Welcome to the Blog!
This is where I write about life, programming, and other interests.
Browse recent posts below, view Tags, or subscribe via Newsletter or RSS.
Cumulative successful days, not streaks
Yesterday on the language learning app I use, I lost a streak of some 70-odd days, because I forgot to open the app. I was busy and simply forgot. And now, what was once a motivating game– to keep the number of consecutive days I've reviewed cards on the app– has the opposite effect. I don't want to start all over again.
Summary of recent reading(January-March 2021)
Diaspora by Greg Egan: Hard sci-fi about quite a few things but mostly centering around the nature of consciousness. Although it is about a number of different big ideas and spans a long, long time, the story gels together really well. A lot of the physics and maths stuff flew over my head, but the plot is followable.
Summary of recent reading(October-December 2020)
Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks: This is a book about how to tell better stories, by an award-winning Moth storyteller. The book also talks about how to find better stories from your life.
Summary of recent reading(July-September 2020)
Tiassa by Steven Brust: Part of the Vlad Taltos series. This one was really good. It is written from the perspectives of different characters in the story– not first-person like the other books in the series, but the focus shifts between different different people in each chapter, and you get to learn about other characters.
Summary of recent reading(April-June 2020)
Deep Work(Audiobook) by Cal Newport: Somewhat of a re-read. I read most of the book a few years ago but never finished it. Like most of the books in the category, most of the value from reading this book comes just from getting nudged into assessing the things you value and improving your current systems even if just by a smi...
Summary of recent reading(January-March 2020)
The Start-Up of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha: A career book by a LinkedIn cofounder. Emphasizes networking as an essential tool to advance your career; unsurprisingly advocates using LinkedIn to do this.