May 2024 - Bryan's Briefing
May 2024 - Bryan's Briefing
Hey friend,
the weather is getting nicer in Germany. Already got my first sunburn of the year.
I've been spending more time at university. Not because I have to, I don't have classes anymore. I'm working on my final project and can choose where I want to work from. It's just fun to spend time at university with friends.
The location is a great work environment, although it's sometimes too easy to get distracted. Happy to have access to such a place.
Also spent more time on learning Korean this month.
다음 이메일는 한국어로 있을 거야? 그 생각은 아마도 안 좋아. 하지만 그거 재미있겠어.
I've been thinking more about the term "chronically distracted". It refers to the inability to focus on a single task for longer period of time, often caused by our modern environment, such as online content with fast context switches such as reels or shorts, but also the need to always be online, to always be consuming.
The book "Deep Work" also addresses this. It brings up that this issue extends to many modern work environments, where being busy is valued more than actually getting hard work done. In workplaces, always being reachable and answering emails quickly is often prioritised over maintaining a concentrated state to get work done.
Found a great TED talk on this topic as well. How we value the time we spend on screens and what we actually do is quite different, majority of people spend more time on screen than they want to. But that's by design, the incentives of the businesses providing these products are fundamentally misaligned with our wellbeing. One solution mentioned in the talk was to consider what it means for you to get a good deal out of social media platforms. What value do these services provide to you? How much is that value worth?
I enjoyed using the IGPlus extension, which is a extension even available for Firefox on mobile. It blocks all the toxic algorithmic content that usually floods your screen. It is a bit scuffed but gets the job done.
🌱 Cool Content I Made
Besides finishing Attack On Titan, I also spent some time creating more things on the web.
- ToLearnKorean.com - Got my TLK page into a state where it can be helpful! Unit 1 is all about the Korean alphabet Hangul.
- My self-tracking app week 4 to 7 - Continued work on my app for self-tracking. Changed my tech-stack from React Native to CapacitorJS with Ionic.
❤️ Cool Stuff By Others
🍿 Videos
- The Battle for Your Time: Exposing the Costs of Social Media | Dino Ambrosi | TEDxLagunaBlancaSchool by Dino Ambrosi - The TED talk I mentioned further up. Social media is free because you pay for it with your time.
- I made these 23 websites (and earned $562,943) by Marc Lou - I got a lot of inspiration from this, similar web dev but actually one that makes money and has already built cool stuff.
- Recreating a MANGA page as PIXEL ART by Brandon James Greer - Some light entertainment.