Summer always slows things down around here, and this year I'm letting it.

I'm back home in California with my family for a few weeks, working at half speed and enjoying it.

This weekend, I'm heading up to the Bay Area for our fourth annual Wholesome Mastermind, a small gathering of fellow authors, educators, and online creators. Every year I leave with new ideas and a clearer head. I expect this one will be no different.

Our YouTube team is also taking a two-week break, so instead of a video this week, you're getting a blog post straight from me below.

Operation Gallavant: An Overlanding Journey Through Latin America

I want to share a personal project I'm calling Operation Gallavant: a multi-month family road trip across Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina, with my wife and three young kids, likely summer 2028 or 2029.

I get into why we're doing it, from escaping the culture of safetyism to what a work sabbatical might do for Forte Labs' future. I also push back on the idea that imminent AGI makes this the wrong time to step away.

If you've got packing tips, route ideas, or travel advice, I want to hear them.

Your Areas Are Quietly Out of Date

Updating my areas of responsibility was the main focus during my recent mid-year review. Areas don't shift as fast as projects. Projects change quickly enough for monthly check-ins. Areas are broader, so quarterly or twice a year works.

Going through mine one by one, I paid attention to how each one felt.

When I got to "speaking," I felt nothing. No pull, no excitement, not even guilt. I'd assumed I'd build a speaking career after writing two books, the way a lot of authors do. I never did. So I archived it.

I also renamed an area that had been bothering me. I kept using the word "products," and it never sat right. What we make are courses. Changing the word made the area honest again.

Try this:

• Go through your areas one at a time
• Is it still true? Still working?
• Notice numbness or resistance. That's information.
• Archive, rename, or split what no longer fits.

What's one area of your life that stopped fitting a while ago? Reply and tell me what you archived, or what you're still avoiding.

A Word English Cannot Translate Sends Jo Franco Across Antwerp in New Travel Documentary

My friend, multilingual storyteller and former Netflix/National Geographic travel host, Jo Franco, just released the Antwerp episode of Translated, her independent travel docuseries exploring untranslatable words around the world.

The episode centers on goesting, a Flemish word for deep craving, desire, gusto, and the pull toward what you truly want. Filmed across Antwerp, the episode follows Jo through the city’s history, food, diamonds, migration stories, chocolate, friendship, and quiet Belgian excellence.

We Are Losing the Ability to Discover What We Didn’t Know to Ask

My friend Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a neuroscientist who studies curiosity, just published a sharp piece in the New York Times.

More than 60% of Google searches now end without a single click. We get an instant answer and move on.

But she points to research showing curiosity needs an open loop: the space between a question and its answer is where real learning happens.

Close that gap too fast and you lose the tangents and unplanned discoveries along the way.