kworks

I initially came to the same conclusion. Though I lifted in accord with decent training principles regarding reps and sets, I didn't track for years. As I entered middle age, I started keeping a training log (just one big org file in emacs), mostly out of curiousity. As I entered my 50s, I experienced what Haruki Murakami references in "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" --- Fat is easy to gain and hard to lose. Muscle is hard to gain and easy to lose. Now I track a couple of critical metrics and it's working great. I weigh first thing every day, track all kcals (even if I overeat), plan and track workouts. I write my own plans pulled from principles in these books (don't work for the company, just a satisfied customer) https://muscleandstrengthpyramids.com/ I don't use the vast majority of the info in those books as I'm just a hobbyist who wants to be healthy and strong. The biggest shift came from learning I was doing waaay too much training volume at the gym while trying to lose fat too quickly; a fine recipe for injury. Now, when I'm in a fat loss phase, I try to lose it as slowly as possible while still making progress. Strength training and fat loss is a very long very slow marathon, not a sprint. Perhaps paradoxically, the awareness that's come from tracking has helped me relax. No need to major in the minors; pretty good is pretty good. The tools I use are a scale, loseit, and org-mode.

Thank you for such a thoughtful, considered – and considerate – response. I appreciate your diligent attention to what is surely a highly demanding job. Thank you for your service.

I realize you likely mean your comment as a kindness and I appreciate that intent.

However, as the son of a mother who slowly died from early onset dementia, I can attest that just because the ego self has fractured and scattered into a million pieces does not mean that the afflicted person is in some peaceful state of not knowing. That they are somehow not suffering or in pain. It is just that the afflicted can no longer articulate their suffering in ways understood by the rest of us in consensus reality. If one pays close attention, the reality of their suffering is bright and clear.

One of many many examples was when my mother would compulsively pick up a pen and make rhythmic circles on and off for hours. I would watch her and wonder why. Turns out she had a severe (brutally painful) urinary tract infection and was trying to soothe her pain. She was a much beloved English teacher and writing was her refuge. She was doing her level best to alleviate her suffering.

The thought that a person dying from Alzheimer's is not having a painful existence is radically disconnected from reality.

I respectfully ask you and any caregivers for dementia patients to avoid conflating your own understanding of reality with the actual reality of your patients.

Great suggestions. I've read "The White Spider" multiple times. Every time I imagine climbing the Eiger in hobnail books, my palms sweat. A lot.

"K2: Triumph and Tragedy" by Jim Curran is an excellent book about the 1986 disaster.

I can also highly recommend the recent film "Broad Peak" directed by Leszek Dawid about the Polish mountaineer Maciej Berbeka.

Some Yedlin links. I found his process to be methodical, precise, thorough and definitive. The question as to whether there is any perceptible visual difference between film and video that has been post-produced by an expert was definitively answered for me.

Resolution Demos: https://www.yedlin.net/ResDemo/index.html

On Color Science for Filmmakers: https://www.yedlin.net/OnColorScience/index.html

Yes, I've definitely read and used them both. I think your understanding of the difference is well-conceived.

There's some conceptual stuff in the Mundis book that provides a framework for understanding the why of his approach, but the majority of it is a 'Do this' and 'If this happens, do this' type of pragmatic approach.

What I found is if I followed the book's suggestions, I got a lot of writing done. That simple. Same for a good friend who is a comics artist, except for the obvious fact that he draws.

I found the Pressfield book somewhat useful but the simple fact is, I just don't turn to it anymore. I didn't find it skillful to anthropomorphize an abstract concept like 'Resistance' that I had to wake up and defeat everday. I think it's possible to have a really productive and fulfilling creative life without thinking of it like some kind of a daily fight.

I return to the Mundis book time and time again.

Finding the way into a healthy self-discipline is such a personal and creative act. The process that ultimate worked best for me is to give an approach a sustained trial (30 days or so) and then reflect on how it went. Assess and try again. After going through a lot stuff that didn't work (for me), I found the thing that did.

Perhap those reflections are useful in some way.

I used (and use) a similar approach to develop the habit of writing everyday.

For example, if I'm scheduled to write for 3 hours and I feel too much resistance, I write for less time. Maybe 2 hours. If I'm super resistant, I invoke the 'nuclear option' and write for no more than 30 mins, or even less.

Much more important than hitting some predetermined target is writing everyday no matter what. To be forthright, it's not particularly difficult once I get going. The writer in me wants to write; that guy just needs a little coaxing sometimes.

I learned of the 'nuclear option' from an unfortunately titled book by Jerrold Mundis called 'Break Writer's Block Now'. The title is pretty cheesy but the book is gold. It's designed to be read (and applied) over an afternoon, perhaps 3-4 hours. It works. The proof is me. I've been a professional screenwriter for several years now as a result of daily effort.

I guess the most important thing I've learned is that punishment doesn't work (at least for me). But gentle, consistent practice does.

Yes that's the one I use. Totally functional but agreed it could be better. Grateful for the app all the same.

James Somer's excellent blog post (and mcphee-draft-no-4) provoked a fundamental shift in the way I rewrite. Can't understate its effect. Not the least of which is that I now turn to the 1913 Webster's several times a day.

Agreed that the UI on the present iOS app is less than ideal. That said easy mobile access to those sublime definitions is super helpful. Gratitude to the dev.

Will definitely be using Wordnote (great work!) and I echo the wish that the 1913 Webster's be incorporated somehow.

I bought a 1st gen Freewrite back when it was the Hemingwrite on Kickstarter, I'm pretty embarrassed to say. I still haven't forgiven myself.

I've wasted waaay too much thought on that thing: why won't the founders just release an API like they originally promised, why did they delete the entire Freewrite forum full of many complaints right before a new model was released, why... and here I am... sucked in again, whining... publicly. Jeez.

Anyone out there thinking of buying one these things, my gentle suggestion is don't. Really just don't. I'll let you borrow all my wasted time so that you don't have to waste yours.

The most gracious thing I can say is that wasting my precious time and hard-earned cash on a Freewrite taught me a very important lesson... do not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.

On a positive note, it got me into exploring the dead art of writing on actual typewriters. A typewriter is a good deal more useful than a Freewrite, version control on the page for example. I can edit and rewrite with a pen. Good times.

I'm a professional screenwriter and often use a typewriter for first drafts or when I'm super stuck on something or procrastinating on a hard deadline. It's a good way to get things moving. I OCR the pages into emacs and fountain-mode to rewrite until the inevitable time comes when production needs the script in Final Draft... which is a sad moment, but so it goes.

I took an unfortunate road filled with regret that led to way of working that I love. So there's that.

Few links to mental health cultivating apps on my phone:

Plum Village: https://plumvillage.app/ Free, extremely comprehensive meditation app. Does not require subscription or mine data like most such apps.

WOOP: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/woop-app/id790247988 Free. Simple app with text prompts.

Point of information: (W)ish (O)utcome (O)bstacle (Plan) is a deeply researched and effective approach to working with goals, habits, et al. More info here: https://woopmylife.org/en/home

Streaks: https://streaksapp.com/ Nicely designed habit tracker. Responsive developer.

Perhaps these prove useful to someone.

In org-roam v2, file names are definitely not random.

For example, when calling org-roam-node-find to create a new note, say I type "This is My New Note". The file created is named "this_is_my_new_note.org".

Here's an article regarding workflow from the maintainer that I found quite helpful: https://jethrokuan.github.io/org-roam-guide/

A super reductive way of explaining it is it's because a lot of state actors (including NSA) have a lot of skin in the game through active, deep investment in the cyber weapon market. State actors strongly incentivize the 'attack' side of the market while companies historically disincentivize the 'defense' side. A solid elucidation of the system (for laypeople like me) can be found in Nicole Perlroth's book "This is How They Tell Me the World Ends": https://browse.nypl.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb22352302__STh...

Anyone interested in learning more about how NSO group operates can check out digitalviolence: https://www.digitalviolence.org/#/

As a writer, having the Webster's 1913 accessible in the macos app so I can quickly search for a word using an Alfred workflow has proven a super valuable resource for me. I do this several times a day.

There's also a nice little ios app of the same dictionary: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/websters-writers-dictionary/id... I use it alongside Terminology (made by the excellent 'Drafts' dev): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/terminology-dictionary/id68779...

Plainorg is awesome. Keep up the great work. The app has enabled me to use the org-mode based plaintext productivity system I've found most effective on my phone. Super useful.

Incidentally, the system I use is from Mark Forster's 'Autofocus' constellation of productivity experiments. Unfortunate that his work is not more widely known because it's quite effective (for me at least).

Here's a link to the version I use: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2021/11/16/the-final...