It seems good to transport every place with you, until no place becomes sacred.
Spaces bleed
Earlier this week I fixed up a link to an older post about taking book notes in a notebook and was asked if I distinguished between reading a book and reading some online article.
One of the things I was excited about when I got my first "smart" phone was that I could do anything anywhere. I could read an Instapaper article on the porcelain throne, or when standing in line. I could answer email from wherever I happened to be.
This in one thing I hate about digital devices now. They have the ability to take any environment with you, so time with family can become a work event when your boss sends you a text message. You're no longer focused on spending time with your family, you're spending some of that time being attentive to your device just in case something else that's important comes up.
I think the same thing applies in many areas, but it's why I do differentiate between reading a book and reading online articles. I read online articles sitting at my desk with my computer. I have no method to get these articles on my phone, though I do have a way to push links from my phone to my desktop. I rarely read anything of substance on my phone, almost always pushing the link to my desktop via Syncthing and Emacs.
When it's time to read a book I grab my notebook and book and pen. I sit down with devices out of reach and read a book. I usually have some music playing, but my focus is the book in my hands. I never have the option of stopping the book because some online article occurs to me, though if it does I'll write the reference down in my notebook for follow up when I take notes on the book. In the moment I'm transferring notes from my book to Obsidian I can take the time to expand and link notes.
This month's book club book talks a bunch about the way devices let anywhere bleed into everywhere else. I don't think the bleeding of activities into a single device is as good as we once thought it was.
Learning as a hobby
Interesting post from Kev about learning being his hobby. All the stuff he's done has really been in service to his hobby.
A long time reader reached out this week saying they valued my videos and writing while also noting that I haven't done any video work lately. For me it comes down to something similar to Kev...I stopped sharing videos when Obsidian, or freelancing depending on when you started following me, stopped being some new thing I had to learn about and share. My setup is largely the same so doing another <year> Obsidian Setup video would just be rehashing everything I said last year.
Early Retirement
I don't know how old Sacha is, but given the kid is only a few years old she's got to be younger than me1 and boy am I jealous of early retirement. I'd love to retire early. By that I mean, tinker on what feels interesting every day.
I'd likely still do something that earned some money, but not be bound by it. If I wanted to do other things in a day that's what I'd do.
Congrats Sacha on early retirement.
Or at least close to my 46 years of age. ↩