This has been my office for the week. Greetings from Jamaica!
After nearly a year, I finally got an invite to Bluesky. You can follow me there at @chrisfoley.bsky.social.
Finished reading 2023: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami 📚
Finished reading 2023: Life Ceremony: Stories by Sayaka Murata 📚
Each of these stories had a twist, either about the society in which the characters live, or the nature of the narrator’s way of looking at the world. Lots of things to think about with the nature of identify, what sides of ourselves we show to others, and what we take for granted in society.
At the Scriptus pen show in Toronto. 🖋️
Currently reading: Life Ceremony: Stories by Sayaka Murata 📚
Finished reading 2023: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (thank you @Munish for the recommendation) 📚
On a quick break. Then into the studio for four hours of teaching.
Currently reading: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 📚
Finished reading 2023: Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford Worlds Classics) by Epictetus 📚
This was a long read, as most good philosophy books are.
The weather continues to be glorious. This is a few blocks from where I live.
These free libraries have been popping up in our neighborhood. It’s always fun to take a look at the titles when I’m walking.
Finished reading 2023: Attention Span by Gloria Mark 📚
One of the more memorable books I’ve read this year. There’s a battle going on for our attention and this book addresses how we might reclaim it.
Currently reading: Attention Span by Gloria Mark 📚
On technology design:
Beyond individual action like restructuring your interface, friction can be designed into the interface that can lead to healthier technology habits–and longer attention spans. Infinite scroll runs counter to promoting goal-directed attention. By cutting it out people would have to do extra work to refresh the feed, and it can make nonconscious actions become more conscious.
Hey, that sounds like Micro.blog…
More autumn colors from my walk this afternoon 🍁
A treasured part of my everyday routine is writing Morning Pages. It gets my brain working, helps me to generate ideas, and sets the tone for the rest of the day. 🖋️
Currently reading: Attention Span by Gloria Mark 📚
Time wasting activities such as social media and games might be useful after all:
You may not have thought that low effort mindless activities could help your work. With mindless activity, we can let problems incubate in our minds, and thinking about other things that do not tax our cognitive resources can help us generate solutions. Because positive feelings are associated with more choices of how to act, if we glean positivity and can replenish from rote activity, then it can even potentially help us be more creative. It can reset our emotions back to a desirable state, and this can perhaps explain why we are so attracted to such mindless activity. It can help us achieve a psychological balance.
Perfect autumn weather today.
