In Search For Balance

The decision to stop publishing daily came incredibly naturally. I considered it many times before, often in truly crisis situations. But I didn't give up. It always felt like there was something I still needed to write about. On April 1st I went out for a bike ride. At one point, I left my bike in the forest and started climbing up a hill. Once I reached the top, I knew; it was time to stop. I've said all I wanted to say in a shorter form. Let's be honest - writing is just a hobby - I can't sp...

Last night, right after finishing work, I sat down to read the day's newsletters. The usual stuff; Seth Godin's daily blog, Subtle Maneuvers, Subtraction's latest post, and Jason Fried's latest post about changes at Basecamp. I glanced through it quickly. But one paragraph caught my eye instantly: No more societal and political discussions at Basecamp. Today's social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advoca...

683 Yes, you've read that correctly. After 683 days of writing daily, I'm done. For a while now I've felt like I reached a plateau. Like I hit a ceiling. Writing is not my main job, so I can't commit more time daily than I already do. Thus, my writing (if posted daily) won't get any better. There are many stories I'd still like to tell. Many ideas yet to be told. I'm not stopping writing completely, but just slowing down. I've been building a solid writing workflow on the side, trying to po...

682 I often encounter people saying 'oh, I need to be inspired'. Or 'I'm in desperate need for inspiration, because I can't find it'. Truth is, inspiration is everywhere, anywhere, and at all times. One can be inspired by anything, even the most boring thing out there. Inspiration doesn't need to be found. It is there. All we need to do is open up. Create space for experience. For symbiosis. One more reason to do less, have less. ...

681 In the magnificent novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses the phrase 'so it goes' 106 times. If you're unfamiliar with Vonnegut's brilliant, piquant, sarcastic style, this might sound like nothing special. But, if you do, you understand how important of a stylistic device this phrase is. Vonnegut puts the phrase usually after a death or a tragic event happens in the book. Here's a beautiful example: The correct answer turned out to be this: 'You stake a guy out on an anthill in t...

680 Seth Godin said that tribes are the thing we should be focusing on. In the age of the Internet, we're getting more into labeling each other, but not resonating on a common level. Tribes can certainly be useful. For example, I'm part of an online community based around tools for thought. It's a tribe of some sort. And I like being part of it. There are definitely common denominators across all the tribe members, but still, in the end, we're all different. When I hear the term "tribalism", ...

679 I like meeting Americans who think the US is the greatest country in the world. It's always a fun experience. I like meeting Poles who think Poland is the greatest country in the world. It's always a depressing experience. In both cases there are interesting correlations between age, political beliefs and the belief that our country is the greatest or not. Young Americans hardly ever believe that. A lot of them got fucked over by the 2008 crisis, post-9/11-paranoia and all that shit. Mor...

678 There's this steep ascent near my house I've been trying to conquer on my bike. It's 510 meters long and goes up 70 meters, which results in 13 percent gradient. Many times in the past year I cycled near it, but never had the courage to actually go up. But, this week, I decided to face the challenge. By now, I've been there three times. Getting slightly better each time, but still need to stop at least two times on the way. It's excruciating. The most important tip for anyone going up a ...

677 Recently, a new wave of Zettelkasten-based note-taking apps emerged on the market. If you're familiar with the topic, you definitely heard about Roam, Remnote, and my favorite, Obsidian. The basic concept of these tools is that digital notes get linked together to create a sort-of second brain, a personal wiki, where each note is a "neuron" connected to others. Oh boy, did I jump into it right when I found it. Roam was convincing, but ugly and unreliable, so I didn't even try to impleme...

676 I am super tired right now. Mentally, physically, even emotionally exhausted. I cycled 50 kilometers this week. Read two books (551 pages, in total). Wrote 2512 words, excluding instant messages. Worked on numerous notes, research projects. Attended 11 hours of meetings and lectures. And I even had time to meet up with a friend. I am fucking exhausted. Every part of my body is screaming for some rest. But I'm feeling really good, too. All this exhaustion, all this tiredness, is just a by...

675 One thing I've been observing lately is how energy transfers itself from person to person. We sort of do these transfers all day everyday. Every interaction is a transfer of some sort. The more effort you put into an interaction, the more can be shared. So it's easier to share through interactions that naturally require effort, i.e. real-world vs. online interactions. Typing texts requires much less friction, is much less of a challenge than, let's say, a real-world, person-to-person debat...

674 I had this dream about walking through our garden, seeing my cherry tree blooming. In fact, everything was blooming in the garden. The calendar tells me that spring is here. Yet, just yesterday, we had snowfall. Late March/early April is always a fun, but weird period of change. It's like a dance. Sometimes, the weather takes a step forward; towards spring. Other times, it goes back a bit, embracing the bitterness of winter. Something wispered to me in that garden: we're not ready yet. ...

673 I know quite a few people who don't like history. Either they deem it as unnecessary, or they're frustrated by how convoluted, ambivalent, and honestly, confusing history is. I get that. For a long time, history was, for me, the most useless thing out there. Why should I care about that one stupid king who ruled my country centuries ago? He's not here now, so I won't care. Probably, I'd still have this mindset if not for my history teacher, Mr. Bartek. He was genius. Or, rather, he could...

672 Sometimes, in life, there are moments that seem impossible. If you try to think about your life as a whole, about the things you've done, the things you still have to do, it can be overwhelming. Especially if you have more life ahead of you than behind you. It's like trying to fit through the eye of a needle. So tiny, so thin. It is, truly, impossible to pass through. Growing up, getting old, finding love, passing that exam, getting that funding. All of these are eyes of a needle. Chokepoi...

671 We live in an unequal world. That's a fact. I've been thinking about gender equality quit a bit in the past few days. There's a limited number of voices that can reach the entire world. Let's say it's somewhere around 500. Only five hundred people who's opinions, beliefs, statements reach the entire world (whether it's hundreds of millions or billions - I don't know). And this number can't constantly keep growing - we all have just 24 hours a day. If 80% of these people are men (as it is ...

670 This truly feels like a post I should've written ages ago. Please critique my posts. That's the gist of it. Even though this blog just passed the 100 000 word count mark, I still feel like a noob. English is not my first language, and so I often feel like the words I'm writing are not necessarily correct. I'm improvising every single sentence, every thought. I do get messages from readers sometimes. So far, they have only been positive. And I'm incredibly thankful for them; there were t...

669 One of the most dangerous phenomenons of our society, in my opinion, is groupthink. It has been, sadly, part of what it means to be human for ages. Our desire for being in agreement with our peers, to hold opinions shared by those who we care about, often tramples our individual reason, our personal lucidity. What worries me is how our increasing reliance on labels is magnifying the strength and occurrence of groupthink tendencies. If you are part of group A, then you need to believe in a ...

668 My entire 'productivity system' is super simple. A paper Bullet Journal for planning, Standard Notes for note-taking and project lists, and a recent addition: Toggl for time tracking. As simple as it gets. One thing that stands out about this system for people acquainted with the modern concept of 'productivity' is friction. There's a lot of friction in the system. Standard Notes doesn't have keyboard shortcuts. I have to manually move overdue tasks from yesterday's list to today's one. I ...

667 Yesterday, when I was walking around the city, I came up to see Unity Centre, the tallest building in Krakow. Compared to other cities, it's not very tall. But it is, still the tallest. There's a very fascinating backstory on that building, how it started in the 70s but was never finished, and how just the structure stood there for forty years. It was even dubbed szkieletor (lit. skeleton) by locals. In 2016, after long legal proceedings, it was bought out by a private investor who finally ...

666 Trees are the beauty of this Earth. I think they're underestimated. On one hand, trees are very useful; they're the single biggest carbon sink on the planet. Think about it: wood is just concentrated carbon, similar to coal in the ground. Wood itself is a gracious material. It's availability and feasibility has made it one of the first (if not the first) material people ever used. It seems like almost everything can be made from wood; tools, houses, vehicles, even. Yet, at the same time,...

665 It's been a year. A full year. A year since schools and universities closed. A year since I had to cancel a pretty big meetup I was organizing. A year since everything stopped. So much sorrow, so much sadness. But, in the end, a victory. A humble victory, a not-yet-fully-realized victory. Is such a victory even a true victory? Most people would say that we've lost. I see at least one big win in all of this: we've learnt that nothing is guaranteed. Nothing beyond our humanity, that is. W...

664 I want to learn the colors you see. We all live in the same world, but we all see the same things in different colors. We have different palettes. Please let me learn yours; I won't judge. Most likely, I will be amazed. By the differences, by the things you see better than I do. By the beauty you notice and cherish, the beauty I always discarded. The darkness I've never come to understand. Show me your colors and I'll show you mine. Let's make this place more colorful. ...

663 I want to be the Now-Man. Not living in the future, not living in the past. Not thinking about the "next big step" nor reminiscing about "that great thing". I am here, I am now. Now is my home. It's the only place where I feel like I can do something. Just be. Imperfect, honest, scared, excited, exhausted. I don't have plans; I have visions. I don't have traumas; I have memories. They are. But I'm not them. I'm the Now-Man. ...

662 A while ago, when browsing through the archive of this very blog, I encountered one that stood out particularly: Horizontal Comparisons. I read it in full and thought: what a brilliant, original piece of work I did! Trust me, I don't say that often. It felt original, fresh. Mine. I often quote, link, mention other sources. Other people's work. But, I've always strived for originality with this blog. Maybe that's a wrong approach, I don't know. I find myself often discarding ideas because ...

661 Quite a few people deem art as unnecessary. The technologists, the scientists. Not all, of course. But some, surprisingly many, in my opinion. Art is important. It is a reflection of our world, a little bit absurd, a little true. We need to express what we feel, who we are, what we hope for. Otherwise, all this will result in internal inflammation, which, in turn, will turn towards apathy later on. Art is useful, too. One can look at the story of the Medici family from Florence; how they...

660 Deep underground wells usually keep their water at the same temperature all year long. Somewhere around 18 Celsius. Exact same temperature. Yet, in the summer, that water will seem cold to you. On the other hand, that same water will be very hot in the winter. The opposite may also be true, as Derek Sivers said in what is one of my favorite TED Talks to date. In China, doctors get rich when you're healthy, not when you're sick - this one just blew my mind. When we start relying on labels...

659 Today is International Women's Day. And so, today I'm not going to speak my voice, but amplify the voices of others'. Recently, abortion was made almost illegal in Poland, my home country. Hundreds of thousands of women and men came out to protest, but the law came into effect. Women's rights are being trampled and we're doing hardcore backward progress here. Please, if you can, show support to us, trying to fight for basic rights in a country that calls itself modern. Here's a bit more ...

658 I've been writing daily for 658 days now. Here are some things I learned along the way. Every idea is a good idea This is most true at the start. Everything is worth writing about. The weird shadows in your room. The friendly postman you've recently met. The senselessness of life. Whatever, literally. You don't need to "find" inspiration. Open yourself to your world and you will be inspired. Mediocrity is your friend Not every post you write will be good. That doesn't necessarily mean t...

657 Today I had to replant my Pachira Aquatica. I got the tree in November, but during the past couple of weeks the leaves started browning and a few fell off. After a bit of research, I decided that I need to replant it, probably because I overwatered it once, and some of the roots started to rot. It'd die, unless I'd put it in fresh soil, cut the rotten roots. Of course I procrastinated on this, but finally, today I gave my Pachira some fresh, new, beautifully brown soil. This made me think...

656 Continuing on my journey of exploring Hayao Miyazaki's works, I recently watched The Wind Rises, his latest film. It's a first for Miyazaki, in the sense that for the first time he made a movie about a real, historical person. The main character, Jiro Horikoshi, was a plane designer emerging in the 30s. His greatest design, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero was Japan's most advanced fighter during WWII. Horikoshi built planes as a way of realizing his greatest dream: the dream of flight, of buildin...