SmitoAug 14, 2025
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

Y'know when you're doing this big multi-step DIY project that involves doing many things and getting parts and tools and materials and you're holding all this stuff in your head and you notice how much of a big noisy scrungly mess it is up there, all the thoughts and worries and tasks overlapping each other like spaghetti all going in different directions, and you grumble "This is ridiculous, a guy can't get anything done with all that yammering going on," so you start up the computer and the text editor and write out what's going on up there, not because you don't know what's going on but just because thoughts go wibblywoobly like gummy worms and writing goes left to right in a straight line and to turn your oh-I-need-to-do-this-and-that thinkings into a ah-I-need-to-do-this-THEN-that shaped Plan you need to untangle the spaghetti and make it go in the long straight writing-shaped hole

Do you ever think of that like brushing your brain

Like oh no my brain's all tangled I've gotta spend a few minutes giving it a nice brush and make it purr

Aug 14, 2025 at 3:32pmWeb
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsAug 14, 2025
Cruel tbh that the text editor, the program for untangling your spaghetti, lives in the same machine as the web browser for flopping more spaghetti into your skullbowl
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsAug 14, 2025
Brainbrusher and brainmixer right next to each other in the quick launch panel aye, this is humane and not just a hamster wheel for periodic mindscrungling
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsAug 14, 2025

🦝 Like some folk write out a braindump all by hand on paper and I can't do that, I'd be flipping my pencil over so often I'd rub through the page, I need the backspace key and the arrow keys to rearrange things and that's why computers are great

The Internet: 🌍 while I've got you here may I interest you in everything in the whole wide world ever

🦝 

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsAug 14, 2025
Vote in this poll for a reminder tomorrow to brush your brain
Spaghetti
14.9%
Drawer full of microUSB cables
43%
Soft bristled brush
24.8%
Drum carder
17.4%
Poll ended at .
Show threadNicole J. LeBoeuf (she/her)Aug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops I wasn't expecting fiber arts content in this thread, but then again, why wasn't I? Isn't my entire concept of the day ahead of me a huge unwashed tangled fleece that's DAMN HEAVY and very likely to SMOTHER me and the only way to deal with it is to disentangle it FIBER BY FRICKIN' FIBER

Drum carder! If only! What I've got are the tiniest of carding combs and one of them has a bunch of broken teeth!

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsAug 20, 2025
@NicoleJLeBoeuf it's absolutely bananas what people charge for drum carders vs the complexity of the actual machine
Show threadEli the BeardedAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops

Just in case the people who touch computers instead of wool don't know, I have some drum carder photos.

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsAug 20, 2025
@elithebearded I love how there's a sticker saying don't put your hands in the spike nightmare
Show threadEli the BeardedAug 20, 2025

@ifixcoinops

Well if people like those dick mousetraps...

Show threadunlofl [Promoted Toot]Aug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops "Could I interest you in everything all of the time?
A little bit of everything, all of the time
Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime
Anything and everything, all of the time"
Show threadAndrew (Television Executive)Aug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops This is mostly what I use my Omnibook for.
Show threadCatAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops I'm a writer-outer. Can I recommend scribbling out instead of erasing? It's so satisfying.

Else I have lots of fun with my wipebook (whiteboard x notebook). When old used-up thoughts are cluttering up the page, I can just make them go away!

The thing I have with text editors is the blank white page with the slowly blinking cursor mocks me. I can't get started without typing fyisjydutdkhcjlvhixuts just so something's there!

Show threadOzzelot Aug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops until eventually you reach compressed spaghetti and that's really, really hard to untangle

(i've tried dedicating an ancient machine to text editing only. didn't work at the time.)

Show threadjn (big endian energy)Aug 14, 2025
@ozzelot @ifixcoinops sometimes you need the oldest machine: pen and paper (or perhaps coal and rock wall)
Show threadOzzelot Aug 14, 2025
@jn @ifixcoinops That sometimes proves effective momentarily. A small bit of respite is better than no bit of respite, so I call that a win.
Show threadLindsey KuperAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops something to be said for a dedicated brain-detangling machine that isn't connected to the internet. or maybe one that can only send data, not receive it. some years ago I recall someone experimenting with a write-only social media client; not sure what came of that
Show threadbrennenAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops this is why about 50% of my text editing setup lives on paper
Show threadMichalAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops The AlphaSmart's time has come.
Show threadMr BAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops

I remember thinking this project was a little silly, but you seem to make a good case for this project.

https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/114876375314600023

Tinker β˜€οΈ (@[email protected])

So folks have been installing and using my Tinker WriterDeck OS - my operating system that's just a word processor and nothing else. Which blows my mind. It's always weird for people that you haven't met to use things that you throw out into the void. So I'm working on some updates for version 1.1. I'm learning to move bash and linux configurations from the userspace into the global space. Think that will make installation much easier. Also working with some new linux installers that should make it easier to configure keyboards on installation as well as identifying battery percentage (right now battery lookup is hard coded, but that doesn't fit every laptop model obviously). Going to preinstall as many text editors and terminal word processors as I can and allow the user to change those out a bit easier. At some point in the future, I'll make a Graphical Edition but right now I'm focusing on this Terminal Edition. All in all, I really think I can do this. The first version works well enough. This next version should be much more "universal". Actively moving away from "it works on my box, trollolol". https://tinker.sh #tinkerWriterDeckOS #WriterDeck

Infosec Exchange
Show threadSpindley Q FrogAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops I have never felt this more acutely than when I got back into DOS programming a few years ago and experienced the joyous friction of a machine where switching between unrelated tasks meant _waiting_
Show threadSΓΆrenAug 18, 2025
@ifixcoinops perhaps device convergence was a mistake
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 18, 2025
@ifixcoinops ... it doesn't have to ........
Show threadErin πŸ’½βœ¨Aug 18, 2025
@ireneista @ifixcoinops you know one of the reasons I love my Remarkable is that technically there's no real reason it couldn't have a web browser but intentionally it doesn't
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 18, 2025

@erincandescent @ifixcoinops way back in like 1998 a friend had a Mac Classic (for the young 'uns: it was obsolete at that time) which they'd use when they wanted to write, because it had no modem or games or anything loaded onto it

it's only gotten to be more relevant since

Show threadMichiel ScholtenAug 18, 2025
@ireneista @erincandescent @ifixcoinops that's a very good way indeed; myself I have an old Chromebook (Asus C302) converted to Linux that has not enough RAM to run a bunch of things at the same time, so it introduces friction to start a browser. It has a great keyboard though, so it's nice to note/write things on
Show threadVaryagAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops no but I REALLY should start doing it. My brain's been all fuzzy and tangled up lately.
Show threadMatt HallAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops

I use a pen and paper. I'll stream-of-consciousness some stuff until the brain settles down.

I've never thought of it as brushing my brain but that's pretty good.

Show threadNicole J. LeBoeuf (she/her)Aug 14, 2025
@401matthall @ifixcoinops Yyyyyup. This is a big part of why I still do Morning Pages even after the rest of "The Artist's Way" and "The Right to Write" is irritating me to the point of giving away my copies of Julia Cameron's books. The first page always starts off with some form of AUUUGH THE DAY IS SCARY AND FULL OF DREAD AND I JUST CAN'T but by the last page it's "OK, I've identified at least small task X how about we do that, that's not so scary, right?"
Show threadNaomi PAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops if I’ve been having trouble sleeping because of, you know, everything (my to-do list and politics and family drama), I scribble a summary of my thoughts about it all before bed. I think of it as a brain dump, because everything is on paper instead of in my head, but it sounds similar?

Anyway, it helps me get to sleep, and when I wake up at 3 am, I can go right back to sleep.

Show threadSym (public node) Aug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops I mean, now I do.
Show threadash Aug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops sounds very neurotypical /j
but yea, brain dumps to text like that are definitely something I do, for a lot of different reasons
Show threadRobot Diver πŸŒŠπŸŒ¬οΈπŸƒπŸŒΏπŸŒΈπŸŒ±πŸŒ±πŸŒ±Aug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops

This is why I write stuff down. Even if I never get back to it, it saves me the anxiety of trying to hold on to all of it

Show threadLilacAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops
sorta
my capacity gets full often
especially when i am given a task that *seems* simple but really, it requires tasks A and B to be complete, and A requires F and H…
it’s a dependency tree
and i need to write it down to see it all, so i can look at it and determine the optimal route
Show threadVeeAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops Well, no, not until right this very moment. But now I do.

Edited to add: I mean, I do that activity. But I never thought of it as brushing my brain. I like that analogy. Metaphor? Description.

Show threadVeeAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops Also, I think what I really need is a kanban board. We used one of those at work once to keep track of a project that involved a lot of actions & people and it was great. 3 columns: To Do, Doing, Done. Little post-its for each task, pick one, put your name (or maybe date, if it's your board alone) on it, move it from To-Do to Doing, then Doing to Done. I liked that it showed progress, and you could sort as you go re: what needed to be done first/next.
Show threadEli the BeardedAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops

I write it down on paper. Makes it easier to add sketches if it helps. Avoids the other temptations of computer.

Show threadTrevor FlowersAug 14, 2025
@ifixcoinops I hadn't thought of it that way but I suspect that I will from now on.
Show threadJames TinmouthAug 14, 2025

@ifixcoinops I do this a lot (not least cos I have a MASSIVE DIY project with all this I have to do X but that needs Y which requires Z shit).

However I find that doing the hairbrush works for a bit, until the doc itself becomes the spaghetti.

I haven't worked out what the next stage is yet.

Show threadchocobo13ΞΆAug 15, 2025
@ifixcoinops
I hadn't thought of it like this, but yeah, I guess programming today has been a lot of that for me
Show threadRuss SharekAug 17, 2025

@ifixcoinops

I do this all the time, and now will likely think of it as brain brushing and flossing.

Show threadlevel 60 forgetfulAug 17, 2025

@ifixcoinops All the time! This is exactly the reason I started doing literate programming, it's a way to untangle the chaos in my head by writing it down, and then smoothing it out.

Love the brain brushing phrase for it - gonna borrow it!

Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 18, 2025
@ifixcoinops well now we will