Life Log: February 2024

Better late (and short) than never.

📚 Reads

Read:

• The Pathless Path (by Paul Millerd).
• How Not to Die (by Michael Greger).
• The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking (by Oliver Burkeman).

Reading:

• 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (by Oliver Burkeman).
• Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (by Scott Berkun).

✍🏼 Writes

• A Unified Theory of Fucks (by Mandy Brown). A catharthic read. Truer and truer the older I get.
• The end of 0% interest rates: what the new normal means for engineering managers and tech leads (by Gergely Orosz). A very relevant, timely read for me. I’ve had some good conversations with other Engineering Managers after reading these.
• Staying Hands On, As an Engineering Manager or a Tech Lead (by Gergely Orosz). A direct trail from the previous article to here.
• How To Center a Div. (by Josh Comeau). Makes my heart swell up with happiness. I love everything Josh is doing. He sent me this after he published — I among others had suggested this topic to him over the years. Instant classic.

📺 Watches

• Full Swing (Netflix). My grandfather was an avid golfer and watcher of golf, but I never cared much for it. I have found myself so drawn in to this docuseries — just a fascinating look into this world. It’s like a whole other universe. Netflix recommended it after Break Point (apparently rightfully). On that note, I was sad to hear that there won’t be another season of Break Point, though there’s a lot I wish they had done differently. Again, just an interesting window into a life I just can’t even imagine.
• Survivor 46 (CBS). During early 2020 I started rewatching some old seasons of Survivor, for Covid nostalgia reasons (probably somewhere around the Tiger King era, we were scraping the bottom of the barrel). Turns out, it’s been really fun to watch again. The older seasons are the best (obviously, aren’t they always). But the new seasons have been fun to watch week over week.
• a career you can be proud of (guidance from a Google engineer) (YouTube). A new content style from the amazing Jason Lengstorf! I love the format.
• How To Stop Taking Things Personally (YouTube). A former co-worker introduced me to this channel, Therapy in a Nutshell, via this video. Great message to hear in a moment of frustration. I definitely struggle with taking things personally, and this had a few useful nuggets. But the channel in general seems like a good one.
• Breaking “DRM” in Polish trains (YouTube). Shared by a co-worker. A fascinating story, well delivered. Worth a watch!

🌵 Personal

• Dry 2024. I always do Dry January, and this year I thought, why not extend it. I’m a social/casual drinker, so this doesn’t feel like a massive departure, but I was surprised how much I ended up spending in this area last year (thanks YNAB spending trends) — so it was more than I thought. A have a couple special occasions earmarked
• 12 Week Year. Coming up on the end of the first twelve week year! So far it’s been a framework that has really made sense to me.