In two days' time, the cyberpunk future will arrive. It just won't get evently distributed, to paraphrase William Gibson. Here are ten not-so-serious resolutions I may (or may not) want to make as I'm about to enter the most cyberpunk of years. 1. Finally abolish all paper Paper is kipple (look this one up in the works of another master of the genre, Phillip K. Dick). Fighting kipple is a losing battle. The least I can do is fight one of the sources of kipple in my life - which is paper. Going ...

File this one under "another blog post that tries to summarise a decade which, technically, won't be over for another year." For me, as I'm writing this, it's that weird time of the year between Chrismas and New Year's Day, and I'm fortunate to have plenty of time on my hands. So here's to reminiscing, one year at a time. 2010 In the summer, I got my first academic management gig - at a summer school in the UK. We left Wrocław after two great years there, and moved back to Katowice. I learned t...

I wouldn't call them "productivity hacks" - some of these ways of increasing productivity are actually lifelong commitments, or serious decisions. But they all helped. Here are ten things which made me look at my productivity with pride, this year. 1. Get better sleep Everything suffers after a poor night's sleep - my workout performance, my mood, my productivity. And by analogy, everything gets better once I've slept well. For me, this is about controlling the temperature, noise levels, and li...

I picked up an old-new hobby in the summer of 2019. I started playing a fantasy card game, at the grand old age of 37. I've been a fan and a keen player ever since, and I found the game surprisingly educative. Here are ten ways in which MTG helped me do better at work this year. 1. Meeting people is easier than you think Having something in common at the game store - the kind of game you're playing, most often - already means that most of the ice is broken. At work, the same thing applies - we ...

Some of these apps made me happier. Others made me more productive. One or two of them tried to make me smarter. Here's a list of software and services whose praises I sang in 2019. 1. ProtonMail I'm not a fan of Google's all-encompassing presence in my life. The struggle to keep my data away from The Big Data is real. ProtonMail really brought its A-game this year: the apps, solutions, and new features all made it a strong contender in the email space, not just something you have to put up wit...

Apart from bookcases, which are in constant demand in this household, here are ten things which I was happy to have access to this year. I'm not including any affiliate links, y'all can search them out for yourselves! 1. Bicycle (and paraphernalia) Nothing - and I mean not a single thing - makes me as happy as my bike. Commutes become adventures / therapy. A metropolis becomes a playground. Mine's a 2018 Cannondale Synapse, but all the bikes I've loved before delivered just as generously. Honor...

Sometimes it felt like the gloomiest year in the history of years. But sometimes, 2019 made me smile, shiver with joy and do a little dance. Here are ten people who tended to bring about that happy reaction. 1. Marta Dziurosz Always, always, always. Does good things; shares generously; teaches me courage; takes me to some highly dope shindigs. Follow her on Twitter at once. 2. Joanne Chory She is a plant biologist who tries to mess with the plants' genomes brilliantly enough to help plants h...