Hello to Future At Eleven

by Mike Levin

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Hello World! It’s Mike At Eleven!

The purpose of today’s video is to get down a bit of the purpose of this site. It’s not just to force a self-lesson in commitment and consistency (which it is), but it’s even more importantly to talk to future-Adi, my child.

Adi is homeschooled and going through a lot of similar experiences now as the rest of her generation. Her homeschool experience is suddenly no longer so unusual, and that’s awesome. They’re being raised in-part by her YouTube heroes and we’ve been to the YouTube convention in Anaheim, CA a few years back before lockdown. They’re now 10 and we’ll be coning again this year, but this time there will be 2 adults and more time at Disney Land. Anyhoo, I digress. Let’s talk to future Adi.

Hi there Kiddo! I already lost you I bet. Every time I try to teach you something you transition. I’ve got so much to show and teach and help you with in life, it’s one of the most difficult things that I can’t do it in “normal” talking format. However I get it. The other side is where you homeschool and you’re here in the mountains of PA to relax and chill.

At least when you’re doing your YouTubing, it can be while you’re actually tubing down the Delaware River like we did last week, or perhaps on the trampoline big enough for four in your front yard next to the zipline where you can zoom down a cable like Batman or Kim Possible, or maybe a nice bonfire in our front yard in our firepit and so on.

There’s a treehouse (really a hunter’s chair in the tree) and archery and lots of other little things to show you that real reality is sometimes just or more interesting than the online stuff. And I see you get it. Lead by example, not by words. That’s been my new mantra and when quarantine set in, you saw me spring into action to make sure you weren’t having the same shut-in experience as so many from your generation.

Advice? I’ve got a lot. Who knows if it will even be relevant to your life by the time you read this, however we all stand on the shoulders of giants. And it’s totally okay to borrow from others to get a point across fast. I do have a very old webpage that I replublished recently as I migrated my decade(s)?-old WordPress website over to plain markdown files like the one you see me typing here. You can find it at…

https://mikelev.in/learnings/

And there it is! I have a lot of organizing to do. But before I launch into THAT learning (3 orders for things: sequential, organized and instant), I will show you this YouTube video that pretty much nails it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5fApDbiLU&t=228s

Oops, wrong journal. I have to watch it. I generally like one and only one place for things to cut down on “search” liability when you set out to do things. It’s good to have one master location where all your important stuff goes so you always know where to look.

Anyhoo, let’s embed that bad boy… or girl… or it.

Yay, I’m getting better at my vim copy/pasting. More on THAT later. It’s great to always be getting better at some tools for life which are always going to be around in greatly unchanged form so you’re not losing your skills by no fault of your own. It’s like learning how to draw on real physical media so no one can take that skill away from you as software interfaces and apps and platforms change on you over the years. It will happen. Decades of mastery can be wiped out in moments as companies and developers decide to change everything on you to force you to “modernize”, but really just to re-buy a lot of stuff for the sake of their profits and earnings.

You own your skills. Don’t let anyone take them away from you. They are more valuable than money in the bank.

Okay, what else? Not much. I’m not going to make these things too long. I’m going to go finish watching that video myself, but I’m at 15 points of advice out of 20 of the things you generally don’t know about life until it’s too late, and they’re so nailing it.

So let’s start out there. Hope that video’s still around by the time you’re reading this (if ever).

Hello Future Adi, my child. I love you so much! I know I referred to you as my “child” up there, and that may trigger you as not gender neutral enough for this day and age, so from here on even on this site, I’ll be referring to you as my child. Okay, My Child? Later Gater!