guynamedloren

My problem is I get stuck at the very last step: publishing.

I take copious, detailed, organized notes for everything I do (house renovations, DIY projects, programming projects) with a robust system that I've fine tuned over the years. This habit has proven to be invaluable for me, as I continuously reference notes and learnings from many years prior.

However, by the time it comes to editing and publishing, I've already moved onto something else.

> These days I make myself do it: I tell myself that writing about something is the cost I have to pay for building it. And I always end up feeling that the effort was more than worthwhile.

This might work? Sometimes it's a tiny mental shift that changes everything.

Without any additional context (which may be critical to understanding fully!) this sounds like an unreasonable expectation on your part. Imagine the sheer number of contributors to a large open source project (that number is nearly 2000 for golang), and then managing the web of contributions and subsequently triaging notifications whenever a change is made. Sounds like a nightmare. Granted I've never contributed to a project of this scale personally, my but experience (as a developer working with other developers for many years) is that the existing processes and tooling are sufficient enough to stay in the loop on things as a contributor.

I maintain a Notion database with calendar view. Each day, I create a new note/entry for the given day using a "standup" template, which simply prompts for: what I worked on yesterday, what I'll work on today, and then below, all of my notes for the day. The page itself is freeform, so I can include things like todo lists, code snippets, etc. It's worth clarifying that "todos" here are micro-tasks related to my work that day, not longer running tasks that I'll address over days or weeks (those are logged elsewhere).

This system works really well for me. I've stuck with it for years, longer than any other "daily log" system I've tried.

Why it works for me:

- The separation of notes between days mitigates the visual clutter that comes with a "one giant document" system. Each day I start with a blank slate.

- I can quickly reference notes from any day in the past by scanning the calendar and finding the day I worked on a particular thing.

- Everything is still searchable via Notion's global search.

Mind blowing. Really well done!

There's an option to include contribution activity from private repos. See the "Contribution settings" dropdown on your profile page.

I’ll add a slightly different take: include your kids in everything, starting as early as possible. Hobbies, errands, everything.

It will be challenging, it is undeniably more work, but it becomes easier over time and will pay dividends eventually.

It’s difficult to make the perspective shift in the moment, but it’s helpful to remember that the whole entire world is new and exciting for kids. They’re curious little creatures, constantly growing and learning. Even mundane tasks like running errands can turn into engaging, stimulating activities for little ones. The weekly grocery pickup or a trip to the hardware store are opportunities to explore the world and instill curiosity. It doesn’t happen for free, though: as a parent, it’s your job to engage and foster this.

I haven’t even touched on how rewarding it is to include kids in hobbies. My kids are under five, and partake in everything from hiking, camping, backpacking, canoeing and snowshoeing to woodworking and cooking. Turns out kids just wanna do all the great things their parents do, and will rise to the occasion if given the opportunity :)

The opportunities are there if you let them be there!

Immediately. Among countless other benefits, a consistent routine is a strong contributor in getting an infant to sleep through the night.

Absolutely. Focusing on lots of different tasks is the antithesis of focus. Focus is identifying and executing against one singular goal.

I’ve been there, it’s miserable, but I hadn’t framed it exactly in these terms.

This is well articulated and certain something many of us can relate to. Thanks for writing this.

I distinctly remember being blown away by typing on an iPod touch when it first launched: it seemed almost impossible to make a mistake. The keys plus whatever other software (predictive text?) worked incredibly well.

Now I’m on an SE2 and have typos constantly. I really thought it was just me, somehow.

Okay, this was a good one!

I’m intrigued. Can you share any data points here?

What an unnecessarily negative response. Maybe some people have tools in a vehicle toolbox that benefit from this type of system to minimize movement. Maybe people just like to keep things organized.

I think the idea here is that it happens unintentionally, unknowingly.

Well, I can't say that I've ever witnessed this maneuver. Got my popcorn.

Excellent. I just cracked the screen on my 2020 iPhone SE. After suffering through many Amazon low quality replacement screens for my previous iPhone 6, I look forward to readily available, authentic Apple parts.

I only hope that the 2022 SE display is compatible with the 2020 SE (it appears it should be, at initial glance).

What? $6k? How much damage did the thieves do?

Thank you for sharing. Beautifully said.

This is a fantastic idea. All the benefits of Amazon (fullfilment, prime shipping) but with a better user experience.

Now that I think of it.. they do experiment with things like this. For example, near the top of my Amazon homepage right now, I see "Influencer fashion finds". Clicking in reveals some kind of modernized QVC social media livestream experience.

Further down on the homepage is a combination of what appears to be algorithmically curated shopping lists, and human curated lists.

It's all very messy and disorienting to navigate, but I guess they're.. trying?

Thanks for sharing. That article is disorienting! How'd you find it?

It’s pretentious by almost overtly missing the message of this article, which is: you don’t have to be the best home chef, your food doesn’t have to be the best. Part of that is that “best” is subjective, especially when it comes to food and taste, but more so: Kenji promotes an idea that having some basic kitchen skills and an understanding of the ingredients you’re cooking with is more valuable than the “best” recipe, because it gives you a foundation to develop a dish that is the best in your subjective option.

No idea why this is getting downvoted. Perpetuating biases is a very real issue.

Thought provoking, but the cynical side of me says that this is easily gameable.

Such a pretentious comment.

This was confusing to me as well. I have a CNC router, and I, along with most readers, would probably equate these things. For all intents and purposes, CNC === CNC router, or at the very least expensive, uncommon equipment in a home shop.

What?

Perhaps they meant: Americans will all claim to be democratic*

I’m surprised the YC application hasn’t been more of a focus in this discussion.

The following questions are pulled from the application (perhaps an older version):

What is your company going to make?

Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you're making?

What's new about what you're making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn't exist yet (or they don't know about it)?

Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most?

What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get?

How do or will you make money? How much could you make?

How far along are you? Do you have a beta yet? If not, when will you? Are you launched? If so, how many users do you have? Do you have revenue? If so, how much? If you're launched, what is your monthly growth rate (in users or revenue or both)?

—-

These questions cover product description, value prop, market analysis, financial projections and more, all of which are the core of a “business plan”.

Sure, the application may be structured in a different way, but the sentiment that PG has never read a business plan seems very disingenuous.

"some mild stock appreciation".. quite an understatement. $250k (annual) appreciation in a year. Whew.

Small pedantic note: this article is authored by Claire Percival, not Tim Dodd.

I'm not familiar with the working dynamic - Tim very well could been involved in authoring this piece - but, credit where credit is due.

Edit: I partially recant this. The article includes a video by Tim.