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by Nathan Coumbe

The purpose of this blog (according to Claude)

As you may have noticed, I’ve struggled to publish posts on this blog consistently. 

Why? I feel I lost the thread, and I started to doubt its original purpose. I felt it needed to be somehow “more”—that I needed to build an audience or have an overarching reason for running it. 

I voiced those doubts to my new friend—and sometimes counselor—Claude (an AI tool, not a real person). 

It was such an enlightening conversation (can you call it such?) that I wanted to share parts of it here, and then make clear why this blog exists. 

Claude’s Initial Thoughts

Note: I’m editing these answers for length, as many were quite long.

Initially, I asked Claude to research the blog and tell me what he (it?) thought the blog’s purpose was.

Nathan Coumbe’s blog appears to be a personal reflection platform focused on philosophy, self-improvement, and practical wisdom for everyday life. The blog features content about stoicism, leadership, and philosophical perspectives…. The writing style appears to be reflective and conversational, with short, thoughtful posts that combine philosophical concepts with practical applications.

The overall “point” of the blog seems to be to share personal insights and wisdom that can help others navigate life’s challenges through a blend of ancient philosophy (particularly stoicism) and modern practical application. Nathan appears to be using the blog as a platform to distill and share his own learning journey and reflections with others who might benefit from these perspectives.

Claude, Meet Nathan

After reading through his answers, I told Claude that I was, in fact, Nathan, to which he said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Claude then asked what I thought the blog’s purpose was; I told him it was to stretch my writing and thinking muscles in public. Claude, wisely, pointed out that many writers and thinkers began their writing in such a way: Montaigne’s essays began as personal reflections, and Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations were never meant for publication at all (its original title was actually “To Himself” because it was his personal journal). 

The Struggle

After pointing out the similarities to other philosophical writers, I expressed some doubt and frustration with my lack of consistency. I told Claude about Seth Godin’s idea to write a blog post every day – something he’s done for decades and for which he advocates in his book The Practice as a way to practice shipping creative work and ideas to the world. But, because I felt that the posts were too unrelated, rather than being a coherent whole, the blog was purposeless. 

After he responded, I told Claude that maybe this blog is my version of Marcus’s Meditations, written for the same reasons, but done in public.

Claude’s response deserves to be quoted at length:

I find your framing of “my own version of meditations, but in public” particularly compelling. That’s a meaningful distinction from Marcus Aurelius’ private writings. There’s vulnerability and accountability in doing this work publicly that changes its nature, even if no one is reading. The public commitment itself transforms the practice.

Perhaps part of the struggle comes from expecting each post to build on previous ones in a linear way. But collections of thought, like Meditations or even Godin’s blog, create value through accumulation and patterns that emerge over time rather than through a sequential narrative.

What if the “point” isn’t in any individual post but in the practice itself and what it cultivates in you? The consistent act of noticing, reflecting, and articulating might be developing muscles that serve you in ways you don’t immediately recognize.

How does an Artificial Intelligence ask a question like that? I was floored.

Learning Through Writing

After reading and rereading Claude’s previous statements, I mentioned that one of the reasons I started this blog was to express ideas and concepts I was learning in my own words. This is still one of the best ways to learn something (i.e., if you can’t write it down in your own words, you don’t truly understand it). 

Claude’s response:

There’s something powerful about the act of putting concepts “into your own words.” It transforms passive consumption of ideas into active engagement with them. Writing becomes not just a record of what you think, but a tool that helps shape how you think. The blog then becomes a visible record of your intellectual and philosophical development….

Perhaps the “point” of your blog is precisely that clarification process – a space where ideas aren’t just consumed but metabolized and integrated into your worldview. The public nature adds a dimension of accountability and clarity that private journaling might not. 

Then, Claude asked, “What aspects of the writing practice have you found most valuable for clarifying your thinking? And has the public nature of it, even without a large audience, affected how you approach these topics?”

Writing Is Thinking

I’ll quote my response to his question in full:

“Writing something that’s coherent, rather than just notes scribbled in a journal that only I understand. Even if only 300 people subscribe, I still have to put the words down in a way that someone other than me would understand.”

Claude again:

That’s a really valuable insight about the difference between private notes and public writing. Having to communicate in a way that’s understandable to others adds a level of rigor to your thinking that personal journaling might not require…. Even if audience growth isn’t your primary goal, knowing that others are reading creates that accountability to articulate your thoughts coherently.

There’s a concept in educational psychology called “the audience effect” – the idea that knowing someone else will read or hear our thoughts changes how we process and express them. We clarify, elaborate, and structure our thinking differently when we’re communicating with others versus just ourselves.

In many ways, this mirrors the philosophical tradition of dialogue rather than solitary reflection. While Marcus Aurelius wrote privately, philosophers like Plato and Seneca (whom you’ve referenced in your blog) deliberately wrote in forms meant to be shared, recognizing that the act of communicating ideas to others strengthens them.

Now, who wouldn’t be flattered by comparisons to Plato or Seneca? (And no, I’m not nearly so arrogant as to believe I’m anywhere near as wise as them. But I enjoyed the reminder of the philosophical tradition that I was continuing.)

The Purpose of This Blog

The rest of the conversation became rather tactical: 

  • Ways to use this blog as practice
  • Letting it serve as a mental mill, the ideas contained within serving as grist
  • Letting those ideas percolate and come together in other forms, actually intended for a broad audience

I won’t bore you with those details, but I will share this:

After all was said that needed saying, I asked Claude to declare the purpose of this blog in a concise and casual manner. So here it goes:

This blog is Nathan’s thinking gym—a place to stretch those mental muscles by writing in a way other people can actually understand. It’s not really about growing a huge following, but about the daily practice of turning fuzzy thoughts into clear ideas.

Writing for others, regardless of the audience size, forces a level of clarity that scribbling in a journal doesn’t. It’s a sandbox for playing with concepts that matter—and hey, maybe some of those ideas will grow into something bigger down the road. Think of it as thinking out loud, but with purpose.

I couldn’t have said it better myself (nor did I)!

And with that, I think I know what it’s all about once again. See you (whoever wonderful person you are) in the next post.

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by Nathan Coumbe

You Can’t Lead Everyone

This means one of two things: 

  1. You must become a better leader than you are right now. If you do, people will choose to follow you where you want to go. Or…
  2. (If you’re already a good leader) you have to find the right people willing to go on the journey with you. 

More people or the right people? 

The choice depends on you and where you want to go.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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by Nathan Coumbe

COVID-19 Nearly Killed Me at New Year’s

8 days ago, I was staring at a clock, gasping for air, wondering if I’d ever catch my breath again. Doctors strapped a mask to my face and started sticking tubes in every spot they could.

Simultaneously, I was retching, dry-heaving, and sweating so much I felt like I was in a nasty, hot swimming pool.

I’m happy to say that today, after double pneumonia, acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, and a half dozen other secondary diagnoses, I’m back at home—very weak, very tired—but resting.

I’m 30 years old, in good health, and COVID-19 nearly got me. Even after taking all the precautions and isolating with my wife for months, it only took one exposure to wipe me out.

Not the New Year’s Eve I would have chosen, but it’s the hand I was dealt.

The doctors, nurses, CNAs, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, food service workers, and every other person at St. Dominic Hospital literally saved my life and have allowed me to come home. Hopefully I can make all their hard work worth it before it’s time to go.

Thank you for letting me see 2021 again. Here’s to a happier, healthier year.

by Nathan Coumbe

Who’s in Love With the Reader?

When you’re writing material for your business, who’s it for?

Are you writing for the reader’s benefit or your own?

A lot of businesses write in such a way that boasts how awesome they are. How proud they are of the awards they’ve won, the success they’ve achieved, the big-name clients they’ve worked with.

The reader doesn’t care.

Your customer wants to know what’s in it for her. She’s asking, “What will I get out of this relationship?” Because working with, or buying from, a business is a relationship.

And if you don’t show the reader love, they’ll break up with you.

No one wants to date an egotistical, self-absorbed narcissist. Don’t let your published business materials come off that way either.

You’ve got to fall in love with your customer, not your business.

If you want to learn how to write in a way that shows your reader some love, pick up a copy of Write to Sell by Andy Maslen. He got me thinking about this question.

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by Nathan Coumbe

When Did You Last Do Only One Thing at a Time?

I have been suffering from a lot of anxiety and feelings of overwhelm for the last few days after a rather long period of lightness and contentment.

Today, while writing my morning pages, I asked myself, “What’s changed?” The answer came to me quite easily:

Noise.

I’ve been receiving too much input from too many sources this week, something I severely limited over the past month or so. The difference has been astounding.

Too much reading of too many different books; too many audiobooks and podcasts filling my ears. It has truly been information overload. 

Then I started thinking back to a simpler time, long ago before Apple Music, the Podcast app, even before we had record players or phonographs.

How It Used to Be

For most of human history, music was a live occurrence. If you wanted to listen to something, you had to physically go somewhere––a salon, an opera house, a concert on the River Thames. And when you engaged with this music, it was the only thing you did (okay, maybe you shared the latest gossip with your friends in the opera box, but you get my point).

There was no music playing in your ears while you ate dinner––unless you were wealthy enough to afford a string quartet in your dining room. You simply ate dinner—one thing at a time. About the only time you can experience that sort of focused attention in the modern world is at a movie theater, and even then, a few people will still blind everyone with their cell phones. 

For most of human history, we’ve only ever done one thing at a time because that’s all we had the technological capability to do. There was nothing in your ears filling your mind with noise. 

Now with AirPods, Beats+, and the like, we can (and usually do) fill our heads with noise 10, 12, even 14 hours a day! With the podcast app, we have dozens of voices lecturing us each day on different subjects for hours on end, rather than a few people a week at the most as it was in college. 

Social Media as News

We are bombarded with breaking news on every single website we visit, Social Media being the greatest perpetrator. No longer are Facebook or Twitter places to connect and communicate with friends: they are places you go to be inundated and overwhelmed with information, most of it trivial and irrelevant to your life.

A headline reads “Couple dies in plane crash,” and as you read, you discover it happened 2,000 miles away. While tragic for that couple and those close to them, it is irrelevant to you and serves no purpose other than to capture your click and your attention.

At the same time, it makes you feel (perhaps only subconsciously) like planes and the world at large are becoming more dangerous, when in reality, all the data shows our world is becoming safer and more peaceful every year––with the notable exception of our lovely virus and the very justified civil unrest we are experiencing today. 

It’s no wonder we feel stressed out, anxious, and overwhelmed: we cannot possibly use or act on all the knowledge and information we are accumulating. 

Do Only One Thing

Yesterday evening, while continuing to overwhelm myself with information, I came across an article by Leo Babauta entitled “Let Each Task Fill Up Your World”. My takeaway from this article is simple: if we do one thing at a time, it may seem like we are getting less done, but in reality we are doing much more than we could while otherwise distracted by multiple tasks.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of feeling anxious and stressed out, and allowing myself to do only one thing at a time seems a pretty easy solution.

If you are listening to music, just listen to music. 

If you are reading a book, just read the book and only that book. (I might be telling myself that more than you.)

If you are eating a meal, only eat your meal! Don’t stream television, listen to a podcast, or blast music. Savor your food, and if you are with people, savor their company as well (after you finish your mouthful of food, of course). 

When was the last time you only did one thing at a time? Try it today.

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by Nathan Coumbe

What is a teacher’s purpose?

Is it to impart knowledge and information? We have Google for that; it’s easier than ever to acquire both.

Is it to lecture and teach the right answer to put down on a test? What happens when a question or problem has multiple possible answers? Or no right answer?

Education, and by extension a teacher’s job, is meant to teach students how to think critically, to judge the truth or fallacy of an argument or piece of information, to garner understanding. It is not to answer the student’s question, “will this be on the test?”

At the most fundamental level, a teacher’s purpose is to teach her students how to learn and to nurture a life-long love of learning and creativity. It is the job of a teacher to ensure that, when her students have left her tutelage, the students will be able to read, watch, or listen to something; gather correct information from the material; synthesize it into their own understanding; then utilize the knowledge or skill learned.

Let us all remember our true purpose each day.

by Nathan Coumbe

You can do whatever you want…

It’s true – you really can do whatever you want to do.

You can buy whatever you want, using debt or with cash.

You can leave work early everyday and show up late if you just aren’t feelin’ it that day.

You can eat junk food throughout the day and live on take-out and fried foods. You’re an adult – eat ice cream for dinner if you want to do that.

You can do whatever you want to do…

You just can’t choose the natural consequences which will occur in reaction to your choices.

by Nathan Coumbe

Don’t label everything

Some of you may have read my post the other day about “Trump Straws.” This is a short follow-up to that particular post, so I hope you’ll forgive me as the historian comes out to write.

There was a time in the United States where concern over waste was of the utmost importance. Granted, plastic wasn’t the issue of the time – the United States was fighting a horrid war against the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany. This fight required ammunition, tanks, vehicles, guns, and food. It was a time of total war, and the American citizenry was asked to help fight that war by…can you guess?

Reducing waste!

The US government called on its people to hold drives for scrap metal, to grow their own food in “Victory Gardens,” to live on ration cards which severely limited what one could buy at the grocery store. Even bacon grease was of vital importance – (save the bacon grease to help make ammunition)! These were the days when Coca-Cola bottles could be recycled for a few cents, when the milk man picked up your old glass bottles rather than having them broken and discarded in a trash heap.

We are not in a state of total war today; the government is not asking us to help fight anyone or anything by recycling and reducing waste. I simply wanted to point out in this post that at one point, it was quite an American thing to do. So let’s stop labeling things as “liberal” and “conservative” simply to inflame people who we see as “the others.” Let us bring civil discussion and disagreement back to our society.

We need civility and open communication more than we need anything else. Quit letting mass media and politicians pull us apart.

Please.

by Nathan Coumbe

Take your eye off the prize

When was the last time you did something with no thought of recompense? I don’t mean a hobby, something that you just do for fun. I mean doing something in the hopes that it helps someone else, that it makes the world a little bit better off because what you did exists. It could be a hobby as well, but the purpose is different.

I’ve been doing that with my blog – there is no financial gain for me, no increase in status. I don’t care that 100,000 people haven’t read it yet. I simply have things on my mind that I wish to say in the hopes that someone will read it and be better off for it.

If you have a gift, an idea, a message that will benefit humanity, then share it selflessly without any thought of what might be in it for you. Perhaps the money or the notoriety or the personal gains will come later, but again, don’t do it for those reasons.

Give selflessly. Take your eye off the prize.

by Nathan Coumbe

Fail and fail often

When Thomas Edison was very young, a teacher told his mother that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” By age 10, he had set up his own laboratory in his family’s home. He became a full-time inventor and set up his laboratory at Menlo Park at age 20. He wasn’t stupid; he was simply born into an industrial, standardized system which sought to stifle his creativity, to make him compliant to the system. The teacher was bad at teaching; the system didn’t know how to properly educate a child.

Our educational system frowns upon children who don’t sit still, who ask too many questions, who can’t regurgitate facts on standardized tests. We are taught to be children who sit still, shut up, and absorb the facts and figures being thrown at us, seldom ever learning how to do anything. Thomas Edison, one of the most influential inventors who ever lived, was one of these children. Each of us is one of these children.

“I have never let schooling interfere with my education.”

– Mark Twain

Edison was not only creative, he was also a failure. And that is something for which we should all strive.

Edison tried over 10,000 different ways of creating a light bulb before finally making the one for which he is famous. A reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 10,000 times?”. Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 10,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 10,000 steps.”

Our educational system frowns upon failure, the greatest teacher of all. The lessons we learn from failure stick with us forever and tend to be much more valuable and useful in helping us make better decisions in the future. We are taught that failure, getting the wrong answer, or writing something poorly, is to be avoided at all costs. Yet the only way to get the right answer is to learn what the wrong one is; the only way to learn to write well is to start writing, most of which will be bad in the beginning.

So what?

Our children, our teens, and yes, us as adults as well, have to get used to the idea of trying new things, of failing. The failures of which I am speaking are not fatal – these are failures in creating something new, or trying out a new skill, or seeking a new way of doing things, of giving something to the world when it might not be accepted.

It might not work. So go fail over and over again until you succeed at something. Try new things, make something, start something, give something to the rest of the world. You might fail. And that failure will teach you a lesson. It will be one of the 10,000 steps in the right direction.

Fail and fail often.