First ever session with a personal trainer this morning. Enjoyed it. I will be healthier next year.

Currently reading: Death in the Arctic by Tom Hindle 📚

Your taste is what makes you interesting. Not the things everyone else likes too. Not the consensus opinion. Not whatever TikTok has decided you should see today. The messy, personal, sometimes inexplicable preferences that develop when you actually have to seek things out rather than having them delivered to you. That's taste, and it's worth protecting.

Yes. This.

Lately I’ve been finding myself wondering why I stopped buying vinyl when I went to university and wishing I hadn’t stopped. The hours spent on a Saturday in record shops in Nottingham picking up records, giving them a listen, and then deciding if it was worth my hard earned cash. It was time well spent. I had a curated record collection. Now I have an Apple Music account with a library over flowing with music I’ve saved over the last 2 decades. I’ve no idea what’s in there and most of it hasn’t been listened to in years. I rely on the suggestions to find new stuff. Is there a wonder I sometimes open the app and have no clue what to listen to?

When people ask me what I’m listening to these days I have boring answers, or no answer at all. 20 years ago I had a list of interesting records I’d discovered, white label remixes, EP’s by some random artist that I’ve never come across since but which were a real joy to listen to.

When I think about how the money I spent then compares to the money I’ve spent on music in the last 15 years, there’s a stark contrast. I have something to show for the time and energy in those record shops (all be it in my parents garage), but I have nothing for the money spent on streaming services since. One has tangible results with a defined taste, the other has disappeared in to the ether and I can’t remember the amazing EP I found 10 years ago because it’s too hard to find.

Technology has made music easier to listen to, but it’s also made it less valuable. The type of music I listen to now has broadened and my taste has become less tangible as a result. That’s kind of sad.

I absolutely love this two-part desk setup.

Instead of having a single, tech only desk, I now use one large desk that is split into two parts: a digital side and an analog side.

My desk used to be my dining table, but when Covid hit I quickly realised the small occasional desk I used wasn’t big enough for me. I gave that desk to my Mum and set up camp on my dining table. Over time it’s become my place of work for 90% of my job, the other 10% is begrudgingly spent in the office. It’s dominated by my Samsung display (I would love a Studio Display) but if I have time in amongst the calls today I might try to rejig and create more space for my analogue tools. Some kind of split like this might work, rather than having my offline items mixed around all the tech.

I proved a very well known hypothesis in UX/UI design this morning. Users don’t read. I also proved that primary buttons need to be very carefully chosen, especially when they don’t do what the user thinks they will do. On a somewhat related note, Bitbucket’s commenting system is very poorly designed.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

From For the Fallen By Laurence Binyon

An interesting thread from Jessica Hische about the new Affinity.

I’ve been using the Affinity suite for a few years and looking forward to kicking the tyres on this new version. Some of my fears of free have been dispelled by threads like this and the elsewhere. They aren’t using any of the IP created in it to train AI.

Matthew Smith is sharing the photos he took on his recent trip to Japan and there are some lovely shots that capture both the people and the place. Well worth a scroll if you’ve any interest in Japan and it’s culture.

Finished reading: Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy 📚

We always like to imagine mastery as a kind of arrival. You work and work and work, you practice something for 10,000 hours or – in the case of the violin – even longer, and then, one day, you’re there. You’ve reached the peak, the struggle is over. You can lean back and enjoy. But it’s not really like that, is it? And wouldn’t it be a bit boring as well? The gift of mastery is that it sharpens your senses. The cost is that you never again hear things the same. Because you care.

Matthias Ott writing about the true meaning of mastery and its impact on your life. I would add one thing, true masters require great humility. The ability to understand their current limits and to honestly look at themselves and figure out where they can get better.