author: martin
Happy Monday! I just wrote a little article on the subject of success: https://martinrue.com/success
I just wrote some random thoughts on "Occam's razor": https://martinrue.com/the-simple-life
Just rawdogged 7 stops on the BTS. AMA.
Find hobbies that make you lose track of time.
New video: https://youtu.be/xppgQNMg_Ik
I just read about a short antiwar film that has been produced using Esperanto to keep the context in the film free of national identity. The actors learned the language quickly to speak their lines naturally. I'm excited to watch it! It'll be revealed next year.
Today I learned about Hyperloglog and I think it's super cool.
I've been co-working today with 6 friends. We all met in Da Nang and now find ourselves in Bangkok. I love how easily this happens in the SEA nomad scene. So great to be around folks doing what you're doing and supporting each other.
Happy Monday! What is everyone working on this week?
Some weekend thoughts: https://martinrue.com/what-if-you-hadn't
For folks who enjoy nostalgic coding stories, here are three of my favourites. They're all from my own experiences growing up and learning to code as a kid in the 90s.
1: ZZüy – A Lesson In Perseverance | https://martinrue.com/zzuy-a-lesson-in-perseverance
2: Give Yourself More Playtime | https://martinrue.com/give-yourself-more-playtime
3: Me vs. The VNC Guy | https://martinrue.com/coding-stories-me-vs-vnc
Good morning. I started mine by tackling the question "What if we redesigned language?"
Here are my thoughts: https://lingoh.news/what-if-we-redesigned-language
I've had some absolutely awesome comments about https://yakk.app recently. It's such a joy when people find your work helpful, and it's a great source of continued motivation to improve. Thanks to those who shared feedback with me recently, it means a lot. 🙏
I didn't send out last week's language newsletter due to travel, so on Monday I'm tackling the question: "What if we redesigned language?"
If you want those sorts of bytes arriving in your inbox, here's the location of more internet bytes that'll help ensure that happens: https://lingoh.news
10 random things to consider:
1. You had 4000 weeks left when you were born.
2. Most of the days you've lived you've forgotten.
3. Your life looks different to others.
4. There are other ways of thinking outside of your default.
5. What you'd say if you could say only one more sentence.
6. What you are willing to suffer for.
7. What enough means.
8. How important truth is.
9. How deliberately you use the word yes.
10. What your fully realised self looks like.
Things I didn't know until now:
16% of 25 is the same as 25% of 16.
The difference is that my brain freaks out about the first, but is very happy with the second.
X% of Y is always the same as Y% of X. When doing quick maths, ask yourself if the reverse is easier to consider.
A dating app based on which stickers you have on your laptop.
Happiness is produced by contrast. Fast for 2 days and you'll have the tastiest meal you've ever had. Run 10k and your couch will be like a massage. Maintain the contrast.
Every time I accidentally kick the magsafe charger out of my laptop, I can't help but smile instead of sigh. Thank god they brought those back.
I love a good long-distance train journey. I'm about to head back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai via overnight train. The journey is 13 hours, and this train is delightfully old school. I love it.
One thing I love about the travel lifestyle is that you meet old friends in new places. I've met so many friends in Chiang Mai that I first met in Da Nang. There's something really fun about that happening. It makes the world feel smaller in the ways you want it to be.
Today I’m spending the day with my Esperanto friend (fun fact: he’s a native speaker), exploring Chiang Mai in the beautiful international language. What are you all up to this fine weekend?
Faced with a problem in code, I get true joy from finding a deeply unorthodox solution, that (in my context) has none of the theoretical downside that would make normal people (oh if only they knew) tell me with their whole chest I'm going right to hell for doing it.
For anyone curious about my Chiang Mai flood experience, I captured a good amount of the 3 days on camera. Here's the video documenting it. https://youtu.be/u_vGbCCsDmA
Chiang Mai update: after 3 days of no power or water, we’re back and everything is recovering well. This makes me happy.
Don't tell yourself you're going to "learn Spanish".
Instead, you're going to learn how to tell people your name. Tomorrow it might be age. Next month it'll be "chatting for longer than 3 mins".
Let the path be unclear, and focus one step ahead instead of one thousand.
Lots of frequent, small wins is much more sustainable, enjoyable and motivating than a monster, multi-year goal that never seems to move closer.
Learning, especially self-learning should look more like play and less like a textbook.
Good morning! I've just uploaded last week's language newsletter for anyone who missed it. It contains four tips to make learning your TL more effective. https://lingoh.news/more-hacks-to-learn-a-language-faster
Guys, I literally cycled for 2 hours to be able to post this /now update. https://martinrue.com/now
I’m 24 hours into being stuck in the floods in Chiang Mai. No water or electricity, which would mean no internet right now. However, I realised the gym in this building has a cross trainer that is powered by use, and it has USB! So, 700 kcals later I’ve added 25% to my phone!
Overnight there’s going to be another big flood in Chiang Mai. Like bloody buses! You try and escape them in one country and end up with 2 at the same time in another.
There's nothing quite like riding your motorbike in the morning in Asia to truly wake up and appreciate life. I've arrived at my co-working space in Chiang Mai with a sudden zest for life!
Very happy that I'm finding the time to be consistent with my language-learning writing. Yesterday I sent out issue 8 of my twice-monthly newsletter on the topic.
If you don't know about it, all previous issues are here. Subscribe to get new issues every 2 weeks: https://lingoh.news
So instead of pointing a microphone down into the street to detect gun shots, this dude made his own "shot spotter" to instead detect which music tracks are being played. The "bop spotter". I love the internet! https://walzr.com/bop-spotter
In other news, I passed my Thai motorbike license. I've been riding the past 8 months in Asia without a license (very common), but in Chiang Mai especially, it's hard to do that as there are an insane amount of traffic police here. Glad to be doing it "officially" now :)
Today I'm taking my Thai driving license. The class is basically just watching lots and lots of videos of people doing very dumb things.
In the sauna I play this silly little game with myself. When someone comes in, I try to outlast them. Tonight, for the first time, a guy came in who I genuinely think plays the same game! I was in 10 mins already, so he smoked me. I'm devastated. Years of internal legend over.
Have you heard of the "trolley problem"? 🚎
It's an ethical dilemma to figure out whether someone acts more emotionally or utilitarian.
It turns out that when you add language to the mix, it gets really interesting.
"People's moral judgments and decisions depend on the native-ness of the language in which a dilemma is presented, becoming more utilitarian in a foreign language."
I dug into this question in this week's newsletter, which is now online for those who don't subscribe: https://lingoh.news/do-we-act-differently-in-a-foreign-language
I took a 13 hour train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and it was great!
I made a video about it: https://youtu.be/OAiHo-eX5I8
PS: It turns out you *can* work out on a train.
I finally watched Blade Runner 2049 last night. Loved it! What's your next favourite cyberpunk movie?
I made a new video about where we are staying in Bangkok, for anyone interested to watch: https://youtu.be/g8Y7IB599Xw?si=86LNXKSemhTxEiyP
✍️ I wrote something new.
"I'm not kidding. But less about my mother. I want to talk about a murderer."
https://martinrue.com/just-do-it
I made a new video about Vim. It’s aimed at those who know little to nothing and want to get started with the most common text editing movements. It’s a lot of fun making videos like this! https://youtu.be/edqG79yfRBE
Station now over 1,500 people. I think that's cool. Thanks everyone for keeping it clean and friendly here. 🙏
Life in SE Asia
🚫 Guns 🚫 Drugs 🚫 Durian
It's so funny... from hotel to subways signs, it's clear: carrying Durian is probably worse than carrying a handgun.
It does smell pretty strong!
I made a new video about life Bangkok so far: https://youtu.be/sNhWcerYp9Q
I just learned that สวัสดี (sà-wàt-dii • hello) in Thai comes from Sanskrit स्वस्ति (svasti • prosperity, success). From "svasti" comes "swastika", which has been a symbol of divinity & spirituality in Hinduism, Buddhism, long before the far right West appropriated it.
Tonight was the first time since I started my SE Asian adventure that I hung out with old friends from a previous city (Da Nang) in a new one (Bangkok). I love how small the world can feel in the nomad circles around these parts.
I love that "buồn" (sad) in Vietnamese has a possible etymological link to "muốn" (to want). There's a nice potential philosophy in that.
Life changed a lot recently, so here’s a little “now” update. https://martinrue.com/now
My apartment in BKK has a Japanese toilet. I've never spent so much time in the bathroom.
Today is my last day in Vietnam, but I'm actually not coming back to Europe any time soon. I made a video explaining why: https://youtu.be/_Ob78fOc5iw
I posted yesterday about finally launching Yakk's Vietnamese course. A few people have already bought it, read it, and said some unbelievably nice things. Thank you! You don't know how much it means. Here's a little video I made about launching it: https://youtu.be/I0Wx0-itYa8
Really happy that, after a few months of hard work, I've finally finished the latest course for https://yakk.app, "Nomad Vietnamese". If you're into languages and want to learn some basic Vietnamese, please take a look :)
I woke up to the awesome news that my 5-year DTV visa was approved for Thailand!
Almost everywhere in Vietnam has a "bike guy" (usually an older man) responsible for organising all the motorbikes.
Last night, I spoke to my bike guy outside of my favourite restaurant in Vietnamese for about 10 minutes. That's basically all the Vietnamese I know.
It was so awesome. It's such a deep joy to start speaking in a new language you're learning. That feeling will never get old for me.
I also got lots of numbers practice when he asked me "Em bao nhiêu tuổi?" (How old are you) and I asked him to guess. 🤣
Recently I've been thinking about (and enjoying) the benefits of "slow". Here are some thoughts: https://martinrue.com/embrace-slowness
Over breakfast this morning, my girlfriend said "is my chair moving?" I looked at her like she was crazy. Then 3 seconds later the entire room started shaking. We promptly exxited the building to find everyone outside wondering if another was coming. It's been a few hours now and I think everything is cool.
Does language influence how we think? https://lingoh.news/does-language-influence-how-we-think
Feliĉan Esperanto-Tagon al ĉiuj el la Esperantistoj ĉi tie en Gemini :)
I can't tell you how often people just stare at me in the street. It was weird at first, but I've gotten used to it now. It's kind of cool – I sometimes throw a "Chào chị! Hôm nay chị khỏe không?" and they love it.
I'm happy to report that, while the world burns down due to Crowdstrike nuking a fucking ton of Windows machines running everything from news channels to airlines, Station doesn't come within a kilometer of a Windows kernel, so we're all good over here. :)
For fellow coders: I just made a quick video showing my new vim setup. I decided to move back to vim after years of using VSCode and setting up (neo)vim was super easy, so I wanted to share: https://youtu.be/5HDzrAMSXUA
Waking up and taking your mechanical keyboard to a coworking space is waking up and choosing violence.
🃏 Here's a fun one for you.
Take a deck of cards. Shuffle them randomly. There's no chance any human alive (or ever alive) has seen the sequence of cards you just made.
The maths: number of combinations of 52 unique cards = 52! = 8×10⁶⁷ (more than the total atoms on earth)
I've been playing with neovim again today. Think I might move back to using vim over my recent years with VSCode. The speed boost alone will be worth it.
For anyone interested in my recent writing on language and tips for learning, both past issues of my newsletter are online now: https://lingoh.news/issues
If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share :)
Here's my Vietnamese progress after 45 study hours: https://mstdn.social/@martinrue/112766888678790939
Sorry, fat web link because video.
Happy Monday! I just sent out the second issue of my newsletter Ling-oh! This one is about how to remember things for longer - a pretty helpful skill when learning a new language. If you’re subscribed and have any thoughts, please feel free to share here. 🙏
I made a new video. 5 month update on life in Vietnam: https://youtu.be/bCD1S04futE?si=OnKubLUP2qKWhLgi
Currently editing a new video about Da Nang. It's so fun editing... I love piecing it all together and trying new things. In many ways it's a lot like coding.
A personal highlight from today: we were riding at 50kmh down a highway on the bike when a old Vietnamese woman shot up on our left hand side to have a chat. "Where you from?" This country is full of surprises.
I just got recognised in the street due to a YouTube video. I’ve made it. So when does my yacht arrive?
Hey folks! I made some small changes to the public feed. Please read gemini://station.martinrue.com/updates for the full details. I hope this makes sense.
I just introduced someone to the Konami Code (↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A) and how us programmer nerds have ensured that our various employer's websites respect in some amusing way.
I used Discord's 404 page as an example, but which others still exist as working examples?
In case you missed it: I published my first ever newsletter this week. It's all about the wonders of language, and how to learn them better.
If you missed issue 1, fear not, I just uploaded the web version: https://lingoh.news/issues
Upcoming issues:
1. How can we remember better?
2. Does language influence how we think?
3. Hacks to learn a language faster
Enjoy the weekend, folks. ✌️
There's something about "weeks" that hits different. On average, we have 4000 weeks on this planet. Said in days or years, I lose the significance, but "weeks" really lands. Make the most of it, folks.
Well, that feels good! After weeks of work the first Ling-oh! issue just went out. Next one in two weeks. 😎 https://lingoh.news
Courtesy of a friend, I’ve just discovered the next thing I’m excited to announce publicly, in a nice loud voice, chest out, when the time calls. Here’s a preview. Clears throat:
BEHOLD the field, in which I grow my FUCKS. LAY THINE eyes upon it and THOU SHALT SEE that it is BARREN.
"As a programmer, I'll likely be making off-by-one errors until the day after I die."
I spent the morning in Hội An speaking as much Vietnamese as possible. I had some great chats, and compliments! A lady asked me my age: “Em bao nhiêu tuổi?” Her “em” assumes I’m younger. My “Em ba mươi tám tuổi” (I’m 38) came as a shock. So much fun practising my tiếng Việt!
I think the reason creatives/artists support each others' work is because they know how fulfilling it feels to be supported in their own. A compliment, a little of your attention, some feedback, or just a "nice work" is such low energy high impact act. Imagine not using that.
👋 I just published a little ode to language:
"Language is everywhere and it's an essential part of everything we do. Very few things in our lives aren't, at their core, just an application of language."
https://martinrue.com/an-ode-to-language
What are you up to this week? Share your work, side hustles, projects and interests that are keeping you motivated and feeling good this week.
Dear language fans! I just launched a free newsletter. Ling-oh! is here to bring you a twice-monthly dose of linguistic motivation and discovery. If you're curious, please subscribe! https://lingoh.news
Heuristic that you made good evening choices: the number of times you open Shazam.
Good work takes time. That's a big part of why it's good. I have to remind myself sometimes. To steal an expression a friend of mine used last night: "there's no point screaming at a seed."
The biggest predictor for productivity (and feeling happy) is having large, uninterrupted blocks of time. If I don't get that right, all the smaller factors fade to irrelevant for me.
"It turns out my really big problem was thinking I might one day get rid of all my problems."
Look, I'll level with you. I'm fairly sure at least 3 people think I've developed a pet name for my brain. Brian might seem like a weird choice, but it may be easier for me to just run with this now.
I'm spending my Saturday night studying >100 Vietnamese flashcards due to a hectic past week. What a life!
In all seriousness, it feels great putting in the work to make living in this country such a deeper and more fun experience.
Super cool – a "quine" clock in JS. A quine is a program that has no input and outputs only its own code. https://aem1k.com/qlock
Internet appreciation post. I’m lay on my couch in Vietnam. It’s 21:30. I’m chatting to my mother who’s walking over to the beach in the Dominican Republic. It’s 10:30 in the morning for her. We’re so far apart that she can see the sun and I can’t.
Our voices, encoded into chunks and packeted across a vast distance over the internet via a multitude of devices, cables, signals, etc. means we can chat like we were in the same room.
That’s still wild to me… as a thing that actually works.
Lazy day rewatching Halt and Catch Fire. Such an underrated show.
I was pretty sure my own perception of "popular" is not, in any way, reflective of facts. However my curious gander at the current TIOBE Index quickly confirmed that. Visual Basic 7, Fortran, Delphi and ASM at 10, 11, 12. Wild. https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index
Last week I went on a 3-day solo retreat to Hội An to reflect, relax and be with my own thoughts for a while. I made a little video about it: https://youtu.be/nSkcQyXH5yk
Hello from the land border at Lao Bảo between Vietnam and Laos. I’m basically in the middle of nowhere where goats and cows are roaming the streets, but the fact I can get on Station makes me happy.
"It’s easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting."
Station's cert has been updated to a v3 cert. I hope everyone made it back alive :)
PSA: At some point in the next week I'm going to replace Station's cert with a new one.
You'll see a warning about Station's cert having changed, that it may no longer be trustworthy, that perhaps its creator has been violently murdered by a hit squad from X due to internal jealously about how superior Station is. All of this is false, except the last last part.
Context: Station currently uses a v1 x509 cert, which makes it harder for folks writing custom Gemini clients, and generally speaking, is just old. Bad call, Martin! So, I'll update it to a newer v3 cert and the world can rejoice in harmony, and peace and success will befall us all.
PSA: Station finally now detects links in replies and shows them below the reply itself. In celebration, please link your favourite books. 👌
Just pushed a little update to my personal site (which, to my shame, is still not on Gemini). I also updated my /now page with some deets of my recent retreat to the beautiful town of Hoi An here in Vietnam. https://martinrue.com
That there are around 10⁸² atoms in the universe is a great example of how we can’t think well about large numbers. That looks wrong to me at first glance.
Controversial opinion(?) I'm sick of finishing books with a strong sense that they were 300 pages just to appease the publisher/market, not because the author couldn't have been just as effective in 100 pages. I consider Derek Sivers a perfect counter example of this. Few books should need 300 pages.
"Impatience is an argument with reality."
I like this. I think it's even more useful with the qualifier: "You can win the argument, but not always."
Impatience can be useful, but only when your odds of changing reality are high enough. Otherwise embrace it. Patience brings presence.
The camera has really been getting its exercise lately. The fact the camera even survived this one is actually a miracle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvZ5amwkvRc
After many visits to Sivers's /now page, I realised his new book (https://sive.rs/u) is in early access. So, naturally, I read the hell out of it. Loved it. Really appreciate the short, provocative style and it left me with plenty of things to mull over.
Finally recorded a new video about life in Da Nang. 📽️ https://youtu.be/4J2uZqipzfY
It just cost me £1.58 to fill up my bike, which is now good for about 200km. Now that's a version of capitalism I can get behind.
Today was peak life: Had a great sleep. Jumped on the motorbike and shot over to the coworking space. Finished a new vlog edit. Met some new people. Got stuck due to the flash storm. Hung out chatting to cool folks. Cruised home on the fumes of petrichor. Dinner and a book.
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."
Travel by itself doesn't change you much. What does change you, however, is an openness to engage with the sometimes huge differences in culture, attitudes, daily life, etc., that you often find via travel with that mindset.
Vietnam has been a great teacher so far.
This weekend was one of those that’s just good for the soul. I spent it on a remote island with a bunch of new friends I’ve made here in Vietnam. 10/10.
I just learned about recency bias and it's already my new favourite.
I'm shutting down a project I built and ran for 7 years, serving ~3,000 people. It's bittersweet. On one hand it's amazing to contribute something valuable for so many. On the other, our attention and focus are so important, and we have to allow them to take on new things fully.
The root race conditions of all evil are.
My favourite part of last night was having a BBQ with everybody at the coworking space in the dark, because the electricity burned itself down. If you know life in SE Asia, this makes total sense.
What I'm doing now: https://martinrue.com/now
A few weeks ago I moved to Việt Nam. Why? 1: To challenge myself and experience life somewhere very different. 2: To live more cheaply and have more time for Yakk and other projects.
Since 13 is so lucky in Asia, here are 13 reflections from my Vietnam experience so far: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/martinrue/7a45d3d5fcd47f643993be4dbb7ac272/raw/f710acdbe0dd16d309ff219c7740687c39bf8b8d/Vietnam.txt
So, after spending the first 2 weeks of this adventure in Hanoi, we're finally in Da Nang. The contrast is massive. Da Nang is like the LA of Vietnam – miles of beach, lots of newer buildings and a very chill vibe. Air is way cleaner too. Loving it in this city and planning on staying a good amount of time.
It's almost 10pm and I'm sat in a little coffee shop in the middle of Hanoi writing code as part of a little experiment. Could not be happier. Passing along the positive energy. ⚡️
A little video update from Dubai. https://youtu.be/WdNrDEDMvhM?si=Dwv1Sk8E4CHNvDuD
Arriving into Hanoi after being in Dubai is, well, different! Happy to finally be here and looking forward to seeing what Hanoian life feels like.
Today's the day. I'm leaving the country. I made a video about what's in my bag: https://youtu.be/qGASvcfcQUg?si=XUgmK_EGhl78ywpP
Belief is a funny thing. Sometimes you need to hold onto one against all further examination simply because it helps you. Belief doesn't always have to correlate with the known facts – some beliefs give you focus and direction, and that's a useful reason to keep them.
Listening to a new reggae album in Esperanto with my neighbours (probably). No, *you're* weird.
An old man sat next to me in the coffee shop. He ordered a coffee and just sat there drinking it. No newspaper, no phone – just sat there on his own with his thoughts. Honestly, that's goals. I feel bad even writing this now.
A consideration when reaching for GPT to write some code for you: yes it'll save time, but it'll take from you some problem solving. It's that same problem solving – sitting with a challenge and working through potential solutions/trade-offs – that made you a good problem solver.
I can't believe it's already Friday again. This week I got started on a new new project with a short launch window, and I'm ~40% done. It feels great to be in the zone for 5-6 hours daily! What has been your biggest achievement this week?
Me: perfection is the enemy.
Also me: that loading state causes the button height to increase by 1px, which must be fixed immediately.
Today's blog post was inspired by my hair cut. https://martinrue.com/tune-in
So, the girlfriend and I quit our jobs to follow our own path and work full-time on our own ideas. We're sharing all the details over at: https://thediscoveryfund.com. Follow along!
The one where the gf and I debate which side of the street to walk on and visit Colony – one of the nicest co-working spots in the city. https://youtu.be/Tir4H2-zWTA?si=82xhiNVexTMYuDLF
1300 people on Station. That's cool!
I just want people to know that I definitely haven't just spent an unspecified amount of time trying to remember a good solution to a problem that I forgot because I got lost for too long in the joy of having had it.
I set my local timezone to Madrid to test some timezone code I was working on last night. Unsurprisingly I totally forgot, and I've only just realised! Massive win. I just got a whole hour of my day back!
Spent my Saturday evening coding a little static web app in vanilla JS with no build tools whatsoever. It's so nice having such a simple workflow, rolling everything myself, and having a lightning fast feedback cycle. That's exactly what "the zone" is made of. ⚡️
Language learning is dangerous. I’ve just nearly fallen off a treadmill while trying to check a conjugation in Spanish. Ironically it was the verb “morir”.
Here's the latest vlog of my trip to the Dominican Republic with some 2023 reflections + 2024 plans: https://youtu.be/VGUgoV-Cro0
If anything makes me want to buy a new MacBook, it's definitely editing 60fps/4k video. On the other hand, with it being minus wtf today, there are certain advantages to my CPU being on fire the entire day.
Hey, I have a little /now update: https://martinrue.com/now
Today someone allowed me to ride a powerful buggy around a muddy mountaintop. It's a miracle I'm still alive. Nice try, Darwin.
Shower thoughts but from aimlessly wandering up and down Caribbean beaches.
Today's: it's not about doing the thing, it's about doing the thing often enough that your results can accrue. It's about knowing how you'll stay consistent.
Consistency: https://martinrue.com/consistency
As a language learner, there's nothing better than being in a place where 1) speaking the local language is unusual, and 2) locals are delighted that you're trying and help you.
Favourite word of 2023: aibohphobia – an irrational fear of palindromes. As cruel as the "s" in lisp. Hit me with yours.
Had an annoying workflow in Yakk. Considered writing a little Go tool to help, but a couple of lines of bash later and it's fully automated. Bash still delivering in 2023.
Merry Christmas from the UK to those who celebrate. Hope everyone is taking some time to rest and recharge regardless. 🎄
Her: What's your ideal date?
Me: DD/MM/YYYY
Who remembers the first place 64k demo winner Heaven 7? I think I still have "heaven7.exe" on a drive somewhere. Somehow it just came back onto my radar. It's still impressive now, but to think it was released in 2000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNqpD3Mg9hY
It's Esperanto day! Here's a little post about why I think it's cool (and useful) https://martinrue.com/zamenhofa-tago-18
Random observation: I've seen far more women coding in the various Brooklyn coffee shops I've been working from this week. 👏
Hello from 37001ft above the ocean. I'm on a flight to NYC and wanted to see if I could make it to Gemini :)
"As a principal engineer, how do you make sure your company stays at the forefront of innovation?"
"I don't. I make sure we don't."
https://www.ntietz.com/blog/forefront-of-innovation
I wrote a little post about my top 5 good-energy feelings doing the work I do.
1: When you fix a hard bug
2: When you find your voice in writing
3: When you break through creative resistance
4: When you receive good feedback
5: When you see traction
https://martinrue.com/creativity-top-5
I'm very curious to hear others' additions. This is definitely not an exhaustive list. 🙏
“People respect you more when you’re chasing something than when you have it.”
What are you chasing?
Black Friday: The perfect opportunity, whether you like it or not, to discover who has your email address.
The real question among all the recent news is "which filing cabinet at OpenAI contains the USB stick labelled 'AGI code'?" Silicon Valley nailed it.
It's my last day at my job today. Some exciting changes for me coming up. Wrote about it here: https://martinrue.com/carving-my-own-path
Cool to see @marginalia on HN number one spot repping Gemini (a little). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38276951
I have a bit of good news to share, but for once I'm sitting on it, telling nobody, and enjoying the presence of it. I never let things truly sink in, so I'm trying something new.
As the weather is getting a bit colder now, don't forget that laptops easily double up as portable radiators. Just fire off enough background "yes > /dev/null &" processes until your legs are nice and toasty, then "killall yes". You're welcome.
Speaking of vlogs: I just uploaded another! Here's what I got up to in Valencia and Barcelona last week: https://youtu.be/A-2fu2JAhMw
Downside of going from 1080p to 4k in my vlogs: now I desperately want a better laptop. Upside: I'm a bit warmer.
2023 is 84% complete. Who feels like they achieved their goal(s) so far this year?
Last night I was at Barcelona's monthly Esperanto social event (in a bar) and a 10 year old boy came along with his Mum. He'd started learning on Duo a few months back and could already speak well enough to us to tell us about himself and how he discovered Esperanto. Really cool.
I had dinner with my friend and her Mum last night. Her Mum (80) speaks only Spanish and my friend and I only have Esperanto in common. It was amazing. Absolute chaos... y creo que mi español mejoró al menos un poquito por eso!
I hope everyone's having a great start to the week. I've taken a little break to hang out in Barcelona and make some progress on some personal projects. What's everyone else up to?
New vlog! This was a fun one to make. Hugely impressed with the quality of the video captured by the DJI Mini 4. https://youtu.be/QK4wTZM0-24?si=e_93-d3GWscSQkmX
This is what happens when you have too much free time. Creative Writing Systems for Esperanto: https://martinrue.com/esperanto-writing-systems
Today's shower thought: creativity is a muscle https://martinrue.com/creativity-muscle
I've been working full-time for the past year and a half saving every penny I can so I can escape the working world (well, at least the version where I work on other people's shit) and go live in SE Asia. I'm getting really close now and it's an unbeliavably freeing feeling. I'm curious... is anyone else doing something similar?
"A life well lived is a series of personal obsessions shared without expectation of an audience." 👏
So, what's everyone doing this weekend? Anyone got anything interesting planned?
I hardly ever read fiction books, but I just finished reading The Shadow of the Wind (in English as my Spanish isn't good enough yet) and I absolutely loved it. Lots of unexpected references to parts of Barcelona I know, too, which added to the experience. Anyone else read it?
I'm going to demo Station in a training session in an hour. Say hello if you see this :)
I've been doing a lot of teaching recently and it's a great reminder of: if you think you know something, try teaching it. Teaching is learning in disguise.
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
This is an excellent breakdown of the UK ATC meltdown the other week and what caused it. I'm sure it'll surprise no experienced programmer at all to learn of the various issues that led to it. https://jameshaydon.github.io/nats-fail
Some random observations: https://gist.github.com/martinrue/ccc773de83be694683edbaef23a9ecc8
If you live in the UK and want to get into Esperanto, this free weekend event in October will be great. You can even play Homlupo (Werewolf) with me in the international language. Aimed at every level, even possible to ask for help for hotel costs if you need it. More info: https://esperanto.org.uk/studa-semajnfino
I wrote some thoughts on the idea of "getting into motion": https://martinrue.com/get-into-motion
Even though my brain thinks in Esperanto at this point, I occasionally realise I don’t have a word for something. I was chatting to a friend this morning and I needed to say treadmill. To my delight, turns out it’s “kurtapiŝo”, or running carpet.
If having a coffee in the morning isn't working for you, take 2 weeks of leave and then check your email.
I recently spent a few days in Venice (in the cool neighbourhoods). Here's what I got up to. Spoiler: it's mostly me being lost and tortured by mosquitoes. https://youtu.be/_caD0XnBNfI
I tried to capture some difficult thoughts: https://martinrue.com/nothing-matters
Venice is such a unique city.
🚙 No cars.
🏍️ No motorbikes.
🚲 No bicycles.
Everything is a boat.
🛥️ Bus? Vaporetti.
🚤 Taxi? Also a boat.
🚣 Moving house? Do it on a boat.
⛴️ Dump truck? It's a boat.
🚓 Have cool boats!
It's rather nice not seeing a single car.
Okay, I'm off to live with with 220 Esperanto speakers from 52 different countries for a week. Give me another language where I can do that – where everyone experiences the language equally and fairly – and I'll give up Esperanto¹ :)
¹ This is a lie as I have way too many t-shirts.
Productivity hack: there's no hack. It's hard. Confront it. Take responsibility. Make time. Get started any way you can. Stick with it, even while it feels uncomfortable (creative resistance). Don't expect it to always feel good/happy. Stay focused. Don't quit.
"Brian, do you have an unpopular opinion?"
"Besides cooking salmon in a dishwasher?"
It's quality content only on the GoTime podcast!
I’m in Venice and it’s hot. Charming. But hot. Carrying my life in a backpack probably isn’t helping though.
🎥 I made a new video! It’s about making time for your projects and goals, and contains a little preview of what I’ve been working on recently. https://youtu.be/EwE3RkJOFV4
I had a shower thought and now it's a blog post: https://martinrue.com/doing-your-best
What do we want?
Now!
When do we want it?
Race conditions!
Today is the "Internacia Tago de Esperanto" (Esperanto Day). The "Unua Libro" (first book), which introduced the language and its grammar, was published 136 years ago today.
For anyone curious about why I like Esperanto so much, I made a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QsHxQcZbQU
Shoutout to @eph for the amount of exrta glyphs I've installed in Lagrange so far due to your language pursuits :)
Productivity hacks.
1: Never waste 20 minutes doing something by hand that you can fail to automate in 8 hours.
2: Never waste 20 minutes solving a known problem when you can spend 2 weeks finding the general version of it, failing to abstract it, and burdening everyone else.
Sad to hear Mitnick has passed. A hero of curiosity and intellectual pursuit that defined an era. FREE KEVIN.
A few of my favourite protocol jokes, part 2.
---
If you want to hear my ICMP joke, ping me.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Ethernet LAN with CSMA/CD.
Ethernet LAN with CSMA/CD who?
I'll tell you at a random point in the future.
I had a bunch of HTTP 301 jokes but I've not been able to find them for a long time.
There's a funny story about RFC1918, but it's a bit of an insider joke.
The hardest kind of joke to tell is an NTP joke – it's all about timing.
Want to hear a SYN flood joke?
Want to hear a SYN flood joke?
Want to hear a SYN flood joke?
Okay, FIN. I couldn't come up with a good DNS joke though, so whois going to give us one?
A few of my favourite protocol jokes, part 1. If you get all of them, you're officially old. And awesome.
---
I have a joke about TCP.
Oh yeah, what is it?
Want to hear it?
Yes.
Okay I'll tell it.
I'll hear it.
I've now begun telling it.
I've begun listening.
Three UDP packets walk into a bar.
First: I'll have a whisky
Third: Vodka for me.
Second: Just water.
Bartender: What you lads having?
If you don't get that last UDP joke, nobody cares.
My best joke is about token ring, but I can't tell you that one as it's not my turn.
The next time you forget a word for something, say “Ah, what’s the word for that in English again?” People will assume you’re bilingual instead of stupid.
A horse walks into a bar and orders a pint. The bartender says “You’re in here pretty often. Do you think you might be an alcoholic?”
The horse replies “I don’t think I am”, and immediately vanishes from existence.
See, the joke is about Descartes’s philosophical first principle, commonly known as “I think, therefore I am”, but to explain that part first would be putting Descartes before the horse.
1100 folk on Station as of today! I’m pleased people are still finding Station useful in an ever growing Gemini world. Very happy to keep the lights on while people still find value in this community. 👏
I had a dream in Esperanto last night. It still feels surreal when that happens. Ege mojose ankoraŭ, tamen.
Here's a Threads-inspired coding joke for you this glorious Friday. If you know, you know.
Knock knock.
Race condition.
Who's there?
I've been gradually making my way though PG's latest essay "How to Do Great Work". Very motivating, and full of great points. Here's some I noted.
Essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/greatwork.html
Notes: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/martinrue/1db57ae5d5b37d8b92ae23566dd100f6/raw/637301496c089620a3df535fee330deeae003b7d/great-work.txt
Announcement: you can view as many posts here per day as you damn well please.
“Nobody supposes that the knowledge that belongs to the good cook is confined to what is or may be written down in the cookery book.”
Cool to see a LangFocus video about Esperanto, which does a typically stellar job of breaking down the language and explaining why it exists and why it's cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK6FCzqAiwI
Aaaand it's out! Here's the next episode of the podcast with Siru Laine. What a great conversation about languages, language-learning, translation, and tons more. Enjoy!
Kaj finfine nun haveblas la 4a epizodo de la podkasto. En tiu ĉi, mi estas kun la kara Siru Laine kaj babilas pri ĉio de lingvoj kaj lingvo-lernado al tradukado, kiom mojose estus havi etan kafejon en Skotlando, kaj kompreneble pri Eŭrovizio (kion vi atendis‽) Ĝuu!
La mp3-dosiero: https://hazardaj.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/umado-kun-martin-e04.mp3
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/dd97c5c4/podcast/rss
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1YjRzCkReWSs2v06xOLpx8?si=58a9e99a9fa646e4
Aliaj apoj: serĉu "Umado Kun Martin"
This evening I recorded a new episode of my Esperanto podcast after a little break. This one was super fun, and all about language learning from someone who really knows what she's talking about (she speaks 15). Looking forward to releasing this one soon. 👏
Anyone else following this Titan story? Crazy! I hope they're found alive, but that's looking very slim. Insane to imagine yourself in the same position in terms of how you'd behave, what you'd do.
In today's episode of Random Uses of ChatGPT: asking it to go from IPA to an approximation of a phonetic spelling in a given accent. Not bad results!
PS: if you're about to ask me "why‽", don't – I'll just make you dumber and you'll never get the time back.
The advantage of building more slowly but with a big focus on keeping it simple is that I’m returning to some code without any doubts or desire to change it to keep up with some trend or major version release of a framework. Good feeling.
I was at a creative networking event last night for the first time in ages. I forgot how good it is meeting and chatting to new people and finding out about their lives, goals and challenges. Need to do more of that!
🎬 New video, complete with guest appearance by a PB!
This one's about what I get from the gym and why it has been part of my life for the last 10+ years. I had to eat especially for this one, but it was worth it. 👏
https://youtu.be/Nf_4mABFh9w
Welcome back to the desk, USB fan. It was a long winter, but your services are once again required.
When I feel like I need to escape my current reality for a bit, switching language really helps hit that spot. Anyone else experience that? 📚
Feeling great after a perfect weekend of enjoying the beautiful weather with the best company, lots of cycling, sticking to the gym routine and many hours with the compiler. Hope you all had a similarly refreshing weekend. 🙌
I'm curious: among the cycle crowd, do you guys have a word for the pain of having a bicycle seat shoved up your ass for the first time after a long break? Asking for a friend.... 's ass, obvs.
I'm getting used to this vlogging thing! https://youtu.be/TDuXWAIS4cY
Anyone here ride a Onewheel or an EUC? I'm very tempted to buy one, but would love to hear others' experiences.
In about 6 hours, I'll be giving a talk about my journey to learn Esperanto through building things. The talk will not be in English though, of course. Details here, if anyone's interested: https://eventaservo.org/e/3c6a62
TGIF... long week. What's everyone upto this weekend?
Just in case you need a reminder of how bad the web is (it's a joke, but not far from some real web UX), try and fill this form in as quickly as you can! 🤣 https://userinyerface.com
Really happy to keep finding the energy for this project. Here's episode 3 of the podcast, this one with my good friend Rico.
Mi tre ĝojas, ke mi daŭre trovas la tempon por kreskigi la podkastan projekton. Jen la tria epizodo, en kiu aperas ĉies plej ŝatata italo de Reading, Rico.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2xp2ZPix04wKLRAL9UQzDe?si=7261fcc3ebf44e0d
Se vi bezonas RSS, jen: https://anchor.fm/s/dd97c5c4/podcast/rss
It's been a while since my last /now update, so here's what I'm doing now: https://martinrue.com/now
Just finished recording my next podcast episode. I'm mega busy with creative stuff lately and it feels ace. 👌
This one took a while, but my second vlog is out! https://youtu.be/-QsHxQcZbQU
Finally booked all my travel to this year's IJK (https://ijk2023.tejo.org) and I can't wait. I will also be spending some time in Venice again after far too long. ☀️
Editing my second vlog and realising how easy people who are good at this make it look.
Just landed back into Manchester with such a tailwind that we bounced off the runway and had a second go. That was fun!
I love the Esperanto community. Simply because I'm here in Barcelona, 12 of us are getting together for dinner this evening. It's been said before, but if you want to make friends, learn Esperanto. 😌
After 9 months of head-down hard work, I'm finally taking a little break. The Fernweh is strong.
So with the little influx of folks coming into Station these past few weeks, I'm curious how this looks now:
[POLL How long have you been using Gemini?] A few weeks | A few months | 1 year | 2 years | Old guard
So, what's everyone doing this weekend?
What a great weekend. Heading home after spending the last 3 days in the world of Esperanto with 80 other crazy people from all over the world. The escape from normality (and English) is such a nice change. Really looking forward to much more of this in the summer!
I'm spending the weekend at La Brita Kongreso in Cambridge and there are 80 people here this year. It's been too long since I had the pleasure of hanging out with so many Esperanto speakers for a few days. Always surreal, awesome, and just lots of fun!
There's nothing better than going back to being a beginner again. Making something from scratch – something you've never made before, and something that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Here's the result: https://youtu.be/wAe0rhT-Gvooo
It wasn't easy to produce this, and took a lot longer than the 7 minutes of video that came out. But it was fun, and very rewarding to lean into that feeling of "I don't know what I'm doing but let's figure it out!" I'm looking forward to doing more!
Three years ago today I finished the weirdest translation ever: from Yorkshire to Esperanto. I'm especially proud of my use of "elŝuskatoliĝi" – to get out of the shoebox. https://kvar.martinrue.com
I'm spending the weekend writing bash. Imagine if you were having as much fun as me.
I've been busy – the second episode of my Esperanto podcast is already out. I really enjoyed chatting to Andy Hernandez Martínez about everything from travel to eating and living more healthily.
La dua epizodo de mia podkasto jam haveblas. Mi tre ĝuis babili kun Andy Hernandez Martínez pri ĉio de vojaĝado, de kiel manĝi kaj vivi pli sane, inter aliaj temoj.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oQKyzMH0a3vHS0rEWiLSp?si=f4184a6d74e843aa
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/dd97c5c4/podcast/rss
I started a podcast. In Esperanto. Enjoy! 🎙️ https://spotify.link/vHmuqRmaGyb
Cool! I just discovered that someone's used my Esperanto speech synthesiser (https://parol.martinrue.com) to play the role of an Esperanto robot in an audio book. It's always a delight when people use stuff you've built. 👏
There should be a word for that awesome moment when you have a coding problem like "I know what I need to achieve, but I'm not sure about these three things in my way..." and some deep part of your brain pipes up and is like "you seem like a nice guy, I'm going to help you out."
TIL: words such as "i18n", "a16z", "K8s" and "a11y" are officially called numeronyms. Or n8s, if you like.
The four stages of developer grief:
1. Not sure how to solve this one so I'll just wing it.
2. Oh wait, if I do this, oh yeah, and that... nice.
3. I should make this into an open source lib for others.
4. One day I'll find time to solve that problem!
Took a stroll down a charming little street in London last night only to find the house that Agatha Christie used to live in. What a delightful evening.
Good read, but I would argue that it was worth adding an obvious 11th: therapy. 10 Web Development Trends in 2023: https://www.robinwieruch.de/web-development-trends/
Had fun hanging out with some Esperanto friends in Oxford today. Even after 5 years of this thing, I still find wonder in the fact my brain can encode any thought I have into a language invented by a crazy Polish eye doctor in the 1880s.
I’ll be speaking about ChatGPT in Esperanto. Should be fun! https://twitter.com/Stela_Bee/status/1629496293025280001/photo/1
Today I'm going to fill a coffee shop with background murmurs in Esperanto with some local speakers & learners. Our little group is growing, which is great to see. Topics will likely range from the insanity of natural language grammar to how speaking Esperanto has ruined any expectation of progress in other languages for us all :)
In my Spanish class I just volunteered a very confident answer to the confusion of everyone else. Turned out I said it in Esperanto. This happens annoyingly often. 😂
Successful launch this morning! 🚀
https://social.martinrue.com/@martin/109846199596112358
In my predictions for 2023, I never expected to see the term "AI jailbreaking", but let me tell you, I'm fully onboard. Long live DAN.
I got invited to speak + do a Q&A with a bunch of people from Indonesia who read a novella I wrote in Esperanto. I love how unexpected life can be sometimes.
I've just heard someone be introduced as "an individual who defies summary". Two things. 1: That's going right into my personal phrase book for a few wise people I know. 2: Goals.
Nothing sets you up for a good night's sleep like 58,603 deletions in your commit.
I hope everyone's week has started well. Mine certainly hasn't. I was just accused of plagiarism. Their word, not mine.
And so it begins. After a few months of eating whatever I like, I’m starting another 3 month period of Time Restricted Feeding. Each year I aim to have at least two 2-3 month stints of strict, daily (17-18h) intermittent fasting. It gives my body a rest from the constant energy input that we’re not really meant to get like we do in the modern world. Not to mention some of the other huge benefits (hey autophagy). Looking forward to enjoying hunger and appreciating food again. 👊
A starry night. A reminder of the shortness of things. We’re all destined for the place we’ve already been for 13.7 billion years. Make it count.
💡 Idea
Mobile coffee stand. Cups have your name on them. Obvious branding of cup signals: I bought this coffee as I'm open to chatting to a stranger – you already have my name, feel free to talk to me.
Sell it at train + bus stations, subways, places where people spend time waiting and want some human interaction over HTTP requests.
I'm not sure if this is a good idea or a terrible one, but it would at least make a fun experiment.
My first MAN/LON train of the year and I've drawn the "due to a points failure" card. Proceed directly to cancellation. Do not collect £200.
The train system in the UK is shockingly bad. Burn it to the ground and start over.
But in all seriousness, please don't set fire to it. It's so hopeless it'd just make me sad about the tragic waste of fire.
The results of my recent side side project: cadet – a Go library for creating minimal HTTP-RPC servers.
https://github.com/martinrue/cadet
PSA: The OST from the movie The Social Network is a perfect coding playlist. 👍
"Almost every idea you have is downstream from what you consume." 💡
It's a new year – a nice time to reflect and focus on goals for 2023, and I'm wondering what's on everyone's agenda.
So, what's your main focus for 2023? What do you want to achieve? Let's share our plans/ambitions/dreams and create a little thread full of inspiration and encouragement. Bonus: we can review it next year in 2024 :)
👋 2023. Looking forward to another year of setting goals, meeting them, spending time with friends, making new friends, going on new adventures, finding new inspirations, failing, laughing. Happy new year, folks. ☺️
What a lovely surprise!
I just received a copy of the book my novella is published in. During the pandemic, a friend inspired me to enter a writing competition to write about the pandemic experience (fiction or non) and I wrote a fictional story called The Hug Club (la brakumklubo) which was selected and included in the final book. 🙏
https://social.martinrue.com/system/media_attachments/files/109/609/420/273/262/378/original/64f20e2b182f45d9.jpeg
Pretty happy with this little interaction. 👏Con
Context: as readers progress through my app's interactive language-learning books, this component lets them collect flashcards for key things they've learned.
https://social.martinrue.com/system/media_attachments/files/109/602/013/633/560/869/original/b3228153180d8cf4.mp4
Anyone else code in their head while doing something else, such as walking home? I catch myself doing it fairly often.
I like to think about what I need to do next, how I might go about it, potential issues I’ll run into. I find it really helpful to keep the context, and sometimes the entire program, in my head.
Merry Christmas everybody. 🎄
Shamelessly stolen from Mastodon (because it's an important question):
[POLL Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?] Yes | No
Happy Festivus to those that celebrate it :)
Do any of you do any live coding via Twitch? I'm tempted to do some for my current project, and I'm curious about people's experiences. 🤔
Until now I didn't get time to play with Lagrange on iOS, but after only a few mins it's easily my favourite mobile iOS Gemini client. Awesome work, as always, @skyjake. 🙏
For fellow iOS'ers who haven't checked it out yet, grab the TestFlight release here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/UjdtSEhu
Wow, you can no longer even mention other social media platforms on Twitter or it’ll be a considered a violation and they’ll suspend your account. Twitter is definitely in a death spiral at this point, no? It’s now by far the least free platform I still (for now) have an account on.
I don't even know how this happens, but I just discovered:
In Braille each rectangle of up to 6 raised dots encodes a character (so 2⁶ values).
So "just do it" is the following sequence of 10 blocks (unraised gaps acts as spaces to separate words):
⠚⠥⠎⠞⠀⠙⠕⠀⠊⠞
However, Braille Grade 2 supports special free-standing single-character combinations to stand in for common words.
"Just do it" consists entirely of such special words, so it can be written like so: ⠚⠀⠙⠀⠭
⠧⠀⠉⠕⠕⠇
Most people don't know this but completely removing caffeine from your diet, at least in some cases, can give you up to an impressive 80% boost in your will not to live.
Woop! A new milestone! Station just reached 900 users. Who'd have thought this micro community would stick around long enough to even reach 1/10th this number. I wonder if/when we'll hit 1000. 👏
Feliĉan Zamenhofan tagon al vi ĉiuj. Kia ĝojo esti parto de tiu ĉi monda, mojosa komunumo de frenezuloj (vi ĉiuj – ne mi, kompreneble). Kaj dank' al Esperanto, ĉiuj aliaj lingvoj nun ŝajnas multe tro pezaj, do vi neniam forigos min.
Happy Esperanto (Zamenhof) day! What a joy to be part of this global, cool community of crazy people (you all, not me of course). And thanks to Esperanto, every other language is just way too weird and demanding, so you're stuck with me now.
Having conducted much research on the subject lately, it appears that Kevin seems to know an awful lot about temperature and has achieved fame online for his knowledge.
Sometimes engaging the discipline to “follow the plan” is really tough. Today most certainly is one of those days, but despite every reason not to train today, I’m on the way to the gym! The harder it is to get into motion, the more being in motion feels good. 💪
I was out with two Esperanto friends having dinner last night and a couple sat next to us interrupted to ask us which language we were speaking. They had actually heard of Esperanto but thought it was dead. Nope. Definitely not dead.
The new satisfies operator in TypeScript 4.9 is pretty neat. I'm a fan. Demo here: https://gist.github.com/martinrue/95934a12a18fb0816c62bfb6424c2692
Random trivia for you:
Among Esperanto speakers, there's the word "kabei" (ka-bay-ee).
It's named after Kazimierz Bein, who in 1911, having been a very active speaker and translator of the language, suddenly disappeared and never used Esperanto ever again.
One day I'd like to kabei from English, pero todavía hablo español como un bebé. No, en realidad, lo hablan mejor.
Started getting a sore throat during the week but assumed my body would fight it off easily enough. Woke up today feeling like death. Nothing like getting sick to remind us how easily we take being healthy for granted. 🥴
TIL: There's Esperanto written on the official World Cup football: https://www.adidas.co.uk/al-rihla-pro-football/H57783.html
So I spent my evening turning a little idea into reality: https://vk.martinrue.com
It live pulls the locations of folks signed up to a big Esperanto event this weekend to show how everyone really is spread out all over the world. 👏
It has been a while (April), so I've written a little /now update: https://martinrue.com/now
I'm hanging out in the Canary Islands again this week. I spent the first few months of the year here, so it’s really nice to be back. Also deeply enjoying the fact it’s 20° to 24° reliably every single day again – I feel so much better in good weather.
The UK (Universala Kongreso) is the largest annual Esperanto event and has run every year from 1905 with gaps only during WWII and Covid.
Since 2020 there has also been the VK (Virtuala Kongreso), which for 2022 will happen in 2 weeks time. 🤗
I just checked and there are already almost 900 people registered!
Esperanto is a small corner of the world for sure, but it sometimes sure feels "big enough". 👏
For any folks here using Mastodon, you can find me at: @martin@social.martinrue.com.
Don't forget, folks:
Not everything you read on the internet is true – 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln
Has anybody bought the reMarkable writing tablet? I'm so tempted, but it's also so expensive! Any thoughts?
I’ve been doing spaced repetition for about 4 years and it’s amazing to see the long term results. I now regularly get flashcards over a year old and my brain has no problem finding them. SRS is the best thing you can do to retain information long-term. 🧠
FYI: I mostly use Anki (🐐) and create flashcards for languages I’m learning. SRS work for anything, of course, not just vocab. I do have a few other decks containing ideas, quotes, and prompts I want to retain as well.
Reading a new book and came across this quote. Sums it up perfectly for me:
Once, when a friend asked him if he envied the ever-growing wealth of the railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, Muir quipped: I am already richer than Harriman. I have all the money I want, and he hasn’t.
Among all the advice for achieving your goals – "wake up at 5am", "read this book", "do this one weird trick" – what's often missing is:
Being great at something requires time. Put in the time. Not just when you're motivated, but also when you're not. Crack that and you stand a chance.
</¢¢>
You're rich. You don't need to think about making money anymore. You can work on whatever you want. What do you choose to work on? Share you dream day-to-day.
I recently watched WeCrashed and I really enjoyed it. Despite some obvious creative additions for the sake of TV, it was a fun to get a sense of the craziness that went on during WeWork's unicorn days. Definitely had "Halt and Catch Fire" vibes. Curious if anyone, having seen either, has any recommendations for similar shows?
It's Monday – the start of a fresh new week (one out of our ~4000). What's everyone working on this week?
Hey everyone, how you all doing? I've been a bit quiet lately as I've been working non-stop, but good to see lots of cool stuff happening on Station in my absence!
The fact that life is short has been said many ways, but there's something different for me when you state it in weeks – on average, we all have about 4000 weeks. That really doesn't sound long.
Station just reached 800 people. Another nice milestone for this awesome little community. Here's to the next 800 👏
Any of you crazy kids London-based? I'm in the city all week and would be cool to have a little Gemini hangout. 🍻
Enjoyed reading @smokey's post this morning about learning Esperanto. Some good observations there, and certainly some truth that it's not all roses (though it is a very nice garden for the most part, IMO). gemini://tilde.team/~smokey/logs/2022-08-14-esperanto-dive.gmi
Awesome! My Esperanto story won third prize. Super happy with that. I even get a cool diploma for it: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZvjZWVWIAApWys?format=jpg&name=large
Today in 1887 the first book describing the international language Esperanto was published, making it 135 years old today. I'm really glad I became interested enough to learn it ~4 years ago. From travelling and hanging out with like-minded people, to having an international community of friends all over the world, Esperanto has become a fairly big part of my life at this point. AMA!
What a crazy week. Started in Poland, then to London during the hottest days in the UK ever, started new job, then back to Manchester. And I still hit my gym quota! Very grateful for some rest time this weekend.
What's everyone else upto?
The short story I wrote in Esperanto for a writing competition (which will soon be published in a book) was read today, for the first time, in a podcast. If you want to listen, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ej1aJs5gY
This weekend I’ve been in Kraków for a friend’s wedding. It’s actually my first time in Poland, and Kraków in particular is a really nice city. I’ll definitely have to come back next time I’m traveling somewhere nearby. The wedding was also awesome. What a purely happy feeling to see your friends find true happiness.
I have to be in London next week, when for some insane reason, it's going to be 37º in the city. Never heard of such crazy temperatures. I'm currently writing a will, just in case.
I have noticed a bit more Esperanto being used on Station lately, so I'm taking the opportunity to pimp a post I wrote about the language – about why I love it, how I got started, and it also includes a little chat bot: https://martinrue.com/zamenhofa-tago-18
It's a beautiful day in the city – a rare occasion to enjoy coffee shops that didn’t commit to fully building their walls despite an average rainfall that challenges the definition of the words “under” and “water” taken together.
📢 Station now supports multiple identities! In "Your Account" you'll find a "Manage Identities" link. There's more details in Recent Updates: gemini://station.martinrue.com/updates
Really impressed with how much grassroots work is going on across Gemini. Shout out to @superfxchip, @smokey, @acidus, @krixano, @bacardi55, @skyjake, @gnuserland, @mozz to mention but a few very cool people building new things and extending the reach of Gemini in cool new directions. 🙌
Just did a pretty hardcore run and hit 192bpm. Based on one's estimated max of 220-age, I'm now officially 28. Might have to ditch Station for TikTok at this rate!
A programmer had a problem and thought: "I know, I'll solve it with:"
threads: now problems he two has
regex: now /([ashetprblwoms\s]){19}/g
java: now he has a problem factory
async: now problems problems problems problems
C: now he has two problemsͮ̂҉̯͈͕̹̘̱≠ˀ ̶̧̨̱̹̭̯ͧ̾ͬ´
What do we want?
Now!
When do we want it?
Fewer race conditions!
254 walks into a bar with a long face.
Bartender: "Why the long face?"
254: "Just feeling a bit off."
Folks, hit me with your number one link on Gemini to wow new users and show off how cool Gemini is.
I have a small window of free time, so I'm doing some Station work. 🙌
So @hiroantag clearly has the best profile image on Station :)
gemini://station.martinrue.com/hiroantag
It's a "file -> new project" kind of day. I love the thrill of building something new. No brush strokes have yet hit the canvas – everything is a possibility.
I mean, sure, 3 hours from now it'll be a bonfire, but I really enjoy these pre-flame moments.
Some thoughts on achieving goals: https://martinrue.com/achieving-goals/
What's everyone working on this week? Me: It has been great weather here in the UK, so I've been doing a bit more hanging out with friends than usual. Last night I hung out with a group of local Esperanto speakers which was super fun, and tonight I'm finally getting back to writing some code!
Spent the last few days renovating the home office. It was a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with the final result: https://twitter.com/martinrue/status/1538628931468804109
Keto going well. I'm 8 days in and weight is already down 3.1kg, body fat down by 0.8 percent. Energy levels are good and I'm generally feeling miles better eating no carbs / sugar.
Of all the things I write as a programmer, I still love writing a little CLI app more than anything else. Handling basic input and output and leaving behind all the web/app UX concerns is just so refreshing.
Station just hit 700 people! It's really cool to see this place still growing. I should pull out all the sign-up dates and graph it at some point.
I had some writing inspiration so I wrote something new.
10 Slightly Odd Things I Want To Do: https://martinrue.com/odd-things/
“Despite the high cost of living it remains popular.”
Just found out some fiction I wrote for a competition will be published in a book sometime this year. Really happy about that! It's something I had never done before, so I had to give it a go. 🙏
What's everyone doing this weekend? Anything interesting planned?
For my Esperanto speaking friends here: one of my favourite words in Esperanto is "ŝanĝiĝi". Here's why, plus a little glimpse into how my brain works.
https://twitter.com/martinrue_eo/status/1524381880958783488/photo/1
PS: apologies to linking to "the other site", but images.
Two strings walk into a bar.
The first one says, "I'll have a vodka and coke¶³¾¤§¿ZZüy".
"Excuse my friend, he's not null terminated" says the second.
--
Never gets old. No, I mean due to trauma: https://martinrue.com/zzuy-a-lesson-in-perseverance/
Observation: to be really creative I need time to play – time that other goals or distractions have no control over. It seems like a trivial observation, yet it's so easy to fill your calendar and leave no time for that sort of work/behaviour to occur.
Oops, it turns out I never expected Station to last 1 year :)
Sorry about the cert issues folks. We now have a new one that (once trusted) will keep us going the next 10 years. Also happy 1 year anniversary to this cool little corner of the internet. 🎉
PS: Thanks for the heads-up @comatoast @obspogon @haze. 🙏
After far too long, I spent the whole weekend hanging out with Esperanto speakers at the Brita Kongreso here in the UK (in Wales). It was awesome to be around old and new friends, using only Esperanto for the whole weekend. I forgot how much I love escaping the real world and living in Esperantujo. Really can't wait for IJK in summer, where instead of 60 people it'll be more like 200 . 🙏
I'm pleased to announce that after a swift and relatively easy board meeting, we've voted unanimously to reject Elon's bid to buy Station.
It's a "long weekend" here in the UK due to the Easter holidays. I hope those with the benefit of the extra time off work have something/relaxing planned. I'll mostly be coding and settling back into life in the UK after a little time spent living in Spain – I'm still saying "¡la cuenta porfa!" in restaurants here!
Back in the UK after living in the Canaries for the last 3 months. It's great to see people again after so long, but damn, I'm already missing that beautiful weather. It's so rough here that the plane aborted landing on the first attempt.
I'm going to my first in-person Esperanto meetup in a couple of weeks since before the pandemic and I'm really pleased. It has been ages since I was around a bunch of other speakers, and there should be between 60-80 people! I'm even running a few games of "homlupo" (werewolf).
Curious which OS folks are running.
[POLL Which is your daily OS of choice?] Linux | macOS | Windows | Mobile (Android/iOS) | Other
The best thing you can do when learning a new language is to wield it like a maniac everywhere you can. You quickly lose any desire to appear competent and it becomes a lot more fun. It's also amazing how often people will go out of their way to help you when they see you trying.
Finished 30 days of intermittent fasting today. It's something I do on and off for periods of the year, aiming to give my body a rest from food intake much more than our normal diets allow. There are some really exciting health benefits associated with 16 hour daily intermittent fasting. If anyone is curious, I highly recommend the documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer.
Station reached 600 users today... another cool milestone for our awesome little microcommunity here. Congrats everyone 🙌
It's great that after so many years I still love the feeling of sitting down and wiring in for a long evening spent progressing an idea. This kind of creative outlet has been addictively valuable to me since the day I first started coding, and I'm very thankful I can still find it. ☺️
Poll – I'm curious what kind of geography Station covers now with so many more users.
[POLL Where are Station's users?] Africa | Asia | Europe | America (N/S) | Australia
Just 2 posts until Station reaches 2000. Nice little milestone!
Sometimes all you need is a little momentum. It doesn't matter how you start – the only goal sans momentum is to get going. Do anything. Get into motion. Once you're moving everything else is much more prone to lining up. This has been a note to self.
Kelkfoje oni bezonas nur iom da movokvanto. Ne gravas kiel, nur ke via celo estu moviĝi. Ion ajn faru. Simple ekmoviĝu. Poste ĉiuj la aliaj aferoj emos malkovriĝi. Tiu ĉi estas noto por la estonta mi.
What's everyone doing this weekend? Anyone have exciting / unusual plans?
I'm hanging out here on the island of Lanzarote and mostly just coding. Simple pleasures :)
Anyone using a Gemini client on iOS they'd recommend? Ideally looking for something easy without having to compile myself.
@skyjake While I'm on the subject, do you have longer-term plans to have an App Store release for iOS? Might be a nice way to support development. I'd happily pay premium for it.
I've just lost 10 minutes to a wonderful version of the I-can't-find-the-sunglasses-that-are-on-my-head problem in which I've been debugging code that randomly stopped playing sound, except it didn't, I just didn't have my headphones on my actual head.
Happy Monday folks. Hope everyone has an awesome week. I'm working on my own stuff this week, and I'm super excited to have only that as my sole focus. Single-tasking ftw.
"You've already been dead for 4.5 billion years." 👊
I love being shit at something. No ego, no embarrassment in trying and failing repeatedly, progress is obvious to see, everyone can help you. Holding onto this mindset once you really start to make progress is rare. Rare and valuable tend to overlap often.
Reflecting on an amazing year and I'm thankful for so many things. Here are some short (subjective) observations from "life" so far.
Hey Stationeers! Today is my birthday, so I made a few updates to our station (it was getting a little rusty). Station is now faster, and you can add polls to posts to get more structured feedback. All the details are in "Recent Updates" gemini://station.martinrue.com/updates
So, here goes – first poll on Station:
[POLL How long have you been on Station?] I'm really new | A few weeks | A few months | I'm an old guard
I'm spending the day in a very hot Arrecife, so hello from the beach where I'm pushing this update from 👋
Station has reached 500 users! Thanks @powerh00th00t for bringing this awesome little community on the fringes of the Internet to this new milestone. Thanks everyone who participates here for keeping this place alive, friendly, and full of interesting stuff every day! 🍻
Hello from the Atlantic ocean! I'm on a ship headed to Lazarote and I'm somehow picking up a 4G signal, so I've tethered so I can use Lagrange. First Atlantic ocean post on Gemini? 😆
So I've been thinking. Wanderlust, while used too often, is still a cool German word that captures the essence of wanting to be somewhere else – the desire (lust) to be wandering (wander). But eventually, such an unfulfilled desire doesn't feel so positive, so I've always been on a first-name basis with Fernweh – far pain, or the pain of not being somewhere far away (in contrast to homesickness). Reflecting on the last month hanging out in the Canary islands, I'm grateful that I've had no cause to use either of these words. In fact I now wish to coin a new pair: Hierlust (the desire to be right here) and Anderswoweh (the pain of thinking about being anywhere else).
I've been pretty quiet on here since before Xmas. I've been traveling again. I really should sort out a mobile client. Hope everyone's 2022 has started well! 💪
¡Feliz día de Reyes! I didn't get anything. Probably a Brexit thing.
Station just reached 1500 (1501 now) posts! I'm loving the active, niche, friendly community we have here. Every time I visit there's something that catches my attention, and that's great to see considering the tiny corner of the internet we occupy. Here's to the next 1500!
Feliĉan Zamenhofan tagon! Today it's Esperanto day! If anyone's curious why I rate the language, and how I got into it: https://martinrue.com/zamenhofa-tago-18/
It's a grey, rainy day here in Manchester, UK. I'm staying in drinking Club-Mate and writing code all day, and I couldn't be happier.
JavaScript is 26 years old today. Crazy. Feels more like NaN years to me.
This is neat! Random 4k wallpaper generator... no two images are exactly the same: https://tanck.nl/wallpaper
I built a little turn-based game for some training I'm delivering. Goal: write a bot that finds and destroys its opponent. Here, bot 2 guesses the movement pattern of bot 1 and lays a mine in its path. This one should be fun to run! 🙌
Quick demo: https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1463473663576088579/pu/pl/638JNY7n9HKh23_H.m3u8?tag=12&container=fmp4&descending=true
Drinking Club-Mate and coding at 01:45. Today-me is screwing tomorrow-me so hard right now.
I have way more interesting conversations with people who have the ability to say "I don't know".
This week I'm delivering training to a bunch of folks getting into JavaScript from different languages/environments. Teaching is really rewarding... I really like doing it.
Not getting your StackOverflow questions answered? Got questions sitting around collecting nothing but internet dust? Simply make a second account and post a blatantly incorrect answer. Watch as hundreds of thousands of programmers from around the world descend on your question with their knowledge.
TIL: the oldest lightbulb (Centennial Light Bulb) has been almost continuously on since 1901. It's now 120 years old. It has been in Fire Station 6, Livermore, California since 1976 where it still burns.
Happy Friday! What's everyone up to this weekend?
Welcome @velartrill. You're Station's 300 member!
Kirk is about to go back into space. T-10 mins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhdlIor-do
Question: What's your favourite TED talk and why?
Mine is "The art of misdirection" by Apollo Robbins: https://www.ted.com/talks/apollo_robbins_the_art_of_misdirection
Why? Because it's awesome (you can only watch it once).
I love Sundays. The internet is so quiet compared to during the week. It actually feels a little meditative.
Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all have a productive week. Going to be a busy one over here, but I'd prefer it no other way :)
The Mandelbrot set is so interesting. If you've not heard of it before, check out this awesome, beautiful visualisation of it.
Bonus: watch it for a minute or so and then look at an object in your room. The effects are so fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD2XgQOyCCk
Station just received its 1000th post!
Nice work everyone. It's awesome to see this micro community on Station growing and continuing to be full of interesting people and discussions 🙌
What's everyone up to this week?
I'm finishing off a little client work before putting some time into my own project work, which I've neglected far too much lately. Making time to work on my own things is really important – it's an essential part of keeping programming fun for me.
I saw this on the "other web" and had to share here:
A horse walks into a bar and orders a pint. The bartender says "You're in here pretty often. Do you think you might be an alcoholic?" The horse replies "I don't think I am," and then disappears from existence.
See, the joke is about Descartes' famous philosophy of "I think, therefore I am", but to explain that part before the rest of the joke would be putting Descartes before the horse.
It's Friday! Anyone got anything interesting planned for the weekend?
Curb has a special place in my heart (and the next one is coming in October!), but no sitcom will ever beat Seinfeld for me.
Two years today since I made a Polish robot speak Esperanto, and it still does: https://parol.martinrue.com
If you want to hear it, here's an example taken right out of the English-Hungarian phrasebook:
My hovercraft is full of eels: https://parol.martinrue.com/?teksto=Mia kusenveturilo estas plena je angiloj
Unpopular? opinion: get rid of the feature to minimize windows. I mostly only ever do it by mistake and haven't needed it in forever. If they ever give me the launch codes to macOS, it's *gone*, I tell you!
I finally got some time to do some Station work!
Check "Recent Updates" to see all changes, but the main one is that all Stationeers now have a Tinylog feed. Thanks for the idea @skyjake and @bacardi55.
This means users on Station can be "followed" outside of Station, via tools like GTL, like so: https://i.imgur.com/5TktXsz.png
Hope everyone's having a great weekend 🙌
Top-down design is far less enjoyable that bottoms up design. This is not a current status, yet.
I've officially reached the comically funny stage of how often TypeScript saves my ass. It feels like having a super smart colleague that *really* likes verbose ways of explaining how I'm acting like a psychopath in any given moment.
I will not leave all my work to the last minute. I will not leave all my work to the last minute. I will not leave all my work to the last minute...
The adage that travel broadens the mind and can make you a more open-minded, tolerant person, IME is very true. For that reason, I especially like the etomology behind the Icelandic word "heimskur", which means "stupid", or ~"one who hasn't left home".
Station just reached 200 docked! 👏
Happy weekend everyone. Anybody doing anything interesting? I'm in a local 10-day quarantine – plenty of time to get back into a personal project!
I finally got a negative PCR reading yesterday, which means I can fly home. Enjoying one more day in the wonderful city of Barcelona and heading back tomorrow. Good job, body!
It finally happened. I got it! Symptoms have been pretty bad until now, but today I feel a little better. Hoping that 2 weeks from now I'll be able to test negative so I can fly home.
Fun little game: how many languages can you idenitfy. Be honest. I got 27. https://baltoslav.eu/adhadaj/index.php?mova=en
I've been a bit quiet lately as I've been way too busy. Hope everyone's well. Awesome to see Station now has 170 capsuleers!
It's the weekend! Who's up to anything interesting?
I finally updated my now page: https://martinrue.com/now. Anyone else have one? Drop me links.
I'm spending the next month or so in Barcelona, hanging out with a bunch of friends I've met over the years. Our common language is Esperanto, and so today I've been hanging out at bars and coffee shops speaking only in Esperanto. This isn't the first time (last summer I did the same), but it's still such an awesome and surreal feeling to be able to do this.
Well that's a new one: made dinner plans for tomorrow 1400km away from where I am now
Current status: just tried to brush a forward slash off my screen. Been a long week.
Started this week a bit differently. I decided to head to London and do nothing but work on my own stuff, gym, spa, and socialise. It was wonderful. Back to the grind now, though.
Station now preserves newlines in posts and lets you use formatting lines (via ```) and quotes (via >).
."". ."",
| | / /
| | / /
| | / ;-._
} ` _/ / ;
| /` ) / /
| / /_/\_/\
|/ / |
( ' \ '- |
\ `. /
| |
| |
Enjoy!
Working beside an open window while it rains outside. Smells amazing.
The weekend is almost here! Anyone got anything interesting/unusual planned?
After two full days of battling with some code, I finally made a breakthrough. This is a *good* feeling.
Happy Monday everyone!
Rather than asking how my day's going, just ask me how many browser tabs I have open. That'll tell you everything.
Laying in a bath hot enough to potentially disolve me while listening to loud music is my meditation.
It has been a long week, but some Seneca is helping me relax today. I'm currently reading De Tranquillitate Animi (On the Tranquility of the Mind), and looking forward to De Brevitate Vitae (On the Shortness of Life) next. What are your favourite philosophy reads?
Hello weekend! Anyone doing anything interesting? I have a bit of work to do, and then I'm going to carry on with a project to write some fiction in Esperanto for the INK-Konkurso: https://www.akademio-literatura.org/ink
Need to search Station? Well now you can. You'll find the search feature on the homepage. Check Recent Updates for details. Happy searching!
Instead of sleep (which I really need to do very soon) I've spent this evening updating Station so you can now add a link on your profile page. Get sharing all your cool capsule (or fat web) links :) Goodnight Station!
New Station update! Notifications are now shown on the homepage too, and Station now has diagnostics (check bottom of homepage).
Just want to say thanks to everyone who signed up to Station since the launch a few days ago. We have a neat little community here on Gemini now (94 people so far), and that's pretty awesome!
Here in the UK it's a holiday today, but that ain't stopping me – today I'm drinking Mate and writing code, and I'd rather be doing nothing else. Surely you're all doing something far more interesting, right?
I just pushed an update to Station so that mentions (using an @ symbol before a user's name) now works. If you're mentioned, you'll see a notification on your profile page letting you know.
It's really awesome seeing people joining Station and posting stuff. Makes the late nights over the last few weeks totally worth it.
Hello! After a few weeks of tinkering, Station is finally live. If you like the idea of a text-based mini social network for gemini, create an account and hang out. ✌️