Managed a 3 day Tantanmen streak: One in Shibaura, one in Ebisu and one in Tamachi. All were different but all were good.
Reconnected with a few key people this week. One night in Ebisu over tacos and pineapple highballs, and the other near Tokyo station.
Tokyo station was me breaking my “no-meetups” rule, because I was invited. It was great! Had a few nice conversations, remembered why the “Always try to ask a question” rule carries important nuance and later received some overdue and worthy validation on how I approached a technical project many years ago.
Experimentally I have trialling a new type of aggressive prioritisation (where 80% of other work is either deferred or delegated) instead of time-blocking, and I’m finding it both enjoyable and useful. It’s something like a more extreme version of the Eisenhower matrix, inspired by some highly effective former colleagues.
But as an exception to these priorities, I’m preparing a new Tech-Design-Document template and have been pleasantly surprised at the diversity of feedback I’ve received, and how much this has taught me about different ways-of-working and engineering philosophies. Ranging from the naming (TDD is a bit like test-driven-development, ne?) through to which information it should-or-shouldn’t include.
Went to the Japanese DJ championship on Saturday, and watched all nine finalists battle it out to represent Japan’s best turntablism at the world finals in October. This is the side of DJing that I am hopeless at and enjoy watching other people exceed at. Mega impressive stuff. I thought the defending champion had the best set, but he didn’t win.
Highlight of the week was a Friday night Korean dinner which ended in a 3AM walk home. I actually love my new neighborhood. Sometimes I think back to the conversations I’m involved in and think - “Huh?!” - and reader, how on earth did international schoolboy hazing rituals come up?!
My calligraphy is getting worse, but my ability to spell my own name is improving. How’s that for symmetry?
Went to “Echoes Unveiled” closing the week, where among short films and a wide spectrum of different media, I saw a map of aboriginal Australia, and it’s strikingly different to modern day Australia. Something to think about.
