Letters Project with Jarrod: The third letter and its response

And here is the last letter I wrote to Jarrod. I had a lot of fun writing it and was in the flow.

Hi Jarrod,

Congratulation on the house buy! Is that the first house you bought?

We went through this process three years around (ok, we did not buy a house, only a condominium apartment. We loved it and were very lucky to be at there right time when it came to the market. We loosely knew the previous owners, which also gave us a leg up.

Interestingly, the house-buying process differs between Switzerland and the US, especially on the price side. Here it is unheard of that you make cash-only offers at all. Houses are so expensive that buying them in cash is impossible. I get jealous when I see these Youtube Flipper Uppers, which cost 40k - 60k. Here apartments or houses start around $600k.

So enough money talk :-D As I wrote, we were lucky and are very happy with our flat. At the moment we are planning a kitchen renovation. Initially, I wanted to do it myself. But we switched to a contractor—too much stress and work doing it myself. We just finished the selection of the appliances on the weekend. I love being able to change the flat to what we need/want as a family—and not having a landlord.

Regarding language, I have a thing here with English. I’m trying to reprogram my brain to think in English. I’m not there yet and unsure if I’ll ever manage that.

I started reading books in English around the age of 20. And then my first employer was English-speaking, so I used it all the time and needed to write everything in English as well. And when I moved on, I wanted to keep my English skill. So I slowly started to write my stuff in English. And then on top of that, I also have some dislike for the German language.

I always had trouble with spelling, and subconsciously, I’ve taken the feedback from the school about my writing that I can’t do that. I know this is not true, and it does not matter much whether I make spelling mistakes (and it is not like I don’t make any in English :-D). Still, when I write in English, I don’t have all the mental baggage of past German teachers’ voices reprimanding me for all the spelling mistakes I made.

I’ve grown up and still live in Switzerland, and my mother tongue is “Swiss German,” a German dialect. But I have Dutch roots from my father’s side, so I also speak and read Dutch (but not good nowadays as I’m missing the vocabulary and exposure. I’m better at English nowadays than Dutch).

How much do you know about Switzerland? We have four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romanic. And we are required to learn at least one other language in school. In the area I live, we learn French. But I’m not fluent in that language - as I never use it. And it is easier to speak English with any French-speaking person.

Sadly, we spend so much time learning a language; in the end, we still can’t speak it well enough to use it daily (I had eight years of French lessons).

I also attended two semesters of Japanese and one semester of Spanish language classes later at university (or was it college – it’s the place where you end with the bachelor’s degree). Unfortunately, I can’t learn languages in a school setting. So I did not keep much of it. I mostly kept feeling for the language and how sentences and word sounds (does this make sense?).

Is ASL an entirely different language, or is it more of a different alphabet to sign the regular English words with? Coming from a position where I was not much exposed to it, apart from knowing that it exists and that there are also different versions. I imagine it would also be like learning a language that does not use our alphabet (like Japanese).

And I’m with you regarding Vision Pro helping to learn ASL. Having a camera able to track your hand gives so much possibility for new applications in the teaching field. I’m also thinking about learning instruments like guitars. Not sure how it would work seeing the instrument through the video feed, though.

Regarding the new job. Yep, I’m very happy with going into a position where I’m exposed to AR and getting paid for it. I wanted to look at this topic for so long and never had the energy to do it next to the job. And now, it is certainly good to have the know-how. And you directly speak about the points I find important and motivating to work in a startup. Being there early and helping shape it. And from it. And the most critical point: little red tape. I hate red tape :-) And another important part is that it is something I can speak about in public (i.e., not something which is secret or used as an internal tool). I love talking with the humans using the code I write. It gives such a different perspective on what you do. And it also gives me a lot of motivation.

I love that Micro.blog is so tiny, but it is also sad, on the other hand, that it makes it so hard to convince others to join it. I usually don’t get much interest when I speak about it in real life. But generally, smaller communities are better – especially when you want to make deep connections and are not only there to sell something. I made a Twitter account two years ago (yes, I know I was late) – I needed it for a project, but I did not feel comfortable on that platform. Everybody was trying to sell you something. I did not find any “real” humans.

I think I got into writing by starting my blog. I like talking about stuff that interests me. And the blog gives an outlet for this. I had my current blog since around 2002 (but with multiple breaks). And initially, when I revived it, I started wiring book reviews. It was an easy way to get something regular to write without too high stakes.

And that is the thing which, in the end, also makes the connection to fiction writing. I love reading fiction but have yet to find all the stories I want to read. So I need to write them myself. My favorite genres are fantasy and science fiction. But I’ve also discovered other genres around the human connections theme – something I would never have thought possible I was able to write a year ago. I guess it is a part love story but also the love between a father and his child. I can’t link to these stories as I have them not published and edited. And not sure I will ever post them.

This new style came from my process of learning how stories work. Two years ago, I was at the point of I had a scenario of what I wanted to read. Now how do you write that so it is interesting? How do stories work? And that triggered a process of reading books about writing. I’m currently in a place where I understand how to do such projects. At least, I hope it. But I also learned how hard they are to write :-D.

So I’m working on story outlines and experimenting with short-form fiction writing to practice the craft. And when an experiment is good, I have a blog where I can publish them. I hope to get feedback on my writing at some point. And grow from the feedback.

Another factor is that I must have the time and energy to write fiction. I’m not working at the moment (I start a new job in August), so I have a lot of mental space and energy, which helps a lot with ideas. And I’ve also read some books about writing, which are more philosophical, which also helped a lot (Bird by Bird is one of them).

And I’m still unsure if I will ever write an entire book – I would love to. Currently, I have fun exploring it and getting some of my stories in my head out onto “paper.” And sometimes into the wider world when I publish them on my page.

I have seen Vincent’s new product as well. And I was tempted to add it to my homepage. But I don’t want to track my users, and I fear I would start trying to optimize the numbers. And it would take away from the fun of having a blog. I would love to know how many page visits I have—writing on Micro.blog (or a blog) does feel like shouting into the void a lot of the time. But again, I always remind myself that I’m not writing for others; I’m writing for myself. I write the stories I want to read. It is the cherry on the cake if somebody else reads them and likes them.

I know the fear about not starting a habit up again after breaking a streak all too well. So I try not to break it :-D But when I’ve managed to get the whole year of morning pages, I will permit myself to break it for holidays as it makes family holidays a lot more complex (and stressful) when I need two hours to write a morning page each day.

And it also means I can only make holidays with a computer or phone. And breaking the streak and ignoring the compulsion not to break it and make the number bigger is also good training for my mental health. I also benefit so much from writing each day that I can trust my brain to return to the habit after a break.

You mentioned saving tips and DoorDashing. Am I right in the conclusion that you don’t work a regular 9 to 5? I find this style of living very alluring, but I fear the freedom of not getting a steady income. I considered freelancing instead of another job but ultimately decided against it.

I took the first step towards a different future for me by only working four days in my new job. So I have one day to work on personal growth and writing. I hope I also have time for a break on the weekend for my brain. It took me a lot of time to understand that you can’t work 100% (or more) and then still expect your body to have brain capacity left on the weekends for more head work.

And speaking of spending time in the woods. My daughter and I have planned some camping in the forest in July. I’m looking forward to it. It will be her first time sleeping outside in the woods without a tent. I’m just hoping it will not be too dry so we can make a real fire for cooking. I loved to make these camping trips as a child (we did them once a year), just outside next to a creek, and the adults cooked something on the fire. And we children built treehouses or dams.

Oh, and don’t worry, we don’t need to speak about note-taking and PKM. There are enough other people on Micro.blog for that topic (luckily). It is funny how this topic turns off most people in real life. It is worse than when you talk about coding or blogging. It is like Anna Havron wrote in Too Much Information: Why Personal Knowledge Management Is Hard:

you make a lot of notes for yourself (btw IRL most people do not do this, just sayin’)

This letter got a bit out of hand I hope it was not too long OO

Cheers Chris

Hey Chris,

Here we are 12 days since you sent your letter and I’m so sorry it’s taken me a while to get back to you! The last couple of weeks has flown by, not the least of which because I spent some time out in the woods, away from tech and cell service, guiding a client on a multi-day hike. Oh, and my wife and I bought a house in that time. But we’ll get to that. 😉

I was surprised to learn that English isn’t your first language – your prose is great! Where did you grow up, and what language did you first learn? Do you know any other second languages, in addition to English? I took a couple of semesters of Spanish while in college, but now all but the basics have left me since then. If I were to go after another language, I think I would choose to learn American Sign Language. My family has a history with sign language (my Grandma used to teach it in her work with students with speech challenges), and my nephew uses it now to communicate a lot of the time.

I saw someone speculate that the hand-tracking and spatial nature of Vision Pro could be a boon for teaching and learning sign language, and I have to agree. It makes me even more excited about that product. Maybe you’ll be building things in that same vein in your new work on AR projects for iOS? I have a feeling that expertise in the AR field is going to be very valuable over the next few years.

But I can totally see how moving on from your previous employer would be an emotional process. So much history there with friends and seeing it grow from the very beginning. But it also sounds like you’ll get to experience a lot of that all over again with this new venture. It must be so invigorating to be one of the first employees. You’ll get to influence so much of the direction for the foundation of what you’re building together. I’ve been thinking about that concept a bit lately regarding the products I use and the communities I’m a part of. For example, I love using Micro.blog for my social networking fix because it’s small enough that I can have real conversations with the folks building it – and sometimes my opinions actually help drive changes in the products. Similarly with Shoutouts.lol and Tinylytics by Vincent Ritter. Using, or building, something from the beginning is a pretty cool privilege.

You are so right about streaks affecting the motivation to write. On the weeks that I have time and plentiful topics, I wonder how I ever get out of the habit of writing. But as soon as I break the streak – like this past week or so – it takes a lot of effort to start typing again. I guess, like anything, getting in a true habit of setting regular time aside for it and sticking to that commitment would make all the difference. It’s the same for me with fitness. When I’ve got it in my schedule and routine, it’s easy. But irregular weeks can really throw me off. I like your idea of just writing something. I should give that a try. There – I’ve added it to my Challenge! list. I’ll write about making a habit of writing. Very meta.

How did you get into writing fiction? I haven’t had to do that since high school and while I love reading fiction, I don’t know that I’d be particularly good at writing it. Do you have a particular genre or style that you like best?

Thanks for the praise on that app subscription article! I can see how it would be dissonant to be on both sides of the developer and consumer coin. I’m fascinated by behavioral psychology and the intersection of price and purchase is a huge part of that field. Haha, speaking of pricing things, yeah, the Vision Pro is way up there. I’m going to do all I can to get my hands on one next year sometime. Saving up tips, maybe doing some DoorDashing. It helps that my wife was also intrigued by the idea of such a thing – which doesn’t always happen with new tech gadgets! I’m enthralled by the idea of getting in at the beginning of this new “spatial computing”.

Ah, you’re an Obsidian guy! I tried it out, but haven’t ever gotten into the idea of backlinking. It’s cool and I’m glad it works for other people, but I’m good with my writing flow using Drafts and 1Writer. For now.

I suppose I should expand on the house-buying thing before signing off here. To make a long story short, we’re in the process of buying a house that we lost out on about a month ago. The long story is that we’ve been looking for a year (though more seriously for the last three or four months), and found a house in a great location that met many, if not all, our wants and needs and was within our budget. We put in an offer, then we upped the offer, and everything looked promising. Then at the last minute, someone matched our offer but in all cash. So the seller went with the cash offer. We were super disappointed and took a few weeks off searching. After we started touring other houses again, we found one that was super nice and checked all our boxes. The only problems were that it was a stretch for our budget and we just didn’t feel like it felt like “us”. We decided to put in a low offer anyway, just to see what happened. But the day we were working on our offer, our realtor called to say that the house we’d previously wanted was back on the market because the other buyers walked away. After some soul-searching, we decided to put another offer on the old one…and it was accepted the next day! Thus began the whirlwind of mortgages, contracts, inspections, and everything else. But we can see the end of the tunnel and it comes with a house!

We’re pretty excited.

I hope that the first few weeks in your new job have brought a lot of excitement, too. I can’t wait to hear back.

Take care,

Jarrod

You can find all the letters from Jarrod over on his page: Entries tagged “Letters”.

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