December: welcome to the future
Traditional dog, this time waiting for their humans to make the perfect shot. Helsinki in the horizon.
In defense of genuine mediocrity
I've been lying to myself.
In an attempt to differentiate myself, I worked hard to pick sophisticated things and force myself to enjoy them. Slowly, as I consciously try to become more honest, I started to value ordinariness. I am not a classy person, and that's wonderful.
Yes, there's definitely something in that single malt whisky, but a "smooth", simple blend works better for me. No, not because it's cheaper! Or, well, maybe, so what? Or, you know what, just give me a bottle of that stupid lager.
Yeah, a balanced, clear sound of studio-grade headphones is praised by audiophiles for a good reason, I reckon. But you know what, I'd like to have a bassy, thumping sound like a pleb. Frequency response is unnatural? Well, I like unnatural then. There's a reason why I like electronic music more than guitar, and studio recorded guitar more than live concerts.
Sure, show me the wine list. But if you have that sweet Australian mix that says "m8: uncomplicated and basic" and doesn't even say what kinds of grapes went it — yeah, I want that. You can keep the metal screw cap.
I guess, at first I was trying to show fellow schoolkids how different I am. As if it was useful or safe. (Spoiler: it was not). What is the choice others are less likely to make? Yeah, I want that. Childhood forms patterns, they grow inwards and outwards. Being unstable in many senses of the word has its benefits: I couldn’t' even stick with being different. Today, I learn to explicitly stop myself and ask again: is this really what you want? It's okay, nobody cares.
This either makes perfect sense to you (my condolences) or doesn't make any sense whatsoever (my congratulations).
(P.S. I like gas station coffee.)
Courses and stuff
We've published Python 4 course! It covers Input, Boolean type and Logic. This is the final core course on Python before we dive into the messy swamp of OOP. If you wanted to start learning to program — try our Python series. I'm answering student questions personally!
Clojure Basics is about 50% done now, today's update brought a chapter on destructuring.
Flat by default
I stopped keeping a diary journal a while ago, but every once in a while I feel compelled to just write out my thoughts. Also, sometimes I need to quickly capture a snippet of code, some text, a quote, or a link. Things might have dates associated with them. Not necessarily deadlines, but some sort of time-based property.
I've been using random note apps for that, then random markdown or org-files and paper notebook. Some things end up in email, some in Todo apps.
Last month I finally came up with what seems like the ultimate, simplest solution: one big flat Org-mode file (text file). There's no organization except for date.
Everything goes in:
- random thoughts
- random snippets
- highlights and quotes from books
- links
- todos (I relentlessly say "no" to most tasks, so todos are rare)
- technical journal entries
- drafts of whatever I am working on
I realized this:
- 95% of time is capturing data
- 4% searching data
- 1% browsing data
So, the system should be optimized for ease of capture with minimum maintenance, and then for search. Structure is mostly useful for browsing, but I basically never browse my knowledge base. Search is simple, because it's a single text file.
I will talk about this setup in detail in my upcoming course on Emacs :-) It's not perfect, but it's simple enough to be invisible. Which is what I often want from my tools.
Applying essentialism to output
Essentialism and minimalism are popular ideas in the context of consumption. Consume less, buy less, get rid of things. I am curious about applying them to creativity, effort, output.
I stopped myself from launching at least 3 side projects in the last 6 months. Reason? They were too... plain. Banal even. I am 95% sure this line of thinking is just a form of procrastination, but at the same time I no longer believe in "ship early ship often", MVPs and other business mantras.
For a change, I'll stick with "don't do, just think" instead of famous "don't think, just do".