Who Is That Dude?
19 March, 2019
3 minute read
The Great Houdini
Before I get into this week’s update, I’d like to address who the ol’timey looking fella is that lives in the top left corner of this page. Erik Weisz - better known as Harry Houdini was without a doubt the greatest magician and escape artist of his time (arguably of all time). But why is he included on my site? Growing up I remember my Dad having a range of posters around the house, from concert posters to this Harry Houdini poster. Naturally as a little kid, magic itself was fascinating to me but for some reason I always ended up coming back to that poster. It’s only now that I’m older that I can really find value in Houdini’s story. After reading a lot about his life and influences, I found a lot of value and inspiration of my own in his work and way of thinking.
Houdini was known for his determination when it came to tackling any task in front of him. He built up every aspect of himself mentally and physically in order to pull off his most daring and death-defying stunts. By age 18 he could hold his breath for 3 minutes and 45 seconds and it’s rumored that he practiced hours a day just so his toes would be as dexterous as his fingers when it came to undoing locks and untying knots. There is something to be said for his unwavering Stoic resolve in the face of almost certain death.
“I am strong, as you see; strong in flesh, but my will has been stronger than my flesh. I have struggled with iron and steel, with locks and chains; I have burned, drowned, and frozen till my body has become almost insensible to pain; I have done things which rightly I could not do, because I said to myself, ‘You must;’ and now I am old at 36. A man is only a man, and the flesh revenges itself. Yet the will is its master when the will is strong enough.”
We all have someone or a group of people we aspire to embody in some way and Houdini is definitely one of those people for me. Who’s yours? Tweet at or email me!
What am I working on?
I’m continuing UX work on my own app idea. Last Friday I finished my competetitve research, user flows, and basic prototype. You can check out my Adobe XD prototype for it here. As I mentioned in last week’s post, this is an idea I’d like to pursue beyond prototyping and into actual development in the near future.
What am I reading?
This week I’m continuing reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and have started reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. One of my favorite points from Atomic Habits is one of persistence and perspective.
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”
What am I listening to?
“Drop The Guillotine” by Peach Pit