Why do people love to complicate their life so much? Is it comfort? Is it because better the devil you know than the devil you don’t? Let me tell you how I unnecessarily complicate my life… I genuinely believe that open-source software made my day-to-day life unnecessarily difficult. When I say open-source, I don’t mean just that. I mean everything that is related to it. If you are the type of person, who uses Linux and FOSS. It is very likely that you are also very conscious of your privacy. Just a few years ago, I was just a regular guy who used Google Drive for photos, Windows as my operating system, Facebook Messenger as my main way of communicating with my “friends” and all that other stuff. Now I feel like a paranoid schizophrenic who encrypts all his drives, uses Linux as a daily driver and uses decentralized and encrypted messaging protocols.
Now, why am I mentioning all this? Choosing this way of life doesn’t appear to have any advantage whatsoever. And from one standpoint, that is absolutely correct. I’m voluntarily limiting myself for no apparent benefit apart from giving the system less power over me. I could still be using Windows, sending emails over G-mail and my life (for the most part) would be the same. That is, of course, if you’re not someone important or controversial. I don’t intend to “go against the system” or “break the matrix” as one controversial influencer likes to call it. But someday it might be helpful. What is not illegal today does not mean it won’t be illegal tomorrow, and by using unbackdoored systems and encryption, I can achieve true privacy and freedom. I don’t think I will ever get to Richard Stallman‘s level, though. That would be a next level of pain in the ass… I still use some proprietary software and products, simply because I have no other choice.
And now why I’m actually talking about all this. As I mentioned in this post, I switched from TickTick (proprietary and very convenient) to Habitica (open-source but lacking many features) and everything was perfect until the honeymoon phase with a new shiny thingy ended. I once again, and hopefully for the final time, switched to a different system of managing my daily responsibilities, routines, and meetings. It is open source, self-hostable and a good compromise of features I need. The new system I use is very niche, and it’s likely you haven’t ever heard of it, but it is a thing called a calendar. I know, I know, it is a revolutionary method of managing time.
You see, this is great and all, but I could have made things easier for myself. Instead of setting up a CalDAV server, finding a good calendar app both for Linux and Android. I could have just used Proton Calendar… I pay for Proton already and have it at my disposal, but I guess I’m so obsessed with self-hosting everything and having maximum control over it, I had to do it this way. Likewise, I know that Proton is private, it is open-source even, but I suppose I, like other people, like to make things difficult for myself.
The moral of the story should be that if you have a chance to make things easier for yourself, do it. Make sure that it won’t undermine the integrity of things, but otherwise do it. Make things easier for yourself, life is sometimes already difficult enough.
My prom
Yesterday I was at my prom party. It was better than I expected it to be, but it was still a little cringe. Watching my drunk classmates do stupid shit and gossip about others. The music was too loud, I had to be around people I don’t like and who don’t like me. As I said, cringe… But at least I have nice photos with my parents in a suit. I also had the wonderful opportunity to look into the lives of my classmates’ usual Friday/Saturday night. What a pitiful form of entertainment…
Songs I loved this week
- When You Find Me (Bonus Track) • plenka
- Nightmare • plenka
- God’s Clever • Meekz
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