Chris J Wilson

This will take two hours | Seth’s Blog

We have so many forms of “this will only take a minute” inputs.

We have Twitter, which is optimized for wasting time.

But we don’t have a convention for important inputs that might take hours of work to respond to.

This is one of the best things about a good non-fiction book. It’s not for wasting time, it’s for depth when you’re ready to go deep.

I’m trying to make more time for deep dives and not shallow paddles, but it’s tough. I can’t remember the last time I set two hours aside to read a book…

Why walking makes you a better worker 🔗 - BBC

Either way, it’s clear that seeking out natural settings amid the concrete of modern life is well worth doing. Or, as John Muir put it: “Keep close to nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while… Wash your spirit clean.”

There’s some great insights here.

• Walking in nature is far better than walking in urban areas
• having some greenery in your office isn’t the same as nature.
• there are short term and long term benefits.

Cal Newport mentioned some of these points in his last two books so It’s good to see it elsewhere.

Why You Should Work Less and Spend More Time on Hobbies

As professionals around the world feel increasingly pressed for time, they’re giving up on things that matter to them. A recent HBR article noted that in surveys, most people “could name several activities, such as pursuing a hobby, that they’d like to have time for.”

This is more significant than it may sound, because it isn’t just individuals who are missing out. When people don’t have time for hobbies, businesses pay a price. Hobbies can make workers substantially better at their jobs.

This article resonated with a lot of stuff I’ve seen from Austin Kleon this year and some of the ideas from Digital Minimalism.

The “turn your passion into a job” movement seems to have result in us constantly working rather than “never working a day in our lives”.

I’ve heard far too many stories of becoming a professional raining the passion.

Just this week I talked with a colleague who published her first YouTube video in a year (she makes game reviews). Now that her job is making YouTube tutorials, she find it harder to find the time.

I’ve seen the same thing with my writing. I keep going and writing and have a habit in streaks, my habit tracking app, but it changed from more content strategy focused to self expression (and even that I do less).

One of the reasons I’ve recently got more into pens, calligraphy and drawing is to counter the time I spent at a screen all day. I don’t want this to become my profession, writing is my profession.

This is a hobby, one I’d like to get better at but ultimately, I’d rather it stay free of work baggage and never make me a dime than bring me a fortune and become stale and dull…though you should probably test my resolve on that statement if it was possible.

Some of Our Favorite Typefaces — Tools and Toys

Here are 7 of the awesomest and most drool-worthy font families we can think of.

These are really great. Definitely some hand letter practice material here!

Photographing English Cathedrals • Peter Marlow • Magnum Photos

This required exposures of between one and five minutes. With that length of exposure, reciprocity failure, where the film requires a much longer exposure than is indicated on the light meter, was a big problem. I discovered that Fuji FP 100 Instant film (used for Polaroids) suffered this effect to the same extent as the negative film, and that the aperture setting for a well-exposed Polaroid would be one and a half stops greater than that for the negative film.

I love the story of this project– a commission which he didn’t want to stop – and the details and problems he overcame (seen above) to get the result he wanted, with the tools he choose. It’s a great example of following curiosity and overcoming challenges that arise (and not just sticking a DSLR to multiple exposure and letting lightroom do the rest).

20 Life Lessons from Leonardo da Vinci | The Saturday Evening Post 🔗

The fact that Leonardo was not only a genius but also very human — quirky and obsessive and playful and easily distracted — makes him more accessible. He was not graced with the type of brilliance that is completely unfathomable to us. Instead, he was self-taught and willed his way to his genius. So even though we may never be able to match his talents, we can learn from him and try to be more like him. His life offers a wealth of lessons.

This is actually the second to last part of the Isaacson biography and well worth a read on it’s own. The whole book is fantastic, but this section might inspire you and help you to be a bit more curious.

Join Analog Social Media - Cal Newport 🔗

When you take an activity like social media, for example, and zoom in close, you isolate behaviors like commenting on a friend’s picture, or encountering an interesting link, that seem mildly positive. What harm could there possibly be in clicking a heart icon?

When you zoom out, however, the cumulative effect of all this swiping and tapping seems to add up to something distinctly negative. Few are happy, for example, after allowing yet another movie night to devolve into side-by-side iPad idling.

Yeah, that last part was a little uncomfortable to read.

I think you can also argue that reverse tends to be true of analog social media. The initial energy it requires can be great and the rewards can be small, but overtime the effect is magnified.

I learnt that in Spain where I’d put off meeting up with friends or going out due to feeling tired and knowing that an evening spent speaking Spanish would leave me further drained. And yet every time I did go out, I’d be more energetic in the long run.