Weekly Musings

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

Technology and I aren't as tight as we used to be. There are more than a handful or reasons for that, some of which I outline in what you're about to read. This edition of the letter is less a flowing argument and more of a long rant. There's quite a bit I need to get off my chest about this subject, and there will be more in the future.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Criticizing Tech

A few days before putting fingers to keyboard to type out this musing, I glanced at the list of books that I planned to read and reread 2023. What struck me was that a large portion of the books on that list are about technology. Specifically, criticisms of technology.

I'm not sure how that came about, but it wasn't a deliberate course that I charted when I cobbled the list together late in the previous year. Perhaps it was an unconscious reflection of my shifting relationship with technology and the industry that spawns it. Perhaps it was a reflection of my thoughts and opinions of feelings about technology and the companies behind it.

What I've read so far in 2023 didn't merely reinforce those ideas and opinions and feelings. What was on those pages opened my eyes to new ideas and opinions as well. The books I've read expanded my thinking around tech and what it's good for, where it falls flat, and areas in which more than a handful of companies need to be held accountable for their arrogance and hubris.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

This time 'round, an idea that's been floating around in my brain for quite a while. In fact, I didn't realize that ideas was lodged in the old gray matter. The human subconscious is a wonderful thing, ain't it? And all it took to crystalize that idea was some innocuous speculation prompted by someone I know. Funny how that works.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Software Minimalism

It all started, as things like this sometimes do, with a question.

A little while before I started tapping out this edition of the letter, a friend asked which MacBook I'd buy if I was in the market for one. I'm not and probably never will be. I've used Macs at points in past and while they're solid computers, I'm just not all that impressed with them.

Pressed by said friend, my reply was that I'd get a slightly older MacBook Air — maybe of pre-2020 vintage. They were more than a bit surprised, both at my choice of the Air and that I'd buy an older one. That surprise doubled when, after being asked about what software I'd run on that laptop, I said a note taking tool like Auer Notes or Notational Velocity, a text editor, a web browser, Pandoc, and maybe couple of other small tools.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

This time 'round, something that's more thinking aloud than a fully-formed (or even mostly-formed) musing. The subject of this edition of the letter is a concept I keep coming back to every few years. It presents something of a problem, to which I've never quite found a solution that stuck. Maybe this time ...

Regardless, what you're about to read is me questioning my processes. Who knows, you might just learn something. I think I have!

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Melding Analog with Digital

Every so often, I sit down and try to rethink the ways in which I work. Nothing too radical — more tweaks than hacks or wholesale renovation. I do that partly to snap myself out of whatever funk I might be in at a given moment, and mainly to find ways to work and organize myself a bit more efficiently and effectively.

Time to do that again came 'round in early 2023. Fueled by my constantly shifting relationship with technology and by my attempts to embrace digital minimalism a bit more tightly, I started pondering how to better meld the use of pen and paper with my use of digital tools.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

What's below isn't what I intended for this week's edition of the letter. Over the last seven or so days, I've suffered from a lack of focus and have been bouncing between two or three other ideas. All of which started to collapse under the weight of unmet expectations. At a critical point, the idea for what you're about to read jumped to my frontal lobe and wouldn't leave. So here we have it.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Expertise

I'm continually amazed at what can trigger certain people. Often, that can be something innocuous — like, for example, four words in an article.

The four words I'm referring to, even though they weren't mine, came back to haunt me in a somewhat angry email in the late 2010s. My correspondent took me to task for referring to myself as an expert on open-source technology in an article for which I was interviewed. A label said person claimed I didn't deserve. I'm not sure why they thought that, but when have facts every gotten in the way of an opinion?

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

To be honest, I don't know what exactly prompted me to start writing about the subject of this edition of the letter. It's one of those ideas that every so often comes out of nowhere and grips the imagination. At least, that's how it works with me.

Just so you know, part of what you're about to read started life in my personal notebook and excerpts from those entries appear here via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On the Playlist

Ah, the playlist. It's something so simple, but also something that can bring so much joy

A playlist is so easy to create, too. A few clicks, some dragging and dropping and you get a customized, curated selection of music to suit just about any mood. As your mood changes, you can quickly jump between playlists with a click or two. Gotta love the technology ...

It's easy to forget that not so long ago, it was a bit of a chore to create a playlist. Assuming you could. Once upon a time, it took a bit of equipment to do the deed at home — equipment most folks couldn't afford or justify owning.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

This time 'round, an edition of the letter inspired by a gift I wasn't able to give. Which, in a strange way, made me consider my relationship (for lack of a better word) with the subject of what you're about to read.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Watches

Confession time: I've never been watch person, even though I have owned couple or three wrist-mounted timepieces over the span of my 50+ years on this planet.

It doesn't matter if it's a wristwatch or a smartwatch. Having a compact time-keeping device strapped to my wrist just never felt comfortable or natural. And I always worried about accidentally banging my watches against something. Something as solid, or more so, than the watch itself. To be honest, I couldn't deal with the thought of the potential damage.

I have friends, though, who are passionate about watches. Both as collectors and as wearers of them in everyday life. I swear some of them have watches for every day of the week or just about every occasion ... For them, watches are both practical and objects of desire and admiration. Even if they don't wear all of them, their watches are part of their lives, part of their personalities.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

Last week, I was combing through my files for ... well, something when I stumbled upon a folder containing drafts of various short essays that I started I don't remember how long ago. One of those drafts, of the musing you're about to read, grabbed my focus and wouldn't let go. So, I popped it open in a text editor and finished the last third of it.

(And, if some of this edition of the letter seems familiar, a small part of what you're about to read was used in Musing 058.)

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Visiting Hiroshima

It was a late winter day in 1991 when I stepped off the shinkansen at Hiroshima station. A bite of chill still lingered in the air, but the day was bright and clear. Only a few clouds dotted the sky, and the sun shone on the gray of the city.

Following in the footsteps of just about every visitor to this part of Japan, I was making the required pilgrimage to Hiroshima. The city that intaglio'd the horrors wrought by nuclear weapons into the collective minds and memories of several generations around the world. But unlike many of those pilgrims, I wouldn't be in the city on August 6^th, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. That was a deliberate choice.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

It feels like it's been longer than two weeks since the last edition of the letter. After the events of the last couple of week, I'm gradually getting back into the groove of things. It's going to be a few more weeks before I'm able to get back to my full, regular routine.

This time 'round, a slightly different edition of the letter. One that's a bit more personal, and which focuses on both a revelation and how I've come to accept and even embrace that revelation.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Being a Poly-Not

It seems that every year, something is declared the thing to learn. I can remember years when that thing was how to code and how to cook. And, a bit more recently, to learn another language.

I wonder how many people took up that challenge. And, of those who jumped or just dipped a few toes in, I wonder how many carried on.. Not just for that year, but afterwards. Much to the chagrin of a few people in my circle, and even after their usual cajoling, I wasn't one of those newly-enthusiastic language learners. Why? By then, I'd realized that I was a poly-not and that any efforts in those areas wouldn't be the best use of my time.

The first time I heard the term poly-not was sometime between 2007 and 2011. A good friend, exasperated with on my complete lack of facility and ability around learning other languages, half jokingly directed that term at me. I laughed louder than he did, and still find the term worth the occasional chuckle. Or, at least, crack a small smile.

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Musings, where each Wednesday I share some thoughts about what's caught my interest in the last seven days.

And welcome to the 200^th edition of the letter! While that's something of a milestone, it's also business as usual. Thank you for sticking with me through a double century of these little emails.

As for what you're about to read, it's a bit longer than usual and a bit of a change of pace. The topic is one that has been becoming more relevant to me in recent years, and will for you before you expect it.

There won't be an edition of the letter landing in your inbox next week. I'm having some minor surgery and will be taking a few days to rest and recover. We'll be back to our regularly-scheduled schedule on April 5^th.

With that out of the way, let's get to this week's musing.

On Getting Older

In mid-2022, a friend and I were riffing about meeting up in a city to which he'd never been and which we both want to spend some time exploring. During our back and forth, I half jokingly mentioned that since my 60^th birthday is only a few years away, we should meet up then — a journey to Tokyo would make a great birthday gift to myself.