With advances in mobile scanning, a Labs member asked a good question: Should I ditch my ScanSnap?… This is a post for the Early Access and Backstage MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
Book Report: Slow Productivity
I recently read Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity. Cal Newport is one of the leading voices in productivity, particularly for knowledge workers. One of the things I like about him is that he covers a diverse array of topics, from planning your career in So Good They Can’t Ignore You to finding focus in Deep Work and now slowing down for the important stuff with Slow Productivity.
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There’s a movement afoot concerning productivity and slowing down, and it’s a good one. With the emergence of technology, we all came to the idea that we needed to do more faster, which led us into this current crisis where we’re all so busy doing the little things that we never have time to think about the big stuff. Even though this is normal to us, it is unusual in history.
In this book, Cal goes back through history and explains how, normally, people spend a lot of time thinking about important questions to come up with valuable and important answers. Sir Isaac Newton didn’t have to contend with an email inbox. In this book, Cal talks about ways to bring us back to those roots where we can focus on the big things and a lot less on the small things.
This has been an overall trend for me as well. So much so that one of the video lessons in the Productivity Field Guide is called You Have To Do Less. This is straightforward advice to give and hard advice to accept.
In this book, Cal gives some great examples of practical ways to turn slow productivity into a reality. The book is entirely digestible at 220 pages and full of good ideas for exploration. As a complete aside, I will note that of all of Cal’s books, this one has the best cover.
My Current Infatuation with Whisper-based Transcription
I am continuing to really enjoy my Whisper Memos workflow. I think over the years working with text-to-speech dictation, I forgot how nice it is to have dictation where you don’t have to follow along with the words that get typed while you speak.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
Mac Power Users 739: Checking in on Freeform
On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I revisit Freeform and discuss how it has improved since its launch and what Apple could do next with the application. We also share how we use the app and how it shines in visionOS.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
Upcoming Events in the MacSparky Labs
Get ready for the following events: Our monthly meetups for May and June.… This is a post for the Early Access and Backstage MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
Upcoming Events in the MacSparky Labs
Here’s a list of the next several live events happening in the MacSparky Labs.… This is a post for the Early Access MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
Automators 151: OmniVision with Ken Case
Ken Case joins Rosemary and me on this episode of Automators to talk about automating all the things from the OmniGroup, including OmniFocus on Apple Vision Pro.
This episode of Automators is sponsored by:
- LinkedIn Jobs: Find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free today.
- ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get an extra three months free.
The Apple Jonathan
I enjoyed this story by Stephen Hackett on Apple’s unrealized modular computer project, “Jonathan”, from the 1980s. I remember when the idea of a modular computer was in vogue. It makes sense. Everything back then was super expensive and letting users construct their hardware by plugging the right pieces together was a popular dream. The first time I saw this go to market was with the truly dreadful Timex Sinclair.
However, I have no recollection of modular computing ever actually working. I can imagine a lot of reasons for this. Getting hardware to work in a modular fashion has never been easy, and available ports back then were slow. Instead, the market for this sort of thing drifted into build-your-own PC, which doesn’t surprise me. The only people interested in this were nerds and there was nothing nerdier than building your own PC.
The Lab Report for April 5, 2024
It’s time for the Lab Report, covering this week’s Apple news, rumors, and more… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
Clockwise Podcast Guest Appearance
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This week, I appeared on the Clockwise podcast, where they cover four tech topics in under thirty minutes. My journaling topic barely qualified as a tech topic, but they let me in anyway.