I've made things too complicated again

Remember my Reduce and Simplify goal for 2024? That was a good idea, eh?

Here’s the thing, even after committing again a year later, in Reduce & Simplify - Redux 2025, I’ve done neither of those things. In fact, nearly six months after the Redux post, I continue to do the opposite.

The biggest failure was my stumbling attempt to use Linux¹. Doing that meant rejiggering anything that was previously macOS-only. I had to redesign my Emacs config to take into account differing paths and tools. I had to use different shared calendars. I had to use different sync tools. I had to use a different text expansion utility. Things that I’d had working and taken for granted for years were upended. It has been fun, and I continue to tinker with it, but I’m no longer seriously considering a full-on move to Linux, so now I have two systems to deal with and maintain. That’s the opposite of “simplify”.

Let’s talk about taking notes. I use the Denote package in Emacs for notes². I have a decent workflow dialed in. And yet, I keep Obsidian installed, just in case. Even wilder, yesterday I created a new Tinderbox document meant to take over Denote’s duties for my “lab notes”. Good grief. I love Tinderbox, but Emacs does everything I could want and I’m already “good at it”. Why introduce another option? Because I’m bored?

And blogs. So many blogs. I honestly don’t know if tinkering with blogging tools and platforms is a harmless hobby or a life-freezing procrastination device. Ghost, Tinderbox, BSSG, LMNO.lol, Kirby, 11ty, Hugo, and so on. Sometimes all at once. It’s unsustainable.

I bought a Nikon Z f as a modern, faster replacement for my Leica SL2. Yet I still have both, because I like them both and can’t decide which one I should keep. Oh goody, yet another decision I need to make every time I want to make digital photos.

And what should I use to process those digital photos? I keep a full workflow at the ready in both Lightroom Classic and Capture One. Oh, and sometimes I use the new Lightroom, just for fun. Worse, when I feel overwhelmed, I back it down to just using Adobe Bridge and editing via Camera Raw. It’s no wonder that sometimes I can’t find one of my photos.

Doing specific things in a variety of ways can be fun, but it’s also crazy-making and I think it’s time to reel it all in. Again.

I’m not good at reeling things in, obviously, but I’ll start with the following:

1. Focus on one blog (this one, even though I’m still kind of mad at Hugo).
2. Pause the Linux experiment for now.
3. Only use Denote in Emacs for taking notes. Stop pretending something else might be “better”.

I’ll deal with the camera and photography workflow conundrums later.