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Reading this is like reading “You can make your Muscle Car More Fuel Efficient—Here’s How” or “You can make Hot Pockets More Healthy—Here’s How”. Because Slack isn’t made to be, and never attempted to be, something which isn’t attention grabbing. The entire point of Slack is to grab attention. It’s terrible. I’d get a better…
Reading this is like reading “You can make your Muscle Car More Fuel Efficient—Here’s How” or “You can make Hot Pockets More Healthy—Here’s How”. Because Slack isn’t made to be, and never attempted to be, something which isn’t attention grabbing. The entire point of Slack is to grab attention.
It’s terrible. I’d get a better tool if I were you.
Farhad Manjoo: Just about every problem we battle in understanding the news today — and every one we will battle tomorrow — is exacerbated by plugging into the social-media herd. The built-in incentives on Twitter and Facebook reward speed over depth, hot takes over facts and seasoned propagandists over well-meaning analyzers of news. Must read…
Farhad Manjoo:
Just about every problem we battle in understanding the news today — and every one we will battle tomorrow — is exacerbated by plugging into the social-media herd. The built-in incentives on Twitter and Facebook reward speed over depth, hot takes over facts and seasoned propagandists over well-meaning analyzers of news.
Must read article.
Gabe Weatherhead: Culture Code has done a good job at designing many of the Things features around input efficiency. I like that. I still worry that Culture Code may stop development or go for years between releases. They lost a lot of credibility in my book with how they managed Things 2. I never thought…
Gabe Weatherhead:
Culture Code has done a good job at designing many of the Things features around input efficiency. I like that. I still worry that Culture Code may stop development or go for years between releases. They lost a lot of credibility in my book with how they managed Things 2. I never thought I’d spend another dime on their software, but I also never thought they’d beat OmniFocus at their own game.
It’s a testament to how good Things 3 is, that they won back so many people.
A versatile and very light weight duffle bag.
Note this bag was sent to me from Flowfold for the purposes of this review.
Despite my predilection for backpacks, I’ve always been a huge duffle bag nerd, and so when Flowfold asked if I wanted to try theirs out — I jumped at the chance. I typically use duffle bags in one of two settings: I need to check luggage when I fly, or I am traveling with my kids or wife. Or, I guess, “all of the above”.
A look at the changing use and goals of watches, and what kind of watch really matters to me.
Over the past couple of years I’ve been spending more time thinking about the tools I use at a deeper level of detail. One item I’ve been thinking about is watches — in part because of the Apple Watch and looking at how that distorts watches in general, but also because I’ve been generally unhappy with my current slate of watches to wear.
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Taking a look at a new gear organizer, which is quite a bit larger than you might expect.
I’ve been looking for a solid organizer to use in place of my other options for carrying everything in my EDC kits. The idea being that if I can keep my standard gear all in one thing then I can have only one set of gear. As it is right now, I keep an entire set of gear in each bag, since I don’t have an easy way to move it from bag to bag. Thus I either spend a lot of money buying the same gear, or I have one kit of gear which is my favorite and the other kits made up of lesser goods (which is the reality).
I’ve tried GORUCK Field Pockets and a few Maxpedition pouches, but today I take a look at Triple Aught Design’s latest offering the Context Organizer. The Context Organizer is fairly unique in this admin pouch realm, as it is expandable, able to hang with built in straps, and yet has tons of organization abilities in it. And it’s huge.
Back to iPad Productivity, with a tip and a look at a bunch of apps.
It’s been a good break a since the last Productivity Report, but I’m back at this week. Taking a look at org charts, hand written note apps, email forward tip, and lastly an app for planning your road trips.
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Joe Cieplinski: Here’s what I really want out of a virtual assistant: Assistance. Not trivia questions. Not timers. Utility. It needs to actually make my life significantly easier. Let me give you an example. And there’s no doubt in my mind this will be possible someday. “Alexa, book me a flight for Peers Conf.” If…
Joe Cieplinski:
Here’s what I really want out of a virtual assistant: Assistance. Not trivia questions. Not timers. Utility. It needs to actually make my life significantly easier.
Let me give you an example. And there’s no doubt in my mind this will be possible someday.
“Alexa, book me a flight for Peers Conf.”
If I had a human personal assistant, that’s all I’d need to say to get this task done. They would go straight to work, and I’d get on with my day.
Great take on where these devices are right now.
Charles Duhigg, in a long winding post about all the ills facing our society from these massive tech companies, encapsulates the issue really well here: Put differently, if you love technology — if you always buy the latest gadgets and think scientific advances are powerful forces for good — then perhaps you ought to cheer…
Charles Duhigg, in a long winding post about all the ills facing our society from these massive tech companies, encapsulates the issue really well here:
Put differently, if you love technology — if you always buy the latest gadgets and think scientific advances are powerful forces for good — then perhaps you ought to cheer on the antitrust prosecutors. Because there is no better method for keeping the marketplace constructive and creative than a legal system that intervenes whenever a company, no matter how beloved, grows so large as to blot out the sun. If you love Google, you should hope the government sues it for antitrust offenses — and you should hope it happens soon, because who knows what wondrous new creations are waiting patiently in the wings.
His look at how Microsoft could have (should have?) crushed Google is very telling. Even if you don’t believe the idea that Google is “evil”, then you should at least believe that it’s not in Google’s best interest to help competitors…
This is a brilliant follow up game. It’s absolutely sublime. I’ve seen a few reviews mention how calm it seems, and I think that’s an apt description: calm beauty. Love it.
This is a brilliant follow up game. It’s absolutely sublime. I’ve seen a few reviews mention how calm it seems, and I think that’s an apt description: calm beauty. Love it.
Om Malik: That may be a very simplified version of a sequence of events, but the fact of the matter is money and obsession with growth and engagement are what makes Facebook go around. That is embedded in its psyche, its DNA, and it will never change. Good, short, read.
Om Malik:
That may be a very simplified version of a sequence of events, but the fact of the matter is money and obsession with growth and engagement are what makes Facebook go around. That is embedded in its psyche, its DNA, and it will never change.
Good, short, read.
How can you make OmniOutliner 3 for iOS a tool that is worth the money and time to learn.
Last week, Omni Group launched [OmniOutlier 3 for iOS](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnioutliner-3/id1174101450?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3v36d) — something I have long been waiting for. I was on the public-ish beta of the product so I’ve had plenty of time to use it. I am also a diehard OmniOuliner user, as it was the first Mac app I fell in love with. The problem, though, is that with OmniOutliner 3 for iOS — I struggle to speak positively about it.
I thought about linking to it and letting that be that, no comment “hey new shiny” something of that ilk. I thought about writing a long and terrible post about where it misses the mark and how you probably shouldn’t buy it. Then I thought about writing a post about how it’s not really good, but it’s the best of a really poor app category so that by default makes it the best.
And that’s the thing, OmniOutliner on iOS is the best outlining app you can get — by a huge margin. But that doesn’t mean it’s a wonderful app to use — I mean it tries to ignore that iCloud Drive exists.
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Nitasha Tiku: When Facebook launched Messenger Kids, an app for preteens and children as young as 6, the company stressed that it had worked closely with leading experts in order to safeguard younger users. What Facebook didn’t say is that many of those experts had received funding from Facebook. What’s notable isn’t that they paid…
Nitasha Tiku:
When Facebook launched Messenger Kids, an app for preteens and children as young as 6, the company stressed that it had worked closely with leading experts in order to safeguard younger users. What Facebook didn’t say is that many of those experts had received funding from Facebook.
What’s notable isn’t that they paid experts, that’s rather common, what’s notable is that it looks like the only experts supporting Messenger Kids are the ones Facebook paid.
A quick aside about the culture of waking early to be the bestest person on Twitters.
I really love ‘life hacking’ articles, specifically how they are based on sample sizes of one, often from people who have literally never tried anything else. (e.g. “I was born a vegan and that’s why I am amazing”, “Rich parents and how you can to”) And one of my favorite tropes is ‘rise early’. Why should you rise early? Because that person did it, started months ago actually, and shit has never been better? Is that really the object of desire? Are we so bad at being humans that the vast majority of people just don’t realize that all you need to do to make your wildest dreams come true, is to wake up before everyone else? But what happens when everyone starts waking up at 5am, then do I need to wake up at 4am? Why even sleep?
Allow me to add my anecdotal evidence of one to the mix.
Sarah Perez: However, it’s not likely that all Onavo users understand they’re actually feeding Facebook the information that allows it to take on any challenger to its social networking empire. (That empire also includes WhatsApp and Instagram as well as smaller acquisitions like tbh and MSQRD). Noooo, whaaaaat?
Sarah Perez:
However, it’s not likely that all Onavo users understand they’re actually feeding Facebook the information that allows it to take on any challenger to its social networking empire. (That empire also includes WhatsApp and Instagram as well as smaller acquisitions like tbh and MSQRD).
Noooo, whaaaaat?
Rick Wartzman writing: “It’s kind of how we progress as a species,” adds O’Reilly, the author of, most recently, WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us. “We start out starry-eyed and optimistic with all the possibility of a new technology,” only to realize that there are shortcomings that need to be addressed—and…
Rick Wartzman writing:
“It’s kind of how we progress as a species,” adds O’Reilly, the author of, most recently, WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us. “We start out starry-eyed and optimistic with all the possibility of a new technology,” only to realize that there are shortcomings that need to be addressed—and often are addressed, even as some people invariably resist in order “to preserve the profits that they’re making.”
Some really interesting points.
Shawn was kind enough to provide me an early look at this course and it’s really well done, and I mean it’s about the best task manager you can get — what’s not to like? Oh, and in case you’ve been longing for a podcast like think featuring me and Shawn, he recorded an interview…
Shawn was kind enough to provide me an early look at this course and it’s really well done, and I mean it’s about the best task manager you can get — what’s not to like?
Oh, and in case you’ve been longing for a podcast like think featuring me and Shawn, he recorded an interview with me about all my nerdy task management ways.
This is a great write up about a new insulation that seems pretty amazing. Yeah it’s got NASA marketing hype around it, but if what all Steve’s research says is true, it’ll change the way “warm” jackets look. And in case you want more thoughts from me on Outlier, I recently wrote another Outlier shirt…
This is a great write up about a new insulation that seems pretty amazing. Yeah it’s got NASA marketing hype around it, but if what all Steve’s research says is true, it’ll change the way “warm” jackets look.
And in case you want more thoughts from me on Outlier, I recently wrote another Outlier shirt review.
Looking at how device orientation is going to be a bigger iPad problem to solve.
Spring is the time of year when many are expecting new iPads to emerge from Apple — likely new revisions to the iPad Pro lineup. Last year we saw the introduction of a new size: the 10.5” iPad Pro, as well as other nice to have features. The big question this year, though, is what Apple might introduce because no matter what Apple does it has to solve a bigger problem: device orientation.
Is the iPad a portrait, or landscape device? It’s clear with the iPhone: portrait. And with the Mac: landscape.
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Amit Gawande: Dumb and powerful, now there’s the super villain from any sane person’s nightmare. The power is in the data, not the devices. Right now some of that data is mostly noise, but it won’t be long before machine learning makes that “noise” into a billion dollar industry.
Amit Gawande:
Dumb and powerful, now there’s the super villain from any sane person’s nightmare.
The power is in the data, not the devices. Right now some of that data is mostly noise, but it won’t be long before machine learning makes that “noise” into a billion dollar industry.