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Review: The Dip

2008-05-10T14:10:38Z

Quick review of Seth Godin’s The Dip.

The book is short and sweet, but could’ve been a blog post instead. I found myself thinking “Okay, I get it!” about a quarter of the way through. Here’s my summary…

Stuff gets harder, stick with it…
…unless you shouldn’t. Then Quit.

And all the “best in the world” stuff didn’t really help. It’s still worth the read.

I’m Going To Scale My Foot Up Your Ass - Ted Dziuba

2008-04-26T12:36:01Z

I’m Going To Scale My Foot Up Your Ass – Ted Dziuba

“Scalability is not your problem, getting people to give a shit is.”

Yup.

We don’t have time?

2008-04-24T22:03:55Z

Can’t recall where I grabbed this quote, but it depresses the hell out of me.

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. — H. Jackson Brown

Rands In Repose: Saving Seconds

2008-04-23T01:39:00Z

Saving Seconds

I’m the guy who will spend the entire goddamned weekend reorganizing my tagging system because I didn’t like the tone or the tense of my previous tagging system.

Ya. Me too.

5 Things You Should Not Twitter

2008-04-19T15:01:31Z

I love Twitter. It’s extremely valuable and has become an important part of my daily flow. There’s a ton of value in following a whole bunch (not too many!) of the brightest people I know. It’s amazing. Lately, however, I’ve been noticing a few recurring themes which have not contributed to this value. In an effort to keep Twitter a service that’s suited to my specific needs, I present to you 5 things you should not Twitter.

Complaints about Internet Explorer. No shit
The weather. We know. And if we don’t, we don’t care. Exceptions: Hurricanes and Earthquakes
Clients behaving badly. They all do that occasionally. Don’t tell us about it. It makes you sound whiny and will definitely bite you later.
How many people follow you. Yay, you’re popular. Whatever.
“Good Morning!” That’s it? You’re awake? I don’t need to know you’re awake.

That’s all I can think of right now. I’ve seen examples of each of them already this morning. Yes, I’ve done all of the above myself, but that doesn’t make it right. Carry on.

http://twitter.com/jackbaty

PS This is just for fun. Let’s all keep our undies firmly unbunched.

Every URL is a Latent Community

2008-04-19T14:28:16Z

Clay Shirky video. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Some quotes (from memory)…

“Sharing has become a platform for collaboration rather than vice versa”

“Every URL is a latent community”

“It’s exactly the point that technology gets boring when its social aspects become interesting”

Fascinating. I’d read his companion book, but it’s not available on the Kindle.

How to work an 8-hour day | Philosophical Geek

2008-04-18T00:44:49Z

I’m busy. I have too much to do. I work as much or more than anyone I know much of the time. And it’s all my fault.

Having too much to do in too short a time is nothing more than bad planning. I’m convinced that working 12-hour days trying to catch up is not the answer. Not even in the short term. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I figure it out. In the meantime, read this terrific, balanced piece about the fallacy of 12-hour work days: How to work an 8-hour day | Philosophical Geek

I am saying that just because you have a lot of work is not a valid reason to work 12 hour days.
Unless you enjoy it…in which case you’re reading the wrong article. If you’re a workaholic, sacrificing your health, family, and free time to get ahead, knock yourself out. You can stop reading now.

Urgency is poisonous

2008-04-15T00:57:47Z

I find myself agreeing (mostly) with Jason Fried’s post, Urgency is poisonous

“One thing I’ve come to realize is that urgency is overrated. In fact, I’ve come to believe urgency is poisonous. Urgency may get things done a few days sooner, but what does it cost in morale? Few things burn morale like urgency. Urgency is acidic.”

(Via Signal vs. Noise.)

The Thing About Git

2008-04-08T23:25:57Z

Ryan Tomayko: The Thing About Git

The thing about Git is that it’s oddly liberal with how and when you use it. Version control systems have traditionally required a lot of up-front planning followed by constant interaction to get changes to the right place at the right time and in the right order. And woe unto thee if a rule is broken somewhere along the way, or you change your mind about something, or you just want to fix this one thing real quick before having to commit all the other crap in your working copy.

Git is quite different in this regard. You can work on five separate logical changes in your working copy – without interacting with the VCS at all – and then build up a series of commits in one fell swoop. Or, you can take the opposite extreme and commit really frequently and mindlessly, returning later to rearrange commits, annotate log messages, squash commits together, tease them apart, or rip stuff out completely. It’s up to you, really. Git doesn’t”

Strange Maps: An Absolut Mexico

2008-04-06T13:30:26Z

Absolut Vodka ad released in Mexico has me feeling all defensive, for honestly no good reason.

(Via strange maps.)

The Mike Wallace Interview

2008-04-05T16:29:38Z

This is just terrific, The Mike Wallace Interview from the late 50s are online.

There are 65 interviews in the Ransom Center’s collection. Five are on audio tape, and the others are kinescopes, 16mm recordings of the television programs made by filming the picture from a video monitor. These 16mm films were transferred to video and, along with the audio tapes, were digitized. The interviews were then transcribed and were both embedded in the video files in the form of subtitles and included on the website as text files.

Gruber: Firefox 3 vs. Safari 3

2008-04-05T13:03:06Z

Gotta agree with Mr. Gruber about Firefox 3 vs. Safari 3. Safari 3 just feels better than even the latest Firefox 3 beta. And it’s really damn fast.

Kubrick on 2001

2008-04-05T12:31:38Z

The whole idea that a movie should be seen only once is an extension of our traditional conception of the film as an ephemeral entertainment rather than as a visual work of art. We don’t believe that we should hear a great piece of music only once, or see a great painting once, or even read a great book just once.

Movie City Indie: Throwing bones in the air as 2001 turns 40:

Giving Mail.app another shot

2008-04-05T03:13:18Z

Gmail is just so damn good that I haven’t used a desktop email client in years. Desktop apps are always better than their web-based counterparts. Gmail is the exception. I can think of no other case where a web-based version of an app is better than a good desktop app. Google Docs and Spreadsheets vs Pages and Numbers? Nope. Mindomo, Mindmeister, etc. vs MindManager. Not even close. Photoshop Express vs Photoshop Elements? Nuh uh. The convenience of having stuff in the cloud is not enough to compensate for the user experience sacrifices I have to make.

The recent release of Outspring Mail made me want to try a desktop mail client again. Unfortunately, Outspring wasn’t enough to convince me. It’s a neat idea, but seemed buggy and was missing some pretty basic things I use regularly, like selecting all messages and marking them as read. Outspring made me do it one message at a time, then crashed.

Of course by looking at Outspring I was reminded of Mail.app. I stopped using Mail.app primarily because of Gmail’s search speed and conversation view. Just for fun, I fired it up again to see how things were going with the new (Leopard) version. I tend to go all-in when trying stuff, so I set it up to POP mail from my Gmail account and archive Gmail’s version. IMAP is great, but I honestly only check mail from my laptop so IMAP isn’t that important in real life for me.

The next thing I did was install MailTags and Mail Act-On. Both are terrifically useful for cranking through and organizing lots of email. I have actions and tags and smart folders all set up to help with my workflow. It’s nice. Mail has a lot of things going for it. Integration with iCal and Address Book. Drag-n-drop attachments, etc.

So after a week, where are we? As of right now, I’m sticking with Mail. Search using Leopard’s Spotlight is very fast, so my biggest complaint about the last version is moot. MailTags makes organizing really nice, without having to spend much time messing with folders and moving stuff around. I also get the benefit of having a local, offline copy of all my messages, just in case Evil Happens.

I still miss Gmail’s conversations view, but that I can live with.

Sean Reid: Yes It Matters

2008-04-01T00:27:40Z

Sean Reid offers up my favorite argument so far in the does-your-camera-matter debate.

Its true that the tail shouldn’t wag the dog. It’s true that photographers and pictures are more important than cameras and lenses. It’s true that hours spent studying photographs and paintings themselves will often be far more valuable to a photographer than hours spent worrying over what equipment to buy next. Its true that many have been conned by decades of advertising into believing that becoming a good photographer is mostly a matter of buying the ‘best’ cameras and lenses. It’s true that there is no such thing as a ‘best’ camera or a ‘best’ lens for all photographers. Its true that we generally do not need the newest and most expensive cameras and lenses to make strong pictures. That’s all true.

But its not true that cameras and lenses do not matter. There is no best camera and no best lens, globally, but there may well be a combination of camera and lens that best suits a specific photographer for a specific set of work. It might be a combination that costs forty dollars or forty-thousand but whatever it is, it can play an important role in the creation and look of a given photographers’ work.”