Writing

Practical methods, working ideas, and things learned along the way.

Open Brain · A series in progress

A database for my thoughts.

A personal experiment in capturing ideas and finding them again with AI. Start with the published opening chapter.

Read part one →

All posts

Open Brain: Why I Built a Database for My Thoughts

AI
Open Brain

Why scattered notes kept failing me, how I stumbled on the ‘Open Brain’ idea from a YouTuber, and why it beats every note-taking app I have tried.

Apr 11, 2026
9 min

Add “and” at the end of character vector

R
efficiency

A small R function to properly concatenate character vectors with an ‘and’ separator

Jul 30, 2020
1 min

A nice template for your do-files: dotemplate

Stata
efficiency

The dotemplate Stata command creates structured templates for do-files and ado-files so you can start your code organized from the beginning

Jun 25, 2019
2 min

Working with GitHub and Stata

Stata

How to configure Stata’s adopath to automatically load all your ado-files from GitHub working directories

Jun 12, 2019
4 min

Dependencies: making sure your ado/do-files run in any computer

Stata
programming

A code snippet to automatically install and update required SSC commands at the beginning of your do-files

May 30, 2019
2 min

Stata profile.do: nice tips

Stata

How to configure Stata’s profile.do for a productive workflow: shortcuts, globals, and automatic adopath setup

Apr 12, 2019
5 min

Export results to Tableau or Excel from Stata

Stata
handbook

How to arrange Stata results in long (tidy) format using matrices or postfiles so they can be directly imported by Tableau or Excel

Aug 1, 2018
9 min

Naming Variables

Stata
handbook

12 principles and conventions for naming Stata variables that improve code readability and team workflow

Jul 2, 2018
5 min

Working with Loops

Stata
handbook

Tips and deeper understanding on using while, foreach, and forvalues loops in Stata, including common pitfalls with decimal ranges

May 2, 2018
9 min

My Stata editor: NotePad++

Stata
handbook

A complete guide to setting up NotePad++ as your Stata editor, including syntax highlighting and useful keyboard shortcuts

Mar 15, 2018
4 min
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