Writing to Think

As I mentioned recently, I've been playing around with Claude Cowork to build "Robot Kara". Just like with that newsletter, the robot did all the behind-the-scenes publishing and tinkering to get this post delivered to you — whether on Circle or via Kit in email. That technical stuff probably doesn't matter to you — but for me, it's the "boring" part of what I do. It's not hard, but it isn't exciting either and so it doesn't hit me with the right level of challenge (a topic we're going to explore in a few future editions).
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One of the things that has pleasantly surprised me is how much more time I'm able to devote to writing down my thinking. It's tiny bits of time here and there, but over time it really adds up. I'm averaging about 750 words (or about 3 handwritten notebook pages) of reflective text a day — compared to the less than 250 words of reflective text I was averaging before interacting with Robot Kara daily. To be fair, this is a combination of the robot and Wispr Flow, which is a dictation app I use regularly now.
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So far, I haven't seen drastic changes in my thinking about things — with one major exception. I feel calmer. I feel like I'm more capable of getting what I need to get into a note and handling it — even if I have no idea of when it's going to happen. This change has reminded me of how important it is to get our thoughts out of our heads and into the world. We need to make them visible so we can handle them more easily — even if you don't know when you'll tackle them, getting them out of your head gives you more space to think and to be calmer. At least that is what is happening for me.
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If you needed a permission slip to take a few minutes and grab a piece of paper or a keyboard and screen and get some of the things in your head out in the world, this is your permission slip. I hope it gives you more peace and calm as it has me.

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Some Other Things You Might Find Interesting

What I Published This Week

Technically, WCET published it, but I can now announce that WCET has published a major work that I did with them - the WCET Online Learning Quality Rubric and Toolkit. The toolkit, which is over 200 pages, is a member only resource. I had such an amazing time working on this project.

What's Coming Up?

I'll be adding a few events this week so be sure to check those out!

Paradise Redeemed

I mentioned back in issue 168 that the second season of Paradise wasn't doing it for us. We finally persevered yesterday and finished the last two episodes which were actually great. I still don't know what the girl and the baby have to do with anything, but I'm sure it will be important in season 3. So, now we wait for that.

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