Back in this episode of Cal Newport's podcast "Why You're Always Tired & Exhausted (No Matter What You Do)," there was a funny ad read that Cal did for Jesse Skelton.
It was funny enough that not only did I try to make an audio version of Jesse Skelton saying "Get Off Your Phone" (MP3), but another podcast fan made this site for Jesse Skelton.
Enjoy!
I have been curious about the differences between artificial intelligence (AI) image creation tools, and I saw this prompt on Midjourney in the daily theme thread:
Pixar, Beautiful Korean queen focus on front with smile, Hanbok, blue, red, gold, elegant, gorgeous, cute cats, queen of the pink moon, hyper realistic, fliry vibe, fantasy, elaborate, radiant, --no moon --ar 16:9 --v 5.1 - Variations by @jingwen0404 (relaxed)
And this is what was generated:
I put the following into Bing Image creation:
Pixar, Beautiful Korean queen focus on front with smile, Hanbok, blue, red, gold, elegant, gorgeous, cute cats, queen of the pink moon, hyper realistic, fliry vibe, fantasy, elaborate, radiant
And this is what I got:
Very different outputs IMHO.
I think Cal Newport has done his homework on this topic, and I found his conclusions solid.
Here are three additional recommendations I have for "effective" mobile device use:
Photo by Frank Holleman on Unsplash
In a recent episode of Cal Newport's The Deep Life Podcast -- Episode 238: The Joys Of The Reading Life -- Cal provided his well-thought-out ideas on how to have a deep reading life and how that intersects with our digital technologies.
I agree with Cal that reading deeply needs concentration and is free from distraction. Physical books are excellent for those that want that experience.
I also agree that reading on the Kindle (or other dedicated eBook readers) can be a deep reading platform. My Kindle Paperwhite is my primary device for all my reading with my eyes. [NOTE: Listening to audiobooks is reading. Don't get me started.]
He is also correct that reading on most people's standard mobile phones or digital tablets like an iPad is not a deep reading platform.
If you do end up reading on a phone or tablet, here are my recommendations.
My phone already has very minimal alerts, but with a quick swipe, I turn on "Do Not Disturb." And in my Kindle application on the phone, I have changed the background color (Layout > Page Color) from white (default) to green. The other options are: tan, white, or black. I'd choose tan if you don't like the green color.
I find having that green background - uncommon like the tan - tells my mind that I am now in reading mode and not scanning mode (like with a white or black background). This lets me read more deeply when I don't have my Kindle and only my phone. Once I finish reading, I turn off "Do Not Disturb."
Reading on my iPad is more straightforward, as I have 'Do Not Disturb' always on. And I am only reading content on my iPad with colors: comic books, WWII books with maps, Star Wars guides, recipe books, etc. I don't change the background color on my iPad.
Thoughts? Comments? Feedback is always welcome!
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
Back in 2019, I embarked on a daily morning personal devotion and growth plan by reading these two books on my Kindle Paperwhite (no ads):
Since then, I've rotated the faith devotional book yearly, but I have kept re-reading the The Daily Stoic (it is really that good). The previous faith devotionals were:
In addition to reading these, I have been practicing journaling whatever comes to mind before my readings. Looking back over my journaling, I see some themes: what happened the day before, or what is going to happen soon; prayers; concerns/worries; and insight into how I am feeling or how I am doing professionally and personally. I also capture some thoughts or ideas that stand out from my readings. I have tried to journal both on paper and digitally. I have currently settled on paper. I am currently using a Moleskin that was given to me by Manager-Tools.com.
Another practice I have been doing is high-lighting those verses mentioned in the faith devotionals in my Bible (NIV Faithlife Study Bible: Intriguing Insights To Inform Your Faith). It is becoming very interesting to see what verses get used across different authors, and those that only get one or two mentions. An additional insight is how much of the Bible hasn't been referenced. It is also especially interesting to me when my "Faith Daily Devotional" is very aligned with the "Stoic Daily Read."
This year I am going to read in the morning:
I am looking forward to Rolf's book as I've been listening to his podcast for years, and he inspired me to take this Europe Trip in 2019.
NOTE: Links to things you can buy go to Amazon Prime.
#human_generated_content
I learned a lot about Adam Smith that I didn't know about in this three part podcast from Freakonomics.com: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Here are a few examples:
While this cup is no longer available, the quality of Skeletal Dropkick cups, mugs, etc. is excellent and uniquely designed. Plus there are great sticker options. So enjoy!
About two weeks ago I decided to move my personal David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system (aka "External Brain/Trusted System") to Obsidian.md (a "free" personal knowledge management application -- note I previously thought that Obsidian was open-source but it is not).
I don't have a huge set of reasons for the switch, it just seemed like something I was very interested in doing after testing Obsidian over the last 6 months for writing, note-taking, organizing, etc.
My previous personal system was Nirvana (for everything GTD-related, but Reference), and Google Keep (for Reference). This system was up and running from January 2019 until now. Before that, I had a customized GTD-system in Google Keep. The full Google Keep system was ~5 years old. Before that, it was all Microsoft Outlook-based.
My work GTD system is Microsoft Outlook based with all my References in Microsoft OneNote or in the Windows filesystem.
My first step was to relieve my concern about being able to work across all devices. So, my first three next-actions were:
This was pretty straightforward and was probably working seamlessly in less than 10 minutes.
Then I had to figure out how to get things to work on my Android Phone and Apple iPad:
Now that I could trust that data would be synchronized, and available no matter which device I was using, I just started learning more about what other people have done:
The current setup is pretty minimal after migrating my current Tasks and Projects from Nirvana, and my current active Notes (Project Support, References) in Google Keep.
I have used this tool -- keep-it-markdown 0.4.3 -- to migrate all my notes out of Google Keep into .md files to Google Drive. However, I still need to import those into Obsidian.
I also need to migrate a couple of lists in Nirvana -- Later & Someday/Maybe -- to Obsidian.
There is also an effort to figure out if there are other Obsidian plugins, themes, or templates I should be using.
Questions, comments, suggestions, etc. welcome!
A month or so ago my son Conrad who is attending SDSU asked me to post a link to a survey that his marketing research class needed inputs on.
You can find the original post on Linked In.
The team created a PDF of the results that I'd like to share via this link (pdf download).
Here is their Executive Summary:
In this report, we sought to understand what type of working environment would lead to greater overall happiness in individuals. In order to dive deeper into this topic, we did extensive research on different working styles within the US as well as other countries. We also researched how COVID-19 may have affected the way individuals view working and how working from home may affect the way individuals choose to work going forward.
After gathering our research, we constructed a 16-question survey to better understand individuals' demographics, attitudes towards working, and their current levels of satisfaction and happiness at their current jobs. Our research questions targeted asking about different work style preferences such as working completely in person, working completely online, or having a hybrid work style. We also asked individuals about their current work type status such as part-time, full time or unemployed, as well as their education level. We also incorporated questions asking about individuals' current levels of happiness and whether or not they are satisfied working at their current job or satisfied with the current amount of money they make.
We ran multiple extensive SPSS analysis to include: descriptive (for the mean, standard deviation, and frequency), associative (bivariate correlation), differences (one-way anova), and predictive (simple regression).
From the data results, we conclude that there is a weak positive correlation between age and happiness. The older a person is, the somewhat happier they are likely to be at their job. We also found a weak positive relationship between the older you are and the less likely you are to leave your current job. The rest of our research questions involving: pay in monetary form, education level, and work schedule, all have inconclusive effects on happiness. This means there is no clear pay level, level of education, or work schedule that has a greater effect on one's happiness.
This photo is part of my Blurry collection.
CURRENT HAPPENINGS
The last two months have been going well. Mother's Day in May was great, and so was Father's Day in June.
We have been slowly getting back out to our favorite places to eat, visiting breweries, attending church in person without masks, seeing friends, and having more group events at our house.
Getting vaccinated has a ton of benefits!
Biggest news is that Carson graduated from High School:
Another nice piece of new news is that my niece Hayley and her husband Alex are having a baby girl in December:
I have also been able to teach two Getting Things Done (GTD) classes in-person at work which has been very enjoyable. One class was in May and the other in late June.
LOOKING FORWARD TO
The epic D&D battle I have been DMing for several months has finally ended, and we are on to a new "underwater" related adventure created by our other DM Darren.
We have several mini-vacations coming up across July & August: one week in Mission Beach at a condo rental; a weekend retreat at The Oaks; a couple of days in Las Vegas for Def Con; and then beach camping at San Elijo. It will be nice to get out and about, but also not have to travel too far from home.
TECHNOLOGY, TIPS, & SUGGESTIONS
If I had to pick a single glass style to drink craft beer out of I think it would be this one (Amazon link):
Since May 20th I have been charging all my mobile electronics off-grid using this setup from Jackery (originally purchased just for camping):
This includes: cell phone; iPad (didn't realize what a power hog this was); Garmin watch; bike lights; Go Pro & other camera batteries; all the new Rode podcast/audio recording gear; and a variety of smaller battery packs. Hard to say the total impact to our home electrical bill, but kind of a fun experiment. It will be interesting to see how long I can do it. My cell phone does get charged when it is in the car, so that makes things a little easier. I am not charging my main personal Chromebook computer this way until we go camping this summer.
The solar unit is the SolorSaga 100W (Amazon Link), and the portable battery unit is the Portable Power Station Explorer 240 (Amazon Link).
QUOTE I'M THINKING ABOUT
"Saying no saves you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is like a time credit. You can spend that block of time in the future. Yes is like a time debt. You have to repay that commitment at some point. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility." - James Clear