Party

For the first time in a couple of years, I met up with friends at a bar to have fun. In recent years, the outside world hasn’t been very conducive to having a good time, but this time I decided I wanted to break this trend of depending on what’s happening outside - at least for a while. And to my surprise, I managed to do it (even though I’m usually the first one to want to go home and sleep at parties). I danced and jumped around - for the first time in about eight years. I sang terribly at karaoke - for the first time ever in my life. I came home in the middle of the night.

The next day brought a mild hangover and fatigue, and I probably won’t want to repeat such revelry anytime soon, but it felt like something I needed - to let go and do a few unwise (but harmless) things.

Books

I finished Lean Analytics - and it’s the most useful professional book I’ve read in the last few years. I really loved the frameworks describing different types of businesses, and I’m already applying something similar at work, and it takes decision-making to a completely new level.

I also finished “The Crying of Lot 49”. I can’t say I totally get it, but I enjoyed it for some reason. There’s a certain poignancy to it and a desire to get to the bottom of things that touched me.

TV Shows

I finished the fifth season of “Slow Horses”. It’s not the greatest series, but even the fifth season is cozy, pleasant, and engaging, which is already saying something.

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading Tarantino’s “Cinema Speculation”, and besides rekindling my interest in cinema, it did something interesting to me: it freed me from needing to find justifications for watching movies (and TV shows) other than the fact that it can be interesting, gripping, exciting. Cinema doesn’t have to be wise, intellectual, or anything else. It doesn’t owe anyone anything, and probably nothing else does either.

And “Slow Horses” is a perfect illustration of this idea.

Movies

We watched “The Roses” with Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, really enjoyed it. Funny and sad about adults who lose themselves and each other because they didn’t take care of themselves.

So here I am, at the age when you start loving family dramas and understanding their characters!

Work and AI

Interestingly, I rarely use AI at work now, even though I used it constantly both at my previous job and while searching for a new one. I think it’s because I’m still in the process of accumulating information and building a mental model of a new area of knowledge (new company, responsibilities, role), and my brain needs to fully grasp this on its own before communication with AI starts bringing real value. I’ll keep observing.

A colleague showed me a cool thing - an AI voice recorder called Plaud Note, and I was really impressed by how it works right out of the box - it recorded a meeting perfectly, tagged speakers, highlighted meaningful action points. It’s exactly what I need.

I also really want a similar system that could maintain and update knowledge bases for projects and products, record changes after decisions are made - that would significantly ease my life and work, but I haven’t come across such solutions yet.

And this week we got our first snow! (A month and a half until New Year’s, and the streets are already ready for the festival of consumerism)