The aurora over Calgary in late March
Let’s start like we usually do by taking stock of the season. As I was writing this, a big-ass slab of snow fell off the roof across from me. The ice ruts in the road threaten an extra 15-minutes to everyone's commute lest your vehicle gets stuck in the micro-crevasse. We certainly have some short-lived April snows on the way, but we are “unlocking” and safely on the other side of winter. Dripping water from the melting snow is the prevailing sound. Let’s go, Spring.
The broken arm
The biggest news is that I broke my friggin’ arm. It’s a humerus break (long bone between shoulder and elbow) on my non-dominant side, which is a surprisingly debilitating injury. My doctor described it as breaking the femur of the upper body. I’ve had many micro-milestones over the past two weeks. I put on my socks without help, got more toothpaste on my toothbrush than in the sink, and fastened my own seatbelt as I'm chauffeured around by my parents who I (temporarily) had to move back in with. Milestones still on the horizon: driving, cooking, and running.
My broken af arm
The relative good fortune of this injury is not lost on me. “It could always be so much worse” is brutal, yet truthful, life advice. To avoid feeling sorry for myself (but let’s be real, I had a few days of that) I’ve kept something in mind that my meditation teacher once said: “At any moment, there are probably over a billion people who would trade places with you.” Case in point, I was waiting in the day surgery area, worrying about how the surgeon was about to split my entire bicep in half to affix two plates and screws to my fractured bone. At the same time, I overheard my hospital bed neighbour expressing thanks that “the cancer didn’t spread to [her] brain.” Talk about perspective. In a bizarre twist, I was lucky to have a close friend handle my general anaesthesia. My life was in his hands, and I couldn't be more grateful.
Since the fracture, there’s a newfound slowness in my life. Instantly, plenty of hopes and hobbies evaporated. I know this is post-injury rationalization from my brain, trying to create meaning from a meaningless event, but this fracture might be the reset I needed. I can’t believe it took breaking my humerus to snap me out of a self-imposed expectation to personally and professionally redline every day. All I know is that right now there are few things better than sitting on the bench in front of my parent’s house with the sun on my face and listening to the birds chirp. I used to joke about getting “LAST TIME” tattooed on my knuckles, but perhaps a more fitting reminder to permanently ink on my hands would be “SLOW DOWN.” I want to carry this slowness with me after this season of life comes to an end.
ChatGPT predicts my day
In an effort to keep the next generation entering the workforce from taking my job (sorry Gen Z), I’m “practicing” prompt crafting with the latest and greatest AI language model that I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about. I was speaking with a friend about my experiments, and she suggested I write something up. Now it’s my turn to contribute to the growing list of novel uses.
I provided GPT-4 with all my journal entries from the same date, spanning each year back to 2011. It's similar to a five-year journal, but with a larger collection of entries. Once it had the source material, I started asking questions about the text. For example, what do you think is important to this person? What are his blind spots? How would you score him on the big five personality traits? What is the sentiment of the text?
I can’t say there was anything revealing, but it was fascinating (validating?) to hear certain qualities and patterns reflected back at me (i.e. conscientious family man who values self-improvement, even if he is slightly neurotic). The best part was when I asked the model to generate a hypothetical journal entry for 2023. It’s not perfect, but it’s hilarious and unnerving how close some of it is. Here’s a good example that could’ve definitely come from my real journal:
Enjoyed a simple but delicious dinner on the balcony, taking in the warm evening air. I've been keeping up with my piano practice, and I'm starting to see real progress.
Or this other plausible one:
Had a fantastic run today. I've been incorporating Stryd data into my training more effectively, and it's been paying off. The weather was perfect for a run, and I felt strong and energized.
Worry not though, there was also this one which is absolutely bananas:
Decided to take a caffeine pill midday instead of my usual Red Bull – still can't believe how effective they are. It's been a year since I started using them, and my focus has improved, although I'm still careful not to overdo it.
Let’s not get distracted by the fact I’ve likely consumed less than 10 Red Bulls in my entire life and even fewer caffeine pills. The real giveaway? I would never set off a phrase with spaces around an en dash like that.
Some other fun things I’ve tried (based on looking at my ChatGPT history—is this the new Google search history cringe?):
- Basic GREP and text manipulation functions in a dataset (e.g. remove trailing commas but keep the rest, then sort onto new lines)
- Solving Wordle problems (e.g. give me a list of dictionary words after swapping in [valid list of letters] in underscore positions 1 and 2 for this word;
__ush) - Giving ChatGPT a CSV export of my entire Goodreads “want to read” list, telling it what kind of book I was looking for, and asking it to deliver a shortlist (mixed results, but a good starting point)
- Summarizing a long email newsletter (no, not yours, Steven)
I’m uncertain if I’m more amazed by the technology itself, or just how pervasive it already is. About a month ago, I walked into the gym and overheard a perfectly ordinary dude (read: not a nerd like me) discuss his unsuccessful 30-minute internet search for an answer compared to the instantaneous results he received from ChatGPT.
Next up, I’m hoping to explore ChatGPT’s code generation capabilities, but I’m not even sure where to start.
Another take on reading goals
Back in 2019 I watched Captain Fantastic. His kids, the so-called philosopher kings, inspired me with the depth of knowledge they picked up from books. Watching this film created a clear before and after picture for what reading in my life looked like. Almost immediately, I set out to read a book a week, and 2019 turned into one of the most vivid years in memory. (Although the actual reason for the vividness isn’t completely clear—maybe the end of my decade long romantic relationship in 2018 had something to do with that as well).
As I made my way through the reading challenge, I learned that 52 books (or any book quantity goal for that matter) incentivized the wrong behaviour in me. I was eager to learn, but that meant I was picking short, cursory books and passing up longer ones. I still learned a lot in 2019, but I had to shelve the 600-pagers for another time. To remedy this misstep, I picked a page goal in 2023. Conveniently, the math for fifty-two 200-page books comes out to around 10,000 pages. So, 10,000 pages is the goal this year.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to track that goal in Goodreads, but you can track your current pages read for the year by manipulating some URLs and peeking at your year in review *checks calendar* nine months early. Here’s how the URL pattern works:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/[year]/[userID]
That being said, it’s probably easiest to find an old year in review and swap the date in the URL instead.
Before we move on, I have to share something about the platform that has brought me joy for many years. Despite its extraordinary popularity, Goodreads has been the subject of many product design and user experience jokes since it’s… uh… a little rough around the edges. My favourite drag is this one:
High-quality memes
(If any Goodreads designers are reading this, I just want you to know I love what you’re doing with the place and the new book page is wonderful.)
The good good
Without further delay, here’s the random assortment of high-quality media and objects that have entered my life lately.
Aftersun
I walked into this film on a whim after a blood donation one day. Thankfully, the theatre and the clinic are neighbours. I hardly knew anything about it, but this movie thoroughly wrecked me. I cried so hard when the credits rolled that two women (who were also crying) just about came over to console me when the lights came up.
One Without by Oliver Coates
In fact, Aftersun hit me so hard, I immediately tried to track down the soundtrack. It wasn’t available at the time and I forgot about it… until the almighty music suggestions algorithm recommended it a few weeks ago. I’m linking to my favourite song. As one astute YouTube commenter put it, “this is what it sounds like to be haunted by good memories.”
Triangle of Sadness
I wasn’t expecting this film to be so hilarious and accessible. A worthy contribution to whatever we’re calling the genre that takes down the ultrarich.  Will anyone learn any lessons! Watch and find out. Bonus: Marea by Fred Again.. is used to great effect during a tense moment in the film.
My brother’s Kenya travel video
My brother visited Kenya in 2022 and stayed at a wildlife sanctuary for a large part of the trip. I missed out, but he’s such a great videographer, it feels like I was right there alongside him after watching his video. Since I’m his obligate hype man, he gets a link right here on the blog.
On Hold by The xx
Another breakup, and I was on the receiving end this time. It sucked, mostly because it was hard to believe that things dissolved so rapidly. In a moment of emotional maturity, I didn’t reach for my usual sad songs playlist that is the gasoline to my despair fire. Instead, I found solace in an old tune called On Hold by The xx. It’s a surprisingly upbeat breakup song that nailed the disbelief I was feeling. We live to love another day.
Yamaha P-515
It felt like the right time to upgrade from the $500 piano I bought in 2013 after graduating from design school. Queue up a search that ended with the Yamaha. I love the Bösendorfer sound engine and the heavy keys for the jazz I’m playing right now.
Buy a Yamaha P-515 (lol)