🔗 You’re Overspending Because You Lack Values, Sherry Ning

Standing in front of all my stuff, it hit me that all of it used to be money, and all of that used to be time. I was standing in front of the metabolic waste of my existence, materialized. I was looking at the amount of my time, therefore my life, that had been turned into garbage. And the worst part is that I could’ve prevented it.

Vibe coding small tools - I’ve made a couple of quick plugins for Obsidian to help me manage my workflow. Really great that it can be quickly extended and customised. I’ve made a “task forwarder” that integrates with Obsidian Tasks and a “Copy as a formatted quote” for Readwise to Micro blog.

📚Finished reading Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman. My review:

Meditations for Mortals is a book of short reflections I read slowly over the course of a year. It’s ideal to snack on when you want a small shift in perspective or quotes on how others approach their lives.

If you’ve read Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks or The Antidote this will feel familiar. Burkeman avoids grand all encompassing frameworks and instead offers a calmer way of thinking about how to live.

I don’t feel the need to pick up too many self help books - but Burkeman is worth having around.

Currently reading: Matrescence by Lucy Jones 📚

I can usually find any passage I want in a physical book because I remember the thickness of pages in each hand when I read it. On a Kindle, all of that is flattened, each page is identical to the one before it. For me it is much like the difference between going for a long bike ride along rolling country hills versus riding a stationary bike in a gym.

🔗 BookTime, How I Read

This is essentially Robert Merton’s Matthew Effect applied to kebab shops - ‘unto every one that hath shall be given.’

London’s restaurant scene is no longer organised by taste alone. It is organised by visibility that compounds, rent that rises when discovery arrives, and algorithms that allocate attention long before consumers ever show up. What looks like “choice” is increasingly the downstream effect of ranking systems.

Lauren Leek on Google Maps allocating survival across London’s restaurants

⁠They offer you pacification disguised as a beautiful illusion of creation, and worst of all, in concert with recommendation algorithms, can directly optimize on your engagement to keep you trapped.

Armistice on AI video model apps

Watched House of Dynamite last night. Anxiety provoking but interesting to see process, transitions and the funnelling of decisions and constraints. Inspired to start reading Nuclear War: a Scenario by Annie Jacobsen which has been sitting in my pile for a while.

Nice wee tool from James for Indie Web folks: Validate Everything

Perhaps you are confusing your privileged perch with the broader human condition. Roland Barthes called this ex-nomination. You don’t really want to admit that you are in a distinct pundit class, so you see your views as universal laws.

Against We, via Marginal Revolution

Morning run with a golden winter sun

Birthday bowling with Pete

We got the boy a Yoto player and have started practicing listening to a story if he wakes up before 7am. Fingers crossed for a few more lie ins 🤞

I remember listening to the BBC edition of Winnie the Pooh with Alan Bennett when I was wee. Think that might be a purchase for this Christmas.

A wee cycle loop around Cramond, Granton and Newhaven with the boy. Lunch at The Pitt. A good weekend of cycling!

Cycled out with the boy to Down the Hatch at Port Edgar Marina today. Almost all on cycle paths from central Edinburgh. Great day for it!

Good morning from Strathtay

Pretty much perfect day - walked through the autumn leaves at the Birks of Aberfeldy, read the Burns poem out loud, over to Loch Tay to enjoy the afternoon sunshine and lob rocks into the water.

Drove up for a wander around Dunkeld this afternoon. Walked around the cathedral, threw stones in the river, found a playpark.

Edinburgh sunset 📸

Morning tunes from The Bouncing Souls - How I Spent My Summer Vacation 🎶

Barclay Viewforth Church in the autumn light 📸

Evening reading: 1177 BC, Eric H. Cline

Wee wander with the family up at Midmar Paddock to enjoy the afternoon sun 📸

Just posted a couple of reflections to my website on one month of two boys.

Went to the Lothian Bus Depot Doors Open Day yesterday. Lots of family fun!