Sometimes tools matter

I have a graveyard of keyboards in my closet.

Since Apple made the disastrous goal of prioritizing thinness over usability for their keyboards, I’ve been hunting for a keyboard that was a pleasure to use.

My favorite for a while was the “Laptop Pro” by Matias, a clone of Apple’s Extended Keyboard II. It had a satisfyingly quiet click and was a breeze to type with.

Unbeknownst to me, the hardwired battery has issues, and mine died after 6-months. When I reached out to Matias, they essentially replied, “Sorry, you’re shit out of luck.” I decided not to buy another one from them.

I eventually settled on a wired Keychron Q1 with knob (fully assembled shell white with Gateron G Pro Red linear keys.) I’m confident I’ve found my holy grail.

Here’s what I love about Q1:

1. It’s wired! No more worry about the keyboard being charged or completely dying on me beyond repair.

2. Its heavy Matias keyboards have plastic bodies and always shifted around on my desk when typing. The Q1 weighs in at 1828 grams (4 lbs!) That’s almost 2x the weight of my Macbook Air (1273 grams, or 2.8 lbs.) 
   
   I never knew how much I enjoyed the stability until typing on a heavy dumbbell of a keyboard.

3. It comes in white! This keyboard does have an annoying LED lights feature (which thankfully you can turn of) The big appeal to me was that it just looks like a simple keyboard, not something out of a 20-year old streamers gaming room.

4. The keys are buttery smooth and QUIET I went with the Gateron G Pro red linear switches, which are famous for their quietness. 
   
   Mechanical keyboard reviews often focus on programmers and gamers. Sure, you could argue programming is basically writing, but the things they tended to focus on didn’t speak to me. My guess is that many of these programmers were also gamers and needed something that allowed them to mash keys for gaming. 
   
   That’s not me. I wanted something that was a pleasure to use and inspired me to do deep, creative work. 
   
   Despite the quiet switches, the keys have a satisfying “thock” (as it’s affectionately known). I can only compare the sound of typing to the shutter click of a camera or the snap of a typewriter.
   
   If you are primarily a writer, go with Gateron G Pro Red linear switches. 
   
   They have a learning curve, as it can feel a bit sensitive in the beginning. But I found myself naturally hovering over the keys after a week, and my typing became much smoother and faster. 

Shaped by the algorithm

I started using Feeder.co to read blogs, and it’s giving me so many great memories of late web 1.0/early web 2.0.

Right now I’m mostly reading personal blogs, like those by Austin Kleon and Derek Sivers. Both have very early web 2.0 vibes to them — personal, covering a wide range of topics, without any regard to SEO.

“Shaped by the algorithm” is a term used to describe the sameness we see with a lot of content on the web and social media these days.

A type of content gets a lot of views, likes, and clicks.

Algorithms recognize this and promote it.

More people see it and decide to create similar content because it gets more views, likes, and clicks. (This concept is also why Marvel movies all look and feel the same.)

This sucks for creativity and discovery.

For creators, I think it’s a good time to start thinking/living/creating outside of algorithms.

Easy mode

“Exoneration” was one of my favorite takeaways from Phil Stut’z book “The Tools.”

As Phil put it:

There’s a tremendous desire in our culture to be exonerated. We think we can reach a point where we’re famous or rich enough to not have to work on ourselves anymore and everything will be perfect. This is an insane joke. There are three laws of the universe: there will always be pain; there will always be uncertainty; and life will always require effort. Anybody that says you can be exonerated from these laws is lying.

It reminded me a lot of something I used as a kid called “The Gameshark.” (A successor to the 8/16-bit era Game Genie.)

It was a device you would plug into your Playstation that would allow you to “hack” any game with cheat codes.

Hate running out of bullets? Give yourself unlimited ammo!

Stuck on a level? Skip to the end!

Tired of dying? Now you have infinite health.

I wanted exoneration from the struggle of the game.

But after a few weeks, The Game Shark started collecting dust.

It turns out making video games extremely easy also made them extremely boring.

Funny, isn’t it?

On avoiding the algorithm

I've been using social media again after a break and it reminded me of this quote:

“Some poor, phoneless fool is probably sitting next to a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he's supposed to be.” - Duncan Trussell

Pick your hard

You can rent a huge house in Ohio for the cost of a NYC studio. (But then you’d miss out on exhibits at The MET, the best shopping in the world, diverse people cooking diverse food, bodegas, and bodega cats, among a few things.)

Marriages are challenging. But so is being single and constantly going on first dates. 

A lot of my friends complain about their jobs while I tell them “Having a job is so much easier than running your own business.”

The truth is, everything is hard. 

The trick is finding the hard you’re willing to put up with.

Customization is for Starbucks

I hit a milestone this week.

I started working with my 100th client.

Over the span of 7 years and 100 clients, the most challenging ones, the ones I had to “fire”, always pushed for special treatment.

They wanted services I don’t offer.

Schedule meetings on days I normally don’t do.

Messaging me at all hours of the day.

Asking for help after our time expired.

I made the mistake of accommodating them under the pretense of good service.

Ironically the quality of my service suffered because I was straying from my process.

Service based businesses have to remember that you are the expert. You know what’s truly going to help your client. If the customer knew what they needed to make change, then they wouldn’t need your help.

Exceptions to your process means one of two things.

Your process is wrong, or the client is wrong for your process. More often than not it’s the latter.

There’s a reason you can’t go into a Michelin star restaurant and order something completely custom. Sure, they’ll accommodate a food allergy or dietary restriction, but your only option is what’s on the menu.

And that trust and respect of the experts process is what creates world class work.

Leave customization to Starbucks.

Chaos

Testing out the new scanner

I always love seeing artist sketchbook scans, so I decided to pick a scanner up. I went with the Canon LiDE 300, Wirecutter’s pick. Snagged a really good deal on ebay for about $35!

These are some scans from my Will Weston’s Drawing lecture (highly recommended, btw!) notes. A bit too big to get a nice flatlay of a XL (7.5” x 9.75”) Moleskine, but great for the classic L (5”x8”) size.

Also used my label maker to remember which way to lay scans and reduce the amount of post-rotating I need to do.

Nothing really changes

My wife and I recently visited The Morgan Library and Museum and stumbled on an exhibit on the making of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

I’ve never read the book, but found the exhibit a fascinating reminder on how very little things change.

Piracy was still annoying

Ulysses was banned from publication in the U.S. until 1934. “Bookleggers” started printing edited excerpts of the book in the 20s.

Joyce couldn’t go after people illegally printing censored copies of Ulysses as it was technically banned, making it ineligible for copyright protection.

Joyce sent out a petition, signed by some big names like Albert Einstein, Hemingway, and Virginia Woolf, protesting bookleggers like Samuel Roth. In response, Samuel Roth pirated and sold the entire novel! (Dick!)

Virginia Woolf didn’t get the hype at first

Speaking of Virginia Woolf, her diary was on display, open to a very specific entry.

The plaque reads:

“Wolf's diary entry, which begins, "I should be reading Ulysses' and fabricating my case for and against," conveys a mix of emotions and opinions about the novel's first two hundred pages. Stimulated and amused by early episodes, Woolf is ultimately repulsed by its graphic passages. Shocked that "great Tom" (T. S. Eliot) rates it on a par with Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Woolf calls Ulysses an "underbred" novel by an egoistic "self-taught working man."

Rich people were still pretty cheap

This was by far my favorite little tidbit of the exhibit.

J.P. Morgan’s Ulysses order receipt from the famous Shakespear & Co bookstore of Paris.

3 copies were available:

1. A signed copy with crafted with handmade dutch paper

2. An unsigned copy made with vergé d’arches (a heavy watercolor paper)

3. A regular basic copy

My wife pointed out how funny it was that the great book collector and billionaire J.P. Morgan ordered the cheapest option.

It’s not a smartphone. It’s a pocket computer.

For the last 6 months my iPhone stopped holding a full charge like it used to. It got to the point where I couldn’t make it past lunch without needing to plug my phone in.

After backing up my phone, I dropped off my iPhone at the Apple store for repairs.

Unfortunately, after bringing my repaired phone home, I realized I didn’t properly back it up. While my photos and contacts were (thankfully) floating around the cloud, I lost all my apps and settings.

And it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me.

The Curse of Convenience

Like many people these days, I have a love-hate relationship with my smartphone. I’m by no means an anti-tech. I remember the days where you had to print out directions from Mapquest and prayed they were correct. But I recognize how much of a distraction our phones can be.

Can’t remember where you remember that one actor from? Whip out your smartphone and look it up!

Bored of the book you brought to the coffee shop? Whip out your phone and see what your friends are up to on Instagram.

Nice dinner date with my wife at a new restaurant? I have to document this for the gram.

Earlier this summer, I decided to give myself a month-long break. After working 7 years on my business, often 7 days a week, I felt burnt out. I wanted to take the time to free myself of anything I’d found distracting. The big one is social media.

Having my phone wiped the same week as my break was a sign from the universe.

The Joy of a Dumb Smartphone

Since the great phone blip, I find my phone to be pretty damn boring.

I log my morning weigh-in. Check the weather. Read some local news. Read some emails (through a browser!)

And that’s it.

In fact, according to Apple’s screen time tracker, I went from using my phone an average of 6 hours to a day pre-wipe to 1.5.

I only downloaded apps I deemed “essential.” How did I determine this?

Whenever I found myself out in a situation where I absolutely needed an app, I would download it. For example, I re-downloaded Uber after needing a ride home from a doctor’s appointment.

I can still listen to Spotify during my commute, pull up Google Maps when I’m lost, or take a pic of my wife and me on date night. But I no longer find my phone to be this object that I feel shackled to and guilty of using.

It’s helpful to stop thinking of my phone as a smartphone, but rather a pocket computer.

Can you imagine having a nice dinner with a friend, having them pull out their laptop to check a message, and mindlessly scroll through Twitter and Instagram at the table? All while assuring you that they’re listening?

That would be rude (and odd), wouldn’t it? Yet a lot of us do this without realizing it with our phones.

It’s going to take some effort to continue this, but so far my anxiety around using my phone has almost disappeared.