November 2022

My wife says that taylor.town readers are “anal-retentive”. You’ve been labeled and stereotyped, folks!

On that note, I’m growing intolerant of life’s little frictions. I recently extinguished all push notifications and obliterated my “someday” list. I also levied a skirmish against “content” and a battle against breakfast.

I’ve been scrutinizing my work habits. I reconsidered my ideal workweek, listed my tips for remote-work, and codified my rules for good work. I also adjusted my daily routine: 6 hours of deep career work, 2 hours of chores, and 4 hours of creative work.

I’m celebrating ~10 weeks of sobriety. I guess that means I’m 1% complete with my goal.

Use December to reflect on your yearly theme! And consider scheduling a 20-minute chat with me if you’d like to discuss your theme.

Open Questions

If you have questions or answers, send me an e-mail.

• I made a lot of changes to taylor.town this month. How does the site look and feel?
• Have any classic book recommendations?
• Do you know of any cures for waiting mode?
• Is there anything you’d like me to think and/or write about?
• Do you have any thoughts or opinions on baby sign-language?
• I’m looking to hire a VR developer for a very small project – any recommendations?

New Writings

• Weekend Whenever
• Tips for Remote Work
• 4 Rules for Good Work
• 8 Weekends Without A Drink
• about
• Liberate Breakfast
• Eschew the New
• A Tiny HTML Snippet to “Discuss on HN”
• now

Project Updates

• redesigned taylor.town
• continued home-improvement
• co-founded LLC for secret VR project
• continued UI scaffolding for secret app idea
• started training for a 550-mile bike ride
• switched from emacs to neovim

Recommendations

You may skip to books, purchases, images, videos, podcast episodes, or music.

Books

• Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: This book is potent. It’s witty, horrific, deep, and bizarre – an unforgettable experience. ★★★★★
• The Stranger by Albert Camus: It’s very highly acclaimed. After reading it, I thought I missed something, so I read a few critical analyses – nope, I understood it perfectly. The Stranger has a decent plot with great writing. This book was probably ground-breaking in 1942, but existentialism has been beaten to death since then. On my end, this is probably a case of “Seinfeld is unfunny”. ★★★☆☆
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: It’s a subtle story from the perspective of a charming butler. I highly recommend this book if you’re in a wistful mood or receptive to deep introspection. ★★★★☆

Purchases

• roborock S7+: A small human will soon be crawling all over our carpet, so we purchased a robotic vacuum. Its mapping/navigation algorithms are impressive! So far, this seems to be a worthwhile purchase.
• Radiotopia Donation: What an incredible source of free content! Some of my favorite podcasts have originated from this network: 99% Invisible, Articles of Interest, Everything is Alive, and The Memory Palace.
• LonoLife Thai Curry Beef Bone Broth Sticks: Everybody loves sipping hot drinks during cold winters. Bone broth powder packets provide plenty of protein (sugar-free)!

Images

• Spaghetti-Os To-Go
• cute shrimp donut
• Pied Piper Jr.
• My son put some Trix in his ant farm…
• spoopy peeps
• Mom, can I get a dolphin?
• a tiny camera umbrella

Videos

• Can Groceries Be Delivered TOO Quickly?
• How Madoka Magica Destroyed an Entire Genre
• Suburbia Doesn’t Have to Be Boring
• Making chocolate from scratch to feed an addiction
• Deferred Lights - Pixel Renderer Devlog #1
• questions (toki pona lesson four)
• 2001: CAMERAS… on PHONES? (BBC News)
• The movie where they go BACK IN TIME TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING TO GET TURKEYS OFF THE MENU
• ROBLOX_OOF.mp3
• The Thinnest Video On YouTube
• The Great Places Erased by Suburbia (the Third Place)
• Stop Buying Stuff
• How to Write the Impossible
• But what is a convolution?
• when you stop casting your actors off the street
• Why It’s Rude to Suck at Warcraft

Podcast Episodes

• What’s Your Problem: Paying People to Turn Off the Fridge
• Chemistry for Your Life: How did Bella Hadid’s spray-on dress work? (and other questions)
• University of Oxford Computer Science: Integrating Logic, Probability and Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning using Probabilistic Soft Logic
• Endless Thread: Imaginary Friend
• Derek Sivers: a daily run, party two
• Cautionary Tales: The Halloween Poisoner
• Epic Gardening Daily: Growing Global and Unusual Veggies
• Radiolab: The Weather Report
• Endless Thread: Olga of Kiev
• Everything Everywhere Daily: Philip II of Spain
• Derek Sivers: make believe
• Epic Gardening Daily: The Importance of Flowers in a Food Garden
• Software Unscripted: Static Types in Elixir with José Valim
• Everything is Alive: Charles, Party Horn
• Articles of Interest: American Ivy: Chapter 2
• Everything Everywhere Daily: Banned Techniques That Would Smash World Records in Track and Field
• Conversations with Tyler: Mary Gaitskill on Subjects That Are Vexing Everybody
• Everything Everywhere Daily: Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift
• Everything Everywhere Daily: Horses in World War II
• Radiolab: Guts
• Plant Money: Planet Money tries election polling
• Deep Questions with Cal Newport: Can Parents Do Deep Work?
• Epic Gardening Daily: The Carnivorous Plant Man
• Articles of Interest: American Ivy: Chapter 3
• Software Unscripted: Accessibility in Practice with the Accessibilibats
• Planet Money: Peak Sand
• Freakonomics Radio: The Most Interesting Fruit in the World
• Cautionary Tales: The Inventor Who Almost Ended the World
• Deep Questions with Cal Newport: Did Cavemen Use To-Do Lists?
• Software Unscripted: Software Rituals with David Nolen
• Dear Hank & John: Sphere the Atmos
• Evereything Everywhere Daily: World Population Throughout History
• Cortex: State of the Apps 2023
• Everything is Alive: Miriam and Peter, Playing Cards
• Articles of Interest: American Ivy: Chapter 4
• Twenty Thousand Hertz: Synth War II: Digital Doom
• What’s Your Problem: Sam Bankman-Fried Revisited
• The Memory Palace: One Fruit
• Chemistry for Your Life: How can mosquitos smell you? (new research!)
• Everything Everywhere Daily: Leap Seconds
• Radiolab: What’s Up Doc?
• Planet Money: How the cookie became a monster
• Software Unscripted: Derw with Noah Hall
• Deep Questions with Cal Newport: Could This Meeting Have Been An Email?
• 99% Invisible: Super Citizens
• Articles of Interest: American Ivy: Chapter 5
• Freakonomics Radio: Did Michael Lewis Just Get Lucky with “Moneyball”?

Music