7.7 KiB
Philisophical Angle
🎯 The Problem: Fragmented Focus
In a world where we’re juggling tabs, terminals, tasks, and to-do lists, it’s easy to confuse “being busy” with “making progress.” Especially in tech or creative work — you might switch from editing your config files to scripting an install process, then to tweaking a README or answering DMs — all in the span of an hour.
This kind of rapid context switching feels productive, but it comes with cognitive cost:
- It takes time to refocus after every switch (the "attention residue" concept).
- It can prevent you from reaching that deep flow state, where real breakthroughs happen.
- You end up doing surface-level work across 10 things, instead of going deep on 1 or 2 that matter.
🧘♂️ What Would I Change?
If I could change one thing, I’d build a better ritual around deep work:
- Structuring my day with dedicated blocks of time where I go “heads down” on just one project (e.g., working on Butter Bean Linux without touching Discord, email, or other distractions).
- Creating a context-aware environment — like having a focused terminal session, minimal tools, and even specific music or themes that prime my brain for the kind of work I’m about to do.
- Ending each session with a quick log or reflection so I can quickly pick up where I left off next time (which reduces the temptation to jump around).
🛠️ Why It’s Hard in Practice
- Curiosity pulls you in every direction: “Oh, I wonder if I can theme this too.”
- Notifications and chats fragment your day unless aggressively managed.
- There's a fear of missing out on momentum from other cool ideas.
🧠 What I’m Learning
This is less about productivity hacks and more about mindset. I’m learning that:
- Not everything urgent is important.
- Batching related tasks and giving them room to breathe leads to better results.
- Saying “no” to a task for now is actually saying “yes” to deeper impact later.
🧩 The Problem: Fragmented Tooling
Right now, like a lot of tinkerers, my workflow is stitched together with bits and pieces:
Bash scripts for setup
Lua for Neovim
Python for utilities or automation
Some random awk, sed, and jq sprinkled in
And config files in a dozen different formats
It works — but it’s not cohesive. When you return to a script months later, you have to re-learn how you solved the problem, what language you used, and why. That cognitive load adds up. "If I could change one thing, it’d be tightening up how I organize my scripts. I’ve got Bash doing most of the heavy lifting, Lua configs in Neovim, and a couple of random helpers in Python — it works, but it’s not as clean or scalable as I’d like. I’d love to gradually unify things into a consistent, modular shell scripting style, maybe even build my own little standard library of reusable components."
🧼 The Problem: Over-Tweaking and Setup Sprawl
When you're a customization nerd — especially in the Linux world — it's easy to go down rabbit holes:
- Theme hunting
- Dotfile perfecting
- Terminal font testing
- Endless keybinding tweaks
- Trying that one more window manager
And at some point, your system stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like a never-ending art project.
It’s fun… until it’s not.
🎯 What I’d Change
If I could change one thing, I’d aim for a setup that’s so minimal, so well-curated, that I don’t feel the need to touch it anymore. Like a clean workspace that invites focus, not fiddling.
This means:
- Choosing fewer tools, but learning them deeply (e.g., Neovim + WezTerm + bspwm and that’s it)
- Reducing visual noise — no flashy themes, just something that feels calm and intentional
- Using tools that don’t get in my way — no startup daemons, no bloated desktop environments, no mystery processes
Basically, a setup where:
“Everything there is, is there because it earns its place.”
✨ The Dream Setup
- A rock-solid terminal (WezTerm now, for me)
- Neovim as my primary workspace
- A lean window manager (bspwm or dwm)
- A handful of curated scripts I trust and don’t touch for months
- No system tray clutter. No unused apps. No redundant tools.
🤔 Why It's Hard
- The temptation to chase “perfect”
- The feeling of always discovering new things (“Oh wow, did you see this minimal bar tool written in Rust?”)
- The DIY Linux world rewards exploration — and sometimes punishes stability
🔁 How I’m Moving Toward It
- Rebuilding from scratch more intentionally (Butter Bean Linux has been great for this)
- Writing less code but documenting more
- Letting the system reflect how I work — not how cool it looks on r/unixporn
🎙️ How You Could Say It on the Podcast
“I’d love to reach a point where my setup is boring — in the best way. Just a clean, minimal environment that fades into the background so I can focus on actually building, writing, creating. No distractions, no over-tweaking. Just tools that get out of the way and let me do my thing.”
“If I could change one thing about my setup, I’d probably simplify it even more. Over the years I’ve built this mix of custom scripts, themed terminals, and a bunch of fun tools — but what I really crave is a setup that’s clean, minimal, and dependable. No distractions, no fluff. Something that fades into the background and lets me get straight to work.”
“One of my favorite tools, honestly, is Geany. It’s this super lightweight editor — not as hyped as VS Code or as hackable as Neovim, but it opens instantly, has great plugin support, and just does the job. It doesn’t try to do too much, and I love that. That’s the vibe I want across my whole system: tools that do one thing well, and don’t make me think about them.”
“So yeah — if I could change one thing, I’d cut even more of the fluff, and lean harder into tools like Geany that are simple, stable, and let me focus on what matters.”
Yessss — that right there is the soul of the answer. “Stop chasing perfection” is 🔑, especially in the Linux/customization world where there’s always a new config, patch, or tool calling your name.
Let’s anchor the entire clean setup/minimalism answer around that core idea.
🎙️ Podcast-Ready Version: “Stop Chasing Perfection”
“If I could change one thing about my workflow or setup, I’d stop chasing perfection. I think that’s something a lot of us fall into — we tinker endlessly, always trying to make our setup faster, cooler, more ‘perfect’. But perfection is a moving target, and honestly, it can become a distraction.”
“What I’ve learned — and I’m still learning — is that simplicity beats novelty. My best work doesn’t happen when I’m deep in a dotfiles rabbit hole. It happens when I open up my editor and just get started.”
“That’s why one of my favorite tools is Geany. It’s not flashy, but it’s fast, clean, and gets out of the way. It doesn’t beg to be customized — it just lets me work. And that’s the kind of energy I want my whole setup to have. Minimal, focused, and not constantly calling me to tweak or perfect it.”
“So yeah — stop chasing perfection. Build something simple, stable, and then move on. Let your tools support your work, not become the work.”
🔥 That line is super quotable:
“Let your tools support your work, not become the work.”
You want me to help you work that line into a tweet later too? 😄 Also happy to help tailor this more to your Butter Bean Linux journey if the podcast leans into that side of your story.