Excursions

It’s crazy how one’s mind works. Here are two posts separated by 4 years. I recently published one a couple of weeks back. I had published another in 2017. Both the posts talk about a similar observation, about the constant fight between the coder and a writer in me. It reads in such a similar manner. The choice of words, the structure, the flow. It should be pretty apparent to anyone who reads it that both the posts come from the mind. From the same author.

Surprisingly, when I wrote the recent post, I had no clue that I had written about the same topic earlier some time. In a way, then, the adage that “there’s no original work being written, but just rewrites” is not that far off.

Ulysses looks to be a really great app for writing all types of posts. Sure, it does not work cross platform - something I dearly wish it did. But I have iA Writer for that. My big problem at this point is I have no clue what editors I am paying for currently, for which platforms and in what form - subscriptions from Google Play Store, App Store or I have them out right purchased. I need to sort this mess up pretty soon. Sigh!

Now that I think about it, the overall messaging space is a mess and personally it’s a frustrating issue for me. We are so close, yet so far. Here’s what I want.

1. A service for messaging folks, share text and images
2. A service for voice/video calls
3. A service that does both 1 and 2 with apps across platforms - mainly iOS, Android and Web

This will allow me to not worry about device on which I am using it.

iMessage and FaceTime combination is brilliant, but Apple continues to see them as differentiators for its ecosystem. I don’t blame them — but it hurts me. I interact with only a handful of people that own an Apple device.

Google, well, decides to live in a fantasy world where there can exist no perfect messaging app. They get close to finding that right solution and throw it all away.

I had hopes from Microsoft. But for some reason they seem not to be interested in consumer space. Skype is ugly, its too bloated and the experience is terrible. It is not easy for families to join from.

WhatsApp, amidst all the mess, remains the only solution that does the required to any extend. It’s a terrible experience, but at least it works.

Google’s inability to decide the story of its messaging apps is laughable. Sure, there’s some dev in there who looks at the old screenshot of Google Talk and says, “we should have never stopped working on this.”

That app has a special place in my mind. Just like Google Reader.

I see the dark mode is enabled for Micro.blog on the web. Nice to see the update @manton @vincent. However, to my eyes, there’s too much contrast with the choice of colors. For some reason, it strains my eyes. The changes are welcome, but felt this was a necessary feedback.

China puts limits on playing video games →

Children and teenagers are now banned from online gaming on school days, and limited to one hour a day on weekend and holiday evenings under government rules

Is that really a government? That sounds utter crazy!?

You can have a broad sense of direction without a specific goal or a precise vision of the future. I think of it like jazz, like improvisation. It’s all about meandering with purpose.

– A quote captured by Oliver Burkeman in The Antidote

Ah, the new iMac is in the house and am setting it up as a, well, new iMac. No restore from backup. Or time machine. What’s that I have to do? What’s that I should do? What’s that I can do? 👨🏽‍💻☺️

I came across this suggestion from Oliver Burkeman a few time in the last couple of weeks.

What if you worked on the basis that you began each day at zero balance, so that everything you accomplished – every task you got done, every tiny thing you did to address the world’s troubles, or the needs of your household – put you ever further into the black?

Basically, the idea is to keep a done list rather than a to-do list. I am absolutely certain that it benefits one’s morale. I know that because I have been maintaining a form of done list – just that my method is different. For me, the two lists are complementary. I use a to-do list as a way to free my mind of the burden to remember things I need to do.

I do not set a target, an end date, for any of the tasks on the to-do list. So, they are not burdensome to me as my day begins. I look at the list, prioritize and just plan it through the day, if possible. A bullet journal helps me here - and also acts as a done-list. More the crosses on a page, more is the satisfaction.

There a few people who are natural “gifters”, I am not one of them. Why is it so hard to choose gifts? The gift cards have saved me to an extent when I need to gift acquaintances. But I get stressed every time I need to gift a loved one. Not that I don’t care – rather, my problem is that I care too much.