How do you do, !?

Every so often, I'm reminded of the meme below and have always wanted to greet people like that. So I thought why not use that as a greeting for the email?

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative - Medium: A day in the wards with Covid-19 (~5min)
• Gadgets & Tech - DJI Mavic 3 (~$3099)
• Read - The Left & Right speak different languages - literally! (~5min)
• Listen - Tim Ferriss Show - The Wonders of Web3 (~2.5hrs)
• Quote - “If today’s social media has taught us anything about ourselves as a species, it is that the human impulse to share overwhelms the human impulse for privacy.”

Week in the life

This week has been pretty darn productive and also a mix of interesting and very sad. Quite a range for a week, right? On the positives, the fact that Melbourne is opening up means that last week and onwards, I have been out for way too many meals. It's been great catching up with friends after so long.

On the nerdy front, this was the first time I felt like I knew enough Python programming to have an idea for program and be able to code it like I intended to. Here's what my initial sketch and final output looked like. The second image looks a bit more empty because I managed to hide part of the action until after you hit the button. It turned out fancier than I imagined!

To balance out the fun and the nerdy, I did have to cover the Covid wards earlier this week. That was a bit depressing. I wrote about it over on Medium and have linked it below as well. So as not to take up too much room here, more updates over on the blog...

Creative update

Medium: A day in the wards with Covid-19 (~5min)

https://raffyhalim.medium.com/a-day-in-the-wards-with-covid-19-57155aaac9ae

You know, we've looked after covid patients for nearly 2 years now and I've personally done the outreach job in the past. So I didn't think my stint this week would be anything new.

I was wrong.

There's 2 distinct groups I saw: the elderly with other medical issues and the young who didn't believe in the vaccine.

It got to me more than I expected so I had to write my thoughts down. After I shared it, another colleague shared her experiences (much busier and harrowing day than mine!)

Gadgets & Tech

DJI Mavic 3 (~$3099)

https://amzn.to/3H07cpG

I've been waiting for this to arrive! The DJI Mini 2 is probably my favourite drone to travel with since its so compact and lightweight, but it does sacrifice some camera quality. If you want some serious camera grunt, the new Mavic 3 looks absolutely amazing! It has the same size sensor as one of my dSLR cameras. amazing flight time and for the first time ever, USB-C charging. That's right, the same cable will now charge my phone, laptop, speaker and drone!

• ZeroCo - Reduce plastic waste by ordering refills for your everyday cleaning (and soon to be bathroom) essentials. It's what I've been using for soaps and cleaning solutions this year
• BALDR Timer - I'm very much into the Pomodoro technique and this latest (cheap) timer is great - you can see your minutes count down visually as a red semi circle. Best of all, no battery and its cheap!

Read

The Left & Right speak different languages - literally! (~5min)

https://www.wired.com/story/left-right-speak-different-languages-literally

This Wired article (doesn't seem to be behind a paywall) describes some interesting research about the polarised nature of society currently.

Due to the filter bubbles in the media, it turns out, those that are left and right leaning are interpreting the same words so differently that it's like they're speaking different languages. One example was "masks". The left interpret as a face covering while in the right, it's equivalent of being muzzled. I'd wondered how the same data gets interpreted so differently and this article was quite insightful!

What I'm reading

• Dune - So far, it's such a vivid exercise in world building that it's an amazing read. Given it's a classic, I'm sure a lot of you are already wondering why I'm so late to the party...

Listen

Tim Ferriss Show - The Wonders of Web3 (~2.5hrs)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3U4wMKyvMUhB83qf8FaA3I?si=UvvWPb-KQL6VEmplFTclyQ&nd=1

This is a fascinating podcast with Tim Ferriss that goes for a while but explores the new technologies that are on the horizon that most of us will experience in the next 5-10 years. A lot of it has to do with the evolution of the internet with crypto/NFTs playing a central part.

The thing I love about this podcast in particular is seeing how far ahead the people in the epicenter of the tech world are planning for and just how they go about it.

If you're remotely curious about the the things that are possibly coming our way in terms of technology, then I think you'll love this episode. I may even write a summary article on it once I've digested it a bit more.

Quote I'm pondering

“If today’s social media has taught us anything about ourselves as a species, it is that the human impulse to share overwhelms the human impulse for privacy.”

– Kevin Kelly

One of the main reasons I love writing this newsletter is that it makes me pay attention to little snippets of texts and ideas that I jot down for this segment. Some of the little snippets like this one about what social media shows as a human characteristic to share is so obvious when it's pointed out, but I never thought about it as an equation between "sharing" and "privacy" before.

It holds especially true today for me. I'd been working on my small python app for work for the past few days but hit some dead ends. This morning I jumped out of bed because I had an idea on how to make it work. When it did, I had the overwhelming urge to tell people so I messaged the few it would affect as well as an old friend who also programs who I haven't seen in years!

That's all that I have for you this week ! Hope you enjoyed the newsletter. As always, I simply LOVE hearing from you and your opinions. Feedback is always welcome!

Stay safe!

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of this email? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week (and keep tweaking things with your feedback!)

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