Just Do It
Optimizing your Workspace, Thoughts on Printed Photos, An Interesting App Concept, An Update to my Kiki Alfred Workflow, and AI Exciting News
Hey guys! Here’s some of the things that stood out the most from my previous week:
On Quotes
"You're never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready."
—Flora Rheta Schreiber
Are you waiting for things to fall into place, but deep down, you know that it's up to you to take the first step? Then maybe this quote I read this past week can give you a bit of encouragement. I'm guilty of this too. I have lists of projects, big and small, scribbled down somewhere. I've set goals and made plans, yet often find myself standing in my own way. What’s holding me back is not always having a flawed workflow or system. This quote is just a little reminder that sometimes we just need to stop overthinking it and simply “do it.”
On Workspace
Last week, I watched THIS VIDEO that I saved about two months ago. It's all about how your working space affects productivity. It’s one of those videos packed with insights. I mentioned this before: it's been over a month since I decided to upgrade my working desk. I wanted something that would help with ergonomic reasons and improve my posture. Plus, having space to stand or sit during the day was a must. As I rearranged things, I took the opportunity to set up a mini studio for recording videos anytime. After setting up the camera and lights, I realized my background needed some cleaning – which led to even more changes to make everything balanced and organized. This was more like an unexpected side-effect, but being in my office has now become much more enjoyable and leads to significantly more focused time at work on projects. Creating a "flow-dojo" (even if unintentionally) has made a huge difference to my mindset and ultimately, my results.
Here's one of my favorite takeaways from the video:
“Just as CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) classically conditions the bed for sleep, you can condition your workspace for flow. The neutral stimuli become the desk, chair, and computer in your office environment. Pair this repeatedly with focused work, and you can trigger flow using proven triggers such as a specific playlist, caffeine, and light exercise. While in this peak state, immerse yourself in focused work. Over time, your office environment alone will trigger heightened focus and motivation."
On Photography
Last week I read this article about developing photos in a darkroom, which brought back some memories of my own experience. Up until recently, I was still developing negatives and scanning them at home. I've got some Tri-X rolls waiting to be shot and developed whenever I can get my hands on the chemicals (which aren't easy to find here in Mexico). I do miss printing in a darkroom with an enlarger, though.
Here’s a highlight from the article that caught my attention:
“Physical objects tend to last longer than digital artifacts. That’s why printed photography is so important, essential even. Prints last."
Physical prints is one of those things that we can still have even without analog photography. One of my annual traditions is to print my favorite photos using my Canon Selphy CP1300 and then compile them into a Pioneer photo album at the end of every year. Regardless of technology and how easy it is to deal with files and backups, all it takes is one mistake for a file to be gone forever. There's value in physical photos that can't be replaced by looking at a screen.
On Apps
Take this more as a curiosity rather than a recommendation. Last week I discovered THIS iOS APP that tries to bring back the excitement and anticipation of waiting for physical letters, but in digital form. As someone who loves old-school stuff and handwritten notes, I was intrigued by this idea. I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon since I'm lucky enough to live close to all my loved ones. Still, the concept got me thinking: can a digital app really recreate the nostalgic feeling of letter writing? After some quick research I found out abut SLOWLY, another app which integrates a similar idea with social features. Essentially it is an app to make pen pals, and to my surprise this one seems to be quite popular. It’s always refreshing to know that in today’s fast paced world, some of us still enjoy things that take time.
If you're into AI and productivity tools, I discovered ThinkBuddy. As someone who's always interested in seeing how apps integrate AI for everyday tasks and productivity, I wanted to take a quick look at what this app does. What caught my attention was that their feature set—with the exception of GPT 4 Vision—is surprisingly similar to my own Kiki workflow for Alfred. ThinkBuddy might be more user-friendly and visually appealing, but here's something interesting: they're currently offering a lifetime option. Now, here's what I've noticed about deals like this one: if an app doesn't allow users to access AI using their own API tokens, the cost can become too expensive to maintain. I’ve seen many apps end their development because of this. This reddit thread shows that I'm not the only one concerned. The ThinkBuddy team says they're prepared for this, and their lifetime option is only available for a limited time. There’s a catch: they can't guarantee that new and upcoming models (like GPT 5) will be included in the deal after purchase. They simply don't know what future costs will be. It's a fair argument—this question & reply are lost in the thread but I find them very important. If you don't have something like Kiki for Alfred already (which is free if you have Alfred’s Powerpack, by the way), and if you don't have FOMO on the models that may come after the current ones, then ThinkBuddy's lifetime deal might still be very much worth considering. You may want to act fast as it will probably be gone sometime this week.
On AI
If you haven't checked out the latest round of updates for Kiki for Alfred, I just released a video talking about its new integration with Whisper AI, Claude, and Local Models:
I'm still new to open source LLM models, but Meta (Facebook) just released Llama 3 - and it seems like pretty big news for the open source community. As I mentioned in the video above, Kiki now supports models like this one when downloaded through an interface like LM studio. I've been testing it out, and WOW, it's really impressive. While it may not be quite as good as GPT 4 or Opus just yet, it rivals Haiku and GPT 3.5 in some areas - maybe even Sonnet! It definitely is much more natural sounding that OpenAI models, but the best part is that it's totally free and can run offline.
This past week, I got to try out the new Meta AI web—which also allows you to interact with Llama 3, by the way. But what really caught my attention was their image generation model: Imagine. It's incredibly fast! Until now, I've been using Dall-E 3 for most of my image needs, but this new Imagine model is close behind in terms of quality - not quite there yet, but it makes up for it with its speed. What really blew me away was seeing the generation happen right before my eyes as I typed!
On Cinema
LaRoy, Texas (2024). A dark comedy with several turns and twists and turns I wasn’t expecting. Synopsis: A man named Ray discovers his wife is cheating on him and decides to kill himself. Before he can pull the trigger, he is mistaken for a low-rent hired killer. Desperate for a little respect, and with nothing else to live for, Ray decides to take the job — and soon begins to question whether he made the right choice.
Riddle of Fire (2024). Like a hipster version of Little Rascals. I loved it. Synopsis: Three mischievous children embark on an odyssey when their mother asks them to run an errand. On the hunt to obtain her favorite blueberry pie, the children are kidnapped by poachers, battle a witch, outwit a huntsman, befriend a fairy, and bond together to become best friends forever.
Hundreds of Beavers (2024). I was not expecting this one. Not at all. I guess it’s an instant cult classic. Maybe even a masterpiece. I laughed a lot. Synopsis: In the 19th century, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
Late Night with the Devil (2024). I’d say this one was a bit predictable, but I still enjoyed watching it. Synopsis: A live broadcast of a late-night talk show in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation's living rooms.
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