Working at RemNote building a flashcards and note-taking app. I have a mixed role developing the software, creating user documentation and doing miscellaneous technical writing, designing the future of flashcards as part of a three-person team, and leading a small customer support team. We’ve recently been working on incorporating LLM tools into RemNote, with the goal of making it easier to start learning and creating flashcards (which is the hardest part of spaced-repetition study). They’re not perfect, of course, but I think we’re having significant success. Everyone can benefit from learning and remembering; try us out!
Just finished the second edition of my online textbook, Grok TiddlyWiki. Version 5.3 made a bunch of big changes that make writing wiki customizations much easier and more pleasant, but that means I had to update the book! This took about two months of roughly daily work…one piece at a time. Writing – or even updating – a book is subject to Hofstadter’s Law: it always takes longer than you think, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law. (On the other hand, I was only 60% over my time estimate, which is pretty good as such estimates go!)
Repainted several rooms of my new co-op apartment last month, just in time for the start of heating season when you don’t want the windows open to let it air out. My bedroom is now a nice smooth blue, and three walls of my living room a sunny yellow – quite bold, but with that room at the northeast corner of the building, the indirect natural light was feeling bleak during the winter with white walls. While I’ll have to wait until December to see the full impact, I’m very happy with it already – it makes a lovely contrast with the dark woodwork, and the room feels much cheerier.
I hadn’t painted anything for years, so I started with the bedroom (fewer visitors in there) and got a little more blue paint on the ceiling than I’d love. I’ll touch up the edges next year. The living room turned out fantastic, though!
Continuing to work on finding friends and communities in Minneapolis. Unfortunately this year has been three steps forward, two steps back – I’ve lost two good friends and one broader community, all for weird reasons out of my control. Nevertheless, I’m making progress overall. I’ve also attended two conferences this year that had a strong emphasis on how today’s world can best support strong relationships. Having decided I hope to stay in Minneapolis for the rest of my life, I’m serious about doing this well now, and unfortunately it really is a difficult thing to achieve nowadays. The good news is that I think making the effort, taking the time to really think about what you want and being deliberate, gets you better results than you would have gotten by default fifty years ago. It’s just that you no longer have the option to free-ride and do sort of OK; the default is being alone all the time.
I have a Mosaic Muse page on areas of exploration for 2024, listing out the big ideas I’m currently trying to understand better. Go there for the details; in headings:
Part of the now page movement. Last updated October 19, 2024.
