However, as the son of a mother who slowly died from early onset dementia, I can attest that just because the ego self has fractured and scattered into a million pieces does not mean that the afflicted person is in some peaceful state of not knowing. That they are somehow not suffering or in pain. It is just that the afflicted can no longer articulate their suffering in ways understood by the rest of us in consensus reality. If one pays close attention, the reality of their suffering is bright and clear.

One of many many examples was when my mother would compulsively pick up a pen and make rhythmic circles on and off for hours. I would watch her and wonder why. Turns out she had a severe (brutally painful) urinary tract infection and was trying to soothe her pain. She was a much beloved English teacher and writing was her refuge. She was doing her level best to alleviate her suffering.

The thought that a person dying from Alzheimer's is not having a painful existence is radically disconnected from reality.

I respectfully ask you and any caregivers for dementia patients to avoid conflating your own understanding of reality with the actual reality of your patients.

"K2: Triumph and Tragedy" by Jim Curran is an excellent book about the 1986 disaster.

I can also highly recommend the recent film "Broad Peak" directed by Leszek Dawid about the Polish mountaineer Maciej Berbeka.

Resolution Demos: https://www.yedlin.net/ResDemo/index.html

On Color Science for Filmmakers: https://www.yedlin.net/OnColorScience/index.html

There's some conceptual stuff in the Mundis book that provides a framework for understanding the why of his approach, but the majority of it is a 'Do this' and 'If this happens, do this' type of pragmatic approach.

What I found is if I followed the book's suggestions, I got a lot of writing done. That simple. Same for a good friend who is a comics artist, except for the obvious fact that he draws.

I found the Pressfield book somewhat useful but the simple fact is, I just don't turn to it anymore. I didn't find it skillful to anthropomorphize an abstract concept like 'Resistance' that I had to wake up and defeat everday. I think it's possible to have a really productive and fulfilling creative life without thinking of it like some kind of a daily fight.

I return to the Mundis book time and time again.

Finding the way into a healthy self-discipline is such a personal and creative act. The process that ultimate worked best for me is to give an approach a sustained trial (30 days or so) and then reflect on how it went. Assess and try again. After going through a lot stuff that didn't work (for me), I found the thing that did.

Perhap those reflections are useful in some way.

For example, if I'm scheduled to write for 3 hours and I feel too much resistance, I write for less time. Maybe 2 hours. If I'm super resistant, I invoke the 'nuclear option' and write for no more than 30 mins, or even less.

Much more important than hitting some predetermined target is writing everyday no matter what. To be forthright, it's not particularly difficult once I get going. The writer in me wants to write; that guy just needs a little coaxing sometimes.

I learned of the 'nuclear option' from an unfortunately titled book by Jerrold Mundis called 'Break Writer's Block Now'. The title is pretty cheesy but the book is gold. It's designed to be read (and applied) over an afternoon, perhaps 3-4 hours. It works. The proof is me. I've been a professional screenwriter for several years now as a result of daily effort.

I guess the most important thing I've learned is that punishment doesn't work (at least for me). But gentle, consistent practice does.

Agreed that the UI on the present iOS app is less than ideal. That said easy mobile access to those sublime definitions is super helpful. Gratitude to the dev.

Will definitely be using Wordnote (great work!) and I echo the wish that the 1913 Webster's be incorporated somehow.

I've wasted waaay too much thought on that thing: why won't the founders just release an API like they originally promised, why did they delete the entire Freewrite forum full of many complaints right before a new model was released, why... and here I am... sucked in again, whining... publicly. Jeez.

Anyone out there thinking of buying one these things, my gentle suggestion is don't. Really just don't. I'll let you borrow all my wasted time so that you don't have to waste yours.

The most gracious thing I can say is that wasting my precious time and hard-earned cash on a Freewrite taught me a very important lesson... do not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.

On a positive note, it got me into exploring the dead art of writing on actual typewriters. A typewriter is a good deal more useful than a Freewrite, version control on the page for example. I can edit and rewrite with a pen. Good times.

I'm a professional screenwriter and often use a typewriter for first drafts or when I'm super stuck on something or procrastinating on a hard deadline. It's a good way to get things moving. I OCR the pages into emacs and fountain-mode to rewrite until the inevitable time comes when production needs the script in Final Draft... which is a sad moment, but so it goes.

I took an unfortunate road filled with regret that led to way of working that I love. So there's that.

Plum Village: https://plumvillage.app/ Free, extremely comprehensive meditation app. Does not require subscription or mine data like most such apps.

WOOP: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/woop-app/id790247988 Free. Simple app with text prompts.

Point of information: (W)ish (O)utcome (O)bstacle (Plan) is a deeply researched and effective approach to working with goals, habits, et al. More info here: https://woopmylife.org/en/home

Streaks: https://streaksapp.com/ Nicely designed habit tracker. Responsive developer.

Perhaps these prove useful to someone.

For example, when calling org-roam-node-find to create a new note, say I type "This is My New Note". The file created is named "this_is_my_new_note.org".

Here's an article regarding workflow from the maintainer that I found quite helpful: https://jethrokuan.github.io/org-roam-guide/

Anyone interested in learning more about how NSO group operates can check out digitalviolence: https://www.digitalviolence.org/#/

There's also a nice little ios app of the same dictionary: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/websters-writers-dictionary/id... I use it alongside Terminology (made by the excellent 'Drafts' dev): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/terminology-dictionary/id68779...

Incidentally, the system I use is from Mark Forster's 'Autofocus' constellation of productivity experiments. Unfortunate that his work is not more widely known because it's quite effective (for me at least).

Here's a link to the version I use: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2021/11/16/the-final...