![all creatures [great and small] by allcreatures](http://24.media.tumblr.com/avatar_827f13ebf9f5_40.gif){kind=avatar}
Save yourselves; there’s no hope for me.
Yet another article bashing technological addiction at the cost of nature:
It’s not just ponds being steamrollered for industry, but gazing itself being lost to Twitter. The attention span involved in formulating a menagerie out of cloud shapes in the sky while lax on one’s back in the grass has been eclipsed by what’s interesting on-screen 20 inches away, and conscientious parents will troop their youngster to a planetarium, as to the dinosaur hall next door.
I tend to believe that these incredible technologies continue to liberate us from the prison of biology, to become more aware of our surroundings. Digital tools make me want to explore the world more and share my experiences, not less.
De-cluttering to complete more work
Imperfect conditions get in the way of work. But clutter is a paradoxical excuse: You might spend more time cleaning up your environment than putting in the work.
Loose papers, a stapler, a dangling family photo: these are the little things that distract you. However untidy your desk space may be the whole point of sitting down is to produce good work.
Here’s an image of Steve Jobs and his untidy desk at home.
This is the same guy that 20 years earlier couldn’t find the perfect sofa so chose emptiness instead.
Perfection can be a creativity killer. Now, it’s the digital squalor of folders on our computer desktops that drive us nuts. The digital world is manifestation of the physical world.
Perfect working conditions are a myth. There’s always going to be another paper or digital folder you want to rename, recolor, downsize.
Like stress, the best you can do is to manage clutter and get on with producing. Clutter is ultimately a sign of productivity.
You should be more worried if your space is too satisfactory. Your desk is a check on your work’s progress; the cleaner it is, the closer you’re to shipping the final product.
You can look at Smart data and give the appearance that you’re looking at someone in the eye with Project Glass.
Google killed the only legitimate RSS service that would’ve synch perfectly with Keep.
Just another Google attempt to woo us into using Google+.
“Sorry Google; you can Keep it to yourself”
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I remember sitting with Morozov at Stanford in March of last year, when he told me that his goal for the work was to destroy the concept of “the Internet” in the way that historians of science had destroyed the concept of “science.”
Alexi Madrigal’s brilliant review of Evgeny Morozov’s new book To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism.
An impossible feat in today’s age.
How do you recreate the store experience or at least, make it more convenient than Amazon?
It’s all the same conversation wherever you are, whatever device you’re using. However, I would say some devices are more convenient than others. I favor Tweetbot on my PC over my mobile devices simply because it’s faster to go through the feed and easier to respond.
Reacting Against Modernity? Wait.
Those that intentionally resist change sometimes end up going too backward, making them inefficient and even more stressed.
As creators, we need to balance use of both contemporary and old school tools. To focus on one over the other puts you at a severe disadvantage.
If you work with just pens and paper, you may struggle envisioning the end product. If you use the computer only, you’ll miss out on connecting the dots between diverse parts. Drawing ideas out helps facilitate and organize thinking. The computer packages concepts and makes them feel real.
Always brainstorm on paper first if you can. This is the moment you need speed and imperfection, matching up the speed of your thoughts with your hand. The computer is more for output. As soon as you have a sketch, you’ll finally be able to synthesize it on the computer and give it a digital reality.
The right mix of digital and analog tools makes you more productive and more creative.
TV and the “Second Screen”
The smartphone/tablet is commonly known as the Second screen.
But what’s actually happening is the reverse. People are merely listening to the TV and picking their heads up to catch the biggest moments. The majority of programming therefore is just noise.
We give our companion devices more attention. We can Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, blog, YouTube, and read a book all at the same time. It’s truly a multi-media, content-shifting experience.
TV and devices aren’t even fungible. We’re so hyper-connected that our devices act like second brains. We’re never bored and certainly over-entertained.
The shift from TV consumption to online participation is only growing more rapidly. Unless the TV becomes smart, it’s going to become unnecessary like the landline phone.
You might feel great when you reach Inbox Zero, but, believe me, it feels even better to reach Reader Zero: to scroll and scan until you’ve seen it all.
Google reader is my virtual, real-time newspaper. Twitter just put a person behind the feed. There’s still tons of awesome information out there that Twitter doesn’t always catch.
Google Reader = Depth
Twitter = Headlines
“The CNN Effect”
CNN started 24/7 news coverage in the 1980s, what is now known as “the CNN effect.” The inundation of news made CNN difficult to follow.
Before the Internet, people were at the mercy of programming. You couldn’t pick the stories you wanted to follow.
While we can control the news we want to hear about today through Twitter and RSS feeds, the explosion of content makes it even harder to catch what we want to hear about.
Content overflow can turn a person off completely. As a result, a majority of the people just wait for the top stories to bubble up. If the news is big enough, they’ll hear about it.
The way people consume news today is rather lazy, as witnessed by the fact that no one knows or cares to know what RSS is. Despite the advancement in curation technology, still very few know how to use it most effectively.
Today’s content is overflowing much faster than 24/7 CNN. Unnecessary stories are emerging; witness all the fascination with cats.
Define specifically what you want to hear about and dig into those stories so you can make them pertinent to your world. Connect the dots between your resources and your work. The rest of the news will take care of itself.
“A second spring of cleaning:”
We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.
Yes, RSS is dead to the majority and “the best” reads get tweeted out anyway but some of us still use Google Reader to capture and organize all the noise on the Internet.
