Few weeks ago, I have placed a new little widget on my iOS screen called Pretty Progress, tracking the percentage of time passing through the year. As of writing this paragraph, we are currently at 63% into 2024. Time really flies, and this little widget is a small, at-a-glance reminder of that. It’s also almost four months since the last post here. Let’s get that fixed.
bits of life.
This June has marked the first year of me living in Belgium. In the beginning, my feeling was that getting a “grasp” of the real Belgian experience was not the easiest. Sure, there’s the “surface level” things like pralinés, fries, waffles, trappist beers and multiple statues of peeing beings in Brussels. However, I felt like beyond that, the real, ‘collectively Belgian’ perspective can be harder to grasp. There’s the separate, somewhat similarly sized Flemish and Walloon communities which differ both in terms of language and politics - and there’s Bruxelles sits in the middle, technically being a bilingual capital of the country that ties the two regions together, but practically a dominantly Francophone city with a very strong international footprint (thanks, among other factors, to the European institutions); a hotch-potch of communes that is somehow feeling both over-governed and undergoverned at the same time. Its unique, somewhat distinct character can be further confirmed anecdotally, as I’ve heard of people from Bruxelles that actually feel more “Bruxelloise” than Belgian. In a sense, Belgium feels like the EU in a miniature - with somewhat disparate nations having sometimes (strongly) opposing opinions, but ultimately reaching a consensus a creating a stronger unified group through mutual collaboration.
Last week, my family came for a visit from Czechia, and while we mostly stayed in Bruxelles, we also went for two day-trips: to Brugge and to Gent. For some family members, it was a first time visit to Belgium; for me, it was the first time in Brugge. Both of these cities lie in Vlaandern region: Brugge is a remarkable historical town with winding streets, quaint houses, many water channels and also a home to a family-run shop that seels probably the tastiest chocolate that I have ever tasted (The Chocolate Line - seriously, if you visit Brugge or Antwerpen, don’t miss this). Gent is a lively city with rich history, remarkable cathedrals, and large student population. I’ve been to Gent a few times by now, and I can feel myself liking the city more and more with every new visit. While millions of tourists flock every year to many of the popular tourist cities across Europe, I feel that both Brugge and (especially) Gent are somewhat under the radar, yet immensely enjoyable for all kinds of visitors.
Last weekend, Bruxelles has also hosted the biennial Flower Carpet. The remarkable, 70 meters long and 24 meters wide strip of begonias, dahlias, grass and bark that covers the most beautiful historical square of Bruxelles, The Grand Place. When Googling for “Brussels”, imagery of the flowery attraction is likely to be one of the images that pops out in the tourist guides. While it can also be viewed from the ground, it’s definitely a nicer experience to get a look on it from higher up. On the occasion, tickets can be purchased for both the city hall balcony, as well as for the viewing tower. If you plan to see the Flower Carpet, get those tickets as much is an advance as possible, because demand is really big. All in all, seeing the Flower Carpet was a really nice experience. A picture is included below:
Bruxelles Flower Carpet 2024 photo from above. Source: UPI.comother bits.
Some time ago, I have stumbled upon a HackerNews thread, where people discuss personal side-projects and various “rabbit
holes” that people found themselves spending their free time on. The scope was truly broad: from computing related activities (CAD/3D design, self-hosting homeservers,
working on Markdown interpreters) through hardware (micro-controllers with low-level C, DIY audio and reverse-engineering old synths, building FPV drones) and more (studying
group theory, turning books into digital formats). All of these together form an amazing variety of activities, oddities and fun little experiments with a side of some
potentially very useful learning.
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Seeing lists like these got me thinking: what could be a fun little (or not so little) side-project to pursuit on the side? And that’s not motivated by practicality or acquring new job skills. Rather than that, it’s just to explore something new (and actually have some fun doing so). On top of that, I find the analog-digital dimension of such side-projects important as well - for example, after spending a typical full work day deep in coding or scientific writing, it sounds like a good idea to explore activities to unwind in the real world, or side-project that does not involve the screen.
Being inspired by “the money angle” frequently included in the MoonTower newsletters, I have recently stumbled upon a very interesting take on investing by Andy Constan. Basically, many people aim to actively trade and chase “alpha” to have an edge in extracting value from the financial markets. However, statistically, the most likely way for most people to accumulating wealth is made in the boring, passive, beta way. Chasing alpha can be a fun activity, but should be focused on small, concentrated bets. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose track when investing, and get sidetracked by the traders, and this was a nice reminder of what is likely to be the most successful long-term strategy. I have recently joined a small group of people here in Bruxelles after discussions on Reddit and Discord, motivated by seeking a group of like-minded people for sharing investment tips, advice, thoughts and opinions. First of all, it is actually quite fun to talk markets with real people. Second, I’m somehow finding myself as the most (mid-term) bearish leaning person of the group when it comes to equities (with a thesis similar to that of John Hussman, for example), which makes for some very interesting discussions. 😄
In one of his recent posts titled ‘Writing Online Is A Conversation’, Fred Wilson (AVC) makes the case for sharing and publishing write-ups even when they might feel unpolished, incomplete of half-baked. For my own standards of sharing things online, I actually tend to have a different issue - my innate feeling is that the internet is nowadays completely filled with infinite amounts of content, and therefore one needs to truly “justify” adding to the endless well of information that is our internet, by sharing something helpful, productive, perhaps unique (like this article on the history of the ethernet, which has apparently taken the author months of research). In that sense, these tidbit articles certainly do not tick any of these categories. Well, I have decided to share it anyway, since life and reading is not only about practicality and learning - and I need to actively remind myself of that sometimes.
I’ve also decided to include a quote with these write-ups, something that struck a chord with me, or just felt overall insightful (or perhaps even inspiring).
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For today, Cal Newport on work as a form of craft, and on pursuing a craft vs. just being busy for the longer-term:
You take a craft that you think is important and that you could be good at and that’s interesting to you. And then you really put on your blinders for a decade. Get really good at something important. Everything else will work itself out. Craft is where I impact the world, where I gain autonomy over my professional life. It can provide for the people I care about and give interesting opportunities in my life. It all comes back down to craft. You slow down. Your timeframes become much longer. … Intentional productivity involves having a consistent, coherent philosophy for how I’m going to do my work. This philosophy should be more sophisticated than simply being busy. Being busy is often people’s default because it prevents self-recrimination and assures them that they are trying. However, it’s important to be more intentional. -Tim Ferris interviews Cal Newport, 2024, via MoonTower