Spring update

Hey,

I noticed that I didn’t really have a well-defined format for my newsletters, so in this edition, I’m going to roll out a beta version with a new layout and a fixed format. There are roughly 4 headings: News, upcoming events, interesting things I’ve found, and lastly what I’m reading.

Please let me know what you think of this format and if you have any ideas on how to improve it. You can simply reply to this email.

Latest news

Update on everything that’s going on

Search function

There is now finally a decent search function on the site. It still takes a bit of fine-tuning, but overall it works pretty well. Take a guess I’d say.

Social media

For a while now I’ve been musing what exactly I want with my social media accounts. On the one hand, I noticed that it is a nice addition to the website, but on the other hand, I also noticed that it often costs a lot of energy, which leaves less time for essential things. Time is precious, I realize that all too well. The real value I get from social media – both personally and for the site – still stands in stark contrast to my time investment. I notice that I am mainly on social media for 2 reasons:

1. FOMO. Afraid that I will miss updates, important news and opportunities
2. Because… I don’t know. I guess because everybody else does it?!

While I write this down I realize all too well that these are bad reasons and that is why I am considering cutting back or stopping some accounts. (I’m still undecided whether to (1) ditch my accounts, (2) deactivate, or (3) just delete them altogether. I’d love to hear if anyone has a good take on this.)

Coming up

A little sneak preview

Rockets for sale Shop

The Rockets for sale Shop is still a work in process and will be online sometime in the future. (Just don’t know exactly when. Designing merchandise and starting an online store is a lot of work.)

Python

I am currently learning Python. Firstly because it’s fun and secondly because I want to do more with data.

Found on the web

Nice links

How I experience the web – This site can almost be called a joke, but unfortunately, this is very serious. So many sites are this way these days, completely ignoring the user experience.

Making our own Emoji – Helpful tutorial on how to create your emoji

Thonny – Ideal tool for anyone learning Python (or rather programming). This program helps you step by step to see when which piece of code is activated.

Comic Helvetic – A combination of Comic Sans (!) and Helvetica. No idea what I think of it.

Lumon Industries – For lovers of the Apple TV+ series Severance. Become a macro data refiner yourself.

ESA sun – The sun in 83 million pixels (!)
 

On my nightstand

What I’m reading

The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter

Just started, so can’t say much about it other than that it’s already delicious. Recommended for data nerds like me.

I hope you enjoyed reading this Sunday morning in May. Enjoy your day and see you soon.

Thijs