Now
What’s happening right now, as of February 11th, 2024.
In a nutshell, I am:
- finally going through the course Programming Languages
- working, but with more joy
- studying Estonian
- reading
Programming Languages
This is a course I first enrolled in some five years ago. It’s extremely interesting and well-taught, but also the kind of endeavor that requires serious dedication, offering sublime but delayed gratification and teaching the weirdest languages ever to make a point that the language doesn’t matter because the concepts are universal. One of its claims is that it teaches how to pick up any languages efficiently, which is a skill I’ve been after for most of my career. Plus, the third example language is Ruby, which happens to be the language I use at work. I’m through with Week 3 and two homeworks in, and I’m hooked.
Work
I’ve been working in Glia for almost 4 years now. It’s my longest tenure in my career to date. I still find it very rewarding.
Studying Estonian
This is going quite slowly, but I’m going to ramp it up soon. For now I’m in maintenance mode, which means Do flashcards every day & add new ones now and then. I’m taking the words from the list of words a student aiming at B1 level is expected to be familiar with, made available courtesy of the excellent people from the Eesti Keele Instituut and called Eesti keele B1-taseme sõnavara. It’s a lot of words.
Sports
This has become a bit of a problem. I’ve become inconsistent starting in December between being sick for prolonged periods and then actually becoming lazy (it’s been hard to jump back on the horse). What’s more, I feel like I should do something about my back, that hurts often. For these reasons, I’ve come up with a plan: I’m seeing a physiotherapist to finally figure out which sports are kosher and which ones are better avoided, and I’m also going to buy a bike so that I have an alternative to both weights and running. It’s gonna be a great summer.
Books
I’ve lived a few months without book-centered social media, and I feel pretty well. The minor nuisance of forgetting what I’ve read and what I want to read is worth the peace of mind.
Me
This is a (still) recent picture of me, taken by my friend Sergei in our office:
In March 2023 I had a laser surgery and removed my glasses. The best part of it? I enter in coffee shops in winter and don’t have to spend the first couple of minutes cleaning my glasses turned foggy for the temperature change.
Acknowledgments
Credit goes to Derek Sivers for the idea of the Now page.