Second Life

Early to bed and early to rise,
makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise.

Benjamin Franklin — Poor Richard's Almanack
Errol Tan

Life beyond your 40s doesn't have to mean conforming to body aches and pains, uncertainty about your career and personal life, and feeling left behind.

Entries
03
Reading
18 min
Updated
Aug 2026

01Healthy

Your body answers to what you feed it and how you move it, on a timescale of months rather than days. Most of what follows is me testing that on myself and writing down what happened.

  1. Sardines The evidence for the fish is strong and the evidence for the fast is almost nonexistent, which are two very different claims that almost nobody bothers to separate.
  2. Creatine The most-studied supplement in sports nutrition turns out to be a brain supplement.
  3. Carbs How I went from zero carbs to some carbs, and why the choice of carb matters more than the amount.

Everything in Healthy

Entries
03
Reading
21 min
Updated
Jul 2026

02Wealthy

I started late and I started small, which has turned out to matter far less than the fact that I never stopped.

  1. Angel investing Somebody has to go first, you get to choose who, and thirty years of asking what breaks first has to be worth something.
  2. Fractional art Thirteen positions, seventeen thousand dollars, down 1.3 per cent in three and a half years, and the honest reason I have not sold.
  3. Precious metals Money printing, crowded central bank vaults, and a very hard-working metal called silver. Plus the one rule that keeps me honest.

Everything in Wealthy

Entries
03
Reading
16 min
Updated
Sep 2026

03Wise

The question underneath this section is what am I still wrong about, and it has never once had a tidy answer.

Knowing more got easy. Thinking better did not, and only one of the two compounds.
  1. Learning Arabic I have learned languages before and enjoyed the process. This one, however, broke my confidence in a way nothing else has.
  2. Learning about AI Learning AI in middle age — from writing wishes to writing context.
  3. Growth mindset The complaint reflex costs you the first minute. The competence reflex costs you the new sector. Kill both.

Everything in Wise

A letter, most Sundays

What I tried during the week, what it cost me, and whether it turned out to be worth doing. Usually a page. Occasionally two.