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Finished reading: Fundamentals of Software Architecture by Mark Richards 📚
A solid book about software architecture that covers high-level rules and concepts for software construction, as well as various soft skills and responsibilities that an architect should have to be successful.
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The scale that will change my life
As I get older (now 47), maintaining my health has become more important than ever, and I’ve been neglecting it recently. It could be worse, but it’s certainly not great. I’ve been focusing on improving several key health habits, including sleep, exercise, and nutrition. One habit I hope will be beneficial is consistently monitoring my fitness. This includes tracking my weight, body fat, sleep, and other factors. I’ve tried calorie counting in the past, but it didn’t stick. Continue reading →
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How I use TeuxDeux
TeuxDeux has been my go-to tool for managing both my work and personal tasks, along with some weekly planning. The interface is clean and straightforward, presenting a weekly view with customizable lists underneath. I typically keep the application active on my secondary, smaller screen, which is positioned beneath my primary widescreen monitor. It serves as an excellent dashboard, enabling me to quickly glance at upcoming tasks and record notes and tasks. Continue reading →
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🎮 I started playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder today.
I miss the 2D side-scrolling Mario. It brings back memories.
It’s a lot of fun so far. I have yet to try the multiplayer option.
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Mailbrew is back?!?
"Mailbrew has published a blog post stating that it was purchased by Upnext, which owns and develops the Upnext read-later service and Brief, a daily AI digest service. Mailbrew is a service that aggregates your favorite content from newsletters, RSS, YouTube, Twitter, and many other services, and sends you a digest email according to the schedule you set. I’ve used Mailbrew since it was first released to send me a daily digest of my favorite RSS feeds, YouTube videos, and Twitter lists. Continue reading →
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Imagine using ChatGPT or a read-later service like Matter or Readwise, and instead of just reading in one of a few preselected voices, it reads in the author’s voice!
We could add some metadata to our site that gives these services instructions for how to sound and even what tone is appropriate.
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Obsidian importer can convert your notes to local markdown
The Obsidian Importer is an open-source tool that can convert notes from various applications into local markdown files. Apps currently supported include Notion, Evernote, Bear, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, and Roam Research. Additional guides are provided for other apps. Continue reading →
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Smaller Rocks Matter: Rethinking Time Blocking
When blocking time on our calendar, we often schedule our ideal day, incorporating ample time to handle the significant tasks we plan to complete. Scheduling these major tasks is a crucial aspect of time blocking, but we must not overlook the necessity of allocating time for checking emails, responding to messages, and performing other administrative tasks. If we don’t set aside time for these admin tasks, they will either remain undone and accumulate, or they will become “urgent” matters that we end up addressing during the day instead of our scheduled tasks. Continue reading →
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An evening at the local farm. They had excellent funnel cakes and apple cider!
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The Four Levels of Reading
📚 According to the book How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, there are four reading levels. Each level has a purpose and is stacked upon each other; in other words, you can’t complete a level without first completing the previous level. Most material we read, including books, papers, and articles, is not worth our time to read at all four levels. Instead, an Inspectional or maybe Analytical reading will suffice. Continue reading →
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Finished reading: How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book) by Charles Van Doren 📚
Detailed guidance for how to read effectively and have a conversation with the author.
I admit this was hard for me to read and ironically, I skimmed a lot of it.
I lost interest, but still go a few ideas.
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The Creator, 2023 - ★★★★½
Watched on Sunday October 1, 2023. A great looking sci-fi movie. I loved the look of the movie. CGI blended in and felt real. The world felt lived in. There were moments that deserved more of a buildup, instead they were just brief moments of dialog that explain key aspects of the story. Still, I really enjoyed it! Continue reading →
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I’ve been using Reeder for all of my RSS, including Micro.blog feeds, favorite YouTube channels, Reddit channels, and even newsletters (through Kill the Newsletter!).
Overall, it’s keeping me from jumping in and out of other apps, which often get me distracted with endless feeds and algorithms.
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Meeting agendas should be questions that need to answered
When creating a meeting, include the agenda as a question or questions that need to be answered. For the meeting creator, this approach compels them to consider the purpose of the meeting, enabling them to better judge who should attend and how long the meeting should last. Or even if the meeting should occur at all. maybe an email will suffice. Questions provide the attendees with a better opportunity to prepare for the meeting by contemplating the answers beforehand. Continue reading →
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I finally invested in a standing desk as well as a walking treadmill and some weights. It’s been quite convenient to walk while working. I also have some nice cable management going on under the desk that hides most of the clutter.
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My first impressions of Evernote AI Search
I tried the new Evernote AI Search feature and I must say that it is well-executed. However, it requires some understanding of both Evernote and how LLMs work to utilize it most effectively. On a side note, I think the term AI is still overused. AI Search, like Chat-GPT and others are using Large Language Models are extracting and manipulating the given text to try and give you the correct answer. Continue reading →
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A beautiful morning of softball at Georgia Southern.
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Back to physical books
I've been a long-time user of Kindle and Audible, with a few physical books thrown in here and there in an attempt to determine my preference between physical or digital formats. I think the truth is that I like both, as each has its advantages. Digital is convenient. There is no doubt that the ability to pull up a book on my phone from anywhere to continue reading is very convenient. Continue reading →
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Look for wisdom, not facts. We’re not reading to just find random pieces of information. What’s the point of that? We’re reading to accumulate a mass of true wisdom—that you can turn to and apply in your actual life. - Ryan Holiday
The purpose of reading a wide variety of book types is to gain a broader understanding of the world, not just to memorize facts. There’s no need for us to become human encyclopedias.
The ability to make connections from a wide expanse of experience is what makes us better.
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How I'm using Reflect.app (2023-09-10)
After many weeks, I continue to use the Reflect.app as my primary note-taking application. Its simplicity is what attracts me the most. The app doesn’t appear to be much more than a notepad, especially in focus mode. However, with features like backlinks, Kindle import, markdown, end-to-end encryption, and built-in GPT–4, I find the app incredibly useful for capturing notes and writing. I maintain separate graphs for my work and personal notes. Continue reading →
