Help.
I’m having massive Geek Block.
Once upon a time, I could have sat in front of the computer forever, happily (and, at least to my own mind, productively) surfing about, learning tidbits, absorbing useful content about various bits of Human Knowledge that I find interesting, and then happily getting to the end of Session Productivity and leaving it for another day.
Lately, I’m having the hardest time concentrating on the same page (or task) for any period of time. I’m thinking the current ridiculous travel regime I’ve decided to subject myself (not to mention my family) to may have something to do with this. This is sort of a Devils’ fusion of ADD and boredom, coupled with a hefy dose of xyzzyBut, I must admit – this has been going on for years (although I’m feeling it’s accelerating recently). Before that Oakland stint. Before the horse bookies. Before San Francisco. Before Plaza Mayor. I want a silver bullet. I’m impatient. But given the low probability one will fall out of the sky into my lap …. I’ll just gut-dump Re: What I’d like to concentrate on, given the ability. I want this to be the precursor to a catalyst to the Unraveling of the Geek Blockage.
At various points over the past years I’ve had active lists of “Stuff I want to followup on, brush up, learn, experience”. Here’s a newly-assembled list. My hope is that I can use this as a bootstrap to get me out of this ADD-like Geek Block, back in the world of happy info consumers and on the road to (hopefully) productive Knowledge Work.
Ruby – exhaust it. Grok it. Love it. Then diss it and move on.
Clojure. Oh and remember, there’s that idea about writing an embeddable production system for Clojure. Ohhhh yeah.
Scala.
Erlang.
C++. To those of you who now scoff: I ignore you mightily. Actually, if I cannot write an equivalent system of moderate complexity that is roughly 5-10x as performant as in any other language … then you win.
(Human) Languages. Suffering a lot, but happily last time I tried French, it didn’t hate me. At least not as much as the past 10 years. In order:
- French
- German
- Dutch (this one’s new)
- Hungarian
- Russian
- Portuguese
I bet I can kill two birds with one stone by following X-speakers on Twitter etc. judiciously. Make that three birds: When I was learning Russian and Hungarian (and, this is partly because of the rather large vocabulary gulf – Read: lack of cognates with English), flashcards worked wonders. Potential target for iPhone app: Flashcards.
Blog; Tweet; Facebook; etc. I’m really interested in the whole social network/sharing/collaborating space of the Web, but sadly am feeling self-constipated about it (just another facet of the Geek Block).
Write iPhone apps. Learn 3D and 2D graphics and produce stuff for the App Store.
Develop a few of those festering domain names. Monetize a few, try to at least break even on hosting + registration.
Organize my personal information glut:
- Bookmarks
- Followeds, Contacts, etc.2
- PDFs and other accumulated crud
- Amazon wish list
- emails!
- Contacts
- Lists such as this one
Architect. The current house remodel is happening too soon. The next construction project ought to be done much more By Me.
On a related note, Household Tasks. Be One more with things that need doing day-to-day. Be proactive, be motivated, remember how screwdrivers and I once got along.
Cook.
Exercise. Eating better and Drinking Less (!) wouldn’t hurt either.
Travel. Not like I am now. Honestly, that blows. Is Horrible. Unacceptable. Silly. Rather, the kind where the family and friends are properly outhung w/; where there’s a balance, and a genuine appreciation. At the same time, balance that against work. Work: Important. Valuable. Should be enjoyable. If not, LEAVE. Family: More important. First-tier, whereas work = second. Travel: Luxury. Hobby. Enjoyable.
Brew Beer. Hard to do in the limited space (even after the remodel), but should be done nonetheless.
That’s enough for now.
