This post will go over updates to two of my ongoing projects. The first was a reading list I wrote. The second is about my ongoing mission to kill my smartphone.
Failure 1: The reading list
Okay so the intent here was to reduce the number of tabs I have open all the time, and make me engage with media critically. I wrote a webpage, linked from my homepage, that used a custom URL handler to open a notes app when I opened a link. Then I read the thing, write down my thoughts, and they get put onto my website. Cool! That bit worked.
But (you can drink your shot now) the problem wasn't solved with a technological solution. In a way, it got even worse. When I added a tab to the list, it put it out of sight and out of mind. If I was unlikely to read it, I was even less likely to read it now. The list grew out of control (see below, but I cleared out most of the list, so you can't see this).
As for the "reading things more critically" bit, I think that worked! Making it really easy for me to write about what I read did make me do that, and that required me to think about it. I liked that. It was good. Despite my problems remembering to use it, I have read/noted about ~100 things in the last year. That's pretty good!
There's some ways I think it's worked. I do have fewer tabso open than usual, and I'm better about closing things that I won't ever read. I also think, in combination of me finally going "oh, my degree has taught me to critically read literature and analyse problems", I am thinking more about what it is I read.
Overall failure rating: 5/10. Still too many tabs, and the tool didn't solve that. I need to edit the tool to be wholly "paste in a link, write notes about it". A bit like Todepond GO.
Failure 2: Killing my phone
Okay so the goal here was "replacing the small very functional computer in my pocket with other, larger, less functional computers". Hmm, well that hasn't happened!
There are lots of ways it hasn't happened. Although I did use an mp3 player for most of the year, and really liked it, my ability to murder headphones got the better of me and my family bought me a pair of nice bone-conduction headphones for Christmas. Unfortunately, they are bluetooth only! So I have to use my phone with them!! Darn! But I can use them whilst doing sports, that's really nice.
I'd say I used my hipster PDA for about 50% of the year, until I went on holiday and ran out of pages and went back to using my phone, leaving spare tabs open, sending messages to myself and so on. I really liked the hipster PDA (aka, notepad) in general, and I'd like to get back into using it. Maybe I will.
I am using my phone more, on average, than ever before, I think. I've gotten really good at navigating around the time limits and other inconveniences I tried to put in the way. I check fedi like, constantly, and bluesky (not logged in, I don't have an account) lots too. But I don't feel as bad about it as I sometimes do.
I still want to use it less. I'd still prefer not to have it. I think I need to put the inconveniences back. Something I do, which works, is inspired by Alifeee's "boneless Wednesday" which is Just Turn The Damn Thing Off Sometimes. I'd like to turn it off most of the time. Leave it at home! You'll manage. That works quite well. I probably leave it turned off like a day a week on average over a week. I'd like to increase that amount.
Instant messaging is an interesting one. I'm doing a lot more in the last few months than usual, and with lots more people. As such, I'm in like a bazillion whatsapp groupchats with local activists/volunteers/runners/art clubs and so on. All these things are great! I'm touching so much more grass! (See my now page for some of that). But all these things need to be organised, need communication, and that means instant messaging. Maybe email will make a come back, but I'm resigned to needing whatsapp for a while yet. I toy with the idea of setting up an IRC server and bridge from everything to that, so I only need one interface to talk to everyone, but that seems far too complicated.
Failure rating: 9/10. Nearly complete failure. I use my phone more, on average, but feel differently about it.
Conclusion
So, I guess the point of this is I failed in two of my goals that I thought I'd focus on. Why? I got busy, they became less compatible with the direction my life was going. I'm not too sad. I'm overall very happy with how I'm living, what I'm up to, how I'm going about it. I would like to have my phone in my hand less, it's weird and I don't like it. I know I get distracted and struggle to regulate my attention, and my phone use is complimentary to that. I feel like I'm maybe moving in the right direction... slowly.
Idk, I don't think this is one of those "good" failures that have an obvious lesson, except maybe changing behaviour is hard, but worthwhile, and worth thinking about. I'm not feeling any self-loathing, or shame, and that's a real positive compared to how I used to be.
A positive is that I've stayed active on this website, and keep adding to it. I'm really happy about that. It keeps on growing :))
If you don't mind, I'm going to close a bunch of tabs, and book a bunch of things into my calendar.
A small update
I have made a few changes to the reading list code. Now there isn't a list, it's just a place to open URLs with the whatdoyouthink handler.
Added RSS to the thunks directory and also main site one.
Added more radio buttons to my radio so I can listen to the radio more yayy.