Good morning friends from your Internet friend Nick Gray, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party and founder of Museum Hack.

Why you're getting this random email: I'm Nick Gray and this is my Friends Newsletter. I send updates to interesting people and friends I want to keep in touch with.

In this issue of my Friends Newsletter: a list of things that people quickly accomplished together, why you should use a dehumidifier in your home, mahjong, charter schools, I hired someone new, Aspen travel, 3 good videos on YouTube, a boring supplement that I take every day (psyllium husk!), an ice machine tip from Lauren, building websites & SEO audits, and more.

Random Interesting Things I Read & Liked

📉 The Case of the Disappearing Secretary — A fascinating look at AI automation through a historical lens: secretaries, telephone operators, projectionists. The most common job in every US state in 1978 has been reshaped or wiped out.

🪲 Dust Mite Guide — I met the guy who made this. He convinced me to run dehumidifiers in my bedroom and closet. It's a bit alarmist, but you should probably be using allergen covers on mattresses, washing your bedding in hot water, and running a dehumidifier to keep relative humidity between 40-50%.

⚡ Fast — A list by Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison of examples of things being done very quickly. Buildings completed in months, projects finished years ahead of schedule. A great antidote to the assumption that slow is inevitable.

🧩 Mahjong: a Visual Guide — Sometimes my wife makes me play mahjong with her. I should review this because I’m not very good.

🪜 Where Are You in the Context Supply Chain? — I think this is a must-read if you're worried about AI job security. "The goal is to become a token orchestrator before you become a token orchestrated by someone else."

For a shorter & more concise version of this article's thesis, see this Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal: "How I Choose Which Cloudflare Employees to Replace With AI" (gift link) by Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare.

 

Thoughts On Charter Schools

🏫 Can Alpha School Succeed Where Success Academy Stalled? 

I’m sitting a few feet from one of the nicest billionaires I’ve ever met. He wants to change how every kid in America learns.

Joe Liemandt is wearing a black ALPHA baseball cap and an expensive yet understated polo. He’s smiling, confident, and warm. The type of guy you actually want to be a billionaire and controlling the world.

My heart is racing. I’ve been rehearsing something to say to him in my head for 20 minutes. I always get nervous during a Q&A and I hate to be confrontational, but I have to ask.

“Joe, how spicy can I be with my question?”

He grins. “Bring it on. Make it real spicy.”

So I ask him: Success Academy and Eva Moskowitz were supposed to be the future of education 20 years ago. They promised great outcomes for students, had big wealthy backers, and got tons of press.

And yet they never changed the system. Not truly.

What makes Alpha School something more than the 2026 version of Success Academy?

... read the full article I wrote on my personal website here.

 

Good YouTube Recommendations

▶️  Tesla And FSD Quietly Changed My Life — I don’t think most people understand how good Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) actually is in 2026. It used to suck; now it feels like the future. “This isn’t about the car being magical. It’s more subtle. Less stress. Less mental drain. A little more margin in the day.” That’s a perfect description of how owning a Tesla with FSD matches my experience. Now Lauren has one, her grandparents got one, plus my parents and my sister each bought a Tesla Model Y. The 2026 version is just so good.

▶️ The 5 Step Playbook to 10x Your AI Productivity: If you're an absolute beginner to AI and want to use ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude better, check out this video from Jeremy Utley. It's almost a year old but a great starting point.

▶️  Inside the Modeling Industry: Beauty, Pressure & Power — I had a model friend when I lived in NYC and she invited me backstage during New York Fashion Week. It was always a glittery world to me. This low-budget BTS documentary follows a young American model navigating agency meetings, brutal castings, body expectations, etc. 

 

Life & Health Updates

Travel: I'm currently in Aspen, Colorada, but back to Austin tonight. Then work trips to Vancouver and Victoria B.C. Canada. Finally, a friend trip to Park City, Utah.

Health: I've been taking 3-4 of these psyllium husk capsules with every meal and they've done wonders for my digestion. Other people like Metamucil or just taking a tablespoon of the raw psyllium husk in water, but I like these. 

I try to apply sunscreen on my face whenever I remember; I like this La Roche-Posay Anthelios Light Fluid or this Supergoop.

 

Lauren's Corner

If my wife Lauren had to pick 1 item to bring to a deserted island, I'm certain the GE Profile Opal 2.0 Nugget Ice Maker would be at the top of her list.

I'll tell you the cons first: It is expensive (around $450). It is not silent. And it has some negative reviews.

But Lauren loves it because the ice is perfect. And the external tank means we only refill it once or twice a week. She has successfully convinced a few folks to replace their built-in ice machines with one of these. We use it every day for water, sports drinks, iced coffees, cold matcha lattes, etc. It has become one of my favorite kitchen devices.

 

My Business Stuff

I make most of my money these days from my investments. But I work full-time on a few passion projects with my amazing team of engineers to stay on top of all the AI tools. Here are two projects we're loving right now:

(1) Custom websites & SEO

If you need a website or a makeover to your existing website, email me back!! We've been making people amazing websites so fast these days with all the new AI tools. Prices start at $500.

If you already have a website and want a free SEO / AEO / GEO audit, send me your link and we'll take a look.

Want to do it yourself? I like Claude Design and TypeUI for layout ideas, Claude Code for building, AgriciDaniel's claude-seo skill on GitHub for SEO, and Cloudflare for domains and hosting. I also love WordPress. People say the new ChatGPT 5.6 is great at design, but I haven't tested it yet.

(2) Personal Websites

If you post on LinkedIn at least every month, or if you have a verified badge on Instagram, then you should have a personal website on your own domain name.

If you have a domain name that you're not using, let us make you a site and show you what we can do!

Having a personal website like mine helps you rank better in Google, ChatGPT, and other AI tools. You'll win more clients- or just meet more interesting people.

So: let me build you a personal website! Prices start at $99. Here are a few personal websites that we made last week:

1. Rand Larsen - personal brand site.
2. Erin Warner - exec coach.
3. Braelinn Frank - Rave Nailz.

Sign up here. But email me first for a coupon code. And if you'd rather vibe-code your own personal website, reply for my Google Docs checklist of everything I learned making 100+ sites for friends.

 

The End

Thanks for reading to the end! I'm going to make a cup of coffee and go dip in the river soon. Then whip up some scrambled eggs and toast for a late breakfast.

I haven't sent a newsletter in a while. I've been so busy nesting, working, learning new things, etc. But I love writing these and I hope you found some interesting articles and links inside.

See past issues of my Friends Newsletter here.

 

~~ Nick Gray

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p.s. My book The 2-Hour Cocktail Party is on sale for $14 here on Amazon today. You can also find it on Kindle, Audible, and Spotify.