Summary

Some people have a shoe addiction.

I'm addicted to tools. Software. Stuff I can use.

I will spend many hours browsing through options and learning about the capabilities and faults of various tools or programs.

Then, finding the 'right' one, I get super jazzed. I'll proclaim "I'm going to use this for ALL THE THINGS!" and I will believe it. Every time.

Then, after one hot minute genuinely using whatever it is, I'm moving on to the next one. Because I feel like I've done the 80/20, and now it's boring drudgery like everything else.

Yeah. ADHD. Le sigh.

Past

One example of this is Tiddlywiki by Jeremy Ruston. And to be fair to myself, I used this one pretty extensively.

I mean, it really is awesome. A single HTML file that functions as an entire wiki. While I was at BCUS as a tech guy, I filled one with problems and solutions for my team and it got used pretty heavily as a time saver. Someone even caught wind of its usefulness and started one for the Telephony team.

It lost its functionality for a while because of some aspect of more modern browsers, but checking the website, I just saw that someone created a plugin for your browser to use Tiddlywikis in Google Drive! May just have to dust this one off and get using it again…

Now

I was looking for something a bit like a wiki, honestly, and found myself checking out Obsidian and now, recently, Logseq.

I don't foresee myself being a power user of either, but the base elements of Logseq got my attention and I've downloaded it to check it out. It's certainly an impressive app and more so when it's for free.

Mainly, I like that everything is about outlining. It's an 'outliner'. As a side note, that's a term I'd never heard before - didn't realize there's a whole category. I would have just sounded ignorant saying something like "A program which helps you outline." 😏

Future

Point being - I would like to do more writing online. Specifically, on my various websites, Patreon, and... who knows - maybe even do some guest writing spots in exchange for others? Whatever.

If I do that though, I'll need to get better at structure. Pushing myself into outlining seems a good way to do that.

What's more, it's a skill that will help in a snowball / avalanche sense. Some of that increased writing is meant to eventually lead to a book I'm working on for folks to learn to draw. Specifically How to Draw Fantastic Humans. If things go as planned? Eventually followed by How to Draw Fantastic Elves. And Dwarves. And... yadda yadda.

And all of that will require better structure in my writing.

Me use gooder words, but me structure so un good.

The Dismount

I suppose there are far worse addictions. Especially since my tastes tend towards freeware and physical tools. I can't keep many physical tools with me, so that side of things is fairly self limiting.

I've managed to avoid becoming a Linux guy so freeware doesn't generally pile up for me. Mostly.

How about you? What do you spend entirely too much mental, emotional, or financial resources on?