Thanks for writing this up! I was interested last time you mentioned it somewhere, and this time you’ve motivated me enough that I’m going to try it for a couple of months.
Update: I’ve done four of these now and have really enjoyed it. It works brilliantly for motivating me to keep a record of what I’m doing, and I’ve had some great followup conversations too. Thanks very much for introducing me to the idea!
Awesome! May I ask how you’re going about it? Sending to a small group of friends or keeping it to yourself, what software you’re using, how long the entries end up being? Just curious.
I’m happy to answer questions, as I always like rambling about boring implementation details! I mentioned that I fancied trying this on Twitter and got a few takers. Right now I’m going for a pretty low tech approach where I just email it out—I write each one in a Google Doc and then paste it into Gmail and hope the formatting doesn’t mess up too much. I could definitely improve this!
I have another Google Doc going throughout the month where I make brief notes on what I’ve been reading or thinking about, any useful links, etc, so that I have something to work with once I start writing. This is actually really valuable on its own.
I’m not trying for any particular length but seem to be writing a fair bit—the last one was about 5000 words split over three or four topics. Generally one section of it is talking about whatever physics topic I’m currently interested in, and the rest is more of a mixed bag based on what I’ve thought about that month.
Thanks for writing this up! I was interested last time you mentioned it somewhere, and this time you’ve motivated me enough that I’m going to try it for a couple of months.
Update: I’ve done four of these now and have really enjoyed it. It works brilliantly for motivating me to keep a record of what I’m doing, and I’ve had some great followup conversations too. Thanks very much for introducing me to the idea!
Awesome! May I ask how you’re going about it? Sending to a small group of friends or keeping it to yourself, what software you’re using, how long the entries end up being? Just curious.
I’m happy to answer questions, as I always like rambling about boring implementation details! I mentioned that I fancied trying this on Twitter and got a few takers. Right now I’m going for a pretty low tech approach where I just email it out—I write each one in a Google Doc and then paste it into Gmail and hope the formatting doesn’t mess up too much. I could definitely improve this!
I have another Google Doc going throughout the month where I make brief notes on what I’ve been reading or thinking about, any useful links, etc, so that I have something to work with once I start writing. This is actually really valuable on its own.
I’m not trying for any particular length but seem to be writing a fair bit—the last one was about 5000 words split over three or four topics. Generally one section of it is talking about whatever physics topic I’m currently interested in, and the rest is more of a mixed bag based on what I’ve thought about that month.