## Reflection on reflections

* TOC
{: toc }

### Running out of space 

I just spent almost an hour freeing up space on my Cloud9 instance. I had over 20GB on this machine - and the max size is 10BG! First I deleted all the large directories that I no longer use. Then I tried to figure out how to shrink this directory down.

First I installed [Git-LFS](https://git-lfs.github.com/) and tested it out on a single file. However, that file wasn't easily reachable in github pages, so that solution was out. And besides I think that was solving a different problem than the one I have.

Then [this article](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/git/handle-big-repositories-git) helped me delete unneccesary files with git sparse-checkout. I still have a 350MB `.git` directory because they are probably storing those large files. 

However now I have 7GB of space on this machine and that should last a while if I just add text here from now on. Potentially I'm going to want to `git clone --shallow` this repo from scratch. The problem there is that I have to remember to bring over my config files in the `.git` directory. (It is a bummer that those files aren't more portable!)

### Brief rant on "overthinking"

One of my least favorite words is "overthinking." I firmly believe that whatever someone's problem is, thinking too much can never be the problem.

We all know people, maybe even ourselves, who have thought themselves into circles about relatively simple decisions. Clearly this person has a thinking problem, but the problem isn't that they are thinking too much: it's that they aren't thinking *well*.

Let me prove it to you by contradiction. Say you are worried that  you are overthinking an issue in your life. How in the world are you supposed to be able to evaluate this claim? The only way is meta-cognition:  thinking about your thinking process. Through meta-cognition you may come to the conclusion that you have been doing too much *unproductive thinking*. But it would be impossible to say that you were doing too much thinking because the only way you were able to determine that you were thinking too much was more thinking!

This word "overthinking" feels appropriate when someone is doing too much of unhelpful kinds of thinking. Thus I propose we replace it with a new word. Let's say, you're "thinking poorly." Ok, that's a bit harsh. Maybe "thinking in circles" is a better metaphor.

### Cons and pros of my current schedule

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's do some reflections on my process of reflecting.

I set up this research schedule for myself 4ish months ago. I've learned a lot about how I work in that time. For the most part, I've liked this schedule. Let's reflect on what I don't like:

* non-informative logistics around post production and publication for podcast episodes
* feeling pressured to reflect, record, edit and publish reflections all in the morning on mondays

The pros of my current process:

* re-reading my last reflection and journal entries from then until now is really useful

### One question

**What value does recording, editing, and publishing my research recap podcasts provide for me? (Not counting the reflecting I do to prepare to record.)** 

None, save when others listen to it and then contact me to be friends.

In other words, I gain all of the value from simply doing the reflection in text, minus the people that listen to the podcast that wouldn't read my bi-weekly textual updates. Recording it on audio is simply for audio-only people. 

I wonder how many of those there are. I get about 100 downloads on most episodes. I'm not sure how many people actually listen to them after downloading. I used to have listeners contact me, but that has stopped. And I suspsect that many would've contacted me from the conversation episodes alone.

Here's where podcasts shine: two-person conversations. A two person conversation requires little prep time and I usually learn a lot from the conversation. And the person I interview has an audience to spread me around to. (Although that hasn't really ever lead to much yet.)

I'm thinking it makes sense to go to a 1 episode every other week as an interview plus Sam-Harris-style "housekeeping" section in the beginning if I have other things to say. For example, I can start my interview with Jason next week with housekeeping notes that I won't be doing research recaps any longer.

What about people who want to read my bi-weekly reflections / status update?

A few options. 

A) They can read them in the `reflections/` or `updates/` folder.
B) I can create a TinyLetter bi-weekly newletter like Glen Chiacchieri.

Let's start with (A) for now and see if anyone asks for a newsletter.

One final question: what's the plan for tomorrow's reflection?

First of all, I won't be starting tomorrow's reflection until I finish my personal life reflection (which is private). I estimate that taking 1-4 hours tomorrow so I may not have time to do a reflection here until Tues or Weds.

I definitely want to re-read the last two weeks of journal updates.

I also want to read the prior reflection.

I also want to re-read my plan.

I feel finally ready to finish my work plan. It's basically [what it is now](./plan) plus [this section of my journal](http://futureofcoding.org/log#pickling-my-brain-is-a-lot-of-work).

Let's try and finish my reflection first and publish it. Then I can decide what to do next: continue to BV deep dive, do "deep thinking", other "FoC research", or write the plan.

Author: Steve Krouse