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Finds & Thoughts

2022-01-16

Just finished reading Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers and enjoyed it at least as much as Your Music and People. Great collection of articles, including some of my favorites by Derek, like Actions, not words, reveal our real values, Subtract, Disconnect, Everything is my fault, My favorite fable, Parenting : Who is it really for?, and I'm a very slow thinker, among others.

2022-01-16

Harder, easier and more convenient by Seth Godin – the aspiration to ever more convenience is often faulty.

2022-01-09

Taschenhirn.de: Knowledge database containing lots of interesting data in the form of lists organized into different categories (German only).

2021-12-20

I hate Ashtanga Yoga. And I love it.

2021-12-18

Rediscovered two good posts by Zach Holman (and, well, Zach Holman himself): Keeping a Journal and My Favorite Tweet. Also, Text Snippets. Boom.

2021-11-13

Finished reading Your Music and People by Derek Sivers and loved it, though I am not even a musician myself!

2021-11-13

I love beautiful hand-crafted web sites. Examples: sive.rs, mlaine.sdfeu.org.

2021-10-21

“...which components of what aspects of the many things making up our lives at any point are worth noting in some external fashion, and which can be left undocumented?” – The question Colin Wright is asking in his newsletter article Documentation, and a question I am pondering as well.

2021-10-03

High school and university students have designed and built a LEGO model of the detector of the ALICE experiment at CERN, consisting of about 16,000 LEGO bricks – highly impressive!

2021-09-23

Roden 059 – Stupid Life Tricks by Craig Mod contains a thoughtful piece on the ever-present distractions of our phones and their consequences – a pressing and, in my opinion, still underrated issue of our time. In particular, it cites an expressive passage from the recent article Picturing the Humanity and Dread of the Infinite Scroll by Jia Tolentino, and refers to an interesting Aziz Ansari interview, Aziz Ansari on Quitting the Internet, Loneliness, and Season 3 of Master of None. Finally, it mentions two great articles by Craig himself, The Glorious, Almost-Disconnected Boredom of My Walk in Japan and How I Got My Attention Back – both must-reads.

2021-09-13
My advice (for what it's worth) for success and happiness: Compete with yourself and root for everybody else.
Candice Millard, Tweet on 2021-04-17
2021-09-08

Wise advice: Make Sure You Write Down Everything Interesting That You Find.

2021-09-08

Beautiful article: Long, Boring Walks by Craig Mod.

2021-09-07

Can we please establish a universal code of conduct stating that no smartphones are to be used at the dining table?

2021-09-07

Instead by Seth Godin. A few additions:

Instead of overeating, stop when still feeling slightly hungry.

Instead of exclaiming “I knew it!”, remain silent.

Instead of rushing to the next to-do, sit still for a few moments.

2021-09-06
Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.
Mitch Albom, “The Time Keeper”

(Related recent article by Chris Guillebeau: Time Anxiety Is the Most Pressing Problem of Our Age)

2021-08-29
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
Stephen Vincent Benét
2021-08-08

Rediscovering the joy of cycling.

2021-08-08

Two very convenient shell aliases for copying the primary X selection to the system clipboard and vice versa:

alias primary2clip='xsel -p | xsel -i -b'
alias clip2primary='xsel -b | xsel -i -p'

Alternatively, using xclip instead of xsel:

alias primary2clip='xclip -o -selection primary | xclip -i -selection clipboard'
alias clip2primary='xclip -o -selection clipboard | xclip -i -selection primary'

See X is for the X Selection: Copy and Paste on Linux (Shallow Thoughts) for more information.

2021-08-06

Once again, I find myself fascinated by the miracles and history of the Laocoon Group.

2021-08-04

In recent years, I have become increasingly aware of the profound effects of walking. Many ideas occur to me while walking, and to me, walking – especially in solitude in nature – is a very calming and contemplative activity. How Walking Fosters Creativity: Stanford Researchers Confirm What Philosophers and Writers Have Always Known is another interesting article on this subject, focusing on the connection between walking and creativity. In particular, it cites the wonderful book “A Philosophy of Walking” by Frédéric Gros.

2021-08-04

The renovated Twin Gable House, designed by Ryan Leidner, is truly amazing with its light-flooded, minimalist interior and beautiful inner courtyard.

2021-08-03

Every completed Ashtanga practice is a little victory.

2021-07-30

What does it mean to be a leader? Leaders make people better. Applies to leading yourself as well.

2021-07-11

Installed OpenBSD 6.9. A big thanks to the developers for what so far looks like another great release!

2021-07-04

Acting yourself into motivation is much more effective than thinking yourself into motivation or waiting for motivation to occur.

2021-06-28

Slowly getting used to using the Spleen font in the terminal.

2021-06-20

New website is live! Here's why.

2021-05-23

A good habit to form: Reading in A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy every day.

2021-05-14

How to Write: why jotting things into notebooks improves your writing – I fully agree.

2021-05-06

Yes – This is the Mindset For Life.

2021-05-02

Switched from Vim to nvi. Vim started to feel too bloated.

2021-05-01

OpenBSD 6.9 released – the 50th OpenBSD release!