A decade on this list — and the 10 emails you opened most

Ten years ago — February 2016 — I sent the first email to what would slowly become this list.

Back then it was a writing blog.

Today it's an operator's notebook: I build small software businesses with AI, in public, and tell you what actually worked (and what wasted a weekend).

A lot has changed. So to mark the ten years, I went back through this year's emails and ranked them by the only vote that counts: how many of you actually opened them.

Here are your ten most-opened emails of 2026 so far:

1. How I organize a dozen coding projects (without losing my mind)
2. How to write perfect prompts (The COSTAR Framework)
3. What's In (and Out) for 2026
4. Stop manually organizing your notes (AI does it faster)
5. How I turned 1,000+ notes into content gold with Claude
6. My new content strategy: build first, document second
7. I spent $697 on Claude Code last month. Here's what I learned.
8. Steal my "Template Pattern" for AI workouts
9. How I manage 7,000 notes with Claude Code
10. James Patterson popped into my inbox

If you're new here, that list is a fair map of where my head has been.

And if you've been here a while, some of you have been on this list longer than I've had grey hair, thank you.

Ten years is a long time to keep opening emails from a stranger who once just wanted to write. I don't take a single open for granted.

Here's to the next ten years of pressing send.

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