Subconscious Portability
The illusion of productivity, creative tension in Joachim Trier's work, memorizing techniques from actors, Claude skills, and individual app volume control
Hey guys, here’s some stuff that stood out from my previous week.
On Overthinking
I read this short piece a few days ago about overthinking and how to deal with it. The whole idea here is that sometimes we get so caught up gathering information that we forget to actually do something with it. I think this connects a lot to productivity and the illusion of doing work when really we’re just preparing to work. It’s an easy trap for ‘us’ knowledge workers to fall into. You convince yourself that you need just one more article, one more tutorial, one more piece of information before you can start whatever project is in your hands. But that information gathering can become its own form of procrastination.
On Creativity
I read this article that covers some of the creative process of Joachim Trier (I loved his latest film Sentimental Value). The piece talks about this tension between discipline and freedom in creative work. Trier says: “There’s always an element of discipline and preparation, on the one hand—and then there’s the stuff you can’t plan for, which often ends up being the key to the finished work, or its most vital and impactful piece.”
This connects back to the overthinking thing in an interesting way. You need structure and preparation, but you also need to leave room for the unexpected. The whole point of developing your own working methods is finding a way to keep those forces in balance. Being disciplined enough to show up and do the work, but free enough to let the work surprise you. Sounds easier than it is, but it’s true. Too much discipline and you kill spontaneity. Too much freedom and nothing gets finished. I’ll say it doesn’t happen all the time for me, but when it does, that’s when the work feels alive.
On Memory and Learning
I watched this video on techniques actors use to memorize their lines. Once in a while I like to look around for techniques that help me learn things better, and this one had some interesting ideas. I know memorization isn’t the same as actually learning something, but it can be definitely be a step in the process.
Two things stood out. First, there’s this technique where you reduce every word in a script down to just its first letter, then try to say everything based on that. It’s like stripping away all the context until you’re left with the minimum, and I thought that was pretty interesting. I’m a big fan of spaced repetition with Readwise, and they have a similar feature where you can hide words or parts of text (in a “fill in the blank” kind of thing). At the same time I got a “beautiful language” tag that I use with highlights where I specifically want to remember phrasing or words. I’ve been using this feature with it. Has my writing gotten better? Probably not haha, but I do notice it helps memory.
The other thing was about rehearsing while doing another activity. Making memorization not the main thing, but something happening in the background. It reminded me of how people say you should keep a central idea at the back of your mind while going for a walk or doing something else. Like shower thoughts. When you’re not actively thinking about something is when it can really start to become part of you.
Some other key takeaways from the video:
Write it down by hand – Transcribing lines forces you to slow down and spend more time with each word. The physical act of writing helps internalize the material.
Rehearse with another person – In my case I don’t have actual lines to rehearse, but I imagine the same concept applies to me talking about something I want to learn with someone else. Or share about it, like I do on the YT channel :)
Last thing before sleep, first thing when awake – Run through your material right before closing your eyes and immediately when you wake up. Makes it the only thing your subconscious works on during sleep.
On Dictation
A few days ago I shared this video on Alter’s dictation features and how to customize it in a way that feels more flexible. This is from my perspective as someone familiar with dictation apps and workflows. I thought I’d make this video because Alter’s dictation features have become pretty capable in the last few months. Even though it’s not a specialized dictation application, it’s still pretty strong compared with some of other big apps in this space.
On Skills
Talking about Alter, their latest update includes a skills feature that apparently many Claude users may be familiar with. After the feature was introduced, I went ahead and watched this video course. I knew nothing about skills before, and while the course is good (that’s why I’m sharing it here) I still have no idea what will I ever use this for. I guess the main benefit might be progressive revealing of context instead of dumping everything into one system prompt/user message. And maybe the portability aspect for sharing workflows.
I’m still exploring and trying to figure out if there’s a use case that makes sense for me. I feel like most what I need was already covered with agents, sub-agents, tools, MCP’s, workspaces, actions. This thing keeps getting powerful and complex.
On Sound
I’ve been a Soundsource user for years and I love it. It’s one of those apps that feels so natural to use that whenever I get a new Mac and don’t have it installed, I feel totally lost. It lets you set individual volumes for different applications and gives you some level of EQ and routing. Until now there was no real alternative to this app. A few days go I found this open-source alternative , so I’m sharing it here in case anyone needs something like this but doesn’t want to pay for Soundsource.
On Cinema
I closed January with 28 watched films! Wow, keeping track of this in Letterboxd does put the number in a different perspective. A few of the latest I’m happy to recommend:
Exit 8 (2025). Reminded me of a bit of Cube (but this one is much lighter). Also reminded me of Symbol (but this one is less absurd). Overall, it takes the same sort of premise and gives a spin. A nice, simple psychological thriller. Synopsis: A man gets lost in an underground passage. He follows the “guide” through the passage, but one after another, strange things happen to him. Is this space real? Or an illusion? Will the man be able to escape the passage?
All We Imagine as Light (2024). A film with lots of small, very poetic moments. It portrays reality in a way that feels almost unreal. Beautiful. Synopsis: In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha’s routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.
Celia (1989). A coming-of-age with a lot of layers. Loss, identity, innocence, regret, friendship, parenthood, politics, and a bunch more… all brilliantly told from the perspective of Celia. Personal. Complex. Beautiful. Synopsis: In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won’t let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she’s the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Toxic (2024). I was shocked by this one. The cinematography is incredible, and everything has this raw, candid, deeply personal feel. On the surface, this is a coming-of-age story about two teens at a modeling school in Lithuania, but it goes way deeper than that. It’s a beautiful and complex portrait about friendship, identity, resilience, and the human condition. Loved it. Synopsis: Dreaming of an escape from the bleakness of their hometown, two teens form a unique bond at a local modeling school, where the promise of a better life pushes girls to violate their bodies in increasingly extreme ways.
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (2025) Wow. What an experience. It doesn’t so much tell you a story as it pulls you into a fever dream. I couldn’t quite “understand” a lot of it, but that’s totally okay. Synopsis: When the mysterious woman in the room next door disappears, a debonair 70-year-old ex-spy living in a luxury hotel on the Côte d’Azur is confronted by the demons and darlings of a lurid past in which moviemaking, memories and madness collide.
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!