When I first tried Instapaper moons ago, I didn’t get it. I had a mish-mash system of saved lists in different apps. Now, I love Instapaper. It’ the only list of “to read” I have.
Via Marco.org:
This also applies to feature removals: I’ve removed Graphical Mode from the next release. I never use it because the experience of reading with it is awful. It’s one of those features that people say they want until they actually use it and realize that it’s not worthwhile at all. (Like comments. See: customers shooting themselves in the foot.) When I asked my users if they’d miss Graphical Mode, hundreds of people told me that they never used it. Only two — literally, two, out of hundreds — said they’d miss it, but only occasionally. So I’m replacing it with a much more useful feature: an in-app browser that can be used to view full-layout pages (online only, like Safari), but will be useful in Instapaper for many other reasons as well.
And this will make Instapaper that much better. I don’t use the graphical interface, but from time to time I do want to see the site. Not having it open in Mobile Safari will be perfect.
Retweet This Post
Scott Hanson reached out to 25 creatives around the world to see how they deal with The Blank Page.
Via ISO50 – The Blog of Scott Hansen » Overcoming Creative Block:
I do not know what to write. I am sitting here staring at the screen, running sentences in my head, and turning my music on and off. Earlier I went foraging for food (in hopes of sparking some magical words), but ended up getting distracted by Arrested Development for 20 minutes. This happens just about every time I sit down to do anything. I’ll probably go play the guitar between this paragraph and the next.
Of course this is a familiar situation. Often referred to as “writer’s block”, the concept of an inspiration rut is unfortunately very familiar to every creative in any field. Sometimes ideas just don’t show up to work. Given this, we all develop strategies to combat such a scenario. Not all are foolproof, but it’s safe to say that most creative people have some battle plan for dealing with the dreaded “blank page”.
Retweet This Post
The New York Times is reporting that not only is Walter Isaacson writing a biography of Steve Jobs, but that Jobs will coooperate on the project:
Now Apple’s chief executive is set to collaborate on an authorized biography, to be written by Walter Isaacson, the former managing editor of Time magazine, according to two people briefed on the project.
The book, which is in the early planning stages, would cover the entire life of Mr. Jobs, from his youth in the area now known as Silicon Valley through his years at Apple, these people said.
I’ve read Isaacson’s biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. Both are terrific reads. He is a thorough, well-researched biographer who does a good job to write with a healthy dose of detachment from his subject matter.
It may be years down the road, but it’s already on my list of Books to Read.
Retweet This Post
Seth Godin compares a minister who phones it in to non-spiritual pursuits (like doctors or insurance brokers) who are passionate about their work, almost to a spiritual level.
Via Phoning it in:
In fact, I don’t think there’s a relationship between what you do and how important you think the work is. I think there’s a relationship between who you are and how important you think the work is.
Retweet This Post
When it comes to civil rights and the crimes of the past, few people have done more than Jerry Mitchell to ensure justice has not gone unserved.
Mitchell is an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, and his specialty has been digging into some of the most notable civil rights murders our nation has suffered.
Because of Mitchell’s work, two notable civil rights murderers were finally convicted of their brutal crimes:
- Byron De La Beckwith. He was convicted in 1994 for the 1963 slaying of NAACP and civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
- Edgar Ray Killen. He was convicted in 2005 for the 1964 slaying of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights workers who were murdered and whose bodies were buried in an earthen dam in Philadelphia, MS.
Now that work is online with his new blog, Journey to Justice. In his inaugural post, Mitchell admits that he once swore to never write a blog, acknowledging his suspicious nature toward their validity compared to the world of journalism as he knows it. He has since been convinced that a blog could be another valuable tool to publish his work, such as his most recent post on still living suspects of crimes related to the 1964 Mississippi Burning killings.
Much of what is on the site right now is recycled from his print work, like this post about where his interest in pursuing civil rights crimes first started. If you’re a follower of Mitchell’s print work, you’ll recognize a good bit of this, but it’s still a good repository for his work and brand new for the millions of people who have never read his work and now have the opportunity to do so.
But there are newer pieces, like this post pointing to a New Yorker article about the wife and brother of the late Medgar Evers. And one can only expect to see newer material as Mitchell moves forward.
Yall Politics, whose post tipped me off to Mitchell’s blog, suggests that Mitchell could “ramp this to the next level by linking to some first source documents that are publicly available (from the Sovereignty Commission, Archives & History and the court cases themselves).” Not a bad idea at all.
What Mitchell has here could become a compelling, powerful weapon in the arsenal he uses to unearth more truths from this pivotal era. His dogged determination and old-school approach to journalism — i.e. burning up shoe leather to get to the story — should only benefit from his ability to publish at will about his work and findings.
Retweet This Post
I’m reading Linchpin by Seth Godin. It’s one of the best productivity, business, leadership books I’ve read. The crutch of the book is to become an “artist” with what you do to become indispensable to your company, clients or organizations.
Watching the pilot episode of Undercover Boss tonight (I skipped it after the Superbowl), I saw a linchpin. Fred worked on a truck, and his job was to travel around and clean out port-o-potties. His target was 15 per hour. It included vacuuming out the waste and then scrubbing everything down.
The amazing thing was watching how he approached it. He was positive, upbeat and seemed genuine in his training and encouragement of his new trainee — Waste Management President Larry O’Donnell.
During the wrap-up of the show, when O’Donnell reveals his real identity to Fred and asks him to speak to the senior leadership team, you can see the real reward for his work in Fred’s reaction. Fred cherished the recognition and the new opportunity.
Fred is an artist. He is a linchpin. And, without spoiling anything, he has been able to put his art to work in a different and, most likely, more rewarding way.
Retweet This Post
I’ve got friends, colleagues and acquaintances in the northeast U.S. who have been battling a large blizzard for several days now. By comparison, I’ve been told what Mississippi saw was nothing more than a “snow drizzle“.
Nonetheless, the family and I had a great time. Below are some photos from today.
You can visit the entire Flickr gallery here.
Retweet This Post
Jeffrey Zeldman wrote an excellent post about being on time. It’s to-the-point advice that everyone should heed. And when I say everyone, I’m starting with myself.
I openly admit that I often have a problem with being on time. I’m generally arriving right at time or later. That’s probably because I plan to be on time, not early.
Via Free advice: show up early by Jeffrey Zeldman:
If you plan to arrive early, then you are covered when circumstances beyond your control conspire to make you late.
This is simple and obvious but many otherwise brilliant professionals clearly don’t think about it. The result is that they often arrive late. It’s never their fault, and yet it’s always the same people who are late.
I’m a bleeding heart. If your pet turtle dies, I’ll give you a month’s paid vacation. But promptness is a duty we owe people who pay for our services. So here’s some free advice. Give yourself more time to arrive than you reasonably need.
Retweet This Post
Ian Hines wants more from his politicians when it comes to their usage of social media. He says he is “exhausted by those politicians who refuse to interact with the public like real, normal people”.
Ian points to Twitter as a prime example of how many politicians “don’t get it” when it comes to utilizing social media to their benefit:
This is partly because Twitter, at its best, is the anti-politics: it’s real, organic, spontaneous, and open. The most authentic, interesting people on Twitter aren’t the ones who are constantly selling you a pre-packaged version of themselves. The most interesting people on Twitter are the ones being themselves. This, understandably, makes politicians uncomfortable—and maybe it should. Politics, after all, is perception; if you let your guard down you yield control.
But I guess this is my point: I think that’s a good thing. If you think about it the root of most political scandals is that people suddenly realize that their public officials weren’t who they were pretending to be. They aren’t necessarily angry about whatever the indiscretion was—most people have moved on from Bill Clinton, for example—they’re angry that they were lied to. People want authenticity & honesty from their politicians; they do not want to be fed prepared remarks or read tweets with embarrassing spelling.
I agree. I believe too many politicians use Twitter, Facebook, etc. to market themselves instead of using these tools in the way they are designed to be used. As I commented on Ian’s post:
…the more “realness” that these politicians offer the better they reach voters who use this kind of media.
Retweet This Post
There are no shortages of plans to deal with email overload. It is generally understood that email can be a productivity killer, and finding the best way to handle your email is a necessity for anyone wanting to maximize their productivity and prevent rabbit-chasing expeditions.
For myself, I follow the advice of Merlin Mann and his Inbox Zero when churning through my email. Likewise, I follow the example of author Tim Ferriss in only checking my email at certain times during the day. For me, it’s generally three times a day — 7 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
The problem is that Apple’s Mail.app doesn’t like to play well with my habits. Until recently, I would close Mail until I needed to send an email. Then I would fire it up (using Launchbar), hit Cmd-N for a new message, write, send and close down. But between sending and closing down my eyes would jump to the string of unread messages or the large counts of unread messages that had been spirited away to other folders by server-side rules.
They were tempting me to read them, to break my workflow. My mind would have to engage my temptation in order to resist. I’d have to make a conscious decision not to check my email. If I was successful (more times than not, thankfully), thoughts like “What did James have to say?” would trail with me into my next task, keeping me a bit distracted.
I searched futilely for a way to prevent the Main Window from opening on the launch of Mail. It may exist — most likely via a Terminal hack — but I didn’t find one.
So I hacked my long-held system. For some it’s not a new process, nor a revolutionary one. But it was new to the way I worked, so it might be new to someone else, too. Here’s what I do:
- Set Mail to launch on start-up. Manually close the Main Window.
- Set Mail preferences to not show any unread message counts. (That way I’m not tempted when switching from one app to another by seeing that big red badge on the Mail icon!)
- Set Mail preferences to not play any new message sound. (This I’ve already done.)
- Set Mail preferences to check manually. (This, also, was already done.)
- Set Spaces Preferences to have Mail open in any space. (I used to have it set for Space 4. See this post as to why.)
- Use Launchbar keyboard shortcuts to launch a new message when email is needed.
That’s it. Now my email is always open, but it’s hidden. My Main Window only appears when I want it to do so. Therefore, my email no longer gets in the way of my work.
Retweet This Post
