The Card Pusher

At this point much of my life is organized by cards: digital notes that tell me what to do at any given point. At Carfax we use Jira. Sizable uses Trello. And I just started a new organization for the work that Caleb and I are doing to make a rough draft for our sitcom.

My first encounter with this way of working was my first day on the job at Carfax. For the first year I was constantly fixated on the cards: pulling them down from the top of the stack and trying to knock them out by myself as quickly as possible. However, over time I've gotten less enthusiastic about simply churning out random cards. In a way, I've slowed down to focus more on being diligent. And I've tried to maneuver myself to the more interesting work.

However, with Sizable there's no shortage of interesting work. We've been meeting twice a week and there's simply a ton of stuff to do. I think we're all working well under our self-imposed pressure. We're making even more daring and bold decisions and it has gotten easier to record and edit. Occasionally we butt heads but always seem to come to a place where everyone is happy.

Bro-gramming

I've been making some minor tools for GraphQL here. These tools solve a common problem in GraphQL when you orchestrate pagination.

Interviews

Been getting back into interviews. I have 2 lined up now and hopefully one or two more after that.

I also recorded an episode of "Aaron explains" with my friend Aaron Abernathy. He's going to Africa for 2 weeks to teach economics starting tonight but when he gets back we'll probably try a few other similar formats.

Exercise

I biked to work 3 times this week! My favorite thing to do while exerting myself is sing on top of that. My voice feels stronger as a result of doing this. I feel more in command of my voice and tuning is easier. Even though I almost always hear tuning issues as I sing, sometimes it's simply hard to get my voice to "snap" into tune. But now as a result of the practice, it feels easier.

I've went through phases like this before. The second I stop singing regularly, it immediately gets difficult again. But I'm making hay while the sun shines; I'm recording a lot of Sizable vocal parts.

One thing about singing while riding a bike is that at times I feel weird when I turn a corner and there is another human who was obviously able to hear my weird voice sing some Nirvana or Sizable tune. I try not to care because I know it doesn't really matter.

Food

As a result of having less time to prepare in the morning and because I'm simply tired of doing it, I stopped making breakfast and have been either skipping it entirely or drinking a bottle of soylent when I get to work. For now, I'd say this works for me.