--- title: "Dispatch #5 (July 2023)" date: 2023-07-02T16:55:57-04:00 draft: false tags: - dispatch references: - 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/
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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][2] and a [seat for Nev][3] 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][4] and [Procreate][5], and I'm hoping to give those some attention this month. [2]: https://1up-usa.com/product/2-super-duty-double [3]: https://www.thule.com/en-us/child-bike-seats/rear-mounted-child-bike-seats/thule-yepp-nexxt-maxi-_-12080211 [4]: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months/ [5]: 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][14] on my company's website * Skill: learn [Helix][13] 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) [13]: https://helix-editor.com/ [14]: /notes/good-tests Reading: * Fiction: [_The Golden Enclaves_][6], Naomi Novik * Non-fiction: * [_Rapt_][7], Winifred Gallagher * [_Visual Thinking_][8], Williemien Brand * [_The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life_][9], Epictetus [7]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/rapt-attention-and-the-focused-life-winifred-gallagher/7485226?ean=9780143116905 [6]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-golden-enclaves-naomi-novik/17789027?ean=9780593158357 [8]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/visual-thinking-empowering-people-and-organisations-through-visual-collaboration-williemien-brand/12408256?ean=9789063694531 [9]: 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][10] -- I refer people to this article a lot in discussions around LLMs and software development * [The small web is beautiful][11] * [Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw][12] [10]: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/ [11]: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/ [12]: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw [^1]: Tiago Forte's _Building a Second Brain_ outlines a four-step process: Capture, Organize, Distill, Express.