Typically lists are sorted alphabetically. How to be first on the list? You either need to be born with a name starting with the letter “A” (DONE!), or come up with a nickname, site name or something else starting with… a symbol (!@#).

Example from my RSS aggregator. I subscribed to the blog arseny.page and it immediately proudly took first place. Of course! I don’t know if the author did this intentionally or not, but it’s funny. By the way, I’m still in the top three (and yes, I signed myself up - of course)! And I finally understood why 37signals at one time returned the name. ;-)

P.S. Judging by the screenshot, it’s been a while since I watched what’s new!

I’ve been interested in filmmaking for about two years. Sometimes a film needs high-quality recorded sound - for example, a thunderstorm, the noise of passing cars, a siren or something else. Typically, a film maker (musician, game designer, podcaster, etc.) follows pre-prepared links in search of a suitable sound. Or searches Google for a query such as “train sound.”

I do that too. But I’m interested in finding sound in the world around me and recording it myself. Having control over every part of your product is a very rewarding feeling. I know where the sound was recorded, I know all the technical nuances and restrictions, and I have full rights to use it. Yes, there are an infinite number of “train sounds”, but mine is unique because I paid attention, spent energy and time to record it.

In childhood, many different events happened - everything was new, everything was for the first time, everything was interesting. But the older we get, the more “flat” and monotonous life feels. It seems that now there is little surprise, but a lot of routine. You may well remember the moment you met a peer on that cozy winter evening in the schoolyard twenty-five years ago, but you don’t remember the topic of an interesting conversation with a friend two months ago or the delight of yesterday’s sunset.

People strive to diversify their lives, to make it brighter and richer, but if you turn around and look back, everyone will see a dark, calm river. Life flows, but we do not remember its moments.

Looking at childhood, we understand that we have become better. Growth and development are noticeable in the comparison of the current and previous moments (retrospective).

Here’s what I wrote about this in my regular note 2024-05-19:

In general, the question of coercion and motivation is open. Is it necessary to do this or am I thus preventing myself from maturing and being reborn, renewed? Without renewal I am degrading. A child cannot refuse to grow and mature. But as we age, if we do not observe progress in retrospect, we do not develop. I wanted to write that time is not worth it and you need to keep up, but is an oak tree or a leaf trying to keep up? Are they generally afraid of being late?

But I will focus on this. The point is not to compare something to look smart. Today, from every “iron” you can hear a call to become even more intelligent, well-read, analytical, and comparing. Nope! You need to be human and just try to live the moments more carefully, not lose the precious “beads” of life, but carefully collect them and string them on a fishing line, enjoying life, observing and drawing conclusions about yourself and the world around you.

What to do? Start documenting your life!

Thought from my regular note 2024-05-19:

In general, the question of coercion and motivation is open. Is it necessary to do this or am I thus preventing myself from maturing and being reborn, renewed? Without renewal I am degrading. A child cannot refuse to grow and mature. But as we age, if we don’t look at our progress in retrospect, we don’t develop. I wanted to write that time is not worth it and you need to keep up, but is an oak tree or a leaf trying to keep up? Are they generally afraid of being late?

Dmitry writes in Threads:

In my opinion, after the rise of AI as a technology, the main task of a person will be to correctly and time after time determine his point B. And this is key

I answer:

Recipe: If you add the acronym “AI” to the text, it becomes a little smarter! 😆People have always determined (in a certain number of attempts exactly correctly) point B and will continue to do so. Or are you saying that AI will finally work, and people will have nothing left to do as soon as point B is placed on the map (see. write the correct hint)?

Notes help to record emotions and feelings of the moment. In the future, it will be much easier for me to dig up a note to remind myself and others of that very moment.

Even if only for yourself. Of course, I don’t think that the reader will immediately shed tears after reading my quote from an article from a year ago. No! First of all, I want to make myself cry or laugh. This old note becomes part of a new product (note, article, book, podcast, film) and brings a piece of that energy here. This can be compared to the torch that I brought to light a new fire.

We can no longer imagine ourselves without these things. They help us every day and make life more interesting. At the same time, we are burdened by lack of focus and the need for maintenance. We live and don’t think about it, but it’s not so fun anymore and we feel tired.

Yes, we will have to live with all this!

We won’t be able to refuse this. But we have to figure out what is needed and what is not. You can start right now, or tomorrow. But smart and attentive people will definitely have to figure it out. The rest both swam and will float with the flow, taking every day for granted.

If we create things, then we need to be even more careful. Our future is not about governments and corporations, but about what surrounds us every day. This affects us more than elections, wars and disasters.

You can go into the forest - return to your roots, giving up everything overnight. Those who understand the origins will see the ugliness of the modern world. It’s bad if such departure is just a manifestation of cowardice.

This is our world. We have the power to make it the way we need it. All we have to do is understand ourselves what we really need and simply create it, leave it or throw it away.

I’ve checked this many times. If something comes to mind, write it down right now. Then it will be a different you with different thoughts and energy. And to force yourself means to no longer be real.

This is how Pyotr Rukavina maintains his blog:

I generally write in real time: an idea occurs to me, and the idea takes on a life of its own, gets “called to be written about,” and I try to carve out the time to do so right away. I don’t find the process of writing onerous; generally words flow out of me, and while I will go back and edit the words, finessing the meaning, correcting errors, what emerges is generally fairly close to what I wrote down in the first place.

I write a lot of posts via email, a capability that has allowed me to take my writing out of “sitting in front of a laptop” and, really, anywhere I’m struck. Writing on a tiny iPhone SE isn’t the best and most natural environment (though voice-to-text helps), but the benefit of being able to “strike while the iron is hot” outweighs the fussiness of the tool. These days perhaps half of what I write is on the phone.

You can object: “I don’t want to, I have to step over myself, but I need to do it. The man overcomes difficulties!”

If necessary, do it! I’m not saying what you shouldn’t do or that overcoming difficulties is bad. But if we return to the previous note of this series, there must be a goal and one must try to find the best path to it.

Look at the men beating their chests ¹, who kill themselves for the sake of who knows what. Their life is hell, they are miserable, but they continue to kill themselves.

We are intelligent. This means you need to follow the path of the mind, and not anyhow (and wherever your eyes look).

It always seemed to me that philosophy is a complex science. After all, there is so much that I can’t even write down by ear, let alone understand.

But lately I’ve become convinced that the complex becomes simple if the mentor knows how to present it correctly.

The problem is that many professors have read several books, defended their master’s and doctoral dissertations, and are now hiding behind clever phrases. They cannot move away from these terms and convey them differently, because they themselves do not understand them.

Philosophy is here as an example. This is true in other areas - mathematics, history… Even in creative ones - in music, fine arts, design…

The teacher should not hide behind clever phrases. You need to know your subject well - the essence, meaning and be able to convey this to your students. Teaching in the world of students¹.

…

Someday I’ll try to look from the opposite end - modern “tik-tok” teachers who are against all this “your boring and academic” - fashionable, but empty.