On stopping his day job and blogging full time, this is what Shawn had to say:

I want to be a dad that goes after his dreams, and set these sorts of examples to his kids.

(via SSKTN.com Interview with Shawn Blanc)

My dreams are still vague to me, but I have also taken a step to create more opportunities for me to dream, and be with my kid. The past year had been a busy one which got me thinking (again) about how my life should be crafted. I’ve restructured it to this - I spend my mornings with my kid, catch up on reading and sometimes write or run or swim or do Tai Chi. I then go to work in the afternoons.

I do hope this works out well, in all sense of the word “well”.

I have a tendency to edit my thoughts on the fly. So whatever I write now, I will tap on backspace several times just to get it right, and then I might delete that whole paragraph altogether later. This process alone makes me want to stop writing. Even my simple workflow to start writing does not prevent me from falling into this trap of self-edits.

However, I’ve come up with a new hypothesis that might just help me.

Just like how what I teach comes from a prior source, I believe what I write comes from a universal source as well. There is a stream of words flowing all around us. Writing things down is basically taking a sip from this stream. It is a temporary connection with what’s going on around us, and provides me a glimpse into what could be.

A theory like this does not actually mean much in actual writing. For me, it makes a whole lot of difference understanding that when I’m writing, I’m not actually writing, but I’m trying to open up a wormhole into this other universe and allowing the words from there to flow through. If I were to interrupt it, like doing constant editing, this tap of words will probably drip to a stop, which is not what I want.

Let’s see where this new found knowledge will take me. I might end up just writing by hand. I wonder if anyone still does that on a regular basis.

I was listening to the podcast of the ever amusing battle between Patrick and Brett on Yojimbo vs Evernote. I am only a recent Evernote convert. Before I walked over to the “green side”, I was (still am) a text nerd, using Simplenote and Taskpaper as my main information capturing tool. I figured that if I can’t distill information down to words, it is still not useful to me yet. Some thought process must need to go through before it becomes useful, and the outcome of that thought process must be words. A picture speaks a thousand words. That is just too many words for me. Three sentences would suffice.

Little did I know that I was trying to make Evernote an Everynote, which no software will ever be. I think Eddie says it best here.

Don’t approach Evernote with an all or nothing attitude. Instead, 1) look for specific ways that Evernote can make your life easier, 2) use it for those things, and 3) STOP.

If you haven’t tried Evernote, give it a try. It’s free. I use it to mainly deal with pieces of paper that are shoved to me (think pamphlets and business cards) and I don’t know how to politely refuse. Now I just take a picture of it and dump it into Evernote.

I also “force” other people to use Evernote, unconsciously. When I need a certain document from Jane say, I just ask her to send to myemail+note@gmail.com. This way, my gmail filter system will grab this email and auto-forward it to Evernote and delete it from my email account. It’s like magic.

p/s: “Enough” is one of the very few podcasts I listen to regularly. Subscribe to them if you haven’t already.

When I teach Tai Chi, I feel like I am just a vehicle. I am a vehicle transferring knowledge which I don’t own. I never feel that the knowledge I have is mine. It is not and never will be mine. I only hope I do justice to the knowledge I do have and that the vehicle receiving this knowledge will do likewise.

Hey, it’s just Tai Chi. Why does this sound like some secret sauce that is not supposed to be shared? The beauty I find with these kind of knowledge is that, even if it’s shared openly, not many people will get it. Not many people will want to. And then justifications start pouring in. I’m too old. It’s too slow. It’s not real. You still have to use strength.

Just like the secret sauce that Warren Buffet uses. He openly tells people how he invests, and he was asked before that if everyone uses his method, wouldn’t that make everyone rich? Unfortunately (or fortunately), after many decades, his method still proves to be sound, and people still choose to ignore them.

Maybe that’s why value investing will continue to work. Maybe that’s why Tai Chi will continue to be elusive. The knowledge will only present itself to those worthy of it. Sad to say, i’m still not there yet, but I am hopeful. :)