Here are my custom uBlock Origin filters that I have added to give Hacker News a nicer looking dark mode.

news.ycombinator.com##body:style(background: #232834)
news.ycombinator.com##td:style(color: #fafafa !important)
news.ycombinator.com##table:style(background-color: #1F2430)
news.ycombinator.com##div.toptext:style(color: #fafafa)
news.ycombinator.com##span.c00:style(color: #fafafa !important)
news.ycombinator.com##a:style(color: #ffa000 !important)
news.ycombinator.com##span#karma:style(color: #faa000 !important)
news.ycombinator.com##span.pagetop:style(color: #fafafa !important)
news.ycombinator.com##textarea:style(color: #fafafa !important; background: inherit; )
news.ycombinator.com##hnmain:style(background: #1F2430 !important)
news.ycombinator.com##div.commtext.c00:style(color: #fafafa !important)
news.ycombinator.com##tr:style(background-color: #1F2430 !important)
news.ycombinator.com##tr#pagespace:style(height:0 !important)

You add these by clicking on the uBlock Origin icon in your browser extensions bar and hitting the button on the bottom right right to open the dashboard. Then select "My Filters" from the top selection bar and paste in the above CSS overrides.

These are adapted from two Hacker News posts here and here with a few items added for stuff that didn't look quite right to me. Feel free to play around with these and adapt to your needs.

If you've ever wanted to be able to quickly open a specific note using the Obsidian mobile app you've probably found the quick switcher. Either by manually typing "quick switcher" into the command palette that comes up by default when you swipe down on a note or via the toolbar.

However I find both of these options too slow and annoying when I pull out my phone to just quickly get into a specific note. While some have suggested replacing the Command pallet with the quick switcher, I do still want quick and easy access to the command palette as well. The best solution I have found is using the pinned commands feature of the command palette.

You can find the setting in Settings -> Command palette (Under the settings group "Core plugins") then under "New pinned command" tap "Select a command..." and choose "Quick switcher: Open quick switcher".

Now when you swipe down to open the command palette you will see the option to open the quick switcher pinned as the first option. Truly a best of both worlds solution.

If you and everything you've done were erased from existence, what else would disappear from the world?

Most of us like to think that the work we do is important, that the place would fall apart without us there doing our job. But how important is the work we're doing really? If you were hit by a bus tomorrow would your entire organization fall apart? The unfortunate truth for most us is, that no, our company would quickly find a replacement and keep chugging along with barely a memory of you ever being there a few months down the line. Sure the quality of work might be a little worse than what you were doing but broadly speaking, everyone in a company is replaceable.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Nothing I've worked on in my career as a software engineer would have failed to exist without my contributions. I can imagine many ways the final software could've been worse or taken longer to release but there's lots of bad and delayed software out there running the world. If I didn't exist someone else would be sitting in my seat doing the work. So if the work I am doing would get done anyway, how much value am I actually providing the world from my work? Probably less than I would like to think.

Now this isn't to say there's anything wrong with doing work that would be done by someone else, ideally society is paying you to do this job because it's a job that needs to be done. There is plenty of pride to be had in doing jobs that need to be done. At the end of the day some one needs to drive the bus after all. But if a goal in your life is to provide something that uniquely wouldn't exist unless you made it happen, it's unlikely you'll find that in a typical 9-5 job. Necessarily, you are just a replaceable cog in the machine that is a business.

I think that too many of us slip into a life of being comfortable only being a cog, when our life satisfaction and our contributions to the world in general would be significantly better if we were bringing something into the world that wouldn't exist if we weren't the one to do it.

Of course having unique contributions to the world doesn't have to be mutually exclusive from being employed at a 9-5 job. Pretty much all of us have other responsibilities and need to pay the bills. But if you can harness even a little bit of your free time towards creating something that is uniquely yours, I promise you'll find significant fulfillment there. There's a lot of satisfaction from having your own little piece of the universe that exists only because of you.

The unique work of your life doesn't necessarily have to be anything big or significant but ideally it should be something that helps someone else, even if it's just one person. Being there for someone in a way that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been there is one of the most meaningful ways to live your life. Whether that is writing that connects with an small audience, building benches for bus stops in your city that don't have any, or creating an entire business that improves the lives of millions of people, it's all the unique work of leaving the world better than we found it.

Even just volunteering for a worthwhile organization can be a great way to accomplish unique work in a more structured way. If you don't feel any pull towards building something from scratch, you can still have a real impact in a way that just isn't true for a salaried position that is going to be filled whether you show up or not. Tons of fantastic volunteer organizations have less impact than they could just because they don't have the resources to do anything more.

You don't need to think of everything you do in this context of stuff that only uniquely exists because of you, but I strongly believe it should be a part of what you spend your life doing. So I encourage you to take a small step towards bringing some unique good into the world. You'll make the world better in a way that you are directly responsible for, and get some more fulfillment out of life for your trouble.

I wish your life was a little worse.

If you life just a bit more lousy, maybe you'd take the steps you need to change it for the better. If your job was just a little bit more frustrating, maybe you'd hit the breaking point to at least try to find something better. Just a tad more discomfort would go a long way.

It's so easy to get yourself trapped into a status quo that is barely comfortable enough that you live in fear that maybe this is the best you could ever have out of life. Your job has a lot of day to day bullshit but it's just not quite bad enough to push you to put in the effort to find something better. You can stretch your paycheck juuuust far enough to get through the month so you never need to change any financial habits or have any sort of fire to negotiate a raise but you're not making progress on any bigger financial goals. You're just coasting through life, and shouldn't you be grateful for that?

Things in life usually stabilize to a point where they're just good enough that everyone puts up with them. Where you feel that putting in the effort to change anything is more trouble than just dealing with the "small" annoyances every day. And while there will always be some amount of annoyance and bullshit in life, I'm quite certain you can be doing better than you are doing right now. Even small daily annoyances wear you down over time, it's well worth taking the time to minimize them. Holding yourself in stasis because you don't think you could do better is turning your life into a version of the boulder sitting under the constant dripping of a small amount of water, ever so slowly eroding you away until years from now you finally crack.

I can't tell you how many "losing my job was the best thing that ever happened to me" stories I've heard over the years and especially recently with the tech layoffs. People often need big shocks to actually kickstart a change for the better in their life. Necessity is the mother of innovation and all that. There's nothing physically stopping ourselves from making these changes in our just comfortable enough lives. But it's easy to put it off until tomorrow, next week, next year, someday... And even the annual attempts at New Year's resolutions are usually set up for failure from the start and become a distant memory within a couple of weeks.

There's plenty of downsides with the shock therapy that job loss and similar events can provide and while for some it can be the kick they needed to move on to a better life, it can also drown others in a pit of despair. So you don't need to quit your job tomorrow to start moving your life in a better direction. You can even still enjoy the perks of your comfortable enough life, you just need find the motivation to start moving in that direction and stop telling yourself this is "good enough".

The nice thing about improving your just comfortable enough life is that comfort buys you some time to move more slowly than you would have to if your life fell apart beneath you. You can brush up your resume and start the job search while still bringing in a monthly paycheck. You aren't going to go hungry if you don't find a new job right away, so you can be picky and make sure you're stepping up. But by at least looking at your potential options, you open yourself up to a better life without risking what you have right now.

And if you're happy with your job, this approach applies in all other areas of your life. You can start making progress on that novel you've always wanted to write, even if it's just 10 minutes a day you'd be surprised at the progress you can make, and how much satisfaction a small investment in building your ideal life can have.

So while maybe a worse life would motivate you to make changes for the better, if you start right now, you could just choose to starting building that better life without giving up too much of your comfort. What's stopping you?

As of Node.js 18 the Fetch API is enabled by default. This is an exciting development that will allow you to use universal API between both Node and the browser for making REST API requests. I had to do some work with a REST API recently and rather than using the handy dandy Axios library that I've used previously, I decided to take the opportunity to learn the fetch API.

Everything was pretty simple to get started with (pro-tip you can right click a request in your browser dev tools and copy a request as fetch). But that was until I came to needing to download a file in response to a GET request. With Curl you can just use the --output parameter to output to a file, but how do you do this using the fetch API in node?

There are two types of streams in Node, the old [Node.js Streams](https://nodejs.dev/learn/nodejs-streams) that have been in Node for a long time and are used by Node.js built-in libraries like fs, and http. But now with the integration of the fetch API into Node.js there are now [Web Streams](https://nodejs.org/api/webstreams.html) as well which is what the Fetch API uses.

So you cannot just pass a Web Stream to a library like fs that uses Node Streams and have things work nicely. But the Node.js developers are kind and have provided methods built into Node.js to convert between a Node.js Stream and a Web Stream.

const readableNodeStream = nodeStream.Readable.fromWeb(response.body);
const fileStream = fs.createWriteStream('path/to/file.pdf');
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
	readableNodeStream.pipe(fileStream);
    readableNodeStream.on('error', reject);
    fileStream.on('finish', resolve);
}

I recently ran into an issue while updating Ghost to the latest version 5.47.0.

When attempting to run ghost update I recived the following error message: Ghost v5.47.0 is not compatible with the current Node version. Your node version is 14.21.3, but Ghost v5.47.0 requires ^16.13.0 || ^18.12.1

Ghost v5.47.0 dropped support for Nodejs 14 which was previously used for Digital Ocean's 1 click Ghost installer droplets. So if you are hosting your ghost blog using one of those droplets you won't be able to update to the latest version of Ghost until you update to Node 16 or Node 18.

Node 18 is the latest LTS (Long term support) release for Node, so I decided to just jump straight to version 18.

All it takes is 2 commands:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -

And then run

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

To override your existing nodejs v14 install with nodejs v18.

Then you can run

node -v

to confirm you are now using node 18.

You can now finish updating Ghost to the latest version

When self-hosting Ghost you're on your own to keep it updated, here's the process I go through to keep this site up to date with the latest features added to Ghost.

Before you make any changes, create a Snapshot of your server! Or at the very least backup anything important

Connect to your DigitalOcean droplet via SSH using the browser console (the button is on the top right when viewing your droplet dashboard)

Update Repository Package Lists and then Update Packages (&& will only use the dist-upgrade command after the apt-get update is successful)

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

Enter y to accept the installation of any updates.

Change to Ghost webserver directory (this is the default for a DigitalOcean Marketplace Ghost server)

cd /var/www/ghost

Update Ghost-CLI

sudo npm install -g ghost-cli@latest

If there is an update to Ghost-CLI, then follow the instructions to update.

You likely also want to update NPM using sudo if there is an NPM update notice spit out at this step.

Now change to to the Ghost Manager User (ghost-mgr is the default user for the DigitalOcean Marketplace Ghost server)

sudo -i -u ghost-mgr

Change to Ghost webserver directory (this is the default for a DigitalOcean Marketplace Ghost server)

cd /var/www/ghost

Run the Update

ghost update

After the update is applied, open up your website and click around to make sure everything is working.

Are you really living up to yourself and who you want to be? Are you happy with the way you spent your time today? Does what you do line up with who you think you are?

The biggest influence on what you do every day are your identities. These beliefs about yourself make up big parts of you are. And when you align your behaviors with your identities it feels good. Writers, write. Runners, run. Voters, vote. Parents, parent. And so on. But sometimes we can end up with a mismatch between our identity and our behavior.

If you truly believe in this identity as part of yourself then you should fully commit to the bit. Deeply live out (to the best of your ability and means) what you imagine the picture perfect life of a writer should be. Let the warmth of a relationship fill your soul. Fully live out and embrace the core parts of your most important identities with your mind and actions. Lean in. Make it a priority and let your chosen identity deeply guide your decisions in life, instead of holding the things you supposedly care about at arms length. Be proactive and give your time where your priorities lie.

What you commit to is what you make real. A lot of modern pain and general unhappiness comes from people that cannot bring themselves to commit to anything. We have an almost infinite amount of options in today's world. But instead of choosing any option, so many people mindlessly wander, going with the flow and never committing just in case the perfect choice might suddenly appear.

While it is usually a good idea to explore multiple options before committing to one (like dating for example), not choosing is still a choice. And that non-choice still has consequences, usually leaving you with a less fulfilling life while you wait for the perfect option to come along. Your life is still ticking away while you're waiting.

Commitment doesn't mean you have to swear and bind yourself to something forever and ever (though a lot of awesome experiences can come those kinds of commitments to the right people/things). But once you've decided to do something, you should throw yourself all in for the time you are committed to it. If you're going to be a writer you better be writing as often as you possibly can, making writer friends, fully living out the experience of being a writer.

And this commitment doesn’t mean throwing everything else in your life to the side in the pursuit, that will only end in burnout. That isn’t commitment, that’s obsession. Commitment is stable, reliable, and sustainable. You show up day after day and while you’re writing you’re 100% focused on that. But once your writing day is done you move on to spend time with your family or friends and you’re 100% present and engaged with them, fully embodying what it means to be in a good partner/parent/friend.

This kind of living is far more meaningful than half-assing a bunch of stuff while most of your split attention in life actually ends up going to social media scrolling. When you commit to the bit you go to bed satisfied with the way you spent your day. When you’re living the fullest, most committed version of yourself, there’s no regret. I suggest you give this commitment to yourself and who you want to be a try.

This is a relatively straightforward thing to do but I had to cobble together a couple of sources online, so I figured I'd put it all together in one place in case I or someone else is trying to do this down the road.

TL;DR: If you already know how to setup Stream Deck Actions what you need to know is the Windows Calculator executable is located at C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe

Step By Step

1. Search for "open" in the right panel of your Stream Deck app and drag the action over to the panel you want to use
   
2. Hit the box with ... next to App/File:
   
3. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\ and select calc.exe
   
4. Give the action a better title and you're ready to go!
   

No one knows what you care about if you don't tell them. Such an obvious and simple statement, but a surprising amount of people are terrified to share the things they care about. And they live a less fulfilling life as a result.

Fear of judgement, being made fun of, or bullied for the things you care about keeps a lot of people silent. People with bad intentions know that picking at the things you care about is the easiest way to get under someone's skin. As a result, a lot of people end up hiding these things to keep themselves safe. No one can hurt you if they don't know where you can be hurt.

But what is a person besides what they care about? Almost everything unique about a person is down stream from what they care about most. This can be as big as the care that parents have for their children, to as small as caring about your favorite book series. When you try to hide away the things you care about, you are locking away the parts of yourself that flow down from that care.

This is one reason why so many people in the business world come across as stunted and boring. People hide away the things they care about while they're at work, they round off all their unique edges to fit into their place as a cog in the machine. I'm not saying here that "professionalism" is a bad thing. But some people twist themselves into knots for their job but don't know how to unwind themselves even when they get outside of work.

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
― Audre Lorde

You start to lose yourself when you don't talk about what matters to you. Sure, you can become a parrot seeking status by pretending to like whatever the person you are talking to does or saying you like whatever is highly valued by society. But eventually you'll find yourself surrounded by people who really do care about the things you are pretending to like and at that point you'll be alone in the crowd. This might lead to some temporary social success but there's no sustainable happiness there.

This behavior made a bit more sense when people had to survive life in smaller groups where there's just not enough people around to connect on all the niche things you care about. But in the modern world where we are connected to billions of people through the internet, there's so much more to be gained by talking about the things you care about.

And once you start talking about the things you care about, you'll find and attract other people that care about the same things and that will open up the opportunity to build connections. And these building connections is one of the most fulfilling things you can do in life, even if it is "just" with other people online.

So step out of your shell, stop being a lurker, and start sharing your thoughts and feelings about the things you care about. Post about them on Twitter, forums, or your own blog. You don't need to have profound thoughts to share them. More than any other reason, you need to share these things to keep what is unique about you alive inside of you. And along the way you'll also be putting out a signal to attract people that care about the same things that you do. It's a win on multiple levels and an important step towards building a more fulfilling life.

This is the solution to a very specific and weird problem that I've run into recently with my Apple TV paired with HomePod Minis as my speakers. The Twitch app will get completely out of sync between the audio and video to the point where Twitch streams are basically unwatchable with sounds playing many seconds after they are supposed to.

This is a problem unique to the Twitch app on Apple TV and has not been fixed in over a year that many people have complained about this issue online . I have never had audio sync issues with any other app with my Apple TV + HomePod Minis pairing. Twitch seems to have built their own video player (as evidenced by their uniquely terrible interface for fast forwarding or rewinding through Twitch VODs) that is not running the correct synchronization code that is needed to keep the video and audio in sync.

But after scouring around the many thread of complaints on this subject I came across a fix that actually works. While this fix must be redone from time to time when the issue reappears, the fix tends to last for at least a few weeks at a time. So here it is:

The Absurd Fix That Works

1. Download the free Pluto TV app from the App Store. (Or if you have a Hulu subscription the Hulu app can be used in place of Pluto TV)
2. Make sure that both the Twitch app and Pluto TV app have been closed. (Double click the home button on your remote and then swipe the apps away with the touchpad to close them)
3. Go into the Settings App.
4. Choose “Video and Audio”
5. Select “Audio Output”
6. Change your default audio output to TV Speakers
7. Change your default audio output device back to the HomePod pair
   1. If you are using e-ARC to play all of your TV audio through your HomePods make sure to reenable “Play Television Audio” as well.
8. Go to the home screen
9. Open the Pluto TV app (Or Hulu app)
10. Select an on demand show and let it play for a few seconds
11. Open up the app switcher (Double click the home button) and swipe Pluto TV (or Hulu) away too close the app
12. Finally press the home button and open the Twitch App
13. Start watching a Stream, which should now have the audio and video in sync.

The Twitch app will stay in sync for some time afterwards (I have gone weeks without having to reapply the fix) but eventually you will have to do it again after either an update to the Apple TV software or the Twitch app.

Why does this work?

It's hard to know for sure but my best guess is that the Pluto TV/Hulu video player is running some sort of required video/audio sync code before it starts playing a video that the Twitch app does not do. So we are essentially using Pluto TV or Hulu to run the necessary synchronization code that Twitch is lacking before switching over to the Twitch app. But even if this is is incorrect, in the end the fix works and that's good enough for me.

Credit goes to /u/Prog on reddit for finding the initial fix with the Hulu app and /u/SeishiZero for discovering that the fix worked with the Pluto TV app as well. It is frankly pretty sad that Twitch has not fixed this but given that track record I wouldn't expect a fix from them anytime soon. So for now I will continue going through this ridiculous ritual to get their app working correctly.

If you happen to find any other apps that can be used with this method, or any other fixes for this issue in general, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter so that I can keep this guide updated.

Many people struggle to even start doing the things they tell themselves they want to be doing. You say you want to write, exercise, or learn to code but you never actually get around to doing it. Or you give it a try only on the rare occasion when you get a perfect alignment of motivation and free time to work at it once every few months.

There are many different ways to approach this problem, but today I'm going to focus in on what I believe is the most important piece to get yourself going at the very start.

You need to start with the most interesting part first.

It's hard to get even get started when all you have a mountain of drudgery ahead of yourself. So instead of starting at the beginning, write the scene of your novel that you're most excited about first. If you can't get yourself to exercise don't waste hours researching workout plans that you never follow. Say you enjoyed playing soccer when you were younger, go down to the local field and start shooting goals, or even better join an adult recreation soccer team. If you want to start a podcast pull out your phone and hit record while you talk about whatever has you most excited right now.

Of course you can't only ever do the interesting stuff if you're looking to produce some final product. But you can always begin working with the most interesting part of what is in front of you. Once you get started it's very easy to keep that momentum going, even when you need to start working on the less interesting parts. Starting with the interesting part is all about getting your momentum going.

Newton's 1st law of motion applies to your creativity and work just as much as physical matter. Once you're in motion you tend to stay in motion. So the most important part is just getting yourself started. And why not make it easy on yourself by starting with the most interesting part?

Hemingway's Trick: Manufacturing Interesting Places to Start

As you are able to start making progress you will probably begin to run out of the interesting things that you were initially able to use to get yourself going. At this point you are ready to start manufacturing interesting starting places for your future self. This is something Ernest Hemingway would famously do while writing. Hemingway would stop each of his writing sessions mid sentence, leaving it unfinished until he began writing again the next day. This was so he had an easy place to start. A simple trick to make it easy to get started again. Because the hardest part is always getting yourself started.

How can you manufacture interesting places to start in areas other than writing? If you're coding an app, end the day just a line or two of code away from being finished. If you're trying to cook more often but hate having to get all the ingredients together and pots and pans out before you can get started, get everything you need for tomorrow's meal ready when you're done cooking for today. So tomorrow you can just start with the part you actually enjoy: cooking the meal.

Take advantage of the momentum you have today by setting yourself up to easily start again tomorrow.

Life is too weird to be so serious all the time.

A lot of the best things in life are pretty silly^[1] . Laughter, flirting, romance, inside jokes, even owning a pet, it's all fairly silly and fun stuff. I think a lot of us could do with some extra silliness in our lives. I know personally that I've gotten a little too stuck in what I call Serious Mode for my liking as the years go by. And looking around at a lot of the other people I interact with, I think almost everyone has gotten just a bit too serious for their own good.

Get out of Serious Mode

There are definitely a lot of things that you really do need to be serious about but there is a difference between taking certain important things seriously and being stuck in Serious Mode pretty much all the time. I think too many of us have gone so far down this path that we're just stuck in Serious Mode by default. And when you get yourself stuck in Serious Mode you are numbing yourself to a lot of the joys of life. Many things in life are better when approached with an attitude of silliness and playfulness. While Serious Mode is an inherently closed off way of living.

Thankfully opening yourself up to some bonus silliness is something that we were born knowing how to do. In countless ways we are socialized to lock our silliness away as we "grow up" but if you just let go of your own restraints a little bit you’ll find silliness there under the surface.

Kids are the silliest people on the planet and anyone who's spent some time sharing a moment of silliness with a child has felt the spark of joy that silliness can bring to your life. I suspect the silliness that children bring to your life is one of the many reasons that those who have kids report having more meaning in their lives. But there’s no reason you are only allowed to act silly when kids are around.

Small Acts of Silliness

So how do we start unshackling ourselves from Serious Mode and embracing silliness more often in our lives? My advice is to start with Small Acts of Silliness.

Small Acts of Silliness are a play on the idea of "small acts of kindness" which is embraced by many different religions^[2] endorse as good not only for those that you treat with kindness but good for yourself. So doing things like saying thank you to your bus driver, helping a neighbor, or bringing some treats in for your coworkers.

Small Acts of Silliness are similarly effective, though can be more aimed at amusing yourself than anyone around you. There are limitless ways to incorporate little acts of silliness in your life but here are some ideas that might help get you get started:

1. Play the air guitar or drums along to your favorite song
2. Share a pun with a friend
3. Blow out the straw wrapper as a "bullet" at your friend
4. Put on your favorite sci-fi soundtrack while driving and pretend you're driving a space ship
5. Make fun shapes out of your food
6. Intentionally step on the cracks in the sidewalk while walking
7. Wear some fun socks
8. Make a meme and share it with your group chat

A lot of these may sound stupid, pointless, or embarrassing but that's the whole point. Life is better when you embrace the cringe and live a little silly. Give it a try for a few weeks. I promise you'll end up at least a bit happier.

Putting words on a page seems like it should be a relatively straightforward task. But if you’ve ever spoken to a writer, you’ve almost certainly heard many stories of woe. Many aspiring (or otherwise) writers find it an almost herculean task just to put words on a page. Let alone publishing that writing out into the world for others to read.

And it’s easy to empathize with the fear. Hitting publish without an audience makes you come face to face with the fact that the world pretty much doesn’t care at all about you or what you’ve written. Building an audience from zero is tough which leads many would-be writers to refuse to tarnish your own self image by pressing the publish button or even putting less than perfect words on the blank page. It sucks to put something out into the world to resounding indifference but that’s what you’re almost guaranteed to get so find a way to deal with it besides avoidance.

If actually being a writer is more important to you than maintaining the fantasy the you could be a great writer if you really tried there’s no other way out than through putting words on a page and publishing them. No matter how much you tell yourself that you’re actually just a “perfectionist”, the truth is that you’re probably more afraid of shattering your self image as an intelligent person than anything else. If you really want to be a writer you have to kill your ego, or at least lock it in another room long enough to write some stuff down and hit publish.

It bears repeating the truism that the only way to create good art is to just get started create a ton of less than great art first. Julian Shapiro calls this the "Creativity Faucet". You won't reach success by trying to polish your first piece into a mind-blowing success, especially when you’re starting with no audience. You need to be taking as many shots on goal as possible, which means you keep writing and keep hitting publish (Though you don't need to publish everything you write, I certainly don't). The good news is no one will remember the bad stuff you made when no one was paying attention.

When you’re starting out it’s more important to put out 100 blog posts of good enough quality than 5 posts of pretty good quality. Both in terms of continuing to move creatively and in terms of the modern world. There are a few people that can do the CGP Grey Style-Drop a great video every few months- but while it is important that you aren’t putting out trash, that kind of approach can be destructive when you’re starting out. You need to put in the reps before you can focus on perfection. You’re not good enough to be that picky. You need to stay in motion and keep writing.

Did Michael Jordan just sit in a room fantasizing about being a great basketball player and reading every strategy book about basketball while never actually getting on the court and taking a jumpshot? No. He worked day after day, playing basketball every day for years. This is an incredibly obvious statement but when it comes to writing many want-to-be writers seem to mix up reading about writing, strategy, etc. with actually doing the writing. If you don’t actually do any writing out of fear to protect your ego, you’re not writer, you’re just lying to yourself to keep your ego's dream alive.

Yeah it’s scary, and you’re opening yourself up to failure, but it’s the only way to the other side. So if you want to be a writer stop procrastinating to protect your self image and put some words on the page. You’ll be glad you did when you’re on the other side.

Very few people throughout history have ever had to deal with the problems of having too much. In fact, most of our ancestors had the opposite problem, not having enough. Let that be food, water, shelter, information, etc. Most of the unique problems of our time come not from scarcity but from new forms of easy abundance, an obesity epidemic caused by too much food and sitting, increasing mental health problems (at least partially) caused by too much news and social media and on and on.

This isn’t to say that there weren’t any problems of too much our ancestors had to deal with. Alcoholism and gambling have taken more than their fair share of lives. But you could choose to avoid these classes of problems with the simple (conceptually, not in practice) option of choosing not to partake. Many religions established rules against such things that in effect try to counter the Problem of Too Much on the societal level by using social pressure to counter them.

But the unique aspect of the abundance of today is that it is everywhere and always in your face. You cannot just rely on an external limit for when you need to stop or avoid. It's easy to stop eating when there isn't any food left, or stop consuming new information because you reached the end of the book and had to physically go out to get another. It's quite a different problem when our smartphones have in some ways trapped us in the digital equivalent of the Las Vegas strip.

Many do still try to prescribe absence as the solution to the Problem of Too Much. This does work for some people. But for most of us, if we had to choose between giving up our smartphone and going back to a flip phone in order to avoid social media and all the other smartphone based distractions we wouldn’t take that trade. Much like how diets based on what you can’t eat are made to fail, avoidance can only take you so far.

So we have to learn how to live in a world of abundance. There are worse problem to have to be sure, this world of abundance has given us incredible quality of life benefits and I would much rather live in a world of abundance than a world of scarcity. But progress is solving new problems are the result of our solutions to the previous worse problems. For most of us living in countries with advanced economies, abundance is the problem we are faced with. So what do we do?

What do we do?

I think the basic classes of Too Much problems we most commonly face can be broken down into two basic categories: problems of attention and problems of consumption. Each requires a different solution.

You can find a lot of writing on problems of attention, it’s the more obvious and shiny problem. Cal Newport has done a lot of good writing on how he approaches Digital Minimalism and Deep Work . But while you hear a lot of complaints about “consumerism” in some circles there doesn’t seem to be as many good solutions about how to handle problems of too much consumption. Writing on personal finance, health/wellness, and non-digital minimalism get at aspects of this class of problems but the solutions usually only apply to that niche. Minimalism probably gets closer to an overall philosophy for handling these kind of problems but is only going to appeal to a certain subset of the population.

So I propose rather than focusing on attempts of absence and avoidance that we need to focus on building up the meaningful things in our life. If your life is filled with an abundance of meaningful activities in a day, you won't have time to doom scroll or comfort eat.

What exactly a full meaningful life looks like is something beyond the scope of this post and it's probably too simplistic. But I think it's pointing in the right direction. I'll likely be doing more writing on this topic in the future. But keeping the frame of Problems of Too Much in mind can help us pin point the right way to navigate these new problems of our times.