First off I want to brag a little bit. It may be a small thing, but I am really excited about a week of blog posts. I don’t know how long I’ll keep it up, but it’s been a cool exercise in getting my thoughts out of my head, and it’s not taking too much time. But the other day I noticed a slight problem. Because of my work schedule (3-11pm), combined with my daughter’s wakeup schedule at 8am, I’ve been doing my writing in the morning.

I have been wanting to contribute to open source software since I started working as a software developer. I loved the idea of building things that others actually use, making people’s work easier, contributing to a common goal, and giving back to projects that I use. But I didn’t for my entire career. I always had an excuse, all of which ultimately came down to “I don’t have time”. Often that was because I had some ill conceived idea that I thought would become a thriving business if only I wrote code faster.

I don’t know if they do it any more, but when I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we did this thing called Companionship Inventory. It was a part of the weekly planning meeting for companionships that addressed the relationship and personal development. You can read it at the source here. It says: Conduct companionship inventory. At the end of your weekly planning session, share with your companion appropriate goals, and ask for his or her help to accomplish them.

OK, I cannot believe how crazy this is. Brandon Sanderson’s kickstarter hit $15 million in 24 hours, and is currently over $16 million. That’s crazy numbers. Even Brandon Sanderson and his team are gobsmacked about the scale of this. This is so affirming of the things you can do with hard work and dedication (and a fair amount of luck), and the amazing things a group of people with a common focus can do.

I am very resistant to being perceived as a fanboy, but I make a single exception. Brandon Sanderson just released a kickstarter for some new books he wrote during the pandemic and you better believe I backed it the moment it came to my attention. In case you are wondering how many other people are that excited, he’s raised $3.8 million in just over 2 hours. That’s insane. In case you haven’t read Brandon Sanderson: first off, what rock do you live under.

I don’t know when I read this post by Nikita Kolmogorov. You’d think I would. Don’t most people remember big moments in their lives? Maybe it’s because I didn’t realize it was going to be a big moment. Maybe it’s because I already knew all the commponents of what he had to say. Maybe it’s because it was just another blog post on productivity. Whatever it was, it’s unfortunate, because ever since then I’ve had a huge positive shift in getting things done (and in being OK not getting things done, but that’s a slightly different topic).

When I started working for Toggl with the prospect of traveling all over the world, I realized that my US-focused Verizon plan was not going to cut it. I really did not want to pay international roaming charges for a week a quarter, and I really did not want to be without any kind of communication while traveling. So I switched to T-Mobile. One of their big bonuses that probably doesn’t apply to most people very often is unlimited text and (albeit slow) data in most countries.

You know what I don’t understand? People who go and live in another country and don’t learn the language/culture. I first experienced this phenomenon while serving in Korea as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would occasionally meet English teachers from the US or UK (very occasionally, they tended to avoid us) and it was extremely rare to meet one that spoke Korean. I worked for an Estonian company and the only reason I didn’t learn Estonian was because my boss said to please not to it’s a waste of time.

Before I dragged her off on our Air Force adventure, my wife studied under an amazing artist in Utah named Joseph Brickey. The first time I met him he talked to us about how art is a way of understanding the unseen, meaning the spritual and the divine. In that sense, the creation of art is in a way selfish and selfless. We as humans create art so that we can understand ourselves, the workings of our souls, and our relation to Diety.

I just finished reading Unlearning Perfectionism by Arun Prasad. Holy smokes was it a phenomenal read. When I was a senior in high school I used to say “if it’s not perfect it’s not good enough”, up until a friend of mine who is a concert pianist told me that was a terrible attitude to take. I decided that I wasn’t going to think that way any more and that was the end of my stint with perfectionism.