Category: post

Kindness. It is amazingly simple to practice. It avoids so much suffering. Yet I’ve seen so little of it as of late. Especially surprising given the season.

If Justine Sacco had practiced kindness, would she have been more mindful of how hurtful her words may be? If those who read those words had practiced kindness in their response, would she have lost her job or had the opportunity to learn and, thus, be even better at it?

If those on the Angry Mac Bastards podcast had practiced kindness in their constructive criticism of Aaron Vegh’s webpage, would he have had the opportunity to make it better? If the response from Aaron and others who took umbrage would have been that of kindness, would there have been opportunity for all to understand a way to communicate disagreements better?

These are just two recent and raw examples of cases where I really think that kindness and compassion displayed by either side would have helped. Instead, we have people who have lost their jobs or felt forced to shutter something they enjoyed. And, the hurt feelings, anger, and feeling of having been attacked remain on all sides.

And, here’s a little secret I’m going to tell you — kindness in the face of an adversary immediately gives you, the kind practitioner, the upper hand. It often throws those gripped by anger off balance. It often diffuses the tension. It puts one in a position of power to effect positive change. And, even if it fails to do any of those things, it garners the support of those viewing from the outside. Who can fault the person who tried to bring kindness, compassion, and understanding into a bad situation? Who can fault the person who stands with peace in opposition to aggression? Who really has the moral power and respect of others — one who takes up arms against another or one who lays theirs down in response?

I would argue that it is my practice of kindness in such situations that gives me the most power. So, instead of being disheartened by the lack of it I have witnessed lately, I’m encouraged to practice kindness even more. I invite you to do the same.

Yesterday, in conversation with a close friend about the nature of holidays and our relationships to them, we decided to create one of our own.

Journal Day.

lt will fall on December 9th each year. The idea is to celebrate the practice of journaling.

There are many ways to celebrate or traditions one could keep to mark the day. For instance, this might be the day to take out previous journals and reflect on where you were then versus where you are today. Another tradition may be to let someone you trust read one you have kept and get to know the “real” you. Perhaps gift one to another person in your life who practices or you feel could benefit from doing so. Or, maybe, be so bold as to spend a year keeping a journal for someone else in your life whom you love and spend your days with — write down their day as you saw it or the things you were thinking about them at that time. How wonderful a gift would it be to allow someone close to "see" themselves and their year through your eyes?

I think you get the general idea. I would love to see others expand upon it. Let’s make a deal: On or before next December 9th shoot me a note and let me know how you are celebrating Journal Day. I’d love the opportunity to consider making your Journal Day tradition one of mine.

Further accounting of my travels through the vast ether. Reporting things of wonder you must see with your own eyes to truly be believed… Or something like that…

My friend Mike Rohde is celebrating the one year anniversary of the publication of his excellent Sketchnote Handbook with a giveaway of a whole bunch of stuff (including my book, enough).

Speaking of books, if you are a lover of libraries, bookshelves, and other things of a bookish nature, this borders on pornography.

Of course, you will need some light to read all of those books with. Why not use a portable, stylish, take-anywhere lamp that unfolds like a book.

While not a full book, an unreleased collection of J.D. Salinger short stories, including An Ocean Full Of Bowling Balls, which is obliquely related to The Catcher In The Rye, was recently leaked. As a huge Salinger fan, and one who is respectful of the late author’s wishes for privacy and secrecy, I will neither confirm nor deny that I immediately downloaded it from one of the many outlets it is now easily found. But I will tell you that Ocean is a very satisfying nugget of Caufield wonder.

Kindling Quarterly is a literary journal that explores fatherhood. I have recently discovered a love for such journals. I have read severaI. This one is very high on my Christmas wish list.

Finally, a reminder: You have now. It’s all you’ll ever have.

I’m suffering from a horrible cold virus. My third or fourth in as many weeks (I’ve lost count). My thinking, during such times, is both hazy and exausting. Therefore, please accept some of these brief and imperfect ideas that warrant more expounding than I have the energy for right now.

• We all write our own eulogies. We write them with the way we live in each moment. By our acts of kindness or the things we do that delight others. Those things that make an impression on those closest to us. For, if we were to pass tomorrow, it is these things they will stand in front of others to share and remember.

• Those that claim to have no choice always do. What they don’t have is a choice they want. And those that are doing something they don’t want because they feel they have no choice have, in fact, chosen.

• There is no such thing as good debt. No matter how many financial advisors will tell you otherwise. I wish I had learned this before the age of 35. For instance, believing that a mortgage that was less than the value of the home was an investment — "good debt". Or, that a student loan is somehow good debt because it sets you up for the possibility of higher pay or a better career (when the first 10-20 years of said job is spent paying back that debt). Does no one do the math and figure out the only ones making money from this equation are the people that write the paychecks and the people who service the debt? I think if the past several years have revealed anything it is this fundemental fact and the lies that prop it up.

• On every task list should exist the following: One thing that makes your life better. One thing that makes the life of someone else better.

• The more complex your tool, the more likely it is to fail you in some way eventually. And, said failure likelihood will scale in parallel to the added complexity. And, because one’s expectations for said tool also scale in the same parallel, the disappointment from the failure is compounded.

• People who love what they do for a living don’t ever dream of retirement — early or otherwise. Why wait to start the life you want when you can build it now? And, those that call bullshit on this are either a) happy and don’t want others to be so they can feel even more superior or b) as unhappy as the rest and looking for people to share in their sorrow. The truth is that you build the life you wish to have by the choices you make and, if you build a life that makes you happy, you can do it until you die.

• This guy gets up and does the work he loves every morning. So, your excuses are invalid.

I really like the looks of the new Doxie Flip scanner. My friend Mike Rohde posted a great review and video of it in action. That said, I’ve been using TurboScan for iPhone for a couple of years now to use the camera for essentially the same thing for a couple of years now. It’s not the prettiest app out there but it works really well and gets the job done.

With the recent end of the Enough Podcast, it was really nice of Robert Wall of Untitled Minimalism to put together an archive and torrent of all 225 episodes and make it publicly available. I’m seeding it as are many others. Grab it and listen to any you have missed

Designer and consultant Josh Gross exploring a really interesting idea he’s calling One Hour: "I’m making myself available for consulting one hour at a time, starting at $1. Each time someone purchases an hour, the price goes up $1."

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym under which J.K. Rowling wrote the book, is one of the finest whodunits I have ever read. I was engaged and locked in pretty much as soon as I started it. She has an amazing ability to sketch characters quickly and such confidence in her subject matter that you might swear she has written a hundred of these before. In fact, I would argue that the writing here is stronger than many of her Harry Potter books. Highly recommended.

Speaking of books, I’m really excited for Kevin Kelly’s Catalog of Possibilities: Cool Tools. As a fellow fan of the late, great, Whole Earth Catalog and a long time reader of his Cool Tools site, I can’t imagine not having such a valuable resource in my arsenal.

C.J. Chilvers reminds us of the many reasons why paper still matters. My favorite: "The benefits of holding your work in your hand is a pleasure digital workers are too often deprived of."

Mike Vardy reminds us of how much we can get done in only 7 minutes. Try sitting and doing absolutely nothing for even 5 minutes and see how long it feels when you are not regularly accustomed to doing so. I think we would all do a bit better if we had a better sense of the passage of time and the ways we can choose to fill it.

Finally, I really, really, enjoyed this piece by Jack Cheng on living for a time in a yurt and the insight it gives on the many lives we live.

Today marks the ten year anniversary of this site. The very first post in the archives is from November 7, 2003. Not sure that I have anything remarkable to reflect on this occasion other than to say that success for a writer is most often measured in years. I plan to be making a similar post ten years from now marking the 20th.

I want to thank anyone and everyone who has visited the work I do here. For a writer, to know that even one person reads and enjoys ones work is a gift. Several, are a blessing. And, the fact that many have reached out over the years to say that something I wrote touched them in a way that made real positive change is, well, a miracle to me. I’m humbled by it each and every time it happens.

As I scanned through the archives, here are just a few posts that jumped out at me — with a particular focus on ones that might not be as well known…

On a steel horse I ride… — Where I reveal my not-to-secret love of 80’s arena rock and hair bands. Especially, Bon Jovi.

Taking Note — Where you can see the firs beginnings of what became the Dash/Plus System.

She Said “Yes”!!! — The short and long story of my proposal to Bethany.

Analog RSS — I had forgotten that I actually created a Instapaper like system but for actual paper magazines. I might have to revive this practice.

Value — In 2008 I broke the hard fact to you that money has no value. It is a construct for the determination of worth based on trust and mutual agreement.

Thoughts on “The Pleasures of Uninterrupted Communication” (and managing expectations) — Some thoughts on email overload and how to manage it at work (and elsewhere) by setting proper expectations.

Eat Well — Change your food, change your life.

This is not a year end post… — Don’t focus on the things you hope to do or the things you have done. Instead, focus on what you can do today — right now — to make your life a little bit better. Do this enough and it adds up to real change.

Permanently Impermanent — A reminder that all of this will one day disappear. And that is by design.

It’s always about the princess… — In my house at least.

Clean Kitchen — A lesson about productivity and procrastination gleaned through the lens of my Great Grandmother’s perpetually clean kitchen.

Other Side Of The Lens — A reminder from this family photographer to the rest to turn the camera around every once and awhile (and, yes, selfies count).

Lots Of Great Videos Edition

Further linkage and commentary of things that have crossed my path that are worth sharing. This one is a whole bunch of videos that I thought were worth the time…

The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.
My friend Desarae pointed me to this really well done video or two design students from Sweden, Anna and Terese, who have created an invisible bike helmet. I won’t spoil how it works but I really think this could be a game changer in it’s space.

The Encounter Collection from Process Creative on Vimeo.
My friends Michael Schechter, by way of our mutual friend Brett Kelly, pointed me to this video narrative of a father passing down words of wisdom to his young son. If you have been following here for any length of time you should understand why this appeals deeply to me.

Salomon Running TV – Season 3 Trailer from The African Attachment on Vimeo.
My friend Brian Van Peski points us to the trailer for Salomon Running TV — Season 3. As he said, “Love running or just great filmmaking? Check out Solomon’s trail running series on YouTube and find yourself some inspiration to get into the woods.”. Indeed.

Justin Boyd: Sound and Time from Walley Films on Vimeo.
And, I absolutely loved this video of Justin Boyd, educator and artist, about how he channeled a childhood sensitivity to sound into a passion for creating with it. A reminder that there is music all around us. If only we stopped long enough to listen to it.
I hope you enjoy them all.

Today I’m launching a new subscription-based newsletter called This Could Help. I really think this could help you in some way. A way that will be useful, and valuable, and meaningful. Sign up today for only $5.00 a month. If you’d like to know more, you can read a bit about it here.

For the story on how it came to be, please read on…

It started, as many things do these days, with a simple post to a social network:

You see, I used to have a subscription based newsletter called Reflections that I really enjoyed doing. It not only helped me share sneak peeks and get feedback as I was writing my book, enough, but it also was a place where I felt obligated to deliver the most value to my readers. After all, they were paying me a small monthly fee for exactly that. Whenever money changes hands, no matter the amount, the obligation becomes higher. Even to this day, I feel like I can look back on that effort and be proud of both the work I did there and feel like my patrons saw the value too. I delivered.

Then Letter.ly, the service I was using to run the business and delivery end of the newsletter, abruptly shut down with very short notice. And, while there are certainly other services out there that I could have used, none were as easy to use — for either the publisher or subscriber. And, switching to something else meant a hassle for my patrons. So, I made the decision to end the newsletter completely. Not only was this an end to a way for people who value my work to support it directly, it was an end to work that they told me really helped them. It was heart breaking but seemed best at the time.

But I never forgot.

I would, occasionally, lament its closing and the lack of appropriate service to replace it. I did this hoping that someone, somewhere, would either point me to some other service I was not yet aware of or decide to build something like it themselves.

Well, just seven days ago, my friend Andy Parkinson answered that challenge. the new service is called HappyLetter and it’s perfect (at least for me and likely for others too). It does what no other newsletter service seems to do. It allows publishers to quickly set up, price, and launch a subscription-based newsletter. It allows subscribers to sign up easily and get billed monthly for that newsletter. It makes delivering that newsletter to those subscribers as easy as sending an email. It handles the business so the publisher can focus on delivering their best work and get paid for it. And, he built it all in a week and live blogged the whole process so that others could see and learn from the work.

I helped a fair bit with feedback during the development process but to go from nothing to private beta launch in only a week is an amazing feat that deserves a look all by itself. There is a lot there to learn about the choices one must make when building any web based service. It makes one wish all developers were so transparent about their choices.

So, here the plan. My new newsletter is called This Could Help. It is where I plan to deliver my best work. You cansign up today for only $5.00 a month. I will publish as frequently as I feel it is helpful (but will aim for at least once a week). My work here and in other places will become less frequent and often be an extension or replication of the work I am first doing there. Some of the work I do there will be part of the work I’m doing for my next book. My patrons there will get early access and opportunity to participate with feedback on that book. They also will get a free eBook copy of whatever future books I release as well as other rewards I can conjure up. They also will get priority attention from me via email. After all, money is being exchanged. The stakes and obligations are thus higher.

As always, I remain very appreciative of anyone who reads any of my work, paying or not. After all, as writers we are simply happy to be read. Anything else is a tremendous bonus. Thank you so much for being here and making me happy.

Of course, if you feel my work here has helped you, yet you do not wish to subscribe to the newsletter, you can support my work by a free will contribution of any amount. It is very much appreciated.

We plan our days. We set alarms to wake us, then hit the snooze. We show up to the job, then punch the clock. We make lists, then cross things off. We plan the work, then work the plan. We block out times on the calendar, then make the appointments. We look at the time, then punch out at the job. We pick up the kids, then get them to practice. We make the dinner, then get to the homework. We set the alarm, then turn out the light.
Even our vacations are driven by plans and itineraries. We get to the airport at one time so we can make the plane by another. We go to the city to see the sights or visit the person or do the thing.
But are any of these things the things we remember? Are these the things that stick with us or, ultimately, have meaning?
Or, is it the surprises? Is it the things that are not a part of the plan?
The day when the alarm did not go off and you did not wake on time. Or the meeting was cancelled and you now have an unexpected hour fully in your control. The day the kid got a broken arm at practice. Or the night you stayed up way past when you should have, talking and laughing with your partner. A night so fun you forget to set your alarm…
And what stands out from that last vacation? Was it making the plane on time or the one you missed? Was it making good drive time to the destination or getting lost? Is it that visit to the monument or that dance that seemingly broke out of nowhere in the middle of the square? Or that amazing meal you had in the cafe the local told you about that is not listed in some book?
My point being that the things that stay with us most are the things that are not part of the plan. Therefore, perhaps, we should leave as much room as possible for surprise. Plan the work, but leave space for the unplanned.

Lots of stuff on my radar screen worth sharing…

If you have not seen the video of Mike Monterio’s barnburner of a speech How Designers Destroyed the World yet, you owe it to yourself to watch it. It is, perhaps, one of the most inspiring speeches about the power of design (and all creative work, really) to fundamentally change the world — and the responsibility that comes with this fact. Seriously, stop reading this and click that link right now.

Then, watch this video of Malala Yousafzai on the Daily show, the sixteen year old who was shot in the head by the Taliban for her fight to bring education to girls in Pakistan, give one of the most compelling argument for non-violence I’ve ever heard. So beautiful and wise coming from such a young person. Had me in tears.

Now that you have the inspiration you need, put some perspective on taking action at Live Consciously. Put in your birthdate and it will tell you how many months you have left to live your dreams (as well as to 50, 55, and 60 years old). There is also an option to receive this as an email reminder you can then get delivered into your inbox monthly. Life ends. Don’t wait to begin it.

I’ve really been enjoying reading with my little girl lately. The school she attends has a high focus on reading and, even in kindergarden, reading a book from the school library each night is part of her homework. Last night, we started reading Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman and Skottie Young. She enjoyed it so much she requested reading more of it this morning before heading off into her day. I’m enjoying it so much I gladly obliged. Smart, funny, and heartfelt. A fine addition to Neil’s growing canon.

I get lots of pitches in my inbox that are nice but, for one reason or another, don’t quite fit anywhere. Like…

These nice looking Leather Crochet Touchscreen Gloves by Mujjo.

… and Musio, a nice looking minimalist music player for iPhone.

That’s all for now. To the cloud!