Manton Reece:
We are so used to exciting new gadgets and software, released all the time, and yet none of it is profoundly new. AI is the only thing that’s comparable in scale to the tech advances that have changed everything, like the graphical user interface, mobile phones, and the web itself.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been excited about near-term affordances but using the heck out of the current crop.
Via Matt Birchler:
Blogging is valuable because it helps you learn, because it helps others solve problems, because you get a rare buzz when you realise that yes, people are reading this stuff, and because you’re building a portfolio of writing to show your skills. The only one of those that I believe AI might harm is the buzz of engagement, and that’s so rare for most blogs that I don’t think it’s worth worrying about.
I think we all wonder why we do it, knowing damn well we’re going to keep doing it.
Two years ago, In “Building a Better Me,” I wrote about using my Apple Watch to track some health metrics after having lost around 30 pounds. One of those metrics ended up being heart rate variability, or HRV:
This is a stubborn and somewhat mysterious metric, but it too has crept up from below 20, and in some individual cases much lower, to often spiking during the day into the 30s and 40s. I know it’s low if I’m tired or in a blue mood. I am usually pleasantly surprised to see a higher number, but often reflect that I was busy and not terribly reflective when the number is at its highest.
Tonight, on the sofa, I started poking around in the Health app on my phone (what’s up, water weight!) and noticed that my HRV averaged 60 today. That’s not characteristic of my daily average, but I did notice that it has drifted higher, largely due to the fact that it sometimes increases while I sleep–which I now track, since updating to an Apple Watch 10 (it will always be the Alex’s Apple Watch X to me).
Looking back a littler further, though, and contrary to what I expected to see, is that while my average is far from high, if that means anything, I did manage to double my average number. So like 16 back in 2022 to over 30 since last fall.
So now I’m chatting with Chat-you-know-who about increasing parasympathetic nervous activity.
I was listening to Episode 341 of Cal Newport’s Deep Questions podcast and he started talking about “productivity rain dances.” It was one of those terms I’d never heard before but knew exactly what it was the moment the syllables filled the cabin of my Mustang. Have you ever decided to abandon your to-do app of choice in favor of another one in order to dodge a project? Clean your desk off or straighten up the dorm room? I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the gist.
The answers to these questions aren’t necessarily easy. As I talk about in Slow Productivity, making more time for key efforts often requires that you first tame the less important activities that are getting in the way. You probably need a more formal workload management philosophy to avoid overload, such as using quotas or separating “active” tasks from “waiting” tasks. You’ll also need better collaboration processes that avoid the distraction of constant messaging, such as using regular office hours for complicated discussions, and some notion of time management, such as time blocking, to maintain control of your schedule.
As he makes the case in the episode: it’s not an app. It’s something boring or simple that will probably make the difference. I like the idea of scheduling office hours or something similar; the number of distractions I face each day are pretty disruptive, none of them unwelcome or purposefully intrusive. But shifting cognitive set has consequences, and boy do I love my quiet time.
Here’s this week’s list of things to check out.
OK, I’m cheating a bit by picking a place I featuredyesterday with a bunch of pix last night, but there’s a bit more I could say. Butcher and Singer is a steakhouse, an in Steven Starr’s thematic approach, has a kind of Mad-Men-era vibe. (Starr is famously a concert promoter-turned-restauranteur, which is often credited for his curated collection of foodie experiences.)
There is a fascinating collection of Manhattans, and I find it interesting that there are no martinis featured on the menu in the way that the Manhattans are. I was sorely tempted to try the Robber Baron, which would be a Rob Roy by most definitions.
I ordered a NY Strip, which is a cut I almost never cook at home, but often find on the menu in steakhouses. It’s a leaner, grainier, beefier cut than my favorite, the ribeye, but I make ribeye at home all the time. I like the texture of strip, too. One thing I’ll say about this strip, and it reminded me immediately of the specimen my son, who attends a local technical high school’s culinary arts program, brought home from class one memorable day: the cut was of the bone-in variety, and this made the experience of eating it completely different from the thinner boneless version I’ve usually enjoyed. I prefer the bone-in version hands down.
The kitschy, throwback-to-bygone-era vibe even includes Baked Alaska as a dessert option. It’s hard to pass up; like the Lobster Thermidor at the Knife and Fork in Atlantic City, it’s one of the few (if only) places I go that has it on the menu.
One of the concerns people who right on the internet entertain from time to time is how to promote their work. I don’t have any intention of making money doing this, but I do want to participate as fully as I can in an online community. And the version of that participation that would include Facebook and its associated services isn’t what I have in mind. I started digging around with WordPress, which powers Uncorrected, and learned a bit about ActivityPub. I’ve followed a few tutorials and got things linked up with Micro.blog and Mastodon. I had long ago set up a Mastodon account, but never really used it. But I don’t really use Twitter/X and Facebook isn’t interesting to me save for the occasional family post. But the idea is to decentralize your social identity.
Burkeman chronicles the the post-GTD landscape: there’s too much to do, there’s not really anything you can do about it, but let’s not fall into despair. It’s comforting and empowering writing about being productive, but encountering meaning and value outside of your role as an information worker.
I snapped a couple of pics of our pre-game celebration at the serially excellent Tonewood Brewing in Barrington, NJ, this afternoon. Behold:
BIERGARTEN Märzen Lager 6.0%
German malts, Tettnang, Haltetau Mittelfrüh, Saaz. Notes of buckwheat, dried cherries,black tea, toffee, and seedy granola
VERMILLION Vienna Lager 4.8%
100% Vienna Malt & Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops, Biscuity Malt, Fresh Baked Rye Bread,and a light Peppery finish
Somewhere in the mid-1990s my parents started dining out more, notably in Philadelphia. They took Rhonda and me out to Suzanna Foo in probably 1997 or 1998, and it was a revelation. Things have gotten better locally, and a nice dinner out didn’t necessitate a drive to Philly. But Restaurant Row still beckons, and we thought Aaron, an aspiring chef, might enjoy Steven Starr’s take on a classic steakhouse. Fois gras was had.
Good advice from Oliver Burkeman:
But there’s one piece of advice I’m confident applies to basically everyone: as far as you can manage it, you should make sure your psychological centre of gravity is in your real and immediate world – the world of your family and friends and neighborhood, your work and your creative projects, as opposed to the world of presidencies and governments, social forces and global emergencies.
Smallish reprise of yesterday’s outing at home, before smash burgers .
Arthur Brooks on Finding Love, Traps, and Dating Sites:
Dating sites first emerged in the 1990s, and by 2020, more than 50 percent of heterosexual couples had formed after meeting this way. Sometimes, this led to good results, and people were happily and permanently partnered. Troublingly, though, scholars recently found that, on average, couples who ultimately get married to someone they met online have less stable and satisfying marriages than people who meet offline.
I usually look to Vonnegut when the fan noise gets to be too much. But here’s a good explainer:
A sports team is an expression of a fan’s sense of self, as I learned from dozens of interviews and research articles I surveyed for my book “The Secret Lives of Sports Fans,” is an expansion of a fan’s sense of self. It is not an obnoxious affectation when a devotee uses the word “we”; it’s a literal confusion in the brain about what is “me” and what is “the team.” In all kinds of unconscious ways, a fan mirrors the feelings, actions and even hormones of the players. Self-esteem rides on the outcome of the game and the image of the franchise.
The psychology of why sports fans see their teams as extensions of themselves
Discouraged by the likelihood of non-regulars flooding the local wineries, Rhonda and I made a rez at the Blue Rascal in Hammonton for late afternoon cocktails.
We each had a rye Manhattan, proceeded by an old fashioned and a whisky sour. We brought our own provisions and stopped route at Baglianis for a restock. It was a short hop over to the Maplewood, so why not?
