My server texts me when it needs help

Hey y’all, If you haven't listened to this [week's Mostly Technical](https://mostlytechnical.com/episodes/91-up-to-the-right), there is a segment in there about how I am automating a lot of my life. We usually have good chapter markers on there, so you could probably find the exact timestamp. But this week is no different! I'm trying to take a lot of the fiddly little tasks that I have to do over and over and over and make the computer do those instead. I feel like there are maybe three levels of tasks that need to be done. One is the computer can just do it. That's what I'm trying to automate a lot of, like transcribing podcasts, identifying speakers, that sort of thing, publishing the podcasts on my website, all of that stuff. Then there are tasks that can be delegated, and then there are tasks that I have to do myself. Right now, I'm putting a lot of time and energy into automating as many of the lower lower level tasks as possible. Because I've spent all this time (years!) thinking, “oh, it's just a little task here and there. It's just, you know, 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there,” but then they all start to pile up. If I just took a few days to set up a system that could run without me, the tasks will get done faster and better and I will feel better about it. It's been pretty fun! My server will text me when it needs help, and I can reply to the text with the answer to the question, and then the server can continue working. I'm hoping that the onslaught of minutia that I have to deal with all the time goes down quite a bit. --- ### Thoughts from the week You'll see a lot of tweets down below about content, professors, teaching and AI and that sort of stuff. That's been on my mind this week a lot, as it has been most weeks, recently. I've been thinking a lot about the professor as a potential model for my life. Somebody who studies a lot, cares deeply about their subject, is passionate, teaches well, reads a lot, writes a lot, has a lot of quiet time, and it just frankly seems ideal. Part of me still feels very frenetic with the business in terms of just the normal ups and downs, but there's also this other part of me that feels a sense of peace thinking, "Oh, I'm just gonna focus on databases.” I'm not flitting around from topic to topic. I don't have to care what new AI model was released eight minutes ago. That to me feels very comforting and I think, importantly, feels very congruent with what I want out of my personal and professional life. --- 🎬 **YouTube** **Level up your design with this CSS property** I’m redesigning my personal website with a bold, print-inspired layout and using a powerful but rarely used CSS property to pull it off. I put together a tutorial of how to use shape-outside with floated images to wrap text around custom polygons for a truly standout design. [Watch it here.](https://youtu.be/ynExo2UUFro) --- ### Things I found this week *Just a heads up that each Twitter/X screenshot has a link to the original post if you want to go follow the account.* [](https://x.com/WillManidis/status/1945816843500781606) I feel like this is the end of what has been a pretty long road. I think the internet started this where everything started to look the same. Pinterest did a real number on houses, turning them all millennial gray. Now AI is doing the same with content and design. I'm certainly trying to resist it! I think AI is going to completely consume a lot of top of funnel content. HubSpot has talked about how their SEO dropped like a rock and we're seeing a lot of the same kinds of results coming out. Because you can just ask the AI “how do I write a resume” instead of landing on some SEO blog post. Moving forward I feel like a lot of the focus needs to be on stuff that only you can do or stuff that is different because of your unique experiences and your unique point of view. --- [](https://x.com/BoringBiz_/status/1945668232448184550) This is another one of those "it may not be fair or right, but it is true.” The fact that perception and relationships matter way more than just hard work. You have to understand the rules of the game, even if those rules are unspoken, and you have to play by the rules of the game. Even if they're stupid. You could be the hardest worker on the team, but if your boss wants you to post Slack updates at the end of the week saying what you got done, and you feel like that's stupid and you don't do it… well, your boss is probably going to promote someone else who follows the rules even if they're not technically as hard of a worker as you. --- [](https://x.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1945498665201922390) This is a very fun video about some crazy ideas on how to get rockets into space without just launching them off of the launch pad. --- [](https://x.com/Empty_America/status/1945545713686892587) I feel like the end of a few generations ago could all do stuff like this. Your average American dad could probably build a house back then. By himself. Churchill was a bricklayer. [King Charles could make a mean hedge.](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-59535168) I'm trying to keep my non-computer skills up as much as I can. I do enjoy physical hobbies! [This week I've been building some shelves in my apartment studio](https://x.com/aarondfrancis/status/1945534047515533747) (while trying not to get evicted.) I think it would be fun to take a random class about some of this stuff like maybe pottery or glassblowing or something. --- [](https://x.com/ProfFeynman/status/1945524651826073824) This kind of goes along the same lines as the model capture and AI slop tweet from above. I am finding myself gravitating more and more towards long form and deeper content, both in consumption and creation. I just bought the audiobook, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," because this guy seems like somebody that I want to emulate. He seems incredibly smart, but also very joyful. As I am focusing more and more on databases, this is a professor that I aspire to. --- [](https://x.com/NC_Renic/status/1943950764650770455) Also this. There are a lot of people that are trying very hard to be cool, and I think people should try harder to be enthusiastic and excited instead of trying to be cool. I'm really leaning into this professor thing. Maybe I should go be a professor! --- [](https://x.com/0zmnds/status/1945370312884797619) I've never heard of this guy before, but it captured my eye because it is very similar in style to Gustav Dore. I believe I mentioned several editions back that I bought a Gustav Dore print of The Resurrection of Lazarus and I have that hanging in my office. I will be looking through Franklin Booth's stuff to see if there's anything else that I want to get printed! The way that I get these things printed, just so you know, is I find some high quality file online, make sure that it's out of copyright, and then I just send it to Framebridge, they print it, and frame it for me. You gotta be printing and framing stuff, especially in the office where you spend all your time! --- [](https://x.com/dhh/status/1945602523588649374) DHH was just on a six hour podcast with Lex Friedman, and I'll be honest, I haven't finished it yet because I don't commute to Europe every day. But I do find myself aligned with a lot of his parenting takes, and so when he recommended these books, that was an immediate bookmark for me. I have not bought them or read them, and I'm curious if any of you have yet! --- [](https://x.com/itinerantfog/status/1943343013746380832) Dang it! This is me. This is why emails go un-responded to because if I respond to them, I first have to address my feelings about having not responded to them. Some of this can just be outsourced. I can just have Kelsey (my operations wizard) do a lot of the email responding. And she does! But when I get emails or DMs that require a lot of emotional activation energy, I tend to put them off, and then the activation energy becomes even higher! It’s a brutal loop. This is something that I'm still very much actively working on! --- ### Let's close the loop I send out all this random stuff every week and I often get great replies from people that know a lot more about the thing that I sent, or know about something related. This section is for the things that y'all send that are related to previous issues! (I’m still working on getting the previous issues online, so bear with me there) [](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-brutalist-locations) My old co-worker Taylor and my friend Cassie mentioned that the marble quarry from a few editions ago was also featured in [The Brutalist](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-brutalist-locations). Apparently this is the most famous quarry in the world and I had no idea! --- If you’ve been enjoying the newsletter and think a friend may enjoy reading it each week too, please forward it to them! They can sign up to receive it weekly here: . That’s it for this week! I enjoy reading all of your replies, so if you see something interesting or just have a thought you want to share, please hit reply and let me know. Talk soon, Aaron {{ ENV.unsubscribe\_personal | default: visitor.unsubscribe\_url | hyperlink: "Click here to unsubscribe." }}