Weeknotes 41 (Nov ’20): Alternating between engaging and astonishingly dull
I took advantage of lockdown to have some minor surgery that stops me from exercising for a week. I’ve been wanting to have it down for about a year, but it hasn’t warranted missing teaching class. Trying to look on the bright side.
I sorted through all our paper files, shredded several bags of paper, and recycled the same amount. It’s cleansing to get rid of stuff, even if the shelves look pretty much the same as they did before I started. I’m trying to maintain momentum and keep with the sorting. Lighter is better.
I’m learning JavaScript, so spent a lot of this week doing practice exercises. They alternate between engaging and astonishingly dull. Which is quite representative of life as a programmer, I think, so good training. The trick is to drive through the astonishingly dull, and not get sloppy. Sloppy just leads to more and more astonishingly dull. Get it right first time and move on, if you possibly can.
I helped my yoga teacher find the Zoom spotlight button this week. Far better class! Next week, I might try to help the other students find their mute buttons. These experiences are great, because it’s so easy to imagine that everyone using this stuff means everyone knows how to use it. It’s just not true. In just the same way that everyone who uses Word or Excel or web browser is not using it as I might.