Doug Mejia

Finished Listening to…: The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime by MJ DeMarco 📚

I just finished listening to The Millionaire Fastlane, and it turned out to be a fantastic book. At first, I wasn’t thrilled with the narrator’s approach. The fake character voices, aggressive delivery, and cheesy 1980s theme music between chapters nearly made me quit.

However, once I pushed through and focused on the actual content, I discovered the author was onto something interesting. While the advice came across as confrontational, at times, it was genuinely valuable. While I didn’t connect with every point he made, of course, I found plenty of items to add to my action list.

My favorite section was the concluding Chapter 45. This chapter effectively tied all the concepts together, despite the author’s heavy reliance on acronyms. But hey, if it helps the ideas stick, I’m all for it.

If you’re considering entrepreneurship, planning a side hustle, or thinking about launching your own business, I highly recommend this book. It’s reasonably short and packed with practical advice.

I’d strongly suggest keeping a notebook handy while reading, whether digital or physical, and jotting down key insights. Don’t transcribe everything, but capture what resonates with you. If you have the physical book, grab a pencil and actively engage with it. Underline important passages, write margin notes, dog-ear pages, and then transfer your thoughts into a tool like Obsidian to develop your own reflections based on what you’ve learned.

Sometimes, the best tools we have are the simplest. This is my favorite… the trusty, yest stylish, pencil. It has never let me down. Look around your desk and appreciate your tools. Share some with us, if you feel they deserve it.

This particular pencil is the GraphGear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil with a 0.9mm lead. It has a metallic barrel with soft grip pads. Feels great in the hand and writes smoothly and bold. It is a joy to use every time I pick it up.

Makers of a New Motorized Office Chair With Bionic Spine Claim It’ll Ease Your Back Pain

The LiberNovo Omni is an ergonomic office chair from a newcomer to the market. The $1,099 chair is designed for movement and real-time posture correction with a motorized spine and lumbar support that the company says can relieve back pain.

I’ve been spending countless hours at my computer lately working on various projects, and my back is definitely paying the price. The tension runs from my shoulders down through my shoulder blades and all along my spine.

When this article popped up in my RSS feed, I immediately had to check it out. Here’s a newcomer to the office chair market with a twist: this chair is powered and automatically adjusts to your movements to maintain proper posture. It offers multiple positioning modes, from sitting completely upright to reclining at 160 degrees for relaxing or gaming sessions.

But it doesn’t stop there. The chair also features a built-in massager and what they call a “bionic spine” that’s designed to adapt to your movements, optimizing both posture and comfort throughout the day.

The only downside? The price tag. However, when you compare it to other premium brands like Herman Miller or Steelcase, it’s actually competitively priced. I own a Herman Miller at home, and while it’s built like a tank and virtually indestructible, I wouldn’t rank it among the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever used. It’s a solid desk chair, but not what I’d call exceptionally comfortable.

This new chair normally retails for $1,099, though you can pre-order it for $849. The company raised an impressive $8.5 million during their Kickstarter campaign, which speaks to the market demand.

I’m still on the fence about purchasing one, but it definitely caught my attention, especially given my recent discomfort. If it delivers on its promises, I genuinely hope they succeed.

MLB will use robot umpires beginning next season

Major League Baseball will use so-called robot umpires at home plate beginning in 2026…

Major League Baseball has decided to adopt an Automatic Ball Strike (ABS) system. Human umpires will still be part of the game, but when a pitcher, catcher, or batter challenges a call, MLB will use the new ABS system to determine whether the pitch was a strike or ball. It’s designed to eliminate umpire mistakes and reduce drama after questionable calls, but I can’t help thinking it takes away some of baseball’s humanity.

They’re trying so hard to make the game more efficient because of complaints about lengthy games that they’re making it sterile and soulless, in my opinion. Part of baseball’s excitement comes from not knowing what will happen next. Even when an umpire makes a bad call, it adds character to what can be a slow-paced game. We’ll see how it plays out next season, but I think we need to stop obsessing over “efficiency” and just enjoy the game. Let us make mistakes and work through them.

If there’s a silver lining to this new system, it’s that each player will have their official height recorded, and their strike zone will be adjusted accordingly. Also, when a challenge is made, MLB says the system should take only 15 seconds to determine whether the pitch was inside or outside the strike zone. Each team gets two challenges per game, but if a challenge successfully overturns a call, that team doesn’t lose one of their challenges and can still use both for the remainder of the game.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I decided to go with the iPhone 17 Pro Max instead of the iPhone Air because of the two extra cameras and the longer battery life. So, this is what I got…

• iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange
• 512GB of Storage
•  Tech Woven Case
• Apple Installed Screen Protector
• Apple Care

Last year, I chose the Fine Woven case and hated it. I returned it within days of owning it and bought the Apple clear case. This year, I ordered the clear case again, but after seeing my wife’s Tech Woven case, I returned the clear one and bought that one instead. It feels so good on the phone. Together, they feel like one unit, it fit so well. Time will tell how the case will hold up, but right now, I highly recommend it.

iPhone 17 Pro vs. iPhone Air: Here is every key difference

Overall, the biggest differentiators between iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air are easily battery life and cameras. Which model you choose will likely have a lot to do with how important those differences are to you.

I was torn between which iPhone to order this year. On one hand, I’m used to the Pro variants, but should I get the new iPhone 17 Air? It’s incredibly thin and represents Apple’s latest innovation. Surely it has to be better, right? Apple marketed it as having “Pro performance inside” with a much sleeker design, and it certainly looks beautiful.

If you’re in the same position I was, I recommend checking out the article above since it breaks down everything between the Air and Pro models.

For my needs, I realized I’d miss the versatility that comes with the Pro’s camera system. I use all the cameras at different times, so losing those options would be a significant downgrade. I also have long days and depend on my phone’s battery to last from morning until night.

That’s why I opted for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I’m happy with my decision. It features three cameras instead of just one, and the battery life is substantially better than the Air’s, according to reviewers like Marques Brownlee who have started testing its longevity. See his iPhone Air video here.

I do have to say, though, people seem to be impressed at how durable the iPhone Air is, despite being so thin. It “SHOCKED” JerryRigEverything on his durability test.

Better accessibility coming to Kindle books

Kindle Assistive Reader is… fully available in the update that was released a couple of days ago. It will essentially convert any Kindle book into an audiobook, utilizing an advanced text-to-speech system that sounds natural.

I had the old Keyboard Kindle and loved it because it had built-in speakers, which made it possible for me to listen to my ebooks. Even though the text-to-speech was terrible, at least it worked. Then Amazon decided to remove the speakers altogether and only included Bluetooth connectivity, but that experience wasn’t worth it to me. I’m glad to see that they’re once again making an effort to make their Kindles more accessible.