Happy Sunday morning everyone. I suggested last week that the dreary days of January were starting to catch up with me. I was wrong last week though — the dreary days are for sure hitting me this week. My Christmas credit card statement was due this weekend. Blue Monday is right around the corner. This is simply not a good time of year.
I hope everyone’s spirits remain as high as possible right now.
It’s also the time of year when folks start to look to March and April and ensure they have their financial ducks in a row. It was an incredibly intense year for taxation in Canada, with a slew of rules being implemented by CRA but not officially passed in the House of Commons, and a whole host of unhappy clients who acted on rushed advice given at the time. I’ve never felt more unsure of a government’s proposed tax legislation and I don’t know how citizens are supposed to act responsibly with such uncertainty in place. Please be patient with us humble beancounters.
Below are a number of fun links to immerse yourselves in.
No Time
Chris Hannah is (was) in the early stages of being a father and quickly realized the dramatic changes a little one introduces:
I became a father just over four months ago. While that is one of the best things that's ever happened to me, it means I have less free time to spend on the less important things.
…I don't want to be negative though. It's just a fact that I have less time to spend on these things and that I also want to spend less time on them. I have much more important things people I want to spend time on. But it does mean I post less to my blog, which is something I want to change.
I appreciate this. Immensely.
It’s truly wonderful how quickly those little ones take the attention off you and put your attention squarely onto us. Suddenly, your me-time matters a lot less than the we-time. Your habits change, your spending changes, your eating changes. That 40-year-old dad bod that you’re told to avoid at all costs? It becomes the easy solution to getting a few additional minutes of sleep before the cascade of hysteria and getting out the door for school.
Being a father is the greatest blessing in the world. Even if it means losing every extra second of me-time.
A more recent Chris Hannah post backs this up:
A younger version of myself would laugh at what I'm about to say. But if there's one thing that I can take from last year, it's that becoming a parent is the greatest thing a human being can do. Who would have thought?
Amen brother.
Simply Piano
I posed this question on Mastodon this week:
What is the prevailing wisdom: A child who spends hours a day playing the piano while reading the music from an iPad. The iPad app somewhat gamifies the piano playing experience. Is this screen time? Is it harmful? Is it an amazing way for a child to spend their time?
Our oldest daughter has really picked up an enjoyment of the piano. She regularly plays for at least an hour a day, has started to pick up the right finger form, and has started to play from memory in front of grandma and grandpa. It’s seriously remarkable to watch, and I’m so proud to see her dedicated to the practice.
But the flip side: After that hour of practice, she comes upstairs incredibly moody. She has stopped most imaginative play with her younger sisters. And depending on the time of day, I may not even be allowed to look at her while she’s practicing without her glaring at me.
Is it because it’s an iPad? Is the screen time harmful to her eyes? Should we just let her continue to play and play and play? (This is my position; my darling wife doesn’t fully agree.)
Being a parent is so hard sometimes.
But that’s all a digression — the link noted above is for the best iPad piano app on the planet. Simply Piano listens to the piano while you’re playing and matches that with the notes on the screen. It knows when you’ve hit the right note and when you haven’t. Plus, it adds some gamification to the piano learning experience and sucks you right in.
The app requires a pretty expensive annual fee. But the UI is fantastic, the practice is addictive, and the songs are fun. This is one of the best iPad apps we’ve purchased for our family this last few years.
How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area
Jason Roberts:
When you pour energy into a passion, you develop an expertise and an expertise of any kind is valuable. But quite often that value can actually be magnified by the number people who are made aware of it. The reason is that when people become aware of your expertise, some percentage of them will take action to capture that value, but quite often it will be in a way you would never have predicted.
Jason later goes on to define and even provide a formula for increasing your luck surface area.
A good chunk of this also involves some time, or at least consistency. You have to develop that expertise first before your luck surface area begins to expand.
Really, this entire thing can be summed up to building a network. The more of an expert you are, the more folks will find you (assuming they are able to find you). The more you say “Yes” to those folks, the bigger your network, and the more serendipity that will come your way.
There are a ton of people online whose core advice is to “Just say no”. I respectfully disagree. You don’t build a legacy saying no to people. You don’t build a network saying no to people. We were put on this earth to serve others — serve God first, of course, but in so many ways that can be done by serving others — and serving doesn’t happen if you say no all the time.
Build a network. Say yes. And take nothing for granted. This is how you build a lasting legacy.
The Second Cup
- Nintendo Switch 2 — First-look trailer — (Nintendo)
– I have never pre-ordered a gaming console, but this looks like an insta-buy to me. I’m so excited to show my daughters some of the funnest games I grew up playing as a kid. - Notion Faces — (Notion)
– Whether this is a gimmick or not, this app from Notion was a ton of fun to tinker with. A few of the folks in our office now have a Notion Face rather than a simple couple of letters to denote their profile photo. - Deep Roots, Hard Looks, and Change — (Permanent Equity)
– Lots to unpack in this article, but my main takeaway was the effectiveness of a traditional board member. What dismal numbers. - 95 hours on Canada’s BEST train! (Vancouver to Toronto on Via Rail) — (Kara and Nate)
– If you can find a spare — divides 95 by 24 — 4 days, then this trip is probably a lot of fun. But 4 days and thousands of dollars more when you can fly from Vancouver to Toronto in 6 hours? I don’t get it really. - The Max Stand
– This is the coolest AirPods Max stand I’ve seen on the internet. At this price, I just about have to have it. If only I could figure out why my AirPods Max are crackling when ANC is active. (Hat tip, Marius.)
Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.