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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="generator" content="Hugo 0.91.2" />
<title>
Adam Keys is Linking
</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="h-feed">
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/04/08/trim-the-attention.html">Trim the attention sails</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/04/08/trim-the-attention.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-08 09:04:58 -0700">Apr 8, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>In America, the 2024 election cycle is unlikely to amuse <em>anyone</em>. Maybe this is a rallying point for “unifying” the country: a near-universal loathing of our politicians, how they get themselves elected, and the outcomes they deliver to us. Let alone the new media that reports on them.</p>
<p>Ahead of the inevitable hell-cycle, I’ve trimmed my attention sails a bit. The general idea is to remove feeds and notifications from my daily routine which are monetized primarily by writing doom-y, grab-y headlines. I’m looking at you in particular, <em>New York Times</em>. But it applies to just about everything with headlines. I’ve disabled all notifications from <em>The Economist</em> and Apple News. I read them once a week. That’s plenty.</p>
<p>Unrelated to the election, I deleted the Twitter and Instagram apps. The web app is mostly equivalent in Twitter’s case, no loss there. Instagram’s mobile web app is surprisingly mediocre. The point, in both cases, is to put a few more steps, a bit more friction, between me and randomly scrolling an algorithmic, attention-hungry feed. I’ve since found that the friction of loading these two as web apps is <em>great</em>. I do indeed look at them far, far less. On the other hand, their web apps are intentionally just-okay. It seems to me that any organization that can put together an excellent iOS app should be able to do the same on mobile web. Reader, let me tell you, they don’t.</p>
<p>I found the settings in Lyft and DoorDash that prevent them from sending advertisements-as-push-notifications. They do exist! Highly recommended.</p>
<p>Mute lists, they’re also fantastic. All the names and teams and keywords that tend to mean “here’s a post about the political horse-race” are scrubbed from my timeline. Even better, I can see when they’re scrubbed and dip in to see if things are as unproductive as I remember. (Thanks for that little detail, <a href="https://tapbots.com/ivory/">Ivory</a>.)</p>
<p>Previously: <a href="https://therealadam.com/2022/12/27/think-your-thoughts.html">Think Your Thoughts</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/04/06/detroits-airport-dtw.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-06 07:59:24 -0700">Apr 6, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Detroit’s airport (DTW) is…kinda decent? It’s got a monorail and a light show set to songs of Motown. At the very least, it’s not a bad coffee shop? 🙃</p>
<!-- raw HTML omitted -->
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/03/31/blogs-wereare-a.html">Blogs were/are a fun moment</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/03/31/blogs-wereare-a.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-31 09:42:27 -0700">Mar 31, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Manuel Moreale, <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/EMdQMyHxCynwUzZ2">Why I write</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But the reason why I started is long gone at this point. I started the blog as some sort of public accountability tool and it’s now everything but that. I don’t write to be accountable. I probably should.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Manuel asks a <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-manton-reece">lot</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-chris-coyer">of</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-taylor-troesh">folks</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-toby-shorin">about</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-cassidy-williams">why</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-jim-nielsen">they</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-tom-macwright">started</a> <a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-derek-sivers">writing</a> their blogs. It’s a great question! Some folks want to get weird, others can’t not write and putting it online as good as anything, still others want to connect with a community.</p>
<p>That last one, connecting with a community, is closest to my answer. I started because there was so much excitement, energy, and connection in the early 2000s blogs. It was a real scene. And, plenty of invention! Before there was centralized social media and web 2.0 there was decentralized blogging. An earnest attempt to take the technology of peer-to-peer file sharing and build something besides music sharing on it. It was a fun moment.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/03/13/collective-flow.html">Collective flow</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/03/13/collective-flow.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-13 05:42:53 -0700">Mar 13, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Dave Rupert, <a href="https://daverupert.com/2024/01/play-at-work/">Play at work</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve talked about this before in the context of prototyping and play and how we worked at Paravel. It’s a lot like playing baseball; each member of the team showing up to practice, volleying work (in screenshots, short videos, or demos), pushing changes, communicating thoughts and challenges in the moment outside the confines of slotted meeting times. Me and my coworkers, having a catch.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Several years ago, when I was doing improv, I was rehearsing for a musical, of all things. At the same time we were getting started with table reads and gel’ing as a cast, two other shows were rehearsing in the same theater. One show was about to open, very much having their thing dialed in. Another cast was somewhere in the middle, having figured out what they were about but still trying to get the execution just right. Everywhere in the theatre, there was creation and exploration energy and it was one of the most awesome things I’ve done. This despite not liking musical theater much!</p>
<hr>
<p>I don’t like the idea of “return to office” and I don’t think you could make it work anyway. The social momentum that kept a critical mass of people in one office has been broken, you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.</p>
<p>That said, I have yet to feel that same energy in remote work that I did in a local theatre on rehearsal night while various groups were <em>making</em> something <em>together</em>, in the <em>moment</em>, and iterating on it as quickly as they could share a glance or read through a scene.</p>
<p>I bet <em>some</em> teams have figured out how to feel this way in remote/async setups. But, it feels like most are still running the old in-person playbook that we learned, and sometimes thrived with, over the past years and decades of our careers.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/28/you-learn-faster.html">You learn faster by falling down</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/28/you-learn-faster.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-02-28 10:30:00 -0700">Feb 28, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Julia Galef, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scout_Mindset"><em>The Scout Mindset</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The “self-belief” model of motivation assumes that if you acknowledge the possibility of failure, then you’ll be too demoralized or afraid to take risks. In that model, people who believe that failure is unthinkable are the ones who try the hardest to succeed. Yet in practice, things often seem to work the other way around—accepting the possibility of failure in advance is liberating. It makes you bold, not timid. It’s what gives you the courage to take the risks required to achieve something big.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the most impactful ways I’ve adapted my thinking over the years, if only modestly successfully, has been to fear failure less and accept small downsides more easily. There’s way more world out there for those willing to trip or even fall now and then.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/24/use-fewer-algorithmic.html">Use fewer algorithmic feeds, mostly search-based</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/24/use-fewer-algorithmic.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-02-24 11:50:51 -0700">Feb 24, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Rob Walker via Austin Kleon, <a href="https://austinkleon.com/2019/04/04/more-search-less-feed/">More search, less feed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve been thinking a lot about the search box versus the feed,” he said. “Let’s take Twitter. When I open it, everybody wants me to think about something.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A Ponzi ecosystem of hustle, reality distortion and projection, outright misinformation and propaganda. Plus, folks who just want to tell you the world is miserable. On the other hand, some funny takes and the occasional wholesome content. As goes social media, so goes humanity.</p>
<p>That bit of (attempted) gallows humor aside, the linked article has a good angle: search for more information and do <em>actual research</em> rather than letting algorithmic-people filter it towards you. Caveat: this may have been more useful when that post was written in 2019 than it is in the reality of junky internet search that is 2024.</p>
<p>Reminder: <a href="https://therealadam.com/2022/12/27/think-your-thoughts/">think your own thoughts</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/14/masters-of-the.html">Masters of the space between notes</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/14/masters-of-the.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-02-14 10:00:00 -0700">Feb 14, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Virtuosity and speed are nice, in music and life. But you leave some space between the notes or slow things <em>way</em> down? Make some space in between the music for the <em>music</em> to happen? Now you’re cooking something good. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li>Aretha Franklin, the greatest of all time at making the most of the space between notes. As I’m fond of saying: there is no song Aretha Franklin could not perform slower <em>and</em> better than anyone else. Compare the tempo of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BDw-H_hUzw">Otis Redding’s <em>Respect</em></a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Itb17PXvw">Aretha’s version</a>, both recorded in the same year.</li>
<li>AC/DC, “Back In Black” or “Highway To Hell”. This is where I’d start rock and roll songwriting 101.</li>
<li>D’Angelo, “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)”. Most of his work is an exemplar, he’s a master of making songs feel <em>spacious</em>.</li>
<li>Joe Cocker, “With A Little Help From My Friends”. Take a jaunty, mid-tier Beatles song and draw it <em>way</em> out. This makes room for the huge, stacked vocals chorus. Suddenly, it’s right in the feels.</li>
</ul>
<p>Related: <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2024/01/23/the-funk-is.html">the funk is the notes you don’t play</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/02/i-love-a.html">I love a good shower-thought</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/02/02/i-love-a.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-02-02 09:30:00 -0700">Feb 2, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Regarding <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard">Leó Szilárd</a>, a theoretical physicist who first conceived of the possibilities of nuclear chain reactions, nuclear power, and nuclear weapons:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The bath was down the hall. “I remember that I went into my bath…around nine o’clock in the morning. There is no place as good to think as a bathtub. I would just soak there and think, and around twelve o’clock the maid would knock and say, ‘Are you all right, sir?’ Then I usually got out and made a few notes, dictated a few memoranda.”</p>
<p>— Richard Rhodes, Making of the Atomic Bomb</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shower thoughts, bath thoughts, lawn mowing thoughts. Great minds think alike, i.e., in similar repose.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/23/the-funk-is.html">The funk is in the notes you don’t play</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/23/the-funk-is.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-23 06:14:27 -0700">Jan 23, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Funk is unique amongst musical genres, in my perspective, due to the importance of the notes <em>you don’t play</em>. The <em>space</em> between notes, and not “shredding” every possible moment, is important in all genres. But I find that the funkiest stuff gets that way from missing expected notes and shifting expected notes to moments where they shouldn’t be.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Funk was a rhythmic system of tension and release over time, but also simultaneous tension between some players exercising maximum restraint and others exhibiting maximum expressiveness. Most of all, funk was a science of subverted expectations, syncopation taken to its ultimate destination. With funk, things weren’t always where you thought they’d be.</p>
<p>– Dan Charnas, Dilla Time</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Digital Underground, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Hlqmdfee0">Rhymin’ on the funk</a>. Recommended.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Funk not only moves, it can re-move, you dig?</p>
<p>– George Clinton, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyJzylk8d_M">P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)</a></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/21/the-lfg-called.html">The LFG called life</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/21/the-lfg-called.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-21 10:04:39 -0700">Jan 21, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>LFG: looking for game. An ad-hoc scheme, often forum-esque, where strangers looking to play an online game that lacks matchmaking find each other and coordinate starting a game.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No matter how famous they get, the forward-thinking artists of today aren’t just looking for fans or passive consumers of their work, they’re looking for potential collaborators, or co-conspirators. These artists acknowledge that good work isn’t created in a vacuum, and that the experience of art is always a two-way street, incomplete without feedback. These artists hang out online and answer questions. They ask for reading recommendations. They chat with fans about the stuff they love.</p>
<p>– Austin Kleon, <em>Show Your Work!</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is how I found so many of my online pals and past/future collaborators. The wonder of blogs, “web 2.0”, and then Twitter. We were out there posting, finding tribes, and, occasionally teammates.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/18/you-have-more.html">You have more writing material than you think</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/18/you-have-more.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-18 08:32:11 -0700">Jan 18, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Jim Nielsen, <a href="https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/blogging-and-compositing/">Blogging and Composting</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But as a byproduct of whatever you’re building you undoubtedly learned, observed, or cursed at something along the way.</p>
<p>And if you blog, you can make good use of that experience!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Show up (almost) every day, <a href="https://therealadam.com/2024/01/12/work-in-progress/">stack some drafts</a>. Write down what you learned or what surprised you or what amazed you. Sooner than you know it, you’ve got a thing going. Maybe even a thesis or long-running schtick. Works for any kind of writing, not just blogs. 📈</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/13/weekend-in-portland.html">Weekend in Portland</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/13/weekend-in-portland.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-13 16:34:51 -0700">Jan 13, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Day two: breakfast, books, public transit! Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (surprise guest: Maya Rudolph!) put on an excellent show. (Not pictured: very, very cold.)</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/3804638b-22c6-473f-ac35-eecbf17549cc-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""></p>
<p>Grits ’n Gravy. Enjoyed.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/604b1da7-9d86-42de-9836-6967943cd608-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/a8b8801f-9ef9-43b9-bb5f-93ef6e645991-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""></p>
<p>Powell’s Books. Enjoyed, transacted.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/3cc86777-77cf-4678-8127-57601d576375-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/083805ea-b50d-481f-8d0c-9489d36f2d7e-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""></p>
<p>The light rail line back to our Airbnb. It’s nice to get around sans car now and then!</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/cb50c1d8-96fa-43df-9514-1147d3286676-1-201-a.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Dinner plates say what we meant to say at Bottle and Kitchen.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/903a7fbb-81cb-46a9-8c92-18f9e8d1d70e-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/b3d39df2-8430-434d-803a-73facf84b722-1-105-c.jpeg" alt=""></p>
<p>Seeing lady comics at a concert hall, not a bad way to spend a night out of town.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/12/weekend-in-portland.html">Weekend in Portland</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/12/weekend-in-portland.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-12 15:29:10 -0700">Jan 12, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Day one, travel day. Air travel is fine. Green carpets are green. It’s cold and dreary, as expected. There may be snow. We persevere.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/4c3c1a10-b3e6-497b-8040-8780a14b627c.jpg" alt="A Boeing 737 with the good doors."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/2b31848e-b6f5-4c4c-be6b-7ba03d4d2e85.jpg" alt="That canyon is grand."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/b0c6d432-11d9-4de0-8835-f7f079544b69.jpg" alt="The SWA livery looks particularly nice against this sunset."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2024/531111de-b938-4c25-8ad9-fd088871f1ae-1-105-c.jpeg" alt="Gotta get the PDX green carpet on the social media."></p>
</div>
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<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/07/the-status-quo.html">The status quo</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/07/the-status-quo.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-07 09:55:59 -0700">Jan 7, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<blockquote>
<p>Most fascinating game there is, keeping things from staying the way they are.
– Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The status quo is a hell of a thing. Path dependence makes this a challenging game.</p>
<p>The biggest challenge you could take on in life: change it for even the slightest better. A virtuous challenge too, in an <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/">Aristotelian virtues</a> sense?</p>
</div>
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<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/02/software-makes-you.html">Software makes you more productive, otherwise it’s (weird) art</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/02/software-makes-you.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-02 15:00:00 -0700">Jan 2, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Rands in Repose, <a href="https://randsinrepose.com/archives/seven-steps-to-fixing-stalled-to-do-tasks/">Seven Steps to Fixing Stalled To-Do Tasks</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The never-ending question you must ask regarding whatever productivity system you’ve built is, “Does this system make you more productive?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The purpose of all this software is to get stuff done (make things), not to fiddle and shuffle tasks around! (This goes for individuals <em>and</em> teams, FWIW)</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/01/by-the-bullets.html">2023 by the bullets</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2024/01/01/by-the-bullets.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-01 11:06:04 -0700">Jan 1, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<ul>
<li>Places visited
<ul>
<li>Marfa, Texas</li>
<li>Las Cruces, New Mexico</li>
<li>Tucson, Arizona</li>
<li>Disney World (Orlando, Florida)</li>
<li>Disneyland (Anaheim, California)</li>
<li>Prunedale, California</li>
<li>Salinas, California</li>
<li>Monterey, California</li>
<li>Dallas, Texas</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Writers enjoyed
<ul>
<li><a href="https://craigmod.com">Craig Mod</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz">Henrik Karlsson</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Music re-discovered
<ul>
<li>John Coltrane <em>A Love Supreme</em></li>
<li>Return to Forever <em>The Mothership Returns</em></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Concerts attended
<ul>
<li>Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band,</li>
<li>Lyle Lovett and his Large Band</li>
<li>Thundercat</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>My best writing
<ul>
<li><a href="https://therealadam.wordpress.com/2023/11/09/my-summer-at-100-hertz/">My summer at 100hz</a></li>
<li><a href="https://therealadam.wordpress.com/2023/08/23/i-got-better-at-estimating-projects-with-intentional-practice/">I got better at estimating projects</a></li>
<li><a href="https://therealadam.wordpress.com/2023/04/14/err-the-blog-revisited/">Err the Blog, revisited</a></li>
<li><a href="https://therealadam.wordpress.com/2023/01/21/turn-the-pages-read-the-code-hear-the-words/">Turn the pages, read the code, hear the words</a></li>
<li><a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/02/13/natasha-lyonne-is.html">Natasha Lyonne is my generation’s Joe Pesci</a></li>
<li><a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/08/04/a-vacation-is.html">A vacation is a tool for disconnecting</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Previously revisited
<ul>
<li><a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2022/12/29/best-of.html">2022</a></li>
<li><a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2021/12/31/my-favorites-of.html%0A">2021</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/12/28/lowkey-toolsforthought.html">Low-key tools-for-thought</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/12/28/lowkey-toolsforthought.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-12-28 09:27:37 -0700">Dec 28, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I have an elaborate, perhaps baroque, setup of journals, notes, tasks, highlights, read-it-laters, feeds, and canvases-for-thinking. I consider it a crucial, and very idiosyncratic, piece of “knowledge worker infrastructure”. Furthermore, I don’t think I could handle a lot of the work and projects that I do, to the extent that I do, without it.</p>
<p>But, I hope that constructing such a scheme, and doing all the time intensive background research and tinkering, is not something <em>everyone</em> would have to expend effort on to think better and more clearly.</p>
<p>My hunch here is that the software bundled with iOS/iPadOS/macOS is <em>very close</em> to allowing folks who just want to remember and brainstorm get started <em>immediately</em>. Currently, a couple of elements are missing. This means you have to hit the third-party ecosystem escape hatch and consider a <em>daunting</em> variety of applications, workflows, and identity/quasi-religions.</p>
<p>Herein, a wishlist of system-level capabilities that would make macOS an even better “bicycle for the mind”.</p>
<hr>
<p>In any old macOS app, I want to highlight text (mostly) with any pointer (mouse, stylus, finger) on any device (laptop, tablet, phone) and capture/promote text. I may want to add my commentary or notes too. Afterward, I should be able to search for this in Spotlight, at the least. Even better if the whole document/page/file/etc. the text came from is indexed, so I can find highlights despite imperfect memory.</p>
<p>macOS already extracts contacts and events from plain text. Faces are identified in photos. Why not make text excerpts/highlights/passages a first-class thing in the system’s information architecture?</p>
<hr>
<p>I want to identify key ideas, concepts, people, and other nouns, so I can hyperlink between them <em>and</em> navigate them in <em>something</em> like the Finder.</p>
<p>This verbs-and-nouns concept was key to AppleScript. I’ve read that it was part of the conceptual bedrock of NeXTStep, but I haven’t found more than a few passing sentences on that.</p>
<p>Why not carry that idea forward or rediscover it on macOS? Some folks want to do more than scroll, post, and transact.</p>
<hr>
<p>Notes and Journal, along with Finder and Spotlight, seem <em>very close</em> to checking all the boxes here. 🤷🏻♂️I don’t use those apps, so I’m wildly speculating here. Out over my skis, as they say. That said, this is <em>so close</em> to the core of what you really need to do next-level, thinking-augmented-by-computers.</p>
<p>Even though I use very particular apps, I feel like Apple has the right foundations here. A journal app for capturing ideas, reflections, and life as it happens. A notes app for putting structure and organization around the ideas that emerge from those moments. Tie it together with search to resurface and rediscover those journals and notes.</p>
<p>A fellow can dream, right?</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/12/18/ia-writer-and.html">iA Writer and AI</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/12/18/ia-writer-and.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-12-18 11:30:00 -0700">Dec 18, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p><a href="https://ia.net/topics/writing-with-ai">Writing with AI</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Writing is not about getting letters on a page. It’s not about getting done with text. It’s finding a clear and simple expression for what we feel, mean, and want to express. Writing is thinking with letters. Usually we do this alone. With AI, you write in dialogue. It comes with a chat-interface, after all. So, don’t just write commands, talk to it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://ia.net/topics/ia-writer-7">iA Writer</a>’s integration is the first use of LLMs I’ve seen that I’d consider original. They didn’t slap on a chat interface where one wasn’t needed. It’s not autocomplete-but-smarter.</p>
<p>Instead, they show authorship/origin of text as either human or machine-generated. As you edit out the AI machine’s writing, the text visually and literally becomes more your own creation. You engage in dialog with the machine and use that to <em>improve</em> your thinking. The machine doesn’t think for you. Bravo!</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/12/17/celebrate-the-van.html">Celebrate the van Beethoven guy</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/12/17/celebrate-the-van.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-12-17 14:00:00 -0700">Dec 17, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>It’s Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthday. Here are a few ways to celebrate the old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_conduction">piano-biter</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>small: try his <em>other</em> famous piano sonata, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrcOcKYQX3c&t=53s">No. 8 “Pathetique”</a></li>
<li>medium: try the third movement of <a href="https://youtu.be/3TiYGxOQDYw?si=WJ42kOZS5l65TMfX&t=1658">Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”</a>, wherein the transition from the slow/middle movement into the final/fast movement is a brilliant sneak attack</li>
<li>large: the pretty good (but mid-tier for Beethoven, IMO) Symphony <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkP33esCi5g">No. 3 “Eroica”</a> aka the one where he wrote a piece for Napoleon but got mad and renamed it at the last minute</li>
<li>extra-large: the symphony that changed the game, <a href="https://youtu.be/rOjHhS5MtvA?si=hejnghb61LT23WLM&t=57">Symphony No. 9</a> (the Ode to Joy one)</li>
</ul>
<p>Previously: <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2021/11/28/great-albums-beethoven.html">Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 7 and 8</a> are top-tier, <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2022/01/26/beethovens-symphonies-visualized.html">Beethoven’s symphonies visualized</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/26/everythings-a-draft.html">Everything’s a draft</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/26/everythings-a-draft.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-11-26 11:01:14 -0700">Nov 26, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<blockquote>
<p>Publish pretty much everything you write because you can’t predict what is going to be popular. There is a lower bar for quality, but barring dishonesty and literally unreadable prose, everything else should go out somewhere. Incompleteness is no excuse. Publish the first part now and the other parts later.</p>
<p>– Kent Beck, <a href="https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/publish-everything-pretty-much">Publish Everything</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Get the idea out there, especially if it feels like there’s depth to explore but you can’t full traverse it in the moment. And, reduce friction to sharing the promising drafts!</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/23/listening-november.html">Listening, November 2023</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/23/listening-november.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-11-23 11:38:11 -0700">Nov 23, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
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<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/17/you-cant-read.html">You can’t read the whole internet, so put your energy into something that matters to you</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/17/you-cant-read.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-11-17 11:52:03 -0700">Nov 17, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Oliver Burkeman, <a href="https://www.oliverburkeman.com/river">Treat your to-read pile like a river</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To return to information overload: this means treating your “to read” pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don’t feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because there aren’t an overwhelming number of them, but because it never occurred to you that it might be your job to get through them all.</p>
<p>I like to think of it as the productivity technique to beat all productivity techniques: finally internalizing the implications of the fact that what’s genuinely impossible – the clue is in the name! – cannot actually be done.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You cannot actually read, process, and comment upon the whole internet, or even your little corner of interesting discourse. But, you can click “Mark All As Read” and move on. River-of-news style timelines automate marking items unread instead of automating bringing you the good stuff. <a href="https://reederapp.com">Reeder</a> and <a href="https://www.newsblur.com/">NewsBlur</a> have options for it. I bet others do too. <a href="https://austinkleon.com/2021/09/28/rewinding-your-attention/">Reclaim your attention</a>!</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, most advice on productivity and time management takes the needle-in-a-haystack approach instead. It’s about becoming more efficient and organised, or better at prioritising, with the implied promise that you might thereby eliminate or disregard enough of life’s unimportant nonsense to make time for the meaningful stuff. To stretch a metaphor: it’s about reducing the size of the haystack, to make it easier to focus on the needle.</p>
<p>There’s definitely a role for such techniques; but in the end, the only way to deal with a too-many-needles problem is to confront the fact that it’s insoluble – that you definitely won’t be fitting everything in.</p>
<p>It’s not a question of rearranging your to-do list so as to make space for all your “big rocks”, but of accepting that there are simply too many rocks to fit in the jar. You have to take a stab at deciding what matters most, among your various creative passions/life goals/responsibilities – and then do that, while acknowledging that you’ll inevitably be neglecting many other things that matter too.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m guilty here! All the best in task management, getting things done, note-taking, journal writing, and even <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/11/01/saying-no-is.html">saying no</a> won’t get the work done. I have to take the gift of clarity and focus generated by all these routines, and <em>do that “big rock” important thing</em>. I have to find peace with the trade-off of doing one thing instead of all the other exciting things.</p>
<p>Or, maybe <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/11/16/smaller-barriers-to.html">generative AIs</a> will provide Walt Disney-like agency to direct and sustain diverse projects outside my expertise with Imagineering-quality output. Wouldn’t it be nice!</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/16/smaller-barriers-to.html">Smaller barriers to entry, bigger possibilities</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/16/smaller-barriers-to.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-11-16 08:40:04 -0700">Nov 16, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>James Somer, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/20/a-coder-considers-the-waning-days-of-the-craft">A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft | The New Yorker</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In chess, which for decades now has been dominated by A.I., a player’s only hope is pairing up with a bot. Such half-human, half-A.I. teams, known as centaurs, might still be able to beat the best humans and the best A.I. engines working alone. Programming has not yet gone the way of chess. But the centaurs have arrived. GPT-4 on its own is, for the moment, a worse programmer than I am. Ben is much worse. But Ben plus GPT-4 is a dangerous thing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/14/a-coder-considers-the-waning-days-of-the-craft/">Simon Willison on the same</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think AI assisted programming is going to shave a lot of the frustration off learning to code, which I hope brings many more people into the fold</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We’ve entered the age of AI-powered coding, writing, speaking, and painting centaurs.</p>
<p>If we play our cards right, we will lower barriers to entry <em>and</em> raise the ceiling of possibility to new levels. If more people can <em>create</em> in mediums that are considered specializations now, that <em>might</em> open allow experts to go deeper in their specialization or branch out into areas that were inaccessible without compromising their specialization.</p>
<p>The idea of a dilettante, a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge, might become acute or obsolete. We might end up with a new level of “yuck that looks some amateurish and <em>generated</em>”. Or we might end up with reviews like “the artist deftly combines generated and hand-drawn sketches with procedurally generated music modeled on their own previous album <em>I Play Pianos, By Hand, Like Duke Did</em>”.</p>
<p>Of course, we’ve heard this story before and famed economist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes">Keynes</a> is (infamous?) for predicting mechanical automation would all have us exploring our favorite hobbies at this point. So, we gotta play our cards right.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/01/saying-no-is.html">Saying No is the first step</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/11/01/saying-no-is.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-11-01 05:49:09 -0700">Nov 1, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Ryan Holiday, <a href="https://ryanholiday.net/36-lessons-on-the-way-to-36-years-old/">35 and 34, 36 Lessons on the Way to 36 Years Old</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As part of that, I made the difficult decision to call my publisher to push my next book a year or so. This was a massive clearance on my schedule—several hours a day did not have to be spent researching and writing on a project. Yet it was remarkable how little my life changed. Because tasks expand to fill the space, because it is so easy to say yes to other things. <em>Less</em> demands vigilance and discipline, perhaps even more effort than actually doing stuff.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reward for saying no feels like saying yes to a more important thing. But you still need decision discipline after that first “no”.</p>
<p>Whenever I’ve heard things like “the key to serene focus and productivity is saying no more often”, it often seems like saying “no, thanks” on projects and potential work is the top of the hill. Like it’s all downhill to doing great work from there. Say no, they say, puts you on easy street to writing the great American novel/album/YouTube channel/large language model.</p>
<p>Alas, saying no is not one weird trick for exercising all of your decision-making and discipline in one crucial moment. Making great stuff requires many small moments of saying no. Say no to looking up that frivolous fact. Say no to the pull of social media. Say no to taking a day off your habit of making great stuff. Say no to that Oreo cookie. ☹️</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/10/24/the-point-of.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-24 08:28:08 -0700">Oct 24, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>The point of a commonplace notebook is not to generate immediate enlightenment. Writing a quote or idea now is the tip of the iceberg. The real insight comes when reviewing commonplace notes later and the dots start to connect themselves. That’s when the galaxy brain kicks in and the magic happens.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/10/24/my-promise-to.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-24 05:19:14 -0700">Oct 24, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>My promise to you, and the world: I will never call anything a “rig”. No matter how much people want to read about it, or how many hours I invest in it. Even if it is a car or musical equipment or an RV or something that is literally “a rig”. No matter how rigged up it is, I will find a way to dance around the word. Do unto others as they would do unto you, as they say.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/10/13/the-pace-youre.html">The pace you’re reading is the right pace for you to read</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/10/13/the-pace-youre.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-13 08:12:02 -0700">Oct 13, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Ted Gioia, <a href="https://www.honest-broker.com/p/my-lifetime-reading-plan">My Lifetime Reading Plan</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>IT’S OKAY TO READ SLOWLY</strong></p>
<p>I tell myself that, because I am not a fast reader.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By his accounts, Gioia is a prolific and thorough reader. And yet, a self-proclaimed non-speed-reader.</p>
<p>You don’t have to read super-fast if you’re always reading whatever is right for you at the moment. Doubly so if you’re deeply/actively reading, searching for understanding or assimilating ideas into your own mental arena.</p>
<p>Once more for the slow readers, like myself, in the back: it’s fine, just keep reading!</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/10/02/aristotles-ethical-means.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-02 05:34:42 -0700">Oct 2, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p><a href="https://austinkleon.com/2023/05/16/virtue-is-in-between-vices/">Aristotle’s ethical means of virtue and vice</a> but for creative work:</p>
<ul>
<li>Winning is the mean between moving the goal-lines to finish and not finishing due to non-constructive goal-lines</li>
<li>Quality is the mean between piles of incomplete junk and one or two overwrought ideas</li>
<li>Taste is the mean between copying and invention in a vacuum of influences</li>
<li>Flow is the mean between distraction and idleness</li>
<li>Iteration is the mean between doing it once because you nailed it and doing it once because you gave up</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/09/23/stop-writing.html">Stop writing</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/09/23/stop-writing.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-09-23 13:30:08 -0700">Sep 23, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>George Saunders on <a href="https://georgesaunders.substack.com/p/office-hours-8e8">getting past self-critical/low-energy writing spirals</a> (aka one of the many forms of writer’s block):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Another thing I sometimes suggest is this: stop writing. That is, stop doing your “real” writing. Yank yourself out of your usual daily routine. Instead, today, off the top of your head, write one sentence. Don’t think about what it should be about, or any of that. Just slap some crazy stuff down on the page. (Or it can be sane stuff. The “slapping down” is the key.) Print it out. Then, go do something else and, over the next 24 hours, do your best not to give that sentence a single thought.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The complete method, in my own words:</p>
<ul>
<li>Start with a sentence, nothing in particular. Just start.</li>
<li>Return to that sentence daily, making additions or changes that feel right.</li>
<li>As the thing grows from a sentence to a paragraph and so on, spend more time with it. But don’t sweat the magnitude of the output. A trivial punctuation change is “a good day’s work”.</li>
<li>Get bolder in the changes. Do what you prefer and don’t worry about why it is you gravitate towards that particular change.</li>
<li>Resist the urge to switch from working on an exercise to working your routine/process. Keep growing it instinctively.</li>
<li>Eventually you have a whole story/essay/whatever written this way and you’re happy to do something with it.</li>
<li>Now you are un-stuck.</li>
</ul>
<p>(Am I using this post to get past a lull in publishing? Yes.)</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/27/i-wonder-how.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-27 15:00:10 -0700">Aug 27, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I wonder how Vonnegut might have coped with the <em>acceleration of change</em> we cope with in our modern dilemma.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s just a hell of a time to be alive, is all—just this goddamn messy business of people having to get used to new ideas. And people just don’t, that’s all. I wish this were a hundred years from now, with everybody used to the change.</p>
<p>– Kurt Vonnegut, <em>Player Piano</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>He wrote so much about time, traversing it and getting unstuck in it, that I think he might have shrugged and stuck to an earlier motif: So it goes.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/13/i-dropped-in.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-13 08:45:21 -0700">Aug 13, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I dropped in on historic races (the newest cars were 30 years old) at Laguna Seca. It’s great to see the track at scale, not as video-game or television camera angle. I watched practice sessions from the grand stand, heard the and watched the cars rip by at competitive speeds.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/image-8-13-23-8-35-am.png" alt="A very green Porsche 911 race car and a 70s era Porsche prototype racecar"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/image-8-13-23-8-35-am-1.png" alt="A BMW Alpina CSL race car in a very striking orange and green Jäegermeister livery"></p>
<p>I walked the paddock and infield. So many good cars to see. Felt the energy of mechanics getting cars, sometimes older than me, ready to go fast on track. I smelled a lot of gasoline and oil.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/image-8-13-23-8-35-am-2.png" alt="One of the Ferrari F1 cars Niki Lauda raced and a Ford GT40 in a dark blue and orange non-traditional Gulf livery"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/image-8-13-23-8-41-am.png" alt="A slant-nose 911 race car and a striking Spyder LeMans race car in Porsche-Martini livery"></p>
<p>It was a good day.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/11/this-is-where.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-11 07:11:18 -0700">Aug 11, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>This is where we live, for a few days. I’m hoping “little adventures” like this are a nice compliment to <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/08/04/a-vacation-is.html">vacations</a>. Perhaps the former creates new mental connections and the latter are about disconnecting to consider and build upon existing connections.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/d02c705a0f.jpeg" alt="An older RV parked in Northern California."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/8fe88e100c.jpeg" alt="A row of RVs at a dog agility event."></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/05/now-a-truth.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-05 14:03:11 -0700">Aug 5, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<blockquote>
<p>“Now a truth,” said the judge. “The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings,” said Paul, “not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems.”</p>
<p>– Kurt Vonnegut, <em>Player Piano</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>We’re here to do human things: create for each other, love our friends and family, support our communities, experience and protect our world.</p>
<p>A life serving only algorithms wrought by corporations<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>, engaged with organizations that care more about themselves than their people, or partaking in eco-cultural regimes that disregard our humanity are not worth pursuing.</p>
<section class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p>IOW, don’t throw your whole existence into being a content creator, folks. <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</section>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/04/a-vacation-is.html">A vacation is a tool for disconnecting</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/04/a-vacation-is.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-04 09:54:43 -0700">Aug 4, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I’m reflecting<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> on travelogue’ing my <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/07/30/rule-is-you.html">recent</a> <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/07/31/rule-is-you.html">trip</a> <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/08/01/wherein-favorite-franchises.html">to</a> <a href="https://short.therealadam.com/2023/08/02/many-parts-of.html">Disneyland</a>. In particular, that it was effective at taking my mind off work while maintaining creative writing and publishing habits.</p>
<p>Lately, I find myself dwelling on work too much or noodling through various puzzles I’m trying to solve. I would rather not bring that with me on vacation. What I removed and what I replaced those thoughts with went pretty well! For my own memory, and perhaps dear reader’s benefit:</p>
<p><strong>Allow plenty of moments to just exist</strong>. Listen, enjoy where you are. Engage with the folks you’re vacationing with, presuming they’re not in a phone-bubble. Try to put the phone away after you mindlessly open it out of boredom. Cultivate the moments of boredom, if you can.</p>
<p><strong>Don’t look at feeds</strong> like Slack, Discord, socials, etc. I took the extra step of removing Slack from my phone entirely. It’s easier to remove it entirely and re-add each Slack later than to try to ignore particular instances whenever I find myself mindlessly opening the app. Read a lot, ideally longer form things chosen beforehand. Again: ignore the feeds of people hustling or trying to get their ideas into my attention. Think your own thoughts!</p>
<p><strong>Replace all those feeds and work-think with written and photographic journaling.</strong> Look for photography opportunities, even if you’re not particularly good at it (yet). Write in a journal, daily, even if you’re not good at it (yet). Write about what you’ve photographed, about whatever you’re thinking while disconnected, about that conversation you just had or the novel thing you just saw/did.</p>
<p><strong>If you want to share via social networks, do it once a day.</strong> I posted (via micro.blog and <a href="https://ulysses.app">Ulysses</a>) a short reflection on each day. For texture, I included a quad of photos, and wrote a few sentences to reflect on my photography or day so far. Once the post is made, put the computer away and get back to reveling in disconnection.</p>
<p>YMMV, but I hope you try it!</p>
<section class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p>With apologies to Craig Mod for standing on the shoulders of <a href="https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/116/">A Walk is a Platform for Creative Work</a>. <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</section>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/03/a-pretty-ideal.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-03 17:50:35 -0700">Aug 3, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>A pretty ideal travel day: start at the pool, wait in the breeze and shade, depart from the open tarmacs of tiny Long Beach Airport.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/15ec6988-ae71-4a7d-ae05-e76d43a44d3b.jpeg" alt="Chillin by the hot tub"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/3e829f2206.jpeg" alt="Luggage and comfy couches in the Disneyland Hotel breezeway "></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/14dbad8e42.jpeg" alt="Looking up a Southwest Boeing 737 from the gate at LGB"></p>
<p>Not pictured: returning to the searing heat of central Texas. 😬🙃🫠</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/02/many-parts-of.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-02 17:31:58 -0700">Aug 2, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Many parts of Disneyland are ridiculously easy to photograph.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/draggedimage.jpeg" alt="Pixar Pier in the golden hour. The Incredicoaster and Fun Wheel reflect on the pool in the foreground."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/draggedimage-1.jpeg" alt="Radiator Springs at night. The Cozy Cone Motel and Flo’s V8 cafe neon glow against the night sky."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/draggedimage-2.jpeg" alt="Radiator Springs lit up at night. Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters on the left."></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/draggedimage-3.jpeg" alt="Fantasyland overlooking Storybook and the Matterhorn in the early morning."></p>
<p>Particularly at dusk and night, and for folks (like me) with very rudimentary photography skills. I’m pretty convinced this is one of the myriad details the Imagineers wrangle as they design these parks.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/08/01/wherein-favorite-franchises.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-08-01 14:56:51 -0700">Aug 1, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Wherein favorite franchises are done</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/55ef768e-78b1-4b87-a686-0770494ba10f.jpeg" alt="A topiary of a Formula One car"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/1aa4f1c5-a1c5-4992-8294-71d5c3985f38.jpeg" alt="Pre-ride with Rey and BB-8"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/154dfb00-7267-4b3a-882a-0ffe322a2a75.jpeg" alt="A relatively quiet moment at Oga’s cantina"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/d870bea0-e5a0-4472-a6d3-895dc48ad88e.jpeg" alt="Movie poster for the speculative “The Chipmunk Trap” in a ride queue"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/31/rule-is-you.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-31 19:17:53 -0700">Jul 31, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Rule #1 is you a) get up early, b) ride stuff early and c) take a break in the middle of the day while (many) folks are at the parks.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/image-7-31-23-6-15-pm.png" alt="Screenshot of iPhone lock screen clock at 6:42am"></p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/image-7-31-23-6-15-pm-1.png" alt="The Disneyland Hotel resort, including Trader Sam’s, very early in the morning."></p>
<p>Roz is the unsung hero of the Monsters, Inc. franchise. Impeccable delivery, no notes.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/cded7b6d-2db0-4d6a-8236-edd79797b73c.jpeg" alt="Roz from Monsters Inc., at the end of the Disney California Adventure ride for the same franchise."></p>
<p>One of our favorites is the Animation Academy. It’s a short entertainment, wherein a cast member teaches you to draw a Disney/Pixar character in ten minutes or so. I’m not at all good at sketching, so I think it speaks volumes to the quality of the cast members that you can, maybe, tell that I’m drawing Mickey Mouse here.</p>
<p><img src="https://therealadam.micro.blog/uploads/2023/1ffa7dcf-be91-4e42-9487-f4d6df734f31.jpeg" alt="A pencil sketch of Mickey Mouse"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/30/rule-is-you.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-30 14:14:10 -0700">Jul 30, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/20/magic-ai-is.html">Magic (AI) is what we don’t (yet) understand</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/20/magic-ai-is.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-20 07:25:41 -0700">Jul 20, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<blockquote>
<p>It reflects a sound understanding of the nature of AI — as an uncredited and formless <em>modifier</em> of other technologies. One whose presence is marked by familiar behaviors having slightly magical effects.</p>
<p>– Venkatesh Rao, <a href="https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/p/magic-mundanity-and-deep-protocolization">Magic, Mundanity and Deep Protocolization</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The whole magic & AI thing. The most 2023 of vibes!</p>
<p>Yet, it remains to be seen to what extent AI will yield entirely new media, modalities, and consumption levels or if it will merely modify technology we’re already familiar with.</p>
<p>Is generative AI the iPhone (entirely new media/modality/consumption), the iPhone camera (displaces <em>and exceeds</em> existing categories), or the ability to scan QR codes with your camera to reduce transactional friction (a game changer for some that quickly fades into the background)?</p>
</div>
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<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/15/evenings-at-the.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-15 15:54:29 -0700">Jul 15, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/15/less-but-better.html">Less but better</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/15/less-but-better.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-15 12:40:58 -0700">Jul 15, 2023</time></a>
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<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/15/this-is-nice.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-15 08:18:42 -0700">Jul 15, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>This is nice. Once Over’s back patio annex is excellent.</p>
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<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/08/think-through-making.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-08 09:59:42 -0700">Jul 8, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/07/the-bear.html">The Bear</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/07/the-bear.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-07 05:53:21 -0700">Jul 7, 2023</time></a>
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<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/07/04/in-the-meantime.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-07-04 11:42:57 -0700">Jul 4, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/20/in-the-moment.html">In the moment</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/20/in-the-moment.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-06-20 07:16:36 -0700">Jun 20, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Is pessimism about the past, present, or future? If it says, “we can’t get there from here, based on where we’ve been”, it neglects the present and maybe the future.</p>
<p>Does optimism favor the future over the past or present? A smart optimist might use the past as a trend-line to the future, and seek to make the most of the present.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/18/fruitless-activities-and.html">Fruitless activities and hobbies are important!</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/18/fruitless-activities-and.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-06-18 09:01:43 -0700">Jun 18, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/12/if-this-isnt.html">"If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is"</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/12/if-this-isnt.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-06-12 05:21:20 -0700">Jun 12, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/11/monk-and-robot.html">Monk and Robot: very enjoyable chill-future vibes</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/11/monk-and-robot.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-06-11 10:08:32 -0700">Jun 11, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/07/it-sounded-like.html">"It sounded like the kick drum was played by a drunk 3-year old, and I was like ‘Are you allowed to do that?’”</a></h1>
<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/06/07/it-sounded-like.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-06-07 09:09:55 -0700">Jun 7, 2023</time></a>
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<a href="https://therealadam.micro.blog/2023/05/28/albums-is-a.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-05-28 08:34:05 -0700">May 28, 2023</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p><a href="https://www.albumstheapp.com/?ref=bb.place">Albums</a> is a great app and <a href="https://bb.place/the-best-app-for-albums/">The Best App for Albums</a> is a great review of what makes it good for music enthusiasts and/or organizational hobbyists. I don’t want to jinx it, but Albums checks a lot of boxes for me that Rdio did, back in the day.</p>
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