In 2024, I set a goal to document one interesting thing I learn each week, drawing insights from books, conversations, and everyday life.

50 things I learned in 2024

For people who aspire to build things that do

Pursuits That Can’t Scale

https://www.workingtheorys.com/p/pursuits-that-cant-scale

Thu (@thu-le.bsky.social)

https://bsky.app/profile/thu-le.bsky.social

Worthwhile investments, in my experience, and occasional treats that make my day more delightful.

Things worth spending on

When is it about the journey, and can it also be the destination?

The journey and the destination

Between away and home

If you're a parent or buy presents for kids, perhaps Christmas brings mixed feelings. While we love spending time with family, playing together, and taking a break, Christmas gift-giving easily brings some stress and anxiety (one of the reasons that Thanksgiving is so good). This list from Pragmatic Parent is a potential antidote to the consumerism that can overtake at Christmas. The idea is to give one gift to each child in five categories: Want, Read, Wear, Need, and Do. 8x Christmas-As-Magic No one wants a Dudley Dursley on his birthday, "Thirty-six. That's two less than last year!" But at the same time, as a parent, you may have nostalgia for your Christmas or holidays as a child and want to create the same for your children. Paul Graham wrote in an essay Life is Short: "Having kids showed me how to convert a continuous quantity, time, into discrete quantities. You only get 52 weekends with your 2-year-old. If Christmas-as-magic lasts from, say, ages 3 to 10, you only get to watch your child experience it 8 times. And while it's impossible to say what is a lot or a little of a continuous quantity like time, 8 is not a lot of something." So, while, as parents, you may be working to make it memorable, at the same time, some things can easily get out of kilter. Here are some thoughts that cross our minds: It's easy to think that we're buying more and bigger gifts each year. And we want to ensure this year's presents are as good as last year's to avoid disappointment. It's easy to look at a pile of assembled presents and think, "We never had this much as kids!". And sometimes, the big ticket item we bought at great expense didn't provide nearly as much joy as racing around the house with family at Christmas. We wonder if it was really needed after all. It's easy for Christmas gift-giving to seem out of control. The 5 Gift Guide: Want, Read, Wear, Need, Do Years ago, I learned about this list from Corinne at Pragmatic Parent, which tries to redress some of the balance at Christmas—keeping Christmas wonder while also keeping it sane. The idea is to get one gift in each of the 5 categories: Want, Read, Wear, Need, Do. Something I want can still be the classic Christmas big ticket item that you dream about getting as a kid. This could be a big toy, Lego set, video game, or new bike... Something I need could support a hobby, some sports equipment, a musical instrument, maybe headphones. Or it could be something they need for school—a smart set of pens or pencils or pencil case, perhaps. Something to wear is an opportunity to get something that makes them feel good daily. Something to read might be a book, magazine, comic, or subscription. Something to do could be a game, tickets to a film, a day out or visiting somewhere new. In a later iteration of the list, Corinne added a 6th item, "Something for my family", for an activity everyone can do together. A Less Materialistic Christmas The 5-Gift Rule for Christmas is a potential way to reduce some of the consumerism associated with Christmas and adopt a more minimalist approach. It promotes useful gifts that won't gather dust after the excitement of the holidays has passed. It encourages gratitude for what we receive and minimises pining for what we don't. It also suggests gifts that create experiences for the receiver and the family—one of the best ways to spend our money. Full disclosure: Though we think about the list, we've yet to adopt it wholesale. But it's a handy framework for considering different types of gifts that your children may value. It reminds us to focus on more meaningful and thoughtful gifts and experiences with less accompanying stuff. Related Ideas Also see: If money doesn't make you happy, you're not spending it right The origins of Boxing Day Give gifts others can give Jólabókaflóð Pick a present (Venn diagram) (Groggy parents from Watterson)

The 5 Gift Guide for Christmas

Posting Less

I didn’t expect to write about my toolkit again so soon since I already made a big update in January 2023, but here we are.

My toolkit for 2024

https://medium.com/@tple/my-toolkit-for-2024-4c8706f03b2e

Reading Time: 15 minutes This post is a draft, and currently being written in public (as you can see). This block of text will be removed when it is finished. Professionalism is a lie, build what you love, explore everything. In today’s age of creation, anyone who attempts to tell you otherwise is lying. You’ll end up seeking what […]

In defense of disorder: on career, creativity, and professionalism - Chia's Blog

https://chias.blog/2021/in-defense-of-disorder-on-career-creativity-and-professionalism/

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Thu Le ⋅ Things I know

A summary of what I've been up to. Updated periodically.

What I'm doing now – Thu Le

‎you spend hours scrolling feeds all day. shouldn't YOU be in control of what you see, rather than some algorithm?

with feeeed, you can build your own news feed, on your own terms:
• subscribe to any website and get the latest stories in your feed
• see local weather, or flashbacks from your photo l…

‎feeeed: rss reader and more

https://apps.apple.com/vn/app/feeeed-rss-reader-and-more/id1600187490

I recently switched to Sublime Text for coding, definitely feels more polished and snappy, has everything I need for a simple stack HTML + CSS + some JS. But I have to say, Brackets's Live Preview is still supreme.

Wishing everyone a happy 2024 with great health, prosperity, and immense happiness and fulfillment 🎊🙏

Finally tried Karabiner-Elements for key remapping since the Lofree Flow has no customization out of the box, and wow I've entered a whole new world

Finally switched over to the iPad mini from the 12.9. Truly feels like a real tablet, plus the Apple Pencil makes it an amazing combo. The past week I've been reading more and taking more notes. Random scribbling is a joy. Surfing in general feels fun and easy.

Here are 50 things I learned in 2024 📝

After days of tweaking, I’m finally happy with a new direction for my site as a digital garden, or at least the start of it

This resonates. https://www.workingtheorys.com/p/pursuits-that-cant-scale

I will miss everyone and Posts very much, it’s been amazing being a part of it 🫶 Until we settle in a true new home, I’d love to connect with y’all on Bluesky for now https://bsky.app/profile/thu-le.bsky.social

Decided to get the Lofree Flow on a whim today, and I have to say, it's definitely superior to my NuPhy Air75 v2 ✨

New post: There are things worth paying for, especially when what I get in return is priceless. thu-le.com/blog/things-worth-spending-on

It seems 11:30-ish PM is my favorite time to wrap up and publish a new blog post

I’m home now but still mentally on Rome time, and had to get this one off my chest

Some thoughts on selling, URL and IRL: thu-le.com/blog/on-selling

Been watching / re-watching rom coms from the early 2000s... I feel like we don't get movies like those anymore

Pardon the mess. My colleague and I have started a mini brew bar ☕️

This. So much of this, is precisely why I stopped posting on Instagram, a platform I actually adored.

Joker: Folie à Deux is such a U-turn 🫠

It’s been a minute. Here’s everything in my toolkit for 2024. https://medium.com/@tple/my-toolkit-for-2024-4c8706f03b2e

This is a wonderful piece. I wish I came across it earlier, but now it can be a reminder for myself 💌 https://chias.blog/2021/in-defense-of-disorder-on-career-creativity-and-professionalism/

Of course I’m looking at a new keyboard

In the spirit of digital gardens and having recently completed another year around the sun, it felt perfect to share some of the things I've learned.

Of course I got a second one to match the dark theme aesthetic for my workspace at the office 😳

Can't wait to be in Taiwan in late April for vacation 🧋

Added some photos to my Now page to give it some life 🎞️

I almost forgot the joy of working from a café ☕️

Heartbroken to hear that soon I won’t be able to see everyone on the platform that felt like home in the last couple of years 😞

Coming from the 11 Pro, I'm definitely impressed by the 15 Pro's camera

Anyone using an iPad mini in their day to day for your work and personal? What are your primary use cases? Would you pick a larger iPad?

I've been using the 14" MacBook Pro since early 2022, love its portability after using the 15" Intel MBP for years prior. Work recently upgraded my Intel MBP to the 16" MBP M3, and man I forgot how the extra screen real estate can make a world of difference

When your source of inspo noticed you 🥹

Wrote about my journey of building out my garden 🌱 thu-le.com/blog/why-i-rebuilt-this-site

I finally took control of how I want to keep up with different news sources (with an ad-free experience) and especially blogs I follow, not sure why I never tried RSS until recently 🤯 And feeeed is perfect ✨ https://apps.apple.com/vn/app/feeeed-rss-reader-and-more/id1600187490

I might have taken it too far and auto-layout-ed my entire Figma flows 🤪 Probably going to turn out too rigid for my own good, but it does feel satisfying when you don’t have to manually rearrange other flows and complementary components.

I started watching Law & Order SVU and now I can't stop 😀

Woke up to this, my entire Sunday ⛈️ 🥲

Just made a Now page to summarize what I’ve been up to ☀️ This def feels easier to maintain than an About page where I think I would ramble quite a bit https://thu-le.com/now