I came back from Miami a few days ago. I’m working on a longer post about it. I wrote it while I was there, then came back home, and on a walk, realized it should be a different thing. I’m two-thirds through finishing the new version. I’ve almost thrown it out, like, seven times because it’s pretty strange. Depending on my work schedule, it’ll be posted this weekend.

In the meantime, it’s 6:00 a.m., and I feel a persistent sense of spontaneity that I would like to keep watered. In that spirit, here’s a less polished snapshot of where I’m at and what I’m thinking about.

Miami, weirdly, restored me. I went down half-testing whether it might be my last visit for a long time. Now I figure I’ll be back soon. Probably at the end of winter.

Being in the sun, and especially open-water swimming, is so restorative for me that I’m kind of face-palming about not treating “proximity to the ocean” as a non-negotiable part of where I live. Open-water swimming, I’ve come to appreciate, is somewhere between rigorous exercise and a somatic practice. It seems to reset my nervous system, or something. I’m working on articulating that feeling more clearly in the longer upcoming post.

While I was in Miami, I swam and ran some long distances. I don’t know if it’s something talked about in sports science—or if that Andrew Huberman guy has covered it at all—but moving forward through space feels therapeutic, sometimes even intoxicating, actually. It seems like it would be a shared phenomenon, and I’d love to know more about it.

Beyond that, I kept up with writing and photography. I think writing, especially, is changing me in a good way. If I had to guess why, it’s that it keeps me in contact with my authentic self. Meanwhile, my self-awareness about who, if anyone, reads this, and what they think of it, is fading more quickly than I expected. The upside is bigger than whatever judgement there might be. I was blocked for a while because of that.

Between all of these things—plus some strategies I’ve mentioned before (e.g. increasing variance)—I’ve just been persistently feeling, like, really good? Since Japan, basically. So, that’s cool?

I’m getting better at recognizing markers of this “feeling good” state. One of the main ones is spontaneity—I make decisions faster, talk to strangers more easily, and care less about how plans unfold. In Miami, I had a level of spontaneity that elevated the trip and, at times, made it feel like I was in a different city than in previous visits—one that I had more access to. Some examples of that.

I went to a café by the beach and chose a table next to a woman who I perceived having major New York City energy—she was making pretty intense eye contact with her friend, and had a certain hard-edged body language. I said hello by asking if she was from New York. She said yes and we laughed about New York-ness being a perceivable thing. We talked about New York, Miami, and other cities—she was about to move to Berlin after a short trip to Tulum. The woman makes handmade metal jewelry for a living. The art direction for her brand reminded me of The Matrix, and I thought that was rad.

In another moment, I had to give a remote presentation at work on Friday from Miami. It happened to be for the head of Innovation at my company. I present to the guy every two months or so. I prepared, but I focused less on over-rehearsing and more on being present in the moment. It turned out to be probably the best presentation I’ve given to him. My guess is that genuine spontaneity and authenticity make for a better presentation than “rehearsing.” After the call, I rebooked my flight for two days later, just to stay. The weekend wound up being worth it. Things took on their own momentum.

I’m back in Chicago for a few days now. Then I head to New York tomorrow, for the New York Toy Fair. Alongside another big one in Germany, it’s the largest annual toy industry convention in the world. Basically, the whole industry—Hasbro, Mattel, SpinMaster, Lego, etc.—descends on New York to show off their upcoming releases. The fair isn't open to the public, so we get to see cool stuff.

One highlight from last year’s fair was seeing the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure collection. That was my favorite action figure collection growing up. My boss knows the design team for it, so we got to hang out in their space. Some of those guys have been there long enough to have worked on the ones I had 30 years ago.

Randomly—not even knowing about my enthusiasm for Japanese craft and the attention to detail there—my boss assigned me the side quest of visiting the Bandai Namco booth to “get inspired” by the details in Gachapon toys. (Gachapon are miniature Japanese vending machine toys, for context.) I’m lucky that my job overlaps with my esoteric interests like this.

New York, like Miami, gives me energy. I anticipate that the spontaneity will continue. There’s a bunch of other stuff I’m looking forward to. I really enjoy walking in downtown Manhattan. Everyone is so stylish. I should be able to post something while I’m there. The longer, weirder Miami post should be up in the next few days.

Lately it feels like the more I stay in motion—swimming, writing, saying yes to things—the better things go. I will bring the momentum to New York and take it from there.

A camera shop in Chicago resurrected my broken point-and-shoot camera, so I took it to Miami. Here are some photos with it from a walk around the Design District.