I tried the new Evernote AI Search feature and I must say that it is well-executed. However, it requires some understanding of both Evernote and how LLMs work to utilize it most effectively. On a side note, I think the term AI is still overused. AI Search, like Chat-GPT and others are using Large … read more

I beautiful morning of softball at Georgia Southern.

I've been a long-time user of Kindle and Audible, with a few physical books thrown in here and there in an attempt to determine my preference between physical or digital formats. I think the truth is that I like both, as each has its advantages. Digital is convenient. There is no doubt that the … read more

Look for wisdom, not facts. We’re not reading to just find random pieces of information. What’s the point of that? We’re reading to accumulate a mass of true wisdom—that you can turn to and apply in your actual life. - Ryan Holiday

The purpose of reading a wide variety of book types is to gain a broader understanding of the world, not just to memorize facts. There’s no need for us to become human encyclopedias.

The ability to make connections from a wide expanse of experience is what makes us better.

After many weeks, I continue to use the Reflect.app as my primary note-taking application. Its simplicity is what attracts me the most. The app doesn’t appear to be much more than a notepad, especially in focus mode. However, with features like backlinks, Kindle import, markdown, end-to-end … read more

I’m testing some core changes to the Cards Theme on my site. I’ve updated the theme to support Hugo 0.117 and incorporated the changes to the default Micro.blog themes (thanks to @sod.) Things look good on my test site. Next, I’m testing on my live site to see if I have any issues … read more

On iOS, we can hold down the space key and slide a finger around the keyboard to position the cursor anywhere in the text.

I just discovered this.

I’ve always. I tried using my finger directly on the text, which is always cumbersome.

Quality of life improvement that I wish I had known about sooner!

Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think (Taming the Mammoth) - Wait But Why

Making this shift isn’t easy for anyone, but it’s worth obsessing over. Your Authentic Voice has been given one life—and it’s your job to make sure it gets the opportunity to live it.

Dumb phones are not the answer to digital minimalism - Code.Mac.Life

Dumb phones won’t address the problem within us. They can help us disconnect and re-evaluate what we are doing on smartphones. The feature phone breaks up our dependency on constant access to the internet. However, there are some drawbacks…

It’s challenging to find the balance between balance between usefulness and distraction when using a smartphone—so many conveniences at the cost of many distractions (if you let it).

Want to read: How to Be Miserable by Randy J. Paterson 📚

This was talked about on the Focused podcast episode 185. It sounds like a fun read if you’re tired of the typical self development books.

My company and I decided to use Azure DevOps for shared documentation of our best practices, standards, deployment steps, and other SOPs. What I like about it is that anyone in the team can easily view and edit the documentation online. But for those inclined, we can use Git and keep the files … read more

Why Songs Get Stuck in Your Head

“Our brain is made up of a massive complex network of neurons that store information, and when the mind is free to wander, it may unwittingly land on a song that has been encoded through recency and repetition,”

This article describes why we get those songs stuck in our head, often on repeat.

The care and training of your pet rock

Pet Rock is a collectible toy made in 1975 by advertising executive Gary Dahl. Pet Rocks are smooth stones from Mexico’s Rosarito Beach. They were marketed like live pets, in custom cardboard boxes, complete with straw and breathing holes. The fad lasted about six months, ending after a short increase in sales during the Christmas season of December 1975.

I stumbled up on this user manual about how to care and train your pet rock. All my problems are solved.

An h-card is an open microformat standard for embedding data in HTML that is often used to establish identity online. However, you can easily add your own H-Card to your Micro.blog site by editing your site footer from your account. Log into your Micro.blog account and click Design > Edit Footer. … read more

Some interesting apps and content that I’ve discovered recently. Apps Lazy - A capture tool for knowledge. One keyboard shortcut to save every idea, link, tweet and so much more. BibGuru - A free APA, Harvard, & MLA Citation Generator Refind - Every day we pick the most relevant links from … read more

Currently reading: The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul 📚

What AI Teaches Us About Good Writing - NEOMA

But simply abiding by the rules doesn’t make excellent writing — it makes conventional, unremarkable writing, the kind usually found in business reports, policy memos and research articles.

The article discusses how AI can be used for writing. While it may produce concise and clear content, it cannot yet evoke the emotional responses from readers that a skilled human writer can.

The Paradox of Goals

Growth loops are extremely simple: we simply need to commit to action, monitor our progress, and reflect on the results so we can keep on adding layers of learning through each cycle. There is no need to worry about the ultimate destination: success emerges as a result of the repeated experimentation and learning.

Where I struggle with this is that it requires measuring and reflecting. I’ve yet to find a tool that I stick with (tried several the habit/goal apps).

I should try paper. 🤔 Perhaps I’ll try logging something in my new planner.

🖋️ I received the second edition of the Time Block Planner ¹. The paper quality is great, and the planner features a spiral binder, allowing it to lay flat.

Plan your day and adjust your time blocks as you go. Jot down anything that comes up. I prefer doing this on paper.

Michael Tsai - Blog - GrammarlyGO Training on User Content With Questionable Opt Out

[W]e use Microsoft Azure as our LLM provider and don’t allow Azure, or any third party, to use our customers’ data to train their models—this is contractually mandated. For text analyzed by Grammarly to provide revision suggestions …, we may retain randomly sampled, anonymized, and de-identified data to improve the product. This data is disassociated from user accounts and ONLY used in aggregate.

A statement from Grammarly’s CISO about how they use your data.