Hello!
How was your weekend? I, despite the amazing weather in Amsterdam, stayed home to recoup after what felt like several weeks on the road with trips to Germany, Belgium, and the USA.
Earlier today, as I was preparing for this newsletter, I read Shane Parrish's most recent Brain Food issue about kind vs. nice.
I remembered mentioning the concept of being 'kind to unwind' waaay back in Dec. 2016 in Nº68 about how even doing nice things for others can help keep stress in check. But Shane's point was more about the distinction between being nice vs. being kind.
The notion stemmed from his interview with Sarah Jones Simmer about her experience scaling Bumble, hiring T-shaped people, female-led companies, fundraising, setting boundaries, and how she learned to re-focus on what matters. Here is the quote from their conversation:
“Another thing that’s very important to me is kindness and kindness over niceness. The easiest example I can give is that a kind person will tell you, you have spinach in your teeth and a nice person won’t because it’s uncomfortable, right? But the kind person is going to set you up for a much better rest of your day because you’re not running around with spinach in your teeth.” – Sarah Jones Simmer
That got me thinking, inspired the theme of this issue & was an great conversation to listen to. The subject line, however, comes from Abhijit Naskar's book: Dervish Advaitam:
"It’s more important to be kind than right. Sometimes to be human you gotta lose the fight."
So maybe the next time you're debating whether or not to be nice or fighting to be right, consider not trying to change their mind and simply be kind. : )
thank you, as always, for reading & sharing this newsletter,
Jon
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📷 banner image by yours truly after sewing some patches on my Laboratorio Zotti x cicli Bonanno musette during my 8hr flight from Detroit to Amsterdam last Thursday.
Cycling
Handmade in Namibia: An Interview with Dan Craven
Josh Poertner of SILCA recently spoke with Dan Craven — Olympian and owner of Onguza Bikes (onguza.com): beautiful steel bikes, handmade in Namibia and shipping across the world. What a great interview!
The Elkhorn Rack from Old Man Mountain
We recently kicked off with Old Man Mountain and anyone that knows Twotone knows we love racks so this was a no-brainer for us & already a tremendous honor to support such an innovative brand!
More about Old Man Mountain soon but in the meantime, click through to get the scoop about when this rack will become available. (More about the rack on Bike Rumor)
Pro tip: also sign up for The Loam and Gravel Society.
Spanish bicycle market breaks sales records
Spanish bicycle sales reach record 1,571,368 units in 2021 & the sector grew 10.76% to €2.9 million. That's double-digit growth 2 yrs in a row.
At Twotone we've continued to see more interest to, from and for the Spanish market. Very exciting! :D
Ideas
Why Cargo bikes? An empirical analysis of the Pedal Me fleet.
Cars are not the future of mobility. Duh!
Cargo bikes are!
Cargo bikes are often faced with misconceptions about their potential and use for large-scale logistics. In this post, we present the case of Pedal Me in London to demonstrate their efficiency in dense urban areas and emphasize their competitive advantage over cars and smaller vans.
Thinking About a 4-Day Work Week? Consider These 6 Things
Something we've been dipping our toes in at Twotone.
So what would you be willing to give up for a 4 day work week?
This post shows how companies that have effectively launched this do it.
What executives get wrong about employee multitasking during meetings
92% of executives say that employees who turn their cameras off during meetings "probably don't have a long-term future at their company."
I say, depending on the call, camera off & muted is ok. What do you think?
Friends
Buy A Donkey - A bikepacking adventure
In this film, 3 ultra cyclists (two of them, good friends of mine) embark on an epic journey to follow the route of “The “Rhino Run” through South Africa and Namibia.
I'm thinking about signing up for this race! 😅
ECHOBOX Listener Feeback
Echobox wants to hear from you!
The involvement of our community is everything here at Echobox, so we want to give you the chance to have your say on our and your station. We’re rolling out a short survey (about 3 mins) about how you listen, what you like, and what more we could do to give you the best radio experience possible.
p.s.
The already 10th edition of the Mechanics of Joy is this Thursday at 14:00 CET. Tune in! :D
Bikes Beers Banjos In the Mountains of Lost River, West Virginia, USA
My friend Adam invited me but I won't be able to attend. But maybe you can! More peeks via their insta link & nitty-gritty via BikeReg. Looks rad!
Radness
Telecast - #030 by Space Kadett
My friend & longest-standing Twotone colleague, Guy has released his 30th telecast:
A series of podcasts that I haven't really released mostly monthly. With the humble aim of combining the music, I find, love, and want to share into a set for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully, it will become your go-to place for a fix of good music.