Learning Log, Jun 2025

🧶 Crafting

I completed two sewing projects in June:

• My first knit dress, a mild “hack” of the Closet Core T-Shirt pattern
• A canvas project bag for my knitting, made with a fabric of hamsters shaped like onigiri (!!!)

🧪 Tiny experiments

This month I read and appreciated “Tiny Experiments” by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. The author proposes that instead of setting lofty goals for yourself, adopt a scientist’s mindset and run “tiny experiments” designed to try out areas that interest you or may benefit your life. Chapters that I especially landed for me:

• “The Power of Intentional Imperfection”: sustainable excellence > short-term perfection. A life lesson I’m repeatedly learning.
• “How to Dance with Disruption”: I’ve noticed that in the past few years, all personal-growth-type books that resonate with me touch on Buddhist mindfulness tenets. This chapter was a good reminder that attempting to control outcomes leads to suffering (hello anxiety). Instead, accept your feelings without judgement and consider what the situation asks of you to meet it constructively.
• “Life Beyond Legacy”: this chapter was about living “generatively” instead of focusing on the scale of some future legacy. The point was to follow your curiosity to make a positive impact on those around you, here and now. As someone who loves their squiggly-line personal journey and meandering interests, this resonated quite strongly with me.

The first experiment I’m starting out with is to hold “Power Hours” a la Gretchen Rubin every Monday evening. The point is to burn down personal admin tasks that aren’t particularly time-sensitive but tend to pile up. So far so good: once you get started it’s easy to keep going and take that weight off your shoulders!

🧙🏻‍♀️ Side quests

Late spring park days! Had a Picnic in the Park addition of our book club, and a birthday-with-crafts hang. 🌳

🛜 On the internet

• Was curious about the top spoken languages in my city (Seattle, WA) and found this report with guidance for specific public services.
• Video: How Ghibli Makes Everything Feel Magical

🔖 Reading

Everything is AI now… 🙃

Product

• What AI Can’t—and Shouldn’t—do for Product Managers
• Yes, You Will Lose Your Job to AI

Accessibility

• Make Screen Readers Talk With the ARIA Notify API
• Up and Coming ARIA

Web

• How to Make a Link Aggregator in Obsidian
• Polishing Your Typography With Line Height Units
• Sanding UI
• What's New in Web

AI

• Double Click: What Does MCP Mean for Agentic AI?
• Is AI the Reason for Your Layoff? New York Becomes the First State to Require Companies to Disclose if So. It's the First Official Statewide Move Towards Understanding AI's Effect on the Labor Market.
• Knowledge Work Is Dying—Here’s What Comes Next
• MCP Is the Coming of Web 2.0 2.0
• Meta Wins Blockbuster AI Copyright Case—but There’s a Catch

Personal growth

• I Deleted My Second Brain
• On Whether Having a Baby Ruins Your Life or Not

Art

• What I Learned About My Style, the Art I Admire, and the Space Between Them
• Irasutoya: The Best-Known Illustrator in Japan, That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Other interesting articles

• Pona Jacket Pattern Review & How I Stitched Sashiko on Every Inch of It