Jonathan Thiry2022-10-03T11:45:12+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/Jonathan ThiryGetting older2013-03-31T22:04:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/getting-older<p>Once a year, there is this particular day when we feel older. A day when we add one more year in the calendar. Even if the event itself might not mean so much since the end of our childhood, it is a good time to consider the evolution of our life.</p>
<p>What have you accomplished this past year? What have you learned? What are your plans for the coming year?</p>
Organic food2013-03-30T17:22:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/organic-food<p>Like most Saturday mornings, I went to my local farmers’ market. It was especially quiet today, most of the crowd probably left the city for the Easter weekend. I talked to the butcher about the organic label recently disappearing from his packaging. He hasn’t suddenly realised it would be more profitable to stuff his cows with drugs. He hasn’t even changed any of his methods. He simply cannot justify anymore the cost of the certification. While I’m all for organic methods, it’s a shame the government is discouraging small farms to get certified by setting high fees. At the end of the day, I’m happy with his move. He should keep my money instead of spending it on an unfair fee. Labeled or not, I’ll keep buying his delicious beef and support my local farmers.</p>
Rest2013-03-29T23:18:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/rest<p>The busyness of the working day doesn’t leave much time to rest the body and mind. I use different strategies throughout the day to keep a balance between work and rest.</p>
<p>A quiet morning including body exercise and a juicy omelette is usually a good start. During the day I use <a href="http://www.dueapp.com/mac.html">Due</a> on my mac to remind me to get up, walk to the kitchen and stretch while preparing a cup of tea. The need for a reminder might sound ridiculous but once I get in the flow of my work it is difficult to remember to get my eyes off the screen regularly. I often work with music to better concentrate and relax. The day can end by cooking a nice meal and a good night sleep.</p>
<p>Thinking about ways to improve this routine, meditation could be a bigger part of my day and <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5432713">this week’s thread on HN about it</a> is inspiring me to look further in that direction.</p>
Listen to the silence2013-03-28T23:38:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/listen-to-the-silence<p>Noise is part of the landscape of big cities. People say it stimulates them.</p>
<p>But sometimes. Take a break. Listen. Enjoy the silence.</p>
Habit planning2013-03-27T23:20:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/habit-planning<p>Bloggers can be successful by posting once in a while, a few times a week or even every day. I chose a daily routine to help me get into the habit of writing but it is not necessarily the key to good content.</p>
<p>I haven’t had much time to write today so it felt forced at first. But once I got in the flow I enjoyed the process. I’m looking for ways to improve my workflow to make it feel more natural. The weekend will give me the opportunity to list topics I want to write about and maybe prepare posts in advance. A bit of planning should make everything easier.</p>
<p>It usually takes about <a href="http://zenhabits.net/the-habit-change-cheatsheet-29-ways-to-successfully-ingrain-a-behavior/">30 days to create a new habit</a>. After that period I should know if the quality is satisfying or if I need to adjust my schedule.</p>
Stuck in the past2013-03-26T23:18:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/stuck-in-the-past<p>Creatives can get stuck because they don’t think they will be able to produce something as good as they did previously. I had the opposite problem. I realised how bad my old writing was. The more I waited, the more flaws I saw. I was stuck, ashamed by this mediocrity and scared to produce more of it.</p>
<p>Of course it was a mistake to stop moving. If I publish regularly, my writing will evolve alongside my thoughts. I get more chances to express my ideas but it was not easy to accept it.</p>
<p>Every day is a new opportunity. Whatever we think of previous creations, today we should put the past aside and try our best.</p>
The work2013-03-25T22:08:02+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/the-work<p>This weekend I refreshed the design of the website. Even if I still like it, I also like to refine it. During the past year, every time I have been looking at the site, I have been thinking about ways to improve it. When I launched this design I wanted a simple layout to be able to focus on the content. I still got distracted along the way.</p>
<p>We need to take care of our tools but we should not forget to do the work. The number of posts on the website proves that I have forgotten. It won’t be easy and it won’t be good, but today I’m writing again.</p>
App.net, the filter bubble and free communication2012-08-13T00:00:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/appdotnet<p>Most social websites start free and try to grow as much and as fast as possible. At one point (depending on the patience of the investors) they need to find a way to make money and the most common strategy is to display ads. Since they know a lot about you, they will push the boundaries of privacy and use the personal information of their users to target their ads (more or less successfully).</p>
<p><a href="http://join.app.net">App.net</a> is offering a different perspective. The service takes basically the idea behind the current version of twitter, but puts the user first. As explained by Dalton Caldwell, the founder of App.net, the focus of the application is on functionalities designed only to please their users rather than optimising ads. To make this possible, the user is the customer and pays $50 per year.</p>
<p>This price is a high barrier to enter the game. Twitter is powerful in the way that anybody can speak and people in poorer countries can still use it as we saw for examples in many conflicts around the world. At first App.net wouldn’t be able to reach this part of the population that couldn’t pay with their current offer and wouldn’t even be used much outside of a technology elite tired of ads and privacy concern. In this case App.net could result to a new filter bubble. There is hope that the development of the platform would lower the entry level and diversify its user base.</p>
<p>This risky bet could bring interesting changes to the web landscape. It would be possible to get the best of both worlds. Other applications could offer the possibility for its users to pay to get a better service or App.net needs to find a way to include people that don’t have the resources to pay $50 per year to become truly amazing.</p>
Debut2012-04-19T00:00:00+00:00http://jonathanthiry.com/debut<p>I finally took the time to redesign the website, remove the old portfolio, clean up the content and set up this blog. I’ll be writing about technology, user experience, design, my projects, my thoughts on news and more.</p>
<p>You should start with the <a href="/about">about page</a> to find out more about me and this website.</p>
<p>You can grab <a href="/feed">the rss feed</a> to stay updated.</p>