Years ago when I got my first electric guitar, a used Squier Stratocaster in white, my guitar-playing uncle was nice enough to pass along a multi-effects pedal.1 For hobbyist playing on my own, it was a fun toy that gave me new sounds and allowed me to attempt imitating the sounds in songs I was trying to play. This memory popped back into my head the other week as I was tooling around with my much-improved Fender Telecaster I bought last year. Despite my excitement about having a guitar with a simple, clean sound, I found myself wishing again for more ways to have fun with playing. While flows like plugging into an interface and using Garageband are viable options, that requires more connections and isn’t any less expensive than where I ended up. After doing some research, I found that reputable multi-effects pedals were way less expensive than I originally imagined. ...

After broadly explaining the virtues of digital organization, let’s discuss the practical example of eBooks. I’ve moved from allowing a single platform (e.g. Amazon Kindle) to dictate how I organize my eBooks to making sure I own and manage the system myself. You should too. ...

I asked ChatGPT to write its own Onion-style article with the same title as what I published yesterday. My request along with ChatGPT’s response. Make your own judgement on how it did, and continue on if you’d like to read my thoughts.1 ...

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA—In an effort to eschew the tendency for modern AI tools such as ChatGPT to appear neutral while still housing the fundamental biases of their creators within their core, San Jose-based startup Half Full, Inc. announced on Monday the launch of an AI whose goal is optimism, plain and simple. ...

We create and accumulate huge quantities information these days. I don’t think that makes us fundamentally different than our ancestors in terms of organization. What separates us is that it’s now possible to have our data completely disorganized in a way that is invisible to others. This requires an increase in awareness and intentionality to reap the inherent benefits of organization.1 ...

Did I act today in a way that tomorrow’s retrospective would find acceptable, even helpful? Have I established routines and approaches to my life that I can reap next year? These kinds of questions are both common and important. I plan to keep these front of mind for my theme, Year of the Future. ...

As I’ve stated in the past, my annual goal is to read 24 books each year. While that’s a slippery goal as not all books are made the same — it’s certainly true that I’m hesitant to take on large books because of this goal — it still keeps me reading, and that’s the intention behind it. This year, I also tracked what genre I’d consider each book to be in, and what medium (digital or physical) I used to read the book. I don’t really use audiobooks, so those aren’t a consideration. Note that genres are not exclusive; sometimes I would assign multiple genres to the same book if it felt right. In all, I read 25 books by 15 different authors. Among those, 4 were physical books, while all the others I read digitally. My most popular genres were: Science Fiction (8 books) Fantasy (7 books) Literary Fiction (6 books) And finally, the list itself! ...

That’s right, I’ll be the first to put down my foot and say The Lord of the Rings is actually really good. ...

This Blogmas experience proved to be a fun, engaging, and informative project. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I’m glad I dove in and made it happen.1 ...

Hot on the heels of Ultimate Zone Rating is another tool with the same goal: measure a player’s defensive contributions in terms of runs saved. This other statistic, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), doesn’t just have a better name, but in my experience is favored over UZR in most situations. ...