An update!

Well its been a little quiet here. As is usual this indicates a slip into learning mode for me. This pattern happens each year, have some initial output momentum at the start then a gradual slip into learning mode.

Without doing too much analysis on myself. Learning is safe mode for me. Or perhaps better described as slightly addictive procrastination.

So currently I have four learning streams. I am gradually (re)learning open GL. This may or may not be a stepping stone to vulkan/webGPU. That's to be determined. It is meant to be a stepping stone to actually making some games.

I am working through Crafting Interpreters while not technically learning I am familiar with much of the information presented it is a book I have wanted to work through.

These are my two main projects. I have a couple of slow burn projects. I work on these on alternate days spending about 30 minutes on the topic. One is learning blender using an Udemy tutorial and the other is a Machine Learning course on Udacity.

I am spending way too much time learning an not enough tangible things. As I am a reasonable way into each of these the all of them, except the learn openGL, have a natural stop point. I have decided to push on with all these projects and try to complete at least one or maybe two in April.

I would like to get it back to one learning and producing track. It was a mistake to let so many learning tasks onto the time table.

On the plus side I am actually tracking a reasonable number of hours on these projects. I track hours as an indicator of forward momentum. The work is fairly focused so I feel progress is a reasonable pace.

I finished reading Deep Work. It is a fairly good book, although as I have read a few similar books much of the information was not new. It is a good read. That is quite an endorsement from someone who is a little cynical of Self Help books. I mean we would all be super productive if all you had to do was read a book. I feel people read the books rather than making the hard decisions needed to be productive.

A few times this year I have attempted to write a not BS article on productivity. I am not even a fan of the word. I can't get clarity on the article. There are so many it depends, although one thing for sure is having goals with specific time frames is fundamental. I am toying with the idea of just writing a free flowing post, simulating the decision making progress I would make after deciding on a long term goal. Sort of a straw person article to get people thinking.

There is of course the problem that I don't feel like an authority on the subject and don't feel like I have walked the walk enough - so to speak. Perhaps I should focus on the problem of too many learning tasks.

In other news the Ultra marathon I was training for has been cancelled, due to COVID. I will be honest and say I was struggling to train my body to jog for more then 6hrs. I suspect weight is the biggest problems and while it is gradually going down it would not going to get down low enough. So I admit there was some relief when it was cancelled. It was a 60 miles and to be my first Ultra.