WEBVTT
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And about, I think we are live. Okay, hi again everyone. And hi
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Blaine, how are you doing? Fantastic, happy to be here.
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Yeah, it's good to see you again. We were just reminiscing in
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a room right now that it's almost been a year exactly since we
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last spoke because you were at the EmacsConf last year. That's
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right. This is great fun. Yeah, well, thank you for coming in
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and especially every time you come with a very well-crafted
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talks talking about, you know, what you do with Org Mode, Org
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Roam and whatever. And it's really fascinating as someone
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who develops and use those tools constantly to see you put
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them in action so well. Because you, you know, the way you
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talk about your research, it really reminds me on what we
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were, sorry, I've got elves talking in my ears and I'm still
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not used to it at this point. But it's really nice to see you
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put all of this together into a very cohesive way for you to
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write. Okay, let me just share my screen and I'll be sharing
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the questions. Where is it? All right, take presenter. And I
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will be sharing the questions. All right. Can you see my
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screen all right? I can, yes. OK, cool. So we move straight to
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the question. Let me just check on the time. I think we have
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about until 10.20, which is in 17 minutes. So let's take
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about 10 to 15 minutes of question time. And if people have
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joined on BBB, we'll also be taking questions live. All
NOTE Q: what does 0573 means in your init. file name?
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right. Starting with the first question, what does 0573
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mean in your init file name? So this name is, you can think of
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it as a prefix or a stub. It's an index number that I utilize
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before a short name that describes the project. So I have all
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my projects in my home directory, and I just start typing the
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project number or index number. in the terminal and I have
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autocompletion available through oh my ZSH package. So I
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just hit tab and it autocompletes the name of the project and
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pops me into that folder. And so I find this to be very easy for
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navigating between projects. As you saw, I work on multiple
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projects in a given day and this helps me move about. And I
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also use this number at the start of the log file name and at
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the start of the manuscript name and the start of the, I also
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have an annotated bibliography. So all those files are
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identified just in case I accidentally save one to the wrong
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folder. I can avoid, I can sort them out later. Great
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question. Thank you. Next question, which I think is going
NOTE Q: What does Zettelkasten mean?
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to be a long one. What does Zettelkasten mean? So this means
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like, I guess, notebox, something along those lines. You
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can think of it as a- Yeah, spitbox usually, that's the word
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we use. Thank you. So this is a kind of like a card catalog
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system that when it was done on paper, and now it's being done
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electronically through various software packages. So in
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the Emacs world, org-roam is a one of several alternate
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packages that you can use. Prot has the note and there's a
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couple others. So, idea is that you create a note, usually a,
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ultimately what you want to do is create a nugget of
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knowledge from your reading that you've done. and you add it
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to this note system in such a way that you can recover it more
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easily than what had to be done in the old days with index
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cards.
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So you set up backlinks and then you can use the search
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features in Org Roam to filter and find the notes again in the
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future. Org Roam has a wonderful GUI interface where you can
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display it as a knowledge graph, essentially, all your
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nodes and the backlinks between them. I set mine up in a
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rather hierarchical fashion to, at least right now, it's
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pretty hierarchical at this point, but it may become more
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disorganized over time. But I find it I'm sort of a visual
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person. I like mind maps a lot. I find that this visual
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display of my Zettelkasten is similar, resembles to a
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certain degree, a mind map.
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Okay, well, that's a pretty good definition of what
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Zettelkasten is, and you also went on to specify what it
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means inside Emacs, so thank you. I think that clarifies it
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for the two people in the room who still do not know, after
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attending four Emacs conferences, what is the
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Zettelkasten method. Moving on to the next question,
NOTE Q: How many papers are you writing at the same time?
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how many papers are you writing at the same time? Because I
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believe you mentioned that you had concurrent papers being
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written during your presentation. So I'm probably working
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on, in a given year, somewhere between 10 and 15. How many do I
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get published in a year? Probably anywhere from one to four
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or five. So these papers often, the work on them spans
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multiple years. will start working on a paper when I begin,
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before I begin the experiments, ideally, because I'm
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trying to do hypothesis-driven research. And so that helps
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define the scope of the project and limit the number of
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rabbit holes I go down. So, but through the nature of the
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work, there's a lot of waiting required in my case for
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crystals to grow and then the opportunity to collect
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diffraction data on the crystals. And then the structures
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have to be determined and refined and analyzed and then
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deposited, figures have to be made. So a lot of steps are
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involved that those take generally span, that work can span
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several years.
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In a given day, I try to work on two papers, ideally. I haven't
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been doing so well lately over the past month.
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In the past year, there was a couple of days where I worked on
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five papers. There was something like a half dozen where I
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worked on four, about 40 days where I worked on three, and I
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think there was something like about 100 days where I worked
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on two papers a day, about 140 days where I just worked on one.
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So my idea is, I've been sort of developing more recently is
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that I'll start doing like the generative writing on a paper
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at the beginning of the day on the paper project I'm most
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excited about. I tried to, I'm a night owl. I tried to do this
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work early in the morning when I'm half awake to try to
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overcome my internal editor that inhibits me from writing
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prose freely. And so the idea is just to get a lot of words out,
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worry about editing them later. And then after about three
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hours, I'll switch to the second project that I'm less
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excited about. And I can go for another 90 minutes to two
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hours on that project. So I build up a lot of momentum, and
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then I do the switch. And I find that switch to be relatively
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easy. So my process will be On project A, make some final
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notes about what was accomplished in the writing log. Then
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I'll switch over to the writing log for the project B, and
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I'll go to the diary section at the beginning. I'll make a
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little to-do list and maybe look at the prior entry in the
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diary if I need to reboot my memory. And then I'll move on to
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the manuscript and go for 90 minutes or two hours.
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Generally, you're only good for somewhere between four and
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a half, five and a half hours. If you try to write in a
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generative fashion much longer than that, your
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productivity goes down quite a bit. You're better off
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switching to a completely different activity and then
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using your experience doing that writing to essentially
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launch background jobs in your subconscious. And so you
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will get those ideas in the shower the next morning.
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I find it really funny because I also relate. I've also
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worked a lot on organization as linked to paper writing but
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also to on my work as a developer and it's funny how you refer
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to your ability to think about something in very similar
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terms to how a computer would think about something. You've
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mentioned in your presentation the cost of context
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switching between different things but it's also
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something that we use in computing when a processor needs to
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be thinking about something else, well, it has a cost. And
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it's really fun for me to hear you talk about, oh, I need to
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select two topics, but no longer than 90 minutes per topic,
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because it's really about maximizing your output for
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creativity. And overall, your entire chat, your entire
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presentation here is about really maximizing the
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engagement that you have between outputs and your
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cognition. And I really find this amazing how down to the T
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you've managed to do this. And it actually leads me to
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another question which is being asked of you, which is,
NOTE Q: How you capture those ideas when when you are away from Emacs?
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how do you capture those ideas when you are away from Emacs? And
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perhaps not only those you have in the showers, but also
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elsewhere. So that's a great question. Over the past year, I
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actually, last January, upon recommendation of a senior
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colleague, I bought a digital voice recorder for $85 from
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Sony, and it's the best investment I've made in a very long
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time. other than my laptop computer, because I then record
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my thoughts. So I have a half hour commute. And to me, that's
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largely a waste of time. I wish I lived a lot closer to work.
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But I use that time to generate ideas. So maybe I'll start my
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day at home for 90 minutes, worked on paper A, and then I might
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try to prime my mind about project B, or I might still have
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ideas that are flowing about project A. And I'll record
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those in the digital voice recorder. And then when I get to
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the lab, I'll transfer the audio file to my computer, and
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I'll transcribe it using a whisper. So I've set up some
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Python scripts and bash functions to go through and I
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convert all the sentences into one sentence per line
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because that's the way I like to write and edit things. And so
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it does all this pre-processing for me. And I have this
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transcript that's in pretty good shape. I don't have to do
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very much editing. And I'll then copy that over and work on
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it, clean it up, and pluck out the ideas that I think might be
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useful. Unfortunately, I'm not very I'm not away from my
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computer that much. I'm in front of it, 12, 14 hours a day. So
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when I'm teaching, when I'm in seminar, other committee
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meetings, traveling, then I'll capture ideas on paper. I
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don't have a cell phone. I'm trying to be the last human on
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earth without a cell phone. I think I would be so distracted
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by a cell phone. Worst person on the planet, I would be
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totally focused on my cell phone if I had one. So I'm like one
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of the few people left who can read a map. So I do run into some
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difficulties hailing taxis and that sort of thing when I'm
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traveling. So there are some downsides to not having a cell
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phone, but these days. Yeah, but I think there's a pretty
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significant upside because, you know, you talk about cell
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phones here, but before you were talking about the 90
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minutes of uninterrupted focus on a given topic. And I think
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plenty of people would be envious of this ability to focus
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for that long on a topic. And I guess if we are to thread the
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needle here, well, the lack of cell phone might be for
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something for this ability to focus. So take of this what you
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will. True, I am a sucker for the web browser. I can get
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distracted going down various rabbit holes thanks to
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Google searches and that sort of thing. Likewise, email is
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another tension grabber. So, there's those other battles I
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have to fight too. So, right, that is a huge battle that all of
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us face is developing focus and being able to maintain
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focus. Right. So, we have about three more minutes of
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questions. So, thank you so much already for answering many
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questions. How about we do a quick fire for the remaining
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questions and then maybe we will take a question from... from
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here or in the room. So how about we go for the next one?
NOTE Q: What if an ideas does not belong to any current working manuscript?
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What if an ID does not belong
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to any current working manuscript? So I
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have a sandbox area in the log file.
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So if it's likely going to be related to something to a
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certain degree, if the idea is totally unrelated to
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anything I'm working on, then I will
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I maintain a 700 through 750 words. I maintain a kind of a
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external diary and I just capture those kind of ideas there.
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So, I have access to a web interface to this big text area with
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nothing in it. And I just dump ideas all day long in there. So,
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and I save that away. I have that in a big LaTeX document
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currently on Overleaf. but each day has its own page. And so
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that information is captured and I can recover it. And maybe
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it's gonna take me a week, a month, a year to take that idea and
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think about it. And then eventually I'll get to a point where
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I have a critical mass of momentum and data and so forth,
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where I could start a new writing project. But you're right,
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that is a problem, capturing those ideas and keeping track
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of them. The Xenocasting can also help with that. Right. OK,
00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.159
so we have time for one more question and I think I'm going to
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skip this one. You can take all the time you want after we're
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done with the live show for you to answer in BBB, obviously,
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and even after the conference. But I'd really like to finish
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on this one.
NOTE Q: If there were one habit from your process (referencing your extensive flow chart) that you want active learners/professional researchers to adopt, which would it be and why?
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So, if there were one habit from your process,
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referencing your extensive flowchart, that you want
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active learners or professional researchers to adopt,
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which would it be and why? So,
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I think just keeping that daily diary, that's the essential
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part for overcoming the fear of forgetting and the fear of
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losing momentum. One reason why people don't work on two
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projects a day is that they fear losing momentum on the first
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project they're working on. But we often are stuck with
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working on multiple writing projects, and they're best
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done over longer periods of time rather than in a hasty
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fashion. I try to avoid binge writing, although I do my share
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of that, too. Okay, well, Blaine, thank you so much for all
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your questions. The stream is going to move to the next chat
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and talk. We're moving to the next talk of the day, but feel
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free to stay in a room. For everyone interested in asking
00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:38.479
more questions to Blaine, the BBB, sorry, BigBlueButton
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link is available on the website. You can join and ask
00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:43.319
questions directly to Blaine. And otherwise, we'll make
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sure that all the remaining questions on the pad get their
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answer eventually. Thank you so much, Blaine. You're
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welcome. Bye-bye. Bye.
00:17:56.560 --> 00:18:00.079
okay I think the stream is moving on. Just making sure. okay. Yes
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we are moving on to the next stream. So Blaine, I'm going to need to
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get ready for the next talk. Thank you so much for all your
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answers and feel free to answer your questions. I'm
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sorry that i didn't get to fill your question live. It's just
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there was a lot of questions actually. It was a comment. Okay.
NOTE Off-stream Q&A
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Yeah, yeah. You mentioned about that you sit all the day in
00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:27.999
front of computer, right? And I have to say, it's not too
00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:31.439
different from a bathroom if you get distracted by web
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.919
browser. I also have the same problem. And one interesting
00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:38.679
solution I found at some point is that I pry my mind about
00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:44.039
certain task, I leave my office and I go for a walk while
00:18:44.040 --> 00:18:49.079
thinking about this. And that really forces to focus
00:18:49.080 --> 00:18:52.839
because while you're working you have nothing else to do.
00:18:52.840 --> 00:18:56.999
You cannot go and like go like searching Google and stuff
00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:03.359
like that. It can really help in some cases.
00:19:03.360 --> 00:19:09.559
Yeah, I try to. Periodically, I'll try to restart doing the
00:19:09.560 --> 00:19:12.879
Pomodoro method, where you're supposed to get up every 25
00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:17.959
minutes and take a break. But that requires a lot of
00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:23.799
discipline. And it also has, I find I'm more exhausted by
00:19:23.800 --> 00:19:26.879
following that method at the end of the day. But I think the
00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:30.919
problem with, well, I think in part- No, no, I don't mean
00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:36.079
Pomodoro actually. I mean, more like showers. Because when
00:19:36.080 --> 00:19:39.079
you take a shower, you think about something, right? When
00:19:39.080 --> 00:19:43.159
you just go for a walk, you again think about it. So this is not
00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:46.119
a break to take rest. It's a break to think away from
00:19:46.120 --> 00:19:49.039
computer.
00:19:49.040 --> 00:19:54.239
And you prime yourself, your brain by... picking something
00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:56.719
to work on. So I have a project, I think, like certain
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:01.079
questions I want to think about. I sometimes take my, like a
00:20:01.080 --> 00:20:05.319
piece of paper with me. And then when I walk, I like take
00:20:05.320 --> 00:20:10.279
notes. You can record voice in your case. And like half an
00:20:10.280 --> 00:20:15.239
hour and you can really generate ideas.
00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.519
I have been doing a similar thing. I will take a clipboard.
00:20:18.520 --> 00:20:24.799
Maybe I'll have, um, Some blank pages where I'll write, jot
00:20:24.800 --> 00:20:29.799
down ideas as I walk. I'll go for like a half hour, hour-long
00:20:29.800 --> 00:20:33.879
walk and also read a paper sometimes, and in the process of
00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:39.159
reading, I get ideas.
00:20:39.160 --> 00:20:45.159
The clipboard though is socially less acceptable. It
00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:49.359
reminds people of their gym teacher, I think, or their
00:20:49.360 --> 00:20:53.799
marine drill sergeant, and they give me all kinds of weird
00:20:53.800 --> 00:20:59.279
looks. Even though they're walking and reading their cell
00:20:59.280 --> 00:21:03.759
phone, looking down at their cell phone, they give me weird
00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:08.599
looks for looking down at a clipboard as I walk. So there's
00:21:08.600 --> 00:21:16.719
that weird aspect to it. It's kind of hilarious.
00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:21.479
Thank you very much for the comment. Yeah, hopefully it's
00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:24.799
helpful. Because I really struggled about this web browser
00:21:24.800 --> 00:21:28.346
in the past. Not so much these days. Very good.
00:21:28.347 --> 00:21:57.279
That's good to hear.
00:21:57.280 --> 00:21:57.639
I asked,
00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:06.519
when I write notes, I've noticed like with the
00:22:06.520 --> 00:22:10.360
Getting Things Done and the Zettelkasten, I like to separate them
00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:14.759
out. And beyond that, I also like to separate them out on
00:22:14.760 --> 00:22:19.959
daily things and the global things. So that, for instance,
00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:24.719
your Zettelkasten, a daily would be like a journal. If you
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:29.599
separate it out, It gives a lot of tension of, oh, well, if
00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:33.119
it's just a stray thought, I'll write it into my journal if I
00:22:33.120 --> 00:22:36.959
don't know where it goes. If I can think of a permanent place
00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:41.479
for it to go, it goes into the Zettelkasten. Same thing with,
00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:44.599
and then with like the getting things done is like, I don't,
00:22:44.600 --> 00:22:48.159
you start with like a fresh sheet of paper every single day or
00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:54.639
note or whatever. You ever done, you have tricks like that
00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:59.359
that you've noticed? So I'm sort of doing something similar
00:22:59.360 --> 00:23:04.279
through this. Well, to be honest, I like at the start of the
00:23:04.280 --> 00:23:07.399
day, I actually will just do sort of a brain dump of what
00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:11.879
happened the day before, just to try to get writing again.
00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:16.959
And these days, because of carpal tunnel syndrome, I'll use
00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:22.159
a voice speech to text to generate that initial text. And I'm
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:28.479
just trying to, build up momentum of generating words. And
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:35.559
so I capture, but I'm also adding to that document
00:23:35.560 --> 00:23:40.719
throughout the day. And so that is available through the web
00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:47.279
browser. I have a tab open to 750 words all the time. There's
00:23:47.280 --> 00:23:51.719
an alternate to it that is called Write Honey, that somebody
00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:55.919
in Berlin started, because they benefited so greatly from
00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:58.679
this practice. They have made it available for free,
00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:05.039
apparently for life. And so there's no word limit, whereas I
00:24:05.040 --> 00:24:10.599
have a grandfathered version of 750 words, and I have a word
00:24:10.600 --> 00:24:15.519
limit of 5,000 words. I rarely hit it. It's nice to know that
00:24:15.520 --> 00:24:20.599
right honey doesn't have that limit. So, that's how I'm
00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:26.199
capturing things. And then, so some of that text winds up
00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:32.279
being moved into my log file or even sometimes into the
00:24:32.280 --> 00:24:37.799
manuscript.
00:24:37.800 --> 00:24:42.079
So maybe a little less organized than the getting things
00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:47.559
done approach with the dailies and then the refiling
00:24:47.560 --> 00:24:54.319
process. So I don't do any refiling. I want to file once. I
00:24:54.320 --> 00:24:58.079
don't want to file a second time or have to go back and handle
00:24:58.080 --> 00:25:03.319
something a second time. So that's my rationale for the
00:25:03.320 --> 00:25:08.159
approach I take. I'm not using it. I've had various
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:12.759
iterations of systems I've used, but I think my favorite one
00:25:12.760 --> 00:25:15.559
for like getting things done is actually not using
00:25:15.560 --> 00:25:18.799
Org Agenda, just like making a blank sheet and kind of doing
00:25:18.800 --> 00:25:24.039
like a template where it's just like, and separating my
00:25:24.040 --> 00:25:28.119
tasks out into three categories, like core tasks, like, and
00:25:28.120 --> 00:25:32.279
rule of thumb is like, if it's beyond three, it's too much too
00:25:32.280 --> 00:25:36.359
many. And like core tasks, secondary tasks and unplanned
00:25:36.360 --> 00:25:39.759
tasks. So these, those three categories, like for
00:25:39.760 --> 00:25:42.039
instance, the core task, if it's greater than three, it's
00:25:42.040 --> 00:25:46.999
too many. That way is like, when you look back, then you can
00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:51.439
see, like, if I got my core tasks done, I did really good. or if
00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:56.879
I got a lot of secondary tasks but not my core tasks done, I got
00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:58.873
side reactions with things that don't matter.
00:25:58.874 --> 00:26:00.674
If I got a lot of unplanned tasks,
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:03.679
I could look at those unplanned tasks to see, oh yeah, okay,
00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:07.639
that was fine. Okay, the day didn't go as
00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:14.999
planned, but it was, yeah. That's an excellent suggestion.
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.119
I generally just And I ended up long of a to-do list. It's
00:26:20.120 --> 00:26:25.079
impossible to accomplish in a day. Then I just like
00:26:25.080 --> 00:26:29.799
furnaces. Another trick that I liked was I also put like that
00:26:29.800 --> 00:26:34.719
under like a week. Cause it makes more sense to do it under a
00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:39.079
week. And then I'd have like subheadings under that, like,
00:26:39.080 --> 00:26:45.079
you know, so week day. Um, then I'd have those three
00:26:45.080 --> 00:26:48.599
categories for each of the tasks and then kind of as an
00:26:48.600 --> 00:26:51.719
unofficial day at the end, I just like have a staging area for
00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:56.199
all tasks. So I just kind of, then I just, I want to be using org
00:26:56.200 --> 00:27:00.319
agenda. So then I just be moving up and down, you know, cause
00:27:00.320 --> 00:27:03.199
you could, cause you're able to rearrange stuff in org mode
00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:08.079
so easily. I don't know if there's a good way of, that's been
00:27:08.080 --> 00:27:11.919
my favorite iteration
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:20.759
of doing it. So I wrote a little function that pops in the
00:27:20.760 --> 00:27:25.439
to-dos that are specific to a particular project in the log
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:31.359
file for that project.
00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:36.599
And then I add the log file name to the list of org files that
00:27:36.600 --> 00:27:41.919
Org Agenda searches, so those to-dos will show up. But my
00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:46.199
list is too long, and that becomes overwhelming. So I'll
00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:51.399
just assign a to-do heading to the top item in my to-do list to
00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:54.479
try to, but maybe it should be three. That would be a
00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:58.479
reasonable compromise.
00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:03.879
That's a good idea.
00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:12.879
So you're doing weekly planning then? I can show up. I was.
00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:16.879
This is, yeah, this was, yeah. What ended up making me stop is
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:20.439
I didn't know how to make a template of it. And I, I ended up
00:28:20.440 --> 00:28:25.879
getting annoyed by manually changing the days every single
00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:29.759
time and naming like my files and stuff like that. If I Maybe
00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:34.159
if I did it now, I could figure out how to program it or if I
00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:36.439
spent enough time, but that's what I think eventually made
00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:42.479
me stop doing it. So there's a, um, you can make a snippet for
00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:45.640
the week and then you could have code in the snippet that
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:51.519
would generate the dates automatically. Um, So I have like
00:28:51.520 --> 00:28:56.599
for my daily entry, I have a snippet called entry and then I
00:28:56.600 --> 00:29:02.079
hit tab and our control or whatever to insert the snippet and
00:29:02.080 --> 00:29:07.919
that has the current date already entered. So I skip that, I
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:13.479
don't have to deal with that. So I think you could probably
00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:18.639
feed what you want to accomplish to a copilot, for example,
00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:21.801
being copilot. I've been using Bing Copilot
00:29:21.802 --> 00:29:25.833
for the past three or four months to return
00:29:25.834 --> 00:29:29.227
Elisp code that works 90% of the time.
00:29:29.228 --> 00:29:34.399
I've been pretty impressed. And it's free. So no
00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:43.119
API key required. It runs. So I guess I installed the Bing
00:29:43.120 --> 00:29:49.362
Copilot plugin in the Google Chrome.
00:29:49.363 --> 00:29:50.199
And that's what I've been using.
00:29:50.200 --> 00:30:00.807
Yeah, I can show you my screen if
00:30:00.808 --> 00:30:05.852
you want to see what the screen looks like.
00:30:05.853 --> 00:30:06.839
I can email you the template. I kind of have it saved as a
00:30:06.840 --> 00:30:12.639
template. I've got to find it, though. Let's see.
00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:17.439
Not exactly set up to.
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:44.159
Alright, so. I
00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:50.159
don't know if you can see this well enough, but...
00:30:50.160 --> 00:30:59.599
Yeah, let's make it bigger. Can you see that at all? I can see a
00:30:59.600 --> 00:31:01.279
little bit of it. Yeah, it's kind of blurry.
00:31:01.280 --> 00:31:07.399
Alright, well. But then you just do that right there. So it's
00:31:07.400 --> 00:31:13.239
all color coded. I, so I get a sense of, uh, uh, what the kind of
00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:18.599
greenish blue lines must be or days, I guess, or. Okay. Well,
00:31:18.600 --> 00:31:22.639
right. There's like, so you can see like startup show two
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:27.519
levels. Then I have like numbers right there. So right on one
00:31:27.520 --> 00:31:30.919
day you have like the core tasks, there's three out of four
00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:37.119
done. Then I have like secondary and unplanned and then.
00:31:37.120 --> 00:31:42.079
Yeah, that's just the general idea
00:31:42.080 --> 00:31:50.319
So that this is you raise you know the so the dilemma I face of
00:31:50.320 --> 00:31:55.119
course is that I have maintain like a to-do list and our
00:31:55.120 --> 00:31:58.799
project specific and then there's the all the other things I
00:31:58.800 --> 00:32:04.439
have to do and So there should be like some The org agenda
00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:09.879
should be a way of being able to pull the two sets together, I
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:10.319
guess.
00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:16.959
I had broken up my,
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:25.359
well, I had way too many to-do lists stored in various
00:32:25.360 --> 00:32:25.919
places.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:32.199
And so that's a problem, I guess, when you have too many
00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:37.359
to-dos and the org Agenda becomes overwhelming and sort of
00:32:37.360 --> 00:32:44.479
discourages Yeah, I figure that the general task on that is
00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:49.199
like I start writing things up. I get more and more items.
00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:52.319
I'll make a master to-do list. Oh my master to-do list has too
00:32:52.320 --> 00:32:58.759
many items. Let me throw it out Well, there's another name
00:32:58.760 --> 00:33:01.559
for that kind of list you could you know called a grass
NOTE Time Power
00:33:01.560 --> 00:33:06.959
catcher list. So Charles Hobbs was this, he wrote a book in
00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:16.079
the 80s called Time Power. And he had like, you know, so he was
00:33:16.080 --> 00:33:22.679
one of these time management gurus. And so, let's
00:33:22.680 --> 00:33:26.519
see, you get the name of some, like Tony Robbins and,
00:33:26.520 --> 00:33:34.879
I forget the name of the other guy, that's Brian Tracy. So
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:39.119
that they have kind of pushed the same kind of similar
00:33:39.120 --> 00:33:43.279
approaches. But Charles Hobbs had a very more organized
00:33:43.280 --> 00:33:46.679
approach, I think, and more disciplined. And he identified
00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:49.439
that kind of list as a grass catcher list, where you have a
00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:52.839
list of items that you think you might want to do, but you
00:33:52.840 --> 00:33:57.359
haven't prioritized them yet. And you haven't scheduled
00:33:57.360 --> 00:34:03.199
them yet. but they need a safe place to be stored. When time
00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:06.199
permits, the idea was you would pull items off that grass
00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:10.599
catcher list and move it into a to-do item that you will
00:34:10.600 --> 00:34:18.079
schedule and commit to getting done. That was the idea,
00:34:18.080 --> 00:34:20.999
separating them between core tasks, secondary tasks,
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:24.119
unplanned tasks, because your whole day can't be planned.
00:34:24.120 --> 00:34:27.919
Right, right. You have things you have to do that are
00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.319
unscheduled that come through your door or land in your
00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:35.239
inbox or land in your email. You've got to do them. And then
00:34:35.240 --> 00:34:38.799
core tasks, I don't know, like to-do lists, their whole
00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:43.279
point is. So for instance, like journal and Zettelkasten
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:46.679
are kind of, and like that's global lists versus the daily
00:34:46.680 --> 00:34:49.399
lists are kind of. done a little differently. With
00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:53.639
Zettelkasten, it's organic. Things build up. If you make a
00:34:53.640 --> 00:34:56.359
note, it's great. If you don't, if it has a small amount,
00:34:56.360 --> 00:35:00.479
that's great. Have a small note. With a daily to-do, you want
00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:05.199
to use it to make decisions. That's the idea of having the
00:35:05.200 --> 00:35:08.639
core task and the secondary task separate because the whole
00:35:08.640 --> 00:35:12.719
thing about it is, I wanna use this to eliminate what I'm
00:35:12.720 --> 00:35:15.759
going to do. It's to choose what I'm going to do, like the core
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:19.839
tasks. Because if I can get my core tasks, I can be happy with
00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:26.519
my previous days. And then I would probably start using
00:35:26.520 --> 00:35:30.639
agenda a lot more if I was more consistent with using like
00:35:30.640 --> 00:35:34.439
these as like weekly files. I don't know. But then the whole
00:35:34.440 --> 00:35:37.559
goal thing is just like, let me see what I wanna populate the
00:35:37.560 --> 00:35:43.879
day list with. So how many core tasks wind up spanning
00:35:43.880 --> 00:35:47.359
multiple days because they're such big projects?
00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:54.519
I would need more time using the system before I'd figure
00:35:54.520 --> 00:35:59.679
something like that out. As I said, I'm not using it right
00:35:59.680 --> 00:36:04.759
now, but that has been my favorite iteration of using these.
00:36:04.760 --> 00:36:13.519
So within the core tasks, do you assign priorities? So the
00:36:13.520 --> 00:36:20.279
way I would translate this a little bit would be like in this
00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:24.999
method that Charles Hobbs had, he had a category for the
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.399
items that you really have to get done, and they're really
00:36:29.400 --> 00:36:34.119
important. And so they get a priority of A. And then the
00:36:34.120 --> 00:36:39.519
secondary tasks would get a priority of B. But then within
00:36:39.520 --> 00:36:42.079
the A category, you would number them like one through
00:36:42.080 --> 00:36:45.039
three, I guess. All right, so this would be part of the
00:36:45.040 --> 00:36:49.079
purpose of separating the daily list or like the weekly list
00:36:49.080 --> 00:36:51.719
from the global list. So for instance, your global list,
00:36:51.720 --> 00:36:55.679
you'd say, I want this project that will take a long duration
00:36:55.680 --> 00:37:00.639
of time. But your daily list would just say, I want to work on
00:37:00.640 --> 00:37:05.039
it today, even if I don't get it done today. Like, I want to
00:37:05.040 --> 00:37:11.399
work on it today. then maybe you can link like for instance
00:37:11.400 --> 00:37:16.239
that your daily list to that global list or something along
00:37:16.240 --> 00:37:20.479
those lines. But that would be I think a good answer to that
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:24.719
type of problem because yeah, the daily list is like
00:37:24.720 --> 00:37:30.999
supposed to be for that day, not for, Like for instance, you
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:34.679
start out clean, you make the list like that would probably
00:37:34.680 --> 00:37:38.599
be your first task for the week is what do I want for the week?
00:37:38.600 --> 00:37:41.639
Then you have some tasks that you do with staging. And then
00:37:41.640 --> 00:37:43.799
like for instance, since you look at it as a whole week at a
00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:47.559
time, you're able to rearrange it and say, these are the
00:37:47.560 --> 00:37:51.159
things I wanna get done this week. This is what I really wanna
00:37:51.160 --> 00:37:53.639
get done on this day. This is what I don't care about on this
00:37:53.640 --> 00:37:53.959
day or yeah.
00:37:53.960 --> 00:38:03.079
Another person that kind of, and this is kind of related,
00:38:03.080 --> 00:38:05.559
there's this idea of
00:38:05.560 --> 00:38:14.039
of time blocking. So obviously, three tasks, core tasks,
00:38:14.040 --> 00:38:18.839
maybe they're going to take three or four hours each or two or
00:38:18.840 --> 00:38:23.919
three. And you can assign blocks of time in your schedule to
00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:30.039
get them done. And often, what happens is they take longer
00:38:30.040 --> 00:38:33.799
than you expect. And you have to extend the blocks. Calvin
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:39.359
Newport has a that's a kind of approach he advocates is you
00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:43.519
and I think the power to that is you're you. you're mapping
00:38:43.520 --> 00:38:48.599
out, you know, you're allocating the time to do these things
00:38:48.600 --> 00:38:52.679
and you're seeing how you actually, how much time things
00:38:52.680 --> 00:38:56.119
actually take. And then you, so you wind up adjusting in the
00:38:56.120 --> 00:39:00.079
future. And the idea is with this approach is do it on paper.
00:39:00.080 --> 00:39:03.559
And then you have to like, uh, if something takes longer,
00:39:03.560 --> 00:39:06.599
that pushes everything else down. You just wind up
00:39:06.600 --> 00:39:12.799
redrawing your schedule for the day, uh, manually. And, um,
00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:17.399
So it's kind of laborious, and that labor is supposed to
00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:21.799
inhibit you from spending too much time on a project. As you
00:39:21.800 --> 00:39:24.959
know, you've got the pain of redrawing everything if you
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:27.919
spend too much time on the first project.
00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:36.999
Yeah, there was a, let's see. It's whatever you strategy you
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:40.359
want to do. Like for instance, to me, it's like doing it this
00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:45.519
way makes me say, I want to focus on like what matters. Then
00:39:45.520 --> 00:39:49.239
it'll tell me if I feel good about that day, depends on what
00:39:49.240 --> 00:39:52.759
algorithm, what level and what type of strategy you're
00:39:52.760 --> 00:39:56.119
using. If you're using time blocking, you're optimizing
00:39:56.120 --> 00:40:02.879
for each level of time block where I'm, where's like, And you
00:40:02.880 --> 00:40:09.359
can combine the approaches. It'd be trickier. But like, now
00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:12.919
let's see. I was listening to a talk with Jordan Peterson.
00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:15.159
One of the things he said that really resonated with me is
00:40:15.160 --> 00:40:19.119
like, you wanna use a calendar, but the first rule of using a
00:40:19.120 --> 00:40:24.599
calendar is don't let the calendar tyrannize you. Because
00:40:24.600 --> 00:40:27.999
like the first thing you wanna do whenever you use a calendar
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:33.039
is schedule every single minute of the day Now you don't have
00:40:33.040 --> 00:40:37.279
any room for if any task overruns at all. And after a couple of
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:42.719
tests, you're like, I don't want to do this anymore. I rebel.
00:40:42.720 --> 00:40:49.879
I'm going to throw it out. So one kind of combination is
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:53.799
through this Pomodoro method I mentioned earlier, where
00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:57.719
you would sort of like block out, say, two hours. You work for
00:40:57.720 --> 00:41:02.199
like 25 minutes, take a little, break for up to five minutes
00:41:02.200 --> 00:41:07.279
and get back to work. And then after two hours, you're to take
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:11.119
like a 15 minute break in the morning. In the afternoon, you
00:41:11.120 --> 00:41:14.599
might even let that break run longer and you might only have
00:41:14.600 --> 00:41:19.279
three work sessions between breaks. So because you're
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:24.319
going to be more run down in the afternoon. And so you build in
00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:26.919
some
00:41:26.920 --> 00:41:31.639
into your schedule, some flex like, okay, that's supposed
00:41:31.640 --> 00:41:34.439
to be a break time, but you know, maybe some urgency comes up
00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:37.999
and you got to deal with, um, and you have to break out of this,
00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:44.039
uh, Pomodoro technique. So, uh, that, that, that's one way
00:41:44.040 --> 00:41:48.799
of kind of scheduling in some, uh, flexibility is through
00:41:48.800 --> 00:41:54.399
the breaks at Peterson's[??], right. Right. That... I can't, I
00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:59.239
can't... I don't schedule to that kind of detail. That's just
00:41:59.240 --> 00:42:00.039
too oppressive.
00:42:00.040 --> 00:42:05.399
Well, neither do I, but it's like that, like I, that's, I
00:42:05.400 --> 00:42:09.119
don't try to, to me, the much more interesting question that
00:42:09.120 --> 00:42:12.479
I tried to do is like, let's try to make sure I do the important
00:42:12.480 --> 00:42:15.199
things. Cause if I do those, my life would probably move a lot
00:42:15.200 --> 00:42:19.319
quicker. If I get, if I choose a couple items that I really
00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:22.239
want and am able to consistently do them, I think my life
00:42:22.240 --> 00:42:26.319
would bastically start improving. Not necessarily if I can
00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:28.879
play the game of optimizing every hour.
00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:36.879
Maybe that could be, and it's a place to start rather, and I
00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:39.079
think it'd be the most effective place to start. And if I got
00:42:39.080 --> 00:42:42.719
better at using it all the time, perhaps I'd be playing
00:42:42.720 --> 00:42:46.999
optimizing every hour game. But this is the game I think
00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:52.719
would be best bang for buck for me to optimize now. What
00:42:52.720 --> 00:42:56.039
you're trying to optimize for is accomplishing these core
00:42:56.040 --> 00:43:03.559
tasks, getting them done as quickly as possible, or as
00:43:03.560 --> 00:43:10.559
effectively as possible, and as effectively as you need, or
00:43:10.560 --> 00:43:15.359
whatever your goal is. But yeah, focusing on that rather
00:43:15.360 --> 00:43:19.679
than the scheduling, I think. Plus, a core task could be, I
00:43:19.680 --> 00:43:26.119
don't know, catch up on all my house chores, or let, or do a
00:43:26.120 --> 00:43:28.879
specific one if it's really big or like, I don't know, it's
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:32.159
whatever you want it to be. It's like, you can make them
00:43:32.160 --> 00:43:37.559
bigger or smaller depending on, on how you word them and
00:43:37.560 --> 00:43:40.919
everything. Cause like, if you say cap, capture all of your
00:43:40.920 --> 00:43:44.879
house chores up for like one week and you haven't done
00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:47.279
anything, that's probably a little too ambitious.
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:56.439
That's right. Yeah, well, a lot of. Yeah.
00:43:56.440 --> 00:44:03.039
I spend, I don't know, at least 15 minutes, half an hour at the
00:44:03.040 --> 00:44:07.119
beginning of the day, sort of my my planning and sort of my
00:44:07.120 --> 00:44:12.359
initial writing session is involves a bit of planning and
00:44:12.360 --> 00:44:20.399
there's always. A lot more time. So generally, depending on
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:21.279
the nature of your work,
00:44:21.280 --> 00:44:28.119
it can take up to 15% of your time. It can take quite a bit of
00:44:28.120 --> 00:44:33.919
time. And I think people don't really acknowledge that as
00:44:33.920 --> 00:44:39.039
part of your work is planning. And it can take a significant
00:44:39.040 --> 00:44:39.839
amount of time.
00:44:39.840 --> 00:44:44.799
Yeah, that's what I was meaning though is like the very first
00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:48.119
thing I think people generally always try to do with the
00:44:48.120 --> 00:44:51.279
scanners like look at how productive I can be let's schedule
00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:55.319
every single minute up and it's like You're not gonna want to
00:44:55.320 --> 00:45:00.519
do that for very long and it's not gonna work out And what you
00:45:00.520 --> 00:45:06.359
were saying about The pomodoro technique one of the core
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:11.919
Let's see, one of the benefits could be described of another
00:45:11.920 --> 00:45:16.879
benefit I've seen of like multiple habits books is if you
00:45:16.880 --> 00:45:19.599
start multiple small habits where you try to do them
00:45:19.600 --> 00:45:23.319
consistently, you give yourself an opening to where if you
00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:28.279
get into the flow state, you can do a lot more of it. Like, I
00:45:28.280 --> 00:45:31.759
don't know, let's say you got a habit of, I don't know, just
00:45:31.760 --> 00:45:36.519
write a journal entry. You're a journal entry of like at
00:45:36.520 --> 00:45:39.279
least two lines. I don't know that could very easily turn to
00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:42.759
like three paragraphs and if you have like a whole bunch of
00:45:42.760 --> 00:45:46.279
Like the pomodoro technique it could be like stubs to allow
00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:47.639
you to do more stuff
00:45:47.640 --> 00:45:54.319
Where are they in spur to allow inspiration to allow you to
00:45:54.320 --> 00:45:57.239
generate inspiration and then capture it when it strikes if
00:45:57.240 --> 00:45:58.759
the mood fancies you
00:45:58.760 --> 00:46:08.319
Yeah, so that's kind of an issue with the Pomodoro
00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:13.839
technique. So, one idea is that you just, if you really have
00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:19.359
to break out, because the idea is too big to put on the back
00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:24.359
burner and hold in place, then you do have to break out of the
00:46:24.360 --> 00:46:30.039
Pomodoro and go, you know, jot down a quick note or three
00:46:30.040 --> 00:46:30.719
paragraphs.
00:46:30.720 --> 00:46:36.839
but like how much... You don't get to count that as a
00:46:36.840 --> 00:46:40.679
Pomodoro. You have to like reset your count because you've
00:46:40.680 --> 00:46:48.759
broken it. I mean, according to that method, it's
00:46:48.760 --> 00:46:52.879
kind of rigid. It's a different algorithm optimizing for
00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:55.479
different things. And this may just be like a by-product,
00:46:55.480 --> 00:47:00.759
but this could be very easily like a core advantage that may
00:47:00.760 --> 00:47:05.599
or may not be the core reason that you were using it but didn't
00:47:05.600 --> 00:47:08.719
realize it, and may not be something that it's optimizing
00:47:08.720 --> 00:47:17.399
for. So
00:47:17.400 --> 00:47:22.159
are you developing a Emacs package then with your template?
00:47:22.160 --> 00:47:30.319
No. As I said,
00:47:30.320 --> 00:47:36.319
My next steps where I think would make it work a lot better is
00:47:36.320 --> 00:47:39.999
if I figured out some way of automatically filling out the
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:45.439
dates or maybe automatically adding the file per week into
00:47:45.440 --> 00:47:51.999
and out of Org Agenda. That would be my next steps. I think if I
00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:55.719
did that, it would have a much greater chance of becoming
00:47:55.720 --> 00:48:01.879
part of my workflow at all times. Yeah, I bet you could do it
00:48:01.880 --> 00:48:08.439
pretty Something I got to work with the help of copilot. I'm
00:48:08.440 --> 00:48:14.959
not a wizard yet at Emacs Lisp, but I find that copilot is
00:48:14.960 --> 00:48:26.439
quite helpful.
00:48:26.440 --> 00:48:32.799
Yeah, their AIs are definitely interesting.
NOTE Do you use a lot of TeX inside Org Mode?
00:48:32.800 --> 00:48:38.279
So. do you ever use any, uh, a lot of TeX inside of org mode?
00:48:38.280 --> 00:48:49.639
No, mostly because I know that like I could try to learn it,
00:48:49.640 --> 00:48:57.639
but I just don't have a need for it. So yeah. And then also like
00:48:57.640 --> 00:49:05.279
I remember learning, when I learned HTML, I like writing
00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:08.519
HTML more than like, for instance, Word, because it was a lot
00:49:08.520 --> 00:49:14.959
more transparent, like a plain text document is, and kind of
00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:20.159
wrote the ordered list, unordered list, in such a way that it
00:49:20.160 --> 00:49:25.599
kind of looked similar to the page. But I find that I like Org
00:49:25.600 --> 00:49:26.439
Mode more than,
00:49:26.440 --> 00:49:35.479
HTML because, well, it's optimized for, like, my writing
00:49:35.480 --> 00:49:38.479
and consumption and overall use case rather than, like,
00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:43.359
optimizing it for somebody else to view, which I generally
00:49:43.360 --> 00:49:45.039
don't have as much.
00:49:45.040 --> 00:49:52.799
But, so, like, I don't know. Org Mode is what I'm going to end
00:49:52.800 --> 00:49:57.879
up using the most, so. I just want to use LaTeX enough.
00:49:57.880 --> 00:50:00.999
Although I'd be interested in learning LaTeX snippets
00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:06.519
inside of Org Mode for like the math stuff, but then again, I
00:50:06.520 --> 00:50:13.479
just never have to type it. So my attitude towards Org Mode
00:50:13.480 --> 00:50:18.199
changed radically over the summer. I was avoiding it
00:50:18.200 --> 00:50:25.439
somewhat before and then when I realized I can keep all the
00:50:25.440 --> 00:50:33.279
great aspects of LaTeX and still use all the great features
00:50:33.280 --> 00:50:39.959
of Org Mode. So I view now, I think of Org Mode as a wrapper
00:50:39.960 --> 00:50:44.559
around LaTeX. I know it's not really that, but by thinking
00:50:44.560 --> 00:50:49.159
about it that way, uh, it's much more palatable to me to, uh,
00:50:49.160 --> 00:50:54.679
uh, just go, uh, commit to doing as much as possible in org
00:50:54.680 --> 00:50:58.559
mode. So I've been, that's what I've been doing. Um, this
00:50:58.560 --> 00:51:01.839
fall is just, uh, every document I started as an org file.
00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:09.959
I imagine I would like it if I knew it, it's just because I,
00:51:09.960 --> 00:51:13.319
because I imagine it would feel to me like HTML, or it's just
00:51:13.320 --> 00:51:18.519
like, Yeah, I can write it, I can format it the way I want to.
00:51:18.520 --> 00:51:24.439
This is just guesses from my experience with HTML. I can read
00:51:24.440 --> 00:51:27.679
the source code of it and kind of get an idea of how it will look
00:51:27.680 --> 00:51:30.919
like, but I just...
00:51:30.920 --> 00:51:36.799
It's like if you're gonna use the Linux terminal, but you're
00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:41.639
gonna use it for an hour a week every... Yeah, an hour a week.
00:51:41.640 --> 00:51:45.199
It's just like, it's just not enough time to dedicate to
00:51:45.200 --> 00:51:48.279
learn it for to start paying off. That's right. And you can
00:51:48.280 --> 00:51:52.559
always export your org file to an HTML file.
00:51:52.560 --> 00:51:56.079
Yeah.
00:51:56.080 --> 00:52:06.039
But the org file is what I stare at 95% of the time or more. I
00:52:06.040 --> 00:52:10.519
only use a PDF. So I export to PDF generally. And when I export
00:52:10.520 --> 00:52:16.239
to HTML, it's very cool. I like looking at the document in the
00:52:16.240 --> 00:52:20.879
web browser. I like navigating it. But I generally will
00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:24.879
export it to PDF so I can print it out when I'm traveling to
00:52:24.880 --> 00:52:30.439
carry out editing. But that's just a small, tiny fraction of
00:52:30.440 --> 00:52:34.039
the time that I'm actually working with the document. So
00:52:34.040 --> 00:52:38.119
most of the time it's in org mode. You know, maybe it doesn't
00:52:38.120 --> 00:52:44.199
look as pretty as in, you know, uh, HTML, but it's, uh, it's so
00:52:44.200 --> 00:52:48.679
such a pleasure to work in because of the way you can reorder
NOTE Org Mode versus Markdown
00:52:48.680 --> 00:52:55.119
lists, you know, create headlines. So what about org mode
00:52:55.120 --> 00:52:57.719
versus Markdown? Cause I know when, cause when I looked at
00:52:57.720 --> 00:53:00.559
org mode versus Markdown, I was like, yeah, more stuff
00:53:00.560 --> 00:53:05.039
supports Markdown, but. Org mode has more stuff built into
00:53:05.040 --> 00:53:10.519
it, like the calendar and agenda stuff. And it's obvious
00:53:10.520 --> 00:53:14.559
what this is supposed to be in org mode. And Emacs has got the
00:53:14.560 --> 00:53:18.919
best client. I use Emacs. And I think it's got a better syntax
00:53:18.920 --> 00:53:23.319
than Markdown. You've got stuff like Obsidian and Notes.
00:53:23.320 --> 00:53:30.959
And what about the Markdown? So Markdown, I use it a lot on
00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:35.479
GitHub repositories for the readme files. Sometimes I'll
00:53:35.480 --> 00:53:38.959
do them in org, but generally just go with the GitHub
00:53:38.960 --> 00:53:44.159
Markdown. But tables are still kind of a pain in Markdown,
00:53:44.160 --> 00:53:48.719
whereas tables are such a pleasure to build in org mode,
00:53:48.720 --> 00:53:52.959
because you have that dynamic adjusting of the column width
00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:59.239
as you make entries that become wider. And it's so easy to add
00:53:59.240 --> 00:54:04.159
columns. And it's so hard to add columns. It's much harder in
00:54:04.160 --> 00:54:12.479
Markdown and in LaTeX. It's more of a pain to add new columns.
00:54:12.480 --> 00:54:16.919
So the table aspect, that, to me, was one of the killer
00:54:16.920 --> 00:54:20.439
features. And then the other killer feature, of course, is
00:54:20.440 --> 00:54:24.159
the literate programming or interactive programming. So
00:54:24.160 --> 00:54:26.559
interactive computing that you can do where you have a code
00:54:26.560 --> 00:54:30.639
block and then you can execute it and have the output show up
00:54:30.640 --> 00:54:35.159
right below the code block. And
00:54:35.160 --> 00:54:40.839
org modes support for that kind of interactive computing is
00:54:40.840 --> 00:54:46.039
I'm not aware of anything more sophisticated, because you
00:54:46.040 --> 00:54:50.799
could have parallel sessions. You could have four Python
00:54:50.800 --> 00:54:55.039
sessions going, each of them labeled differently. And
00:54:55.040 --> 00:54:57.519
they're all walled off from each other. They don't see each
00:54:57.520 --> 00:55:07.079
other. Or you can have different programming languages. So
00:55:07.080 --> 00:55:11.039
you can do polyglottic
00:55:11.040 --> 00:55:14.359
programming where you have... Maybe Python's generating a
00:55:14.360 --> 00:55:18.239
table, and then that table gets, you decide you want to plot
00:55:18.240 --> 00:55:24.199
it using R, or you want to use ggplot2 and R to plot it, so that
00:55:24.200 --> 00:55:29.719
table gets fed into R in the next code block down, and then
00:55:29.720 --> 00:55:33.559
below it, you get a graph made in R, or you can make it in new
00:55:33.560 --> 00:55:39.559
plot, or you could, or some other, or you could move it into a
00:55:39.560 --> 00:55:47.399
LaTeX code block, plot the data in with Tikz,
00:55:47.400 --> 00:55:52.719
or you could move it into Clojure and use one of the
00:55:52.720 --> 00:55:56.399
Clojure plotting programs. Just kind of limitless what you
00:55:56.400 --> 00:56:00.119
can do in terms of recombining the best of different
00:56:00.120 --> 00:56:01.599
programming languages.
00:56:01.600 --> 00:56:09.239
Yeah, let's see. The literate DevOps are really good talks
00:56:09.240 --> 00:56:13.359
and subjects to get into this type of stuff. And they give a
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:17.119
very good example of some tips on how to do this. You start
00:56:17.120 --> 00:56:20.359
writing in the previous or past tenses, though. You got the
00:56:20.360 --> 00:56:23.719
answer already, and then your notes are already formatted
00:56:23.720 --> 00:56:28.559
out as you're doing it for after the fact. And like, one thing
NOTE Raku
00:56:28.560 --> 00:56:32.679
I like doing a lot is using the Raku language as a calculator,
00:56:32.680 --> 00:56:37.239
because I can just type in math as normal and it all works.
00:56:37.240 --> 00:56:44.919
I've tried that. Yeah, you can just say like, I don't know, 25
00:56:44.920 --> 00:56:49.559
times four with, and you can put like parentheses in it. I'm
00:56:49.560 --> 00:56:55.039
not exactly, I haven't used it very heavily. Oh, it also
00:56:55.040 --> 00:57:01.839
supports Unicode. So if you wanted to have
00:57:01.840 --> 00:57:07.319
the not equals sign, the Unicode not equals sign, it will
00:57:07.320 --> 00:57:12.919
actually do that. Cool. Or like the division sign. I don't
00:57:12.920 --> 00:57:22.759
know how it will do it. Yeah. But yeah. And then using that in,
00:57:22.760 --> 00:57:28.239
I also wrote a shell script where it would just help me do a
00:57:28.240 --> 00:57:31.879
calculation. I was trying to do a business calculation
00:57:31.880 --> 00:57:35.359
where I was, and I'd have variable names and I ended up
00:57:35.360 --> 00:57:39.319
writing the, in the parentheses I'd have enters, returns,
00:57:39.320 --> 00:57:42.319
and then just a variable name with like a dollar sign, kind of
00:57:42.320 --> 00:57:45.799
like how you'd have in the shell. And I outputted every
00:57:45.800 --> 00:57:47.479
single line that I had in the enter.
00:57:47.480 --> 00:57:54.479
six or 10 variables in this paragraph, the paragraph
00:57:54.480 --> 00:57:57.759
spanned, I don't know, like four lines or something like
00:57:57.760 --> 00:58:01.039
that. Maybe, yeah, something, I think it was along those
00:58:01.040 --> 00:58:04.599
lines. And I was just thinking of like what this would be in
00:58:04.600 --> 00:58:07.879
something else, just like, it was a lot nicer. Yeah, I had
00:58:07.880 --> 00:58:10.879
like equations for the variable, like in like one line, but
00:58:10.880 --> 00:58:13.839
when I wrote that, what my output should be is like, like I
00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:16.359
wasn't putting all of these like, you know, string join,
00:58:16.360 --> 00:58:21.159
string join, string join, It looked relatively close to
00:58:21.160 --> 00:58:25.239
what my terminal output would be, and then a later iteration
00:58:25.240 --> 00:58:29.039
I found on this was, let's write what I'm going to put into the
00:58:29.040 --> 00:58:36.119
command line, made a couple changeable variables in it, and
00:58:36.120 --> 00:58:40.039
then I can see my results, and that ended up being very nice.
00:58:40.040 --> 00:58:44.199
Ended up being nicer than the shells. Yeah, ended up
00:58:44.200 --> 00:58:45.959
enhancing that shell script that I wrote.
00:58:45.960 --> 00:58:50.919
That's a Raku calculator.
00:58:50.920 --> 00:58:57.759
Uh, it's the Raku programming language, which I was just
00:58:57.760 --> 00:59:02.479
using it, which I was just using as, which I'll just use as
00:59:02.480 --> 00:59:06.079
just straight up that calculator. Cause I'll do like,
00:59:06.080 --> 00:59:11.999
because it supports math well enough that I, like I, yeah,
00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:17.239
you can put like 25 divided by four and it doesn't start
00:59:17.240 --> 00:59:24.439
doing, what's the word, modular fractal, the double math,
00:59:24.440 --> 00:59:28.079
like it,
00:59:28.080 --> 00:59:28.639
if it's,
00:59:28.640 --> 00:59:34.439
the double math where it's like negative .2 versus like
00:59:34.440 --> 00:59:40.399
minus one, or sometimes it'll do optimized computer math
00:59:40.400 --> 00:59:43.999
where it doesn't give you the right answer, why people will
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:44.639
like Mathematica.
00:59:44.640 --> 00:59:56.439
So, how do you, do you access it through, in org mode then?
00:59:56.440 --> 01:00:05.199
I'll do it in that. Sometimes I just fire up a Raku shell, but
01:00:05.200 --> 01:00:09.159
one of the biggest things I'll fire up a Raku shell for is like
01:00:09.160 --> 01:00:17.399
just, um, what's oh just recently I was just like doing it for
01:00:17.400 --> 01:00:20.399
some math and like how many people how much money will I have
01:00:20.400 --> 01:00:24.559
to spend on Christmas oh I've got I'm gonna buy this gift it's
01:00:24.560 --> 01:00:33.799
gonna cost this much and then I've got so let's I think 15
01:00:33.800 --> 01:00:37.959
times four because it's no 60 divided by four because it was a
01:00:37.960 --> 01:00:42.919
four pack And then times, and then I put it in parentheses,
01:00:42.920 --> 01:00:47.519
oh, four plus like two plus two, because like of the
01:00:47.520 --> 01:00:49.119
families, each of the units, and I just started doing it that
01:00:49.120 --> 01:00:53.479
way. And I put them all in a parentheses. And then at the end of
01:00:53.480 --> 01:00:55.959
this spit out the numbers, like, so I could just use the
01:00:55.960 --> 01:00:58.279
parentheses without thinking about, you know, like, oh,
01:00:58.280 --> 01:01:02.679
I'm actually in a programming language. No, I just kind of
01:01:02.680 --> 01:01:07.279
wrote it like I was in algebra, algebra, not in,
01:01:07.280 --> 01:01:11.359
not finding some special program, not finding a
01:01:11.360 --> 01:01:14.999
calculator, because it's easy for me to file up a terminal.
01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:20.439
Then I open that up, and it all just works. Plus, I also got a
01:01:20.440 --> 01:01:22.639
full programming language behind it if I ever need it.
01:01:22.640 --> 01:01:33.679
I wasn't aware that it utilizes standard math notation
01:01:33.680 --> 01:01:37.279
rather than the Polish math notation that we use in ELISP.
01:01:37.280 --> 01:01:42.839
Um, that's interesting because it's, it's in the list
01:01:42.840 --> 01:01:45.279
family of programming languages.
01:01:45.280 --> 01:01:54.399
Yeah. It's like, Hey, I can use, I can actually use my math
01:01:54.400 --> 01:01:57.879
knowledge. I can use the order of operations.
01:01:57.880 --> 01:02:00.879
Yep.
01:02:00.880 --> 01:02:07.999
I just wish that when I was in high school, they started
01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:10.239
telling me how to practically use this rather than me
01:02:10.240 --> 01:02:14.119
discover it years later when I'm out of it. Yeah.
01:02:14.120 --> 01:02:27.399
Well, I probably better move along to attend the other
01:02:27.400 --> 01:02:32.839
talks. All right. So it's been great talking to you, Plasma
01:02:32.840 --> 01:02:35.159
Strike. Yep, you too.
