Jake Weidokal

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:53:18 -0400

“I’ve wasted a lot of time journaling on “problems” when I just needed to eat breakfast sooner, do 10 push-ups, or get an extra hour of sleep. Sometimes, you think you have to figure out your life’s purpose, but you really just need some macadamia nuts and a cold fucking shower.” (Timothy Ferriss, Tools of Titans)

Yep. My “ExiSTeNTiaL” problems usually have a painfully basic solution. Becoming a runner since the beginning of the year has made me feel 10x better.

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:29:39 -0400

My goodness. I just peeked at my Now page and realized I haven’t updated it since October of 2024.

Where does the time go?

I’m going to have to update that soon. There has been a lot of change in my life since then!

Conventional Comments

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:05:06 -0400

I came across conventionalcomments.org yesterday and love the idea. It is a simple convention for making clear comments on others' work products. In particular, code changes.

It is easy to unwittingly offend or confuse when commenting on someone else’s work, so I like that this gives a framework to set your intention early. Another nice side-effect is that it forces the commenter to think more clearly about what they’re actually trying to communicate.

I shared this with my dev team at work and plan to use it a lot more myself. I can see this being useful in pull requests as intended, but could also see it being useful when commenting on documents, slide decks, etc. I believe this would work well for feedback on any knowledge work product.

In case you don’t want to read the full web page I linked above, here’s a brief summary of the convention and ideas for different labels or tags you could use.

Format: <label> [tags]: <subject>
Example: suggestion (non-blocking): Consider using a framework for this

Labels (Prefixes):

praise - Positive feedback
nitpick - Trivial preference-based requests
suggestion - Proposes improvements
issue - Highlights specific problems
todo - Small necessary changes
question - Potential concern, needs clarification
thought - Idea from reviewing (non-blocking)
chore - Task that must be done before acceptance
note - FYI info (non-blocking)
typo - Misspelling
polish - Quality improvements (like suggestion)
quibble - Like nitpick

Decorations (Tags):

(non-blocking) - Doesn’t prevent acceptance
(blocking) - Prevents acceptance until resolved
(if-minor) - Only resolve if changes are trivial

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:00:41 -0400

“Creating the conditions for success is a very different project than finding a heroic move that saves the day.” (Seth Godin, Analyzing the Last Move)

This old highlight stood out to me today. I’ve been noticing more “success” popping up in my life from conditions I set up months or years ago.

This is a good reminder for me to keep planting seeds and watering them, even though it will be a long while before I see the first sprout.

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:56:01 -0400

I love that AI doesn’t judge me when I send it messages like:

CAn yuo kep it shorteR?

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:58:32 -0400

“You are not simply your own possession to torture and mistreat. This is partly because your Being is inexorably tied up with that of others, and your mistreatment of yourself can have catastrophic consequences for others.” (Jordan B. Peterson, Norman Doidge (Forward), Ethan Van Sciver (Illustrator), 12 Rules for Life)

I like a simplified version of that first sentence “you are not your own possession”. That’s something to think about. I was discussing that with some friends in Bible study yesterday, related to how we’re called to be light-givers in our community.

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:57:02 -0400

“The Internet is a novelty machine that pulls us away from age-old wisdom. Even though we’re just a click away from the greatest authors of all time, from Plato to Tolstoy, we default to novelty instead of timelessness.” (David Perell, The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online)

I find it hard to strike the right balance between novelty and good literature. I don’t think all novelty is bad, the tricky bit is that it has a much stronger gravitational field than classics, at least for me.

Deermons

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 09:17:38 -0500

My deermons lurk in the shadows of these morning runs. They hear every footfall. They watch with glowing eyes, waiting for me to fall. They taunt me, “Look how far you ARE from what you COULD BE!”

I retort, “Go lie in your bed of mud, deermon! Man’s fall from his potential is well known. It is his great agony. But do not steal from my heart the great JOY that is running toward THE IMAGE I was created in! You cannot understand what it means to carry this image! Graze your grass, with your head low and your nose in the dirt. As for me, I will climb, eyes ever upward.”

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:53:55 -0500

Hot take. I like it.

“People commonly use the word “procrastination” to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what’s happening as merely not-doing-work. We don’t call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working.” (Tim Ferriss, 5-Bullet Friday — January 26, 2024)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:54:54 -0500

“Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices.” (Maria Popova, Virginia Woolf on How to Read a Book)

I often come to books with a blurred and divided mind. But I come to the book asking it to help me un-blur and un-divide. That the slow process of reading would give me clarity and a singular focus, free from the distraction of short-form or digital media.

What choices made you who you are?

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:36:05 -0500

“A Question Cal Suggests Asking People More Often “What are some of the choices you’ve made that made you who you are?”” (Timothy Ferriss, Tools of Titans)

I’m going to give this a try. I tested it out on myself and found this question made me dig a little deeper than I normally do in conversations.

Here are some choices I’ve made that made me who I am:

following Jesus
switching from a Psychology major to Computer Science
marrying my wonderful wife
deciding to have children
committing to journaling
surrounding myself with people who keep me accountable
starting this blog
staying near family instead of moving somewhere with nicer weather or more job opportunities
getting off of Instagram/Facebook, never signing up for Twitter or TikTok
and so many more things!

It makes me think about the butterfly effect and all the different ways my life could have gone. I’m glad things happened the way they have.

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:47:31 -0500

It’s been taking me a long time to read through “Thus Spake Zarathustra”. I pick it up in bits and pieces on my phone. It’s hard to read partially due to the heavy concepts and partially due to the antiquated language. I’ve realized I have some pretty fundamental disagreements with Nietzche, but it’s still interesting to see how he thinks. And every now and then a particular point hits home, usually his critiques of the church.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’ve over-optimized for comfort, so this one really resonated with me and felt convicting.

To small virtues would they fain lure and laud me; to the ticktack of small happiness would they fain persuade my foot.

I pass through this people and keep mine eyes open; they have become SMALLER, and ever become smaller:—THE REASON THEREOF IS THEIR DOCTRINE OF HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE.

For they are moderate also in virtue,—because they want comfort. With comfort, however, moderate virtue only is compatible.

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:09:26 -0500

Wow… The chance of a lifetime just fell into my LinkedIn inbox. (sarcasm)

On a serious note, anytime I get one of these scam messages, I just feel sad for the vulnerable people that fall for these. On a less serious note, I’m starting up a fund to support the victims of these scams. Please send me $100 in Amazon gift cards and your social security number if you want to support it.

Hello Jake, you have not been responding. I have a business proposal for you. I want to bring to your notice that I have worked in the gold mining sector for more than 30 years. Over these years, I have had local mining contracts across 5 countries, namely: Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Kazakhstan and New Zealand. I also worked with Keneoli Gold Mining under Glory Mining Ltd in Ghana West Africa. Am currently working with a gold company in New Zealand and my contract will expire by next year. I privately bought about 140 KG of gold from some local miners here at a cheaper price. I don’t want my company to know I own this gold because contractors are prohibited from buying gold from local miners.

So I want to present you as my partner who bought and owns the gold. All legal documentation will be in your name, then the company would ship the gold to your provided address. After you receive it then I can come over to pick it up. I’m willing to give you 20% of the total 140KG of gold. All I want from you is honesty and transparency.

If you’re okay with the proposal, then I will inform the Gold Company and introduce you to them as my partner so they can prepare all documentation in your name before shipment. All this can be done within 8-10 working days.

NOTE: This is 100% legal business. I bought the gold with my money. Am only doing it this way because as a contractor with the company I’m not permitted to buy gold from the local miners. The 140KG of gold is worth more than 7 Million USD if we sell 1KG for 50,000USD. This is unrefined 23 Karat gold with 99% purity.

If you need any further clarification, kindly let me know.

I await your response and readiness to enable us start the process immediately.

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:58:02 -0500

The brilliant Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once wrote, “Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.”

I started doing my daily Readwise reviews again to revisit my old highlights from books and articles. Anytime I reboot a reflective practice like this, I realize how much I missed it. I’m going to start sharing these more to re-process them myself and to share what I have found impactful.

Today’s highlight is from James Clear’s Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 09:08:52 -0500

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in… you will interest other people.”

Rachel Carson

I have a lot of new things I’m thinking and feeling and interested in here at the early stages of 2026. I’ve been so focused on those things that I haven’t written about them much, but I hope to soon. Things like downgrading my phone, getting into running, and building little personal apps in a day with AI agents.

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:44:49 -0500

I love this quote from Dostoevsky, writing to his brother after narrowly escaping execution by the tsarist regime:

When I look back at the past and think how much time was spent in vain, how much of it was lost in delusions, in errors, in idleness, in the inability to live; how I failed to value it, how many times I sinned against my heart and spirit — then my heart contracts in pain. Life is a gift, life is happiness, each moment could have been an eternity of happiness. Si jeunesse savait! [If youth knew!]

Found in The Marginalian

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 08:01:24 -0500

A small detail of life that I love:
the way drywall looks when early morning sunlight hits it at a near-parallel angle.

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:27:18 -0500

My new favorite quick breakfast is cottage cheese + granola + everything bagel seasoning. It’s sneaky good. And healthy!

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:27:18 -0500

My new favorite quick breakfast is cottage cheese + granola + everything bagel seasoning. It’s sneaky good. And healthy!

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 06:10:50 -0500

I had used ezmp3.pro to download mp3s from YouTube video URLs onto my watch for runs, but this morning I came across the command-line tool yt-dlp. So far it has been easy to use and was able to download 96 separate mp3 files from a playlist URL with this command: yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o "%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL"

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:30:07 -0500

Today I explained to my daughter how a T-Rex grabs things with its mouth, because its arms are too small to put things in its mouth like we humans do.

She said the T-Rex should use a spoon.

Maybe if they had figured that out, they would still be around.

Zone 2 Feels Really Slow

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 09:20:31 -0500

I’ve started running. It has felt hard, but I want to get better at it. So I’ve been researching how to run correctly and how to train my cardiopulmonary system for sustained effort.

The main thing that keeps coming up in my research is the importance of Zone 2 training. Zone 2 is a heart rate range where you can keep up conversation fairly easily. It would be considered an “easy” effort level. For me, Zone 2 is roughly 136-153bpm.

Zone 2 training involves exercising in a way that keeps your heart rate in that zone for a long period of time. This is apparently one of the best ways to build cardiopulmonary endurance.

Despite how “easy” it is to workout this way, it’s hard for me. I’ve never done training like this. My major fitness influences to this point in my life have been wrestling and CrossFit, which both are very high-intensity for shorter intervals. Training at a low-intensity for a long time feels… wrong.

Wrestling and CrossFit ingrained in me the macho-mentality that if you’re not giving your all, you’re not doing enough. So every workout I would go out there and push myself as hard as I could. Surely, I thought, that is the only way growth happens? At the very edge of capability?

But now I’m trying to unlearn that. In fact, for the running training I’m doing, about 80% of my training should be “easy” Zone 2 work to build my cardio base, and the rest should be interval training to build my VO2 max and anaerobic endurance.

Yesterday I went for a 3.5 mile zone 2 run and I was shocked at how slow I had to go to maintain that heart rate. On inclines, there were sections where I had to walk because even a mega-slow jog uphill was elevating my heart rate too high.

While this type of training is tough for me mentally and feels watered down compared to what I’ve done before, I’m going to trust the science and keep at it. Over time I expect that my Zone 2 speed will increase and I will have a much bigger gas tank. For now I just need to eat my humble pie and do my granny runs around town.

At least I look cool with my safety vest and headlamp. /s

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 10:32:02 -0500

Today I discovered miniature-calendar.com

These miniature scenes with everyday objects are so fun to look at.

WCF + Reflection = WTF

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:33:41 -0500

My morning consisted of investigating legacy WCF service code that was using reflection-based pattern matching to apply custom validators.

I had to increase my coffee intake for that one 😅☕

It’s really easy to just ask an AI agent what the code is doing in these situations, but I like looking at it myself to make sure I really internalize and understand it. Also, agents can be very wrong and confident at the same time. Mine confidently told me how the logic was working, but was only about 75% correct and missed key details that misrepresented the flow.

On the other hand… My agent wrote a dang good analysis summary into a markdown file after I made sure it had all the details correct.

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:12:31 -0500

I’m concerned. The cleaning place with the AI voice agent called back. This time I asked if this is an AI voice agent. The voice chuckled and said “No, I’m not, I get that all the time”. But I know that was not a real person. Why set up these voice agents to lie about what they are? Spooky.