Focustivity
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The Wild Robot
Yesterday, the family and I went to see The Wild Robot. It was an excellent movie. The girls cried (several times). I didn't (I'm not a crier), but they kept checking to see if I was. The movie was visually stunning, fun, and fast-paced. It is a kid's movie, but the story is very deep and adults will love it as well. My daughter thanked me for “making” her go see it.
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The unfortunate side affect of being a senior architect
I spent my early career developing websites, and later business applications. I'd spend all day, nearly every day coding, and I loved it.
Although, never considered myself to be a good developer. The part I was good at was the design of the application. My code was organized, reusable, consistent, and worked well. I was good at deciding what needed to be built, and how.
Eventually, I became a senior developer, and eventually an architect.
The unfortunate side effect of being an architect, is I can no longer write code all day long.
I have many other responsibilities. In fact, writing code is a necessary luxury. I have to do it to keep up to date, but my real job is to provide estimates, documentation, code reviews, and direction to other developers. And the meetings, oh I love the meetings (not!).
"If a company’s most senior engineers just write code all day, the codebase will see the benefit of their skills, but the company will miss out on the things that only they can do. This kind of technical leadership needs to be part of the job description of the person doing it. It isn’t a distraction from the job: it is the job." (Tanya Reilly, The Staff Engineer's Path)
It's all good. I still love my job.
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Experimentation with h-cards and schema.org formats
My new home site is simple and is meant to be a sort of business card for my online presence, which is pretty minimal.
Today, I created a new home site, containing an index.html and style.css file that I hand-coded and published to GitHub. The site is hosted on Netlify, which pulls directly from my GitHub repository.
I also added h-card support to the site, and it is validated on indiewebify.me. This format is intended as a standard way to present contact information on the web.
It seems there is another standard at schema.org for adding “microdata” to your site. My understanding is that this is more useful for SEO. Furthermore, Google has its Rich Results Test that can be used to validate if your site or page qualifies for rich text in its search results.
I don't think these are relevant to a simple personal blog, like my own, but I find them interesting. To experiment, I marked up my new home page with the schema.org syntax for a “person”, which Google would recognize as a valid profile page.
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The Notebook - A history of thinking on paper by Roland Allen
I discovered the book The Notebook: A history of thinking on paper by Roland Allen from this newsletter post On Notebooks and Memory.
It sounded like it would be something I'd like to read and based on the reviews, many were surprised about how good the book is.
I'm not sure when I'll start it, but it's on my “to read” shelf.
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An inspiration to blog
I was reading (again) The Memex Method by Cory Doctorow and found it inspirational for those who want to blog.
Like those family trip-logs, a web-log serves as more than an aide-memoire, a record that can be consulted at a later date. The very act of recording your actions and impressions is itself powerfully mnemonic, fixing the moment more durably in your memory so that it’s easier to recall in future, even if you never consult your notes.
Blogging is an excuse to write out your thoughts that your future-self will appreciate.
These repeated acts of public description adds each idea to a supersaturated, subconscious solution of fragmentary elements that have the potential to become something bigger. Every now and again, a few of these fragments will stick to each other and nucleate, crystallizing a substantial, synthetic analysis out of all of those bits and pieces I’ve salted into that solution of potential sources of inspiration.
The more we blog, the more connections we can make.
The availability of a deep, digital, searchable, published and public archive of my thoughts turns habits that would otherwise be time-wasters — or even harmful — into something valuable.
And, the more history we create for ourselves, that we can reflect on.
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Focustivity Change Log October 27, 2024
A few updates that I've made to the Focustivity.blog site today.
I added the Weekly Digest page. This allows visitors to subscribe to a weekly digest email, powered by Buttondown. This is literally an email digest of my posts from the previous week. No tracking, no spam, just a cool feature.
I added analytics to the site, powered by Tinylytics. There is no tracking and not data stored about users. The purpose is to give me insights about what people are reading on my site, and more importantly, if there are broken links or redirects that need to be fixed.
I'm on the fence with this one, but I added Kudos (powered by Tinylytics) to the posts. This allows readers to give posts a thumbs up.
Finally, a few tiny styling tweaks.
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Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
I finished reading Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. The book is an expansion of Oliver's essays from his newsletter, The Imperfectionist. Yet, it doesn't flow like a series of separate essays, but rather they build upon one another.
A few lessons stood out to me as they “hit the nail on the head” when it comes to my life.
In the past, I've been the type to have a massive task list, where all of my tasks were neatly categorized and tagged with duration, context, start and due dates. In the end, I spent more time organizing my work rather than doing it. I grew out of this years ago, but I still remember the experience. Oliver talks about this in the book.
"The main point - though it took me years to realize it - is to develop the willingness to just do something, here and now, as a one-off, regardless of whether it's part of any system or habit or routine." - Oliver Burkeman
Oliver also recommends treating your task list as a source of things you could do, not have to do.
"Treat your to-do list as a menu. In the striving towards sanity mindset, a to-do list is always something you've got to get to the end of before you're allowed to relax. But in any context where there are more things that feel like they need doing than there's time available in which to do them — which is the normal state of affairs, after all — a to-do list is by definition really a menu, a list of asks to pick from, rather than to get through." - Oliver Burkeman
He also gets into content curation. I've been caught in the trap of subscribing to a ton of content through RSS and newsletters, then to feel like I need to empty my list. The things I have not read haunt me. I've only recently overcome this, but still struggle with the FOMO.
"Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket. That is to say: think of your backlog not as a container that gradually fills up, and that it's your job to empty, but as a stream that flows past you, from which you get to pick a few choice items, here and there, without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by." - Oliver Burkeman
Oliver has some interesting things to say about decision-making and perfectionism.
"Perfectionists love to begin new endeavors, because the moment of starting belongs to the world of limitlessness: for as long as you haven't done any work on a project, it's still possible to believe that the end result might match the ideal your mind." - Oliver Burkeman
The examples above are a few that stood out to me, but there are many, many more. Overall, the book is structured into 28 days, one lesson per day. Oliver recommends doing one lesson per day, and then let it resonate with you. Think about that lesson and how it applies to your life.
Meditations for Mortals should be on everyone's bookshelf. It is full of advice about how to live life, knowing that we can't get everything done and do everything we want to do.
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Back to Vivaldi
Last week, I switched from Microsoft Edge to Vivaldi. I've used Vivaldi before and think it's a great browser. I can't remember why I started using Microsoft Edge again. Probably because I use it for work and think it's a “fine” browser.
Vivaldi had a big update this week that included a UI refresh, instant sync, and a new dashboard feature.
I like the UI updates. If you don't, they give the option to switch back. I don't think I'll use the dashboard feature yet. I think we need more flexibility with the widget sizes, and I'd love to be able to add a clipped portion of a web page to my dashboard rather than the entire page.
I also migrated my bookmarks from Raindrop into Vivaldi. If this sticks, I may drop my Raindrop subscription when it's due again. One less subscription, although I love Raindrop and highly recommend it. Bookmarks work well in Vivaldi and in especially like the nicknames feature, which makes it extremely fast to load any site.
I also use the sidebar and split screen in Vivaldi a good deal. I'm not using email, RSS, and Calendar. I've been tempted to give it a try, but RSS is not available on the mobile app, which is where I do most of my reading.
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I renewed my Micro.blog subscription
I renewed my Micro.blog subscription today. Although I'm only using a portion of the services Micro.blog provides, I love the Micro.blog community and the work Manton and his team do with the platform.
If you're not familiar with Micro.blog, it's essentially a blogging platform. Your blog can feature short “Micro” posts, as the name implies, but it's also great for long-form content. In addition to a blog (up to 5 if you go premium), you get bookmarks, private notes, a book management system, and you can even configure newsletters. It's a great deal!
One of Micro.blog's core features is its tight integration with the Fediverse, which consists of services that communicate with each other using common protocols. This means you can easily repost your content to various services, like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads.
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Focustivity Change Log October 20, 2024
I've made a few more tweaks to my site today.
- Updated the header to add more space, and a nice transparency effect when scrolling.
- Updated the site, especially the header, to work better on mobile.
- Added some spacing between posts on the home page.
- Updated the dark theme colors.
- Updated my about page. Added links to my email and Micro.blog profile.
- Updates to the site footer.
I love the way It's turned out!
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I changed my domain from .com to .blog
Since my site is truly a blog, I changed my domain name from .com to .blog. I think I have all the DNS in place. Hopefully, it won't cause problems.
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What's the point of passkeys?
Passkeys were introduced fairly recently with the promise of no longer needing passwords. But the implementation of passkeys is still not mature.
The implementation of passkeys is not standardized. While many services have added passkeys as an option for authentication, it seems most still hang onto your password. They'll use a passkey as an alternative to your password, or even require your password and use your passkey as another form of MFA. Ideally, when we set up a passkey, our password should be completely removed from the service. Or, if we're creating a new account, we never have a password to begin with.
Passkeys are not easily transferable. If I create a passkey on my iPhone, I can't transfer it to another service, like 1Password. Hopefully, this problem will be solved soon.
Passkeys are simple, yet not widely understood. Ask my Dad to set up a passkey and he'll give me a blank stare. “But, where do I enter my password?” he'll say. It will take some time, and more consistent implementation, before the public are ready for passkeys.
I think the most important point of passkeys, if implemented correctly, is that the information needed to log into your account (your password) is never in the hands of the service you're trying to authenticate with. If the service still requires a password, then what's the point? Even if they still store your password, you're vulnerable to data breaches and phishing.
John Siracusa talks about Passkeys in the episode 609 of the ATP podcast and, as usual, explains how passkeys work and also brings up some of the same concerns.
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Moving to 11ty
Yes, I'm moving my blog, yet again. This time from Pika to 11ty. Pika is wonderful, but as a developer who loves tweaking my site, I found 11ty to be ideal. You could argue that I should be focusing on writing more content, rather than messing with my site, but I'll counter that with “but it's fun!”.
It all started when I took Friday afternoon off. I have a ton of hours available that I wanted to start using. A Friday afternoon seems like a great start.
During my off time, I started to play around with 11ty, which is a static site generator that I keep hearing great things about.
After about an hour of play, I came to realize that I'm getting myself intro trouble. As in, I recently moved my blog to Pika, and I knew that I was about to move again.
I started with the eleventy-base-blog starter project, since it was optimized with all the features from the latest version of 11ty. A few hours later, I had everything up and running.
I was able to easily customize my home page to show all of my post content (something I couldn't do on Pika). Then, with a simple Boolean property on my markdown files, I can tell my homepage to not show all the content for that specific post. This means, in my longer posts, I can truncate and only show the post description, while my shorter posts show the full post. I did this because I love going to other blogs and being able to spend a lot of time reading right on the home page without clicking into each post.
Another thing I was impressed with is the speed of the pages. Even after my tweaks, I get a PageSpeed Insights score of 100 across the board.
The ability to use my local markdown files that I can edit in any markdown editor (currently using Obsidian) and then click a button to publish to my website is a killer selling point.
I also have complete control over redirects. This means, any links to my previous site, including my RSS feed, should still work (please let me know if it doesn't).
I still need to link my contact page, update my about page, and eventually add search. For now, I'll be taking a break. :)
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Obsidian Web Clipper
I discovered the Obsidian Web Clipper today. It looks great. You can create templates for different types of content. It pulls properties directly from the page you clip. You can even clip highlights. Nicely done.
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Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
I was listening to the Bookworm podcast and the next book that the hosts will be talking about is Storyworthy, by Matthew Dicks.
I wasn’t interested in the book at first, as I’m not a storyteller, but then I thought there could be some useful tips in here for writing. Anyone who reads my writing knows I need all the help I can get.
So, I picked up a paperback copy of the book and gave it a shot. Was it good? Well, I finished it (although I skipped a little here and there), so that’s a good sign.
As you would expect, Storyworthy, is about creating good stories, so obviously, the book was full of stories. Not long stories. Rather, short, easy to read stories (that didn’t stop the author from plugging the long versions that are available on the website and YouTube channel).
As far as storytelling/writing tips, I was able to abstract a few that I found could be useful for elaborating in some of my writing.
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Every story should have a five-second moment. This is the moment when the story contains a turning-point. A transformation.
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Every story must have an Elephant, which is a part of the story that is obvious. This may be a clear definition of the problem, or mystery. It signifies where the story is heading.
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Always provide a physical location for each moment of the story. This gives your audience something to visualize.
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The ideal connection between sentences is “but” and “therefore” including synonyms. Don’t use “and”. When your paragraphs can be connected by a silent “and”, then it feels like rambling. Instead, each should flow into the other.
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Stories about failure are more engaging than those about success.
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Your story must reflect change over time. Otherwise, what’s the point?
I admit, at times I got lost and didn’t understand the point of what was said. I’d have to reread parts or look back (or forward) to see where the actionable advice is.
There are also a few very short chapters in the book that didn’t have any rhyme or reason for being there. They felt like filler text to make the book a bit longer.
Although I found some parts of the book tedious and disjointed, I found Storyworthy had enough practical advice, with examples, to help strengthen my non-technical writing.
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From Forgotten Highlights to Actionable Insights: My Readwise Journey
A brief history of how I used Readwise, left, and came back. Also, how I little about how I use Readwise.
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How writing can help you solve problems
Have you ever started an email to someone that explains a problem to them, one that you don’t know the solution to, then by the time you finish the email, you’ve realized you have come up with a solution?
Simply writing out a problem where the explanation is as simple as possible (so someone else can understand it), we are clarifying in our mind precisely what the problem is. You likely don’t understand if you can’t explain the situation to someone else.
Understanding the problem is only the first part. Now we try to come up with a solution. Often there are multiple solutions. So, we start listing some potential solutions and thinking through the pros and cons of each solution.
As we write out the potential options to solve the problem, we often eliminate specific options based on what we know about the situation. Perhaps it is a budget issue or an infrastructure limitation. The more we can get down on paper (digital or analog) more likely we are to come up with the best options.
As a Software Architect, this happens to me all the time. So much that I’ve incorporated this into my workflow. When I need to deal with a problem, even if I think I understand the problem, I write it out in the most straightforward explanation possible. Then each option will have pros and cons, and I’ll usually have a recommendation of which option I think would work best or is most reasonable within the current circumstances.
After going through this process, I’ve often solved the problem and realized the best solution we can implement immediately. Clients love being told there was a problem and that you already took care of it. There is also the added benefit of having everything documented.
I’ll write on paper when I’m struggling with something I can’t wrap my head around. This slows me down, so I can spend time thinking as I go. When writing on a computer, it’s easy to spit out words that don’t have as much meaning. On the flip side, a computer makes it easier to delete and reorganize ideas.
Writing out our problems is not only for technical issues; it can work for anything. This is why Journaling is so beneficial.
Writing is thinking.
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Hide Backlinks from Quartz home page
How to hide backlinks from your home page if your site is hosted with Quartz.
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Add Tinylytics to Obsidian Publish
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I’m moving my blog to Pika
Why I moved my blog to Pika.
17 more posts can be found in the archive.