A Lesson from Sourdough

Since the age of 17 (1990), my favorite kinda literature has been “self-help” and “self-improvement.” Always romanced by the idea that I’m one pithy quote or one piece of sage advice away from greatness, happiness, and self-fulfillment, and perfection.

Do you have, or did you write, a time-management book? I’m in. How about a book about health and longevity? Me, me, me! Do you have a book, and a Podcast, and did you produced a 2-hour documentary on food and how it can help (or hurt) me? As the kids say … I’m leaning (way) into that.

I’ve always kinda figured, well, I might as well fill my brain with “good stuff” and immerse myself in positivity and good habits and time-saving routines and pepper my psyche with little bits of wisdom and advice that make me just a tiny bit better than I was yesterday or a moment ago (Kaizen Methodology … see? How would I know that if I wasn’t an A+ student of self-improvement).

But why?

I’ve been thinking about this for the past couple of months as I was devouring books about money, finances, money management, and investing.

Then I saw this Blog from one of the founding fathers of self-help guru life, Tim Ferriss, and is this gonna be a movement?

As for personal finance? I’ve been thinking, hey, I’m actually learning stuff I didn’t know. My previous approach to money was ignore everything, bury my head in the sand, and hope when I’m in my mid-60s that I will have accidentally done something right somewhere along the line and … poof … I’ll have enough money so I won’t have to live on the street.

Point is … in the first 3 months of 2026, I’ve read 5 entire books on personal finance and, whoa, I feel smart and confident. I’m not great with money, but I’m not terrible, and finally learning a little about “the DOW” and the “S&P” and organazing my “assets” and “liabilities” and learning the difference between various IRAs and 401Ks and “compounding” and “average annual returns” . . . well,  you might be laughing, but I’ll admit, I didn’t know much, and now I know a little, and I like it.

If I had read five more books about weight loss or organizing or “tidying up” or “getting stuff done” or “the creative process” or two more books about “being happy” or “finding my purpose” …all those books would add to my to-do list of behaviors and habits I should incorporate into my life and, in the end, it’s all about making a plan.

I don’t regret all the self-help-improvement best-version-of-myself  stuff I’ve consumed.

But? What if I just start doing stuff and learning stuff?

Like Polish? There’s an entire Podcast series that is supposed to take me from knowing zero Polish to speaking Polish.

Algebra? I used to know, and love, math. There’s multiple YouTube Channels devoted to (re)teaching Algebra to people who just want to (re)learn an old skill.

Ukelele or guitar? Yoga? Lawn maintenance and gardening? Investing and personal finance? Writing? Hiking?

Don’t laugh … I have 3 more books lined-up about money, personal finance, and investing, but once I’ve finished these, I’ll be as smart as I need to be. They’ve helped me and shown me how to get organized and then I did the exercises and took notes and set things up and soon I’ll move onto “the next thing” and instead of just “making a plan”, I’m going to “do a plan”.

Execute a plan?

“Execute a plan” = “do stuff.”

This revelation was hammered home by sourdough bread, believe it or not.

My wife’s a teacher. One month ago, a student’s Mom gifted us a loaf of sourdough bread and it … was … incredible. The sourdough cult is always looking for new members, soooooooo … rather than just giving us a loaf of bread every now and then, this kind, bread-giving woman told my wife, “I can give you a starter.”

“Starter” is a big deal in the sourdough world.

So, we got a “starter” and in the past four weeks, my wife has become a mad scientist of sourdough chemistry and technique. Bought a bread oven/pan thing. Bought the right flour. Acquired the right containers and sourdough equipment and now? We’re a sourdough family and a sourdough household.

We’re not thinking about making sourdough? We’re not reading books and documentaries about sourdough.

My wife made sourdough. As of the writing of this Blog, she’s made 4 loaves with 2 more coming today. She’s made poppyseed muffins. She’s on the precipice of crackers, pizza dough, and a couple other things she’ll make with “the discard” (whatever that means).

Point is …she’s “doing stuff”.  I’m happiest when I’m “doing stuff” and this is a looooong way of saying, I might be graduating from 36-years of studying how to be perfect, how to achieve things, how to be happy and calm and stoic … and I think I’m gonna start just being happy, stoic, creative, good-with-money, good-at-math, and being a Polish speaking, ukelele playing, healthy, skinny, in-shape dude.

“Starter” ain’t just for sourdough, baby!