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data/distractions.md
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This is a post about workflow and what I think about distractions
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in modern computing.
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As I write this piece it is on a small screen, the background is
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solarized light and I see plain text. There are no push
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notifications, I see no tempting elements to click. My mind is
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generally all about the issue at hand. I have a top-notch Macbook
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Pro right beside me, but still I am here on this Lenovo x395 that
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represents a something else.
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While I in some ways envy the worry-free computing our growing
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generation encounter, I also feel compassion for the conventional
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computing they will never be exposed to in the way that I have
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been. Like my generation never experienced the transition from
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transistors to modern CPUs in the 70-80s and can with few
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exceptions understand it, most of the upcoming generation will
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never experience "slow computing". The reason I think this is in
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some ways a shame is that slow computing leaves space to think.
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About why you interact with the system, what to do and how and
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when to do it.
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Combined with people indoctrinated on Microsoft Office, modern
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computing have left workers as robots with their primary mission
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to answer emails and managing calendar appointments. In some ways
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the art of communicating with each other and interacting without a
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digital reference has become lost. Freedom of defining your
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digital workspace should not and cannot be different to the
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freedom of organising your physical space.
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Modern computing comes with bells and whistles, and I think that
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companies seeking cost-efficient and standardised computing
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environments are to blame. I think pragmatism is to blame for
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those environments. I also think "the cloud" is an attempt at
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creating a walled garden. Bureacracy are also to blame. An attempt
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at cost-effiency where the end-user is under-estimated and the
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systems dumbed down. We have built a digital world that imprints
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the use of products, generic in themselves, with little to no
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options for automation besides what the author meant for. All
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depending on a few global companies.
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When I open my laptop lid, I log in and see a terminal, or crashed
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screen as some likes to describe it. It is like a blank canvas
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with no outputs, just waiting for a command about what I would
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like to do next. At this point I might navigate to a blog
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directory and open a document with my text editor of choice: emacs
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[1]. When done writing this post I will add it to git, my text
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versioning system. After this I do whatever I please with the text
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file. I might push it to my central blog repository where a static
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HTML file generates on a public area or I may pipe it to some
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other program. This is the Unix philosophy [2].
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After writing this post I may choose to check my mailbox for new
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messages that I am expecting. My electronic mail system runs
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decentralised and works for me, and me only. The reason for it is
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that I like to control my own data. I do not want my letters read
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by others, neither prying commercial or government eyes. For this
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I use neomutt, notmuch and muchsync.
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Occasionally I like to communicate remotely with others, and for
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this purpose I use Riot, based on the distributed Matrix-protocol.
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Even though much is best formulated in words, The Multitasking
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Mind by Salvucci and Taatgen, and Edward Tufte thaught me about
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the power of visualisation and automation [3,4]. This is also why
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I program in Python and Nim, and sometimes design illustrations to
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get my message across.
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I may have been an avid macOS user once, but in the future I will
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seek to come as close as possible to using my computing platform
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as a tool, rather than to become a tool for those who seek to
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profit on others in cyberspace. I know it won't be easy because
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computing also has a social component, and that is the real
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challenge.
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I will leave you with a link to Make Time [5] which have in some
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ways helped my journey.
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtieBc3KptU
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[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy
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[3] The Multitasking Mind, Tufte and Taatgen, 2010, ISBN:
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9780199733569
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[4] https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/
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[5] https://maketime.blog/articles/
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