Are you willing to sit with a complicated problem? Are you willing to be bored? Are you willing to be frustrated? Are you willing to pursue your own random ideas? Are you willing to try things out? Are you willing to fail, repeatedly, and keep going?

If so, you can be an inventor. You can create things that nobody has created. It could be art, it could be software, it could be a new process or a novel or a tool or a game or a piece of music.

#creativity #boredom #invention #art

I wrote my first chat bot tonight.

I achieved 100% deterministic behaviors, using the ancient art of...not using any AI.

I also wrote it quite quickly, using the ancient art of... not using any AI.

And for my next project - probably a chat-bot that acts as a chat bridge to one of my dumb-as-a-rock Ollama LLMs.

I crave constant access to the lack-of-productivity that only my locally run LLMs can provide. And... it might briefly amuse me.

#ai #chatbot #python #boredom

A quotation from Propertius

Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 2, No. 33C, “To Cynthia,” ll. 41-44 [tr. Moore (1870); 3.25]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/propertius/6952/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #propertius #absence #affection #boredom #heart #loneliness #love #separation

Relishing life at 1x

Life happens at 1x. Every conversation you’ve ever had. Every walk, every meal, every meaningful experience. None of it comes with a speed dial. We’re biological creatures wired for real-time processing. When someone speaks to you in person, you don’t get to fast-forward through the parts you find boring.

https://terriblesoftware.org/2026/01/08/life-happens-at-1x-speed/

Rest helps muscles grow. Boredom cements knowledge.

We live in a period of unlimited content with every incentive to create even more. So, how did I think the solution to it was – more. It’s likely because it was easier to do more than do the harder work of choosing what is worth listening to, watching, doing?

Upon introspection, I was using my Youtube playlist and podcasts as entertainment. Yet, I chose to make that more efficient.

I have rationalized entertainment as information. I’ve put a “productive” spin to it. I came to a similar conclusion in yesterday’s post where I do need to reclaim my screen.

I listen to a lot of technology, photography, music videos and podcasts and prima facie, they are all informational. However, I fell into the trap of confusing “consumption” as “creation”.

Another example. I am learning about dynamic symmetry to improve my composition.

I’ve taken 20 photos after learning about dynamic symmetry.

I also created a playlist of different people talking about dynamic symmetry.

Instead of choosing a video to help me improve what I’ve practiced. I am convincing myself that entertaining videos, rationalized as information is giving me the same satisfaction as the act of doing.

Listening to stuff in 2x is adding the fallacy of efficiency to this mix.

The absurdity is hilarious.

So:

I will search instead of feed.

I will choose instead of accept.

I will practice instead of consume.

ymmv.

It's still pouring rain here. Indy loves the cooler weather, but would be happier with less wind and rain.

#pets #dogs #doggo #dailydoggo #floof #shetlandsheepdog #sheltie #Hawaii #Maui #weather #wx #dogsofmastodon #cute #rainyday #boredom

Widening the aperture…

Nobody signs up for monotony. It just… happens.

One. Habit. At. A. Time.

The same dark roast, one splash of milk, lukewarm by the second sip. The same playlist titled “Workout Jams” at the gym. The same gray stretch of highway. The same voices on the same scheduled calls.

I’ve honed that rhythm until it’s flawless.

I didn’t even notice it happening. It felt like structure. Like I had my life… together. But looking back at the last decade, the days blur, moments occur, a constant low hum whir. I worry about what I’ve chosen to .. defer. 

Everything feels… fine. Not amazing. Not horrible. Just a flat… line. A hum without a melody.

My routines. My rituals. Stable? Yes. Yet, my curiosity is silent. My world has shrunk to the size of a monitor.

I have confided myself to the same spaces until they felt liminal – like waiting rooms for a life that was happening elsewhere.

Same room. Same streets. Same faces.

I don’t notice the cage until I step out of it. 

That’s why travel always hit me so hard. Distance forces clarity. It shakes me awake. I am sleepwalking. All those choices made to build repetition, and how, in little ways, I’ve stopped yourself from trying.

Travel shows me the wonderful world outside the one I created. Yet, vacations never last.

Eventually, I have to pack the bag. I have to come home. Sometimes, the routine itself is the siren’s call – luring me back to the safety of the known. I adopt a few changes, place a souvenir on the shelf, and then the cycle repeatsI

So, I decided to break the cycle.

Two weeks ago, we pressed pause. A gap year. No work. No commute. Just me, my wife, and my son.

It’s been two weeks into this experiment, and I am breathing, at times hyperventilating but even then it’s fun. I don’t think I could have penned this without the silence – without the time to simply pause.

it doesn’t have to be black-and-white thinking. I realize that I don’t have to be in a novel place to change my perspective.

I don’t need a plane ticket to escape. All I need to do is shuffle my feet, crouch down, or stand on my tiptoes to look at what I am doing from a different angle.

The grass isn’t greener on the other side. It’s greener where you care for it – water it, patch it and give it sunlight. Even the most magical, inspiring place I’ve visited is “the boring backyard” of another person’s life.

So, I want to see the world. But, I also want to capture the adventure right here. To bring back spontaneity. To do something different.

It brings a smile back to my face. Every day felt new when I was a kid. I didn’t need to change homes; I just looked at the world with hungry eyes.

I am excited to see what this year will bring. I certainly intend to explore more of the beautiful world out there with my family. But I know I cannot find the answer only there.

Because I want to widen the aperture of the world I’ve created. And the answer is inside of me, refusing to narrow it again.

Spontaneity is enriching. It’s accessible. And for the first time in a long time, it’s under my control.

Just a new perspective.

🧿