# Inspiration

https://kylejeong.com/
https://aidanjs.com/
https://jeremykintana.com
https://caydenpierce.com
https://howisfelix.today/?

---

# Digital gardens / note-graphs

- **Andy Matuschak — evergreen notes / public notebook.** Great example of notes-as-thinking-space (bi-directional links, evergreen notes). ([Andyʼs working notes][1])
  _What to borrow:_ the “notes as UI” approach and minimal metadata for each note.

- **Maggie Appleton — visual digital garden & “historical trails.”** Beautiful visual essays and patterns (good examples of showing journeys & trails through ideas). ([maggieappleton.com][2])
  _What to borrow:_ visual/illustrated essays and the “trail” metaphor for showing where you’ve been intellectually or physically.

- **Joel Hooks — “your friend Joel’s digital garden.”** Clean digital-garden layout + a NOW page. ([joelhooks.com][3])
  _What to borrow:_ simple garden index, tag filters, and a readable “now” summary.

- **Sindhu (sindhu.live) — personal garden + now/guestbook.** Compact, readable garden with a “now” and garden/lore split. ([sindhu.live][4])
  _What to borrow:_ approachable “garden” UI and season/now updates.

# Travel / maps / location timelines

- **Aaron Parecki — GPS logs, “Everywhere I’ve Been” maps, monthly summaries.** Aaron publishes GPS-derived maps and monthly travel summaries — a direct model for your travel timeline/map idea. ([aaronparecki.com][5])
  _What to borrow:_ ingest GPS/GPX logs to build animated “where I was” timelines and monthly map views.

- **Simon Willison — geospatial experiments, mapping infrastructure & examples.** Lots of practical mapping work and demos — useful when you build custom map features (isochrones, map tiles). ([Simon Willison’s Weblog][6])
  _What to borrow:_ pragmatic approach to self-hosting map data and building performant interactive maps.

# Quantified-self / life metrics / dashboards

- **howisFelix.today (Felix Krause) — full personal metrics site.** Tracks \~100 data types (fitness, social, computer use, weather) and visualizes them. Great example of a personal dashboard / life database. ([howisfelix.today][7], [GitHub][8])
  _What to borrow:_ data model for cross-domain metrics and the dashboard layout for asking questions of your life.

- **Maggie Delano — quantified-self projects & reports.** Longstanding QS contributor with projects and data visualizations (pomodoro tracking, talks). ([Maggie Delano][9])
  _What to borrow:_ how to present self-tracking as narrative reports and conference talks.

- **Buster Benson — notes + “life in weeks” and yearly reviews.** Great examples of periodic life reviews and compact visualizations. ([Buster’s Notes][10])
  _What to borrow:_ how to structure annual / weekly retrospectives as shareable pages.

# Now-pages, timelines & “what I’m doing”

- **Aaron Parecki — /now and “monthly summaries” (map + stats).** Simple, machine-friendly now page plus monthly summary with travel map. ([aaronparecki.com][11])
  _What to borrow:_ automated now/monthly pages powered by scripts.

- **Joel Hooks — now + digital-garden entries for narrative timeline feel.** Good for blending “now” with longer-term notes. ([main--joelhooks-com.netlify.app][12])

# Community / memberships / “semantic map of communities”

- **Maggie Appleton — patterns about gatherings & “gathering structures.”** Useful design patterns for visualizing communities and events in context. ([maggieappleton.com][13])
  _What to borrow:_ pattern language for representing communities and events.

- **Rach Smith — accessible digital garden + “month notes & numbers.”** A practical example of a garden that includes periodic summary pages and tags for community topics. ([rachsmith.com][14])

# One-stop collections (to mine more live personal sites)

- **A Digital Garden Inventory (Medium)** — curated list of \~50 real personal digital gardens (handy for finding more live personal sites to copy). ([Medium][15])

---

If you want, next I can do one of these _concrete_ follow-ups (pick one and I’ll run it right now):

1. **Deep dive: top 6 live sites** — take screenshots of the 6 best matches (map, quantified, garden, timeline) and write a 1-paragraph “lift/steal” plan for each (layout + components + minimal tech).
2. **Prototype checklist** — pick 3 live examples and produce a tiny page wireframe (which components go where + data fields to store).
3. **Starter repo** — a minimal Next.js starter that includes: Obsidian markdown import, a simple map page (Leaflet/Mapbox), and a demo quantified-data dashboard (mock data).

Which of those would you like me to do next?

[1]: https://notes.andymatuschak.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "About these notes - Andy Matuschak"
[2]: https://maggieappleton.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Maggie Appleton"
[3]: https://joelhooks.com/digital-garden/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "My blog is a digital garden, not a blog - Joel Hooks"
[4]: https://sindhu.live/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "sindhu.live — a digital garden"
[5]: https://aaronparecki.com/2012/03/06/7/everywhere-ive-been-gps-data-portraits?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Everywhere I've Been: Data Portraits Powered by 3.5 years of"
[6]: https://simonwillison.net/tags/maps/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Simon Willison on maps"
[7]: https://howisfelix.today/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "howisFelix.today? · Felix Krause"
[8]: https://github.com/KrauseFx/FxLifeSheet?utm_source=chatgpt.com "KrauseFx/FxLifeSheet: Tracking the key metrics of my life - GitHub"
[9]: https://www.maggiedelano.com/garden/quantified-self?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Quantified Self - Maggie Delano"
[10]: https://busterbenson.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Buster's Notes - Notes"
[11]: https://aaronparecki.com/now/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Now - Aaron Parecki"
[12]: https://main--joelhooks-com.netlify.app/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "your friend Joel's digital garden"
[13]: https://maggieappleton.com/garden/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "The Garden of Maggie Appleton"
[14]: https://rachsmith.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Home | Rach Smith's digital garden"
[15]: https://medium.com/%40raysims/a-digital-garden-inventory-d6450fe74b4 "A Digital Garden Inventory. Nearly fifty Digital Garden examples… | by Raymond D Sims | Medium"

Inspiration

# Security

Add a Captcha to the contact form to prevent spam submissions. This will help ensure that only legitimate messages are sent through the form, reducing the risk of spam and unwanted content on the website.

Security

# Map

The purpose of this map is so that anyone can look on my personal website and see where I'll be in the future. I can embed this into an email, a footer for an email, my personal newsletter, etc. With this, I can "create" luck, (my network can give me ideas about trips I plan on going. If they plan on being in the same area at the time they can say hi). I can imagine this becoming generalized so that everyone has a map like this so their network can see where they will be.

Maybe for my network, other people can write when and where they will be in the future and then I can see this on my map. I imagine this being in an email, someone is going on a trip to Spain in September, and then they can click on the map, a date, and then it will send me an email where they will be in the future. This is just me getting more value from my network. This should be accessible to anyone on my website. They also should be able to write a description of what they're doing there, why they are going, etc. This means my website won't be just a static website.

On a map I can visualize a lot of things, specifically my travels, where I've been and where I intend on being in the future. I image a map with a timeline where the user can scrub forward and backwards to see how I have traveled, they can maybe select a range of time (example October 2024-January 2025) and then see where I've been during that time.

This system can perhaps interact with my personal network? It can show events in my life, such as when and where I met specific people during my travels.

I can/want to do something like this: https://aaronparecki.com/2012/03/06/7/everywhere-ive-been-gps-data-portraits

# Cost of an Injury

What happened:

Directly after:
Had to clean up the blood from my sheets
Had to repair my bike

Got a concussion
Bruises on the left side of my body
Limited elbow mobility, minor fracture, cellulitis

The cost of falling off my bike:

2 poor nights of sleep
1.5 hours for docker visit, traveling, wait
20.60 for medicine
X for X-ray

I'm assuming I am half as productive because of 1. the pain i experiencem aking it difficult to think, 2. it is more difficult to type, 3. needing to take more frequent breaks.
I worked X total hours in this state

Sept. 8.
$25, 2 hours of time at doctors.

Sept 9
$0, 1 hour going to doctor

~5 other hours informing family and asking for advice, taking photos, keeping tabs on progression, taking medicine,

Not to mention all of the pain that I went through.

Cost Of An Injury

# Purpose

My online website should be my entire online brand. It should have everything anyone would need to know about me on there. It should combine all of instagram, linkedin, etc.

For example, my internship at epic I should have on there, all of my adventures, accomplishments, periods in my life

My online website should use data about my life from my obsidian vault.

From this website, someone can get a hollistic view of who I am as a person.

By building this so that it is available on my website, anything I put on there I implicitly build a tracking system.

My website is me "living in public"

For most of my areas of my life, my systems, interests, have them be visible on my website

A principle for this website is the idea of others being able to quickly and easily interact with my ideas, leave me notes. This can be component specific. For example, in the physiological health metrics component, someone can select a part of the chart and give me a suggestion for that. For the map component, someone can highlight a section and tell me about how there is something very cool there. They can also highlight it and say they will be there in the future. Give a lot of interactivity to this. Allow the user to login and write their name on my personal website, by going on my personal website, they are personally interacting with me.

I want to record how people interact with my website, using something like posthog.

Purpose

# Technical Portfolio

How can I create a remarkable technical portfolio?

I need to learn what makes something remarkable
I need to learn what makes a good technical portfolio

Technical Portfolio

# About This Site

Hi! I'm Matt Handzel. I'm running an experiment where I'm trying to put the 'personal' in personal website. I want this website to entirely represent who I am, what I care about, how I think, what are my "inputs", and "outputs".

## Why Am I Doing This?

I'm very much into quantified self and I have a fear of posting myself online.

For those that know me, this is a place where you can check in and see how I'm doing
For those that don't know me, this is a place for you to get an authentic understanding of who I am.

## What You Can Find Here

My [habits](matthandzel.com/dailies), [bucket list](matthandzel.com/bucket-list), [communities](matthandzel.com/communities), [books](matthandzel.com/content-consumed) I've read, and my captured [thoughts](matthandzel.com/thoughts), ideas, notes.

## How It Works

All content originates from markdown files in my Obsidian vault, which gets processed by Python scripts, stored in a database, and then rendered through atomic React components.

Feel free to explore, interact, and let me know your thoughts at handzelmatthew [at] gmail.com

About This Site

# Communities

The purpose of this is so that others can see what communities I am a part of. I want them to be able to search semantically and by keywords.

I want others to know what communities I am a part of. I have a markdown document [[communities-i-am-a-part-of]] that lists the communities I am a part of, how much I identify with that community, as well as a description. I want others to be able to visualize it. I am thinking about a component at "matthandzel.com/communities" that is a semantic map of the communities I am a part of.

What are some better ways to visualize what communities I am a part of?

- I can have a photo of me at every community gathering/"in the outfit" of the community
  - for example, polish community I can be at the Polish club
  - running community I can be on a run, etc.

Communities

# Lifelog

In this page, I will include my lifelog from my Looki, or other thing. I will curate it for the public to see :)

Lifelog

# Design

I want this design to look unique, somewhat futuristic but not cringy. I want it to represent me as a person, I'm into quantified self, transhumanism, rationalism, etc. I want you to make something unique.

Design

# Components

- Went skydiving
- Ran a marathon
- Ran to work

[[victory-jar]]
"Ideal job"

### "Organizational affiliations"

I have a timeline of the organizations I have affiliated myself with, photos, things I've done there, accomplishments.

### Incongruent beliefs/insecurities

There might be value to putting up my insecurities on my website. I can make this have nice graphics for each insecurity and my personal progress as to how I feel I am doing with each of them

### Habit Tracker

Take the habits from my journal and then visualize them.

### How I spend my time

Take my calendar and visualize how I am spending my time. Do rough categorization.

### Fashion

Best fits, all my clothes I have (in case someone wants to borrow them)

### Financial snapshot

Looking at my network, my budget, my spending habits (by taking my bank statements, credit card statements, etc. and visualizing them). Visualize income, expenses

### Random videos with me

Some random vidoes of me in public, talking with friends, recording conversations, similar to what [[jeremy-kintana]] does.

### Physiological metrics

My physiological metrics, such as my heart rate, sleep, etc. I can visualize this in a way that is easy to understand. Anyone can query it from my smartwatch

### Metrics

All other metrics for other systems I track should be visualized

### Learning

My anki desks, my status, what I've reviewed

### CBT

Some thoughts I am having, what types of cognitive distortions are plaguing me

### People interactions

If i interact with/mention a person in my journal and they publically want to be shown on my website, note that I interacted with that person on that day.

### Capture data

Take ideas from my capture, quotes, images, etc. the ones that have `is_public` to be true can be displayed and searched through on my website.

### Relationships

View who my friends are, what they do, their socials, all in a searchable semantic web/graph.

### Time management visualization

[[100-blocks]] For a given month, visualize what I do at any given day.

### Content I consume (can use capture fo rthis)

### Victory and failure jars

Display some of my victories and successes from my victory and failure jar.

### Life audits, best and ideal versions of myself.

Write up what my life audits are, what I think about my life, share it with others.

### Skill tree

a skill tree of the skills I have, how well i think i do, evidence for them, related to TalentOS

### Projects

For some of my projects, like marathon, uiuc, each semester, moving, san francisco trip, write up information about them, what I've learned, reflection, etc. Something like a progress bar.

### Values

Write up what my values are

### Interests

### Goals

Components

# Technical Approach

This is an outline technically how I will do this website.

- Oracle free-tier machine for hosting, if this is not beefy enough I can have my personal machine host this or buy cloud compute
- Supabase for storing my personal vault data as well as user data
- Buy website domain name on namecheap. Also, perhaps, buy email domain on there as well.

### Synchronizing Personal Website With My Data

I have many data sources, each data source has it's own method of synchronization. For every method, do that synchronization. If that data source is public, then copy its data to a database on supabase, oracle, etc.

#### Data Mining

For each 'different type' of data, (dailies, relationships, etc.) create a separate function that takes in the directory the data is stored, does processing on it, normalizes it, and stores it in a database.

Depending on the folder, specify data mining techniques, prompts, etc.

### Website

The website will be made up of many different components, the components are defined either as separate files, or in [[components]]. Each component should be atomic and it will source data from my obsidian vault.

I want all of the copy to be a function of markdown documents. For example, the "About This Site" section should be populated by a preprocessing stage, where the pre-processor looks into my obsidian vault, finds a markdown file called about-this-site.md, parses the contents of that file, puts it into a database, and then the website reads from that database.

### Architecture

So the architecture of this application is that there's going to be an obsidian vault on my like laptop, computer, whatever. And then, whenever I want to update the data on or for my website, I will run. Program. This is probably a python script, and it will. The python script will have many different functions that will look at my obsidian Vault and like, find files and do processing of.

It'll do processing of the data that I have. And then it will take all that information and then put that into a database. For development that databases will be local in the future of the database will be online. And then. When a user? Right. When a user opens my website, it will use the information from.

Though, like the website, when it's being rendered. It'll use information from my database. That is online.

So that? My webs. My personal website can be updated in somewhat real time. Whenever I run this data processing script.

My obsidian Vault is.

Tilda slash obsidian/ main/. And this is obsidian Vault and. And then the python script. I'll make specific functions that point to specific files, and then does parsing on them.

Technical Approach

# Bucket List

This is a document that contains my "bucket-list", a list of everything I want out of life. This list may be old, outdated, not represent what I want right now, but I think taking a peak into this would be interesting.

## Bucket List

---

**Take lsd and watch those "real size of the universe" videos and see what happens**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: "When I watch this type of media it makes me feel very small and aware of my place in the universe. It makes me feel much more conscious and I feel my ego dissolving."
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go sky diving**
type: "experience"
status: "completed"
motivation: "It is something that a lot of people say they want to do but don't commit. I want to do this so I can conquer a genuine fear I become braver."
completed: "yes"
completed_on: "2025-06-29"
media: []

---

**Going to a nude beach in France (Plage de Tahiti)**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: "I remember learning that France has a different cultural perspective on nudity compared to the US. I feel uncomfortable with nudity, and I would like to challenge that feeling of discomfort"
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go to a Don't Die meet up**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Meet Bryan Johnson**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Meet Andrew Huberman**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Celebrate Chinese New Year in China**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Take my mom to an Enej/Kwiat Jabłoni concert**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Visit Kazakhstan and meet Sanzhar's younger brother**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Shake a president's hand**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Live in the wilderness for a few days**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go into space**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go to North Korea**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go to South Korea**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go bald**
type: "achievement"
status: "completed"
motivation: ""
completed: "yes"
completed_on: "YYYY-MM-DD"
media: []

---

**Visit Sapporo Snow Festival, Japan**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Visit The Great Barrier Reef, Australia**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Visit Antarctica**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Celebrate Diwali in India**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Travel in Japan**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go to a maker's festival**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Visit South America**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go paintballing**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Skiing in the Alps**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go cliff jumping**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go to Valencia, Spain**
type: "experience"
status: "planned"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Travel to San Francisco**
type: "experience"
status: "completed"
motivation: ""
completed: "yes"
completed_on: "2025-08-06"
media: []

---

**Go to a strip club in Thailand**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Polish karaoke bar**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Start an organization (company)**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Live in SF for a few months to a year**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go to Burning Man**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Meet Derek Sivers**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Become a household name**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Become a 2x better person than I am on 2025-08-29 (fitness, kindness, intelligence, creativity)**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Have a family**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Get paid 500k/year**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn shorthand**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Design and build my dream house**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Make my own website**
type: "achievement"
status: "completed"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on: "2025-08-22"
media: ["https://matthandzel.com/"]

---

**Publish an article on my blog**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Create a product of my own, making $1000**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Run a Marathon**
type: "achievement"
status: "completed"
motivation: ""
completed: "yes"
completed_on: "2025-04-24"
media: []

---

**Climb a mountain**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Build my own desktop PC**
type: "achievement"
status: "completed"
motivation: ""
completed: "yes"
completed_on: "2025-07-21"
media: []

---

**Learn Polish, go back to Poland, and speak with my family there**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn Chinese to some level of fluency so others think I speak Chinese**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Bench 250 lbs**
type: "achievement"
status: "completed"
motivation: ""
completed: "yes"
completed_on: "2025-07-30"
media: []

---

**Use a Flipper Zero to hack into something**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Document my family**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Have a 6-pack**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn to Ballroom Dance**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Speak at a major event/conference**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Make and wear smart glasses**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Become a thought leader**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Document my life for my future self**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Get a brain implant and control things with my mind**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Become rich/influential for my family**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Start lifelogging**
type: "achievement"
status: "planned"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Host a dinner for my closest friends every year for my birthday**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Become an extremely charismatic person**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Do the "no English for X" challenge like Scott Young**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Swim with dolphins**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Be homeless for a week**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Go on a meditation/silence retreat**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Give a TED talk**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn to surf**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn to sail**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Achieve 15% body fat**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Host a 2 degrees of separation dinner**
type: "experience"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn to pick locks**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Learn how to play Ostatnia Nocka **
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: [[chords](<(https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/3599525)>)]

---

**Create a time capsule/book to be opened in 50 years**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

---

**Create and bury a treasure for others to find**
type: "achievement"
status: "not yet"
motivation: ""
completed: "no"
completed_on:
media: []

Bucket List

# Introduction

On `matthandzel.com/introduction`, I will have a video that will introduce who I am, how I am doing

Introduction

# Resume

Include my resume, buff it up with _everything_ I did from the employement, project, etc.

Resume

# Content Ive Consumed

Similar to [[jeremy-kintana|jeremy-kintana's]] substack, I want to show what articles, books, etc. I've consumed and my thoughts on them. I think this is extremely important to publish my thoughts and it allows me to interact with the content more, which improes my recall, and others can talk to me about it.

Content Ive Consumed

# Communities I Am a Part of

The purpose of this document is to list out the communities I identify with, participate in, or am interested in.

### Personal Affiliation Scale

1- I am barely affiliated, know about it, I might have a friend or two that is part of it
5- I am interested, would describe myself as that label
10- I actively participate in that community

- Personal affiliation: a 1 means barely affiliated, know about it, a 5 is interested, would describe myself as that label, a 10 is actively participate in that community

### Communities Table

| Community               | Description                                                                                        | Personal Affiliation                                                        | What I've Done                                                                                                                                                       |
| ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Neovim                  | People that use Neovim for programming and enjoy customizing it                                    | 7                                                                           | [dotfiles](https://github.com/MattHandzel/dotfiles/tree/main/nvim/.config/nvim) ![nvim_setup_screenshot.png]                                                         |
| Polish Community        | People that speak Polish and are interested in Polish culture                                      | 8.5                                                                         | Trip to Poland ; Member of [Zagłoba Polish Club](https://www.instagram.com/zaglobapolishclub/) ; Performed at [Wigilia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3IAm9zr40) |
| Keyboards               | People that use or are interested in ergonomic keyboards, mechanical keyboard, split keyboard      | 8                                                                           | [Corne](www.github.com/MattHandzel/Corne)                                                                                                                            |
| Line Dancing            | People that enjoy line dancing and want to learn more about it                                     | 5                                                                           | Favorite Songs: American Kids, Creepin, Levels ; I went to Red Rock Saloon every Tuesday from June-July at Madison Wisconsin                                         |
| Running                 | People that run                                                                                    | 3.5                                                                         | Ran in the Christie Clinic Race Weekend Marathon on April 24th 2025                                                                                                  |
| Quantified Self         | People that record information about themselves so they can improve it                             | 6                                                                           | my [website](matthandzel.com)...                                                                                                                                     |
| Lifelogging             | People that record everything about themselves                                                     | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Rationalism             | People that are interested in rationality and improving their thinking                             | 4                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| AI Safety               | People that are interested in AI safety and ensuring AI is safe for humanity                       | 4                                                                           | Frequent Robert Miles content consumer ; visited FAR Labs in Berkeley ; I have a few friends who are into AI safety                                                  |
| Founders                | People that start companies and have interests in entrepreneurship                                 | 3.5                                                                         |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Don't Die               | People that are interested in living a long life and improving their health                        | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Readers                 | People that read books and want to discuss them                                                    | 10                                                                          |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Second Brain            | People that are interested in building a second brain and using tools like Obsidian                | 9                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| The Residency           | People that want to build impressive and cool things without being limited by the public           | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Writers                 | People that write online and publish online                                                        | 4                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Neuroscience            | People that are interested in neuroscience and how the brain works                                 | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Longtermism             | People that are interested in longtermism and ensuring the future is good for humanity             | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Y Combinator            | People that are interested in Y Combinator and the startup world                                   | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Philosophy              | People that are interested in philosophy and discussing philosophical ideas                        | 4                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Bio Technology          | People that are interested in biotechnology and how it can be used to improve health and longevity | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| UIUC Alumni             | People that went to UIUC and want to connect with other alumni                                     | 7                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Skydivers               | People that skydive and want to connect with other skydivers                                       | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Atheists                | People that don't believe in a religion                                                            | 8                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Linux/GNU               | People that use Linux and GNU operating systems and want to connect with other users               | 6                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| NixOS                   | People that use NixOS                                                                              | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Effective Altruism      | People that want to do the most good with their life and resources                                 | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| French-speaking         | People that speak French or are learning French                                                    |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Traveling               | People that enjoy traveling and exploring new places                                               |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Severance-watcher       | People that watch and discuss the show _Severance_                                                 |                                                                             | I watched seasons 1 and 2 as soon as they came out. Half way through season 2 I became extremely confused. I hate the ending.                                        |
| Biking                  | People that enjoy biking for commuting, exercise, or leisure                                       |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Dancers                 | People that enjoy dancing in general                                                               |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Ball-room dancers       | People that are interested in ballroom dancing                                                     |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Mark Manson             | People that read or follow Mark Manson’s work on self-development                                  |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Cayden Pierce           | People that follow Cayden Pierce and his ideas/projects                                            |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Optimizing productivity | People that enjoy optimizing their productivity                                                    | 2                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Voidstar Labs           | People that are part of or interested in Voidstar Labs projects                                    |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Neurotech               |                                                                                                    | People that are interested in neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces | 5                                                                                                                                                                    | Part of [Neurotech](https://uiucneurotech.web.illinois.edu/team/) August 2023 - May 2025 |

Communities I Am A Part Of

# Interests

I want to show my interests page, some of my specific interests I have, what content I've consumed related to that interest, and what projects I've done related to that interest.

Interests

# Things Ive Done

Maybe I should have a "Thing I've Done" section that contains _everything_ I've done. This includes dancing, running marathon, taking certain classes, reading books, etc. and then from there I can tag it with certain attributes to be used elsewhere (for example, if it has the "Employement" attribute then it will be in the `matthandzel.com/work` page, if it's a hobby it will be in the `matthandzel.com/hobbies` page, if it's a book, it will have a "amount done" and be in the `matthandzel.com/reading-list` page.

Things Ive Done

# Accomplishments and Failures

As part of my goal to not be a people pleaser anymore. I want to publish an extensive list of my accomplishments and failures.

I have a tendency to diminish my successes because I want people to like me, and jealous takes away space from liking people.
I also have a tendency to hide my failures (as most people do). By publishing them online, I hope I can "heal". (plus I won't have to worry about people finding anything out, if everything is already out there).

Accomplishments And Failures

# Blog

I want it so that all of my ideas in my second brain are markdown viewable, but I also want to have a more structured place for reading longer-form essays.

Blog

# Projects

Put _all_ of my projects on my website, including writing projects, home improvement projects, programming projects, etc.

Projects

# Relationships

On my website I can store things such as:

1. For each (consenting) person, when was the last time we were in contact?
2. What did we talk about
3. How "close" are we
4. Their information

Relationships

1757029741 Fzvx

The Anxious Generation

# Entertainment Is Experience Blocking

This is not directly form the book but I think entertainment might be "experience blocking" in the book it states how phones and tablets became experience blockers but that is not the case. It is the activities on these devices (primarily entertainment) that is experience blocking. Maybe I think this way because I leverage my computer a lot--via programming.

Entertainment Is Experience Blocking

# Boiled Into Technological Dependency

Like the parable about boiling a frog in water (which isn't actually true). People have been "boiled" into more and more technological dependency. This comes to me when thinking about [[dumbphones]] and the rejection of having "the best thing".

Boiled Into Technological Dependency

# Humans Being Synchronous Fosters Relationships

Humans being synchronous fosters relationships. It develops trust. An example is a parent and their child. The parent interacts with the child in a serve-and-return manner. The parent makes faces at the baby and the baby makes faces back, in a game of some sorts. When humans move together they trust each other more. This is why dancing to music is such a good way for people to bond. [[relationships]]

That is why being synchronous (such as a phone call) will make you feel more connected. I should try and call people more to feel more connected to them.

[[parenting]]

Humans Being Synchronous Fosters Relationships

# Puberty Impact on Brain

[[parenting]]
During pubtery a child's brain is quite sensitive to changes, this means one should be weary about the experiences the child experiences during this time.

Puberty Impact On Brain

[[article]]

# Dumbphones

Smartphones but dumb. They provide the essential functions of a phone (communication over distance), having some additional features (gps, notes, calculator), without the "smarter features" (such as "high performant applications" or "entertainment"). They are harder to use and help "[[reject convenience]]"

I think getting it is going to improve my life. I have gotten a glimpse of life without constant stimulation a few weeks ago when me and my roommates have formed a pact to use our phones less. I remember the feeling I had during the days of clarity in thought and [[intention]] in my actions. I have lost that a little bit because I had a bit of a habit of using laptop before bed, watching videos, masturbating, listening to music. This caused me to not go to bed. As of now, I am going to Madison Wisconsin and I want to make a large change to set myself up for a very goal-oriented summer. I have a lot of good momentum and in a much better mental position.

I believe using a dumb-phone will help me reclaim even more of this thought and enforce to myself and my self-concept I am serious.

### How it makes me think about others

I have a little bt of a nagging feeling that technology addiction has snuck up on us. Every year a new phone is annouced and people get it because it is better, faster, more storage, but people never think about why they want those features. Sure they might want it because it is easier to use, but that is akin to a smoker getting a a more ergonomic pack of cigareets to minimize the time between opening the box and the cigareet entering his mouth. It is my belief phone mindless technology usage is harmful and I am getting off of this by using a dumb phone.

Even now, I am not using my phone (because I have had a great habit of using it less, and I am writing instead. I am creating, using my brain, doing sometthing valuable.)

Using a dumbphone makes you an "independent thinker". I remember me being in high school and the teacher asked if anyone had an android. I was the only one in my class, but now I won't even have a smart phone. This makes me feel proud of myself, but I need to be warry of doing something just for the sake of being different.

Dumbphones

# Cost of Entertainment Is Opportunity Cost

There is a huge opportunity cost of entertainment that most people never think about. They only think about the in-the-moment pleasure they gain from indulging in enteertainment instead of what else they are missing out on by being entertained. I think this is a huge, unseen tragedy.

Cost Of Entertainment Is Opportunity Cost

# Social Media Is a Conformity Engine

Social media is a conformity engine, you see other people and see how their doing and you follow this. This explains my own behavior, I would copy what the people I watched did. I would play the games they played, I would pick up on the same language as them.
WOOW! Can I use this to my benefit?

Suppose I want to adopt behavior X, I want to adopt this belief but I don't already do so. One way of doing this is to fill my experiences with evidences that support belief X. [[beliefs-to-change]]

Social Media Is A Conformity Engine

# Greetings Make People Feel Closer

Beceause synchrnoous, face-to-phase, physical interactions and rituals create communion and trust, that is why people shake hands and have various other gestures. Not doing that would make people feel less communal. [[humans-being-synchronous-fosters-relationships]]

Greetings Make People Feel Closer

# Play Should Be Free

Play should be free with a child, it should be self driven, embodied, outside, with children of mixed ages.

Play Should Be Free

# Rites of Passage

In most societies there are rites of passage so people know their new roles.

This is interesting to me because it shows that we have less autonomy. It shows the impact culture has more prescisely. For example, rites of passage tell you \*as the agent) your new roles (as a woman or man in the society). when yo uare toled these roles, you enact onto them. This is why ceremonies are imporant. They don't make ayo you feel different, but you embody different roles.

Rites Of Passage

# Fragmented Attention

Technology usage causes fragmented attention by a device asking for your attention multiple times per hour.

Fragmented Attention

# Children Are Wired to Play

As a part of growing up children are automatically wires to play. "play is the work of childhood". From the perspective of evolutionary biology, children are wired to play because it helpsfoster social relationships and dynamics. It also allows them to master motor movements. At every stage of development there are different types of play. Babies are played with in a simple way, using the babies limied motor movements. gnce the baby is able to walk, it can interact with others of a similar age group. They can then play "predator and cooperation games" whichare sports, hide-and-seek, tag. Then when they go into middle school they learn social games, about teasing and joking.

Hunans enjoy playing sports because we are evolved to enjoy to play them, it mimics hunting.

The purpose of childhood is to mimic adulthood but with less stakes

[[play-should-be-free]]

Children Are Wired To Play

# Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is caused directly by having something stimulating before going to bed. It causes truncated sleep times, longer onset to sleep, and more disturbances. To improve sleep, prevent the usage of stimulating activities (such as music, videos, social medias, interactions, etc.) 1 hour before bed.

Sleep Deprivation

# Conforming

Children have to learned to conform as a way of adopting the culture around them. This is called confromity attraction. It is positiive because it allows a child to adopt the culture of where they are, which is socially advantageous. This is why it is extremely important as a parten to ensure the "culture" (other kids) are doing what you wnt to do. So whoever parents your children is not only you, but the parents (better say experiences) of the other children. [[parenting]]

[[social-media-is-a-conformity-engine]]

Conforming

# Harrison Bergeron

Storu set in the future where there is ah andicapper general that ensures everyone is the exact same.

Harrison Bergeron

So Good They Cant Ignore You

# Control Requires Capital

There's an idea in this book that control requires capital meaning that if you want to have a career that gives you a lot of control then you need to acquire career capital in order to get that control.

Control Requires Capital

# Difficulty Popularity Graph

The more difficult it is to do or get something (more time, and effort) the less people would have done it. There are HUGE gaps in this, though, after every "mandatory-ish" training. To get from the middle 50 percent to the middle 75 percent takes more effort than 75 to 99. I think this is the case because a lot of people have done college or high school, so they have those skills, a lot have done coding boot camps or read papres. Always try to do something hard. This is th eprnicples.

Mental strain is good for you, it is something to prpouse, not avaid.

Difficulty Popularity Graph

# Craftsman Mindset

Deliberate practice is the metric you want to maximize for. By maximizing deliberate practice you will become so good they cant ignore you.

A vibrant image from the book is that of Jordan, the bluegrass player. Every day he spends 3-4 hours practciing etremely diffeDifficult chords. This is painful and he is working at his limit. By doing this every day for a decode he becomes an outlier [[outliers]].

Focusing on the clear metric of success--whatever that be in your field--is all you need to be successful. Don't worry about this or that. Focus on the essential [[essentialism]]

Focusing on the output you do and nothing else is called this craftsman mindset. For the feild of music a poweful idea is that of "the tape doesn't lie". It shows exactly how you good you practiced and nothing else matters. In programming, it could be that "your code doesn't lie" or "your algorithm doesn't lie". In terms of finance, it could be your deals don't lie.

ACTION: Find what the "obvious" metric of high quality is and maximize it.

The author has an interesting idea, that is to keep track of the amount of deliberate practice he works on every week. This mentis helpful for a couplen of reasons. One of them is that this metric is all in his cnotrol.

### When does the craftsman mindset fail?

he craftsman mindset won't grant you a great career if the following aren't met. [[traits-that-define-great-work]]

- The job doesn't allow mastery. Few opportunities to work
- The job doesn't have impact. It is on something you don't think matters in the world or actively harms the world
- You work with people you don't like

[[drive]]

Craftsman Mindset

The idea of finding a mission is similar to the principle of exploration one should do exploration if you do not know what you want to do specifically you should do a systematic exploration .

Something that's about the book is a story by a student who wanted to go back to grad school. However when she went to grad school she did not find herself to be very passionate about it she did not feel a mission that her life was revolving around So that leads to the question how you can actually find a mission that you should revolve your life around .

The author thinks finding a compelling missian is only possible in the adjacent possible in your field. Why is this the case?

Because you can only find a compelling mission at the adjacent possible, it is a smart move to try and get there extremely quickly.

Q: What cutting edge field do I want to get to? What is the adjacent possible I want to discover?

Having career capital is necessary, not just sufficient, to have a mission. This makes very intuitive sense, because a part of having a mission is the uniqueness that you have in it. If you don't have that uniqueness, and anyone in the world can do your mission, why are you doing it? [[ikigai]]

PRINCIPLE: You should gain career capital above all else

Finding A Mission

- The traits that define great work are rare and valuable.This is a theory posed in this book that states:
- Because these are highly saught after, you need to offer something valuable to get a career like this
- In order to becomes this valuable, you should adopt an intentional mindset of increasing your vaule for the career ([[career-capital]])

Career Capital Theory Of Great Work

# Ask Questions Down to Fundamentals

This is an idea that came up while reading "so good they cant ignore you". That idea comes from an example where there was a blogger that would write blogs and he would try to optimize his metrics, shower his readers with appreciation, etc. but he missed the mark. In order to write a good blog, you need to identify exactly what you want to give your readers. The typical reader wants something of value from you, like an insight or inspiration, so you need to dig down and find this "principle" of the field.

Ask Questions Down To Fundamentals

There's a story from the book that comes from another book called [[Where Good Ideas Come From]]. In this book there are actually a lot of examples of where people from several places discover the same thing so for example people from four different countries identified sunspots in the year 1611 Oxygen was isolated independently in 1772 and 1774.

why did these simultaneous discoveries happen Well these big ideas are often discovered in the adjacent possible adjacent possible is an idea where in order for you to get to a new idea you need to So that's why these ideas are only capable of being seen was other ideas are popularized

New, big ideas only yhappen when you take existing ideas and jiggle them into a new shape.

Adjacent Possible

# Dream Job Elixer

Dream job elixer is what you want in your job. It is highly related to the principles in [[drive]].

### Control

Having more control is what you want. In an ideal job, you want a good combination of control, pristige, passion, money, but be conscious of the balance. It might be better to become a free-lance software developer then a VP. But in order to make this decision, you need the career capital to afford it. to be a free-lance software developer

#### Vying for Control w/o capital

Vying for control without career capital is a mistake, and you will end up homeless like the yoga woman.

#### Wanting Control Means Resistance

In the book, there is a story of Lulu, who is a freelancer. Everytime she tried to gain more control there was always more resistence. People want to control you.

Dream Job Elixer

# Career Capital

Career capital is all of the skills, networks, knowledge, and assets you have. The higher your career capital in one field is, the more successful you'll be in that field and the more opportunity you'll have.

Career capital:

- Skills (proof of skills)
- Knowledge
- Network
- Credentials?

Career Capital

# Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice should be a daily routine.

Q: How can I apply deliberate practice to my own work?

When it comes to deliberate pracitce the author talks about him doing delibmerate practice, which was reading a paer and understading it fully.
REFLECTION: Think about this in relateion to my time in 598KKH

Deliberate Practice

# Control Creates Resistence

In your career whenever you want to gain more control that typically is met with some resistance which is in general because people want to be able to control you and tell you what to do. you don't want to do this of course so that creates this conflict in order to get through this you need to obtain enough career capital so that you can do what you want to do .

Once people want to pay you for what you want to do or once other people have given you feedback that you can do what you want to do that you can gain more economy .

### Law of Financial Viablitiy

when deciding whether to follow an appealing pursuit that will introduce more control into your work life seek evidence of whether people are willing to pay for it if you find this evidence continue if not move on

Control Creates Resistence

Story of Alex Berger, he was someone that wanted to try to get into the TV industry. It is aparently very difficult to get into because everyone wants to get in. After 2 years of trying to master his craft(which in the TV industry is mastering writing his sccripts), he took charge of opportunities and got a lucrative job.

    !t is important to notee that you can only take charge of opportunities if you have enough career capital to take them on. Another thing that's Important to note is he was able to work in the industries where he could see exactly what matters to be successful as a television guy he moved careers and jobs just so that he could be closer to what real people do

Alex Berger Career Capital Story

# Finding a Mission Doesn't Require a Lot of Direction

People that are currently on a good path, working on their life's mission, definitely did not have a straight path for this

In the example of Paradis, she wanted to study math, then bio, then she went on a trip and learned more about biollogical anthropolgy.

The general idea is that [[your-true-calling-doesn't-exist]]

Q: What are other equample of ppl that were at the cutting edge of their fields and _then_ found their missions.

Finding A Mission Doesn'T Require A Lot Of Direction

# Act Small Think Big

This is an idea in the book, you should think "narrowly" by just focusing on the narrow niche you are in, and then act big once you gain enough career capital to identify a mission.