now | Sebastian Hahner

A now page summarizes what a person is currently focused on, i.e., what “you’d tell a friend you hadn’t seen in a year”.

Last updated: October 15th, 2024, from a research retreat in the black forest

dissertation: I finished writing my dissertation. It was as exhausting as expected, even more so because of the multitude of other tasks and responsibilities within and outside the university. Now it is time to recover and to finish the dissertation process.
online content: I have too many ideas to realize to even start counting by now. All online activities suffered significantly from the dissertation. However, this was expected.
Build a new home: We moved to a new home with great potential for applying what I learned about 3D printing, smart homes, cable management, studio building, etc.
experimenting more: I’m very interested in experimenting more, from research to web video and daily life stuff. Tom Scott excellently described this feeling of being done with a successful project in a recent video: “[I want to do] projects that are experimental and weird and might fail. Because I miss doing stuff like that. […] This isn’t getting the views is it? Yeah. Okay. That’s fine. This project has worked, and it’s time to move on.”

What comes next? I have more questions than answers right now. I just realized that for the past year, I have minimized any fun activity and every thought outside of my research to finish the dissertation. Now, that is over. Going back to normal is harder than expected; what is normal? Where do I want to go from here? All the possibilities are a little scary but even more exciting.
What is the best focus for my future online activities? More podcasts, more hands-on programming, more computer science communication, or going back to Minecraft? I have experimented a lot in the past, but I don’t have a final answer yet. I’m very much looking forward to trying out all of these ideas.
I recently learned about the trade-off between flexibility and efficiency. I feel that I sacrificed flexibility too often to become more efficient in my activities. I wonder how to become more flexible again.