Something Happened

Something happened. And for a while, nothing else mattered. Friday's Digest #157

Table of contents

1. Life Update
2. Tools and Tips
3. Stuff

Life Update

It's been 9 months since we last met in your inbox.

It feels like 10 years have passed. Not 1. Not 2.

Ten.

At least.

On August 28th, 2025, something happened.

FDR called December 7th "a date which will live in infamy". (That was the day the US was attacked at Pearl Harbor).

I'm not comparing the scale.

But I now understand what it means for a single date to divide your life into BEFORE and AFTER.

And for a few days, nothing else mattered.

Our lives were halted. Family, work, friends — none of it.

I haven’t slept for a week. Actually, I haven’t gotten a good night's sleep ever since.

My boss was understanding. Actually, that’s a major understatement.

He remains one of the very few people on this planet who truly understands what I need.

I'm not going to tell you everything. Not today. Maybe not for a while.

What I will say is this: through all of it, I came to realize that this experience made me better.

It also made me a better doctor for my patients.

A gift from God.

I know — how can I call it a gift?

That's exactly why it's life-changing. I'll open it up further in the upcoming issues.

Maybe.

We’ll see…

Number 157!

Something Happened

For the past 9 months, people have been asking me why I stopped writing.

The ones close to me know the exact reason, so they just wondered if I'd ever come back. The others simply hoped I would.

🔵 The Itch

But here's the thing about this newsletter.

It's like an itch.

You can ignore it for a while.

Weeks. Months, even. But it doesn't go away.

It's always there, somewhere in the background.

It started itching again about a month ago. Quietly at first, then louder. Not enough to actually do anything about it — until tonight.

🔵 A Friday Evening with Claude

It's Friday evening, and I'm playing around with Claude AI.

That deserves a whole issue to itself - which AI agent is best for each task. Claude has become my favorite.

So it’s Friday evening - the exact time I used to sit down to write this newsletter.

But I’m not thinking about writing this newsletter at all. I’m just playing around with Claude AI.

And I just discovered I can connect to my Notion — an app where all 156 previous issues of this newsletter are stored. So to make sure Claude can access everything I ask it to read my newsletter.

And it worked!

So I continue testing it out, asking it to analyze my newsletter statistics.

You know— Which issues performed well. Which ones you opened. Which ones you clicked.

I ask Claude to analyze all of it. Just to test its capabilities.

Nothing more.

And then Claude gives me a summary.

A summary of all 156 newsletters — the topics that resonated, what you wanted to read more of, and the patterns I had never noticed myself.

And then it summarized who Shay is.

Shay’s life throughout those 3 years of newsletters.

And then it happened.

Reading through it — I missed myself.

I missed my newsletter.

I missed seeing an email drop into my inbox on a Friday afternoon.

I missed knowing that so many people were receiving something from me.

Opening it. Reading through it. Maybe thinking about it for a moment.

Funny how AI ended up holding a mirror to my own work.

It made me miss myself.

🔵 Just Do It

So why not start again?

Past-Shay would probably say it like this:

Just do it.

JUST. DO. IT.

So I did.

And here we are.

Is this me committing to writing every single week from now on?

Maybe.

We'll see.

Stuff

💡Gear I use - Xteink X4.

Have you heard about Kindle?

It’s something like that. But it’s not tied to buying books from Amazon.

And it’s tiny.

No notifications, no browser, no emails. Absolutely distraction-free. Just hit the power button and read. Highly recommended.

Epilogue

If you received this newsletter from a friend and would like to join Friday's Digest, visit https://newsletter.shaysharon.com​

That’s it for this issue.

See you next week!

Shay

Want to learn more from me?

Tip Sheets:

• My Workflow for Reading & Writing Manuscripts
• Future Fellows & Postdocs
• The PhD Journey
• How To Write an Abstract in 10 Minutes
• How to Study for the TOEFL

Video Guides:

• Manage References with a SINGLE CLICK
• My Workflow for Reading & Writing Manuscripts
• How to Write an Abstract in 10 Minutes​
• Make PubMed Work For You
• How I Use Anki Flashcards
• How I Studied for the USMLE
• How I Studied for the TOEFL
• What's in My Bag​
• Clinical Photography - The Complete Guide
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