Craft, Docs, and Content
Thoughts on the Craft of Writing, Docs and Manuals with Mintlify, A Bio Kind of Novel
Hey guys, here's a few things that stood out from my previous week.
On Novels
I find myself reading articles or texts without knowing how they ended up in my reading list, but it's rare for entire books to be like that. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a novel, "Negar la Cima". It’s a biopic/character study of a guy who loves climbing mountains and how this passion shapes his life. The book follows his adventures and portrays how—in the end—his whole worldview changes due to the dangers of climbing and a critical experience that nearly pushed him to death.
I thought it was a very good book! Even though I’ve never climbed mountains or practiced extreme sports, I found it very relatable. The author's journey pulled me in in a way that few novels have done recently. It transported me to a different world and let me experience things I'll probably never experience in real life, and I really appreciated it.
After finishing the book, I searched for information online and found nothing—just that one link above. Man, I never thought it'd be such a mysterious novel and couldn't find anything else by the same author. Oh well.
On Writing
After finishing the novel above, I started reading The Getaway Car by Ann Patchett. It’s a memoir about the craft of writing. It's super light, very easy-to-read, and yet it's full of wonderful and inspiring insights. I love how it is like a conversation with a friend who is simply sharing experiences and lessons she's learned over years of writing practice. I’m really enjoying it—I've only been reading for a few days, and I'm almost done!
If you’re into any form of creative writing, this book is definitely worth checking out. I haven't finished it yet, but I can highly recommend it already. Here are a couple of highlights that have stuck with me for days already.
Highlights:
Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft.
I believe that, more than anything else, this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can’t write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself.
It’s a wonderful thing to find a great teacher, but you also have to find him or her at a time in life when you’re able to listen to, trust, and implement the lessons you receive.
On Highlighting
If you haven't seen this already already, a few days ago I shared this post where I cover some methods I currently use for gathering insights from video & audio content. Useful for anyone interested in personal knowledge management.
Extract Knowledge and Insights from Video Content: 3 Approaches
Hey everyone! I want to share how I extract knowledge from video content as part of my knowledge management system. I mainly do this with YouTube videos, but these methods also work for audio files and locally stored videos.
On Mintlify
I've been invited to contribute to the documentation of Superwhisper and in order to do that I've spent a couple of days trying to get familiar with Mintlify. Man, I had no idea something like this existed and now I'm wondering if I should have gone this route to write the docs for some of my most complex Alfred workflows. Once you get past the whole Git & making contributions part of the workflow this doc-builder is actually super handy! There's a free tier that I may explore further in the future.
In any case, I'm currently compiling common questions and issues that Superwhisper users encounter. If you’re a user and have any feedback about something of the application that feels unclear or confusing, please let me know. Your input would really help me in addressing these concerns in the docs, and I believe it could benefit other users as well.
On Cinema
The Girl with the Needle (2024). I saw that this one was nominated for an Oscar for the Best International Film and decided to watch it. Wow, beautiful film—definitely a masterpiece in every sense.Synopsis: Struggling to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen, a newly unemployed and pregnant young woman is taken in by a charismatic elder to help run an underground adoption agency. The two form an unexpected bond, until a sudden discovery changes everything.
Chime (2024). A short film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, though just 45 seconds long, captures everything that defines the style of this director. It's very good, moody, atmospheric, and full of mystery—almost like a psychological thriller. Synopsis: A chef's life is disrupted by a chime that brings with it an increasing sense of dread.
If you liked this you may also enjoy some content I have up on my YT Channel! I don’t hang around social media a lot, but when I do I’m on IG or Twitter. You can also check out some of my online classes, listen to my music, or in case you haven’t already, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Thank you for reading!