2 February 2026
This week's additions focus on mindset, marketing, and ai, with new digests from Matthew Volkwyn, Ryan Deiss, and Starter Story. Highlights include Accumulate real practice hours fast; theory alone never builds skill. Reframing around distributions fixed a stalled company in 60 days
Showing 61 digests for 2 February 2026.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Four mindset shifts to stay ahead as AI replaces human work
Dan Martell
February 6, 2026
Identity & self-belief
9
AI strategy & adoption
8
Use AI as a trainer to get sharper, not a crutch that makes you dull
Be the director who sets the vision — let AI do 92% of the doing
Genuine care for people is the one thing AI cannot replicate
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Stoic principles behind peak performance and mental resilience
The Daily Stoic
February 6, 2026
Resilience & grit
10
Identity & self-belief
9
Motivation
6
The Patriots literally practised the Super Bowl halftime to stay calm.
Hall of Famers still battle imposter syndrome — the dark years make you.
Stoics' edge: obsess only over what you control, waste nothing else.
Physical & cognitive performance
YouTube
Arthur Brooks' morning protocol for four hours of deep focus
Tim Ferriss
February 6, 2026
Physical & cognitive performance
9
Deep work & focus
5
Delay caffeine 2–3 hours so adenosine clears first
15–20 g creatine daily boosts creativity and offsets poor sleep
Eliminating all interruptions doubles usable creative output
Physical & cognitive performance
YouTube
Exercise types that best protect brain health and cognition
Tim Ferriss
February 6, 2026
Physical & cognitive performance
9
Dancing has the largest measured effect size for dementia prevention
High-intensity intervals grew hippocampal structure — effects lasted five years
Lactate, not BDNF, is the primary mechanism linking exercise to brain health
AI tools & automation
YouTube
How coding agents are changing how engineers and founders work
Y Combinator
February 6, 2026
AI tools & automation
9
Automation & tools
7
Senior engineers gain most — architectural taste beats raw coding speed
Context poisoning degrades output past 50% tokens; clear it proactively
Test coverage is the single biggest multiplier for agent performance
Deep work & focus
YouTube
Why silence makes you smarter than consuming content
Alex M H Smith
February 5, 2026
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Mental health & wellbeing
5
Constant content consumption sedates your brain, not sharpens it.
Doing one thing at a time creates silence that forces real thinking.
An unstructured chat with one trusted person unlocks strategic breakthroughs.
Physical & cognitive performance
YouTube
Ido Portal on movement as practice, play, and perception
Andrew Huberman
February 5, 2026
Physical & cognitive performance
8
Productivity & habits
6
Panoramic vision gives four times faster reaction time than focused gaze
Habitual postures of movement, thought, and emotion calcify without inquiry
Virtuosity requires inviting variability back in after mastery
Founder interviews
Podcast
How Zoom achieved 30x growth during the COVID pandemic
Masters of Scale
February 5, 2026
Founder interviews
9
Long-term planning
8
Culture building
6
Zoom's architecture was designed for 10–20x traffic — surviving 30x required no code changes.
Over-hiring 6,000 people during COVID led to a painful 15% layoff Yuan calls his own mistake.
No marketing team for years — growth came entirely from product quality and network effects.
Running email-driven offers: the unglamorous reality with Igor Kheifets
Matthew Volkwyn
February 5, 2026
Email marketing
9
Conversion rate optimisation
7
Pricing strategy
6
Relaunch the same offer with a fresh angle — not a new product
Revenue per subscriber per year beats EPC as a list health metric
Offer ownership has $15K+/month overhead before a single sale
Marketing budget shifts in 2026: where smart teams are consolidating
Neil Patel
February 5, 2026
Growth hacking
9
Conversion rate optimisation
8
Content marketing
7
AISO investment jumped 98% — optimise to be cited, not just ranked
Organic social demands entertainment skills most marketing teams don't have
Reallocating budget mid-quarter beats waiting for annual planning cycles
AI strategy & adoption
Podcast
How investors are using AI in their research process
Business Breakdowns
February 5, 2026
AI strategy & adoption
9
AI tools & automation
7
AI excels at monitoring second-order signals across a company's ecosystem
Prompts should include task, context, output format, and domain skepticism
Documenting investment thinking now will unlock far more powerful AI later
AI strategy & adoption
YouTube
How to use AI as a strategic thinking companion, not a search tool
Silicon Valley Girl
February 5, 2026
AI strategy & adoption
9
Processes & SOPs
7
Business models
6
Your brain wires AI like a search engine — that's the core obstacle to overcome.
Reinventing a process beats doing more work; that's what gets you noticed.
Even without further advances, AI could eliminate 25% of entry-level white-collar jobs.
How Nic built a $16K/month Pinterest micro-SaaS in a tiny niche
Starter Story
February 5, 2026
Niche selection
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Growth hacking
6
Niche size doesn't matter — owning a specific pain point does
A seven-step playbook for building and validating a micro-SaaS in 2026
Word of mouth and LLM recommendations beat any launch tactic
AI tools & automation
YouTube
How to use AI as an interviewer to gain clarity fast
Dylan Davis
February 5, 2026
AI tools & automation
10
Goal setting
6
Clarity, not information, is what most people are missing
A four-layer prompt turns AI into a dynamic interviewer
30 questions is the sweet spot — enough context, no burnout
How freelance marketers can build a $400K lead engine
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
February 5, 2026
Growth hacking
9
Prospecting & outreach
7
Business models
6
Most marketers get clients leads but have no system for their own
A four-phase factory floor can generate $400K without hiring staff
Entry-level offers at $50–$500 are the gateway to high-ticket retainers