Like most weeks, I had a bit of teaching to do on various subjects. I teach a little AI, some pure IT stuff and a little English for speakers of a foreign language. It is a diverse set of teaching, and I enjoy it a lot. I have been very lucky so far in having students and training participants who are enthusiastic and willing to contribute. I try to foster an environment where there are no wrong answers. It sounds a little trite, but I find that putting in the effort to allow participants to feel part of the training gets the best out of them. I also give them practical work to do rather than chalk and talk.
I was a guest on the ICT Pulse podcast, which will be published sometime soon. I’ll share the link when it is available. There were two guests, and we talked about what we had seen and felt might be for 2024. I think the conversation was interesting and full of little snippets about what we’d experienced. I’m looking forward to hearing it again.
I caught up with some administrative documents, which, to be honest, is a weight off my shoulders but something I should have done a long time ago. I will be better in the coming year.
I’ve been thinking about my professional life and decided to make some changes. I’ve let myself get pulled left and right, which has diluted what I can do and clouded what people think about my services. It’s a little muddled. So, I will consolidate and clean up some things and make them more concise and on point. That’s a job for the two weeks or so over the holiday period.
I had a blog post published on the ARIN website about my experiences as an ARIN Fellow. You can read it here. And yes, you should apply!
Continuing with iA Writer, I’m finding my feet with it and have decided to continue using it for the moment. I have a little time before deciding to cancel the Ulysses subscription, and I need to move the data out as soon as I can. It will take a little time. But I’m thrilled with the setup of iA Writer, visible folders and an index in DEVONthink Pro, as I’m sure it will bring the benefits of DT3 to my writing and referencing older posts and thoughts. I think this is a really powerful setup. I should write an entire blog post on it.
Next week is going to be very busy. I have quite a few hours of teaching and training. The week before Christmas seems to be a time when people can spend a little time out of the office on training.
Reading
I finally managed it! I finished The Caves of Steel.I had to choose another book to read, and as I’d had Doppelgänger on the want-to-read list, I decided to go ahead and purchase it as I’d found an edition significantly cheaper than the one I had bookmarked. I’ve read the introduction and first chapter, and I think I will enjoy it. I really enjoyed No Logo, so it was probably a given that I’d enjoy this one.
I haven’t looked at getting the Dune series yet. I’ll see.
I haven’t created a reading list yet, but I did share a list with a friend about the books I had on the go. There are many of them. So, I thought I might be a little more mindful of what to read next to help me avoid unnecessarily buying a new book when I already have one in the eReader waiting to be read.
Of note
This week’s note section is a mind dump of a few thoughts about what I’ve been doing and how to do that better. Particularly when it comes to work, as noted above, I’ve been a little all over the place, possibly still reeling from the pandemic. Remember that?Have a great week.
