2025-07-18 19:00:00
This is the 99th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Alex Sirac and their blog, alexsirac.com
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I'm Alex, hi! I'm 31 years old and am from Grenoble, in the French Alps. I've lived in several places over the world and am happy to say that I came back home to my beloved city and mountains.
I work in a tiny tech startup where I manage content, a role that includes a bit of marketing and a lot of technical writing. I love writing and researching things, and the job requires a lot of daily learning.
This aligns perfectly with my favorite pastime: editing Wikipedia, or more accurately, Wikipédia, the French-language version of the website. I've been creating articles for the past eight or nine years, having a great time falling into research rabbit holes and sharing them with anyone who could be interested in them.
I had my first blog in the early 2000s as any French pre-teen did. It had butterflies on its homepage and I shared copy-paste tweets and very cringe poems. It chronicled my daily life as I left home in 2009 and lived on my own for two years. Then, I stopped for a few months, and when I came back I was all grown-up and different.
When I came back, it was early 2012, I had just stopped my sports career and wasn't sure what to do with my life. My mental health had been in the dumps for nearly a year and I needed something to live for, I guess. And because in the meantime my brain had been polluted by « personal branding » and because I was terribly deprived of the feeling of success that had been part of my speed skating experience, I decided to become − although the word wasn't quite there yet − an influencer.
So I opened two blogs on wordpress: the first one would be my personal blog, under a fullname dot fr format. The second was called Réussir Mes Études (acing my studies), because I avidly read student hacks blogs in English and had noticed how little of those existed in French. I had stopped skating, I was going to be good at something, and it was going to be school. And everyone would benefit from my Wisdom in the process.
And somehow, that worked. Really well. On my personal blog, I only did translations; on Réussir Mes Études, I shared a mix of personal anecdotes as I was getting out of my slump and going through the highly-competitive process of entering a business school masters' degree in 2013, and of generic advice, racking up an impressive audience. Réussir Mes Études got me my first job, paid for my rent for most of my masters' degree, and made me realize how much I love writing and explaining things. The personal blog disappeared in the background.
In 2016, I got my first digital marketing job and decided to revive the personal blog to « showcase my expertise », because lack of self-confidence has never been what stops me, I guess. I had lost access to the original URL so I created fullname.com, and I started a digital marketing newsletter and consulting blog posts.
I stopped again.
In 2020 or 2021, I was tired of the Internet. Truly exhausted and disgusted, and I was working at a giant online conglomerate and it was destroying my soul. And then I signed up to Mastodon, and COVID hit, and I was really bored and reading all that I could find and I stumbled upon Tracy Durnell's blog. Through her, I found the IndieWeb, met some wonderful people like Sara, and decided once again to get a blog. In the meantime, I had changed my first name, so I created a new blog at fullname.com (never gets old). It's at alexsirac.com and it's still running, with the same CMS as 13 years ago when I started Réussir Mes Études, even though I dabbled with a few others in the past (Django and Pico most of all).
I generally have an interesting conversation and get deeply carried away and decide that everyone needs to benefit from my Wisdom, of course!
More seriously − my brain is polluted by years and years of daily Twitter usage. I've stopped a few years ago, but I've been sharing my thoughts online since I was ten years old and I can't really explain where my inspiration comes from because it's just as natural to me as making dinner − probably more, since I've never been very good at feeding myself!
Nowadays, I generally write on my computer, on Obsidian. You can really see at what times I'm busy at work: those are the times when I don't turn my personal computer on over the weekends so that I won't have a ten-day streak of staring at a screen all day, and suddenly I've written nothing for a month.
Every month, I post my monthly recap, and it's the one habit I've managed to keep. I sometimes get really motivated by book reviews, do a whole batch, and then get lazy for another six months.
I do some research, but tend to share opinions more than anything else: if I want to share researched facts, then that goes on Wikipedia, not on my blog. I usually only have one draft, and I'm a relatively quick writer, but I only write when inspiration hits, which is not so often. When it does hit, I'll write pages and pages, that's just fine, but I've never managed to stick to a consistent routine.
I don't get my blog posts proofread unless they might bring me lots of angry comments (like my takes on activism) or they're a translation (I think I'm a decent translator, but I also know after 6 years as a translation editor that even decent translators do absolutely disgusting mistakes sometimes). For that, I'll generally rely on a friend or on my partner, although I sometimes post a call for proofreaders on Mastodon, usually to no avail.
(I also need to note that in my current job, there is a lot of writing involved, and these days not getting reviews on my blog is pretty important, because I need the freedom that I don't necessarily get at work.)
I do not have an ideal creative environment. I largely prefer writing on my computer than on my phone, but that's about it. I do find myself writing on trains pretty often, and I don't know if it's the environment so much as having nothing else to do!
When I travel and know I'm going to have to write a lot, such as during my European train trip, I sometimes bring a Bluetooth keyboard for my phone as I find the typing comfort much higher than on the phone's virtual keyboard.
A fun fact, which might be TMI and so be it, is that I've noticed that my writing output strongly correlates with some specific times of my hormonal cycle.
My hosting and domain name are done through OVH, a French provider. I like that they're French and I love that they have a one-click install for Wordpress. My CMS is WordPress and it's been, with some exceptions, since 2012.
I use Ghost at work and really like it. I might possibly consider moving to Ghost someday, but my server is old and I'm not super tech-savvy and Wordpress won't let me export my whole database because the plugin isn't compatible with my version of PHP. Oops.
Here's a more or less complete list of my WordPress plugins (not super up to date, I should get to that).
As said above, I wouldn't be against trying a more streamlined platform like Ghost, but I do like the flexibility of WordPress as someone who's not a dev and still wants some customization.
I sometimes toy wiht the idea of a static site. Love the idea, hate the execution of moving 500 blog posts to markdown files.
And as for my identity… I often wish I was more anonymous online. But I fail again and again to keep myself anonymous, and I like having my full name there as a reminder that you're never fully safe. I find it almost easier to deal with than being pseudonymous and too easily forgetting that people will still be able to find me with a bit of effort.
As far as I can think of, I only have two costs:
I don't monetize my personal blog, and I respect people who do, because I've needed to do it on Réussir Mes Études many times. I used to sell coaching services (nice and predictable) and sponsored articles (I hated those, but was also keenly aware that when I got lucky and snagged one my rent would be covered for the month). I am fascinated by monetization issues and unfortunately have no « perfect way » of solving them.
I like to donate or subscribe to other people when they allow me to, especially if they have a one-time or annual donation solution. I hate monthly donations because they stack up and I drown in them too easily.
Aaaah that's an excellent question! I feel like you've already interviewed pretty much all of the English speakers I follow, heh.
Today I think I'd recommend you interview Elizabeth Tai and the wonderful Elle.
Yes, a bunch!
This was the 99th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Alex. Make sure to follow their blog (RSS) and get in touch with them if you have any questions.
You can support this series on Ko-Fi and all supporters will be listed here as well as on the official site of the newsletter.
Jamie Thingelstad (RSS) — Piet Terheyden — Eleonora — Carl Barenbrug (RSS) — Steve Ledlow (RSS) — Paolo Ruggeri (RSS) — Nicolas Magand (RSS) — Rob Hope — Chris Hannah (RSS) — Pedro Corá (RSS) — Sixian Lim (RSS) — Matt Stein (RSS) — Winnie Lim (RSS) — Flamed (RSS) — C Jackdaw (RSS) — Fabricio Teixeira (RSS) — Rosalind Croad — Mike Walsh (RSS) — Markus Heurung (RSS) — Michael Warren (RSS) — Chuck Grimmett (RSS) — Bryan Maniotakis (RSS) — Barry Hess (RSS) — Ivan Moreale — Ben Werdmuller (RSS) — Cory Gibbons — Luke Harris (RSS) — Lars-Christian Simonsen (RSS) — Cody Schultz — Brad Barrish (RSS) — Nikita Galaiko — Erik Blankvoort — Jaga Santagostino — Andrew Zuckerman — Mattia Compagnucci (RSS) — Thord D. Hedengren (RSS) — Fabien Sauser (RSS) — Maxwell Omdal — Numeric Citizen (RSS) — Jarrod Blundy (RSS) — Andrea Contino (RSS) — Sebastian De Deyne (RSS) — Nicola Losito (RSS) — Lou Plummer (RSS) — Leon Mika (RSS) — Neil Gorman (RSS) — Reaper (RSS) — Matt Rutherford (RSS) — Aleem Ali (RSS) — Nikkin (RSS) — Hans (RSS) — Matt Katz (RSS) — Ilja Panić — Emmanuel Odongo — Peter Rukavina (RSS) — James (RSS) — Adam Keys (RSS) — Alexey Staroselets (RSS) — John L — Minsuk Kang (RSS) — Naz Hamid (RSS) — Ken Zinser (RSS) — Jan — Grey Vugrin (RSS) — Luigi Mozzillo (RSS) — Alex Hyett (RSS) — Andy Piper — Hrvoje Šimić (RSS) — Travis Schmeisser — Doug Jones — Vincent Ritter (RSS) — Shen — Fabian Holzer (RSS) — Dan Ritz (RSS) — Jeremy Bassetti (RSS) — Luke Dorny (RSS) — Thomas Erickson — Herman Martinus (RSS) — Benny (RSS) — Annie Mueller (RSS) — SekhmetDesign — Gui (RSS) — Jamie (RSS) — Juha Liikala (RSS) — Ray (RSS) — Chad Moore (RSS) — Benjamin Wittorf (RSS) — Stefan Bohacek (RSS) — Radek Kozieł (RSS) — Marcus Richardson — Emily Moran Barwick (RSS) — Gosha (RSS) — Manton Reece (RSS) — Silvano Stralla (RSS) — Mario Figueroa — Benjamin Chait (RSS) — Cai Wingfield — Pete (RSS) — Pete Millspaugh (RSS) — Martin Matanovic (RSS) — Coinciding Narratives (RSS) — Arun Venkatesan (RSS) — fourohfour.net (RSS) — Jonathan Kemper — Bookofjoe (RSS) — Marius Masalar (RSS) — Jim Mitchell (RSS) — Grant Hutchins — Simon Howard (RSS) — Frederick Vanbrabant (RSS) — Thibault Malfoy (RSS) — Beradadisini (RSS) — x-way (RSS) — Caleb Hailey (RSS) — Vincent Geoffray — TAONAW (RSS) — Sebastián Monía (RSS)
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2025-07-17 20:30:00
Over the past couple of months, I read several posts in my RSS reader from people who, in previous lives, were Apple users but now, for a variety of reasons, are switching away from the company run by its homonymous CEO Tim Apple. From what I gathered, the switch was often motivated by the very morally dubious actions taken by Mr Tim, but also because Apple as a company is not exactly trending in the most splendid of possible directions.
I am an Apple customer. I’m typing this on a MacBook Air I bought not even a few months ago. Before that, I was typing my blog posts on a Magic Keyboard connected to a Mac Mini. And before that Mini it was a 13-inch MacBook Pro I bought back in 2015, and its predecessor was the 17-inch MacBook Pro that was so big and heavy you could easily use it to kill someone (which is why it’s still sitting at arm's reach, below my desk).
And in addition to those Macs, I also had an iPhone, a 6S that I still have and I still occasionally use which I kept until I switched to an 11 Pro Max, that I also still have and still use since it’s my daily phone. Because all these I listed are tools, tools that I replace if and when I have to upgrade, either because they break down or because they no longer do what I need them to do. I don’t give a shit about Apple the company, the same way I don’t give a shit about any other company. Most of my time in front of this screen is spent using software not built by Apple, often by independent developers and small studios. I care about them. But Apple? Nah.
Could I switch away from Apple? Sure, I could ditch my iPhone and buy another phone, and I could ditch my Mac and buy a laptop with Linux, I guess. But the only thing I’d be accomplishing is to make life easier for myself, and I’d also stop using software developed by those developers I care about. And also, nobody would care. Because nobody should. Tools are tools; they either do the job you need them to do or they don’t. And the sad reality of this world we live in is that most big companies out there are awful. If you spend some time digging, you’ll find despicable things done by probably 99% of CEOs of big companies.
If I find out that the Volvo CEO is eating babies in their spare time, what should I do? Sell my car? Do I need to check if the Suunto CEO is a piece of shit to make sure I can wear this watch on my wrist and still feel at peace with myself? Frankly, I think it’s an exhausting way to live a life, and I’d be better off focusing all those energies somewhere else, trying to make something good, something that has a positive impact on the people around me.
And this doesn't want to be a condemnation of the people who are doing the switch. These are all people I have nothing but respect for, and they’re free to do whatever they want with their lives. If they think this is something worth doing, more power to them. And I deeply appreciate the fact that they take time to share their perspectives publicly on their site. That’s why I love the open web.
Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.
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2025-07-16 14:40:00
If there’s one phenomenon I can’t wrap my head around is the proliferation of people who are tech-savvy and nerdy enough to know what RSS is but are also unable to discover my RSS feeds.
A non-trivial percentage of the people subscribed to both my blog-to-email newsletter and the People and Blogs newsletter are using one of those tools that automatically convert newsletters into RSS feeds. Wonderful tools, great tools, useful tools, I’m not debating that. But for the love of all things digital, all that content is already available as native RSS feeds so WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING THROUGH ALL THESE EXTRA STEPS??
The P&B one is especially baffling because the link to the RSS feed is at the beginning of every single email I send. Anyway, let’s use this as an excuse to list the RSS feeds that are available, in case you prefer to consume content that way:
Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.
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2025-07-14 14:15:00
Week two is behind me and I have to say, I am glad I tweaked the rules of my challenge because now it is at least a challenge. Having the phone with me forces my brain to entertain the possibility of using it in random moments throughout the day and that makes the whole experience a lot more interesting.
Here’s the data from week two:
Monday : 1:20 (0:57)
Tuesday : 1:33 (1:16)
Wednesday : 2:01 (1:30)
Thursday : 2:30 (1:59)
Friday : 2:29 (2.02)
Saturday : 1:38 (1:02)
Sunday : 1:06 (0:48)Overall, the trend I saw on day one is continuing and every day, without exception, the most used apps are messaging apps that always account for more than 65% of the time spent on my phone (and sometimes that % goes up even higher).
The non-messaging time on my phone is down to pretty much nothing at this point. I’m looking at screen time right now and if I pick let’s say Wednesday, I spent a grand total of 13 minutes doing something on my phone: 1 minutes to register a read book on Literal, 1 minute on my banking app, 2 minutes on my email, and 9 minutes on Safari. That’s how I’m using my phone at the moment.
I’m only halfway through the experiment but I’m starting to think that this issue is now fixed. I can notice my brain only reaching for the phone maybe a few times a day but those occasions are easy to spot and very easy to deal with. Having said that, one thing I noticed is that I still pick it up way too much. The pickups section is reporting 71 on average for the week (it was 73 the week before, 115 before starting the experiment) and I think I can push that down to maybe 50.
So for this week three I have two extra target goals:
I’m interested to see how far I can push this because I do believe as a society we have a collective problem with phone usage and I don’t like to be part of problems.
Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.
Email me :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month :: See my generous supporters :: Subscribe to People and Blogs
2025-07-11 19:00:00
This is the 98th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have but she's a girl... and her blog, rousette.org.uk
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Hello! My pseudonym online is bsag, an acronym for 'but she's a girl...' (the name of my blog, but we'll get to the origin of that later). I'm from the UK and grew up in the South East of England. I've been obsessed with animals (and more broadly nature) for as long as I can remember, so it is not a huge surprise that I ended up studying biology. For more years than seems feasible, given that it was surely only a couple of weeks ago that I finished my undergraduate degree (actually more than 30 years ago, surely that can't be right?), I have worked in academia teaching and doing research.
I have more hobbies than I have free time, so I end up doing them (and writing about them) in rotation. I read a lot from a wide variety of genres, enjoy watching films, taking photographs, walking, soldering, making and designing mechanical keyboards, spinning (fleece into yarn, not riding a static bike), riding an actual bike, tinkering with computers, knitting, using fountain pens, sewing, programming... honestly, the list goes on. I'm a person who enjoys learning, solving problems, and is attracted to things and their extremes or opposites. For example, I love 21st Century technology (well, some of it anyway), but also neolithic technology.
I have been blogging since 2002. When I started, blogs (or 'weblogs' as they tended to be known then) were starting to become popular, and I was intrigued by them. I'm interested in anything technical, and I like writing, so I decided to set up a blog. One of the motivating factors for me was to provide myself with an outlet to write freely, in my own voice, about my own interests, without the formality and constraints of academic writing. Don't get me wrong, I love the challenge and precision of scientific writing, but I also enjoy writing without those constraints, which comes back to my love of opposites again. While I was keen to connect with other people who might enjoy my writing, it was (and still is) mostly for my own entertainment.
The name came from my own experience of being a woman who is openly interested in technical things. People (mostly male people) would see me explaining or showing interest in something technical, and I would see bafflement flit across their face which — in the privacy of my own head — I would narrate as "but she's a girl...". My pseudonym came from the acronym of that phrase. My one and only regret about that is that I wish I had chosen an acronym that was a bit more pronounceable. I don't regret writing under a pseudonym though. I wanted to keep my work and personal life separate, even though I don't write anything on my blog that I would be embarrassed for work colleagues to read. Over the years, I have written as bsag on social media too, and like having this separate but consistent identity for my online self.
The blog has been through many changes of visual style and has been driven by many different blogging platforms over the years, but I don't think the tone or general content has changed that much. I used to write more often, but publish shorter articles, while my tendency now is to write much longer pieces less often. This is partly because of increasing pressures on my time, but also because social media started to provide a convenient outlet for the shorter pieces.
Do I get inspired? I guess I do occasionally. There have been a few pieces that have rattled around in my head for a while before I just had to write them down and publish them. More often, I decide to write because I get interested in it and find myself thinking about it constantly. That feeling might build quickly, or over a number of weeks. The research (if any is needed) has generally happened as a natural part of me being interested in the thing, so I just need to gather the sources I have been using so that I can cite them. It's funny to think about, but I almost never write a draft, in the sense of writing something, and putting it aside for a while before coming back to it. I generally tend to write all in one go in a rough form, then proof-read, fix errors and tweak wording, then publish. Often that happens over a few hours on a Sunday, when I have time to devote to it. The frequent typos, awkward phrasing and long-winded sentences (not to mention my rambling prose) attest to the fact that I do not get anyone else to proof read. I once asked my husband to read a post I had written about him to check that he was happy for it to be published, but apart from that one instance, it's a solo endeavour. My tools are very simple: a text editor (currently Emacs for prose), a comfortable chair and a nice keyboard.
In my dreams, I write in a book-lined study in a small cottage in the middle of a beautiful deciduous woodland, with bird song and other natural sounds drifting in through the windows. In reality, I'm in a noisy, suburban environment in which people use petrol-powered hedge trimmers all day, and wannabe racing drivers hurtle up and down the road at reckless speeds. I just have to work with it. Sometimes I will listen to music as I write, but it has to be an instrumental piece otherwise I end up focusing on the lyrics, rather than what I am writing. Usually I write in whatever passes for quiet around here.
As I mentioned above, I have used lots of blogging software stacks over the years, including full CMSs like WordPress. Some years ago now, I got into static blogging tools, and after trying a couple, settled on Hugo. I've been very happy with that for some years now, and love the simplicity of writing in plain text (Markdown) and then pushing the files up to a host. I love not having to bother about a database, and all my writing is automatically backed up, in the sense that all my files are right here on my local drive. I host at Netlify now, which has a great set up for static blogs, and is free for users with modest needs. I keep the files in a Git repository, then when I push the changes to Netlify, it automatically builds the site and then publishes it. It can take a bit of work to get things configured at the start, but from there it is very simple, and works well with my rather slow tempo of publication.
Other than a pronounceable pseudonym, no I don't think I would do things differently. I've changed platforms a few times, as I mentioned, and that was part of my learning process (as well as an insatiable drive to tinker, if I'm honest). I see the blog as a living thing, so I expect it to go through a few metamorphoses along the way. At its heart, it's still the same animal, because I am still more or less the same inside as I was 23 years ago. Non, je ne regret rien...
It costs very little. My hosting is free, Hugo is free, so all I pay for is the domain name (about $16 a year at Gandi.net). I have in the past used blogging platforms that involved a fee, and even paid for a Linode VM on which to host it (about $14-27 a month if I recall correctly). I regard it as a hobby, so I don't mind paying the costs, and am very lucky that I am financially able to do so. My reason for starting the blog and continuing all these years was to give myself a place to be free, and for me, that includes feeling free of any obligation (real or imagined) that might come with money changing hands. I don't begrudge other people wanting to monetise their blogs at all, but it's just not something I am interested in doing. I am horribly aware that my answer to this sounds like a stereotypical 1960s hippy yelling about not selling out to The Man. Anyway, I am aware of my privilege, but given that privilege, I prefer to just put my stuff out there for people to enjoy or avoid completely, as they see fit.
This is a tough choice, because I have a RSS reader full of blogs that I read regularly.
Current readers of my blog will be aware of my current obsession with switching to Linux as my 'daily driver' (as the kids say), so I have been reading a lot of articles and watching a lot of YouTube videos on the subject. Veronica is brilliant at explaining technical things in a clear but completely non-patronising way on her blog and YouTube channel, Veronica Explains. I also love the fact that she is into re-purposing old technology.
I have read Susanna Clarke's book 'Piranesi' twice already and am currently strongly tempted by a third expedition into her startlingly vivid, unsettling world. If you ever need a perfect example of the way that books can insert a complete and yet completely unfamiliar world into your brain, this is it.
This was the 98th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with BSAG. Make sure to follow her blog (RSS) and get in touch with her if you have any questions.
You can support this series on Ko-Fi and all supporters will be listed here as well as on the official site of the newsletter.
Jamie Thingelstad (RSS) — Piet Terheyden — Eleonora — Carl Barenbrug (RSS) — Steve Ledlow (RSS) — Paolo Ruggeri (RSS) — Nicolas Magand (RSS) — Rob Hope — Chris Hannah (RSS) — Pedro Corá (RSS) — Sixian Lim (RSS) — Matt Stein (RSS) — Winnie Lim (RSS) — Flamed (RSS) — C Jackdaw (RSS) — Fabricio Teixeira (RSS) — Rosalind Croad — Mike Walsh (RSS) — Markus Heurung (RSS) — Michael Warren (RSS) — Chuck Grimmett (RSS) — Bryan Maniotakis (RSS) — Barry Hess (RSS) — Ivan Moreale — Ben Werdmuller (RSS) — Cory Gibbons — Luke Harris (RSS) — Lars-Christian Simonsen (RSS) — Cody Schultz — Brad Barrish (RSS) — Nikita Galaiko — Erik Blankvoort — Jaga Santagostino — Andrew Zuckerman — Mattia Compagnucci (RSS) — Thord D. Hedengren (RSS) — Fabien Sauser (RSS) — Maxwell Omdal — Numeric Citizen (RSS) — Jarrod Blundy (RSS) — Andrea Contino (RSS) — Sebastian De Deyne (RSS) — Nicola Losito (RSS) — Lou Plummer (RSS) — Leon Mika (RSS) — Neil Gorman (RSS) — Reaper (RSS) — Matt Rutherford (RSS) — Aleem Ali (RSS) — Nikkin (RSS) — Hans (RSS) — Matt Katz (RSS) — Ilja Panić — Emmanuel Odongo — Peter Rukavina (RSS) — James (RSS) — Adam Keys (RSS) — Alexey Staroselets (RSS) — John L — Minsuk Kang (RSS) — Naz Hamid (RSS) — Ken Zinser (RSS) — Jan — Grey Vugrin (RSS) — Luigi Mozzillo (RSS) — Alex Hyett (RSS) — Andy Piper — Hrvoje Šimić (RSS) — Travis Schmeisser — Doug Jones — Vincent Ritter (RSS) — Shen — Fabian Holzer (RSS) — Dan Ritz (RSS) — Jeremy Bassetti (RSS) — Luke Dorny (RSS) — Thomas Erickson — Herman Martinus (RSS) — Benny (RSS) — Annie Mueller (RSS) — SekhmetDesign — Gui (RSS) — Jamie (RSS) — Juha Liikala (RSS) — Ray (RSS) — Chad Moore (RSS) — Benjamin Wittorf (RSS) — Stefan Bohacek (RSS) — Radek Kozieł (RSS) — Marcus Richardson — Emily Moran Barwick (RSS) — Gosha (RSS) — Manton Reece (RSS) — Silvano Stralla (RSS) — Mario Figueroa — Benjamin Chait (RSS) — Cai Wingfield — Pete (RSS) — Pete Millspaugh (RSS) — Martin Matanovic (RSS) — Coinciding Narratives (RSS) — Arun Venkatesan (RSS) — fourohfour.net (RSS) — Jonathan Kemper — Bookofjoe (RSS) — Marius Masalar (RSS) — Jim Mitchell (RSS) — Grant Hutchins — Simon Howard (RSS) — Frederick Vanbrabant (RSS) — Thibault Malfoy (RSS) — Beradadisini (RSS) — x-way (RSS) — Caleb Hailey (RSS) — Vincent Geoffray — TAONAW (RSS)
If you like this series and want to help it grow, you can:
Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.
Email me :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month :: See my generous supporters :: Subscribe to People and Blogs
2025-07-07 17:35:00
I decided to write the updates for July's experiment on a Monday this way I always have the full previous week's worth of data to discuss. The goal for this month is to fix the muscle memory my brain has built over time that makes me reach for my phone even if I don’t have any reason to do so. The plan was to leave the phone in my bedroom, next to the meditation cushion and only pick it up if I had to go outside. The target was < 1 hour a day of phone screen time.
After one week I can say that I set a goal that’s almost impossible to achieve—for reasons I’ll get into in a bit—but that this challenge is also way too easy. Easy to the point I had to tweak it already. But let me first give you some data. Screen Time on my iPhone is reporting conflicting numbers because what I see reported as total doesn’t match the sum of the various categories in the breakdown. I’m gonna list both numbers, just for the sake of completeness.
Monday : 2:33 (2:07)
Tuesday : 1:44 (1:12)
Wednesday : 1:22 (0:49)
Thursday : 1:50 (1:24)
Friday : 1:30 (0:57)
Saturday : 1:31 (1:07)
Sunday : 2:19 (1:56)These are the reported totals for each day and in parentheses I added the sum of the breakdown inside the various categories. I suspect Screen Time is including the time I’m doing meditation in the total even though the screen is not actually on—and I have my eyes closed most of the time anyway—which is why the first number is consistently higher than the second one. So I’ll focus on the second number.
As you can see, two out of the seven days I did manage to stay below 1h, a few times I was close and Monday and Sunday I was way over. To be fair to me, Monday wasn’t even July and Sunday was my birthday and I spent some extra time replying to people who wrote to wish me happy birthday so it was not a normal day.
You might be wondering why I said that getting sub 1 hour a day is almost impossible since I can clearly do it and this is why: I use Telegram to stay in touch with my significant other. Every morning I spend some time chatting with her before she starts her work day and we do the same late in the day. Those two moments alone are often almost an hour combined. Which means to stay sub 1 hour a day I’d have to either cut those moments short—and I have no interest in doing that—or I’d have to not use my phone and go use my Mac which is frankly an idiotic thing to do. Telegram—and to a lesser degree Apple Messages—are always the two most-used apps on my phone. As an example, let’s pick Thursday. 1h and 24 minutes of actual usage: that’s 84 minutes. Out of those 84 minutes, I have 44 on Telegram, 28 on Messages. That’s 72 minutes right there. That means that I used my phone for a grand total of 10 minutes that day for literally everything else.
Now, Telegram usage might be high. But I know for a fact that the reason why it's high is because I am not currently living with my partner. And I say that I know it for a fact because when we are together, telegram usage drops to almost zero. And so I consider that a non-issue.
Ok, that was the almost impossible part of the experiment but how about the “way too easy” part? Well, the plan was to leave the phone in my bedroom, on the floor, in an attempt to fix the muscle memory. The problem with that plan is that it makes fighting against that automatic behaviour way way too easy. Because I’m not an addict. I’m not going to stand up and go in the other room to check my phone. That’s just not going to happen. And so it became an “out of sight, out of mind” type of situation. It felt strange the first two days and by the third one, I was already leaving the house without my phone. But again, that is not a challenge to the automatic behaviour because I can’t fight against the urge to pick the phone up if the phone is not there. Which is why by Thursday I decided to make it harder and I’m now carrying the phone with me. I pick it up, I lay it face down on the table or on the desk and I carry on with my life. But it’s right there, I can reach it if I wanted to and that makes it at least a tiny bit harder because my brain does have that option.
But to be honest with you, I don’t think it will make much of a difference. I think next week’s numbers are gonna be pretty much the same, probably lower. I might have overestimated the effect of this issue on my life or maybe I have underestimated my ability to deal with it. That said, I do plan to carry on with this setup for the rest of the month and I’ll keep posting weekly updates because it’s fun.
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