2020 #november #digest

These are all the things I have noticed in November and either tweeted under #november, or posted in a private chat where I and a few other people share those things. (DM me if you want to get into that chat.)

See The best self-improvement trick so far: a giant board for the details re/ why I am doing it. The short version is that noticing things is the best way to fix things.

Goal: increase exposure to life; and just misc new things

• Made a matchmaking form.
• Made a group DM for talking about what good things we are doing.
• Bought a textbook on Soviet politics very quickly after realizing that Soviet politics were super fascinating.
• Went to the gym for the first time in my life, and liked it.
• Buying books in thrift stores is great—I bought three books for like $10. Nice to alternate between digital and physical books.

Goal: increase exposure to people

• Had a call with Hazard.
• Had a call with Matt.
• DM-ing people about their fleets effortlessly.
• Talked to a neighbor on the plane, and to a guy in a cafe.

Goal: release things

• Tweeted about collaborative editing in Brick, “announce things early” and “work with garage door open” are taking hold.
• Put a post on Hackernews, no comments so far tho.

Goal: do more planning

• Made another half-year goal on main: I want to have a full-time job by June.
• Started deciding when exactly I have to leave for flights/etc in advance—used to have a lot of problems with "eh maybe I'll leave an hour before the flight" and then missing my flight, now I'm more careful.
• Went to a barber simply thanks to writing “go to a barber” in a calendar slot—this planning shit actually works, ha.
• Scheduled another gym session. I started liking scheduling things in advance more and more.

Goal: have more stability

• Decided I want more stability, booked another flat in Larnaca the next day after arriving into the current flat.

Goal: be persistent in executing

• Got parents to do a vitamin D test; possibly got sister to do a vitamin D test; possibly got a friend to do a vitamin D test; once again talking to people in person beats tweeting.
• Found a lab, did a vitamin D level blood test to know if I should keep supplementing (COVID-wise).
• I have devised a strategy (yellow highlights whenever posting a new post to Twitter), persevered in executing it, and learned that it’s working.
• Wanted to donate to a shelter in the previous month, they had hit their donation limit that month, instead of giving up I made a reminder and donated this month.
• Asked for a refund from Feralhosting and got it; asked for a refund from Freshchat and didn't get it.
• Made sure I don't have vitamin D deficiency (anymore?). This should be very very enough for Covid, stopping supplementation for now.

Posts

• New post: "The selfishness constraint", adapted from a thread for @Elodes12

Brick.do

• Had a call with Andrey about adding onboarding and collaboration to Brick.
• Had a call with a beginner designer about Brick, found out a bunch of things I already knew but this time maybe we'll change them.
• Had a call with another Brick customer.
• Had a call about hiring a consultant to help improve Brick's performance.
• The consultant for Brick performance has been hired, the contract has been signed, the money has been paid.
• Told my sister she can use Brick to publish lists of students who signed various anti-government petitions, and now Brick is getting significant pageviews thanks to this. (Google Docs shows the doc owner and you can’t hide it.)
• Wrote to someone using Brick to publish their own recipes.
• Announced the Brick Slack to all currently active users.

Misc

• Moved to Cyprus.
• Booked tickets to Krakow.
• Wrote two fiction fleets.
• Paid out an invoice *super quickly*, like in three minutes.
• Paid out another invoice in like five minutes.
• Bought a book, scanned, uploaded to LibGen.
• Apologized for being shit at sex a long time ago (it was weighing on me and preventing me from moving on).

Unsorted (too many to sort)

• Tried bacon several times and suddenly I like it a lot
• Did the thing about going through my todos and saying how I feel about them, it was 1% helpful, now I need to do it 5-15 more time to shift the needle
• Noticed that somehow it’s easier to continue a habit (feet-washing) than not do it, even with “eh I’m tired I’ll just go to sleep” as a possible excuse
• As an experiment, complained to somebody about everything I was upset about. Might be feeling better now.
• Bought CBD oil thanks to a rec from someone on Twitter, will try
• Changed seats so that I wouldn’t be close to a smoking guy, even though I couldn’t hear smoke much anyway
• Told the waitress that the sauce didn’t go well with rice
• The light just went out in the apartment, immediately wrote the host and asked if there any spare lightbulbs here
• Stopped working on Thursdays—tomorrow will be the third or fourth Thursday when I don’t work
• Did gym the proper way — bought workout clothes and shoes, brought water
  • I used to think buying clothes was a terrible ordeal, now I’m like “okay, so I have to do it and spend all this money, so I will”
• Bought fruit because I want to eat more fruit
  • Usually I don’t buy fruit because you have to find a plastic bag in the shop, put things in it, go home, wash, peel, hands get dirty, ehhhh
• Ate an apple and really liked it
  • And I have like three more apples left
• Topped up the Swedish SIM card rather than buying a new card for Cyprus — was afraid it would take a lot of time and be tricky in some way, but it turned out to be easy despite not knowing Swedish much
• Spent an hour reading and not thinking about anything else I could be doing
  • Want to do this more, want to have more time chunks where I know what I'll be doing
• Said that I'm confused, out loud, instead of ignoring the feeling (re/ US election fraud)
• Sprained (?) my foot, found a doctor, asked if I can have an appointment today
• Actually went to a doctor for the first time in FOREVER, yay
• Also asked them if they can do a follow-up appointment at a different time than they suggested
• Ordered a nine-dishes set without knowing what I'll have to eat (used to be a scary thing because I'm picky, but not anymore)
• Went to the beach again, bought swimming goggles as well
• Ordered a new MacBook charger — the old one died
• Started an 'estimate predictions' table at work, it has three predictions already.
• Went to check my foot again, it took one minute and was free.
• went outside to drink coffee instead of staying glued to the washing machine, even tho there were only 3min left till the wash was over
• Explained the self-improvement board to an acquaintance, they might try the board too — surprisingly, talking to people directly works much better than tweeting at them
• Unexpected side-effect of going to the gym: easier not to buy chips because “why even go to the gym if I’m going to fuck up my body at the same time”
• Bought grapes and apples and bananas and I shall enjoy fruit for the next few days
• went to a random cafe and asked if I can use their bathroom
• asked an acquaintance “what do good managers do, in your experience?”
• scheduled time for a long walk, and went
• Learned some SQL thanks to having to do things with the Brick database
• Had a call with the current biggest client, we'll be doing 2x work for them and might get a year-long commitment, and in return they get a bit more discount
• Went to the gym despite knowing I’ll be late
• I explained something very very haphazardly, and for the first time in my life I feel like it’s a *good* thing — it means I’ve planted seeds for a bunch of connections that will grow later
• Went out of the shower, decided that I’m alright with the cold air, shouted “It’s cold out here and I’m alright” and indeed I am
• Broke a tooth, told someone I was on a call with (“btw huh I broke a tooth”), he told me that if it hurts I should get to a dentist as soon as possible. Called three dentists, have an appointment tomorrow.