my absolute top tip would be to find your super low-friction way to capture ideas about what to write, wherever you are, the very second the idea occurs to you
idea capture is upstream of everything else. you can do drafting or editing a month later or a year later, when the mood comes
I wrote a Colophon recently about my blog tech stack. it includes a "Writing" section which touches on how I start with idea capture (and also the psychological blockers about doing everything else)
Looks pretty nice for a hosted platform solution. I'd argue that even lower friction in some ways is just installing a Nostr relay (heck, it can be to your phone through the app store) and pointing a long form Nostr client at it like Yakihonne. Probably would also want to point to one or two other relays just to get it out there to the world, but having your own relay ensures that you've always got your work backed up, and that nobody could possibly censor what you're writing.
Guess it's not QUITE as quick to set up as creating a login, but considering the resiliency you get from it it's pretty darn painless. Best of all Nostr is all key based logins, so just think about those seconds you save typing in usernames and passwords!
Also handy in that if you're involved with other work across Nostr, it's all tied right back through that identity. Be it podcasts (fountain.fm), livestreaming (zap.stream), static video content (flare.pub), travel content (satlantis.io), or whatever else you may be playing with.
I started blogging in February 2000 (it was social like Twitter back then). 5 years ago, I ramped up my writing again: I've been posted at least weekly for 256 weeks.
I've learnt that blogging is a necessary part of my practice for finding and exploring new ideas. It's brought me work and friends. And there's especially a place for blogging today: no platform will value your words like you will yourself.
It's super handy to have a place to put everything. So I can make a dumb iOS app and just announce it on my blog, without having to think about landing pages, hosting etc etc. Just lowers the barrier
That is a good point. The admin of creating small projects is as much hassle as the project and often requires more maintenance. I have the site ready to go, I just need to get into the habit of doing it I think.
That was my first thought too, strong Battle Chess vibes!
For those who never played it, Battle Chess was a chess game from 1988. It had one different: when a piece took another piece, it would play a canned animation (gruesome, funny)
It's always bothered me that there isn't a layer "above" the web that integrates discussion features. I always thought a browser addon would solve that by now, but nothing seems to have caught on.
Same. Somebody always posts a good discussion about why such things always devolve into hellscapes, and I always read them and say: oh yeah, I get it, that makes sense. And then as time passes I forget the logic and resume thinking that it would be a Really Good Idea.
If anyone's thinking of starting their own Unoffice Hours, someone started a webring with a good domain. It's semi dormant right now, but the site accepts pull requests and it would be a good place to start building community
Could a skill swap work? Like, a website that says something like "I can teach you about linear algebra if you can teach me about CAD software" -- or would the marketplace be too sparse?
Hi all — Unoffice Hours host here! This has been a wildly successful experiment for me. ~360 calls booked since I made that post, about 300 calls. I’ve reviewed pitch decks, given design feedback, met monks, discussed work and careers with students, and chewed the fat with like minded people who I never would have met otherwise.
Sorry you can’t find a slot! It’s already booked up for the next 60 days and I use Calendly to keep a rolling availability window. I've just opened a handful of extra times in October and November.
I highly recommend making this part of your weekly rhythm too — it’s a big part of how I find new ideas, and it helps get me out of my bubble.
There have been some really unusual moments -- like reviewing the pitch deck of a monk, or being suddenly involved in a design crit for a class of masters students.
And some are extraordinary. Last week I spoke with a hugely successful children's book author who has just opened a kids' playground that builds familiarity with the fundamentals of computing!
Sometimes I feel like I'm able to help. By being a second pair of eyes on what the other person sees as ordinary, or even tangled and overwhelming, we can identify a way forward or point of focus for a project or artistic practice.
But my favourites are the everyday conversations where we find common ground, and I learn something and they learn something too in the exchange.
I find that when I'm required to explain an opinion or some knowledge that I take for granted, the act of verbalising it illuminates new ideas, and talking to somebody else about it helps me find new perspectives.
It's the highlight of my week, and has been for 4 years now!
and then Mullenweg's attack on WPEngine (and their PE owners) ramped up 0-60 in no time at all.
Like, is this just about support for the OSS project, and is there a conversation on the dev lists I've missed? Why now -- did WPEngine make a threat to fork the project? Is there a dispute around data access, now training data for AI is suddenly valuable? Etc.
I’d go with the most obvious explanation: Matt found out their biggest competitor makes more money than WP.com and does’t give back (money or development time), got rughtfully pissed, but started doing ridiculous things instead of just calling them out.
Most of my other comments I was speaking in first person, in others I did not initially realize it wasn't as clear in some of them.
I also updated my bio here to reflect the product I am working for belongs to Automattic. Previously, it only mentioned the product which not everyone has to know belongs to Automattic.
Your employer has been served a cease and desist. Does your legal counsel know you are commenting on the legal matters on social media as an employee? This doesn’t seem like a wise position to put yourself or your employer in.
My take is that this is an opportunity to re-think what chores are, and what white goods are for
Like -- let's say you rent (as we all do, increasingly). Instead of buying different special purpose kitchen gadgets, white goods, and cleaning equipment to haul around with you, why not a general purpose robot that does the easy 80% of all chores?
You're saying: why buy a dishwasher and a washing machine and a dryer and a vacuum robot etc if you could buy a home robot to do all of those chores by robot-hand?
> Your dishwasher uses dramatically less power and water than you would use, if washing them by hand.
Only if used optimally, or the handwashing is very wasteful. There is one study I know of, it was paid for by washing machine manufacturers and has quite a few issues (like not removing outliers).
And yes, I measured my usage of water and power.
(I’d still get a dishwasher if my kitchen had space for it)
idea capture is upstream of everything else. you can do drafting or editing a month later or a year later, when the mood comes
I wrote a Colophon recently about my blog tech stack. it includes a "Writing" section which touches on how I start with idea capture (and also the psychological blockers about doing everything else)
https://interconnected.org/home/2024/10/28/colophon