Hello World, Again

Things I’ve noticed about myself as I get older:

1. I turn down the music volume to focus, like when I’m backing up in my car.※Though it may be less about volume than about what’s playing: “slow beat music … enhances the efficiency of attentional orienting and the ability to focus on relevant targets while ignoring distractors, lowers heart rate, and increases subjective feelings of pleasure and relaxation.” De Francesco et al., What you listen to makes a difference: The impact of music on attention and well-being, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2025.
2. I work on a single monitor more often than multiple monitors because I find it easier to concentrate.
3. I hand write notes and diagrams because it helps me process and remember things.

I also find myself in a time with near infinite options for where to steer my attention. There are tools to capture, summarize, memorize, and synthesize just about everything I encounter. If it can be transcribed, it can be memorized. And getting words down on “paper” is as easy as it’s ever been, just a few prompts away.

So why write?

Specifically, why write and publish it online here?

• To exercise an important skill that will most definitely deteriorate in an AI-filled world
• To have an outlet for making things
• To hopefully share something interesting and useful

Age and AI have got me writing again.