Grooming

I’ve never been a beard guy. For most of my life, I thought of facial hair as something that just happened to other people—like an automatic feature that unlocked at a certain age. I’d see guys with thick, full beards and think, Yeah, that’s just not for me. It wasn’t even a conscious decision. It was more like an unspoken agreement with myself: ✔ I shave because I always have. ✔ I’m just not a beard person. ...

Why I, a Programmer, Still Use Paper Like It’s 1999 I spend my entire day in front of a screen—writing code, debugging, fixing issues. Everything I do is digital. And yet, whenever I need to truly think, whenever I need to solve a problem, I reach for something ancient. Paper. Yes, real, dead-tree, old-school paper. With an actual pen. No stylus, no tablet. Just ink and a blank page. Why Do I Do This? People at my last job called me old-school. Some thought I was joking. ...

Some people spend their free time watching movies, playing games, or reading books. I spend mine on an endless, slightly obsessive search for the perfect app. It doesn’t matter what it is—file manager, calendar, task manager, note-taking app—if I use it daily, I want it to be just right. But here’s the problem: it never is. The App Store Illusion It always starts the same way. I convince myself that somewhere, hidden among a sea of mediocre software, the perfect app exists. ...

The Pursuit of the Perfect: My Quest for the Ultimate Everything Most people collect things. I eliminate them. I’m not just talking about decluttering. I mean a full-scale mission to find the absolute best—the one perfect item in every category—so I never have to think about it again. ✔ One backpack. ✔ One pen. ✔ One pencil. ✔ One bathroom set. Everything I own must be the best, the most compact, the most portable. ...

My brain works like an action movie with no pause button. No clear story, no control, and just when things start to make sense—BAM! A sudden cut to something completely different. One moment, I’m focused, working hard. The next? Oh wow, did you know ancient Romans made concrete that still exists today? Wait, wasn’t I supposed to answer an email? Oh, I should set a reminder for that. But which app? Maybe I should try a new one. Let me check… Wait. What was I doing? ...