I use a RSS reader to build a river of content that I can dip my toes into, swim in, or picnic at for an entire day. What I get mostly is to improve my own imagination, and give me ideas to work on because I have few original ideas. I read more than I share, and that’s probably definitely a good thing.
Daily Reads:
Julia Evans on helping build a brag document I will be using it myself, and sharing with the folks I’ve been working with.
Nathan Baugh: Start at the end. Works for writing, and works for projects. His suggestion to copy work from your favourite author by hand, tear it apart to see why it works is a great warm up that I will recommence in 2024. The Best of 23 Workbuilders is also a compendium to several posts that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and learnt from.
Anne-Laure le Cunff of Ness Labs has earned her way into my must-reads. Her 2023 Annual Review might shed a light on why
John Durrant of Ordinary Mastery on Rules and Rulelessness
Simon Willison is another must-read, and his wrap up of the stuff we figured out about AI in 2023 will bring you mostly up-to-speed even if you didn’t know anything about it.
Rishad Tobaccowala has a blog and a podcast, and both are worthy of time. In Mind-Shi(f)t, he offers a few ideas on how to change your mind (not a bad thing, in case you’re wondering!)
Ben Werdmuller on Looking Forward to 2024 while acknowledging that it will be like the one gone by, difficult.
Richard Merrick reflecting on 2023 shares his discoveries of 3 brutal simplicities: leadership, efficiency, and belonging. Hard-hitting, as usual.
Om Malik does something more interesting than merely metrics – discover the inter-relationships between the topics he explored. I like this approach very much.
I learnt today that the symbol for section § can be typed on the Mac keyboard using Option+6. I don’t know what to do with this information yet 😆
Cal Newport on Metrics & Resolve Goal setting and time management are all prospective, in that they look boldly toward your desired future. Metrics, by contrast, are retrospective, merely leaving a record of what has already occurred. Tracking daily metrics is like a training regime for your will.
Kent Hendricks learned a lot of things in 2023.
I cherish the writings of photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward: the writing revolves around his now departed wife Rosemary. He’s been writing on his blog since 2009 or earlier, and has a wonderful away with words, as much as his mastery over the camera.
Allen Pike came bundled with the NetNewsWire app that I’ve been trying out, reading feeds on today. His November post titled "You Should Have A Research Question" grabbed me by the collar and smacked me against a wall of wasted decades. Brent Simmons, who started NetNewsWire writes why this particular software doesn’t take money from its users
Sara Campbell has the final word in Tiny Revolutions No. 106, which also makes it the quote of the day.
QOTD:
Our actions are our only belongings.
– HT: Sara Campbell, from a Buddhist treatise
Music:
This is one of my favourite tunes from the Morales Brothers that are Inka Gold, panpipes and guitar make a great vibe: El Condor Pasa