One full week of 2026 over already? 😐

Goal Progress

• Books: 0/18 📚
• Photos digitized: 3/500 🖼️
• Workouts: 3/7 💪
• GTD reviews: 3/7 daily, weekly done

Work

• This week, the team and I were back in the swing of things, and I was in office all 5 days.
• It was slightly belated due to shipping, but this week we also began passing out Christmas ornaments to the team, both local and around the globe. Making a department Christmas ornament has been an annual tradition almost as long as I can recall being at Precision, and we’ve carried it forward through org changes.
• I’ve continued experimenting with useful ways to incorporate LLMs into my workflow. I’ve found both good and bad ways to use them for project & meeting planning, now trying to find the right balance as I move forward…

Personal

• While I’ve yet to finish any books this month, I have been reading daily, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. My guess based on current progress is that I’ll hit 18 books by years end, but may not make it much over that goal.
• I’ve struggled to make time for workouts though… I’ve done a few, but that clearly needs more focus in the coming week.
• As does working on photo digitization. I made time to work on it briefly this weekend, but I got distracted soon after starting.

Notable

• This week was RuneScape’s 25th anniversary, and I made time to log in and play through the celebratory event. Wednesday also marked my 21st year of playing the game, though it’s been in fits and starts. And no, I still do not have 99+ in all skills. Perhaps next year? 🙂
• Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of my website as well. I briefly considered writing up a post (like I did for the 10th anniversary), but I think I’ll wait and only do major posts on the 5-year incremental anniversaries. I haven’t changed much in the past year on my blog, other than being intentional with my posting schedule!
• And, I found a fun new game (or at least, fun so far!): Against the Storm. I try not to buy computer games too frequently, as I’ll never play all of the games in my library. However, I sometimes enjoy city builders, and this struck me as a fun option to pick up while it was on sale. More to come in future posts, I’m sure!

Potpourri

• Early on in the week, I thought this section was going to be short, or non-existent. What a sweet summer child I was… 😂
• First up: Manu’s yearly reminder to use RSS. I really have no notes to add - I’m a longtime RSS user/reader, and I encourage others to try it out if they haven’t, and continue using it if they have!
• Cal Newport’s article on why AI didn’t “join the workforce” in 2025 also caught my attention, as it highlighted something I’ve noticed when using LLMs: they seem particularly good at certain tasks (data summarization, editing, coding), but lacking in many, many other areas.
• Speaking of LLMs and coding: this thread by Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code on how he uses Claude Code was both interesting and almost baffling. I understand the words used, and even most of the process (I think), but this is not something I’d have ever considered attempting personally…
• One more LLM-related topic: I don’t recall how I found this, but a Wall Street Journal article on the downside to using AI for all those boring tasks at work somehow crossed my digital path this week, and it was interesting enough to pass on. A short summary/premise: “The catch is that our brains aren’t capable of thinking big thoughts nonstop. And we risk forfeiting the epiphanies that sometimes spring to mind while doing easy, repetitive job functions.”
• Alex Chan wrote a helpful blog post explaining how she stores her multi-factor recovery codes. It’s a bit more involved than I’m ready to emulate currently, but overall I quite like the concept!
• Mid-week I saw a number of posts on how Logitech mice were not working/freaking out due to an un-renewed certificate. I normally try not to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to “I just want my tech to be simple”, but… come on. Really?!?
• And to wrap up the week (though he wrote it Tuesday): Kev Quirk’s post on The Case for Blogging in the Ruins. Okay, so it’s actually his response to Joan Westenberg’s post of the same name, but since I first heard of it through Kev’s blog, I’ll give him credit. 😉 The quote below is his pull-quote from Joan’s original post, and a great way to end this weekly review:

Start a blog. Start one because the practice of writing at length, for an audience you respect, about things that matter to you, is itself valuable. Start one because owning your own platform is a form of independence that becomes more important as centralized platforms become less trustworthy. Start one because the format shapes the thought, and this format is good for thinking.