Content overload and new projects

I am someone who likes too many things. I have a backlog of things I want to read and shows I want to watch and things I want to do so long that if put it together in some sort of physical form it’d probably be taller than me. With Netflix, it got to the point that when I ask my boyfriend to pick something from my list he just plainly refuses - the answer is “you got all of Netflix there, there’s no point!”.

My Netflix watchlist - anyone relates?

I swim well in loads of content. It suits pretty much who I am, and it reflects the way my mind works - I’ve always been an eclectic jack of all trades more than a depth-lover, focussed on improving on one thing. This applies to all parts of my life, including work. I’m a great context switcher and I do deal well with many things at the same time (although I do realise that this has its drawbacks and it cannot go too far, and I have learned/am learning how to cope, I’ll probably write about this in another post).

However, here we’re talking about content that you find on that marvellous thing called the Internet. The two things may seem in apparent contrast, but on top of swimming in a lot of content, I do actually like to organise the content I like. I use Refind for this, it’s a great tool I think, I like especially the feature of building your own collections, which is what I use it the most for - these are mine.

There’s so much good content, and no matter how hard I try to keep up, I’m always behind. I know I should accept the undeniable and obvious truth that I will never be able to keep up, but I somehow almost struggle a bit with this: my brain seems to find it hard to accept that it just has no time to digest everything it would like to.

I’ve always used my free time for creative activities, and these pandemic times are no exception, I’ve actually started doing more creative things, or better, more creative things in various areas. The about talks a bit of them, then there are a few things which are not there yet.

At the moment, I’m trying to figure out what to do with my project on drawing data things (vizs): I’d like to do more, or do better, but most of them really take much time to produce, between framing the question, gathering the data, designing a form for it and then eventually drawing it. It’s a great learning process, and I love it, and have fun (main reason why I do it, apart from helping people learn new things). I’d like to do a strand of them where I teach people something, whether in data science, or in physics, or something else I happen to know about. I like the educational element of the project and would like to invest more in it - I just need to figure out what exaclty and how to shape it.

Then, I’ve started re-reading the great Feynman Lectures on Physics (I bought the books ages ago and consulted them many a-times but never read them in full), which bring me back a few sweet years. I’ve started cooking more and doing more elaborate recipes, all the way learning about food and culture. I’ve resumed playing some chess, this time trying to be a bit more diligent in studying it, after having familiarised with the rules and lost a few good games. I’ve resumed some little running, although not as much as I used to last year. I’ve been reading/watching a bunch on themes of equality and human rights, compiling a list of stuff I loved. I’ve been reading more in general - working from home has kinda allowed having a bit more time of course, and I have to say I’m loving spending it with creative activities. Thinking is a creative activity. This little paragraph here is not all the things I’ve been doing/trying to do during this time, by the way.

I just want to channel all these energies a bit better maybe, and shape a direction for them. But I know that I’ll still be the one doing many things at the same time, as this is the way my mind learns, in any situation :). Happy for any suggestions.