December 2022: Woodworking, Year-End, 10,000 Names
What I Did This Month
Published a year-end best-of reading list and a piece on how (and why) to receive feedback on your writing for Foster. Wrote about what a product engineer is, the tools they use, and how they differ from software engineers as well as a bunch of tutorials (I’m proud of this Django one) for PostHog. Also, my writing made Evan Hamilton’s top community links from 2022.
Read out 10,000 usernames over 6 hours to celebrate PostHog hitting 10,000 stars on GitHub.
Took a woodworking course and made a nice cutting board. Went on an Asian Food tour (still a mystery to me). Got more library cards. Survived a lot of snow. My family and Luisa found and got me “The Crypto Story.” Celebrated Christmas with my family, and ate lots of turkey, lasgana, dessert, and cookies (my favourite). Took a real break for the first time in a long time.
Thoughts
Getting feedback on your writing is difficult. Addressing it is hard work. If you do manage to get through it, your piece (and understanding) is significantly strengthened. Steelmanning works.
Sucks that biographies have to start with childhood. That is usually the most boring part of someone's life. Starting with the most exciting, then going back to the beginning is way better.
Hard books require structure to get through. You need to plan how you read them, have supporting materials, and take time to work through key points. This is a different mode of reading most people are unprepared for. A praise of the University is that they give you this structure, but it’s just as possible to set it up yourself. (Nabeel also has some thoughts)
Audiences want a creator to have a single, legible identity. Most people are not so unidimensional, so there are a couple of solutions. One, forcing yourself into a single identity (become a “___ guy”). Two, be unabashedly multi-dimensional (”authentic”), lose out on audience size or growth.
"I try to continually focus my reading on the goal of forming a bottom-line view, rather than just “gathering information." - Holden Karnofsky
I read more this month than any previous month and saw the power of taking out too many books from the library. At one point, had like 15 books out, ~10 I dipped into, and ~2 I finished. The ones I finished were really good.
I’ve been writing these monthly updates for a year and still enjoy them. Gives me time to reflect and a log of what I’ve been up to and thinking about. Looking over them this month was nice.
Recommendations
Cocytarchy by
was one of the best posts I read all year (maybe #1), and I read it just after making my best-of list. It explains the truly hellish hierarchy of American prison systems, and how people rise in the hierarchy as their lives get worse. This ends with the leader spending almost all his time in solitary confinement. They draw parallels to other hierarchies with surprisingly similar structures (military, law).Like, Comment, Subscribe by Mark Bergen made me realize the history of YouTube is basically my childhood. I was on YouTube surprisingly early, remember watching the earliest stars they mentioned. The book also helped me appreciate how much YouTube’s success was them being able to deal with controversy well (I’m thinking of writing more on this). YouTube’s biggest moat might be that they were able to get through all of these controversies.
In the last few months, I have cared more about my diet. I haven’t put any significant restrictions in place. I try not to buy pasta and bread. I try to buy more cheese, yogurt, and meat. I am trying to eat less seed oil and processed foods. Seems fine so far, so we’ll see how it goes.
does an excellent overview, which will now be a reference for me, of what I am aspiring to with my diet. More inspo.The Perfect Storm. I mentioned this in my year-end best-of reading list, but Sebastian Junger is one of my favourite writers. I love the combination of the story along with the histories and facts of key aspects of the stories. The Perfect Storm has to be one of the best books I’ve read about the ocean, the Eastern Coast of the US, and fishing.
From No One is Even Trying (a reoccurring source of inspiration): “Byrne Hobart has published 5 days a week, every single week since he launched his newsletter. His last 5 posts are 1968, 2281, 3352, 2535 and 2586 words, so 12,722/week, times 52 weeks, is 661,544 words each year.”
Software is getting larger and more complex. Being able to develop fast, like comma.ai write about here, is critical. It is one of the best signs of a company’s capacity.
Ben Kuhn covers the step before leaping into the abyss: staring at it.
Dunbar’s number remains a critical concept for social groups on the internet.
Web3 went just great, curious about what a similar posts looks like next year. 2022 was defined by excess, but things in web3 will be a lot tighter in 2023 (I think).
Early stage funding is missing in Canada. Literally one of Canada’s most underrated problems. Has anyone checked what Superclusters are even doing?
Start with a dinner party, end with a network state. Urbit is a noble project. You aren’t stuck at the airport, you are stuck in your life. People don’t like Twitter. Many problems are solved by getting to work. Small talk is 99%. Rural electrification is a powerful aesthetic. Young Napoleon goes hard. Apes love AI.
Upcoming
Nothing extraordinary. Writing, coding, spending time with friends, lifting, and playing basketball. Sometimes, it is as simple as just doing the work.
Fingers crossed will publish a few blog posts, one on Urbit is nearly done.