Betterment

Oblique: “having a sloping direction, angle, or position. e.g. Through the window came the last few oblique rays of evening sunshine. He gave her an

You may have noticed that when you eventually find something, it’s in the last place you looked. Mostly because after that, you stop looking. And when a long-awaited moment finally arrives, t…

One of my favorite things that some of my fellow bloggers/newsletter authors do is offer a weekly roundup of links to books, stories, podcasts, gear, etc. that they’ve discovered and recommend. This year I thought I’d try doing that myself. There are often books I read that aren’t a good fit for the podcast (because, for […]

Entrenched cultural organizations and icons feel more permanent than they are. Network effects, brand power and the status quo can seduce us into believing that we’re stuck with what we have,…

You have to practice to become better. And trying out tools – be it features you are not using in your current one or exploring something completely new – is a way to practice.

A system to organise projects.

I have been using Obsidian as my personal knowledge management app of choice now for a few years, and recently I have been modifying one of my note vaults to a new indexing system. However, I stumbled across an interesting search issue with the indexing that required a bit of investigation to resolve.

Something extraordinary happened. A record became a hit, a new technology was proven to work, someone raised their hand and asked an important question… On this date, someone took a chance, c…

What: I set the goal of reading or re-reading (on average) a book a week in 2023. Classics, sci-fi, nonfiction, or anything people highly recommend. Some are short stories, some are long books. I try to alternate very short books with long ones. Suggestions: The following list is not final until the week of the book. I’ll keep adjusting the list based on suggestions and discussions. Here are direct links to posts about this on social media: Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. I think Reddit and Twitter is probably the best place to make suggestions and do discussions. Schedule

To be clear, I very much like Lex Fridman’s proposed reading list, and I hope to reread many of those books.  Most of them are much deeper than their sometimes reputations, I might add.  (For all the stupid whining about the list, odd that no one is asking why he doesn’t read more in Russian.) […]

It’s easier to understand than it is to say. The baker and the blacksmith should trade. The baker can make a loaf of bread more easily and efficiently than the blacksmith, and the blacksmith …

Here are some of the most interesting things I learned this year: 1. In 1992, Southwest Airlines and Stevens Aviation resolved a trademark dispute with an arm wrestling match between their CEOs. ("Armed and Dangerous: The Malice in Dallas") 2. Women are 1.8 times more likely to think the office is too cold. ("Overcooling of offices reveals gender inequity in thermal comfort") 3. By the time the Saturn V rocket clears the launch tower, it has burned 4% of its fuel. ("Rockets, SpaceX, and the quest for reusability") 4. In 1800, it took 10 minutes of human labor (harvesting milling, etc.) to produce one kilogram of wheat. By 2021, it took only 2 seconds, a decline of 99.7%. (How the World Really Works)

Compared to the overall population, virtually no one built Wikipedia, virtually no one voted for that senator and virtually no one starts a business. Virtually no one cares enough to help a strange…

Today is the first workday of the new year. For most of us, that means the slow roll of the holidays is over. Today we answer all those emails we left unattended, resume work we left on hold in ear…

“They can always say no” is the mantra of someone who is hustling for attention, promo or a sale. But when you hustle a colleague or a friend, they can tell. They can tell that you&#821…

Why do we stop improving? I discuss the research behind why skills stagnate and how to move past it.

Maggie's digital garden filled with visual essays on programming, design, and anthropology

Over the last few years, I have been finding ways to combat feelings of overwhelm. A big part of is has to do with setting up systems that work and are sustainable for my needs.

…is surprisingly easy. “We’ve done all this work and things haven’t gotten better,” so, apparently, we should stop trying and go back to what we were doing. “We&…

No one sees reality. It’s worth repeating: No one accurately sees the world as it is. A person with hearing loss doesn’t experience the world the same way a synesthete does. A rock clim…

We agree on so many things. Productive arguments are scarce, because they depend on shared constructs of reality. And arguments are a luxury, because they allow people to engage around ideas withou…

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

Mixing PARA and Zettelkasten in Obsidian

Anyone who's ever tried to lose weight, curb their temper, quit smoking, or alter any habit in their lives knows that personal change is hard.

Someone’s not going to get it. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny to you. It simply means that culture works because, for a moment, a group of people share a history, an understand…

Which quadrant is your goal? The industry giants want tonnage. Undifferentiated, commodity-priced, regularly delivered, consistent work for hire. They’re not going out of their way for freela…

He’s showing us an entirely different way to “step up.”

Disparate thoughts on personal information management after traversing the hype cycle.