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Thirty-three
Since I’m working today, we celebrated yesterday with a day trip to Kingston and Woodstock, where we visited a bunch of indie bookstores and two restaurants I’ve wanted to try. It was a really nice day! I think this year has gone by faster than any year in recent memory. It has been a great […]
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Some AI use cases
I had a good conversation with Russell Hunter, one of my coworkers at Automattic. He mentioned some uses of AI like ChatGPT that I hadn’t considered: That got me thinking a bit more afterward as well: In general, I think people focusing on how “dull” or “mediocre” the ChatGPT writing is misses the point. The […]
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Why blog?
My friend Garrett Robinson asked me on Twitter, “What do you see as the advantages of blogging?”. Naturally I had to reply with a blog post. I see two main advantages of blogging, both with secondary advantages: Having your own place on the web to keep a log of your thoughts, musings, opinions, trials, and […]
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Thirty-two
I turn 32 today, and since I’m blogging more, I’d like to kick off a tradition of writing birthday posts, a la ma.tt. This past year was incredibly challenging, both at home and at work. With the stress of the pregnancy, a difficult period at work, and the uncertainty of the changing pandemic situation, the […]
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Understanding Conversations with Tyler
I’m catching up on podcasts I’ve missed from the past few months. In the Conversations with Tyler 2021 Retrospective, producer Jeff Holmes challenged long-time listeners to put together a guide to understanding the podcast for new listeners. CWT is one of my favorite podcasts and one of only three podcasts that I’ve attended a live […]
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How my relationship to technology has changed in the past decade
I used to want every new device and cool gadget. I watched keynotes, preordered things, scouted Kickstarter for the latest and greatest. Now my iPhone is 3 generations behind and I have no intention of upgrading until it dies. I’ve lost count of how many generation behind the iPad I’m writing this on is. I […]
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How I Approach Social Media
On a recent episode of Office Hours, a listener asked about the purpose of social media. Isaac and TK recommended taking a pragmatic approach. Here is my take on what that looks like. Bonus: The blogs I read, newsletters I subscribe to, podcasts I listen to, and magazines I read.
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What work/life balance means to me
I have a certain capacity for creative output. That level may increase or decrease over time, but it stays relatively constant day-to-day. You can think of this capacity as tokens that I have available to spend each day. I can either spend these tokens at my full-time job, at a side gig, or on a […]
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Notes on Office Hours: Debate and Unmotivated Friends
1: The Value of Debate, Is Self-Improvement Overrated, and Dealing with Haters Notes: The question: Is debate valuable? I side with TK here on the value of debate. Most debates suck, but there is some value in the format if done well. The Sam Harris/Jordan Peterson debate is a great example of this. There were […]
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Series are eclipsing movies
Cameron Sorsby asked the Praxis staff today what our top 3-5 favorite movies are, off the top of our heads. I came up with 3 easily, but none were recent. Then I realized that no movie I’ve watched for the first time in the last four years is memorable. Series are getting so much better […]
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Sometimes you have to stop what you are doing and climb out on the roof to take a #ManhattanSkyline photo because the sunset is so beautiful. #nofilter
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On Jury Duty
I’m very torn on jury duty. I despise politics, I don’t vote, I rarely follow the news, and I think that most laws should be nullified. I’d prefer to be rid of the whole business. On the other hand, I deeply believe in justice and want reasonable, thoughtful people on juries. I’ve so far avoided […]
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Building a Wide Base of Knowledge
Someone I’m advising asked me this morning how to build a wide base of knowledge across many subjects and disciplines. Here was my answer: The short answer is that you need to be curious. Specifically: Read widely. Ask people what they are working on and dig in to understand. Ask lots of questions. Spend lots […]
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They used to make elevators here. Now it is where they make NYC’s subway cars.
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🌩🌩
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Garden garlic! 👨🌾
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Finding Wilderness Within Civilization
I read this article from The Guardian about an ophthalmologist who is spending his retirement living out of a backpack and hiking all around the US. Most of it is only mildly interesting, but I loved this part: The next night, we slept in a copse of gnarled oaks beside a graveyard, a shady grove […]
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I was having trouble connecting to my Karma Go device on my iPad. Wasn’t auto connecting to the website to authenticate. So I tried the old http://192.168.1.1 trick (happened to be the device’s IP) and it worked!
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Why I Canceled My Medium Membership
I jumped on-board the Medium Membership train back in March, as soon as I could. I was excited about it. I couldn’t wait to see the great content behind the paywall and to see what new features they were going to roll out just for members. Well, three months later I’m cancelling my membership. Here’s […]
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Giving to beggars: My policy, reasons, and recent outcomes
I have a policy when it comes to giving to people who come up to me in the street and ask for money to buy food or some basic necessity: I tell them that I do not carry cash (this is the truth, I do not carry cash), then offer to purchase for them what […]