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Oct 6, 2024: Great article by Helen Thomson in The Observer about the mental health benefits of taking walks in nature. Throughout the pandemic, I tried to take a …

Oct 2, 2024: Finished reading: Cosmos by Carl Sagan πŸ“š

Sep 21, 2024: Finished reading: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks πŸ“š

Sep 21, 2024: Finished reading: The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray πŸ“š

Aug 25, 2024: Finished reading: A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle πŸ“š

Aug 21, 2024: I’ve been looking for a markdown editor that’s nice to use, keeps everything in sync and plays well offline. I frequently work across …

Aug 11, 2024: Finished reading: Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken πŸ“š

Aug 10, 2024: Finished reading: Vulture Capitalism by Grace Blakeley πŸ“š

Aug 2, 2024: I’ve been comparing Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro with OpenAI’s GPT-4o. The consensus from my research seems to be that most people think …

Aug 2, 2024: Finished reading: The Cold War by Odd Arne Westad πŸ“š

Jul 21, 2024: Finished reading: The Collected Poems by Robert Frost πŸ“š

Jul 2, 2024: Finished reading: Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes πŸ“š This is a great short book about poetry and the craft of writing it.

Jun 25, 2024: Finished reading: The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe πŸ“š

Jun 5, 2024: Finished reading: The Inferno by Dante πŸ“š

May 19, 2024: This quote from software engineer Kent Beck pretty much sums up where I keep going wrong. β€œBy far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a …

May 18, 2024:

Apr 28, 2024: Young vines preparing to soak up the summer sun.

Apr 25, 2024: Finished reading: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho πŸ“š

Apr 5, 2024: Finished reading: Bright Wings by Billy Collins πŸ“š Drawings of birds and poems about birds. What’s not to love?

Apr 1, 2024: Over recent months this website has morphed into a public log of my reading. I’m ok with that. I guess the beauty of having a personal website …

Apr 1, 2024: Finished reading: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris πŸ“š Funny and beautifully written.

Mar 25, 2024: Finished reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams πŸ“š

Mar 12, 2024: Finished reading: Regenesis by George Monbiot πŸ“š

Feb 21, 2024: Finished reading: Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon πŸ“š

Feb 18, 2024: It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you just are who you are, forgetting the power you have to take action and become who you want to be. …

Feb 17, 2024: Finished reading: Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller πŸ“š

Feb 15, 2024: Apple recently shared a great Q&A with its UX writing team from last year’s WWDC. Lots of good insights here. If you’re a writer it’s …

Feb 14, 2024: Interesting to hear Malcolm Gladwell talk about his writing process on MasterClass. He shared how he breaks every piece of writing down into small, …

Feb 14, 2024: Finished reading: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin πŸ“š

Feb 12, 2024: Finished reading: Naples ‘44 by Norman Lewis πŸ“š

Feb 10, 2024: This has been a year of discovering American sports. Feels like they never stop, except for the ads. Chose Chicago as my base, don’t ask me why. …

Feb 9, 2024: The Merlin Bird ID app really is a remarkable piece of kit. Its Sound ID feature tells you the type of bird you can hear after recording only a few …

Feb 7, 2024: Finished reading: Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg. This book was recommended at a poetry event I attended a few months back. Thought-provoking advice on …

Feb 1, 2024: Can’t remember how I stumbled upon The Odin Project web development curriculum, but I’m glad I did. I like the way it points you where to go to dig …

Jan 28, 2024: Italian Sundays are made for passeggiatas. Here’s a shot from our stroll today in central Lecce.

Jan 25, 2024: Hit a 77-day streak on Duolingo today. The gamification of studying Italian is working wonders. Duolingo has become a daily habit, and this also …

Jan 22, 2024: Enrolled in Harvard’s CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science course. Enjoyed working through an older version of this years ago before …

Jan 15, 2024: Finished reading: Dickens and Prince by Nick Hornby. It’s a niche one for sure, but right up my alley. These two geniuses had more in common …

Jan 14, 2024: Whoa, we’re half way there 🎢

Jan 12, 2024: Finished reading: The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil A. Fiore πŸ“š

Jan 10, 2024: Finished working my way through the Learning How to Learn course on Coursera. This was recommended as a helpful resource at the start of The Odin …

Jan 8, 2024: When I close my computer and head outside, sometimes it feels like I’ve stepped through a time machine instead of a door.

Jan 8, 2024: Finished reading: Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer πŸ“š

Jan 6, 2024: In a chapter in Baseball 100 about Japanese baseball player Sadaharu Oh, Joe Posnanski compares baseball training in Japan to spring training in the …

Jan 5, 2024: I’m currently listening to The Now Habit audiobook by Dr Neil Fiore. πŸ“š It’s about beating procrastination. My main takeaway so far is the idea …

Jan 2, 2024: Em dashes (β€”), en dashes (–) and hyphens (-) I’m currently rereading Dreyer’s English to brush up on some American grammar and enjoy the excellent prose of a man so in love with the …

Jan 1, 2024: This paddle boarder had the right idea. Need to get myself one of those for days when the sea is as beautiful as this.

Jan 1, 2024: Watched: Noam Chomsky’s ‘Independent Thinking and Media’s Invisible Powers’ course on MasterClass. πŸŽ₯ Well worth the time. Being …

Jan 1, 2024: Finished reading: Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow πŸ“š

Dec 31, 2023: New year, new home for my thoughts. Let’s make writing here a habit in 2024.

Dec 31, 2023: Becoming a Digital Craftsperson My career has not exactly been a straight path. I have no regrets about that, I much prefer it that way. But it’s funny, because looking back at some …