🎥 How Minimalism Got Toxic: The Dark Side - Internet Impact - YouTube

A great video about the issues around minimalism. It’s funny how I remember people discussing many of these issues back in the early 2010s. I actually think it would be fun to see a “world’s worst minimalist” and highlight the values of seeking enough rather than less. Messy house, not chasing the usual goals, having fun. (Although, if I were really doing the second, I probably wouldn’t share it on social media.)

We really have to appreciate the irony’s in life like the people who say we must live our lives for ourselves…but end up being lead by the comments and algorithims.

A critique - they critique the minimalists for how much they make each month from their patreons but that ignores the costs of their operation. This may still be a fair critique but they need to actually crunch the numbers for that.

Sometimes I just love the irony that “think outside the box” has become a cliche.

Happy Monday morning. I took a proper sabbath yesterday and feel great! 10/10 would recommend.

Blue in Green gets better every time I listen to it.

It was 17c yesterday…it’s snowing today. And it’s spring?

Micro:blog idea: I’d love a way to filter my timeline to just see links to longer articles.

I’m working on cleaning up my pages a bit. First task was the tools page where I’ve removed some old items, added some new ones and fixed some links. I still need to update my pens and apps though!

A journaling experiment I'm trying to help improve my patience

I’ve been less patience recently.

It’s been a growing issue since my daughter learned the word “why” and now her brother is “stealing attention” from her, at least from her perspective.

Blaming my situation is the easy and half-true option.

While I certain have some extra pressures, these are an opportunity for me to demonstrate greater patience. Plus I can always choose my response to even the worse situation. And that’s where my journaling experiment comes in.

A journaling prompt for patience

“What are some situations that typically trigger impatience in you? How can you prepare and respond more calmly in these situations?”

I stumbled upon this journal prompt yesterday and started to write out my answers.

As soon as I did, I saw some common trends in my triggers. But more importantly I noticed that the solutions had even more in common.

Accepting the situation as it is

Mentally preparing for the situations

Taking actions to prevent those situations from arising.

I still need to see how I actually live these ideas out and I’m journaling every day to track what happens, but I’m hopeful. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I spent most of the evening looking for my Apple Pencil. It seems it’s really gone. My top theory is my son put it in the bin (as he’s been doing recently) and we didn’t notice. I’m still holding out some hope to find it though.

On boring blogs not brand sites.

Today I came across a writer with a boring site.

He has a single profile picture at the top along with links to navigate to his various writings and podcastings.

It was wonderful. I was soon on a wikipedia-like spelunking trip through his various article.

His site feels like such a breath of fresh air in an age of full page cover images with email popup forms. Admittedly, the depth of articles he has written helps a lot. And I’m publishing this on Micro.blog where this kind of design is the norm.

While there is a place for the website with landing page, I’m grateful that some people still publishing on boring blogs.

Started reading: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

3 Quick Journaling Prompts That I Keep Coming Back To

I am not a consistent journaler.

Over the last 8 years, I’ve tried lots of different system with varying degrees of success, but every time I keep the habit going, I gain a lot from it.

In my experiments, I’ve found three prompts which have helped me more than any others. So I thought I’d share them with you.

What’s on your mind? - answer this often reveals a hidden fear.

What are you grateful for? - this shifts my perspective to one of gratitude.

What would make today great? - it often does take much, but this prompt helps me improve my days.

There you have it, 3 quick prompts that you may find valuable.

I’d love to hear any prompts you’ve found beneficial.

I can predict someone’s views on Twitter with about 85% accuracy based on whether they have a blue checkmark next to their name. It goes up if it’s not a legacy one.

An increasingly useful rule of thumb I’ve found:

The side with nuance is probably the right side.

Every time I find someone lay down an absolute rule (no ifs or buts) it usually means they haven’t thought it through.

Ironically, this is an absolutely statement so my rules says it’s wrong :P

This is me.

If you’d like to make sketchnotes but have never given it a go, I’d love to know what holds you back. (Or what held you back before you started).

For me:

  • I hated my drawings
  • I had no idea how to make things fit in the limited space.
  • Freeform doc on Mac “What on earth is this mess of half images”.
  • Same freeform doc on iPad “Oh hello useful collaboration document with pictures, drawings, links and more.”

Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz was made with a drum synth preset

I remember hearing that the drums on Umbrella by Rhianna are a default garageband set. Great examples of take advantage of creative help.

I used to have my streamdeck mini setup so I could pull up my obsidian daily note with a button and save a web page with a click. Somewhere along the way I lost those shortcuts so I guess I need to recreate them again.

A major strength and weakness of obsidian is that you make the structure.

  • The strength is that makes you think about the ideas you save.
  • The weakness is that slows down quick capture and can lead to more time organizing than using. I’m starting to think that maybe I need a separate app for capture, bookmarking and then use obsidian as an idea / essay factory.