Town Hall #10: Seeds

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Clover. Mint, marjoram, echinecha, sage. Pumpkin, cucumber, sunflower, cantaloupe.

Sowing seeds is safe nowadays. Attempts are cheap, easy, and riskless.

I’m not sure if I’m getting good in the garden, but soil feels nice between my fingers.

Learning demands feedback. In gardens, experiments take months (or years) to resolve.

I see seeds everywhere now. Social seeds, business seeds, health seeds, etc. – riskless projects demanding small periodic efforts.

Last season’s seeds are sprouting. My September sobriety seed is fruiting extra time, better health, and deeper joys. And Spring is bringing the early cotyledons of Outland, scrapscript, and my entrepeneurship project.

Sometimes long work is more valuable than hard work.

Bay Area Meetup

I’ll be visiting the Bay Area from May 30 to June 2! Let me know if you’d like to meet up. I’m hoping to get a group together for pinball.

New Writings

Recommendations

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

You can also scour my entire history of book reviews, album ratings, and active podcasts.

Software

fdbq: an elegant query language for FoundationDB
ChatGPT: finally a native OpenAI iOS app
typescale: beautiful useful CSS typography tool

Purchases

Books

★★★☆☆ This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone :: Borderline pretentious but short, beautiful, and entertaining.
★★★★☆ The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion :: Delightful romance story from the perspective of an autistic man.
★★★★☆ The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson :: An irreverent Forrest Gump story. Incredible comedic payoffs. Required reading for rascals.
★★★★★ Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut :: A wacky book about crazy people for crazy people by crazy people. It’s Vonnegut’s incisive alien wit at its best.
★★★★☆ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams :: Classic, clever comedy.
★★★☆☆ Baby-Led Feeding by Jenna Helwig :: This book details how and why to transition babies to solids early. It provides helpful guidance on safety and nutrition. The book comprises mostly simple recipes that seem tasty enough for adults and babies to share.
★★☆☆☆ Tell Me No Lies by Bader, Pearson, Schwartz :: Wading through pages of filler to find a few worthwhile gems about lies in relationships. Sam Harris’s short treatise on lying is a more potent and practical read.
★★★★☆ Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown :: An engaging encyclopedia of emotions.
★★★★★ Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang :: A provocative short story collection about humans and technology. Each story will leave a lasting impact on how I see the world. Highly, highly recommended.
★★★★☆ The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka :: Human hubris knows no bounds. This book spurns modernity. It’s a charming case against science, technology, and progress. The pursuit of comfort makes life untenable.

Music


★★★★☆	Ape Escape,Soichi Terada :: Ape Escape Originape Soundtracks / サルゲッチュ・オリジサル・サウンドトラック
★★★☆☆	Sound of Ceres :: The Twin
★★★☆☆	KOTONOHOUSE :: Synchronicity
★★★☆☆	Jay Som :: Everybody Works
★★☆☆☆	kz(livetune) • NARASAKI • WATCHMAN • コジマミノリ :: TVアニメ「BEATLESS」オリジナルサウンドトラック
★★☆☆☆	Owls :: Our Hopes and Dreams
★★☆☆☆	Lucybell :: Lumina
★★☆☆☆	Chet Porter :: Intermission Broadcast (DJ Mix)
★☆☆☆☆	Perma :: Fight Fair