Ben Mann Monthly Jan 2023

Fillings, Duloxetine, more dad life, Claude early access program, Google deal

Purpose

• An index for my memory

• A menu of topics for my next conversation with you

• A faster way to share what I’m excited about without the barrier of writing a complete blog entry on it

• A skimmable way to spread content I found valuable

Photos

Experiments and experiences

• Duloxetine update

  • It's been almost 6 weeks since I started taking duloxetine. Euda getting older, changes in my work status and fitness, Diana going back to work, and weather are all big confounders, but I'm feeling pretty great! Sleep is still good, so that solves my complaint with fluoxetine. I'm on a very low dose, but I will probably stay right here since it's working for me. Better living through chemistry ✨🧠✨

• New dentist, 8 fillings

  • My previous dentist had good reviews on Zocdoc and always said my teeth were fine. It's possible Andy ruined my teeth with the package of sherbet lemons he gave me, but it's hard to imagine getting eight cavities in just a few months from one bag of sweets. On the plus side, the anaesthetic worked great, they gave me a mouth appliance to hold my tongue in the right position and vacuum the spit, and there was a TV on the ceiling where I could watch movies. Pretty nice! And $2500 later, all my teeth are back to working order.

• Dad life, month 4

  • Euda is starting to interact with us more: smiling, grabbing stuff, able to stand when held, crying a bit less. This makes me more motivated to spend time with her, try to teach her things, and pay more attention. Still not as much attention as Diana would like, but I'm getting there!

  • She is 95th percentile weight, which seems to be a good thing. She is already starting to grow out of clothes meant for 6 month olds. Apparently this has little correlation with whether she will be a large adult.

  • She started refusing to drink from her bottle. We've read up on bottle refusal, and apparently this is common for breastfed babies. She's started accepting 15 ml at a time, but daily persistent attempts will hopefully allow Diana to unleash herself.

  • Huge breakthrough: we started using the magic sleep suit. We can put her down while she's still crying and within 2 minutes she falls asleep. It's possible this is just an age thing, or we didn't try hard enough, but previously we would spend a long time trying to rock her to sleep manually before carefully putting her down. This is dramatically less effort.

Life updates

• 🔓 Started early access program for Claude

• 🤝 We have a new partnership with Google

• 💯 Euda turned 100 days old, so we updated eudajung.com

• ⛸️ Went ice skating

• 🧗 Started climbing again

Content

5 point Likert ratings for “I would recommend this content to a friend”, sorted

• Tully 4/5

  • Wow, a whole genre of movies I didn't care about before is now interesting to me!

  • Love the characters. Quirky, weird and complicated.

  • Important for dads to watch this kind of film to remember how hard it is for moms.

  • Fun twist ending, which I won't spoil.

• How not to hate your husband after kids 5/5

  • Whether you're married or not, this book has a ton of great advice. Most of it wasn't new to me, but it's nice to have it all pulled into one place. The author turned into a rather hateful and verbally abusive person, and the book documents her journey out of it. For a self help book, it's a surprisingly emotional journey.

  • Here are 10 tips from Claude:

  1. Share household and childcare responsibilities equitably. Keep track of who does what.

  2. Schedule in time for intimacy and romance. Make sex a priority.

  3. Practice active listening. Repeat back what your partner says to confirm you understood them.

  4. Express appreciation and affection often. Say "thank you" and "I love you" daily.

  5. Compromise and be willing to meet in the middle. Let little things go.

  6. Give each other space to pursue individual interests and social time with friends.

  7. Set small, achievable goals and celebrate meeting them. Find moments of joy each day.

  8. Seek couples counseling if you get stuck or have ongoing issues. Get help.

  9. Make chores and kids' tasks into a team effort. Tackle them together.

  10. Maintain a sense of humor and try not to take yourself too seriously. Laugh and have fun.

• Paddington 2 4/5

  • Watched this on Nick Cage's suggestion and found it surprisingly creative, earnest, heartwarming, amusing, and fun. How to be good in an otherwise indifferent world, thereby bringing everyone along with you. Maybe a little excessive on the slapstick, but that's part of the charm.

• Oatmeal cookies 2/5

  • I added chocolate chips and walnuts, which made these quite tasty! But they were very flat and crumbly for some reason, so I will probably not make this particular recipe again.