With Super Duolingo, I found myself doing lessons repetitively to gain more XP, rather than maximising what I could learn by progressing further. I feel like incentivising based on “new words learned” would make it a more fulfilling experience.

Someone needs to do a series on the various “stock exchange person facepalming and looking worried” photos on top of every piece of financial markets news these days.

I resolved to write around 300 words a day, and apart from the actual writing output, I feel a lot less scatterbrained. Ulysses makes it effortless to set a daily writing goal. I love the pretty little graph the app makes to gamify the experience:

Chinese tradition during weddings suggests gifting a red packet that at least offsets the cost of your seat, and there’s something beautiful about that, when done willingly.

@news This was very cool as I was in the process of setting up.

@MitchW I believe it has to be a facebook page. It’s at m.facebook.com/tjpalanca... :)

@MitchW The combination allows me to syndicate to Facebook Twitter and Threads.

I’m settled into my new writing setup (hopefully, at least for the next year). Principles were:

1. Use purpose-built apps for writing (Ulysses)
2. Publish once on your site, syndicate elsewhere (Micro.Blog + Zapier + Buffer)
3. Easy capture (Apple Shortcuts)

As I’ve grown older and have less time, I’ve learned to appreciate the value of purpose-built apps over generalist ones, as they are maintained and improved by people apart from myself.

Every time, I am tempted to dive into Wordpress, only to be sent fleeing by the sheer complexity and bloatedness of it all.