Links and notes - 1st July 2020

Happy 2nd half of the year. Happy as it can be at least. Today has been an absolute marathon of a day. Pretty happy that I limited distractions to just 39 minutes today. I really might have been able to avoid it completely but then I needed to login to Facebook to get the order URL for a shop I buy fish from and.... well...

Sigh.

Anyways. It was a good day. Got a lot done. Got more I want to do. Shall attack it all tomorrow.

So, since my last post on note taking, I've migrated completely to Notion. I have a separate blog post about it coming. Basically, I've been starting simple, ramping up when I feel comfortable, and whenever the system feels too heavy I don't try and alter it; I just dump it and restart from simple.

A good example would be my overall todo list. The giant life need-to-do-this-and-not-forget-it list. I thought it would be nice to try and Kanban it. I had seen some inspiring YouTube videos about it. But about 2 days in I bailed. It was way too much overhead and it felt more like a system designed to sell to others alongside some other life coaching course.

I am now using a raw check list. It works fine. Especially since in Notion I can just write @ Date time to set a time and reminder.

Watching the above video on using Notion as a note taking system gave me that similar feeling of a system designed to be sold with something else. I don't want to dump on the author of the video at all. I do note though that there is a cottage industry around Notion and other similar tools on selling you productivity courses. And it makes me think of the tools we use.

I really don't know how to feel about letting our tools get so complex that you buy a course to learn how to be productive with it. I wonder if that time might not be better spent being lightweight and, by default, productive. I wonder if we spend more time trying out productivity hacks than actually being productive. This we, includes me too.

Ah wells. Shall hopefully complete that blog post soon.

I mentioned I got distracted when I logged on to Facebook? A friend of mine had shared this (and the article below). The entire Twitter thread is a gem to read. I promise, it is not a waste of time. It is a fascinating look into how bad an idea it was to make brexit a public referandum. John Oliver has a great video about it too if you are up for losing a little bit more time.

Self-Absorbed, Uncaring, Incompetent: COVID Has Exposed Populist Leaders for What They Are
From the US and Brazil to India and the UK, the very qualities that catapult populist leaders to power are those that make them dismal failures at handling a serious national emergency.
The WireTalmiz Ahmad

Just sharing an article I am currently reading. I like the title. No idea what I should make of it just yet. It's a long read.

In a random viewing of Twitter during my lunch break, I noticed Tucker Carlson trending. Was highly amused by this piece of "the davos guy" calling him out on his show. Not sure if it ever aired, but my is it highly amusing.

Posted on July 01 2020 by Adnan Issadeen