For years, I think my view of what it means to be a “nerd” or tech enthusiast was very narrow. To me, it was about having the latest and greatest of technology. Whether that was having the latest Android device or OS, back in the day, or the latest iPhone, the latest laptop computer or gaming system, the latest task manager app that everyone in the mother is using, etc. Well in recent times, I have come to this conclusion that having the latest and greatest of any particular technology is not an indication that you’re “nerding” out the right way! I think its more about appreciating technology in general and get excited about it even if you don’t end up owning (or necessarily like) whatever piece of tech may excite you or hear about. Making good use of the technology, systems and/or “toys” that you already have and do the job for you. Discuss and appreciate new technology, have an opinion – without being a dick about it

As Rene Ritchie Tweeted one time

Never let anyone, certainly not the internet, shame you about your technology choices. If you get something cheaper to save money or you get the most expensive, you’re still every bit as nerdy and savvy. No one else knows your business or gets to judge your choices. Do you.

A little uneventful this morning, nothing too exciting. I was listening to a podcast on the way to work, The Talk Show with John Gruber, some of might have heard of it before. Nothing related to the podcast perse but I had a though, something I feel like I wanted to write about later today or at some point in time, and it made me think “I need to write this down somewhere somehow before I forget”. It occurred to me, “I have Drafts on my Apple Watch, I should use the dictation feature!”. This is something that I’ve always struggle with, a lot of my ideas come in while I am driving and I never use any of these features that are at my disposal like, Siri/Notes.app or Drafts. I believe the reason I don’t dictate my thoughts to Drafts even though I launched the app on my watch this morning and did try to dictate something. It’s “stagefright”. I freeze and forget everything I wanted to tell or record, puff – gone! Isn’t that silly? It’s like the moment I know I am recording myself, even if its just words no audio involved, I freeze and can’t get my thoughts out. This is something I need to work on and get more comfortable doing and it sounds silly but it’s the truth, I swear to Batman!

I don’t particularly listen to Joe Rogan’s show on a regular basis, though I have listened to an episode or two before and it’s usually because someone else recommended that specific episode. Today my twitter timeline was full off people saying he had Edward Snowden on the show. First, I had to google who he was because at this point I had totally forgotten about him (😐).

Seeing this all over my timeline did pick my curiosity. I must say this was a great episode. Very insightful (at least for me), very, very interesting and sort of creepy too. I knew the government was shady but man, it makes google and Facebook look like kindergarten kids.

Anyway, it was a good interview, I did enjoy it. So much so that I have started to listen to it again. Now I also kind of want to buy his book, Permanent Record, and by doing so have the our government to flag me as an extremist of sorts, show up to my doorstep — “Dishonour! Dishonour on your whole family! Dishonour on you! Dishonour on your cow! We are taking your monies, your tech and your undies! 😅

This morning was a little different. Before heading out to work or even dropping the girls at grandma’s, I had to stop for coffee. I stopped at Starbucks which I don’t think it’s great coffee but it’s convenient and I had some momey left from an old giftcard. Anyhoo, after picking up my coffee and dropping off the girls, I head out to work like normal. However, there was this,car in front of me this morning. The first thing I noticed is that it going slower than the speed limit but I didn’t think much of it, plus I am never in a rush so. But then I realized it was driving also a little erratic. She (at this point I realized it was a lady driving) wouldn’t go right away when the light turned green (often doing something and not looking forward), she was kind of going from one side of the lane to the other, sometimes even almost going completely to the other lane. So it started to make me nervous, I didn’t want to drive near this car. A few times I noticed some arm movements and head shaking of sorts, I don’t know if she was fighting with the passenger or what but eventually she pulled to the side of the road. And as soon as she did that I accelerated my car and got as far away as fast as I could 😅.

I don’t know exactly how to explain it but the entire time I was driving behind this car, I was feeling anxious. It wasn’t because she was driving slow at first but that it was erratic enough to just make feel uneasy and, in some way, unsafe.

Long story short, I made it to work, safe and sound (😊) – didn’t die!

My idea of “twitter minimalism” is to use a third-party app or client, Tweetbot in my case. The idea is, because of Tweetbot’s “lack of features” would somehow minimize some of the issues I have with Twitter, in this case. Let me explain. Yes, Tweetbot still manages to have push notifications, but only for mentions and DM’s, I am not a very popular person so I don’t get many notifications. But I feel like I am also been a little bit of a hypocrite by having the official Twitter app installed, in a folder but still. In the back of my head, I feel like I still need some kind of validation on my posts (my posts are mostly cross-posts from Micro.blog). Like, did my post got retweeted or did anybody liked it or at least saw it? That sort of thing. On top of that, I get all these other notifications like “so and so liked this tweet, look look!”, “Someone posted this thing you need to look at it!!!”, etc, etc.

This is probably something I have been having a hard time breaking away from, that sense of “I need some kind of validation” or “I can’t miss a thing!”. When I had my blog on Wordpress, I found myself obsessing over analytics, “How many people visited”, “How many people read my thing” or “Is anyone following me?”, this is something Micro.blog helped me break away from. And still, every once in awhile I would write a post and don’t see any feedback or comments and for two seconds I fret a bit, it doesn’t last long though, it leaves my mind pretty quickly and I remember I am writing mostly for myself.

Instagram is another one. I post a picture, in my mind the picture is good but it doesn’t get many likes and I get a wee bit anxious. Or I ask myself “Why I ain’t got more followers?”. I don’t think so much about these things nowadays, as much, but I did for a long time.

It’s a little hard to break away from all this indoctrination that we have gotten from these big social-media silos, the need for some sort of validation. Leaving apps or services that seem to be geared towards this type of practice has helped. Starting by moving away from Wordpress and Facebook, for example. Maybe I need to move away from Instagram (again) or just simply minimize my use of it. For twitter, well, I can either quit it (which probably won’t happen anytime soon) or delete the official app and stop thinking about the retweets, the likes and all the other notifications I shouldn’t care about.

I know this particular topic has been beaten to death but this is the first time I’m putting my thoughts out there. And I was bored and for some reason started thinking about it. :D