Note: I originally posted a version of this for members, this is a revised and expanded version of that post.
I have a lot of problems with how review sites write their reviews. They developed non-sensical scoring systems, loosely follow their stated use of those systems, and over time end up rating everything as 9.8 out of 10 — or whatever the equivalent is. Review sites, if you haven’t noticed, very rarely review a product where they end up calling it utter shit.
Chris on his Chris Notes blog, writing about his Digital Notetaking Stack:
One of the most important parts of my setup is my intake app. I hope you’ve never had to experience this feeling:
Your friend names a cool restaurant or book for you to look up later. You hastily pull up your notes app to write it down. But wait. Where should you make the note? Does restaurant fall under your travel folder? Or your food folder? What should you title it? Do you need to make a new folder? While you’re fiddling with your app your friend has already started talking about that other boba place you should explore. Should that go in a whole other note? Oh god.
I feel like a lot of people give up after going through this a couple times and their notes app just ends up being a hodge-podge of unorganized, random shit that they dread looking back at later.
I’ve been deep into information processing tools the last few weeks. Partly because of work stuff, partly because of the overall activity in the space. Information processing is my catch all for the stack of intaking new things, making use of them/actioning, and then storing and maintaining them. Chris’ above thought on the intake being the most important part resonates with me.
So many of the tools today are just not at all simple. They are complex and overbearing. I’ve gone deep on a lot of the PKM utter-useless-nonsense out there and the offshoot tools created for it. Waste of time. Obsidian feels like that for me as well, but Chris’ use he details in the linked post seems rather sane and logical to me — dare I say, I like it.
But his system also mirrors mine in a lot of ways: paper + efficient digital tools. I’ll write more about my setup in the coming months. But give Chris’ post a read, it’s one of the best how-to/getting started guides I’ve read on this stuff.
I’ve updated the gear sale page to include a lot of amazing deals. First come, first gets it.
Check everything out here, and keep and eye on the page for updates.
My wife recently picked up a Q2, and within a few minutes of holding it, I was sure I needed a Q2. And then I saw the images it was producing, and I had to have one.
Side note: my wife’s much better review of her Q2 will hopefully come some time this year. The photos she is making with it are astounding.
But instead of a Q2, I snagged a barely used Q2 Monochrom and took it with me to the beautifully colorful Italian coast. This is one of the best cameras I’ve ever used, and absolutely the most fun I have had with a camera. And it can’t even take a color photograph.
This is the fourth, and final, installment of my ‘State of XYZ Collection’ posts. In this one, we are covering my watches, and while not the quantity hasn’t changed much, there have been two big things to cover.
Some solid deals on ROKA to be had, these are my current favorite sunglasses. I am a big fan of the Phantom’s and the Hunter 2.0 models. They are impressively lightweight, and all around great.
A bunch of solid offerings, 40% off right now from Filson. Buying through that link helps me buy through that link and such. I love the Filson flannel shirts, and suggest everyone owns one. They run wide, I fit a Medium, X-Long perfectly, whereas generally it’s a Large most places (which also fits there, but wears a little boxy on me).
It’s no secret that I think Reminders.app from Apple, and Notes from Apple are two of the most underrated productivity tools out there. I suspect people don’t use and talk about these more, because they lack the dopamine hit you get with purchasing a new thing to get better. It’s kind of like buying a gym membership to go walk on an indoor track, rather than walking around your neighborhood. Both accomplish the same thing, but with the gym you get to proof that you spent money to think about fitness, while making your fitness routine more cumbersome to actually do.
Anyways, Reminders fucking rocks.
For the third installment of ‘State of XYZ Collection’, let’s dive into flashlights. This collection has been in a huge state of change over 2023, so I am constraining it to lights I carry in my pocket only. The big changes are centered around what I want out of a light, and trying for easier to carry lights. Here we go:
I always write ‘The Best’ lists at the end of the year, but I often note that the best items are not necessarily my favorite items. Sometimes a thing is my favorite for sentimental reasons, or because my use case is a little more niche than the categories I’ve defined on the best list.
So, I thought it would be fun to take a look five of my current favorite items, and why they are my favorites.
The second installment of my ‘State of XYZ Collection’ brings us to knives. Which is possibly the most boring of these, as I basically use/own very few knives. I went from having piles around the house, to five. And of those five, I use two most days. I’m not counting anything stashed away in emergency bags, but rather a knife I am likely to grab and use for a task. Here they are:
This is one of those items, where I would have never purchased it if two things didn’t happen: the first is getting to see other items from ‘Observer Collection’ in person; the second was an upcoming trip where I knew I would need to handle more cash and coins. Coins are a huge pain for me day to day with the wallets I already own.
Because, when I am at home in Texas, I have my wallet setup down: drivers license, two cards, a $20 bill, and two $5 bills. Done. This all fits neatly in my tiny wallet, but for travel — even domestically or in state — this quickly blows apart.
Which is where Observer Collection’s Whisky comes into play. This is probably the best wallet for travel (or coin needs) I have ever used.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions around what gear I actually have/use right now. I thought it would be neat to check in, so let’s start with bags. I am constraining this to only the bags I would put in my EDC rotation, and I am excluding anything I am still reviewing. Here’s the list, and a few comments on each:
Traveling internationally as a family has a lot of small pitfalls. Being the organizational and bag nerd I am, I take on the responsibility of covering all the little bases. One of those bases involves cash, passports, and vaccination cards.
All three of those are something that you probably, likely, need when you travel internationally. And all three suck if you lose them or do not have ready access to them. So, I carry those items for the family when we travel, and I search for new things to carry them in.
