Herman's blog
Herman Martinus
Hi I'm Herman Martinus. I write words, ride bikes, climb mountains, and make things. Currently living in Cape Town — possibly the most beautiful city in the world. I'm the creator of the no-nonsense blogging platform, Bear, and a few other things. I also write short-to-mid length essays about life, tech, and whatever I currently find interesting.
August 2026
September 2026
All posts (26)
Books I grew up in a house stuffed full of books, with no television, and electricity for only an hour or two per day (while the generator was running). There were shelves full of old science fiction (Asimov and Heinlein), as well as books on history, some good old fantasy, and other smatterings collected from...
I write about journaling a lot, since it’s honestly my most important practice. In my most recent post on the subject I made the case that active recall is an effective way to remember things, whether that be ideas, thoughts, or events. I'd like to expand on that post and make the case that journaling extends life...
There's a quote from the book City of Thieves by David Benioff where a character laments the fickleness of talent: Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful; when you're with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no...
Quick aside: My sister has a Bear blog called Notes on Making where she writes about knitting, wool dying, pattern design, and shows off what she's created. If you're into wool and crafting, take a look. It's really cool! I'm currently reading What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami (thanks...
I recently completed my first long trail race, set in the Southern Drakensberg mountains with Emma, my siblings and their partners. It spanned 2 days with 30km on the first, and 15km on the second, winding through valleys and around mountains. It was spectacular. I love coming to the Drakensberg, which is a...
One of the things I like best about blogs is that posts stick around (or at least they should). I enjoy scrolling through historic posts of bloggers and reading about what they were thinking about 1, 5, or even 10 years ago—if I'm lucky. I've noticed that my most recent posts get the more attention than the rest of...
I've noticed that travel has become, of late, an act of collecting places. I've literally heard people referring to visiting a place as doing that place, as in "Have you done Japan?", assuming that one can do an entire country, and once that country is done it remains as such. As if a place is a product to be...
I was recently asked on a podcast what my biggest game-changer was, whether it be a habit, way of thinking, purchase, or change of context. I didn't need to fish around for an answer, since I already know my biggest game-changer: becoming a day person. By this I mean I operate within daylight hours, getting up...
A few days ago some 4 or 5 OpenClaw instances opened blogs on Bear. These were picked up at review and blocked, and I've since locked down the signup and dashboard to this kind of automated traffic. What was quite funny is that I received a grumpy email from one of these instances contesting the ban. I was tempted...
There's a conspiracy theory that suggests that since around 2016 most web activity is automated. This is called Dead Internet Theory, and while I think they may have jumped the gun by a few years, it's heading that way now that LLMs can simulate online interactions near-flawlessly. Without a doubt there are tens...
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. While I don't fully subscribe to the above quote, since I think it's important to continually improve things that aren't explicitly broken, every now and then something I use works so well that I consider it a solved problem. In this post I'll be listing items and tools I use that...
I browse the discovery feed on Bear daily, both as part of my role as a moderator, and because it's a space I love, populated by a diverse group of interesting people. I've read the posts regarding AI-related content on the discovery feed, and I get it. It's such a prevalent topic right now that it feels...
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