Newsletter #65: Shopify news, deleting our second brain, and Jorja Smith live

Hi there,

I hope you’re feeling good.

I survived the big 3-0. I know, you were worried. I entered this new decade in the best way possible: surrounded by family and friends. I’m so grateful to everyone who travelled from across France, Belgium, and even Germany to blow out my sparkling candles with me.

As July came to an end, if I had to choose one word to describe the month, it would be “playful”. I had fun exploring London (did you know there’s a cable car over the Thames?), attending concerts, relaxing in sunny Brighton, playing guitar again after 10+ years, DJing with my brother, admiring sharks at the aquarium, jet skiing, and travelling to the West Coast of the United States for the first time. What a month! I’m immensely grateful to have the chance to live these experiences.

In today's edition, we’re discussing Shopify news, deleting our second brain, and Jorja Smith live.

Let's dive in.

Work

What’s new in the Shopify ecosystem this summer?

• Shopify announced exceptional financial results for the Q2 quarter

Gross merchandise value (GMV) grew by 31% to $87.8 billion. Revenue grew by 31% to $2.7 billion. And free cash flow margin was 16%, marking 8 consecutive quarters of double-digit free cash flow margins.

• Shopify's new flagship theme, Horizon, is now open source

Learn more in its GitHub repository.

• Shopify shipped a new code editor

Merchants can now click on “Edit code” from any section or block in the Theme Customizer and discover a whole new interface powered by Visual Studio Code.

Merchants are now empowered to:

• Search across all theme files

• See file references and dependencies of each file, to help merchants understand the impact of any code change

• Have a version history with a diff view

• Have a hot reload in the Theme Customizer, to see their changes instantly without needing to reload the page

• Benefit from IntelliSense, providing code autocompletion, information on hover, and other code assistance features

• Set their own code editor preferences, such as the beloved dark mode

Did you give it a try?

Inspire

On December 28, 2013, I created a blog called “Itinéraire d’une cinéphile” (Itinerary of a movie buff).

I was 18 years old and had just entered law school.

I kept this blog for 7 years and wrote 200+ reviews of movies and TV shows.

I mentioned it briefly in edition 33, but I never told you why I created it in the first place.

I did so because I realized I was forgetting the movies I had watched. People would ask me if I liked a movie and, other than a vague overall feeling, I was incapable of remembering enough to express my opinion.

I started writing so I wouldn’t forget, and it worked.

Very quickly, though, this blog became much more than a memory aid. It set me on an adventure. I discovered that I truly enjoyed writing, as well as learning about all the elements that make a movie.

In other areas of my life, I’ve always loved taking notes: notes on key things I’ve learned and don’t want to forget, notes during every major trip so I can read them years later, close my eyes, and see the memories play before me.

At the end of last year, I came across Zettelkasten, a note-taking and knowledge-management method developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998).

Here is how it works:

• You write one idea per note, keeping each note small and focused.

• Every note gets an ID, so you can link it to related notes.

• Over time, the links create a web of connected ideas. It’s kind of like a personal Wikipedia you’ve built from scratch.

Niklas Luhmann credited this method with helping him publish many books and papers. Today, tools like Obsidian have brought the Zettelkasten concept into the digital era.

The idea of building a “second brain” emerged and gained popularity among web entrepreneurs. Eliott Meunier, a young French entrepreneur, became successful selling his “Atomic Knowledge” training, which was inspired by Zettelkasten.

At the beginning of 2025, I wrote that one of my goals for the year would be to build a second brain. I wanted to gather my notes in one place and was interested in the idea of making links between them. But now it’s August, and I still haven’t done it.

I don’t know about you, but for me, when I keep putting something off, it usually means I don’t actually want to do it. So I made peace with the fact that I wouldn’t build a second brain, simply because I don’t want one. I only want to do what feels natural and helpful.

Then, last week, I stumbled upon an article in which the author, Joan Westenberg, explained how she deleted her second brain: 10,000 notes, 7 years of ideas, and every thought she had ever saved.

This article, titled “I Deleted My Second Brain” and published on June 16, 2025, is one of the best I’ve read this year. It’s raw, sincere, vulnerable, and beautifully written.

Here are several quotes that stuck with me:

Discover more by reading the article or watching the 7min video.

Explore

If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you know I’ve been dying to see Jorja Smith live. Well, that day finally arrived.

I saw her live, and the show was absolutely perfect. She came with 3 backup singers, and several musicians, including a brilliant percussionist who was doing such an amazing job.

We were in the crowd, third row, and had such a great view of the whole show. I took 4 quick videos during my favorite songs, but mostly I just stood there, eyes wide open, completely mesmerized.

I don’t have any pictures to include here, so I’ll just link to a song I had never really paid attention to on Spotify but absolutely loved live, and have been listening to on repeat ever since: “Greatest Gift”. A pure gem.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie