Hey friend,
It feels way too often I hear of horrific crimes that lead to measly little consequences for the criminals.
I learnt that Emma-Jane Kupa was killed earlier this year by Terina Pineaha. Emma-Jane was just 11 years old and Terina was drunk, on methamphetamine, and driving at nearly twice the speed limit on the wrong side of the road. She struck the little girl with her car and fled the scene.
Terina had 29 previous convictions and received a 25% sentence discount for her guilty plea and 15% for her “personal circumstances”, which refers to her childhood in which she was exposed to alcohol, drugs and violence. Terina was sentenced to just four years and five months in prison.
Understandably, Emma-Jane’s mother said the four years and five months Terina was sentenced to for the manslaughter is “pretty much just a slap in the face.”
I also read that Luca Fairgray, a serial predator with a pattern of sexual offences against teenage girls had his sentence reduced from 4.5 to 4 years.
Luca went on to have another secret, illegal, sexual relationship with a 13-year-old while fighting to keep his name suppressed.
The court accepted his lawyer’s argument that the initial starting point was excessive, even though he had been convicted of multiple past rapes and assaults that were deliberately concealed from the jury.
How is just a few years in prison sufficient punishment for ruining someones life like this?
How do these lawyers take on these cases to defend rapists?
How could Luca’s lawyer, Susan Gray, argue in clear conciseness that the few years sentence was “manifestly excessive”?
I don’t get it.
Have a good week,
Ben x
p.s. One in a krillion.
The Empty Boat Mindset, shared by Sahil Bloom
A monk goes out on a boat in a small lake to meditate. After a few hours of uninterrupted silence, he suddenly feels the jarring impact of another boat bumping into his.
While he does not open his eyes, he feels the irritation and anger building within him.
“Why would someone do that? Can’t they see me here? How dare they disturb my meditation?”
He opens his eyes, ready to shout at the person in the other boat, only to realize that it is empty. It had come untied from the dock and was floating in the middle of the lake.
In that moment, his anger and frustration disappears. After all, you cannot be angry at an empty boat.
Many of life’s emotional collisions - conflicts with people, circumstances, or chance - often feel personal, but rarely are. We tend to assign negative intent to these disruptions, which fuels anger and stress. But in reality, most collisions are like bumping into an empty boat - random, without malice. By letting go of the assumption of intent, we regain control over our emotional state and navigate life’s chaos with resilience. The next time frustration rises, pause and ask: Am I just getting angry at an empty boat?
Three great thoughts from James Clear
On your own company:
"There are many elements of living a good life, but the first and most foundational is to love yourself and enjoy spending time with yourself.
Go do things on your own so you learn to trust your mind and view it as a welcome companion. If someone declared, "Tomorrow you must spend the day alone" the hope is that you would reply, "That sounds like a good day!"
The person who is at ease within finds every other space larger and more enjoyable."
On doing it:
"As far as I can tell, every great advance — whether in an individual life or the world at large — has come from dreams and attempts.
Devise more dreams. Make more attempts."
On what to chase:
"Chase your desired lifestyle, not your desired title. People are blinded by status and labels. Once you release the need for a specific title, there is almost always an easier path to living your preferred lifestyle."
One piece of interesting news
Only 23% of remote-capable Gen Z workers prefer fully remote jobs, making them the least likely generation to want to work from home full-time, according to Gallup’s May 2025 data.
Gen Z is also the most likely to want others in their organisation to work remotely less often, a reflection of their heightened workplace loneliness and irregular in-office interaction patterns.
As Gallup notes, Gen Z is “nearly three times as likely as boomers” to report feeling lonely on a given day.