Between Meetings & Meals 009
Skill Stacking Most progress doesn’t happen all at once. It happens in layers.
The Pour
This week’s pour was a 2021 Black Stallion Cabernet Sauvignon out of Napa Valley.
I picked it up at H-E-B for around $35, not thinking too much about it. Just wanted something solid for a Friday night.
We opened it up, cooked dinner, and it ended up being exactly what we needed. Good wine, good food, and a reset after a long work week. Just me and Anisa, keeping it simple.
After we finished the bottle, I scanned it on Vivino out of curiosity.
That’s when it caught me off guard.
The average price was sitting around $240.
I had to double-check it.
It made the whole experience even better. Not just because of the price difference, but because it reminded me how much I’ve learned over time. Being able to walk into a store, pick something out, and actually land on a great bottle without overthinking it.
That wasn’t always the case.
This one felt like a win.
The Table
I made my first tomahawk steak this week.
Not because I randomly decided to try it, but because I finally felt ready to.
All the smaller things I’ve been doing started to stack. Learning how to cook a ribeye, getting comfortable with reverse searing, figuring out timing, heat, seasoning. It all built up to the point where cooking something like that didn’t feel like a stretch anymore.
And even then, it didn’t stop there.
We tried something new.
I’ve talked about chimichurri before, even shared my go-to recipe, but I saw something on TikTok that stuck with me. Someone dropped a piece of hot charcoal into a jar with chimichurri, covered it, and let the smoke infuse into it.
So we tried it.
Split the batch in half just in case it went sideways. One stayed the same, the other went into a mason jar with the charcoal, sealed up to trap the smoke.
When we poured it over the tomahawk, you could actually taste the difference.
It added a depth that wasn’t there before. Subtle, but noticeable.
And if it didn’t work, no big deal. We still had the original sitting right there.
Another small experiment. Another layer added.
The next morning turned into chilaquiles using the leftovers.
One meal turned into another.
The Edge
Skill Stacking (But say it in Slim Thug’s voice in Still Tippin’ )
I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of stacking.
Not mastering one thing perfectly before moving on, but learning enough to build on top of it.
This showed up in a big way this week when I wrapped up my CTED program in College Station. Everything came together as I worked on my capstone project late into the night. I could have finished it the next day, but I didn’t want to stop. I was having too much fun figuring things out, discovering new tricks, and watching the pieces connect in real time.
Layer on top of layer.
By the time I finished, it wasn’t just done, it felt complete. It was something I was proud of, and it showed.
That didn’t happen in isolation. It sits on top of everything else. The Certified Public Manager program, career shifts, conversations, projects. All of it layered over time.
And the same thing is happening with AI for me.
Check out my project here: My CTED Capstone Project (better on desktop - still learning to make it really mobile responsive)
For a while, I was stuck because I thought I needed to go all in on one tool. Learn it completely, master it, and then move on.
But that approach slowed me down.
Once I started exploring different tools, even at a basic level, everything changed. You start to see how things connect. What one tool does well, another supports. What felt separate starts to feel like a system.
Now I’m building things I wouldn’t have been able to build before, not because I mastered one tool, but because I stacked enough of them to make it all work together.
That’s where the real progress is.
The Lesson
It All Adds Up
It’s easy to feel like you’re not making progress when you’re in the middle of it.
You’re just trying things. Learning a little here, a little there. Nothing feels like a breakthrough.
But over time, it compounds.
You look back and realize you’ve built something.
Not in one big move, but in layers.
Wine. Cooking. Career. AI.
None of it came from one decision.
It came from stacking.
You don’t need to have it all figured out.
Just keep adding to it.
If this resonated, the newsletter is where it continues — one honest email at a time.