Martin Hähnel's Blog

From Apple's Safari page.

Two more promising apps:

I'm a big fan of noise and music apps and podcasts for focus and sleep. Dark Noise 3 is a great one that was new to me. Especially its Green Noise sound is very soothing to me.

Sequel 2 is probably the first media tracking app, that I am actually using (for a few weeks at least). It's easy to use and has just the right amount of bells and whistles. This works better for me than, say, Trakt.tv, because I don't need nor want the social network aspect and I do want to track more than just one type of media.

Forward. (Sequel 2)

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[Great...

2023-05-04T10:12:35Z

Great Episode of @clockwise@relayfm.social. The message of trying to stay even keeled, working for better legislation instead of engaging in shouting matches, understanding that you can't change what has already happened (you can only work with it), not only works for AI but also for climate change.

Had the weirdest...

2023-05-04T07:34:47Z

Had the weirdest stress dream last night: I dreamt that I agreed to buy one kind of computer for my new job, but then bought another. The rest of the dream consisted of me trying to hide this fact (I am 100% remote) from my coworkers and higher ups.

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That is… a pretty...

2023-05-02T12:20:39Z

That is… a pretty old MacBook by today's standards, right?

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It's always...

2023-04-27T08:56:12Z

It's always surprising to me, even though it shouldn't anymore: Pretty thorny coding project problem because a dependency update/runtime configuration conflict led to an edge case relatively deep in the stack. Tests that never failed, failed all of a sudden with unclear Errors, nobody in the team knew anything and even the internet was pretty unhelpful.

Programming is a lesson in patience and perseverance sometimes.

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2023-04-26T16:01:41Z

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[Previously](/2023/0...

2023-04-26T12:49:05Z

On the one hand I'm baffled that Apple Music doesn't have a dedicated "Rock" radio channel.

On the other hand I have never listened to so much Country music in my life before coming back to Apple Music.

Yeeha! 🤠

I am more and more...

2023-04-26T07:29:23Z

I am more and more of the opinion that relying on semantic versioning conventions (e.g. using "module": "^1.2.3", in your package.json) is a bad idea. A convention is not a guarantee. Something like Renovate is safer, especially in combination with a good test suite.

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Yesterday I tried to...

2023-04-25T07:56:19Z

Yesterday I tried to write three different blog posts about three different half baked ideas and published none. I aborted them one after another after being dissatisfied with their individual messages. Too much hot take, not enough general validity.

I swear: Someday I will write a blog post again.

Alt for today's...

2023-04-24T18:25:15Z

Alt for today's DailyDogo (she has been such a good girl, with her mom on a business trip for three weeks and whatnot…)

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(I'm also...

2023-04-22T11:58:35Z

(I'm also immediately put off by any app/piece of code calling itself "blazing(ly) fast".)

(So looking forward...

2023-04-22T11:55:01Z

(So looking forward to Ivory on the Mac.)

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2023-04-21T18:06:25Z

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One of the best...

2023-04-21T16:31:59Z

One of the best things I've done recently in terms of emotional hygiene is giving myself a time limit of ten minutes every day on Instagram through Screen Time.

There must really be...

2023-04-21T12:53:28Z

There must really be some compelling evidence that changing your visual corporate identity is worthwhile. I just don't know about it.

(Context: 1Password changed their brand: 1password.social/@1passwor...)

Today especially the...

2023-04-20T19:54:59Z

Today especially the afternoon walk with the dog was memorable: We saw Napu's friend Obi out of pure chance! We had already walked long by that point, but she was totally ready to take an extra round with him around the block.

At work some pretty intense code review sessions, where I was the reviewer. I can tell that I'm getting better at this.

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2023-04-20T17:13:55Z

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Survived the day...

2023-04-19T20:54:38Z

Survived the day pretty well, all things considered. Dentist appointment showed no holes in my teeth, exterminator came and went, Napu and me went for a nice 5km walk in a national park around here. I played around with my new steam deck. Talked to my business tripping partner on the phone for a couple of hours. Lots of stuff out of the ordinary for a Wednesday, not enough sleep the night before. I can still feel a low humming of anxiety in the body.

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We'll have an...

2023-04-17T08:15:50Z

We'll have an exterminator over on Wednesday for a silver fish and paper fish situation in the building and our apartment. Feeling anxious. Everything has to be cleaned and moved 15-30 cm from the walls. The next three days are going to be stressful.

My Partner is on a...

2023-04-16T20:31:38Z

My Partner is on a business trip in Germany for three weeks. Napu and me are holding the fort at home here in Kuusamo, waiting for mom/E. to come home.

I'm proud of and happy for my partner. She has gotten a great opportunity to widen her horizon and went for it bravely. ❤️

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We're not eating...

2023-04-14T17:19:47Z

We're not eating this because it is tasty, we're eating this because we need space in the fridge!

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Wow. Hug your dogs....

2023-04-13T13:34:29Z

Wow. Hug your dogs. And your (other) loved ones. www.youtube.com/watch

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This year I may skip...

2023-04-10T12:45:13Z

This year I may skip buying mlb.tv and will only watch the occasional "free game of the day" to save some money.

I'll miss Kruk and Kuip, but it's kinda interesting seeing different commentators work different teams' games.

Late breakfast...

2023-04-10T08:53:40Z

Late breakfast today. It's almost 12.

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Drinking coffee on...

2023-04-08T13:39:03Z

Drinking coffee on the balcony, eating easter sweets sent from Germany by my mom. 😊

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There is no real...

2023-04-05T10:46:23Z

There is no real reason for this, but I feel anxious somehow. Doesn't happen that often. Thank god.

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LLMs Usefulness As A Tool Is Not What Makes Them Morally Ambigous

2023-04-04T13:38:13Z

What I do get: I get that LLMs are not real AI and fantasizing about LLMs being sentient is foolish. LLMs are also morally ambiguous technology, no question. However, there is a certain skeptical bend towards the usefulness of LLMs that rubs me the wrong way, especially when it gets mixed up with the - absolutely important - issue of moral questions concerning the training of models using copyrighted materials.

Matt Gemmel's post "Autorship" seems to me to be an example of this. He takes exception to the fact that things that have been created using LLMs are "automated plagiarism" and people using words like "created" as regards to using LLMs ought to know that they in fact have not created anything, really, and that they are lying if they claim otherwise.

I don't know. Matt does not differentiate between the concept of LLMs - which very well could be imagined as a morally sound technology (excluding the horrible climate impact of LLMs, for the purposes of the argument…) - and the actual flawed instances of LLMs in the wild, right now. I believe that appropriate legislation would indeed slow the "AI revolution" down quite a bit, but I also think that we have passed a threshold, which makes it imperative to imagine an ethical version of LLMs (et. al.) and advocate for it.

Therefore I would like to maybe suggest that a ChatGPT-like LLM assistant can indeed be super useful for all kinds of tasks of knowledge workers. It is a mighty tool indeed. A mighty tool means taking on responsibility, too: I ought to be knowing what it is I'm doing. This is true for simple tools like a hammer, and increasingly more complex ones like a chainsaw or - changing categories here - a printing press, a personal computer and so on. LLM assistants are no different. Also it takes some skill to work with such an assistant to make it do what I want it to do. All of this is on the "this-wordly" (is that the right word?) side of tool use. It seems natural that tools would assist and extend our capabilities and that LLMs aren't an exception to that.

When talking about LLMs as tools we can make an argument about craftsmanship, I guess. Using simple tools by a skilled person can indeed feel great for that skilled person (from what I hear and read). "I feel a connection to the wood" and so on. A carpenter does not use the same tools as a furniture factory. But does this mean a furniture factory is not creating furniture? I'm also not so sure that "carpenter"/"factory" is to "furniture" what "knowledge worker without LLMs"/"knowledge worker with LLMs" is to "content" - I mean this in the sense of "using an LLM is maybe more like using a veneer press than an IKEA factory to create furniture".

(I also feel it is very important to point out that engaging with the material in front of me actually makes all the difference and not what tools I use (they can enhance my engagement, but everything hinges on my engagement). In that sense it is related to my recent post about using PKM systems and if they are needed or not. But my argument here is not really about this…)

In short: Separating the (pressing!) moral questions from LLMs as tools and their use seems important, because in order to make a real balanced argument for or against LLMs, I need to argue from a position that acknowledges the usefulness felt by its users (and that are, if you ask me, real). We can and should (must, really…) also talk about copyright issues and climate impact and whatever else is questionable about LLMs, but a holier-than-thou position won't lead anywhere progressive either, in fact instead of talking about these issues I spent all of this post arguing against the blending of these separate points instead.

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2023-04-03T16:48:11Z

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>The style is...

2023-04-03T11:08:33Z

The style is different, fewer Vogue cover stories[...]

Wow. This is a Finish professor of world politics commenting on the outgoing prime minister Sanna Marin (the question was about the different styles of leadership).

P.S.: I acknowledge the fact that it was very early in the morning and the prof is not a native speaker, but: casual sexism much?! And how is it that the national broadcaster Yle just lets this sit there, uncommented, but edited for clarity when compared to the podcast episode?

Uff. Finland just...

2023-04-03T05:38:31Z

Uff. Finland just became way more right wing. Sanna Marin was not re-elected. Her social democrats finished in third place. In front of them: A moderate and an extremist right wing party. 🤬

EDIT: And the extremist right-wing Finns party was the one most voted for in my area (greater Oulu region)…

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2023-04-02T17:03:54Z

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Tools Make Knowledge

2023-04-02T16:58:42Z

HeyScottyJ - No PKM necessary

The concept of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is flawed in that it fails to recognize that there is more to knowledge management than simply collecting, storing, and organizing data. Rather, knowledge management is a process of transforming data into information and then into knowledge through the application of cognitive processes.

While PKM tools can be helpful in collecting, organizing, and connecting the information you gather, it is up to you to do something with that information to turn it into knowledge.

Eric Gregorich https://ericgregorich.com/2023/04/02/heyscottyj-no-pkm.html

I agree with Eric's point - and have made a similar one recently - just gathering and organizing information is not knowledge.

However, I feel that Scotty seems to throw out the baby with the bath water: Just because PKM tools are limited doesn't mean that they are useless. Many people (like me) want or indeed need a writing surface to think. Finding a good writing surface makes a real difference and PKM tools can be an incredible writing surface.

Does this make them "necessary" for PKM? First, what actually is a PKM tool? A notebook? A piece of paper? An index card? A word document? The current crop of fancy note taking tools like Obsidian et. al. are mostly more sophisticated versions of simpler PKM tools that came before them. So I'd say if we just talk about "tools that help turn data into information and in turn into knowledge" (obviously not on their own, I'll have to engage with the stuff in front of me) then, I'd say, they are indeed needed. If it is about the more sophisticated variants that have become popular over the last few years, then I think the question can be answered with a "no, but". The "but" part here would make an argument about convenience but also elaborative power.

It can be very convenient to use a modern tool like Obsidian and although not strictly neccessary, working with it is just very nice. As is using an iPhone (in my experience) or a sharp knife. Having a nice tool, makes me want to use the tool more, therefore engaging me with what I have gathered before, which in turn makes it more likely that I'll acquire knowledge in the process.

More sophisticated PKM tools have, generally speaking, more elaborative power. If I can view and connect an idea in many different ways with ease, I am engaging with the information at hand, making it more easily retrievable. In other words these actions make it more likely I learn how it fits with other things I know already. This is what learning is: trying to understand, trying to get at the ideas behind the information and finding a "fit" within the greater universe of concepts and ideas I already know. If I have a tool, that makes the grunt work easier - like creating links, making my notes portable and so on - I can actually focus more on engaging with the interesting things I have collected. That's a good thing.

I'm also not sure that the PKM concept itself is not recognizing the importance of actually engaging with my data, as is claimed. I believe that people are aware. I for example was not surprised that PKM should do more than "just" organize data (but was surprised that Scott would think knowledge workers that have heard of PKM aren't in the know) . I still think that there is a good point in here, that got buried though: No matter the sophistication of the tools used to engage with gathered information: I'll have to do the leg work, which is what Eric took from it (and what I agree with).

In short: Sure, knowledge work doesn't need sophisticated PKM tools, but it is tools that make knowledge, so I find it a little reductive to call a concept "flawed" and tools associated with it "unneccessary", especially if it has lots of things to recommend itself.

P.S.: I would be on board with calling hype cycles around new technologies like "more sophsticated PKM tools" (or "LLMs" more recently) annoying, but these tools (both of them, actually) are not useless and shouldn't therefore be so easily dismissed.

Actually impressed...

2023-04-02T14:11:22Z

Actually impressed by ChatGPT bot for BuyItForLife. This is a GPT-like(?) bot that has been trained on reddit's "Buy it for life" subreddit for tools and gear that are high quality and long lasting. I'm no expert, and this surely has a US bend, but pretty good results overall!

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2023-04-01T16:07:04Z

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PuppyCast 028 🐶🎙

2023-03-31T16:53:21Z

What?! A new puppy cast?! Only to test out the new transcription feature (and plug-in). 😉

Finished working...

2023-03-31T16:43:04Z

Finished working late today but only because I interrupted working for a bit so that my partner and I could go out for an early dinner to a nearby restaurant! 🤩 (Napu had to wait for us at home. It's good training against separation anxiety).

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2023-03-31T16:40:07Z

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I guess I like...

2023-03-31T08:08:38Z

I guess I like programming?!

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2023-03-30T18:38:12Z

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2023-03-29T17:38:52Z

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I very innocently...

2023-03-29T07:43:18Z

I very innocently tried to diagram my current gtd-like workflow in Mindnode and after a couple of hours(!) realized that this thing is so complex that it doesn't fit into a tree-like structure anymore… 🙈

Does anybody know...

2023-03-29T06:27:49Z

Does anybody know about environmentally conscious work done in the world of "AI"?

I feel like I read a lot about "it's expensive and hardware needs to be more readily available", but is there work done, to make these things more sustainable?

It's part of critiques for sure, but otherwise absent.

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2023-03-28T16:25:13Z

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Newsletter writers:...

2023-03-28T13:56:17Z

Newsletter writers: Apart from an "unsubscribe" link, please also offer a "change email" link.

Seems like an easy thing, but is very seldomly found.

Turning the clocks...

2023-03-28T05:03:47Z

Turning the clocks back has so far destroyed me three mornings in a row.

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2023-03-27T16:04:26Z

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2023-03-26T18:21:41Z

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Two unremarkable...

2023-03-26T17:34:58Z

Two unremarkable days this weekend. I enjoyed them very much. Now waiting for the Sauna to heat while I prepare tortillas.

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2023-03-25T17:01:36Z

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Just finished 911...

2023-03-25T13:30:35Z

Just finished 911 lonestar season 3. All in all a very good (pretty long!) season. I love the modern, progressive tone, the optimism, the altruism on display.

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2023-03-24T19:17:55Z

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I'm unhappy to note...

2023-03-24T14:55:50Z

I'm unhappy to note that JavaScript tooling has stayed just as opaque as last time I had to use it professionally.

Turns out: solving...

2023-03-24T11:58:09Z

Turns out: solving hard problems under time pressure is hard. Who knew! 🤪

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2023-03-23T19:30:30Z

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I, as a non native...

2023-03-23T10:02:12Z

I, as a non native writer (and an error prone one in general), so wish mb would sync edits between my blog and my mastodon account. cc: @manton

Good to see that...

2023-03-23T08:44:42Z

Good to see that state management in SPAs is still hard since the last time (3,5 years ago) I used one of these frame works. This time it's vue3 last time it was react.

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2023-03-22T19:16:15Z

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The long afternoon...

2023-03-21T18:00:56Z

The long afternoon walk with the dog made me incredibly tired today.

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2023-03-21T17:11:53Z

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[Previously](/2023/0...

2023-03-21T11:33:14Z

An interesting difference that just occurred to me: Knowledge management and idea generation are not the same things. They are related, but a note system and its user may have to decide if they're building an archive or if they're building an idea generator. I'd say the latter is much more valuable for individuals.

[Previously](/2022/1...

2023-03-21T08:40:10Z

Readwise Reader... You were the chosen one! Their feed reader cannot handle daring fireball's feed. And it's a long standing issue. Great. I guess I'll have to take my feeds to a dedicated rss reader app once more?

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2023-03-20T19:20:02Z

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As somebody who has...

2023-03-19T15:33:36Z

As somebody who has taken notes for a long time now, I have gone through iterations of my setup to interact with them (last year I tried to use Agenda for my periodic and project notes, which I later abandoned in favor of using exclusively Obsidian again). In the process of moving from one app to the next it was not uncommon to leave notes behind. Not always did this happen intentionally. My current incarnation of my notes system consists of about 5000 notes, when I started to move from Evernote to Obsidian I left thousands of notes behind. If I'd need to guess, a count of all of my notes ever written reaches probably around 100000. As I have a full-time job, a little family and little time, my current situation doesn't allow me to do work on my notes all the time.

So I will probably never be able to collate, deduplicate and unify all my notes into my current system. But I have learned that this is really also not as important as one might think at first. I use my notes system as a way to think and generate new ideas. The argument for having a notes system like this continues usually this way: "…and the more ideas you have, the more you'll create/find…". But I think more important than the total amount is to reach a critical mass of notes, which seems to start for me around 50 or so. By this point I seem to be able to always find something to connect to something else. There is always something else to elaborate, so ideas are generated, which is exactly the goal of my system.

I don't need all my 100000 notes to do it. These 50 notes also don't need to be perfect notes, or only capturing "atomic" ideas. Some are short reflexions, others are definitions, quotes, maybe a picture, a copy and pasted line of code. Often times they are daily notes that log what I have done that day with links to other notes. (See also: The three types of notes I take)

Heterogeneity and being in various states of completion are really not a problem, as long as there is enough of a critical mass in the system to generate new notes.

EDIT: You may be interested in my little constellation of "Notes on Notes" about the process of working with a notes system:

Playing Stellaris...

2023-03-19T09:22:32Z

Playing Stellaris again, which I do every time a new dlc comes out. The newest dlc is a "First Contact Story Pack" and I do love it a lot. Just a great game. I have played it hundreds of hours and am still enjoying the occasional round (which can take me upwards of 30 hours).

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2023-03-18T17:10:43Z

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I was (and am) so...

2023-03-18T09:59:09Z

I was (and am) so enamored with an article I read that my sleep deprived self decided in the morning after walking and feeding the dog to take notes for three hours instead of going back to sleep. Now I'm exhausted.

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2023-03-17T18:05:46Z

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Nothing better than...

2023-03-17T12:46:52Z

Nothing better than tortilla leftovers for lunch. 😋

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2023-03-16T19:36:34Z

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[Peviously.](/2023/0...

2023-03-16T15:51:03Z

Peviously.

I don't know why, but I may have for the first time really understood how OmniFocus' repeating event functionality works. Amazing how much complexity they managed to cram into this feature. I can actually express all my recurring tasks in my task manager. But: It almost certainly means that I'm stuck with OmniFocus, because no other app can do this.

Having learned about...

2023-03-16T15:00:49Z

Having learned about mastodon's capabilities of being a ddos tool, I wonder: Are URL previews a dark pattern in itself?

I feel like you could argue they are, because they may seriously mislead you (a preview could be tailored in a malicious way), scale badly in a federated context (in the naïve case as implemented by mastodon) and responsibility for the problem is not as easily attributed. Should I as the user feel responsible?

It also shows that fundamental design decisions about software architecture are still very much a centralization problem. Or rather: They express the reality that somebody has to make a decision about these things. Having your own instance doesn't change a thing about that. If the protocol defines link previews in this way you have to follow suit in order to be compliant. No way around that.

Knock on wood:...

2023-03-16T10:19:23Z

Knock on wood: Things in the old as well as the new company are solved. The job transition ought to work out now. What a relief. Working remotely abroad has it's challenges. 😅

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2023-03-15T18:25:43Z

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My Current Thoughts On Therapy And Mental Health

2023-03-15T10:53:26Z

Part of my depression is a degree of apathy; the more I can focus and get excited about something the more I feel I'm on the right path. I do worry, however, that it's a mask and I'm just distracting myself.

And that's how I feel about all this in a wider context. Treatment and therapy don't magically make you a happy person. Instead, they mask the symptoms or provide better coping strategies, ways to head off the worst of it before it can take hold.

Colin Walker.

As somebody who has had several mental health breakdowns and three therapists in my 20s (I'm 36 now), my current perspective on therapy is that you create the world in which you're living in and therapy can give structure (and meds, if needed) towards creating a livable world, for you. Meaning that you are actually not just getting rid of yet another veil that makes you see things more clearly - or on the contrary putting another mask on to make you see things less clearly. Instead your world can't literaly be anything else than what you focus on. If you're focussing on being happy, coping and so on, chances are that your world "becomes" what you see.

This is not as simple as just using willpower, however. Not least, because willpower is like a muscle and ego depletion is a real thing. It's also because depression can be thought of as an an active but independently acting agent in your consciousness: Deciding to want to focus on something else is important, but a mental illness wouldn't be called that, if you could 'just decide' and stick to counteracting it.

This is where therapy can be incredibly helpful: In my experience visiting with a therapist changes your environment, your habits, which is itself - not even taking into account their skill at treating you - an important step to creating lasting behavioral change. But therapists offer also structure on top of just existing in your environment. In my experience they offer a source of serendipity that makes it possible to reach break throughs, new frames of thinking, new ways of looking at things. By showing up and interacting with a therapist you're making a real effort to change what you believe to be the boundaries of your current situation. Yes, this can be in the form of recipe-like coping strategies, but it can also just mean to interact with an expert on mental health. And that communication has a very high likelihood of being surprising - which is so important to feel something, anything else as regards to your current mental health.

So in short: We are and our world is what we are focussing on. There is no trick here. Nothing is revealed or hidden by engaging differently with the world, instead it is just that: A different perspective, a different world. To make a sustained effort to change this perspective for good means to change the environment (because willpower alone won't cut it) and to being open to be surprised.

Medicine can really help in some cases. But even then it's not guaranteed that your conscience is built to accommodate even one new way of perceiving the world that doesn't include your mental illness. People are different, they can and can't do different things. A goal for one person to be completely healed from depression might just simply not be in the cards for others. However: Even temporary relief or a more manageable severity of symptoms might be totally worth the effort.

Finally, there is no relief in thinking that you may never find relief and therefore doing nothing. I would like to say: Whole-ass the thing, but I don't mean it to say "don't do anything else", I mean it in the sense that if you're doing therapy, take it seriously, treat is as a creative task. The task of reinventing your world.

Decided to remove...

2023-03-15T09:21:48Z

Decided to remove my notes on notes newsletter page from the navigation. I'm not pursuing that project at the moment, so I don't want people to be disappointed if they subscribe and no newsletters are coming.

[Previously.](/2023/...

2023-03-15T09:04:57Z

(I'm not using teuxdeux anymore. And after a short liaison with Todoist, I'm back with OmniFocus.)

Reading the old scripture on the forecast perspective makes it clear to me, that this was intended to be used as a way to tell how due dates and events on a calendar interact.

It's true you can also show deferred tasks and use a forecast tag to surface tasks without a due date in this perspective, but that is just secondary functionality. And it shows.

Forward.

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2023-03-14T19:24:38Z

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It's a blessing in...

2023-03-14T16:41:49Z

It's a blessing in disguise that I do not have a big podcast backlog anymore and so fall back to audiobooks when going on longer walks with the dog.

Started to cry out...

2023-03-14T09:51:42Z

Started to cry out of happiness after receiving a positive message as regards to my new job. The new employer and me we'll figure something out together. 🥹

Sprint review went...

2023-03-14T08:22:34Z

Sprint review went much better than expected.

Overslept a little...

2023-03-14T06:35:20Z

Overslept a little today. But hey:

Watching 9-1-1...

2023-03-13T19:20:10Z

Watching 9-1-1 Lonestar, Season 3.

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2023-03-13T16:44:38Z

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Didn't want to go...

2023-03-13T16:42:27Z

Didn't want to go out for Napu's longer walk, but I never ever have regretted going after all.

Uff. I'm clearly not...

2023-03-13T13:59:02Z

Uff. I'm clearly not made to sustain existential dread. Hopefully things with the new job will now work out. I had to stand my ground a little and did not enjoy saying "No!" to my new employer.

Trimmed Napu's nails...

2023-03-13T11:22:32Z

Trimmed Napu's nails just now. Always an intense moment for the both of us. But with lots of little sausage pieces and lots of calm praise we managed to pull through. 🐶😊

Updated my [about...

2023-03-13T10:11:31Z

Updated my about page and added some info for people unfamiliar with micro.blog. I also added some info on how to reach me and added a couple of plugins from @sod to that effect:

Conversation on Micro.blog
Reply by email for Micro.blog - this one uses email forwarding from omg.lol!

Don't want to jinx...

2023-03-13T08:18:47Z

Don't want to jinx it but... (famous last words) I've had a good start to the work week so far and am even using my task manager to get the right things done. 💪

Dinner was a...

2023-03-12T21:24:22Z

Dinner was a success, albeit too late. Now (or rather 30 min ago) off to sauna. Having a good calm time over here. 🧖‍♂️

Today's dinner is...

2023-03-12T18:36:11Z

Today's dinner is going to be a nice mishmash: Potato mousse, creamed spinach, red beed patties, green asparagus and fried eggs. At least it's going to be colorful. 😊

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2023-03-12T18:02:52Z

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2023-03-09T22:15:34Z

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When I try to figure...

2023-03-09T13:00:18Z

When I try to figure how something works in my programming language I often use the service replit. It offers a simple bare bones php environment which is ready to go to test out some stuff, is portable and free to use.

One thing that is slightly annoying is that they only support PHP 7.4 out of the box, but it is very easy to upgrade the php version used to PHP 8. Let's start with an example:

<?php
$str = "Hello, world!\n";
if (str_contains($str, 'llo')){
  echo 'YUP';
}

This code will not run as is on replit, because the function str_contains doesn't exist before PHP 8.

So let's change that. Click the three dots in the side bar and reveal hidden files:

Next, open the replit.nix file and change the used php version, like so:

{ pkgs }: {
  deps = [
    pkgs.php //from pkgs.php74
  ];
}

Without needing to do anything else we have instructed nix - the package and config manager underlying much of replit.com's functionality - to use the latest php package which happens to be php 8.

If we run our little test program now, it'll work:

NB: The version of nix on replit is not up to date, so trying to use php82 to get the latest and greatest PHP Version 8.2 won't work. But php 8.0 is still better than php 7.4

It still is a...

2023-03-09T11:11:29Z

It still is a challenge to find the right words in code reviews, no matter what side I'm on:

As the reviewer I want to give really good reasons, be persuasive but also signal that I know that we live in a contingent universe. If I have knowledge to give I want to explain things well, without coming off as paternalistic.

As the reviewed I want to be open minded, interested, but also being able to challenge things back without coming off as defensive.

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2023-03-08T17:25:49Z

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2023-02-28T16:13:24Z

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2023-02-27T17:37:33Z

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Rounding up to 300...

2023-02-27T16:09:30Z

Rounding up to 300 characters manton.org
Read: www.manton.org
Manton Reece https://www.manton.org/2023/02/27/rounding-up-to.html

Hooray!

Even though I want...

2023-02-27T09:44:11Z

Even though I want to use the services that Omg.lol provides, I struggle to do so.

I set up a profile page now, but I feel like this should be a page reachable under my domain (I can probably set this up). I love the idea of a status.log, but I have a micro.blog already and all the content should come from that as the canonical place and be fed into other means to consume my content. I don't want to produce parallel content or keep things up to date manually.

I'll keep my omg.log address, because my mastodon account is registered on their instance, but I'm not sure what I'll use it for otherwise at the moment.

UPDATE: My profile page is now reachable under my domain.

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2023-02-26T19:14:43Z

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2023-02-25T17:32:43Z

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The weird feeling...

2023-02-25T14:50:15Z

The weird feeling when you realize that you work quicker in php than in typescript nowadays.

Or in other words: I started to rewrite my side-project in php. Because why not? 😅

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2023-02-24T19:30:18Z

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Weird question: How...

2023-02-22T11:23:21Z

Weird question: How do normal people handle giving/donations?

How much? For what? Through what channels? Recurring or one-time? On/Off-Line? What else?

I have been a bad donator so far and would like a starting point for doing the right thing, more often. Thanks!

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2023-02-21T19:47:54Z

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2023-02-17T17:29:00Z

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I'm more and more...

2023-02-17T12:11:20Z

I'm more and more impressed by the offering of radio programs on Apple Music. The most recent Color Me Country episode with the blues musician Buffalo Nichols, for example, is great.

P. S. I just recently got into watching NBA.

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2023-02-16T18:58:26Z

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2023-02-15T17:24:18Z

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As a big fan of the...

2023-02-14T19:45:25Z

As a big fan of the art of live sports commentary and especially of the US school of the profession: How cool is it, that in the NBA 🏀women are not only doing color commentary but also play-by-play?

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2023-02-14T18:16:30Z

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2023-02-13T18:28:09Z

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Having just recently...

2023-02-12T20:32:56Z

Having just recently started (at 36) to become interested in the NBA, I immediately got interested in Spencer Dinwiddie. Classy guy (and fun to watch) as far as I can tell. Like, how cool and self aware is this press conference for example?

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2023-02-12T18:52:21Z

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(God damn Ivory is...

2023-02-11T17:35:58Z

(God damn Ivory is so nice to use. And I don't even have cause to post a lot of stuff at the moment. But even "just" as a reader it's so amazing. I find myself wanting to use it.)

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2023-02-11T17:05:33Z

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2023-02-06T18:32:00Z

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Boosts on mastodon...

2023-02-06T12:15:48Z

Boosts on mastodon are great for discovering new accounts you might like to follow and terrible because you see people you definitely don't want to follow.

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2023-02-05T20:25:14Z

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2023-02-01T20:01:44Z

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Mental rated nutty &...

2023-02-01T18:05:52Z

Mental rated nutty & mild

As somebody who...

2023-02-01T11:35:09Z

As somebody who frequently edits older posts to maybe add links and/or fix typos, etc., I just have to say how pleasant it is to do this through @danielpunkass' MarsEdit.

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2023-01-31T18:26:05Z

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2023-01-28T18:18:06Z

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[Previously.](/2022/...

2023-01-28T15:19:56Z

Short follow-up:

Sometime has not worked out for me. I never got the hang of it. I think it's a good app, it just didn't click with me.
TeuxDeux is used very lightly. I would want to use it more, but I believe doing is more important than organizing or even tracking the doing.

Forward (task managers).

Jeez. Moderat FM on...

2023-01-28T12:35:53Z

Jeez. Moderat FM on Apple Music is GREAT. Super atmospheric! Great electronic music! Highly recommended: music.apple.com/fi/curato...

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2023-01-27T17:57:30Z

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It is a pity that...

2023-01-27T16:58:46Z

It is a pity that there is no dog park for small dogs in Kuusamo. Poor Napu. 🐶

I now have a...

2023-01-27T08:25:32Z

I now have a Mastodon account at @matti@social.lol. I probably will end up mostly crossposting content from my Micro.blog there, but I will play it by ear.

It's kinda funny: I tried to write this blog post three times already. The first two times I was going to say, that I was not going to get a Mastodon account just because I wanted to try out Ivory. But I guess being unable to publish said post was a sign (right?).

So yeah. I'm very excited about trying this new thing or these new things, really: Mastodon, Ivory and OMG.lol.

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2023-01-26T17:26:55Z

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2023-01-25T17:41:06Z

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Hm. Is duckduckgo...

2023-01-25T09:09:15Z

Hm. Is duckduckgo down? It seems like it… but I can't find its status page.

EDIT: It seems ddg was down for maybe 15 mins yesterday.

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2023-01-24T19:01:34Z

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2023-01-21T19:23:33Z

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The way I journal - Part 1: Overview

2023-01-21T13:14:46Z

My journal is in some ways similar to what ratfactor has described, only its not a hybrid analog/digital system. When I have time I will publish the second part, which describes how I implemented this workflow in Obsidian.

Without further ado, here is my workflow for keeping a digital journal:

Have a daily note, that logs what important things have happened that day. One thing per dash. I don't bother to log the time, because it's information I do not use (it also prevents redundancy). NB: I sometimes have only one or two things logged for that day. Logging too much just drowns out the actually important stuff.
If there is more to say: Instead of writing paragraphs about the thing in the daily note, branch it out into its own note and leave a link at the dash.
This is basically a special case of point 2: Always create a note for ongoing projects: Write down what you're doing in the project note. Use headings that link themselves back to the dailies - and link from the daily note to the project note: In this way you can see the progress made per project and don't clog up your dailies, while at the same time retaining a list of the things you did that day.
At the beginning of the next week, you do a weekly wrap-up: Last weeks weekly note gets populated by the important thoughts, projects, observations, ideas, etc. that occurred that last week: This often doesn't take very long, because more often than not, you can copy and paste your most important bullet points from the dailies to your weeklies. You may want to add an extra comment to those here and there, or an extra thing, like an observation for stuff that didn't get logged in the dailies but is deemed important enough to be remarked upon for the weekly.
This pattern of taking the most important stuff from the dailies and putting it into the weeklies is repeated for each periodic note: The monthlies get populated by the weeklies, the quarterlies by the monthlies and the yearlies by the quarterlies. The most important stuff gets distilled even more the longer the timespan is the note covers. In this way the workload is kept relatively small, although the first round of wrap-ups every year can take a while, since you have to do a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly wrap-up all at the same time. But even then: It shouldn't take longer than maybe an hour.

This little workflow is not too time intensive and at the same time gives me peace of mind: I do have a kind of journal of my life, which I can use to look back on what happened in my life.

I have been more or less doing this kind of journaling for two years now and can really recommend it. A word to clarify something important though: A journal kept in this way is not going to be a literary delight. Individual thoughts and observations might rise to that level, but the journal as a whole is much more utilitarian. If this is not a problem and you'd like the idea of distilling what's been important this might be for you.

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2023-01-20T17:44:48Z

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Everything whole is...

2023-01-19T15:11:03Z

Everything whole is just temporarily unbroken, I guess. My job situation will very likely change this year. Let's see what that means going forward.

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2023-01-18T20:00:16Z

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Another dog pic...

2023-01-14T15:59:23Z

Another dog pic streak repair later. I guess I need that reminder in Due. ;)

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2023-01-08T16:21:52Z

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I finally...

2023-01-08T15:42:19Z

I finally deactivated my twitter account. Hadn't really used it in a long while, won't miss it either. It feels better to not support that terrible platform anymore.

I'm amazed how long it took to pull the trigger. Twitter had made me far longer unhappy than new leadership disaster. Before I was unhappy with the toxic culture on Twitter. But I guess reading TwitterIsGoingGreat.com day in and out makes it crystal clear how outright damaging it would be to even just cross post my things over there.

This last year was...

2023-01-06T20:45:44Z

This last year was not a great year. I wouldn't say it was as bad as 2021. But it was a challenging year. 2022 was a year of increasing uncertainty. There was (and is) war happening very close by (or at least that's how it feels). There is the economic down turn, which touches everything and everyone around me.

I look back and see a year that was defined by trying to get a grip, finally (for the umpteenth time). I was successful for a while, but almost nothing I tried to do stuck throughout the year (and beyond): I did not become a microcaster, an early riser, a newsletter writer, for example. Notable exceptions: Duolingo (500+ days streak) and my DailyDogo series of posts here on the blog. I started a side project that I will claim is still ongoing, even though I have not invested any time into it since mid December.

Now, not all projects are meant to be continuous, or even meant to succeed. I know that and it's fine. I do appreciate the insight gained from projects more than their outcomes. Nonetheless it is gnawing at me that I do not have a lot to show in terms of progress regarding my own ideas. I feel like I ought to be capable enough to make things (bring side projects to a "version 1" state, continuously publish side projects that are ongoing, like newsletters), change or add habits, transform my surroundings in a positive manner, etc. I feel like I should be able to succeed sometimes, at least.

Let me say it again: Despite what I just wrote, I do appreciate that I have not stood still and it would be wrong to claim that nothing good came out of me trying hard in whatever it may have been. I just feel like that I would like to be able to show something for the effort, something tangible.

Take my note taking system for example: For literal decades (only 2, but that still warrants the plural) I have honed and refined my skill to take notes, to think in notes and therefore am able to think many interesting thoughts beyond what a single "thought session" may come up with. I feel like this makes me good at my job. It actually makes me good at life I'll claim, because my reflections are more mature and I do know myself better than without. The question is though: If I'm so great, where are the results of me being good? I'm a middling programmer - I do recognize that I started my career later than others and I know that I have not reached my ceiling and am far from it: I even made steps forward to becoming more proficient. But still. I'm an okay writer (or was) - not in English, mind you - but where are the publications? I'm a pretty good thinker - but where are my contributions to a field, any field, that I have had academic training in (history, sociology, anthropology of science and technology and computer science)?

It seems to me that I'm caught in a stage of continuously drafting grand visions of my future if I look back through the many years of yearly reviews I have done. I'm pretty sick of it. In 2022 I already made a change towards not changing my plans, but instead refining them. I count this as my biggest professional success. I made my peace with having a career in software development (now about 5 years in) and am trying to learn more about software architecture (only slightly successful, but nonetheless).

In my private life, our dog has been a great source of happiness. At the same time having a dog is challenging. My family lives about 2000 km away. My partner's family lives about 800 km away. So visits to either part of the family became much, much harder to organize and carry out. The same is true for vacations. Daily life with a dog is great, but it's not a neutral thing either: A dog warrants attention, love, decision making and so many different things. Your life will change and it will revolve around the dog a lot. This is maybe not surprising intellectually, but experientially it feels still much different than what it may have looked like beforehand. I do not regret having a dog, as hard as it was raising or quite simply dealing with her this year sometimes, but I won't say that everything was fine and easy going all the time either. Still, I love her like a crazy dog dad loves his fur child.

We got engaged this year. We are now seven years together. I take this as a great sign that we are truly there for each other - through thick and thin. It was not an easy year. Lots of emotional support was needed. I'm happy to say that I was able to give it, when I could. As an introvert - yep, that's true even when it comes to my partner - it wasn't always an easy thing to do, but I can look at myself in the mirror and honestly say that I tried hard in this regard. And I won't only complain, either: The vast vast VAST majority of our time together has been fun and something to look forward to. I love sharing my life with my favorite person and love having lots of memorable moments together.

I have become a little rounder last year. Maybe two or three kilos - or is it five? A little grayer, too. I'm 36 now. I feel like I'm fine with my age and my looks. "Not having anything to show for the effort"-itis (see above) is surely a sign of getting older, I think and I do recognize that I'm not super young anymore, but getting older is not worrying me. That's good. I think.

So what will I remember from 2022? Our engagement for sure. How I got sick of grand plans maybe? That 2022 was economically a terrible year and I'm happy that we were not too hard hit? Maybe that I tried hard on many occasions, despite any track record or tangible results?

Maybe I will remember this year as a kind of beacon, like from a light house: On the one hand I had some insights that will surely inform my decision making next year. On the other hand, I came close at times to run aground in the shoals of actual lived adulthood. I have to be careful, but I also want to take heart: I'm looking as ever hopeful into the future. Maybe I'm able to not only claim a realistic approach next year but actually live one also.

Yearly Reviews
- Previously
- Forward
Duolingo
- Previously
- Forward

Daily Dogo Streak...

2023-01-06T17:52:15Z

Daily Dogo Streak repaired! It took me about an hour to select pics, update my apple shortcut concoction so it'd work also on my mac and uploading/posting these. But now I'm current again.

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2023-01-06T17:48:22Z

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2023-01-06T17:42:21Z

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2022-12-20T21:00:48Z

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Seeing people...

2022-12-19T13:36:26Z

Seeing people struggle with Hugo makes me think that it would maybe be nice to have options for the static site generator when hosting with mb.

[Previously](/2022/0...

2022-12-18T19:48:28Z

I don't want to jinx it, but I kinda automatically open readwise reader instead of instagram or even gluon and I like this development a lot.

Christmas is a...

2022-12-18T11:24:51Z

Christmas is a catastrophe but this one is ours.

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2022-12-17T18:23:06Z

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2022-12-17T18:22:04Z

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You may think that...

2022-12-15T15:38:50Z

You may think that actually physically dying from mere stress is impossible, but I might prove y'all wrong yet!

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2022-12-14T22:13:56Z

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2022-12-13T18:32:55Z

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2022-12-12T18:58:36Z

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[Choose Boring...

2022-12-12T16:28:54Z

Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley is a great example of a kind of thought I enjoy. Boredom (in technology but I suspect also otherwise) is almost always a good thing.

A while ago on another blog of mine and while still using Evernote for all my notes I wrote an article about the benefits of using apps that are boring to you by now:

In most cases all of us have certain apps already in place for certain use cases. The idea here is to keep using the app and asking yourself if whatever is missing, is actually missing and then think about a change you actually would like to introduce to the current productivity system as a refactoring.

[Previously.](/2022/...

2022-12-12T14:28:25Z

Previously. (Media Tracking)

Got an unexpected Mail from TeuxDeux with a special offer. Very tempting to get TeuxDeux for a whole year for only 18$…

Forward.

This week's...

2022-12-12T13:10:53Z

This week's MicroMonday goes to @val, who happens to live in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

She's a great follow, if you like

slice of life type posts (with lots of photos)
interesting languages
(depending on where you're from and what you have been exposed to) foreign cultures

DailyDogo 402 🐶

2022-12-11T18:37:00Z

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Two promising new...

2022-12-11T12:37:52Z

Two promising new apps:

Sometime is an app for recurring tasks and reminders that seems to be what I have (ab)used Due for. I just started using it, but the idea is great.

TeuxDeux is a pretty, minimalistic todo list manager. This year I cut down hard on what I'd call "metawork", that is work to organize other work and abandoned my heavier task-management systems I had set up in Things or OmniFocus. I'm still using their free trial, but I love their clean design and can see myself using this going forward. I love their approach of doing business and I think that their Instagram is actually funny.

I wonder if there...

2022-12-10T19:56:12Z

I wonder if there are people who feel excluded, because my no-frills daily dog pics do not include an alt text... is this something I should consider? I'd like to make this little habit of mine more interesting in the new year, I think. Maybe this could be part of it?

DailyDogo 401 🐶

2022-12-10T17:23:07Z

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Christmas is just...

2022-12-10T15:56:33Z

Christmas is just hard on me. Every year I feel I have to steel myself, get ready for battle. I am not alone in this. I wonder what a calm and relaxed Christmas even would look like.

In any case: I'm trying to stay empathetic (or sympathetic if I can't put myself in the other's shoes), forgiving and try to get skillfully through the hell that is the last part of the year. As best as I can, I try to not make it about me and my introvert tendencies. This time is a gift for others.

But between us: I'm already looking forward to January, tbh.

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2022-12-09T17:39:53Z

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I wonder if...

2022-12-09T16:04:25Z

I wonder if Albums will ever come out with its desktop version. Would be an instabuy for me.

It's just the best...

2022-12-09T14:18:58Z

It's just the best feeling strolling to our small city's center, the dog is in a good mood, I'm in a good mood. People are laughing. Walks like this are just the best. I don't even mind the cold. 🐶

Good that my side...

2022-12-09T10:13:06Z

Good that my side project is done in typescript. Since learning and using PHP everyday for my current job I really have forgotten a lot…

Walked with the dog...

2022-12-08T22:00:39Z

Walked with the dog 2km on a winter trail half an hour from home. Started around 15:30, it was already dark. My headlamp stopped working almost immediately. Thanks to the little flashlight on my phone, Napu and I were still able to walk the trail.

DailyDogo 399 🐶

2022-12-08T21:31:12Z

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I'm coming to you...

2022-12-07T18:29:13Z

I'm coming to you live from MarsEdit 5! 🤩

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2022-12-07T17:26:19Z

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I don't know why,...

2022-12-07T07:30:18Z

I don't know why, but there is just something so comforting listening to TotalPartyKill's Dark Sun campaign. The og actual play D&D podcast party that started in 2014 is still one of my favorites.

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2022-12-06T18:18:26Z

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2022-12-05T17:16:44Z

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For this week's...

2022-12-05T12:32:47Z

For this week's MicroMonday, I recommend that you follow writer and Buddhist @patrickrhone. I have followed him a long time and he still manages to remind me to be mindful, to stay grounded and at the same time connected to the modern world.

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2022-12-04T17:11:09Z

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2022-12-03T22:40:50Z

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Does anybody have...

2022-12-03T14:30:07Z

Does anybody have tips for good flannel shirts? I love the monochrome ones from Patagonia (this year they don't have a model that is monochrome), but maybe someone has a brand they love that I don't know about?

I graduated to the...

2022-12-03T14:29:23Z

I graduated to the next bigger shirt size. Which also means that I need to invest in my wardrobe. There is just no hiding that fact anymore.

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2022-12-02T17:02:05Z

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2022-12-02T06:56:50Z

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Hm. The last...

2022-12-01T18:37:18Z

Hm. The last @atpfm@mastodon.social makes me think that having a dedicated mastodon account so I could use tapbots' client when it's out makes sense. It's probably not gonna support micro.blog. Or could it? @manton @ivory@tapbots.social

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2022-11-30T19:16:02Z

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2022-11-29T18:25:36Z

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It was naive to...

2022-11-29T14:44:38Z

It was naive to think that the economic situation would not make a meaningful difference. I am prepared for a hard winter. But it might, it will get harder. As Ingeborg Bachmann so aptly said: "Es kommen härtere Tage" (There will be harder days).

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2022-11-28T19:25:16Z

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My MicroMonday...

2022-11-28T16:48:06Z

My MicroMonday recommendation this week goes to @annahavron: A thoughtful productivity geek, that writes so interestingly (not only) about paper-based productivity that it's a joy to read even for someone who is not even using paper to organize their own life.

twitterisgoinggreat....

2022-11-28T07:32:07Z

twitterisgoinggreat.com finally took over the autocomplete spot of twitter itself. I'm not sad for twitter as a platform. It seemed like an attempt in solving an unsolvable moderation problem (that is: you can't solve moderation, you can only manage it).

But it makes me sad and angry how employees are treated. I hate that we live in the era of the billionaire. And I feel weirdly proud of being a European citizen in which this shit could've never happened in this way.

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2022-11-27T22:04:14Z

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[Previously. (Media...

2022-11-27T16:39:33Z

If there would be a bookshelves feature for games then the "currently playing" shelf would include Dead Cells. Bought it on a whim the other day, I have been playing it the whole weekend on my MacBook Air through steam using my xbox one controller. Easy to pick up, hard to put down.

Forward. (Dead Cells)

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2022-11-26T18:41:57Z

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2022-11-23T18:42:12Z

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Maybe it's because I...

2022-11-23T15:03:55Z

Maybe it's because I post more, maybe because I have followed more people recently, maybe because more people spend time away from twitter, maybe it's the activitypub/mastodon integration: In any case I really enjoy my somewhat more active timeline recently.

I can't recommend...

2022-11-23T09:54:16Z

I can't recommend @maggie@indieweb.social's website enough. If you're into the intersection of design, note taking and digital anthropology, this is a great read.

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2022-11-22T18:07:44Z

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2022-11-21T18:43:35Z

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My MicroMonday this...

2022-11-21T13:43:41Z

My MicroMonday this week goes to @Miraz who lives in New Zealand. I love the little slices of life we get when she posts a photo of her life and the nature that surrounds her. She is also helpful (see @custom), thoughtful and a great treasure to have in any micro.blog timeline.

At least I'm not...

2022-11-21T06:44:48Z

At least I'm not going to sweat anytime soon.

DailyDogo 381 🐶

2022-11-20T19:49:06Z

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Two hours of mindful...

2022-11-20T13:30:06Z

Two hours of mindful chores while listening to podcasts. Almost enjoyable. A point to think about, though: It took me three full days of doing nothing before I felt I had the energy to clean, wash and organize things. Still… I'm very pleased with the result.

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2022-11-19T18:25:36Z

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The more I read...

2022-11-19T12:27:34Z

The more I read about how mastodon works, the happier I am that I ended up being so curious about the publishing options in iA Writer that I had to check out micro.blog about 1.5 years ago.

Don't get me wrong: It's great that people are checking out mastodon. It lets me follow them on micro.blog. But moderation and all the other social aspects of running a social network (even if it's "just" a timeline of blogs) are what's hard.

Many people that are leaving Twitter right now (or at least create a mastodon account on the side, for the time after Twitter finally implodes) end up on mastodon.social, the biggest mastodon instance there is. When I scrolled through their explore timeline I was surprised to find a post by fellow corgi lover and micro.blogger Hollie Butler (@hollie) that urged people to find a better instance, because mastodon.social has had a bad moderation for a long time.

In the replies to this post a user asked: Can I move my content over to a new (e.g. better moderated) instance? The answer is no. You can move the people you follow, but not your content, it seems.

With micro.blog this combination of problems doesn't really exist. On the one hand they have and enforce community guidelines that protect the community against hate speech, harassment and so on. Community manager Jean MacDonald (@jean) does an excellent job as far as I can tell. So there is no reason to move. Micro.blog is just a blog hoster with a social timeline component.

On the other hand exporting your data is easy enough, too. Even if there would be a reason at some point to move: I do own all my content and it's not useless content, because a micro.blog is just a blog and so the content I'd export are just blog posts.

The point is: At the moment micro.blog seems like the ideal place that is not twitter, but has moderation figured out (and still lets you connect to mastodon users). I feel like I'm in good hands with them. If you're willing to fiddle, you can connect your own blog for free, or you could pay them 5$ a month and have everything set up for you. Connect a domain and you really truly own your content, even in the case you feel the need to move away, since the permalinks point to your domain not micro.blog's (I'm not claiming the moving blog hosters is easy, but it's possible…).

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2022-11-18T18:03:30Z

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Working on my side...

2022-11-17T21:29:56Z

Working on my side project, watching other people play video games on my second display (youtube). It's nice to have a free day tomorrow and enjoying a quiet night.

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Very hazy day for...

2022-11-15T11:58:28Z

Very hazy day for me. Not a lot of momentum. I'm not doing nothing, but I surely am less effective today. I feel privileged that I'm able to go slower if needed, because I control enough of my work life.

Working from home as a programmer is amazing in that regard.

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2022-11-14T18:34:50Z

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It's new project...

2022-11-14T11:43:29Z

It's new project time over here. The new project is going to be Scrum instead of Kanban. Don't like that. But I also don't like going to the gym.

My MicroMonday rec...

2022-11-14T11:36:33Z

My MicroMonday rec for this week is @sod. As far as I can tell his favorite hobbies include: Helping people, being nice and having lots of knowledge around Hugo/micro.blog.

(And starting next week I'll have to rec a little bit more diversely)

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2022-11-13T17:34:03Z

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Jeez, I have not had...

2022-11-13T15:10:19Z

Jeez, I have not had so much fun tinkering with a side project, ever, I think. Slowly but surely building and refactoring, the way I like, without sprint goals or other deadlines, being in charge. It's just the best feeling. 👨‍💻

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2022-11-12T20:44:08Z

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2022-11-11T21:56:45Z

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Amazingly bad...

2022-11-11T15:21:11Z

Amazingly bad weather today. Snow is melting. It rains and it's dark already(it's only 5 pm). And the only thing I feel is a kind of science-fiction coziness. I imagine we would have to endure weather like this when we will settle other planets. I'm ready for it.

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2022-11-10T21:50:46Z

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My...

2022-11-07T18:02:02Z

My MicroMonday rec goes to @baldur for his different viewpoint on the web dev world.

Come for the different perspective on the status quo, stay for the occasional photo of Iceland.

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2022-11-06T17:10:07Z

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I just pledged 210$...

2022-11-02T20:23:36Z

I just pledged 210$ for a cooperative board game that I might never play: It's the board game version of Slay The Spire, maybe the only game I put as much hours into as Diablo 2 back in the day, which tells a lot. (Stellaris is a distant third, which also tells a lot).

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2022-11-02T15:33:47Z

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Fantastic episode of...

2022-11-02T09:37:33Z

Fantastic episode of Upgrade this week. @jsnell said out loud in a clear way, what I have been only hazily thinking. www.relay.fm/upgrade/4...

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2022-11-01T18:19:03Z

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2022-10-31T19:03:19Z

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2022-10-29T18:31:43Z

DailyDogo 359 🐶

I was just out with...

2022-10-29T09:09:23Z

I was just out with the dog 🐶 in the dark, grayish, cold and freezing-melting-freezing weather we have here. And even though it is dark and unfriendly outside, it didn't change my mood at all. I was just thinking about my side project, the various research avenues I want to explore in my note taking and so on. Then I noticed: What a privilege to have things to look forward to doing.

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2022-10-28T18:26:34Z

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2022-10-27T17:43:26Z

DailyDogo 357 🐶

Looking at math...

2022-10-27T08:44:20Z

Looking at math proofs for the first time in a very long time. I wish that math would have not been such a traumatizing subject in my university time.

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2022-10-26T18:39:04Z

DailyDogo 356 🐶

Lots of walking with...

2022-10-26T07:36:12Z

Lots of walking with the dog 🐶 in the morning today. Therefore not a lot of "sitting on the computer work" - not the only type of work - got done.

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2022-10-25T16:49:54Z

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2022-10-24T18:42:56Z

DailyDogo 354 🐶

Previously After...

2022-10-24T16:29:21Z