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Every now and then I encounter a new word that I’ve never heard before. Or need to memorize the shopping list, a phone number, a date, or a fact. In school I didn’t have any system to do that other than just read the information as many times as needed for it to stay in my head until it is no longer needed. But as I grow older, I want to retain the information for much longer.
Initially when I first saved it to the queue I thought the book would be about thinking, how to argue, how to read books and news. I didn’t even read the description of the book before I started listening to it. And boy was I pleasantly surprised by the contents. Topics ranging from the formation of the Universe, black holes and their event horizons, information and knowledge theory,…
Updated: 29 December, 2022 I’ve been baking sourdough bread on and off for almost 7 years now. And during those years there were so many failed attempts that made me rage quit the whole process and throw my starter in the bin, only to calm down few months later and start from scratch. I tried to be systematical and change ingredients and processes. I used different flours: all brands of…
Impressions I enjoyed listening to this book. It keeps you hooked to the story and has several plot twists. How I discovered it? It was suggested by the audiobook app that I use. After listening to too many self-development books I decided to take a break and enjoy some fiction. And why not listen to a novel with a good rating. Summary + Notes Apart from an interesting narration that I thoroughly…
Birthday It’s been the 2nd time I celebrated my birthday with friends since I became 18. And yet again it felt weird, scary, and unnecessary until we actually met. We first went to the escape room after which spent the evening in a local pub chatting on random things. Sports A colleague of mine started a challenge in Strava in order to get everyone moving. And surprisingly it worked. Not…
Recently I realised that I put too much attention on the negative things completely ignoring big and small wins. As a result life seems like a never-ending misery. Yet I have a lot to celebrate. Just not in April.
Appearance on the TV Out of curiosity and willingness to experience what it’s like to speak on the television, I went to talk about anti-money laundering and Salv on the “Morning Coffee” programme on ERR. This is a local TV station broadcasting in Russian. I had about 5 minutes of fame during which my heart was beating like crazy, yet after watching the recording myself it looked…
Impressions This has been my first fiction book after a long pause, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. As a university student I remember reading Arthur Clarke’s novels and dreaming of the future, what it would be like. And The Time Machine brought me back those memories again. I also loved the almost long-lost feeling of not wanting to stop reading because it was so interesting. The book raises…
I was hesitating whether I should write my monthly report again or not. This time it was for a completely different reason. February turned up to be one of the lowest point in my life emotionally. In the beginning of the month I contracted Covid from my daughter who got it in the kindergarten. Almost by chance I decided to make a rapid test because I didn’t sleep well during the night. And…
January has been full of events, big and small. A dog which almost happened. One of my big lifetime dreams since childhood has been to have a dog. First my parents didn’t allow to have one. In fact I think I didn’t even ask or insist much, maybe once. We had a very modest income in the family, and there wasn’t much left to feed another family member. Then I grew up and went to…
This one is very late, and since yet again I haven’t taken any notes of what’s been happening in December, I have already forgotten everything. To be frank, there hasn’t been much to talk about either with one notable exception: I was asleep at 11 in the evening. I also started taking more daily notes of some thoughts using Day One app on the phone. I was sold by the reminder…
The book in 3 sentences The history of scientific discoveries is very exciting and is built on the work of hundreds of people. Einstein didn’t come up with his theories out of nowhere, he was standing on the shoulders of others before him. So did Faraday, Curie, Feynman, and every other scientist. One of the biggest reasons driving scientist is the desire to figure uncover the ways nature…
Work It’s been two months now since I’ve started worked full-time in another place while also supporting and continuing to build shipit . Having a new job is already stressful enough, but having two jobs in addition to a family with two children is… Well, it’s really hard. On my new job I’m learning a completely tech stack on top of a fairly complicated business…
October was the first month when I had to leave full-time development of shipit and move to another job. I am now a product engineer at Salv which helps companies beat financial crime. As unfortunately happens with many startups, shipit somewhat failed financially. In the past year being the only full-time employee also had its toll on me: depression and anxiety, personal pressure to improve the…
A while ago I went to the movie theater to see Dune . I quite liked the film but wasn’t blown away by it. In school I played the game on my Sega Mega Drive. However after the cinema experience I had the itch to read the novel and learn more about the characters. After all, there are a lot of important things that are in the book but are always missing from the screen adaptation. And boy was…
I haven’t read this book until the end, and finished roughly where the movie ended. This is not because it’s not worth the time or not interesting at all. On the contrary, the book is way more thoughtful and exciting than the movie. The reason I took the book in the first place was to read on the topic of upbringing children. How royal children are raised and what they are taught. What…
The book in 3 sentences Explore your local environment. There are way more edible plants just next to your home than you can imagine. Lacto-fermentation is not limited to sauerkraut only but can be used to make roots, non-dairy cheeses, drinks, and much more. Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? I’ve been following foraging and fermnetation…
September was all about job interviews and a bit of travelling. Job After being out of the job market for nearly a decade (I got jobs via personal connections), this month I started actively looking for work. It’s a weird feeling because all those years I’ve been interviewing people myself, and now I had to switch sides. Turns out we currently live in the golden age of software…
While this is not a full blog post, I wanted to remember the motto of the Royal Society: “ Nullius in Verba ” which in Latin means “Take nobody’s word for it”. These days this phrase is more important than ever and critical thinking seems to be the lot of minority as neither schools nor universities teach that.
Public speaking Probably the biggest event for me this month was me speaking on the local developers meetup . It’s been almost 2 years since I took public speaking course, and thanks to all of the lockdowns I haven’t been able to practice these my skills. After much hesitation I sent the proposal and it got accepted. Having gone through the learning part before, I prepared the slide…
Flyboarding Probably the most memorable event of July was me trying flyboarding. It’s a type of water sports where you put your legs into a board with two pipes that blast water. This water is pumped through the pipe connected to a water jet, and as a result you can hover over the water. Before the event I was somewhat nervous: who wants to spend 20-25 minutes constantly falling into the…
Math course A while ago I have signed up for an online Maths course. I’ve been thinking about getting back to university to study maths for the past 2-3 years, and eventually decided to refresh the knowledge by taking the free course. It started in June and after the initial assignment I dropped out. Why? The curriculum is really interesting, and so are the teachers. In the first week I…
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Asked on Twitter for book recommendations on social engineering for complete beginners, and this came out on top. How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing
These days paper is not the only medium one can use to “read” books. There are e-book readers like Kindle. There are audio books from services like Audible. There are apps on the phone to read books. And there are apps which can read you e-books. So saying that you’ve just read a book might not be technically correct which is why I opted to used the word “consume”. I…
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Like Letters To a Young Poet , I discovered this book in a hacking manual. How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Like Letters To a Young Poet , I discovered this book in a hacking manual. How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Like Letters To a Young Poet , I discovered this book in a hacking manual. How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2
This isn’t a book per se but rather a collection of letters that Rainer Maria Rilke wrote Franz Kappus, a 19 year old young man who was about to go to the army. The whole collection is available online . I listened to an audio version of this book, and after finishing it its contents quickly perished. Yet, I enjoyed listening it without remembering a thing. I bought a paper version of this…
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences This is a book in short Highlight number two Highlight number three Impressions Was it good? Was it bad? What did I feel? What I liked How I discovered it? Via reference from another book How it changed me it made me more anxious it made me happier My top quotes Quote 1 continuing This is quote number 2 Summary + Notes this is a note
The book in 3 sentences TODO TODO TODO Impressions TODO How I discovered it? I listened to an episode of Naval’s podcast where he discussed innovation with Matt Ridley. From their conversation I learned about another book of Matt about the genome which excited me and prompted to read it. How it changed me TODO TODO My top quotes TODO Summary + Notes TODO
Birthday celebration My last birthday celebration happened when I was 17 years old. I must say that the last as it was organized by me where I actually invited friends to come. Since then my friends and family did congratulate me, and did celebrate it with me every year, but it was always triggered by them, not me. I have a weird relationship to this “special” day which feels nothing…
April wasn’t that much different from March, however few events worth mentioning. Coffee machine I bought an espresso machine. For a person who hated coffee his entire life this is a big thing. I never understood the obsession with which people drink it. Occasionally I forced myself to drink it during some social meetings or when I needed to work but was about to fall asleep. And every time…
With Google killing its Reader an era ended for me. I loved its old design and couldn’t get used to the new alternatives. As a result, I stopped reading blogs via RSS for some time. There was also a problem of information overload: too many new posts, sort of like an infinite scroll in Facebook or Instagram. Eventually a lot of interesting people I follow started creating channels in…
It’s been 6 months since I started it semi-actively. Between work, two kids, and all of the isolation I’ve managed to find maybe an hour of time every month to work on it. That doesn’t bother me much as I didn’t set any deadline expectations, but from time to time I still sigh and think about it. A while ago I had a chat with a friend who told me the following:
I was hesitating whether I should write anything for March or not. In the end I decided to actually write a few lines. March was completely neutral. Nothing happened. Nothing worth mentioning. Just life. That’s it.
I was hoping that the biggest event of February would be puppy school, but Covid took the lead bringing down both myself, and my whole family after me. After months of light isolation and very few meetings with family and friends, I decided to go to a Krav Maga group training. It was hell of a physical training. Ten minutes after the start I could barely catch my breath, and only half an hour…
Every now and then I keep hearing the phrase “crossing the Rubicon”, yet I have never actually thought about its origins and meaning. In “Meditations: a new translation” Gregory Hays mentioned that event and explains it. Here is an exerpt from Wikipedia: Julius Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon river in January 49 BC precipitated the Roman Civil War, which ultimately led…
The moment I stop taking notes and leave writing this blog post for a week or two, all my memories of the past month events vanish. Partly this is because nothing big happens, and the life is pretty much the same. With a young kid every day is almost a groundhog day. Luckily, I can point out few events that made this month stand out a bit… About 5 years ago I moved back to Tallinn from…
Last week I launched shipit (a tool for product managers to help plan and manage their product) on Product Hunt for the second time. I hesitated whether I should do it or not, but the results were very unexpected. I spent nearly two weeks preparing the first round, reading about the timing, the importance of famous hunters, your first comment, and the support of community. I failed to find someone…
Few years ago there was a mass-shooting in San Bernardino. FBI seized the phone of one of the shooters and asked Apple to decrypt it. Apple refused citing the protection of its users not matter what. Ask any person on the street or among your friends who is right here, and the would most likely side with the FBI. After all, a person who massacred 14 people by definition cannot have the right to…
It looks like December has been the most fruitful and event-rich month of the year. Dog I’ve always wanted to have a dog, and about 4 years when I realized things are going sour with my finances, and the investments I made are going to require most of my money, I had to put the idea of owning a dog away. Since few months ago after I got rid of that project, the thought of owning a dog…
Another monthly update that I wanted to write in the beginning of the month before forgetting everything. Life with two small kids is becoming more and more complicated. Funny how the opinion on 1 vs 2 kids changes from meh, that’s easy, and I have lots of energy and free time, and we can have a third kid in the first month. Then in the second month things start to settle down and you have…
What happens when something drags you for so long that you forget what the normal life looks like? When you have a constant buzz in your ear, or a never-ending pain in the shoulder, you get used to living with that. Likewise I got involved in an extremely bad investment 5 years ago that changed the course of my life considerably. I got invited by a family friend to participate in a project, and I…