehistory and the antediluvian world. I will write about fungi and mycology, fantasy, sci fi and dystopian novels I have read. Thoughts on education, morality, societal reform, there is much more, but just know my writing might be a rollercoaster for you my audience but I doubt it will be boring.

As I write and publish my newsletter, I do want to have a few core things I focus on, and this may change in the future, but here are 3 pillars of what I am about.

Self-development: Mind, Body, Spirit.

• Learning, Education, literature, reading writing, hands on, tutorials

• Cultivating a healthy marriage

• Forming healthy relationships with people

• Working out, hiking, bicycling, camping

• My walk with Jesus and what he has done for me

• Mental Health

• Studying the spiritual and metaphysical

• History, technology, ancient cultures and civilizations

Alternative Living and Agrarianism:

• Homesteading

• Permaculture

• Off grid living

• Agriculture

• Prepping

• Skills and trades, old and new

• Indigenous wisdom, Ethnobotany, herbalism

• Holistic Health

Creativity:

• Art

• Writing

• Worldbuilding

But wait there is more!

Just kidding, I mean I’m not, but i am as its HOT and muggy in my house, and I want to get up and move around.

This next week, I am hoping to read a decent amount of only 1 or 2 books and study some interesting videos and articles that I can relate to my journey and share with you all next week. If I am lucky, I will write an essay. I actually hope I do.

We’ll see. I am really trying to focus, I want to share specific things and be more topic oriented but hey, I have to start somewhere. James’s clear had his 3-2-1 newsletter for a few years before he ever wrote atomic habits. I am not saying I’m going to write the next atomic habits, but I do intend to publish a few books eventually.

Thank you for reading this whirlwind of my thoughts and wading through my mental ooze.

Until next week!

-Andrew Alvarado