30 Apr 2026 Downstream Effects

Posted at 14:48h in The Friday Brief by

Let your life be a pleasant surprise. Save more than you need to, mainly so you can easily and at the spur of the moment leave a large tip or anonymous gift. Curiosity and openness seem to correlate much more highly with joy than the size, layout, and décor of your home. Play board games with your kids and grandkids. Risk a conversation. Revolt against the tyranny of scrolling screens, but watch more baseball. There is such a thing as “Ozempic breath” and gum sales are on the rise as a result. There are side effects to everything, I guess. Travel can be good, and so can home-staying. See the world and learn that your neighborhood is its own world. Hold the future loosely, and make a plan you can easily change. The most important quality in money matters is reasonableness. But sometimes you have to throw reasonableness out the window for the sake of something better. 

Pretty much everything is downstream of whether you can recognize today as a gift.  

Jared Korver
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A product of small-town North Carolina (Carthage, to be exact), I’m proudly married to my best friend and co-adventurer, Amy. Together, we have two sons–Miles and Charlie–and could more or less start a library from our home. I love being outside, can’t read enough, am in the habit of writing haikus, and find food and coffee to be among life’s greatest treasures.