I’m going down the path of gwern and ordered some Modafinil and empty capsules to do blind tests on myself—those should arrive this week. I’ll probably try the same with other popular nootropics afterwards.
Also, this week I’m going to spend 6+ hours learning to draw, working off Raemon’s drawing posts and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If it’s true that I can become a passable sketch artist in the span of a few dozen hours of practice, I have no excuse not to—that would be a skill that would be really fun and also somewhat useful to me as a programmer. So I’m working on that during the evenings this week.
No, I mean specifically that it’s very hard for me to figure out how to design a visual interface (although I usually have enough taste to know a good design when I see one.) It feels like the best I can do is just try a bazillion layouts and weights and colors until I find something that happens to look good. I suspect that if I could sketch out designs competently it would help me both imagine things more clearly and mock them up, so I can arrive at something passable quicker.
I’m going down the path of gwern and ordered some Modafinil and empty capsules to do blind tests on myself—those should arrive this week. I’ll probably try the same with other popular nootropics afterwards.
Also, this week I’m going to spend 6+ hours learning to draw, working off Raemon’s drawing posts and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If it’s true that I can become a passable sketch artist in the span of a few dozen hours of practice, I have no excuse not to—that would be a skill that would be really fun and also somewhat useful to me as a programmer. So I’m working on that during the evenings this week.
Holy crap, drawing is hard. Six hours is a lot! One hour makes me tired of looking at things!
I thought drawing would be relaxing but it’s basically the opposite of relaxing (maybe just since I’m no good yet.)
Do you expect it to help you program better, or are you referring to something else?
No, I mean specifically that it’s very hard for me to figure out how to design a visual interface (although I usually have enough taste to know a good design when I see one.) It feels like the best I can do is just try a bazillion layouts and weights and colors until I find something that happens to look good. I suspect that if I could sketch out designs competently it would help me both imagine things more clearly and mock them up, so I can arrive at something passable quicker.