{"id":275111,"date":"2025-06-05T14:38:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/adventure\/analog-monologue-semi-rad-com\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:38:44","slug":"analog-monologue-semi-rad-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=275111","title":{"rendered":"Analog Monologue \u2013 Semi-Rad.com"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I have a million unread emails in my inbox and I\u2019m doing this instead,<\/strong> I say to myself, as I try to not fall off the ladder\u2014or at least remember to let go of the trigger of the circular saw before I do fall off the ladder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also should probably clean the bathroom, start writing that thing for next week, research that other thing, put the new wheel on Jay\u2019s bike, call an arborist about that tree limb, make an appointment for a haircut, and do a bunch of other stuff that would require me to actually sit down at my desk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alas. Today, I have chosen to make wood shapes. Or, more precisely, I am creating a small building.<\/span><\/p>\n

At some point last winter or spring, Hilary and I had a conversation in which I believed she said it would be fun if Jay had a \u201cplayhouse\u201d in our backyard. So, I started planning to build one\u2014at first, in my head, and then in April I think, I made a crude sketch in a notebook with some measurements. I then lost the notebook somewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I announced my intentions to begin building the playhouse, Hilary was surprised, saying that she thought we had talked about a \u201cstick fort\u201d somewhere in the backyard. Which is a much different project. You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I have so far:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"framed<\/p>\n

In the course of owning our house and building lots of Unaesthetic But Functional Furniture\u2122<\/span>\u00a0in the past five years, I have hoarded<\/del> accrued a rather large stash of leftover wood. Last winter, I realized that my collection of old wood has started to take up way too much room in our garage, and that I should do something about it. Inside me is a crusty old man who owns a box containing ten pounds of old mismatched screws he has saved JUST IN CASE, because you never know. Leftover screws are one thing, but leftover wood takes up a lot of space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m building this playhouse. Jay can play in it until he outgrows it, at which point we can use it to store shovels and garden implements. (I\u2019m building it tall enough for an average adult to stand up inside)<\/span><\/p>\n

The playhouse looks the way it does because as a hoarder of wood, I am not allowing myself to buy new wood. I am trying to use up wood from my collection, and if I need wood, I can buy it from one of our two local reused building materials stores, Home ReSource and Waste Less Works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Am I just procrastinating my real work? Sure. Does this feel more like \u201creal work\u201d than what I do for a living? Physically, yes: My hands are tired, I get the occasional splinter, I get a little dirty. When I finish this project, a small building will exist, and that will be quite satisfying. The audience for the work is one person who is three feet tall. I will not be paid for this work, I will not keep track of \u201clikes,\u201d or any sort of \u201cengagement\u201d or ROI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A while back, I was talking to a friend who\u2019s also a dad and he said he wished his kids saw him doing something more concrete\u2014he was working for a startup tech company, when his kids saw Dad work, they saw him sitting in front of a laptop, doing Zoom meetings or clicking and typing. I think about this conversation a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jay is turning three years old soon, and he rarely sees me work, since his curious\/chaotic presence near a computer or iPad is generally, uh, obstructive\u2014and I also hope he grows up thinking life is outside of electronic devices, not inside them, however naive that might be of me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another quote I think about often: My friend Forest saying to me, \u201cNo one likes to see someone they respect staring at a phone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know at what age my job (what I do for a living) will really make sense to Jay, because a lot of days, moving words and shapes around on glowing screens of various sizes doesn\u2019t feel that \u201creal\u201d to me either. But holy shit is he interested in hammers, and nails, and climbing ladders, and using clamps, and handing me screws.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you asked Jay right now what his dad does, he\u2019d probably tell you that I run, ride a bike, cook, wash dishes, clean up potty training accidents, and drive a car every once in a while. And if we\u2019re really partying, Dad operates power tools (including Jay\u2019s favorite, the vacuum cleaner), hammers nails, drills holes, cuts wood, and builds a few things. Including this playhouse, which I imagine will be kind of ugly when I finish it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But making it pretty isn\u2019t the point. I\u2019m not sure I know what the point is, but I heard this exchange between Austin Kleon and Ryan Holiday <\/span>on Holiday\u2019s podcast a few months back<\/a><\/strong> and I think it validates all the time I\u2019m spending in the backyard with a miter saw, a bunch of old 2 x 4s, and a hammer and nails.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Austin Kleon:<\/strong> I am just such a proponent of everyone practicing some kind of art form no matter how badly, because I always think that time spent doing something creative, on your own, or as a hobby or something like that just means you\u2019re not out there on the street bothering someone or wreaking havoc. \u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I think you\u2019re looking at a culture in which hobbies have disappeared. Like what do people do?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ryan Holiday:<\/strong> They spend it on their phone.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Austin Kleon:<\/strong> They spend it on their phone, raging on Twitter, or like getting pilled on 4chan, or Reddit or whatever. \u2026 I\u2019m just like really interested in this idea of hobbies disappearing.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ryan Holiday:<\/strong> Like imagine a world where Elon Musk got really into triathlons instead of Twitter.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Austin Kleon:<\/strong> This clown needs something to do. My hope for that man is like, get him into woodworking. He\u2019s a middle-aged guy\u2014he didn\u2019t figure out, dude, you\u2019re supposed to go fishing now, or like get deeply into World War II books about history or something.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ryan Holiday:<\/strong> Because you still have that manic energy, that obsession, but it will feast on itself. Like you get to a point where it can\u2019t go into more work. And if it doesn\u2019t go into something productive or at least socially adaptive, it will destroy you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Obviously the fate of the world isn\u2019t riding on whether I have a \u201creal hobby\u201d or if I spend most of my life online. But if Jay ever draws a picture of his dad, I would love it if he didn\u2019t draw a stick figure staring at a phone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this piece, please consider\u00a0supporting my work<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a million unread emails in my inbox and I\u2019m doing this instead, I say to myself, as I try to not fall off the ladder\u2014or at least remember to let go of the trigger of the circular saw before I do fall off the ladder.\u00a0 I also should probably clean the bathroom, start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11760],"tags":[1250,5724,18249],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-275111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","tag-analog","tag-monologue","tag-semirad-com"],"yoast_head":"\nAnalog Monologue \u2013 Semi-Rad.com - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=275111\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Analog Monologue \u2013 Semi-Rad.com - 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