Monday, 01/23/2023

01:27 out of sync

my creative output is very out of sync with my reading; the flow is not aligned. Ideally:

1. Read the literature
2. Start a particular idea
3. Invest in the idea for a period of time
4. Publish initial work
5. Iterate based on reception, feedback and thinking to myself

Unfortunately, I continue to stagnate before steps 3 or 4. I'm not quite sure why, but I sense it's that I'm often either scared to execute (that my skills may not match my reading) or that I'm scared to publish what I've executed (afraid of judgement). Some things have fallen to the wayside after losing some time, but most I have become scared of and taken too long to do.

It frustrates me that things take time, and that time has to be made for them; think posting a photo every few days, or promoting on social media, or following a particular routine at the gym. These things will never quite be for me, but they're essential - to a degree - to my success, and I'm not yet consistent enough to make things happen.

Let's talk solutions:

• Add ongoing projects to a schedule and block out time every day for them. Right now:
  • Photography (take photos for ~30m a day, spend ~30 a day editing)
  • Gym (4-5x/week, spending the other two biking or playing soccer)
  • Cooking (Spend 15m/day investigating recipes, type them up, then cook dinner every evening [indeterminate])
  • Website (Push out one small feature a day. Examples: Parsing org-mode tags, parsing parts of journal files, rendering journals to HTML.). I want to maintain this forever, so it's vital that I pay attention to it daily.
  • Architecture. Right now, I think my focus should be on learning to sketch; I look at enough buildings and spend enough time reading and collecting inspiration. I just need to dedicate myself to sketching. This can probably done in conjunction with the photography work, overlapping with it, with a physical paper and pencil of some sort. [TBD]
  • Social time [1h/day]. Dedicated time strengthening a personal relationship I have, in person. This can be combined with any or all of the above points; there are lots of people I can spend time with or reach out to. Make it a point to schedule these a week or more in advance so that this project work can be planned out.
  • Finding a subletter for my apartment.
  • Finding housing in Stockholm.
• Dedicate the majority of the day to solving technical debt I've let myself accrue:
  • Common Lisp type project. This can be put on maintenance mode once I meet the deliverables I've promised, but until then I need to go full-speed ahead.
  • Prepare whatever I need to apply to Interact. If I don't get in, I will regret it forever (Due February 15; we need to deliver something truly remarkable by this time and start writing application essays). Write my essays first, then spend the month doing the technical work I'll need to do to show that I'm building towards the mission I preach about.
• Avoid historical time-wasters:
  • Social media. It's a reflex. I can spend this clearing technical debt or looking at `are.na` feeds for inspiration, or at recipes, or on clothing or something to hone my taste and style. Retrain.
  • Inconsistent sleep schedule. Ideally this is solved by making it consistent lol.
  • Indecision. Hopefully this plan helps.

I'll see how disciplined I can be

15:35

caring check.eml i care about

beautiful public spaces and built environments

bike lanes, streetcars, and ways for everyone to travel through the city while experiencing the city

making computers fun and enjoyable for people to use, while better exposing them to abstractions that help them truly understand what they're doing

owning portable, beautiful items that last forever: bags, clothes, computers, cameras. they have the right level of appropriate purpose - general enough to use daily and fit in a backpack, but specific enough to do one thing and do it well.

user interfaces to computing