Reflections After 1 Year of BRB, Massaman Curry & The Creative Act

9 things I've learned writing over the past year, a delicious Thai staple, and how to channel your inner artist (#52). Bonus: my first mushroom podcast.

Nathan Paumier

Jan 24, 2024

Welcome back to BRB w/ Nathan P, your 5-min weekly dose of information to inspire climate action.

Each Wednesday, you can expect💥1 Breakthrough, 🥘1 Recipe, and 📚1 Book on food & climate in your inbox.

💥 Reflections After 1 Year of BRB

Hello from Thailand! 🌺 I’m on semi-holiday in Southeast Asia – vagabonding through Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Please feel free to send any recommendations and I’ll keep this week’s post short & sweet.

Today is also BRB’s 1st birthday! 🎂 In this 52nd edition, I’m reflecting on how I started writing on Substack and 9 things I learned.

A few years ago, I wanted to start a blog to share what I’m thinking, reading, and making. I got a domain and wrote a few drafts. But I never published. The combination felt so eclectic that I thought no one would read it.

Fast forward to a Sunday shower in January 2023, an idea came to me. I could weave these 3 elements together through the lens of food & climate. The first BRB came out that Wednesday and has every week since.

As a food enthusiast and climate optimist, I am inspired by the breadth of human and planetary health solutions. Yet I realized many feel powerless or disengaged given the scale of the climate crisis.

I write to share more optimism. I am on a mission to make it easy, fun, and delicious to make sustainable decisions at home and at work.

I’ve learned and grown over the past year. Here are 9 reflections:

Writing online enables serendipity at scale. I am beyond grateful for all the wonderful people I met on this journey.
Create the content you want to consume. I’m writing the newsletter I wish I received (and do!). Meet your audience where they are, but prioritize an outcome you are proud of.
Volume over perfection. A whole rough draft is better than a perfect first sentence. Let go of attachment to ideals. If I’m not embarrassed by my work from one year ago, I’m not growing fast enough.
Find your tribe and build great relationships. Learn from those a few steps ahead of you and return the favor. The quality of our relationships dictates the quality of our lives.
Enjoy the writing journey. Align with a strong purpose and post at a sustainable pace. Keep in mind that newsletters tend to be more transactional than social media platforms like LinkedIn where posts get more engagement.
Beware of the voices that tell us that our work is not good enough. These may be the internalized judgements of others and deserve no more attention than passing thoughts.
Invest in work with non-linear outcomes, yet with no particular end in mind. Building an online presence and a personal brand is non-regrettable.
You never know who’s reading. I’ve received messages from government officials, Fortune 500 executives, Substack authors, and climate innovators with opportunities I would have never imagined.
Give, give, and give. Support the work and journeys of peers in your field. It will come back ten-fold.

PS: My episode on Another Climate Tech podcast with Ryan Grant Little aired last week! We discuss all things mushrooms – sequestering carbon 💨, cleaning soils 🍄, preventing dementia 🧠, saving the bees 🐝, growing mushroom steaks 🥩, and more. Listen to the full conversation here.

PPS: I’m still accepting entries to the 5-book giveaway – please fill out this short survey to enter. I will share the responses here soon and winners will be announced in a few weeks.

🥘 Recipe: Massaman Curry

This is one of the best dishes I’ve had in Thailand so far. I’ve had my fair share of delicious pad thais and green curries – though this is a local favorite for a reason.

Here’s what I gathered from the woman who prepared it: the key aromatics are cumin seeds, cardamon, ginger, and lemongrass. She prepares it fresh every morning and lets it simmer for 3 hours. Beyond that, the language barrier prevented getting the full recipe…

This massaman curry recipe seems to be a close match, if you increase the simmering time from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Note: massaman curry paste has a long ingredient list and can be bought premade as well.

The rich and mildly spicy broth serves a versatile base that can tenderize beef, chicken, tofu, or another protein of choice. Serve with steamed rice and enjoy with loved ones.

PS: if you make it, please send pictures!

📚 Book: The Creative Act

We are all artists, whether we are conscious of it or not. Creativity is inherent in the human spirit. We are continually creating, assembling, and meaning-making.

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin is an insightful and spiritual take on cultivating the artist within each of us.

Rick Rubin is revered in the music industry for his work as an executive and producer. In this book, he broadens art beyond forms like music, painting, sculpture, or writing. Instead, he portrays art is a mindset of creating and a way of being.

This is one of two books I brought in my backpack to Southeast Asia. Reading it helps reflect on my writing in new ways. It’s not light – but well worth its weight.

Nearly every sentence in this book rings with truth and power. I hope it inspires you. Its beauty is difficult to capture, so I will let some favorite quotes speak for themselves:

“Talent is the ability to let ideas manifest themselves through you.”
“Discipline is not a lack of freedom, it is a harmonious relationship with time.”
“Create an environment where you’re free to express what you’re afraid to express.”
“The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world.”
“Living in discovery is at all times preferable to living through assumptions.”
“Think of self-competition as a quest for evolution. The object is not to beat our other work. It’s to move things forward and create a sense of progression. Growth over superiority.”
“The recognition of abundance fills us with hope that our brightest ideas still await us and our greatest work is yet to come.”

Thank you for reading – BRB next week ✌️

About Me

Hi there! My name is Nathan Paumier – I’m a climate optimist, food enthusiast, and avid reader.

My mission is to make it fun, easy, and delicious to make more sustainable decisions.

I started this newsletter after frequent questions on food tech, reading recommendations, and my secret recipes.

Want to get in touch or chat further? Anything you’d like to hear more of?

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