An investor, entrepreneur, and author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. I started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. Join 20,000 CEOs, investors, and founders and receive business tips, productivity tools, and other resources from me.
20 decluttering tips + 2 great books
I sent this in March 2026 but posting to my Kit site now in June! Hi friends from your Internet pal Nick Gray, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party and founder of Museum Hack. In this issue:
Why you’re getting this: I'm Nick Gray and this is my Friends Newsletter. I send this update to interesting people and friends I want to keep in touch with. 
Random Links🤖 The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis — This is the Citrini Research investing report that everyone was talking about last week. It is a thought experiment, for sure, outlining a hypothetical scenario in 2028 where rapid AI adoption leads to white-collar layoffs and a collapse in consumer spending. I'm glad that I read it. And I'm still bullish on the future. 🔺 This New Pyramid Theory Explains the Missing Evidence — A very well-made, fun, informative YouTube video. It is wild to think that Cleopatra lived closer in time to the iPhone than to the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza. ♻︎ 20 Greatest Decluttering Tips — some of my favorites:
🏛️ Inside the Philadelphia Art Museum’s Epic Meltdown — Nina Simon said this was a juicy read. "The story behind the brutal ouster of Sasha Suda and the new civil war at Philadelphia’s premier cultural institution." Media RecommendationsNuclear War by Annie Jacobsen, non-fiction book. A vivid scenario of "what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail." I'm still pro-nuclear energy. But this was scary, especially how fast the unthinkable could happen. Pairs well with the movie A House of Dynamite on Netflix. Heir Apparent by Daniel Suarez. Short story that is great if you're following AI and like near future science fiction. TV shows: I enjoyed The Diplomat, Gilded Age, The Bear, White Lotus, and The Pitt. Currently watching Task for 15 minutes every night before I go to bed. YouTube:
Life Updates
Since my last message I went to NYC, Hawaii, and Mexico City. I helped with 3 conferences, hung out with MrBeast, hosted my sister for a week in Austin, flew on my first Gulfstream, and had a bunch of quality time with Lauren and my friends. I posted a bunch of those photos on my blog here. Friends LinksCool stuff from friends and readers: 🛒 Tynan's Gear Post 2026 — Get your minimalist fix here for men's clothes, the best backpack, power cords and cables. I bought a USB-C female-to-female adapter after reading his notes. "My goal is to have the best possible gear with the most wide ranging capability in the smallest form factor possible." ⚖️ Impossible Lawsuit — My buddy Joel in Austin is being sued by Impossible Foods in a very strange case. They allegedly knew about his company and logo, adopted a nearly identical logo, then sued him. He's been fighting the case for 5 years. It goes to trial in a few days. 📗 Massively Better Healthcare — Halle Tecco just launched her new book. The premise: healthcare won't improve at scale unless mission and margin are aligned. 🧠 Deep Personality — Andrew Wilkinson's new tool. You take 28 validated psychology assessments (~40 min) and get back a 10,000-word profile of yourself including attachment style, love languages, conflict patterns, etc. He describes it as "the most personal therapy session you can do in 40 minutes." 🔗 Why you (probably) need a personal website — Put something up so you'll show up better in Google and ChatGPT. Get more clients, customers, etc. Having a personal website is one of the highest-leverage things I've done for my career and my relationships. 🎟️ TicketingReady — Carly from the UK sent in her free tool for tourist attractions trying to figure out which ticketing system to buy. Built in 3 weeks with AI, it is a neat example of what's possible with vibe coding. Have something you want to share? A fun project, cool app, article, or YouTube video? Please email me back and I will consider including it in the next issue. Easy Life HackBryan Johnson says you should get into the habit of taking a 10 min walk immediately after eating. I'm trying to do this more often because:
Quotes That Made Me Smile"I like to pretend I already died and asked God to send me back to Earth so I can swim in lakes again and see mountains and get my heart broken and love my friends and cry so hard in the bathroom and go grocery shopping 1,000 more times. And that I promised I would never forget the miracle of being here." "Healthy relationships are not conflict free, they are repair rich." "I'm obsessed with the idea that someone, somewhere, is having the best day of their life right now. A proposal, a baby's first laugh, a song they'll never forget. Today is that day for someone. It makes me so happy." "you pity the moth confusing a lamp for the moon, yet here you are confusing a screen for the world" My Business StuffI acquired Mixily. It is better than Evite and Paperless Post. You can use it for simple event RSVPs. Try Mixily for your next birthday party, meetup, etc. No ads! Send me any product feedback or suggestions pls. Patron View is the biggest collection of museum donor data online. Hopefully I can turn it into a tool for Development and Fundraising departments. I spend a lot of time and money on this project every week and it lights me up almost as much as this next thing... Personal Websites: Google your name. Are you happy with what comes up? You should probably have a personal website. It's how you influence what people see when they look you up on Google and ChatGPT. My team and I build these for friends and friends-of-friends. We do an audit of your LinkedIn, hop on a 30-minute interview call, and build you a full website with different pages and articles. The whole thing is done in a few days because we use a bunch of cool AI tools. It costs $199 with no contract and we keep it updated for you for a small monthly fee. Reply to this email with your LinkedIn profile if you're interested. See example sites we've made for people here. Or read more details. If you want to vibe code your own personal site, email me back for my must-do Google Docs checklist of everything I learned making these. Book OfferMy book The 2-Hour Cocktail Party will teach you how to host a good meetup or happy hour. Use it at work and you'll get promoted. See 600+ 5-star reviews on Amazon, Kindle, Audible. It is also free to listen on Spotify Premium. If you want a paperback copy and promise to read it, email me your mailing address and phone number. I'll ship out a dozen copies to the first folks in the USA who reply. The EndIt has been a few months since my last newsletter. I spend hours every day now working with various AI tools to explore and build stuff. Yesterday I paid a $50 parking ticket simply by sending a picture of my ticket and a picture of my credit card. The AI agent handled everything for me. It was awesome and tasted like the future. There's an energy and excitement among entrepreneurs now that I haven't felt in a long time. They can build faster, and better, and do more than ever before. I believe that we're facing a very interesting future. OK, that's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading!
~~ Nick Gray https://instagram.com/nickgraynews https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickgraynews/
p.s. If you're curious about the personal website stuff, see this Google Doc with more information.
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Friends Newsletter
An investor, entrepreneur, and author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. I started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. Join 20,000 CEOs, investors, and founders and receive business tips, productivity tools, and other resources from me.