Leaving Things Hanging
Thoughts on "The Hemingway Efect," someone playing my music in harp, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, my journey with Macrowhisper and Cursor
Hey guys, here’s some stuff that has stood out from my recent weeks,
On Productivity
Last week, I read this article on “The Heminway Effect” which is sort of a different kind of productivity tip from what we usually hear. The idea that Heminway would stop working right in the middle of a good flow, leaving things hanging, seems counterintuitive to the usual advice of pushing through while you’re in the zone. Normally, we hear about maximizing every drop of creativity during our peak hours, but the approach covered in the text suggests that it may be good saving some of that energy for tomorrow. Yeah, this turns some of the usual narrative on its head.
I admit, I struggle with leaving things unfinished. Open loops make me a bit anxious, and not wrapping up a tasks often keep me up at night. Yet, I can see the value in Hemingway’s method, especially for creative work. Sometimes, stepping away while still excited about an idea can keep that enthusiasm alive, making it easier to dive back in later without burning out. It’s a balancing act, though, and one that might just save us from the dreaded creative fatigue.
Direct Quotes
“The main thing is to know when to stop. […] When you’re still going good and you come to an interesting place and you know what’s going to happen next, that’s the time to stop. Then leave it alone and don’t think about it; let your subconscious mind do the work.”
“Hemingway essentially incorporated self-made cliffhangers into his productivity schedule to maintain his desire to see things through.”
On Music
A few days ago, my wife was browsing online and came across something that really caught me by surprise!. Someone in China did a cover of one of my songs. It was originally for piano, but this girl used a harp. It’s been ages since I released any new music or immersed myself in composing. Still, seeing this was a great feeling. It’s nice to know my music is still out there, reaching some.
Here’s the link. It works best on desktop because if you’re on mobile, it seems to require an app download. If you’re curious, you can always check out more of my music on Spotify. Over the years, I’ve had people send me videos of them playing my pieces. They’ve used my music in short films, commercials, and even modern dance performances (that was pretty cool too!). Man, I really need to find time to dive back into making music.
On C. S. Lewis
Amidst the craziness of recent weeks (more on that below), I found some peace and fun by diving into a novel I didn’t even know I had! The other day, while looking through my bookshelf, I noticed “Till We Have Faces” by C.S. Lewis. Lewis was a childhood favorite—I read “The Chronicles of Narnia” several times. These days, I try to balance reading nonfiction and fiction, but I often struggle to connect with novels. Maybe it’s just having too much on my mind. But this book, even in its Spanish translation, has drawn me back into the world of fiction. It really is so good. If you enjoy stories that blend myth with deep human insights, I highly recommend giving this one a read. It’s been a great escape for me, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me next.
On Macrowhisper
Back in early May, I kicked off an experiment that I thought would upgrade Macrowhisper, my set of macros for Superwhisper. If you’re not familiar, Macrowhisper is something I put together to make life easier when using Superwhisper—my go-to AI Dictation app. I discovered a way to let Superwhisper use any OpenAI-compatible endpoints, like OpenRouter. It all started with me messing around with AI and writing some code to create a “proxy” for Superwhisper’s connection to Ollama’s port. Then, I thought, “Why not turn this into a neat little CLI app I can integrate with the Macrowhisper macros?” I had zero experience doing this sort of thing and thought it would be a good learning experience.
Well, as I dug deeper, this project just kept getting more complicated. As I mentioned above, once I get into the flow, it’s hard to stop, even when things get tricky. But then, after weeks of work, something unexpected happened: Superwhisper itself dropped an update that does exactly what I was working on! Talk about a gut punch. My CLI app got sherlocked even before being shared. I mean, it’s a win for users, that’s for sure, but I felt pretty deflated after pouring so much time and energy into it. But I couldn’t just let it go, so I decided to see if I could still improve the Macrowhisper automations with my work on this. That’s when everything started turning into an even bigger mess, and I had to rethink the whole app structure because it just kept growing.
Most of my code in Alfred workflows and automations until now has come from Superwhisper itself. But for this project I went from using Superwhisper to using Alter, and finally, I caved and went the Cursor AI route. Honestly, I should’ve done that from the start, I just had no idea this project would be this crazy.
Cursor AI was a lifesaver in managing the upcoming Macrowhisper CLI. By the time I jumped to this app I was working on a 6k lines of code file, that I had no idea I could be separated into smaller pieces to keep everything more manageable. Gemini 2.5 Pro “helped” with that, and everything broke, then had to spend days fixing stuff that was already working before.
It’s been a rollercoaster—lots of learning, lots of rework, and plenty of frustration. Interestingly, the “learning” has not been about coding itself (I still know almost nothing), but about using AI and some of these tools. Now, I’m almost through testing and need to write some documentation for this. The toughest parts are behind me, I think. The thought of turning this into a fully-fledged app with a settings panel and more has crossed my mind, but right now, my brain’s had enough. This project has been my world lately, and I just wanted to share what’s been going on.
On Cursor AI
Since I mentioned diving into Cursor for this project, I’ve got to say, it’s been quite the learning curve. But once I got the hang of things, it was way simpler than I expected. The thing is, Cursor doesn’t fully integrate with Xcode by default, so I followed the typical advice: write your code in Cursor and then compile it in Xcode. I know this might sound a bit technical, and I get it—many of you might not be into this. Honestly, same here… I had avoided Cursor until now because it sounded too complicated, I don’t even know all the right terms for all I’ve been doing! But what I’ve found is that with some of these AI tools, as long as you can think logically and clearly express your ideas, then you can get pretty far.
The Cursor trial gives you 150 completions, but I burned through those in just a day and a half, so I ended up paying $20. For that, you get 500 completions, which I thought would be enough to finish this project (I’m at 200 of those, so not sure). I don’t plan on paying for this app on a monthly basis unless another idea pops up, but Cursor has been an absolute time-saver and I do regret not trying it out a month ago when I was just getting started.
I wanted to share this link with you guys about setting up Cursor to track your project files. My project might not be as massive as some “real” apps out there, but this was super helpful.
On Cinema
Watching good films has also been an escape these days.
His Three Daughters (2024). This is a character-focused kind of film where three sisters come together to spend the last days of their father together. It’s a film that totally relies on the personality of these characters, their relationships and interactions. So good! Synopsis: Emotions run high when three estranged sisters reunite in a cramped New York City apartment to watch over their ailing father during his final days.
My Favourite Cake (2024). This film was actually very surprising. It’s a drama that took several turns that I was definitely not expecing. Very moving. Very honest, too. Synopsis: Mahin lives alone in Tehran since her husband’s death and her daughter’s departure for Europe, until an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalize her love life.
Souleymane’s Story (2024). A very relevant film that talks about immigration a little bit, but even more, it talks about the human experience in this day and age. Synopsis: As he pedals through the streets of Paris to deliver meals, Souleymane repeats his story. In two days, he has to go through his asylum application interview, the key to obtaining papers, but Souleymane is not ready.
The Surfer (2025). This one was definitely weird, sometimes just being weird for the sake of its weirdness… and I was all up for it. I really liked it, even though I cannot say that I understood all of it. Synopsis: A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.
Ama Gloria (2023). The best child actress that I have seen in recent films, and—even though the film itself was nice—I’d say that her presence in the film is worth the watch alone. Synopsis: Cleo is six years old, has a myopic look and has been madly in love with Gloria, her nanny, since she was born. When Gloria receives a call and must urgently return to her home in Cape Verde to care for her two children, whom she has not raised, Cleo makes her promise to meet one last time. Gloria accepts and invites Cleo to spend the summer vacations on her island. A last summer that they will spend together, in Gloria’s family, before inevitably saying goodbye.
The Echo (2024). I have seen a few other films from Tatiana Huezo, and I have seen her transition from from documentary to fiction, and now this which is kind of like a docu-fiction. I actually think this is probably my favorite film of hers from what I’ve seen so far. It’s about a family in the middle of the countryside in Mexico. Synopsis: In the remote village of El Echo that exists outside of time, the children care for the sheep and their elders. While the frost and drought punish the land, they learn to understand death, illness and love with each act, word and silence of their parents. A story about the echo of what clings to the soul, about the certainty of shelter provided by those around us, about rebellion and vertigo in the face of life. About growing up.
Friendship (2025). This one was super special. It was both a very good comedy and a very good drama. It’s also deeply human in how it portrays loneliness. I really liked it and spent days talking about it with my wife. Synopsis: Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor Austin, as Craig’s attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.
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!