Personal essays
On fooling ourselves into action.
Time
You know those people who set their clocks ahead ten minutes so that they’re not late anywhere?
I’m afraid I just did something like that.
I’ve never done the clock thing - it doesn’t work.
I know the clock is set ahead and so I subtract. I look at the clock and see 9:30 and read it as 9:20. I don’t think it even registers as the displayed time.
The only way this works is if I’m somewhere and their clock is set ahead.
Bar time.
You know - bars that set their clocks ahead so they can start clearing up and get everyone out on time.
Now we spend so much time with our phones out that we know that’s not the real time - but it’s the real time in that bar.
You don’t have to go home - but you can’t stay here.
The buddy system
I used to have a workout buddy.
We would meet to workout several times a week.
In those days I was using more free weights than machines and so we would encourage and spot for each other.
It’s easier to push yourself when you know there’s someone there paying attention who will lift the barbell off your chest when you just can’t do another rep.
On the other hand, it doubled the time it took me to do a workout. We had to do all the exercises and reps for each of us.
On the other other hand - it didn’t quite double the time because there were two of us to set up the equipment between exercises and some amount of the time it took to do his set would have been the time when I naturally would have rested.
But the main reason having a workout partner was helpful in those days was that it made me show up at the gym.
I had to be there to meet him.
We had a simple rule - if you can’t make it - don’t tell me.
If one of us couldn’t show up, we wouldn’t tell the other one because then it would be more likely that neither of us would show up.
I’ve done that with other partnerships over the years. If we’re meeting somewhere to get some writing done, don’t tell me if you’re not going to make it.
If we’re meeting somewhere to hang out - then definitely tell me - but if it’s for parallel work then don’t.
Unstuck
I was talking to a friend recently about how we’re both blocked.
We decided it was some combination of AI entering our lives and work along with the awfulness of the politics around us.
It’s hard to get motivated to write a book or teach a class about technology in the midst of all this.
On the other hand, I love doing these things.
It keeps me learning, thinking, and growing. My life is worse if in addition to AI and politics I’m just sitting around the house not doing the little things.
I started my latest book in January.
I spent the latter part of last year teaching the material and evolving some examples and then I decided to turn it into a book.
By late February I’d sent the second chapter to the tech reviewers and by mid March I’d heard back from all but one of them.
For some reason I stopped writing while waiting for this last reviewer.
It wasn’t writer’s block - but it was some sort of a block.
I put “Start App Intents - Ch 3” in my planner ever day for a month and got nowhere.
Last weekend I heard from the last reviewer and applied his suggested changes last night.
This morning I cleaned up chapters 1 and 2 and offered it for sale as a Beta book.
Now I HAVE to get back to writing.
I’m hoping this is like meeting a buddy at the gym and not like setting my watch ahead.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 320. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe