Mike Arnesen

Optimize the Planet!

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/Now

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Last updated: 2018-06-12

This is my /Now page. This is everything I’m up to…right now.

I’m currently living in Portland, OR with my wife and our two Pomeranians. I work from home and my neighbors must surely think I’m unemployed…or a drug dealer. At the end of the day, I have a house and home office that I love and I almost never have to leave. I’m pretty happy with the arrangement.

Things that are keeping me busy and excited these days.

  • Visiting Seattle to speak at SMX Advanced. I’m speaking on Day 1.
  • Being the CEO of UpBuild.
    • You could sum up my role as “Typist” — I spend 90% my time at my standing desk just typing emails, Slack messages, or blog posts.
    • My unofficial title is “Geek at Large”, which means I hop around to work on the projects that are A) the most interesting to me and/or B) areas where I can make that biggest impact. That’s typically either meta company stuff of really advanced JavaScript/analytics problem-solving.
  • Wrapping up my fourth semester teaching at Portland State University. In contrast to my typical 15-30 minute conference talks, preparing and delivering 24-hours worth of course material of three long days has been an interesting challenge. After teaching Web Analytics (WM404) four times, I’m finally starting to feel like I have the course where I want.
  • Playing my new keytar. Following a 6-month obsession with playing classical guitar again, I’m now on the keyboard/piano train. Anyone who knows me is probably familiar with my habit of getting into these medium-length obsessions with one or two things. Outside of work, this is my thing now. 😉
  • Experimenting with creating my own Synthwave tracks.
  • Playing a lot of classical guitar on my Cordoba 45 Limited. Here’s a snippet I put up on Instagram.  Some pieces I’m working on:
    • Torija by Francisco Moreno Torroba
    • Concerning Hobbits (arrangement by Nathan Mills).
  • Typing Dvorak — it’s still my obsession. I switched over a year ago and my typing speed on Dvorak is now about 30 WPM better than it was on QWERTY.
    • I try to spend at least a few hours each day working on my typing speed. TypingBolt has been pretty fun for that.
  • Listening to podcasts (usually at 1.5—2x speed), anytime I’m mobile.
    • A friend introduced me to Cortex with CGP Grey and Myke Hurley. It’s just the right blend of work/productivity talk, geekery, and casual banter that I can listen to it at pretty much any time. It’s rare that I find a podcast that I can listen to both during work time and during personal time.
    • Work Podcasts: Tim Ferris Show, James Altucher Show, Yonder, Jumpstart/Jeffalytics, Becoming SuperHuman
    • Non-Work Podcasts: The Adventure Zone, 10% Happier, Radio Free Burrito

This page was inspired by Derek Sivers and NowNowNow.com. Learn more about /Now pages.