Excursions avatar

Excursions

Just because I saw the name floating around, I signed up to try our Kagi search. I don't know if I expect anything to change with my searching habit. Or if this will stick. I just want to be aware first-hand.

I have always disliked the apps that provide you with a 15-minute summary of the books, usually non-fiction books. Such services are reviewed well and people seem to be paying for them. For example, Blinkist. Here’s whom this service claims to be built for.

Perfect for curious people who love to learn, busy people who don’t have time to read, and even people who aren’t into reading.

I don’t get this. What’s the fun in listening to a 15-minute summary of books? Even podcasts, they claim?

It’s okay to not be into reading books. One isn’t really missing anything if they don’t read books – the information will find its way to reach them. Why, then, the farce of reading books through summaries?

With the rise of ChatGPT and likes, services now don’t even want people to read articles on the web. For example, the latest update for Arc browser launched a new feature called 5-second preview where one can “press Shift and hover over any link to generate a summary of the webpage, without a single click”. This is not good as it can potentially kill people’s (already dwindling) interest in visiting other websites.

Why are we so against any form of reading in the original voice?

I do not know how, but my blog's single-post template is broken. I don't recall any changes that I have pushed to the theme. Hmm. Do I need to fix it now? Sigh!

Meaningful writing

Every day that I don’t write makes writing again more difficult. I don’t because I convince myself what I write next needs to be significant. I don’t have anything meaningful to talk about. Why does it need to be meaningful? And meaningful for whom?

The most meaningful thing I do is live my life. Isn’t everything happening to me, around me, of the most importance? Why won’t, then, #writing about it be meaningful? It is to me and that’s all that should matter.

I don’t write for readers to find meaning in what I have written. I write to calm myself down. I write to focus.

No surprise then that every time I stop writing, I am more unsettled. The restlessness is not the cause of my block. It’s the effect.

After days of hot weather, it is raining again. I love rain. But this year, this incessant dampness is tiring now.

Is it true? Is it necessary or at least useful? Is it compassionate or at least unharmful?

A sign on Ursula Le Guin’s desk. h/t: Seth Godin →

It was painful to watch Afghanistan falter after getting so close to beating Sri Lanka. Almost eliminating them from Asia Cup. Such heartbreak for players and fans alike 🏏

I'm spending more than I would like on my hobby projects. I always think it is an okay price to pay for the learning and sharing I do. But every time the bill is generated, I hesitate to continue. Today's one such day.

My wife and my daughter are mobile-first. They can do everything on that puny device. I need a laptop and a keyboard if any amount of research is to be done. Be it typing or reading. I am not at all comfortable with typing and searching on my smartphone.

I love how ChromeOS has extended the life of my ageing laptop. It's still feels snappy and good for my reading/writing heavy use.

I looked at the podcasts I had subscribed to when I used to listen to them. And I quickly realized why I had stopped following this medium. Again too much of same stuff out there - few guys talking about news that don't matter.

There were only a couple of interesting podcasts which I had any interest in. Am I unaware of some space that hosts the good shows people follow?

Numberphile’s bread and butter remains the intimate, idiosyncratic one-on-ones with a veritable who’s who of mathematicians and math communicators that have both endeared Haran to his presenters and humanized for viewers a subject often perceived as devoid of color or personality.

Source: A Duodecade of Numberphile →

Numberphile remains one of the few channels that I never miss an episode from.

I don't know what it takes to support this. But if Micro.blog allows logging in with the Mastodon-compatible username (that it generates by default now) through any of the Mastodon clients, the number of clients for Micro.blog would increase significantly.

I don’t know how to be social. I can’t use the social media tools. I am a user of many. I don’t use any. Or to be fair, I don’t know how to use them. I would passively scroll through the timeline and yet not respond to any of the posts. Not that I don’t want to. However, I don’t know what to say. Or how to say it.

I feel awkward interacting with people I don’t know.

Maybe that’s who an introvert is.

Even in real life, I take time to comfortably open up with others. I am that silent, awkward guy hanging around in a group. Not knowing who and how to talk to someone.

No wonder then I feel the same discomfort in the digital space. What troubles me is I just end up wasting time not using these tools in the manner they are supposed to be used. I don’t benefit in any way by using the services.

So why am I even on these social media sites then?

I need to learn to not waste time when I have too much of it. That feeling is a delusion -- one never has enough.

Does the instance I am part of matter? In what way does my choice of instance shape my experience with fediverse? I have switched the instances multiple times now, but not for any specific reason as such.