Jeff Jewiss' Journal

On Screens

2012-01-28T00:00:00-08:00

We're living in the middle of the next big cultural shift since the car. It's very difficult to see from the inside, but it's definitely happening.

Wilson Miner's talk "When We Build" describes how the car's rise to ubiquity redefined how we live in the world and showed how we changed our environment to reflect this. We built suburbs, re-imagined the city and were suddenly able to deliver goods to previously inaccessible areas, affordably traverse land on a whim and inhabit places that were previously deemed unfit to live. It was a transportation revolution that redefined what was possible and what was affordable, and the screen is at the center of an information revolution that is doing the same.

Another interesting concept brought up in the talk is "time to screen". When you first wake up in the morning, how long is it before you're looking at a screen? We're surrounded by tvs, laptops, tablets and phones. The screen has not only become our de facto source for information, it is also our primary input device. We look at, read, and touch our screens so many times in a day that the act of doing so has gained acceptance in an alarming number of social circumstances. We are so deeply tied to our screens that games, like The Phone Stack, which uses a financial disincentive to prevent acquaintances from checking their phones at dinner, have risen to curb our addiction to the screen. These games punish those with a low "time to screen".

While using screens so frequently poses problems, like affecting our memory and ability to learn, and even fragmenting our attention, it's easy to see why so many people just can't stop looking at them. Screens are not only a portal to endless entertainment, but a more natural interface to computers than we've ever seen before. We're slowly making computers more human and tearing down the barriers to information by making our screen based devices intuitive to use, as demonstrated in the countless videos of toddlers using iPads.

It's very easy to find yourself constantly checking your phone, falling into an endless spiral of Youtube videos, visiting your favourite websites and just generally trapped into checking your screens. The information we seek has become so freely available, and the networks we use to access it have become so fast, that in practical terms our minds think of it as just always being there.

The screen is at the center of a revolution in accessible information and the daily workings of how we live. I think those that choose to embrace the use of screens are faced with two distinct options: allowing screens to control your behaviour through consumption, and building for the future with the screen as the medium. Which will you choose?

Consuming Things & Being Ineffective

2011-12-01T00:00:00-08:00

There is enough so called content online such that you could spend the rest of your days consuming it. Some of it is nourishing and wholesome, you benefit in mind and spirit from its consumption, but most of it is not worth your time. There is a lot more noise than there is good, quality signal, which is often hard to find. And it's far too easy to spend endless hours consuming when you could be creating. Worse still is when you feel guilty for the watching, reading, listening and playing that you do. These actions should be enjoyable and serve as a break from creation and as inspiration — to recharge the batteries that allow you to create.

Consuming Content

Consumption is a curious thing, especially when related to content, because the typical context has us consuming food, drink and the like, but in the digital world we consume photos, videos and written work. What is this consumption really though? Well, it's viewing, watching, reading, studying, analyzing and hopefully learning, so I'm with Shawn Blanc in that we need a better term for "Consuming Content". I think our digital culture is at a loss for what to call it though.

I spoke of content being nourishing and I wish this idea were my own, but I attribute it to Frank Chimero. The thing that put him on my radar, other than his great design work, was his piece of writing The Back Side of Your Gullet Is Decadent and Depraved. It spoke to me in the way only a narrative or story could, it was personal, endearing and I learned something. That was how I knew reading the entire series was nourishing: I felt something and it pushed me to question my choices, habits and consumption. I know it's a longer read, but I encourage you to spend the time to consume what Frank has created because I think you'll be better off for doing so.

An Obsession with Tools

There are many tools that help us focus, including those for writing, reading, coding and so on. What we need to accept is that these are merely tools and when they are treated and thought of as anything more than an implement for creation bad things happen. What sort of bad things? Well, instead of enabling greater productivity and sparking inspiration for better quality work they become a crutch and devolve into an obsession for new, and better tools.

New and novel tools will frequently come to market in every field, many of which will be important and improve both the quality of work one is able to produce and the ease of production itself. The problem is in balancing completion of the work and trying, testing, experimenting and learning these new tools. The most valuable tools will have the largest learning curve and take the most amount of time to master, but these tools will also have the largest benefit.

Let's Talk About Habits

My thoughts on consumption have been stewing for a while now, but reading a post by Chris Wake on Quora titled Hidden Habits of Ineffective People summarized things neatly and tied in how habits play a role. I don't think that every point he makes is true 100% of the time, but that isn't important. We need to be aware of our habits and which ones cause us to be ineffective. Until we can identify these bad habits and move towards correcting them we'll be stuck doing shit work.

How do we correct our habits? They're habits for a reason, we've been repeating the same behaviour for a long time and habits don't discern between good and bad behaviour. Well, we can start by reshaping habit fields, which are invisible forces associated with objects and contexts in our lives thanks to memories attached to them.

So it follows that we have good habits and bad habits and many of the good habits relate to creating things and many of the bad habits relate to consuming things. This does not mean that all creation is good and all consumption is bad, however, I would argue that consumption tends to be much easier than creation. Armed with the knowledge of which habits are categorized as being ineffective and that we have the ability to shape and change our habits over time through associated memories and behaviour, there's no excuse for allowing bad habits to persist.

Conclusion

Becoming aware of the things we consume, the tools we use, our habits and how they affect the way we live can be very powerful knowledge to posess. Learning about our idividual strengths and weaknesess allows us to truly improve ourselves and be effective.

Mou App

2011-10-03T00:00:00-07:00

There are a lot of great Markdown editors out there, including the likes of iA Writer, but Mou is different in that it's for web developers. Mou is currently free to download during the beta, so get it while you still can.

A Note About Git Commit Messages

2011-10-03T00:00:00-07:00

It may be a small, often overlooked, detail, but well formatted Git commit messages help in ensuring a project is easy to pickup and work on collaboratively. Tim Pope provides a great example.

Too Easily Entertained

2011-10-02T00:00:00-07:00

We live in a time where there is so much entertainment that you could spend your life consuming such material. It is far easiler to read a book on your Kindle, turn on your Playstation and play through a few rounds of Call of Duty, watch a movie you downloaded from iTunes or even watch funny cat videos on Youtube than it is to create something, anything really. When is the last time you made something with your hands, the last time you wrote something that you didn't have to?

It is important to create, it grounds us and reminds us of the value and work that goes into the media we so easily take for granted on a daily basis. I personally believe in the following:

If it takes you longer to consume something than it took someone to create it, chances are it's not good for you. Don't consume it.

This should lead you to examine your distractions. Are you simply bored and tuning into something to pass the time or does your consumption have purpose? Do you disect the work of your peers and analyze the masterpieces of those you consider great? Where do you draw the line from empty time-filling entertainment to valuable work that fills you up and inspires you?

When we catch ourselves admiring the work of others are we truly inspired or are we taking refuge in the distraction it provides from doing our own work? Are we able to create valuable, important work when we're constantly surrounded and bombarded not just by the work of others, but quality media ready to be consumed? Are we too easily entertained?

Writing Failures - Breaking a Promise to Yourself

2011-09-29T00:00:00-07:00

When I first started this journal as a personal project I had a few simple rules. It didn't take very long for me to break them and stop writing. I could easily attribute my failure to worrying about my ability, which was a product of considering what others thought of my writing or fearing that it was of poor quality, but these are both weak excuses. I wasn't trying, I wasn't writing.

Seth Godin's recent post Talker's Block reiterated just what I needed to hear: writing is harder than talking, which is why writer's block exists, but talker's block does not. If you want to improve at something you need to practice and if you want to be held accountable you should make it public.

Talk is cheap, it's fleeting and under normal circumstances there is no record of what's been said. Even the fragments remembered by those participating in the conversation are not a perfect record. This freedom allows us to speak our mind and discuss things we would never write down. Half truths, unfinished ideas and mangled grammar and sentence structure work perfectly in conversation, but are more than frowned upon in writing. Good writing requires structure, a consistent voice and skill honed over time by practicing.

There is no way around it, I've failed so far. I can't let myself give up though because I really do want to improve. I want to be a better writer, a better communicator.

Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?

2011-09-28T00:00:00-07:00

THE “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes. I frequently read confident statements like, “when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli ...” or “it’s more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald’s than to cook a healthy meal for them at home.”

This is just plain wrong.

When you're on the road, have a low income, or are low on time it's much easier to order out or pickup fast food instead of purchasing groceries and cooking at home. I don't think the convenience of junk food has ever been in question, but rather its cost. It's somehow become ingrained in our culture that junk food is also cheaper than groceries so I'm relieved to see someone question this supposed norm, even if in an opinion piece in the New York Times.

Twitter Handles as Identification

2011-09-27T00:00:00-07:00

While it may be a phenomenon among a subset of those who frequently use lesser parts of the web and/or develop for it, I would argue that identifying someone based on their Twitter username is a popular, well understood and thoroughly integrated idea. Through use of the @ reply, adding the @ symbol in front of a username has become the de facto method of signifying a Twitter username.

I think it's an interesting piece of culture that I can identify both people I know, like my friend Ryan by @rdbannon or my boss Andrew by @awilkinson and people I don't know, but am interested in knowing what they're thinking, like Tim Van Damme — @maxvoltar or Dustin Curtis — @dcurtis. Handles have been around as long as the internet, but I think the wealth of information and interaction that comes attached to a @twitter link is a new and useful twist on IDs.

With so many social networks competing for our attention, the applications we use to interact with them, the culture that surrounds them and the networks themselves become so much more valuable when their growth reaches the point of specialization and past that of simply being a novel idea. I think Twitter has achieved this in its global recognition and usefulness of its platform.

Twitter really excels by both extending the use of the service past the applications developed in house and allowing for integration into other platforms and services. Beyond displaying tweet and profile data on websites Twitter can be used to sign in to other services, gain access to a list of contacts, share photos, links and data from apps, services or even your favourite blog. This extension of the core use of Twitter is what makes such a great case for its use as an ID.

The usernames of those you know, those you don't know and those you wish you knew are everywhere, taking you deeper into Twitter as you click those familiar @ links and then further out again as you read articles, watch videos and explore things shared by people around the world connected by Twitter. A little @ can go a long way.

The Designer’s Guide to the OSX Command Prompt

2011-09-27T00:00:00-07:00

If you're a designer and find yourself working in an agile environment or closely with developers you've likely come in contact with Terminal on your Mac. You owe it to yourself to learn at least the basics and this guide is a great place to start.

How to Get a Real Education

2011-09-26T00:00:00-07:00

Why do we make B students sit through the same classes as their brainy peers? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make sense to teach them something useful instead?

I see University and College as a platform for success. Graduating doesn't guarantee a job, a house, and a promised future, but it can open the right doors to that and more. Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, goes into a good amount of detail diving into anecdotes from his time at school, which makes for a great read.

My Daily Mile

2011-08-27T00:00:00-07:00

I would like to think that I've been a failed runner for the last few years. Every few months I would start up again and run somewhere in the 3-5km range once or twice and that would be it. A few months later I'd try again with the same result. It never stuck.

Starting a new exercise routine is always the easy part, but keeping up with it and measuring your progress is tricky at best and frustrating and disappointing at worst. I'd like to share what's been working for me.

The Context

If you're just looking to read about what tools, tricks and apps I use to assist with running, you should skip this section. Before I jump into what I'm doing and how it's working, I'd like to talk about where I'm coming from because exercise used to be a big part of my life.

Team sports were a big part of my childhood, and being Canadian, I'm sure it's no surprise that the two sports I was most involved in were baseball and hockey. Learning to swim was also a summer staple, with frequenting the family cottage and having a next-door neighbour who taught swimming lessons. All that aside, baseball was my sport, my game. I played baseball for 12 years, if my memory serves me, from t-ball to playing competitively within Ontario. I both attended and later worked at a baseball camp and competed at the provincial championships on more than one occasion.

Later in university, I joined the rowing team for two years, one year as a coxswain, and the other rowing junior varsity. We practiced a minimum of once every morning and competed most weekends during the season.

A lot has changed since then. The changes have been subtle and gradual, but I'm currently far less active, out of shape and with a much different daily routine and lifestyle. All in all it's not that surprising considering my life transitioned away from that of a student, to working at a desk in finance, and now again at a desk as a web developer. All that said, those things are no excuse for being out of shape.

I once had a lifestyle that kept me in moderately good shape, with what, at the time, seemed like minimal effort. That's hardly the case now, which is as frustrating as it saddening. As much as I want this to change immediately, I have to accept that it will be a slow and painful process.

Running

As with anything else in life, it's easy to get caught up in the gear and technology behind running. There are sports drinks, energy bars, technology embedded in clothes and countless ways of looking like an athlete before you've even ran your first mile. In my opinion, you're all set if you have invested in a good pair of running shoes and a GPS device.

GPS

It may seem like overkill using GPS to track your runs, but it's been one of the biggest motivators for me. There are great devices made by Garmin and Nike, among other companies, but if you already have an iPhone or Android phone you can get a full featured app for less than $10. I've tried a few different apps, and would gladly recommend Kinetic by Mothership Software. It's easy to use, has audible alerts, allows you to play music during your workout and works for any outdoor exercise, among many other features. As long as you're able to track your run and export the data, it really doesn't matter which app or piece of gear you use.

Just Do It

It's very easy to get stuck in your head and psych yourself out about exercising in any form. The same is true for running, especially because you'll be outside in public, which can easily make you more self conscious and worried about your performance. If you're like me you'll want to be good at something immediately, so when your pace is lacklaster on that first run you'll want to give up. As I discovered myself, it's easy to give up or to find excuses, like "I just ate," or "I'll run tomorrow," or "I'm too tired," but all of these things just lead to becoming a failed runner. You're only going to get better after a lot of repetition, so just get out there and run.

Motivation

Data

The most direct and immediate feedback and motivation you'll receive is from recording your runs with GPS. Kinetic is great for that in seeing a map of your route, a graph of your speed and elevation, a summary of the calories burned and the ability to keep notes on the weather and how you were feeling. Having this data has been surprising in both the results themselves and how motivating they can be.

Some of the days where I felt I had the least energy ended up having better average speeds. The longer you track your runs, the easier it will be to see the results of your training and proof of the improvement on your health and fitness.

Social

Using a GPS app on your phone allows you to share your runs immediately after you finish. Kinetic has the ability to post your run to Twitter, Facebook, Runkeeper or my personal favorite Dailymile. Sharing your training has the obvious benefit of making you accountable, but also has the added benefit of showing how you stack up compared to your friends. Obviously, running with a group or a friend is one of the best motivators, but when that's not possible using a service like Dailymile can be the difference between going out for that run or finding an excuse to hit snooze and sleep in.

Join Me

If you're already a runner or if I've somehow convinced you to get started, please join me on Dailymile. Maybe that extra push is just what we need.

Question Everything

2011-08-13T00:00:00-07:00

The one thing that I have learned, which has stuck with me and resurfaced throughout university, working in the corporate world, my time spent freelancing as a photographer and most recently employed as a web developer, is to question everything.

Every subject of study and profession has its best practices, trends, and general ways of going about things. Many of these ways are correct and appropriate for the majority of situations, but no methodology or practice is the best choice every and all the time. There are always exceptions, but unless you ask questions with the intent of learning the how and why of best practices, you will never learn how to tell when there is an exception or how to approach it.

Asking questions is hard. There is a certain fear associated with not knowing something and having to ask a question: for help, for advice, or just to stir the pot and start a conversation about something. I think it's a very important fear to overcome for the sake of learning and to avoid falling into patterns and habits when there could be, and likely is, a better way of doing things.

A good question leads to a good conversation, followed by more questions and conversation before a good answer will present istelf. Rarely does a single question and answer provide quality information. Effective learning is done through constant poking and proding and no aspect of life should be safe from eager investigation and tinkering.

Please, ask more questions. You'll be glad you did.

The Work is Greater Than the Tool

2011-08-09T00:00:00-07:00

It's hard not to obsess over the tools we use. New computers, phones, gadgets, and apps are released at such a rate that it's impossible to stay on top of the new tools without disrupting your workflow. Tools become a problem and a hindrance when they overtake the importance and focus of the work itself. The end result, the product, the project, the deliverables are golden.

The allure of tools is not unique to digital or even to this century, but the speed at which a new digital tool can enter the market and exert dominance is staggering. A new type of computer can now have a release cycle of a few years, a new mobile device as little as one year and a new application brought to life in a matter of months. How do you draw the line where learning a new tool or staying up to date on releases is less productive than just using the tools you already have?

I haven't figured out how to draw the line yet, but I will say this: the work is what matters. Think about your favourite musician, artist, athlete, teacher or any other professional that you respect and what made you respect them. It was undoubtedly their work, the end result of their blood, sweat and tears. I think the takeaway here is that we take interest in the tools they use in the hope that we can emulate their success. We get the thought in our head "if I have the same tools as her, I'll be able to make an incredible product too", but this is rarely the case. There's a lot more behind the work than the tools used.

I think we need to do more work, to work harder and to allow the tools to be secondary to the work. Focus on the work and the rest will evolve naturally.

Designing In Browser

2011-07-25T00:00:00-07:00

Designing for the web browser is a tricky matter. We're in a very exciting time where there are a wide array of devices used to browse the web and each one comes with its own set of characteristics and varied support for the new technologies that are emerging in the browser. This means that web designers are aiming to hit a moving target, so their approach must be flexible in order to hit that target.

Static Designs Aren't Good Enough

The standard practice for designing a website or web application has been to use a raster based graphics tool, Photoshop being the most popular choice, and create mockups or comps for the unique views or pages. This process isn't ideal, and it isn't good enough anymore. Creating static assets will set unrealistic expectations, it doesn't speak to how the web actually works and is inefficient in the amount of extra work and unnecessary files it creates.

Unrealistic Expectations

When a client, or even an internal team, views and signs off on a static graphic it sets the expectation that the end product will look identical regardless of the device or browsers used by the person viewing the website. This type of thinking and methodology is wrong. It's not how the web works and it's a waste of resources.

The careful design and craftsmanship that goes into a product should not be lost on those who use old technology, but this does not mean they will get an identical experience to those who use the latest technology. Someone who uses one of the most current browsers should have a better experience (browser rendered graphics, animations, fonts and other capabilities) than those who use a legacy browser, but both should be able to view the content and appropriately interact with it.

Browsers Aren't Static

Web browsers run on mobile devices, TVs (thanks to video game consoles), tablets, laptops and desktop computers. Many of their properties can be changed: including size, orientation and plugin support (Flash, javascript, hardware acceleration, etc). With this in mind, how can you expect a static rendered graphic to appropriately translate to a medium (the browser) that is anything but static? You can't.

Additionally, many of the techniques, filters and effects that are achievable with a program like Photoshop are not achievable in the browser. I'm a firm believer of pushing what is possible, but I think everything should be grounded in the capabilities of modern browsers.

Inefficiency

I'm quickly becoming a firm believer that the ideal way to design websites is to first sketch ideas and then immediately jump into writing markup and working directly in the browser. Static page template files end up as artifacts with no purpose once the website is actually launched and they create an unnecessary level of abstraction between what is being designed and the end product: a website.

When revisions, approvals, page variations and the various states (active, hover, selection, etc.) are designed as static graphics, a huge amount of time is lost. All of these things have an end result rooted in the browser, meaning that when they are designed outside of the scope of the browser a level of abstraction (and room for error through interpretation and assumption) is created. This can easily be eliminated by working more directly in the browser.

The Tools

Just as there are a wide range of browsers and devices, there are a wide range of tools which help make designing in browser fairly straightforward. It's never been easier to discover what other web designers and developers are doing with the web inspector in Chrome and Safari, and Firebug for Firefox. Code editors like Coda, Espresso and Textmate make it easy to write markup with smart auto-completion and syntax highlighting. The iOS simulator and other such tools for other mobile devices allow for easy testing on devices you may not own and wish to support. These are just the basics, as there are many code repositories, scripts, apps and plugins that make designing in the browser a great experience.

Conclusion

Browsers aren't perfect and you may not be ready to take the plunge from Photoshop, but I truly think the future of web design will be designing in browser. Many have already begun the transition of working in this fashion or are already there and the evidence can be seen in the quality of work and craftsmanship found in many websites and web applications reaching popular status today.

It's only the beginning of an exciting time to be a web designer.

GOODBYE CAPS LOCK

2011-07-18T00:00:00-07:00

I had to hold shift to type out the title of this entry.

I highly recommend changing the behaviour of your caps lock key and breathing some life back into it. I hope you're not the type to mash the keyboard and spew out long rants in all caps. If you are, we likely can't be friends. If you aren't, this tip is likely just for you.

On a Mac: open up your systems preferences and in the keyboard section you'll see a "Modifier Keys..." button. From there you can change its function to that of the control key via the drop-down.

On Attention

2011-07-17T00:00:00-07:00

I want your attention, but so do countless other things right at this moment. Your computer is blinking and flashing, your phone is beeping and your friends and coworkers have something important to tell you. When did we get so busy? How did our attention get so fragmented?

It's hard to comprehend how valuable of a resource our attention is and how easily we give it away. Most tasks take a large degree of focus, concentration and attention to accomplish with any amount of proficiency. So it should be no surprise that having a fragmented attention coupled with a short attention span would lead to a lower volume of work of less quality. But then, why do we applaud multitasking so much?

I think there's a fatal flaw in how we think of multitasking: that we can simultaneously accomplish multiple tasks at the same time. The flaw is in how we define these tasks as I'm confident that to accomplish a single task actually comprises of many actions and small thought processes. In essence, we are already multitasking. As we pile on more tasks our attention gets so divided that we are unable to complete any of them properly.

The solution for me has been to spend time eliminating distractions, regularly cleaning both my physical and digital workspace and putting conscious effort into focusing my attention. If I'm truly determined to complete a task, the rest will likely follow.

When to Call It a Day

2011-07-16T00:00:00-07:00

The work day, the school day, the start of a new day starts at 9am for most, but differs depending on profession. Those simply working for a pay-check will find it easy to punch out at 5pm with no regrets, but it's not that simple when you are invested in the company that pays the bills, when you truly care about the work you're putting out to the world.

Trouble arises in how you determine your output, is it hours logged on the current project or the number of deliverables and tangible work? If hours are the choice metric, again it isn't hard to clock out at 5pm like the so-called average employee. Now, if output is determined by deliverables or value contributed, the number of hours to work in a day becomes unclear. Many workplaces have employees who work well past the standard hours on a semi-regular or regular basis, I know because I've been one of them on more than one occasion. This is bad for both me and my coworkers.

Why Consistently Working Long Hours Is Bad

Working long hours is bad for me because I become less productive as I spend my otherwise free time at work. It takes time away from lateral learning, from much needed down time and being able to accurately estimate how long certain tasks and projects will take. When you find yourself working days that are consistently longer than eight hours it can be cause for burnout or longing for a vacation.

Working long hours is bad for my coworkers because it creates an implicitly guilty environment for those that don't work long hours like me. It sends the wrong message about the work environment, that long days are usual business (they're not) and that everyone should be working them.

Go Home

The simple solution to this problem is to go home on time. If you have the mindset that there is work important enough that it can't wait until tomorrow, you're doing something wrong. If the scope and expectations for the amount of work you should complete is properly defined there are rarely times when you should stay late, so don't make it a regular occurrence.

The Journal Rules

2011-07-01T00:00:00-07:00

Restrictions and constraints breed creativity, they force us to push boundaries and experiment, which we otherwise avoid as it takes great effort to do these things. This journal is an exercise in writing for me and I've decided to make it public. I think it will hold me accountable: motivate me to write more, about more topics and more freely.

Mistakes

I'm going to make a lot of mistakes, create a lot of bad writing and meander on — saying things that maybe shouldn't be said or don't make sense. I think this is okay. The main thing I need to do is the tapping of keys on a keyboard, the forming of words. If I don't write, I won't improve. And so, I'm trying to form some rules for this journal. Some rules that are loose and meant to be broken, but rules nonetheless.

Rules

I will try to follow a few simple rules that will hopefully help shape this journal:

write every day
publish something at least once a week
when in doubt, don't delete
add something whenever possible: don't just post links

It can only get better from here.