Medley 37: Quitting, extra letters, and drunk reverse jenga
Happy Monday! Let's jump right in.
Quitting : Derek Sivers's article on Quitting Something You Love made me seriously consider what I enjoy doing that is simultaneously holding me back. It's the main challenge with controlling your time: you can work on anything, so the 90% of projects you don't give time to is just as important as the 10% you do.
I'm starting by taking an extended break from Twitter and not reading any new books (<5 years) except by authors that I already know, but I'm going to keep thinking and see if there's anything else. I'd encourage you to think about it too. Even if you don't come up with anything, it's a good thought exercise.
Archdruid : This article on How Not to Write like an Archdruid is a great reminder of the importance of sticking to your own forms of artistic expression and not doing what "you should do." Here's my favorite passage:
"In writing as in all other things that can be learned, that process of bringing out those undeveloped potentials requires the support of rules and examples, but those are means to an end, not ends in themselves—and it’s in the space between the rules and their inevitable exceptions, between the extremes of rigid formalism and shapeless vagueness, that the work of creation takes place."
Cheap Temporary Standing Desk : Now that I'm settling in to SF, I needed to get a good standing desk. There wasn't a great space for a full work-station in our house, but I've been really impressed by this cardboard standing desk from ergodriven. It's cheap and easy to put together, everything is at the right height, and the keyboard platform is slanted down away from you which is ideal for not stressing your wrists (and not something I've seen other desks do).
Old Alphabet Letters: English used to have at least 6 other letters in it, which explains why some of our spellings and pronunciations make zero sense.
Drunk Reverse Jenga : I spent the weekend in Napa with a few friends, which eventually led to drinking $10 bottles of wine at 3am in our Airbnb playing Suspend. It's basically reverse Jenga: instead of slowly removing pieces, you try to hang as many of these metal pieces on each other without making the whole thing collapse. As you can imagine, that gets quite fun and quite hard the more wine you've had. I'd definitely recommend it if you enjoy inebriated table games.
Have a great week!
Nat