--- title: "Dispatch #5 (July 2023)" date: 2023-07-02T16:55:57-04:00 draft: false tags: - dispatch references: - title: "How to Slow Down Time | Valet." url: https://www.valetmag.com/the-handbook/living/how-to-slow-down-time.php date: 2023-07-05T16:08:47Z file: www-valetmag-com-b1tpcf.txt - title: "My thoughts on Helix after 6 months - Tim Hårek" url: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months date: 2023-07-02T12:53:51Z file: timharek-no-ah7ilz.txt - title: "What App is That?" url: https://maggieappleton.com/apps date: 2023-07-02T12:53:51Z file: maggieappleton-com-7am49k.txt - title: "Modern software quality, or why I think using language models for programming is a bad idea" url: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/ date: 2023-07-03T00:54:57Z file: softwarecrisis-dev-7c7z9g.txt - title: "The small web is beautiful" url: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/ date: 2023-07-03T00:52:08Z file: benhoyt-com-vfdv1s.txt - title: "Why You Own an iPad and Still Can’t Draw" url: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw date: 2023-07-03T01:05:26Z file: maggieappleton-com-fube9k.txt --- June was dominated by work and travel. Weekdays were filled up with a client project we were working hard to wrap, weekends by plans with friends and both of our families: [Running of the Bulls][1], canoe camping near Saxapahaw, our yearly trip to Beaufort with Claire's college friends, and then a cruise in the Caribbean with Claire's family followed immediately by a trip up to DC to see mine. [1]: https://bullcityrunning.com/our-races/running-of-the-bulls-8k/ {{}}Little runner Mae beams with pride as she dashes down the track, race bib 1490 fluttering in the summer sun.{{}} {{}}Feet up in the canoe, drifting down a quiet green river while a friend paddles ahead under a wide straw hat.{{}} {{}}Young riders cruise through a sunny downtown, a girl with shorts leading while a toddler enjoys the ride behind her and another cyclist follows close behind.{{}} {{}}Little golfer in a blue dress squats on the ship’s mini golf course, ready to tap the yellow ball while the family looks on.{{}} It was a busy month, sometimes overly so, but having so many unique experiences had this odd effect of slowing and expanding time, which is the opposite of how things tend to go as you get older ([good short piece along the same lines][2]). Most everything else fell by the wayside, but that's OK -- these were all awesome experiences, and I'm excited for a (relatively) quiet July. After getting the trailer hitch installed last month, we picked up a [bike rack][3] and a [seat for Nev][4] and brought the bikes with us to Beaufort. This was **awesome** -- Beaufort's an idyllic coastal town in just about every way but one: parking sucks. Being able to zip up and down the main street on our bikes (and parking them right at our destination) was such a joy, and Nev seems to enjoy the rack-mounted seat a lot more than the trailer we've been using. I'm still enjoying using Obsidian to collect link and make notes, though mostly in the "capture" phase[^1], collecting information and starting to put some structure around it. When something comes up and I think, man, I read something good about that at some point in the past, I'm using that as a cue to create a dedicated note, with the hope that the _next_ time it comes up, I'll have a useful thing to reference. I also read some good articles about [Helix][5] and [Procreate][6], and I'm hoping to give those some attention this month. [2]: https://www.valetmag.com/the-handbook/living/how-to-slow-down-time.php [3]: https://1up-usa.com/product/2-super-duty-double [4]: https://www.thule.com/en-us/child-bike-seats/rear-mounted-child-bike-seats/thule-yepp-nexxt-maxi-_-12080211 [5]: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months [6]: https://maggieappleton.com/apps ### This Month * Adventure: dust off the road bike, fill the tires, grease the chain, throw it on the rack, and get out for a long ride * Project: publish an article on [testing][7] on my company's website * Skill: learn [Helix][8] movements, see if it'd be a good Vim replacement (I still love Vim, and I'm pretty good at it, but my config's dated and I'm wary of how much effort it'll take to modernize) [7]: /notes/good-tests/ [8]: https://helix-editor.com/ ### Reading * Fiction: [_The Golden Enclaves_][9], Naomi Novik * Non-fiction: * [_Rapt_][10], Winifred Gallagher * [_Visual Thinking_][11], Williemien Brand * [_The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life_][12], Epictetus [9]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-golden-enclaves-naomi-novik/17789027?ean=9780593158357 [10]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/rapt-attention-and-the-focused-life-winifred-gallagher/7485226?ean=9780143116905 [11]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/visual-thinking-empowering-people-and-organisations-through-visual-collaboration-williemien-brand/12408256?ean=9789063694531 [12]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-manual-a-philosopher-s-guide-to-life-epictetus/15150488?ean=9781545461112 ### Links * [Modern software quality, or why I think using language models for programming is a bad idea][13] -- I refer people to this article a lot in discussions around LLMs and software development * [The small web is beautiful][14] * [Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw][15] [13]: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/ [14]: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/ [15]: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw [^1]: Tiago Forte's _Building a Second Brain_ outlines a four-step process: Capture, Organize, Distill, Express.