Got Boostie Boost right next to me and the Cold Turky Micromanager + MarsEdit mega write-in-the-editor combo to keep me on task. And the task is to just write some random thoughts. Easy enough!
- Just got a MacBook Air M1 — I bought a MacBook Air M1 on launch day and then ended up returning it to just keep my 16” MacBook Pro, thinking that I really needed the larger screen. I noticed that I really just ended up not using my laptop much at all anymore because I just didn’t want to lug it around and it’d get so hot in my lap. And those extra few seconds it takes to turn on and start thinking made me long for the sweet, sweet M1 experience. So I’m back and loaded it up a bit more to a 1TB and 16GB version. We’ll see how this goes and if I’ll have envy once the Pros are announced later this year. In any case, I’m immediately happy with the purchase so far.
Here’s my disaster of a desk, mid unboxing
- I want to focus on this blog again because I don’t want to get further addicted to Twitter — I think Twitter’s great. In Deep Work, Cal Newport talks about the utility of online platforms and evaluating the tradeoff of doing some task at the cost of losing a bunch of focus. For some it can be very much worth it. (An example that resonated was that a college student that learns about real-life events mainly through Facebook probably should keep using it. Or I guess used to resonate, because of the pandemic and also because I am very much way too old to resonate with a college student learning about real-life events and going to them, not having social anxiety, etc.)
- … I digressed — Okay so I think Twitter’s great for all sorts of reasons: you can find people with similar interests, share your work with others, build up an audience, etc. BUT I’m very addicted to it. For many of those good reasons, but even when I read a bunch of good stuff from people I admire, I still inevitably find myself in some replies rabbit hole. I rarely feel good after. (Which I acknowledge has plenty to do with my mindset, but in any case…) I’ve even switched my password to something much harder to type and removed it from my password manager so I have to type it in manually with the vow to only use 3rd-party tools to write threads so that I don’t see the feed. What happens is that I’m becoming very very good at typing the 28-character password to log back in. It’s madness. So I’m going to just write into the void on my blog for a bit until the urge goes away. (I guess?)
Okay I found the quote from Deep Work:
The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.
In short: it wasn’t bringing me happiness. I had some mild success that maybe could build up in the long run. But the negative aspects could build up also in the long run, too. So I’m pausing to re-evaluate.
The books say I should always end with some CTA but I don’t really have anything in mind right now. Instead I’ll just share one link and the next thing that I might write about.
One link: Really enjoyed these two episodes of Magic the Gathering: Drive to Work Podcast: #809: Arabian Nights with Richard Garfield, Part 1 and #810: Arabian Nights with Richard Garfield, Part 2. (And here’s an older episode I need to give another listen: #737: Richard Garfield.) All the early Magic the Gathering card (or I guess particularly in the early days) has a story to how it came to be. Things are probably more systematic 3 decades later. Anyway, Garfield about using Arabian Nights for flavor with a sprinkling of Neil Gaiman for “City in a Bottle”, based on Sandman #50.
The next thing that I might write about: A quick post about my current book rotation. Right now I’m reading Musashi (Kindle version), Junior (a copywriting book, Print version), Steph Smith’s eBook: Doing Content Right (which has a convincing argument about SEO still being underrated—it very well might be the reason that I’m writing on the blog again right at this moment.), Adam Grant’s Think Again (Audible, but I did that thing again where I was listening only when I could pay attention but thennnn one time listened when I couldn’t pay attention and now I’ve lost my place where I need to go back to where I was definitely listening and paying attention so I’ll listen to the whole thing over again).
Okay that all went much longer than I expected. I need to set a timer next time and stick to it.