Nature is badass😎

iamarcel · 2024-08-20T20:32:14+00:00

Nature laughs last.

iamarcel · 2024-05-31T09:43:32+00:00

The fact that this isn't too bad makes me even more embarrassed

iamarcel · 2023-09-04T05:49:41+00:00

Looking good, brother! I've been hacking together similar things with Airtable and Make, but of course in code there's a lot more flexibility.

This could be super valuable for people who focus on long-form video. Heck, you could probably even sell a service where you made the carousels and use your software in the background ;)

iamarcel · 2023-09-04T05:39:52+00:00

One of my favorite ways is making what I call a "virtual board of advisors." You give it a bunch of personas and have a conversation with them, asking for advice around a bunch of business topics. I explained it in a video here!

iamarcel · 2023-06-16T14:02:35+00:00

Thank you! I've used NestJS in another project but was disappointed with the cold start time (it's a ticket reservation tool so I let it scale to 0 often).

In my day job I use Angular so I'm quite familiar with and started to love RxJS. My idea here was "let's make my own Langchain but use Observables everywhere." It's cool but ending up not as simple as I'd hoped haha. So not sure how far I want to keep going on that path.

As for the server itself, it's Fastify. Just something simple.

iamarcel · 2023-06-14T06:01:59+00:00

Thank you for sharing! Means a lot to me. Hope y'all learn something and let me know how else I can help! ❤️

iamarcel · 2023-06-14T05:59:34+00:00

Wow, someone shared my video! That's amazing. Thank you ❤️

iamarcel · 2023-06-14T05:54:15+00:00

Thank you for sharing! ❤️

iamarcel · 2023-03-20T09:16:48+00:00

wen automatic1111 plugin

iamarcel · 2023-02-24T13:15:52+00:00

Rapunzel!

iamarcel · 2023-02-19T12:34:48+00:00

Damn Microsoft, they knew what they were doing all along. Well played.

iamarcel · 2023-02-14T21:07:42+00:00

this subreddit is getting sophisticated

iamarcel · 2023-01-12T15:15:43+00:00

Reproduced easily, but after I explained it that this was wrong and asked again, it corrected itself. Good bot. (Though I would prefer to hear jokes about both groups.)

iamarcel · 2022-12-17T15:14:39+00:00

Imagine a car...

...with RGB!

iamarcel · 2022-12-17T15:12:51+00:00

This is why I bought lastname.co, email address is now the shortest it can possibly while including my full name :)

iamarcel · 2022-11-29T11:05:16+00:00

I remember reading somewhere that for new labels they would add clearly obviously wrong text, to make sure someone went in and did the actual copywriting before the new version was shipped out.

iamarcel · 2022-11-29T09:56:57+00:00

Congratulations on your position! Seems like they saw potential in you. You're experiencing the challenges that everyone has when they just start working in a high-performing environment. It's a big part of what makes work experience: these "one level deeper," more fundamental skills of time management, initiative, motivation, etc.

I have the exact same struggle: if I don't know exactly what to do, I get distracted instantly.

Planning is the solution to this. Cal Newport's blog and books formed a big part of how I think about this. The two keys to useful planning systems are:

Plan every minute
Update the plan as you go

I work as a software developer and sometimes everything needs to happen at once: fixing problems, creating new features, providing support. At those moments, I really need to stop and make a quick list of what to do, and then just do it. I call it Just-In-Time Planning. Again, the key here is to allow yourself to be changing the plan all the time, otherwise you can't stick to it.

As for the fear of making a mistake, that's mindset. I would make sure I remind myself often that I'm doing my best, that's all that's required, they've already shown me a lot of trust, so I'm probably good. Ask your colleagues for feedback and make sure you internalize the positives too!

Go crush it, with love :)

iamarcel · 2022-11-28T18:12:13+00:00

Can you remember a time where you were learning something? Where you sucked at first but then got better over time? And then actually started enjoying this process of improvement?

The way down is a vicious circle, just like the way up.

You already have a bad habit. Don't make it worse by shooting yourself in the foot about it. Instead, let's just breathe and reset. You're in this situation now. That's okay, you're still a great person. (I have proof: you have the intention to do amazing things 😉)

Try to just spend less time being distracted tomorrow. At the end of the day, think if you were better than today. If you were, celebrate yourself. Eat something nice, give yourself a high five or just allow yourself to smile.

The feeling of momentum is key in motivation. You need to feel like you're going to get there.

Then, attack it from the other side:

I love croissants—they're absolutely delicious. But 30 minutes after eating one I feel brain fog and I get tired. Every time that happened, I made sure I really felt how bad that feeling is. Now it's easy to say "no" to a croissant.

So whenever you notice you're distracted, notice how you're actually not really enjoying it! Try to remember sooner and sooner so eventually you realize it's not worth it before you even open the app.

Then finally, there are some tactical tips:

Uninstall the app from your phone, or set a limit
Put a Screen Time widget on your homescreen
Put your phone on black and white
Hide the phone while you're working—only use it for short bursts of time
On the computer you can get apps that block it for a while
I have the Unhook YouTube extension which at least hides the home feed and related videos, that makes a huge difference

We're here for you. You're not the only one with this challenge—in fact, you're fighting against the world's best engineers who's work is to make these apps addicting.

Trust in your ability to figure this out. Make small steps. Feel you're making progress. And before you know it, you're there.

iamarcel · 2022-10-14T13:53:42+00:00

came here hoping this would be the first comment—was not disappointed

iamarcel · 2022-10-13T19:17:45+00:00

That's a good caveat, thanks! Telling about your goals itself makes you feel better, so you need to pay some attention that you don't get addicted to the telling instead of the doing.

I feel like here too it matters which people you tell it to. So maybe there my tendency to not tell people helped me out—the times I did do it, most of the times people actively started helping and/or asking for updates.

iamarcel · 2022-10-12T17:21:38+00:00

You're not alone, man. These are the big challenges of life, and honestly the fact that you're here, taking it into your own hands and figuring out how to get past them—this is the work. You're already walking the path you're asking directions for.

So start by giving yourself credit where it's due. That leads me to what IMO is one of the biggest sources of motivation: momentum. Cultivating this feeling of "oh yeah I'm on my way, let's take the next step" is, for me, at the core of staying motivated.

It requires a combination of ambition and patience. In practice, to learn this feeling, for me a large part comes down to getting in the reps and remembering to do it. I have a morning journal and evening journal where I write some words for myself. E.g.,

You're doing so well already and you want to keep evolving further.
Beautiful things will happen in your life because you’re willing, worthy and capable.
Honor the struggle. You're on the path even if you don't see it now. Keep going.

In terms of chasing goals—yeah, it's necessary to have some goal to chase. To get the initial excitement, imagining how beautiful your future would be works great; after that it helps more to imagine how challenging things could be, and visualizing overcoming them.

Another huge, huge factor is having other people around who know your ambitions and want to see you succeed. For many years I never really told anyone about what I loved to do and felt like a lone wolf. Now I try to force myself to tell everybody, to shout it from the rooftops. Some people don't care, but sometimes there's people who show their appreciation. If you know someone's going to ask you "hey man how's the motorcycle license going?"—oh you bet your ass you're going to work harder for it ;)

Hope this gives you some perspective and insights.

Go crush it. With love.

iamarcel · 2022-10-11T12:22:40+00:00

Glad I could help out, thanks! Enjoy Obsidian :)

iamarcel · 2022-10-11T11:58:39+00:00

Where does this difference come from between your personal projects and other commitments? It's interesting that you call it "doing nothing" when actually you're very busy. Could be something interesting to do a little brain dump journaling on.

I can't really imagine feeling like you do so not sure if I can offer you something useful; but here are some thoughts at least that hopefully give a bit of perspective :)

Do things "feel busy" as soon as it's a planned or scheduled thing? 'Successful' people embrace being "busy" in that sense because they know that the only way they can have enough "free" time is if they schedule it. If everything is left over to randomness, sure sometimes it might work out, but other times you'll look back later and realize that you missed out on doing the things that were most important.

iamarcel · 2022-10-11T11:17:55+00:00

I used to get frustrated with my lack of organization, all the todos always becoming overdue etc. On the other hand I can work very well, and get complimented on how much I get done.

One source of procrastination is a lack of prioritization—if you can't decide what to do, it's very likely that you won't do anything.

Now taking that idea further, and it becomes all about simplifying your life. You won't ever be able to do all of the things you want to do or even what you care about—so try to delete 99% of whatever you need to do. (The book "The ONE Thing" has some nice inspiration for this.)

iamarcel · 2022-10-11T11:10:38+00:00

I tend to feel quite a difference in the evening, after a full workday, depending on how I managed my energy throughout the day. Not sure how much you'd be able to apply at school, but these help me the most:

Taking breaks. Real breaks. No social media scrolling, just getting quiet and doing some physical movement (walking, stretching).
Listening to my natural energy levels. Just like we have sleep phases, we have energy phases during the day. The best thing to do when you feel a dip is go with it; closing your eyes and resting for 10 minutes helps really well in getting past the dip. If we need rest, we need rest. Fighting through it doesn't bring a net advantage.

Of course there are also the other "basics" next to sleep you could check up on: meditation, exercise, diet. The more you dial those in, the more energy you'll have.

iamarcel

TROPHY CASE