Frank Chimero, in what must be the best thing I have read in 2011:
This is what we want from everything we let into our lives: a good fit, so we can achieve full mastery of our tools, so we can milk all the potential out of everything that we have. If we can do that, we can truly appreciate our things.
I have a button down shirt from my wedding. It was custom made just for me with 15 dimensions taken, including the pitch of my shoulders. It is best shirt I have ever owned. I had the opportunity to wear it again at my sister in-laws wedding and was reminded just how damned good I feel when I wear that shirt. I wish I could have all my clothes custom made — truth be told it is cheaper than you think.
I feel the exact same way about my iPhone. I messed about with the arrangement of icons until it was perfect for me. My wife hates it when she borrows my phone because the phone app isn’t in the dock: Twitter, OmniFocus, Mail, and Camera are.
Same goes with my Mac, iPad, OmniFocus and so much more. Customization to make things fit you and how you work is the ultimate goal.
Frank is right on another point:
Optimize for steadfastness, embrace the ephemeral quality of hot-swappable items when it makes sense, and think about how it all connects.
Minimalism is one thing, “appropriatism” is another.
If you read nothing else this week, make it this.