What I'm Doing Now

Last updated September 29, 2025

Predominantly working. Working too many hours on too many tasks, but loving the flow of it all. Starting to recalibrate myself so that I’m not just doing tasks, but doing things that matter.

Books: The Pragmatic Programmer, Nonviolent Communication, The Old Man and the Sea.

Enjoying not just the music of Thelonious Monk, but also the surprise that I enjoy it a lot more than I used to. Every time I discover that my appreciation of jazz has deepened, I like to think it’s because I’m a better listener.

Contemplating what to make of the last part of 2025

It’s almost the last quarter of 2025! I am not usually one for quarterly planning, QBRs, insert corporate acronym here. But these days, I find myself in a low ebb, caught in the rushing urgency of the day to day tasks and demands.

I still have a connection to the truly important, but it’s faint. It’s hard for me to see clearly, hard to remember when I’m going about my day. I’m regularly noticing thoughts of “I’m in the weeds,” “I’m underwater,” “It’s hard for me to feel joy.” I don’t want to stay in this story!

My current mood will necessarily color how I’m thinking about life and planning my next three months. I’m acknowledging this for myself before moving on.

Really enjoying jj (Jujutsu), a new VCS

jj is fascinating and I love learning it. Last week, it helped me try out a bunch of different prototypes for a new page architecture.

Highlights:

• It’s like git, but more focused on revisions (aka commits) rather than named branches.
• Merge conflicts don’t block your work. If conflicts ever happen, merges and rebases still succeed, and you’re free to resolve them whenever you’re ready.
• The simple and orthogonal design makes it easy to pick up and delightful to use.

Much of the delight comes from allowing the normal mental model of git to dissolve and seeing a new way to work with version history. Stay tuned for more posts on jj!