When You're in the Tunnel 🌑

April 17, 2025

Hey there,

Been a while since I sat down to write for this newsletter. I feel like the last month or so I was stuck digging in the tunnel (metaphor explanation coming shortly).

As some of you guys remember, I recently took up watching Peaky Blinders, and actually managed to go through the full 36 episodes pretty quickly — it's a real banger of a series, after all, worthy of the praise. In one of the last episodes of the last season, there's this small scene, which really struck me. It's not a very pivotal scene, it's not even action-packed or plot-moving, but rather just a short dialogue.

Basically, Tommy and his brother Arthur are reminiscing about their time as tunnel-diggers during WWI. Tommy remembers how they would dig for days, not knowing when they'd be done, and not having much hope they'd make it to the other end. However, once they would reach a stray shaft of light, they would know the surface was there. Doesn't mean the job's done, but it means that the end is in sight, and it's not in vain.

And that tunnel metaphor stuck with me for some reason — not just because it's poetic (it's quite the simple visual really), but because it felt familiar. That sense of digging, every day, not knowing if you're making progress — it's exactly what it's like to work on yourself, your projects, or your goals when there's no immediate payoff. This happens to be most of the things I work on — my fitness, my newsletter, my software solo-projects, even my full-time job, they don't provide immediate pay-off and require quite some grinding before you get any dopamine off the task.

But what hit me hardest was the idea of the stray shaft of light, aka hope.

Sometimes it's not a breakthrough or a big win that keeps you going. It's a glimpse. A DM from someone who liked your work. A run that felt lighter than usual. A morning where my brain finally feels clear. Tiny moments that don't mean you're done — but remind you that you're not stuck underground for nothing.

So lately, I've been trying to do two things at once:

1. Keep digging, even when I don't feel like it.
2. And stay alert for those stray rays of light, believing that there will be one just a few pushes away.

Because once you see them, you can't unsee them. And they change how you move. They make the grind worth it.

Some things that help when you're deep in the tunnel:

• 🕯️ Follow faint signals — You won't always have a spotlight. Sometimes you just have a flicker. A pull toward something random. An idea you keep circling back to. Even if it doesn't make sense yet, follow it. It might lead somewhere.
• ⛏️ Keep your hands moving — Don't wait to "feel ready". Just keep doing the work: writing, lifting, building, showing up. Progress doesn't always feel like progress until you look back.
• 🌡 Lean into the tension — That voice that says "this is pointless," or "you're wasting time"? It often shows up right before a breakthrough. Learn to sit with it without letting it stop you.
• 📍 Mark your milestones — Even small wins are worth noticing. A clearer head. A finished feature. A week of consistency. They're not the surface yet — but they're proof you're moving.
• 🏗️ Dig toward something real — When in doubt, ask: will this effort build something I can stand on later? Not every tunnel leads to gold — but some open into rooms you didn't know you were building.

Let me know if you like the more philosophical tone — this one walks the line a bit. And in any case, keep digging ahead. ⛏️

Weekly Insights

• I think we're finally getting to this point where the sun will be consistently up in the sky, my winter coat's no longer in the roster, and I will be using as many opportunities as I have to be outside and bask in some very overdue sunlight. ☀️
• As I try and stick to the newsletter schedule better (and not go such huge gaps w/o posting), I'll try and include new sections in here — like a weekly overview of the cool projects I work on, some tools I've been using recently, and others in that niche.
• Overall, as we're already 2-3 weeks deep into Q2, I think I have to do a special end-of-quarter edition of this newsletter, to recap January-February-March and set the footing for the months to come. 🤝

Series Highlight: Peaky Blinders

As mentioned earlier, I got around to finishing up the amazing series Peaky Blinders. I've already mentioned it in a previous issue, "Life Eng [#020]: 🧠 How I leverage AI for Personal Growth", while I was still somewhere on S1 or S2.

Now that I've completed the whole series, I can give my full opinion — in general, for the relatively low number of overall episodes (36 across 6 seasons), it truly strikes hard almost every ep., and has very powerful and memorable scenes in every season. So, in short (and I promise to spend some time and write a full article-review on the personal website soon):

Strong sides:

• One of the best MCs ever written, in the face of Tommy Shelby — an iconic character who goes through a major character arc across the seasons. Almost every other character in the show gets their best moments when Tommy is somehow in the mix, and he influences all the major and minor plotlines of the show.
• The atmosphere, especially in the first 3 seasons, is peak — the gang working together to beat other gangs, expand outside of Birmingham into London & Europe, and the general vibe of camaraderie was amazing. It's probably the main reason people are so drawn to the series.
• Quippy dialogue, smart mouths, cold lines — what made shows like Game of Thrones great is what shines here too, and the dialogues and monologues feel both well-thought-out and natural, something difficult to get right w/o it sounding too theatrical.

Weaknesses:

• Almost solely because of how well the MC is written, the other characters can barely compete. While I got some favourites like Arthur, John, Ada, and some of the villains like Luca and Mosely, their motivations and plots revolve around Tommy & the Peaky Blinders business 99% of the time. It makes sense in the context of the show, but it feels like some of them would benefit from more action on their own.
• [SPOILERS] The last season in particular felt like a bit of a mixed bag — while the best in terms of cinematics, the plotlines seem to be very rushed, and the pacing goes wack because of how much they wanted to resolve everything in such a short ep. amount. The plotline of Michael's revenge, Finn's betrayal (which wasn't as hard-hitting since it came in the literal last episode and got resolved in minutes), the abrupt end of the stories of Polly, Aberama, and even side characters like Jimmy McCavern who disappears completely in S6 — those were all items that I feel deserved more focus time, but in their place we got more scenes of Tommy, his arc of revenge, and the twist with his illness at the end. Overall, it feels like the embodiment of "suffering from success" — having such an iconic MC, which causes the rest of the characters to feel dim in comparison.

The definition of an 8/10 series — "almost" perfect, and if it had more time to be developed, would probably be near perfect.

Worth Watching This Week

Watch this if you feel like you're behind in life by Ali Abdaal — a gentle reminder that the comparison clock is rarely the right one to set your life by.

The Unexplored Genius of Aki Hayakawa by Beyond Media — a thoughtful character study from Chainsaw Man for anyone who likes their lore with a side of life lessons.

Closing Thoughts

Till next week, stay safe, stay curious, and keep kicking. ✌️