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Midnight Musings: Reflections on Time and Tech
We’re diving deep into the wild and wacky world of time and technology in this episode. As we wrap up 2025, we ponder the mysteries of how swiftly time seems to fly by, especially when you’re juggling parenthood and a busy life. I've been mulling over the chaotic nature of our reality, particularly with all the buzz around AI and its potential to disrupt everything we know. Spoiler alert: I’m not convinced it’s the all-powerful overlord some make it out to be—maybe it’s just a shiny toy that we’re all getting a bit too giddy about. Plus, I share my personal journey with my new glasses—yes, the life-changing kind that actually help you see the world more clearly, both literally and metaphorically. So, grab a comfy seat, maybe a snack, and let’s unpack this curious blend of tech musings and life reflections together.
As we stand on the cusp of 2026, the air is thick with anticipation and a touch of uncertainty. Speaker A kicks off this episode with musings about the rapid changes ushered in by technology, particularly AI. It’s a wild ride, folks! From playful experiments with coding personal applications to the nagging question of whether we’re ready to let AI steer the ship of our lives, there’s a lot to unpack here. Speaker A navigates these thoughts with a relaxed vibe, blending humor and insight. It’s like having a chat over coffee with a friend who’s deep in thought about the future, and trust me, you’re going to want to hear what they have to say.
But it’s not all tech talk; our speaker takes a detour into the personal realm, reflecting on the nature of time and how it feels like it’s slipping away. Between work, parenting, and life’s endless to-do lists, time can seem like a mischievous trickster. Speaker A shares their experiences with co-parenting and the emotional rollercoaster that comes with it, revealing a relatable struggle that many of us can identify with. We’ve all had weeks that zoom by and others that drag on, and our speaker’s reflections offer a comforting reminder that we’re not alone in feeling this way.
As we round out the episode, the conversation shifts to the simple yet profound act of getting new glasses. It’s not just about seeing better; it’s about how that choice can reflect deeper aspects of our identity. Speaker A discusses the quirky experience of selecting frames and how they resonate with our sense of self. It’s a humorous yet thoughtful exploration of how our choices shape us, paired with the acknowledgement that life’s little decisions can have a big impact on how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. So grab a comfy chair, kick back, and let’s dive into this reflection on technology, time, and the choices that define us. You won’t want to miss it!
Takeaways:
- As we approach the end of 2025, it's wild to think about how quickly time flies and what surprises may await us in 2026.
- AI is definitely a hot topic, but the real question is whether we can trust it enough to let it steer our lives.
- Getting new glasses can be a game changer, not just for visibility but also for how we perceive our identity and connection with others.
- It's easy to lose track of time when life gets busy, but reflecting on our experiences can help ground us in the present moment.
- The passage of time feels oddly accelerated these days, making me wonder if the key to slowing it down lies in our engagement with the present.
- A good reminder: sometimes the weight of responsibility can blur our perception of time, but it's all part of the journey we share together.
contact me at: cmonkxxx@gmail.com
Transcript
Let's try to record something for the next half an hour.
Speaker A:It's gonna be then a midnight and I feel like recording an episode just before going to sleep maybe actually quite healthy habit to continue moving on.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:And we all.
Speaker A: , we're about to end the year: Speaker A:We are.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A: th of November: Speaker A:We've got a month and a half and a bit left.
Speaker A:Anything can happen.
Speaker A:Anything that will steal the entire attention and focus from this year.
Speaker A: Who knows what: Speaker A:What kind of radical event may happen?
Speaker A:How will countless events transform our reality?
Speaker A:All eyes are on technology for sure which is very disruptive.
Speaker A:Right now people are talking a lot about air bubble and what people seem to be doing.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker A:They seem to be redefining what bubble is and they don't really worry as much as about the existence of a bubble.
Speaker A:Well I'm not particularly concerned about this.
Speaker A:I feel like AI is great but it's not good enough to.
Speaker A:It's almost good.
Speaker A:Good enough to disrupt, seriously disrupt our reality.
Speaker A:I don't know if it's going to ever happen.
Speaker A:I feel like soon we'll be given a bill for actual bill and we'll see how much it costs in energy and compute and we'll need to rethink what the hell we're actually doing with AI but it's a big mystery.
Speaker A:We, we don't really know how it's going to evolve if AI will create an incentive to solve the energy problem.
Speaker A:At this point I feel like jobs will be mostly safe.
Speaker A:I don't think we can trust AI.
Speaker A:I don't think we can trust it enough to give away the steering wheel to departments, to people, to companies.
Speaker A:I've been playing a lot with vibe coding.
Speaker A:I've done a number of little useful applications that typically I would have to pay for.
Speaker A:I didn't.
Speaker A:I just created them from my own needs.
Speaker A:Now I'm planning to showcase them because I think these are interesting applications that are really custom built and it's a good case study.
Speaker A:But I wouldn't rely on them.
Speaker A:They are not heavy duty enough to sell them to really rely on them.
Speaker A:It's just little tools and I think that's what we gonna start seeing slowdown for AI anyway.
Speaker A:It's a big unknown.
Speaker A:No one really knows.
Speaker A:It should be a rule to avoid people who think they, who say they know.
Speaker A:It's an easy way to get Terrified because those people, they usually paint picture in a very radical, solid, rough colors.
Speaker A:And each time I went deep into a rabbit hole like this, I would end up being more and more depressed.
Speaker A:And when I look back, I see that there was no reason to be depressed back then.
Speaker A:It feels like there is a reason to be depressed now.
Speaker A:But again, I go forward, time passes by and I feel like again there was nothing, nothing at all to worry about.
Speaker A:Yeah, we love that.
Speaker A:We love to do it to ourselves.
Speaker A:We like to pretend that this is the worst it has ever been.
Speaker A:And as long as we change our perspective.
Speaker A:Meaning if only we wait a little bit.
Speaker A:Turns out, no, it was just all in our head.
Speaker A:It was all projection of reality that was very unlikely to happen and reality that never really happened.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Why am I talking about this?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I was not planning to.
Speaker A:In fact, I don't know if I added any value to this ongoing conversation.
Speaker A:I don't think I said anything new, but I've been thinking about many things and AI is.
Speaker A:AI tends to be a part of it.
Speaker A:I'm glad that this exists.
Speaker A:I'm glad that we get to once again be inspired and affected and disrupted by technology.
Speaker A:But life goes on even without it.
Speaker A:And it will.
Speaker A:I think my life goes on regardless.
Speaker A:I'm getting ready for the next year, also looking at my own self.
Speaker A:And today was.
Speaker A:It was a meaningful day because I got new glasses.
Speaker A:I'm a glasses wearer, glass wearer for majority of my life.
Speaker A:It was not supposed to be the case, but as a little boy, I got a.
Speaker A:A fairly light prescription for glasses and I refused to wear them.
Speaker A:And weirdly, my mom couldn't really force me to.
Speaker A:To wear them.
Speaker A:Somehow I. I managed to persuade her that I don't need them.
Speaker A:I. I really don't understand this, but as a result of not wearing my glasses for I think a year or two, I damaged my sight to the point where now I need to wear my glasses all the time.
Speaker A:And it's a big disappointment.
Speaker A:Even though I accepted my glasses and I consider them to be part of my identity, I wish I could choose if I want to wear glasses.
Speaker A:And at this point I have to wear glasses.
Speaker A:So that sucks.
Speaker A:But you know, in some way, maybe it conditioned me to see that there are consequences of my actions.
Speaker A:And I like to think that my glasses saved me from losing an eye at least few times in the last three decades.
Speaker A:I feel like there were situations where I would easily lose an eye because something would.
Speaker A:Would otherwise fell into my eye.
Speaker A:You know, I was riding a motorcycle, I was doing different sports and things would fly towards my face.
Speaker A:And I remember very well hearing this particular sound of something bouncing off the lens of my glasses, scratching it in a way that I could examine and see and say, oh, that was, that was something bad.
Speaker A:Especially with motorcycle.
Speaker A:I remember so many even bigger insects would bounce off my glasses as I was riding with shield opened on my helmet.
Speaker A:Anyway, I've got new frames and weirdly, it's a very bizarre thing, but I apparently got my last pair of glasses exactly three years ago.
Speaker A:Exactly three years ago.
Speaker A:I'm saying, curious.
Speaker A:The coincidence brings us to round anniversary.
Speaker A:Three year anniversary.
Speaker A:Up to a day.
Speaker A:Okay, I didn't plan this and I was thinking of getting glasses for the last week, week and a half.
Speaker A:And I pulled the trigger exactly on the day that marks three year anniversary.
Speaker A:I think it's really bizarre, but I've been thinking, why, why did I choose November back then?
Speaker A:Why, why did I choose November now?
Speaker A:Well, I think I know the reason.
Speaker A:Like it's, it's really, it's really not nice outside.
Speaker A:It's really gray.
Speaker A:There is not enough light.
Speaker A:Everything seem a little bit blurry, desaturated.
Speaker A:And I feel like I'm looking for visual comfort.
Speaker A:And maybe back there three years ago I realized, well, maybe I need new glasses.
Speaker A:And there is something really extraordinary when getting your glasses, when getting new lenses, you see everything so clearly, so perfect.
Speaker A:I don't know, it has to be some kind of placebo type of thing, you know, that you've got new lenses, you've got, you know, you've got this new thing on your face and of course everything looks clean and sharp.
Speaker A:I didn't experience this yet and maybe I won't.
Speaker A:But I remember every time getting new glasses, I would almost see people looking at them, specifically on that very day, thinking, oh, these are nice glasses.
Speaker A:These look like new glasses.
Speaker A:People, people don't think like this, but I feel like I maybe am looking at people looking at their reaction and they, they're a little bit weirded out.
Speaker A:Why am I looking for some kind of validation in them?
Speaker A:Like I said, I didn't experience it this year, but I had it in the past.
Speaker A:Very strange, very strange.
Speaker A:Anyway, I'm happy about my new glasses because you know, these are very different.
Speaker A:These are made out of titanium, so they're very thin and the lenses are quite thin as well.
Speaker A:So the whole thing weighs, I don't know, I want to say like 20 grams less.
Speaker A:Could it be 10 grams?
Speaker A:It's very hard to say because I'll weigh them tomorrow.
Speaker A:I've got very precise scale in a kitchen.
Speaker A:I'll do it tomorrow.
Speaker A:I wonder how heavy they are, how light are they.
Speaker A:But they are now from, from today.
Speaker A:They are shaping my new identity.
Speaker A:They will be influencing how I feel, how I look, how I feel, how people see me.
Speaker A:It is something that I wear, that I chose, something I feel connection with.
Speaker A:It is not me who is looking at it.
Speaker A:You see, I've been asking people that opinion I value.
Speaker A:I've been asking them about what they think, you know, getting feedback, showing them couple of options and I was getting radically different opinions and votes.
Speaker A:At the end.
Speaker A:I went with frames that I felt the best in and I think that's how it's supposed to be.
Speaker A:Although I've.
Speaker A:The reason why I've been wondering whether this is the right way to go is that, well, those people will be looking at me.
Speaker A:I don't know, maybe not.
Speaker A:It's not enough to have a say what glasses I wear.
Speaker A:You know, it was nice to know that people that didn't vote for those frames, they at least that said they immediately accepted them.
Speaker A:That was kind of nice.
Speaker A:I think I have nice friends.
Speaker A:I don't have many friends, but it's nice to hear that from them.
Speaker A:The fact that they can accept me for what I do and how I look and at the same time they're not afraid to express their opinions.
Speaker A:One of my best friends told me they are pretentious, but my sister said she loves them and I don't think she is pretentious.
Speaker A:So you cannot satisfy everyone and there'll be always some that are misaligned in some way from.
Speaker A:From you, from me.
Speaker A:All right, how are we?
Speaker A:Oh, 15 minutes.
Speaker A:You know, it's.
Speaker A:It's getting close to midnight.
Speaker A:I. I think I'm gonna keep this episode short, but I want to bring up one more thing.
Speaker A:I've been struggling recording this episode because I think I forgot what this podcast used to be about.
Speaker A:I'm scrolling through the list of episodes and it is really very technology centric production, but there is also a lot of me.
Speaker A:Somehow I wrapped those thoughts into stories.
Speaker A:It seems I really wanted to talk about time.
Speaker A:And I recorded an episode I was recording for maybe 20 minutes until my brain started to play tricks on me.
Speaker A:I started to.
Speaker A:Well, first of all, I got really exhausted speaking on a topic following some kind of a guideline that I wrote for myself was felt very boring and also very exhausting, especially talking about time.
Speaker A:Something That I didn't really realize there is no good definition for time.
Speaker A:Every definition we've got, it's not a joke, is very self referential.
Speaker A:It feels like in order to follow the definition of time you need to understand what time is.
Speaker A:Know but I've been thinking about perception of time, my own perception because I've been getting really confused by how this passage of time feels recently.
Speaker A:Basically time evaporates, it just dissolves.
Speaker A: th of: Speaker A:Yeah I don't day is just.
Speaker A:I'm losing time it seems I'm losing track of time.
Speaker A:And when I'm trying to understand why that happens the answers don't really match my lifestyle.
Speaker A:I seem to be engaged in many activities that divide my days in a way that I can really go back and see how many things happened in a week.
Speaker A:And in a way that should really give me sense that a week is a.
Speaker A:It's a very capable vast container that can contain many, many, many activities.
Speaker A:But it's the other way, it's the other way around if we, if we are bored only then time slows down.
Speaker A:Now I don't know if I can slow, if I can eliminate number of activities I engage each week.
Speaker A:There's a lot of responsibilities over my head.
Speaker A:I'm lifting a lot.
Speaker A:I've got a daughter, I've got full time job.
Speaker A:You know it's mainly my daughter, my daughter and things that float around that project, project child.
Speaker A:She's 7 year old now and she goes to school.
Speaker A:I'm co parenting and currently I'm seeing her only on weekends and when our meeting is about to happen and whenever she goes, whenever she goes back to her mom I always feel like I need to recover, I need to prepare before she comes, I need to recover after she leaves.
Speaker A:I mean recover emotionally.
Speaker A:You know it's.
Speaker A:It's kind of distressing to be in this experience with her and then to let her go.
Speaker A:And this is a big part of that weird sense of passage of time.
Speaker A:It's a big part of kind of distracts me from ordinary lifestyle, takes me away from my own selfish flow.
Speaker A:It feels like I need to donate a lot of my energy and time into aspects that are outside of me, you get me.
Speaker A:But there are also more low hanging clues why time goes so fast for me.
Speaker A:I have many things that I look forward to each month when I'm thinking about the biggest one, the key date on my calendar is 25th, 22nd, something like that.
Speaker A:That's when I'm getting paid.
Speaker A:So it kind of marks the cycle when I'm getting resources to get things that I need, want.
Speaker A:And yeah, I cannot help it.
Speaker A:It's just something I need to be always aware of the day when money comes.
Speaker A:So as soon as I get my salary, I start spending things.
Speaker A:Like money goes into different aspects of my life.
Speaker A:I pay bills, I transfer money to a separate spending account, I put some into savings, you know, the ordinary things.
Speaker A:Nothing extraordinary.
Speaker A:But I have to say, currently I'm really well organized with the allocation of money.
Speaker A:So this is one of the biggest landmarks on the timeline.
Speaker A:Another one I said is, is, are the weekends.
Speaker A:I'm looking forward to weekends, and then once the weekend comes, I'm looking forward to more peaceful time when I actually get to go to work and I don't need to, you know, be in the chaos of being around child all the time.
Speaker A:It may sound like resentment, but, you know, I'm quite an introvert.
Speaker A:I like peace.
Speaker A:I love quiet.
Speaker A:And when there is too much activity coming from child, you cannot.
Speaker A:I mean, you can say, let's keep it down, let's keep it low, but quite often you cannot.
Speaker A:Quite often this is outside of your control and you need to somehow manage the situation.
Speaker A:But, yeah, so this is like another landmark my child coming in, coming out.
Speaker A:There are certain shows that I'm looking forward to.
Speaker A:So each Monday, there's one podcast each Thursday.
Speaker A:I don't watch any TV right now, and I know there are some YouTube channels that release videos on a specific day.
Speaker A:I don't care about that.
Speaker A:I just watch them as they come.
Speaker A:But when it comes to podcasts, I get to have some days that I look forward to.
Speaker A:So it kind of makes me feel like I. I never live in a moment.
Speaker A:I typically look forward into the future, but as a sentimental person, I like to get lost in the past.
Speaker A:I like to get lost in memories.
Speaker A:I like to look at photos, little videos that I took.
Speaker A:I like to read my own old journals, old notes, old notepads.
Speaker A:And in a way, I like it this way.
Speaker A:I like that past is essentially a part of my present, my present moment.
Speaker A:I feel like I can exist in my past, at least partially.
Speaker A:You know, when I'm looking through an old notebook, I feel like 10, 15% of me travels in time.
Speaker A:I seem to be unable to do that with the future.
Speaker A:I cannot really travel there.
Speaker A:It's just mostly unknown.
Speaker A:But I still enjoy it.
Speaker A:I enjoy attempts.
Speaker A:But when it Comes to present moment.
Speaker A:You see, my issue here is I don't think we can truly be in the present moment.
Speaker A:It's such a little kernel of time.
Speaker A:It's like a little seed, a little grain of sand, that we cannot really stand on it.
Speaker A:We are too big for that little speck.
Speaker A:We can attempt, we can aspire to be in a present moment, but as soon as we are realizing we are in a present moment, we are immediately transferred into a past.
Speaker A:You know, it's like you're thinking about now and you're immediately falling of that grain of sand and you're thinking about a moment in past, in the recent past.
Speaker A:So in that way, I don't even try to live in a moment, but I like to observe present moment.
Speaker A:I like to.
Speaker A:I like to walk around, I like to stroll and look at the reality of a present moment in front of me.
Speaker A:It's very precious to me.
Speaker A:And I've been.
Speaker A:In the past, I've been recording podcasts like that, walking around and saying, saying things, saying, sharing ideas that pop to my head, things that are deeply linked into things that I see.
Speaker A:Depending on how I sleep tonight, I may make recording like that.
Speaker A:Tomorrow, I don't know, I may make one quite soon.
Speaker A:If that happens, please excuse external noises.
Speaker A:I'll try to avoid them.
Speaker A:I typically don't do any editing to those audio files, so what I recorded immediately goes into the publishing platform.
Speaker A:Recently, I signed up with Captivate hosting provider.
Speaker A:They've got some really nice AI tools that analyze the content, create titles, subtitles, chapters.
Speaker A:I really like that.
Speaker A:I really like that.
Speaker A:What I would like to remain as handmade, intentionally made is album covers or episode covers and show art.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Right now, it's just a temporary artwork I've created a long time ago, but I'd like to create something handmade, and I would like to create my own show art without use of AI.
Speaker A:I've done AI artworks before, and effectively they made me feel like this is not my podcast anymore.
Speaker A:I could look at the episodes and see they are AI generated.
Speaker A:We cannot have that anymore.
Speaker A:People are aware of AI Slope is, and they will confuse this with something completely AI generated.
Speaker A:So I'm rejecting this.
Speaker A:I don't want to do any AI artworks, but so far I've been having really huge difficulty in finding time to.
Speaker A:To sketch something out.
Speaker A:But hold.
Speaker A:Let's give me a.
Speaker A:Give me a moment, give me a while, and I will, I think, retroactively create cover arts for the episodes and for.
Speaker A:For the show cover.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:All right, We've got midnight here in Berlin.
Speaker A:We are coming close to a 30 minute mark.
Speaker A:So I would like to thank you for listening.
Speaker A:I know I said I would prepare some kind of a communication channel.
Speaker A:Let me do it next time.
Speaker A:As far as I know, no one is listening so I don't need to worry about that.
Speaker A:It's a luxury of, of such unique state.
Speaker A:I think I said it before.
Speaker A:I don't want this podcast to grow too big.
Speaker A:I want it to be personal.
Speaker A:I want it to be very private.
Speaker A:I want to have small community of people that listen, that communicate.
Speaker A:And for those of you, I will, I'll make it possible, but establish something to communicate and hopefully we can turn this monologue into a dialogue someday.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:I wish you a good week, good November and good end of the year and all that.
Speaker A:Thank you for listening.
Speaker A:Take care of.
