Morning Coffee 97: February 19th, 2024

Good morning. The sun just went down as I walk home from the coffee shop. Just finished a two-hour writing session. Two of the three topics will be saved for next week. Beautiful weekend with the family: Couch shopping, seafood lunch date, and teaching Rose how to skate for the first time. Finally feeling healthy again. As always, I hope this letter finds you well.

Table of Contents

1. Trading Tech
2. The Process
3. The Big Trade
4. The Roster

Trading Tech

For the past three months, I’ve been trading with people from around the world. I made a list of all the devices that were in my office: What I’m keeping and what I’m getting rid of.

I spent most of last year building out my office, and now that I have a clear understanding of what’s actually needed in there, I’m able to replace anything redundant with just two devices.

1. Steam Deck replacing Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Retroid Pocket 2S.
2. M2 MacBook Air replacing an M1 MacBook Air and M2 Mac mini.

The Process

I used three apps to make this process happen:

1. Reddit
2. Facebook
3. OfferUp

Throughout the week, I would hunt down the product I was looking for and attempt to negotiate with the person selling them. As expected, most people only wanted cash, but I knew that for the right person, this deal would make sense.

The Big Trade

And then The Big Trade happened:

1. M1 MacBook Air
2. M2 Mac mini
3. Elgato capture card
4. Deity USB Microphone

I turned those four items into a brand new M2 MacBook Air. Once the deal was agreed upon, I drove two hours away to complete the trade.

The Roster

Throughout this process, I felt like an NBA General Manager, trading role players for an elite scorer.

Computers:

• iPhone
• iPad mini
• MacBook Air

Consoles:

• Miyoo mini
• Steam Deck
• PlayStation 5

The roster is now complete.

This is Morning Coffee: a weekly newsletter that arrives in your inbox every Monday morning. I write about productivity, technology, and cool things I find on the internet. My wife wants this to be my only job, so pay what you want, purchase my books on Amazon, or join my Music Program.