Borders and Trackers
Planning an update for Macrowhisper, thoughts on lazy discipline for creatives, life advice from strangers online, window borders for focus, habit tracking in Craft, and a few app discounts.
Hey guys, here’s some stuff that stood out from my previous week.
On Proxies
This past week, I found myself focused on two main things. First, I’ve been working out how to build a more reliable task management system in Craft—more on that later. But the other thing that’s been keeping me busy is something I didn’t expect: tinkering with Superwhisper and another update for Macrowhisper. I thought those macros were already in a good spot, but I started experimenting with a new idea—a proxy server for Superwhisper. In simple words, this is a workaround that lets you use any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint with the app for AI processing. I’ve already got it working with services like OpenRouter, and I think this could open up a lot of new possibilities.
For now I’m thinking about turning this into a small Swift helper app. It’s a totally new area for me to explore, but I’m trying to make this simple for users. I’ll probably need to update some parts of the setup guide well. Still got a long way to go with this. I’m still testing, but it’s up and running, and I’m looking forward to sharing more about it.
On Lazyness
Last week, I read a blog post by Austin Kleon that gave me some insights. He talked about Hanif Abdurraqib, who calls himself “lazy but disciplined.” Hanif says he’s the kind of person who would rather do nothing if left alone. But he also says he’s very disciplined, and that discipline comes from the things he loves, especially music and writing. Now, what I found interesting is this idea of “joyful extraction” that motivates him to go against his natural behavior. He basically says that he has an “internal archive of excitements” which he lets sit for a while. When he’s trying to get those ideas out, it’s not so much about forcing himself to work, but it’s about the fun of seeing what will come out if he just sits down and does something. He’d rather chase after a new “revelation” that may appear while doing something.
I definitely can relate with trying to build habits around exploring curiosities, inspiration, or seeking revelations. And I also love that idea of having an “archive of excitements.”
“I can be in opposition to my inherent laziness, and build a discipline around, not even the work of writing, but the work of joyful extraction. And to present it like that, and to put it like that, offers me a better runway to it. And I cannot stay in bed, because I would much rather be in pursuit of some revelation that might arrive to me in the process of doing this work. So that’s how I act in opposition to my own laziness.”
On Phrases
Some days ago I came across a Reddit thread full of phrases “people heard only once but that stayed with them forever.” It looks like the post is gone—apparently deleted by the moderators (no idea why). But I can still see the post so here’s some of the ones that stood out the most for me. A few pieces of wisdom from strangers on the internet.
“Don’t confuse being needed with being valued.”
“You can’t un-ring a bell.”
“Don’t believe everything you think.”
“Experience is the hardest teacher because it gives the test first and the lesson afterwards.”
“You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to.”
“Attack the problem, not the person.”
“Not everyone you lose is a loss.”
“Grief is just love with nowhere to go.”
“If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.”
“It was a mountain to cross, not carry.”
“It was a lesson, not a life sentence.”
“Just because you’re good at suffering doesn’t mean you have to.”
“Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
“Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a long time making it.”
“Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.”
“The less you say, the more people remember.”
“Actions tell you who people are, words tell you who they want to be.”
“You don’t want to die, you just want your life as it is to change.”
“When an old man dies, a library burns.”
On Borders
Last week I came across a Reddit thread about this little app that adds borders to your active window. While testing it I ran into a couple of bugs, so I sent some feedback to the developer (bugs were fixed in a few days!).
Testing that app got me thinking about another similar app I tried before: JankyBorders. I’d installed it a while back but ended up uninstalling it because it was—again—just too buggy at the time. Funny enough, it’s actually way more popular now. So I decided to check back in just to see. And, wow, the improvements are huge. It feels great to use now. I’d say this one is a bit more for advanced users—it requires a command-line install with Brew and all that. For context, I use Yabai as my window manager, and Yabai has this feature where the window under your mouse pointer gets focus, which is super handy. But it’s easy to lose track of which window is actually active, especially when if my cursor vanishes on me.
All that to say that I’m enjoying JankyBorders, but for a simpler alternative, you can check out the BorderMe app mentioned above. For anyone who likes a little extra clarity/focus on their windows, it’s worth a look.
On Habit Tracking
For a long while already, I’ve been on the lookout for a good way to track my habits. I’ve journaled daily for years—Day One has been my go-to for that—but habit tracking always felt a bit clunky. I tried making a template inside Day One, and kept tracking habits there for a couple of years, but tables there never quite worked for me. Last year, I started using Hello Habit, and honestly, it was simple and solid. I liked that it let me track up to five habits for free, gave me enough data and stats, and didn’t bombard me with emojis like many of these apps tend to do. Still, it felt too disconnected from the rest of my workflow.
In the last several weeks I’ve been experimenting a lot with Craft and a few days ago I finally tried building my own habit tracker using its collections feature. It turns out, Craft is much more flexible for this than Day One, I can see stats for different views, filter out data by week/month, etc. I am still planning to connect this tracker back back to Day One (via its URL scheme) for a weekly review entry. It feels like the best of both worlds.
By the way, Craft is running a pretty nice recurring 50% discount right now because of their new Readwise integration. If you’re curious, you can use the code READWISE50 at checkout—on their website, not the app store—and here’s my affiliate link: Craft (I’d be grateful if you use this to access the site). I could be wrong but I believe you can make use of this discount even if you are not a Readwise user. Just thought I’d share in case you’re also trying to tidy up your digital routines.
On Design
Since I’m on the topic of app discounts, I want to give a shoutout to Brilliant Design (previously called Bananotate). I use this app all the time—whether I’m doing live presentations, recording videos for the channel, or just messing around with screenshots and quick design tweaks. Even though Brilliant Design is still pretty new, it’s already become one of my most-used tools. The team is incredibly responsive; every bug I’ve reported has been fixed, and I’ve actually seen a lot of my own suggestions make it into the app.
You might find that the free version covers everything you need but right now, they’re running a major discount through the end of May to celebrate a big new update with a bunch of new features. Honestly, I keep Brilliant Design running on my computer all day—it’s just that handy for zooming in, grabbing screenshots, adding annotations, or making something visual on the fly. Super recommended.
On Cinema
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024). I’ve never been much of a gamer myself, but still found this documentary film very relatable at the human level. Synopsis: The secret life of a young World of Warcraft gamer is vividly reimagined when his online friends contact his family after his death.
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