Cody R. DeHaan

I Bought a Radio

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I recently got a new piece of technology, and it’s got to be my favorite purchase of the last few years.

It’ll probably surprise you to learn that piece of technology is an AM/FM radio. In 2026.

This deserves some explanation.

In my bathroom I’ve had a HomePod mini for several years. I’ve got a lot of Apple products, so it slotted in pretty nicely as a radio and Siri tool when I was getting ready in the morning or winding down at night. It was never perfect, occasionally misunderstanding me, sometimes buffering or unable to respond. I wound up almost exclusively using it to play my local NPR station. I settled on an interaction model that eschewed Siri entirely: tapping on the top center of its touch surface would just continue playing the last thing it was playing.

In a recent software update, that behavior changed. Tapping the top would now play an algorithmically generated station, and saying “Siri, play KUT” would actually play KUT less than half of the time.

I was about to abandon the HomePod mini, when I discovered a technological solution to my technological problem! I could set up a shortcut in Apple’s Shortcuts app called “Play KUT,” and this took many seconds to start playing, but worked most of the time.

Unless I’d recently turned off my Apple TV. Because then what would happen instead is that my Apple TV would wake back up, and set its output speaker to the HomePod mini, but play nothing. And then my iPhone would be stuck controlling the AppleTV with an output source of my HomePod mini, which I could find no way to undo short of turning everything off and back on again.

Does this sound bananas? Yeah, I agree.

What I wanted to do was listen to the radio. What I’d taken on was a complicated web of wireless protocols, streaming services, voice assistants, and software workarounds. And this was all happening within Apple’s “it just works” ecosystem, to someone who adds technology to his life carefully and deliberately.

How did we get here? All of this technology and I cannot listen to a radio station?

So I bought a Sony ICF-506. It is, in my opinion, a handsome piece of technology, understated but tasteful. Best of all, it has a single switch that turns it on. When I slide it to FM, it turns on in under a second, every time. No buffering, “hmm, I didn’t quite get that,” or connection errors. It also has a volume knob. When I want the volume up or down, I turn it proportionate to the change I want, and it responds every time. No guessing which phrasing of “Siri, turn the volume down a little” to get my desired volume. Or gingerly touching a 1cm² area that represents volume down if I get it just right.

The amount of complexity every device has these days, to very minimal benefit in my actual life, is remarkable to reflect on.

What’s my point? I think it’s this: I want the things I use every day to be predictable and reliable. Not most of the time. Not only when Wi-Fi is cooperating and Siri hears me correctly. The radio does that. There’s something about that kind of reliability and predictability that feels almost radical today.

Visual Studio Code + Miniconda + R

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time doing data analysis in R, as well as writing and editing Python, JSON, Markdown, and various other formats. In my search to find a single application that could cover most of my needs well enough, I’ve landed on a setup of Visual Studio Code with Miniconda and R that works really well for my needs. While I’d prefer a more mac-assed mac app, Visual Studio Code is performant, and the flexibility it offers has been a good trade-off for me. I like using conda (via Miniconda) because it manages packages across R, Python, and several other ecosystems I use, without feeling like it’s making a big mess of my system.

This post is a high-level outline of my thinking and the steps I took to get this setup working. Importantly, these steps are all based on my system (an M1 MacBook Pro running macOS 13.1 Ventura), but they should translate to other systems. I’ve assumed in this guide that you’re broadly familiar with installing software on your system and the command line.

Miniconda

First, install Miniconda. You’ll want to download the appropriate installer from conda.io. In my case, I selected the “Miniconda3 macOS Apple M1 64-bit pkg” package.

One preference I’ve got is to keep Miniconda in my user’s Applications folder. To do this, at the Select a Destination step, choose Install on a specific disk… Then select Choose Folder… and select the Applications folder in your home folder. If this folder doesn’t exist, you can create an Applications folder, or choose another location you’d prefer. In my case, Miniconda will be installed in /Users/cody/Applications/miniconda3.

Once installation is complete, you can open Terminal.app and you should now notice that your terminal is prefixed with the (base) environment. I prefer to not have this environment activated by default, so I disable that by running the following command in Terminal.app:

conda config --set auto_activate_base False

Create Conda Environment

There are many ways to set up your conda environments, and you can create these and install packages on an ad-hoc basis. I tend to use one main environment for most data analytics called analysis, which I specify in a file analysis.yml:

name: analysis
channels:
  - conda-forge
  - defaults
dependencies:
  - r-base
  - radian
  - r-languageserver
  - r-tidyverse

The file above is a good place to get started, enabling the conda-forge repository and a few basic packages to get going with this setup. Note that this will install R in your environment as well.

Once you’ve created this file, you can run conda env create --file analysis.yml to create the environment. Note that you may be prompted to install the Xcode developer tools, which you’ll need to do to continue.

Visual Studio Code

Next up you will download the appropriate VSCode for your system—the .zip for Apple Silicon in my case. Unzip the downloaded file, drag the application package to your Applications folder, and launch it.

To install the R extension, click the Extensions tab in the left sidebar, search for R, and click Install. Once it’s installed, you’ll want to set up a few settings to get R set up for your conda environment. Click the gear icon in the R extension pane, and click Extension Settings. Configure the following settings, adjusting for your platform and conda path and environment name:

Enable Bracketed Paste
Rpath: Mac — /Users/cody/Applications/miniconda3/envs/analysis/bin/R
Rterm: Mac — /Users/cody/Applications/miniconda3/envs/analysis/bin/radian
Rterm: Option — Add --r-binary=/Users/cody/Applications/miniconda3/envs/analysis/bin/R

Test It Out

The magic of this setup really comes from using .Rmd files, but .R files are of course supported as well.

Create a sample .Rmd file as below:

---
title: Test File
---

```{r}
summary(iris)
```

If everything is set up correctly, you’ll get a Run Chunk button above the code chunk, and in another pane you will see R launch and run a summary of the iris dataset.

Example of .Rmd file

Installing Additional Packages

When you need to add additional R packages, you can install them using the traditional install.packages() approach, but I recommend checking anaconda.org first. You can search for r packages, such as psych, by searching for ‘r-psych’. If the package is available, you can add it to the dependencies section of your analysis.yml file. Then run conda env update --file environment.yml.

Tip: Check the anaconda.org search results for your architecture. Intel Macs will be listed as osx-64, Apple Silicon macs as osx-arm64, and noarch packages will work on both.

Some packages aren’t available on anaconda, or won’t be available for your architecture, and will require installing through install.packages() in an R session. With Apple Silicon, I’ve run into some problems doing this from a regular R session. However, I’ve found a workaround.

Open Terminal.app, activate your conda environment using conda activate analysis, and launch R with the command arch -arm64 R. You should then be able to use install.packages() as normal.

cody@Codys-MBP ~ % conda activate analysis
(analysis) cody@Codys-MBP ~ % arch -arm64 R

R version 4.2.2 (2022-10-31) -- "Innocent and Trusting"
Copyright (C) 2022 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20.0.0 (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

  Natural language support but running in an English locale

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

> install.packages("lavaan")

Additional Tips

Command Palette

Open the command palette to quickly navigate the app by typing ⇧⌘P (Shift + Command + P) and search for the setting or window you’d like.

Telemetry

I disable telemetry/analytics in apps when there’s an easy option, and there is in Visual Studio Code. To find it, type settings into the command palette and choose Preference: Open Settings (UI). Then search for “telemetry” in the search bar, and switch the Telemetry Level to Off.

Themes

There are lots of themes available by searching the command palette for “theme” and choosing Preferences: Color Theme. There are many pre-installed, but you can also choose Browse Additional Color Themes… from the top to search for more. My personal favorite is GitHub Light Default from the GitHub Theme package.

Fonts

You can also change your editor fonts, of course. I like the SF Mono font from Apple, which you can download from developer.apple.com. Once you’ve installed it, you can add SFMono-Regular to your Editor: Font Family settings in Visual Studio Code.

Additional Resources

Reduce Inputs

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Many of us have been spending more time at home over the past year, and yet this time has also brought about a flavor of exhaustion. The world feels increasingly out of control, and I’ve found that I have allowed a lot more noise into my life than I realize.

It’s easy to get swept away reading about the latest COVID numbers, the political upheaval menacing the nation, or today’s economic frenzy. And sometimes when this gets to be too much, then I switch over to something else, like Instagram or Twitter.

The details may differ for you, but I suspect you’ve experienced this. Some have called it doomscrolling or social media addiction, but I find it more useful to think about all of these things as inputs I’m allowing in my life. This is the stream of information that I consume, allow to influence me, and to take my time.

Some of these inputs help me stay informed and engaged, but there are quickly diminishing returns. The conditions of the past year have made it even easier to allow in low-quality inputs that add to that feeling of being swept away.

I think this is reason people find cutting social media out of their lives can be rather liberating: it’s one way to give you a bit more control over your thoughts and attention.

So I’ve been working to reduce the inputs I allow in. I’m aiming to cultivate a greater sense of intentionality with the things I pay attention to and a clearer focus in how I spend my time.

Drastic changes aren’t necessary, but on days that I silence my phone, check my email less often, and read the headlines only once or twice, I find it much easier to be focused and clear.

Depth Year

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It’s the time of year when many people are bracing for the onslaught of their New Year’s resolutions. I’ve previously written about some strategies that can make these resolutions more effective.

However, this year I’m not setting resolutions for myself. Instead, I’m setting a theme for the year (inspired by David Cain and Leo Babauta). The idea of a theme is to work in a particular direction in your life, and pursue multiple strategies throughout the year that fit within that theme.

I am making 2019 a “Depth Year.” In other words, I am aiming to go “deeper, not wider” in my hobbies, material goods, and focus this year. I think David Cain explained this nicely:

No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to find the value in what you already own or what you’ve already started.

You improve skills rather than learning new ones. You consume media you’ve already stockpiled instead of acquiring more.

You read your unread books, or even reread your favorites. You pick up the guitar again and get better at it, instead of taking up the harmonica. You finish the Gordon Ramsey Masterclass you started in April, despite your fascination with the new Annie Leibovitz one, even though it’s on sale.

The guiding philosophy is “Go deeper, not wider.”

For me, this means reading through my backlog of books before seeking out new material—and when I do want new books, I’ll try the library first instead of immediately buying it. I’m going to build up my current meditation practice, instead of trying new methods. I’m going to avoid buying new possessions unless necessary, because I already have most things I need. I’m going to try to work more deeply, with less time spent on shallow and unrewarding activity.¹ To quote David Cain again:

Ever-branching possibilities make it harder for us to explore any given one deeply, because there’s always more “newness” to turn to when the old new thing has reached a difficult or boring part.

There’s a freedom that I think this theme will bring. It will save me from the inevitable process of picking out a next book, and instead I’ll just move to the next one I already have. It will free me from the habit of looking for new methods to achieve my goals, and instead allow me to focus on honing the methods and skills I already have. And because there’s no rigid resolution, I can avoid a common pitfall: when I fail for a day or week in achieving my goal, I can adapt and recalibrate to work toward my theme, instead of feeling like I’ve failed and giving up.

This is an experiment, and I’m not sure how well my “Depth Year” will go compared to any other year. But having repeatedly failed with any sort of resolution, I’m excited to give this a go.

Intentional Technology

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever picked up your phone, scrolled through your screens of apps like you were looking for something, realized you weren’t, and then set it back down again? I was finding myself doing this all of the time.

I do almost all of my work on my Mac, and I’m rarely far from my iPad or iPhone. I can get around all of these devices at nearly the speed of my thoughts, but this means that when I’m using them, even the slightest distraction can cause me to ⌘-Tab to another window, or swipe to a new app, almost before I’ve even realized it.

Sometimes I’ll be on my computer trying to work, and suddenly find myself in my email client, on social media, or on a news site. And that’s exactly the experience—that I’m suddenly there before I’ve even realized what I’m doing. Or sometimes I pick up my phone to respond to a message, close the Messages app, and before I realize it I’m scrolling through my home screens looking for an app to distract me.

The mindlessness with which I was doing these things really started to bother me, so I recently decided to change my phone and computer setups in order to introduce some friction into this pattern. I wanted to introduce a pause before I jumped to another task, to require a little bit of intention to change tasks.

On my iPhone, I moved all of my apps to a single folder, with the exception of Phone, Messages, and Mail. When I want to use an app that’s not one of these three, I simply pull down anywhere on the screen and start typing the name of the app I want to use. Spotlight has gotten surprisingly good at figuring out what I’m looking for, so it’s a quick way for me to access my apps. My iPad looks the same.

My iPhone home screen

Now, this might seem inefficient, and first it slowed me down. But that’s exactly the point. Now when I pick up my phone, I see essentially a blank slate. This means that instead of seeing a bunch of triggers for distractions, I wind up pausing for a moment to think about what I’m doing. Often I lock my phone again and set it back down, realizing that I was just in an avoidant state or trying to distract myself from what I really want to be doing.

This is similar to my Mac, where I have been using the same solid grey wallpaper¹, and hiding my Dock, in order to bring about a slight pause between thinking about switching away from my work and actually doing it.

This is my macOS desktop, with a solid grey wallpaper and a hidden dock.

I already aspire to some flavor of essentialism or minimalism in my life, and so my devices are already relatively pared down. I try to keep a limited set of useful apps on my devices, and use the built-in apps to the extent that they do what I need them to do. And in the end, I think the slight delay in typing the app name I’m looking for is balanced out by the time I save not mindlessly scrolling through my apps.

These bare screens aren’t meant to be a statement, nor are they going to solve all of my problems or suddenly make me a mindful person. If you try your own method of this, you can use whatever wallpaper you prefer, or have a few icons on your home screen. But this is one step that’s really helped me to use my devices more intentionally.

Apple calls it ‘Solid Gray Pro Ultra Dark’ in the ‘Solid Colors’ section of macOS Sierra’s Desktop Preferences. I created an iOS version you can download. ↩︎

Rewards Programs

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I tend to avoid rewards programs. You know them, the kind that offer you points for spending money.

The reason is that rewards programs are designed to subtly change our behavior in ways that we don’t notice, and I am always trying to be more intentional in how I spend my money.

Rewards may seem worthwhile on the surface, providing cash back or points for things you’re already doing. Get some points for coming in and spending money, and once you have enough of them you can get something for free! It seems like a no-brainer if you’re already shopping there.

Yet these little incentives alter our decisions, making it just a little more likely that we’ll stop and spend some money when we don’t really want or need to. And of course, that’s their purpose: to get us to spend more.

It’s easy to think that we’re immune to this, but I think it’s difficult to not be affected.

This isn’t just rewards programs, though. Advertising emails from stores often make us think about buying things we otherwise wouldn’t, and probably don’t need. Triple points on our credit cards might make us spend a little bit more at the store. And so on.

That’s why I generally opt out of these programs. I think it’s a better thing when we can be more aware of our decision-making processes. And I don’t want to be any more influenced by these subtle forces than I already am.

New Year's Resolutions

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The prospect of a new calendar year prompts many of us to think about changes we want to make in our lives in the form of New Year’s resolutions. Or as is often the case, re-making resolutions from past years. New Year’s resolutions often get a bad reputation, mainly because many of us make them, but often we fail to follow through with them.

However, New Year’s resolutions, at their core, are no different from any other behavior change. Which is to say, it’s often quite difficult. However, this means that we can apply the same strategies to habit change throughout the year.

An important consideration when making a resolution is our why, our motivation for this change. If we’re making this change because of pressure from others, or because we feel badly about ourselves, our chances for success are lower than if we are making the change for ourselves. If we can come to the mindset that this resolution is because it’s something we truly want, and something that we’re doing for ourselves, our chances of success are much higher.

Of almost equal importance, however, are the environment and realities of the situation. Specific, measurable goals are much easier to track and feel progress toward than general goals. Getting in better shape (as a common example) is great to work toward, but perhaps better goals are reducing body fat percentage, or reducing overall weight.

Specific steps toward those goals are also necessary to think about. Taking our example of losing weight, this might mean sticking to a weekly calorie deficit or working out four times per week. And importantly, we must track our progress! But we also need to adjust our environment for these goals. Cutting calories is going to be all the more challenging if we keep unhealthy snacks around. And working out four times per week is going to be a drag if we don’t schedule the time for it.

All resolutions are going to come with setbacks, but these are part of the process. Instead of deciding that missing our goal one day or one week means that we’ve failed and that we are going to give up, we need to look at what caused that failure and make adjustments. Resolutions are a learning process, and we’ve got to allow ourselves to learn from our mistakes.

In sum, the best New Year’s resolutions are those we are making for ourselves, those we’ve thought about and planned for the concrete realities of, and those that we adjust and learn from as we go.

Soylent

Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Soylent has been showing up in the news for the past year or so. This is largely because of its mission: to be able to replace your food. The Soylent website provocatively asks: “What if you never had to worry about food again?”

I found out about Soylent earlier this year, and was immediately intrigued. I’ve realized that I’m actually not that great at feeding myself. That’s a funny thing to say, but I fail to plan meals for a week. I often fall back on a few old recipes, and anything that doesn’t get prepared in the first few days after a grocery trip likely sits in my fridge until it spoils. And when I’m not sure what to make, I end up eating an unhealthy takeout or frozen meal. I know that it’s within my ability to improve at these things, but despite my awareness of this problem and the wasted money, I’ve failed to make any improvements. My current way of eating is a waste of time and food, so something that could end this cycle is appealing.

It seems a lot of people struggle with these issues. One solution to this problem is to teach people to purchase and cook healthy food. Another solution might be something like Soylent.

Soylent aims to be a meal replacement that is nutritionally complete. Soylent is still under active development, and will continue to be adjusted as people try it and provide more feedback. There is plenty of room for additional research on optimizing nutrition for individuals, and if Soylent plays any role in encouraging additional research and personal experimentation in diet, that would be a benefit overall.

Soylent became available for pre-order earlier this year, and I ordered a week’s supply for $85, which breaks down to about $4 per meal. If you subscribe to monthly shipments, the price is more like $3 per meal—cheaper than most takeout. I finally received my order of Soylent v1.1 a little over a week ago. The first order of Soylent comes with a right-sized pitcher and scoop. Soylent comes portioned by the day, so daily food prep involves pouring a packet of Soylent into the pitcher, pouring in the small oil bottle, and filling the pitcher up with water. Very simple steps for a day’s worth of food.

The flavor and texture of Soylent are largely unremarkable. The flavor is roughly that of a pastry without sugar, and provides a good base for adding other flavors if you wish. The texture is a bit on the gritty side, but doesn’t get clumpy like a lot of powders can. I don’t mind either of these things. However, I had a few of my friends try Soylent, and opinions varied from tolerable to unappealing.

For about four days last week, I consumed only Soylent and coffee. The most striking part about these four days was how unremarkable they were. I found Soylent very satisfying, and I wasn’t hungry in between meals. My energy was steadier throughout the days, especially during the normal post-lunch dip.

On Friday evening I ate Mexican, and the flavors really popped, likely a combination of some taste adaptation to Soylent, as well as more conscious attention to my meal. I continued to eat normally over the weekend, but I realized how much of the food I ate made me feel like crap. I found myself craving Soylent.

After this personal experiment, I don’t think that I see Soylent completely replacing food. However, Soylent is as easy to prepare as unhealthy convenience foods. And I see a ton of value in making the the easiest option healthier, and providing me the room to eat meals with friends and family when I choose. So while it is certainly not for everyone, I’ve gone ahead and subscribed to monthly deliveries.

Feed Readers

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Keeping up with the developments in any field can be a challenge, especially with so much information spread across so many sources. Frequently this information is accessible online, but it’s tedious to regularly visit each of these sites for new content. I’ve found this to be especially true with academic journals, where there are a whole series of publications relevant to me, each with their own website and own release schedule.

The best solution I’ve found to this problem is using a feed reader (also known as a news aggregator or RSS reader). This is an application or service that allows you to add the sites you want to keep up on, and read the updated content from those sites all in one spot. Each new item shows up something like a new message in your email inbox, extracting just the new content and displaying it as a new story. If this is a blog, you will see each new post; for a journal, it will usually be the abstract. Here’s an example:

Feedbin

Adding sites to your reader is easy, with most services allowing you to just type or paste the URL to start following the site.

There are many choices for readers these days, including both standalone applications and online services, with both free and paid options. The two best options in my opinion are Feedly, which is free, and Feedbin, which is my personal choice and costs $3/month. Both of these services can be used from your computer, but are also compatible with a variety of mobile applications. My personal favorite is Reeder.

One of the unexpected benefits to using a feed reader for academic journals is that it actually makes reading journal abstracts enjoyable. At least for me, that’s something I didn’t often experience before.

Attention

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The things that we give our attention to largely indicate what our lives are. The philosopher José Ortega y Gasset concisely stated:

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.

This really resonates with me. What occupies our time and our thoughts, which is to say our attention, is often a clear sign of our priorities, even if we’re unaware of it. I think it stands to argue that this is reciprocal as well: the things that we direct our attention to can also become our priorities.

Whenever someone eludes to things being worse ‘these days’ than they were in the past, I’m skeptical. However, I think it’s probably true that today, we have more forces vying for our attention at any given moment, or at least more ways to be distracted. With television and computer screens in every room of our houses and another one in our pocket at any given time, it’s no wonder both drivers and pedestrians are getting into more accidents while staring at their smartphones. We are perhaps more distracted than ever, and not focusing our attention on what’s really happening in the present.

An interesting side-effect of focusing our attention on certain things is that other people notice, even children. Adam Siegel noticed this with his 8-month-old daughter:

The other day, I planted Margot on the floor with some toys and she happily began playing. In an almost unconscious habit whenever I have a short moment of free time in between tasks, I took the brief respite to pull out my phone and check my mail. 60 seconds later after reading a couple messages and deleting a few more, I looked up from the screen to see that Margot had stopped playing and was staring at me. “This is how it begins,” I thought. I’m showing her my screen deserves my attention at the moment more than she does.

This must be a heart wrenching observation for any parent, to realize these skewed priorities they’re communicating to their child. But the thing about it is that it’s not just children who notice these things, but everyone in our lives. Our attention communicates what’s important to us. And when we pick the smartphone instead of the person sitting across from us, they will notice.

So perhaps instead of checking our phones when there’s a moment of downtime, we can instead pay attention to what’s happening around us. Be mindful, if you will. And instead of making your phone (or Facebook, or Twitter, etc.) your life, make your life, your life.

Coffee and Mindfulness

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I have enjoyed coffee for quite some time, but it’s not until recently that I think I’ve started to truly enjoy coffee, as opposed to all the things that go with it. I can’t really remember when I first started liking it, but I am pretty sure that the experience of going to get coffee with friends or stopping to pick something up before work played a big role.

Jerry Seinfeld addresses this well in an interview with NPR, commenting on why he thinks coffee is so central to our culture:

I think the answer is we all need a little help, and the coffee’s a little help with everything — social, energy, don’t know what to do next, don’t know how to start my day, don’t know how to get through this afternoon, don’t know how to stay alert. We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep. We’re a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.

I think all of these are likely true for me at various points in time, but I also find it really useful sometimes to step outside of some of my habits, and explore them as ends in themselves. Recently, I discovered that there were many ways to make coffee other than via drip machine or espresso machine.¹ After doing some research, I found that the AeroPress was highly recommended, and I decided to purchase one, since it’s affordable, simple, and compact.

My morning coffee routine starts with beans I buy every week or two from Joe Bean here in Rochester, NY. My method is pretty similar to Stumptown’s, although I do less measuring or precise timing. I start boiling enough water for my mug. I grind two scoops of beans and add them to the AeroPress, add water, stir, add more water, wait a minute, and then flip it over and press it into my mug. I then top it off with hot water (or occasionally frothed milk).

While I make coffee this way almost every morning, I try to be mindful of the process (and it no doubt helps that it’s a bit more involved than my drip machine). I focus on each step as I go, paying attention to what it is that I’m actually doing.

Mindfulness is a term that has been around for a long time, and is characterized by nonjudgmental awareness of the present. Through mindful living, we are both better aware of and able to accurately see the events in our life, instead of being reactive to or pushed around by them. Bringing this heightened awareness to life in general has been linked to many positive outcomes, both mental and physical.² We’ve all experienced lapses in mindfulness, when autopilot takes over and we end up rushing out the door without the things we need for our day, or so caught up in worrying about things in our lives that we don’t enjoy the people we are with, or places we are at. What a waste of life.

One of my goals is to be more mindful in my day-to-day life. With something as little as my morning coffee, I begin my day with just a little less mindless routine, and a little more awareness and enjoyment. I find it even helps with those little questions quoted above, like what to do next or how to start my day.

If you’re interested in reading more on mindfulness and savoring life, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, one of my favorite blogs, offers some excellent further reading on this. In the end, it’s not all that complicated. Just do whatever you are doing, and be wherever you are.

See Brew Methods for an array of methods that might surprise you. ↩︎
Brown & Ryan, 2003 and Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007 offer good overviews. ↩︎

Clean Slate

Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I decided to start from scratch with my website, because I wasn’t happy with where it had ended up. For a while, it has seemed like my site was a collection of old links and quips, but very little original writing. All of this old content created a lot of friction and baggage that was limiting my desire to continue writing. I want this site to be a place I can use to explore the burning questions and topics that are on my mind, as well as to share some observations, tips, and tricks that I have stumbled across in research and technology.

As this has been on my mind for a while, I also pondered whether or not I would stick with WordPress. I think WordPress is a great tool for creating websites, but it isn’t lightweight or simple. As a result, I kept an eye on other platforms that would suit my site, and various CMSes caught my attention. The ones that particularly caught my attention were those that don’t use a database (e.g., Octopress, Statamic, and Kirby), but I also considered some that are database-driven (e.g., Anchor and Koken).

With all of these alternate CMSes for my site, however, I discovered gotchas. Some didn’t have a theme I quite liked, so I’d have to spend time creating or tweaking those. Others didn’t allow for easy search or comments, or required me to compile and deploy from my computer each time I wanted to tweak the site or change a layout. I also happen to like the Jetpack plugin, which allows me to have visitor stats right in the WordPress dashboard, as well as share my content (and let my visitors share content on this site) very easily. In addition, I am familiar and comfortable with WordPress, reducing the time it would take me to learn and troubleshoot a new tool.

In the end, I decided to stick with WordPress. If you haven’t been here in a while, you might not notice the changes. However, this site is actually a completely fresh reinstall, with new CSS based on Twenty Twelve. In addition, I use Markdown on Save Improved, which allows me to write and edit my posts in Markdown¹, but behind the scenes have WordPress-compatible HTML generated and displayed to visitors. In addition, I use Jetpack to allow for easy sharing of my content, as well as for analytics.

I am still undecided on comments. In the past, I’ve had mixed results. I find people mainly commenting on my content using Facebook, Twitter, or other external social media sites. For now they are enabled, but I may change that if they are unused.

I hope this spring cleaning of sorts will remove some of the friction I was having with my old site, allowing me to do more writing, and hopefully providing more value to those of you who read or stumble upon this site.

I have been using Markdown for most of my writing these days. While you can easily Google for the benefits of writing in Markdown or another plain-text format, this is one topic I hope to cover in a future post. ↩︎