Iterate Weekly - Issue 40
We kick off 2022 with smart bathrooms, Caveday's Habit Challenge, a review of the Stoic Standing Mat, Weekly poetry right in your inbox, and Becoming Trader Joe!
Happy new year and welcome to issue 40 of Iterate Weekly!
Just a reminder that you can always reply to this email or leave a comment on the web version. I do read all of them and I appreciate the feedback, questions, and insights from all of you.
Let’s jump into this week’s stories.
🤖Tech
2022 - The year of the smart bathroom?
We recently moved into a new house. This is a fantastic opportunity to get all of my smart home components lined up. Things like smart lights and security cameras are pretty common these days, but I’ve noticed a growing trend that I wasn’t familiar with. The smart bathroom…
What comes to mind when you first hear the term smart bathroom? Futuristic Japanese toilets? Yeah, me too. Let’s start there. How smart should our toilets be? I’ll skip any explicit potty talk here, but I want to appreciate how elaborate toilets can get if you have the budget. You could spring for a full-service smart toilet like this Woodbridge model that will go for just under a grand. It looks pretty sweet and includes an automatic flush feature for those who are too lazy to pull the lever ourselves.
The shower is also getting a futuristic upgrade. Our showerhead was leaving something to be desired. I stumbled upon the Kohler Moxie showerhead that includes a built-in waterproof smart speaker in my research. I didn’t pull the trigger myself, but it seems like a fantastic idea. The morning shower seems like the perfect spot for a smart speaker to give you a rundown of your day or quick news highlights.
What other smart tech deserves a spot in your bathroom? I’ll keep you posted if any of these products make the cut in my own home. But it seems like this category will only continue to grow.
🎓Education
Caveday January Habit Challenge
It’s January! And that means that everyone is looking to build new positive habits and/or trying to ditch their old ways.
This is just another quick reminder that Caveday is running something called the January Habit Challenge right now. I’ve written about Caveday before; they are the best way to help improve your focus through deep work sessions. I’m personally a Cave Guide myself and have seen tremendous results working with them over the past year.
If you have a new habit or project that you’re working on this year, join the Habit Challenge for daily check-ins and motivation to help keep you on track!
🩺Health & Nutrition
My time with the Stoic Standing Mat
I’ve written about my love of standing desks before. In fact, I’m particularly fond of an outdoor standing desk setup. But something that can make or break a standing desk setup is your standing mat.
Now I’ve used several different standing mats over the years. Some standing desks come with relatively cheap, flimsy ones. There are the ones that are marketed for chefs and grocer store checkout folks that do help some. If you’re really tough, you can just skip the mat altogether, especially if you’re already working on carpet.
Recently I received my Stoic standing desk mat from the fine folks at Monkii.co. I’ve mentioned them before, but I wanted to give a more thorough account of my time using the Stoic so far. Yes, this was a Kickstarter project that was delayed many times due to global supply chain issues. However, I’m not holding that against the Monkii team. They did have to make some changes to the final product when delays and shipping costs changed the scope of the item.
So all that aside, let’s look at the product for what it is. Monkii calls the product a “gym for your feet.” I’m not sure I entirely agree with that. There were originally going to be a whole bunch of accessories and resistance bands to let you workout while working at a standing desk all day, but those were nixed due to supply issues. There are some items still in the works, but as it stands today, it’s really just a cool standing mat, not a revolutionary gym for your lower half.
There are different footbeds that feel like stones, a riverbed, (and coming soon) a bed of nails. The different textures feel good against your feet, even while wearing shoes. I love the variety and ability to change things up when I’m feeling fidgety. I’ve never worked at a treadmill desk, but this seems like a suitable (and cheaper) alternative. Stretching and adjusting my stance throughout the day is both taxing like a workout and rejuvenating like a stretch.
The Stoic may not be the full-body standing gym promised at launch, but it’s a nice product. It’s become a vital component of my home office setup. So if any of you spend any time at all at a standing desk, it’s absolutely worth picking up a Stoic when they launch on the Monkii website.
🛍Grab Bag
Add some poetry to your new year
This week I wanted to give a massive shoutout to an Iterate reader and fellow writer, Punit Thakkar. If you feel like you need a bit more poetry in your life this year, you need to check out his newsletter Hello Universe!
Each week, Punit will send you one fun, thought-provoking poem. A fun one he wrote recently is called “Eighteen" - where he takes a time travel thought experiment to its limits. Here are his thoughts on the poems he likes to write:
"I started writing poetry as a way to capture the lost poems of my childhood that had a catchy meter, fun rhyming schemes and were really memorable as a result.
And just like I can enjoy animated shows with grown-up themes now that I've grown up, I believe that catchy, rhyming and memorable poetry can speak about some grown-up themes while being fun and thought-provoking."
If you like the idea of reading a fun poem every week, SUBSCRIBE NOW to Hello Universe:
💬Quote of the Week
“Never make a decision when you need to pee.” - Leonard Cohen
📕Content Recommendation
Becoming Trader Joe
Have you ever wondered if there was actually a “Trader Joe”? Was he a real person or just some made-up marketing persona like Betty Crocker or The Jolly Green Giant?
Oh yes, Joe is very real, and he wrote a book to prove it! It’s called “Becoming Trader Joe” by Trader Joe himself Joe Coulombe (with some help from Patty Civalleri whom I picture in the role of Elaine Benes, capturing the true-life tales of J. Peterman).
Learn all about the origin of the “Fearless Flyer” and how Joe was able to sell good wine for so darn cheap! It’s a fun read that goes beyond the kitsch of the brand and teaches some worthwhile business lessons.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!