Category: post

One of the things I have always liked about successful people and companies, is that they are often successful by doing everything the others say is wrong.

Let’s take a look at an example. Hmm… Let’s see… How about Apple, for instance. Shall we?

When everyone else in the tech industry was cutting research because the economy was on a downward slope, Apple increased it and released things:

A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of [customers], they would continue to open their wallets. – Steve Jobs in Business Week, 2003

When other companies are laying off their employees to cut costs, Apple does everything it can to hold onto theirs:

We’ve had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren’t going to lay off people, that we’d taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place — the last thing we were going to do is lay them off. – Steve Jobs in Fortune, 2008

Instead of making over a hundred computer models in several different lines in order to meet every need and price point, they make a few great ones and continue to post record profits with enough cash on hand to buy the one making hundreds outright if they wanted to and still have spare change.

My point being is that sometimes, if you want quality, you have to ignore everything the others tell you you need – or need to do. In fact, it usually means you should do the opposite. Be a skeptic. Be suspect of every application or gadget or idea – especially when the exchange of money or time is involved (and if you don’t think the two are intimately inseparable then you do not value either enough). Even be suspect of this one I’m presenting here. I don’t claim to know all of the answers. Simplicity is a journey, not a destination. I’m on a journey here just like you.

What I do know is that when I look at the people, ideas and companies that impress me, they’re doing it wrong. And if that’s the case, I don’t wanna be right.

It was not until recently that I realized something about my workflow. Please forgive me if this is all “Big Duh!” to you. I have a document escalation path. – a definitive point of creation for the most basic needs and a progression of steps for when the item outgrows those needs. My flow generally goes something like this (links to other posts here where appropriate):

• TextEdit – All writing on my Mac begins here. I have it set to default to plain text, 90 characters x 50 lines, Menlo for my font (after a long flirtation with Droid Sans). If longtime readers here have not caught on yet, I am a big fan and think this is one of the most underrated programs on the Mac. This can do the job I need to get the words down on a blank space. If I need to do more than that then the escalation path continues to…
• TextMate – If I need to do some markup to the content, for instance, to publish to the web, then this is the next stop. I usually format in Markdown and then use the convert to html tool from there.
• Bean – If I need to format into Rich Text for print or PDF, here is where I turn. I’ve discussed Bean here before and it had a few added and very useful features for RTF creating that do not exist in TextEdit. These include full screen mode and word and character count.
• Pages – If I really need to do some advanced word processing, including style management, headers and footers, inserting images, etc. I use Pages. That said, I rarely have to do so because the options above are enough for me. That said, as word processors go, and despite it’s shortcomings, I really think it is the most elegant word processor available today. I have created some stunningly beautiful work with it.

Today marks eight years since the iPod was introduced.

There were a ton of other MP3 players that were available when the iPod was introduced. They were all crap. The interfaces were like trying to run a three legged race over an obstacle course while blindfolded. Every one of them had ideas about “music management” that seemed to be taken from the pre-industrial age. When the iPod was introduced. Many people derided it.  Only 5 Gigs? Firewire? Who would use such a thing? A scroll wheel? What’s up with that?

Let me take a moment to veer off into a little personal story…

When I was growing up, my Grandmother set every clock in the house ahead, all by some random time. She did this to combat a long held stereotype that Black people are always late (People even referred to it as CP Time – Colored People Time). You see, being Black and being in the south meant that it was not enough to be equal to be given the respect as a human being you deserved – You had to be better because the very color of your skin put you that much further behind from the start. Therefore, it was not enough to show up on time – You had to be early. In other words, she changed the game of time itself by writing the rules to fit her condition. Because you never knew how fast any given clock was, you could not calculate for the difference. Therefore, you always showed up early.

Apple did not invent the digital music player. They changed it. For them, it was not enough to be equal to all the rest – It had to be a whole lot better. It had to be better on every level – design, integration, speed of loading music (hence the reason for Firewire over USB 1.0). By being so much better, they changed the game, thus forcing others to play by their rules.

It’s amazing how far we’ve come in such a relatively short period of time.

I keep secrets. I think most of us do. It’s an interesting paradox in this increasingly connected twitter-facebook-blogging-here-is-what-was-in-my-breakfast world. Turns out there is a whole world of private writing that is going on all around us by people we know. There have always been many that keep a paper diary or journal. What I’m fascinated by is all the various methods being employed, especially the traditionally public digital tools, that now allow this kind of private or semi-private confession.

I recently became a little obsessed with this topic and put out a call to folks I know to ask them the hows and whys behind the private blogs and accounts they keep. I’ve asked if I could post their answers here, with the promise of anonymity. I’ve done all I can to strip out any identifiable information. Therefore, some of the wording has changed from the originals provided. Without further ado…

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In deference my seemingly outgoing, say anything to anyone, personality – I actually share very little. People who know me would likely describe me as an extrovert. In fact, I find strength in solitude and privacy. If I spend to much time around people, even people I love, I tire easily and need to retreat for a few days or even weeks. There are things that I think and express daily that even those closest to me will never know. It’s part of who I am.

I think there are many reasons I am compelled to do this. If I write that I feel down, or sad, or lonely, to myself, getting it out there – putting a name on it – actually helps me overcome it. Same thing with how I feel about someone, if I express it it helps me deal with those feelings in a way I can’t internally.

For instance, I have had a practice for years of writing letters to people that I never plan on sending. Everything from things I wished I could say to the crushes I’ve had, things I’ve wanted to say to people close to me that I feared might ruin our relationship or cause ill will, and very mean things to people I’ve been angry with. I write these letters in text files and I keep them in an encrypted and passworded archive.

I also tweet things into Birdhouse on my iPhone that I never plan on actually sending out. I’m tempted to make a separate secret twitter account just to separate that stuff from the stuff I actually tweet from there just in case. That said, it’s built in “are you sure” feature keeps me from making a mistake.

I recently started to wonder if I was the only person doing this. Even someone who enjoys solitude is often comforted by not feeling “alone”.

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I keep a bunch of things — draft blog posts that I’ve never published, emails I’ve sent to myself, text files on my computer. I don’t really have a definitive place for them. Most of them are long-ish pieces that remind me of something I figured out and really don’t want to forget. For instance, I recently realized that this weird obsession I’ve always had with wanting to be a “celebrity” (I know, that sounds really lame — guess why it was always private thing) was actually an obsession with wanting to be happy being a creative person. It was just a co-incidence that, up until recently, all the creative people I looked up to happened to be really famous. I’ve now found a whole bunch of people who aren’t really famous by any real-world metric but are successful on their own level and whose work I find really inspiring. One of the things I wrote down is that I don’t have to have that traditional “fame” to be happy being a creative person. I just want to find my niche, find that thing I’m great at, do that thing and don’t worry about what other people think — the right people will get it, and who cares about the rest.

Why write that kind of stuff down? I find that by writing it down, I know exactly what I think about something, rather than have it swish-swashing around in my head with all of the other semi-opinions about half-topics. At the end of writing, I have a concise piece of writing that describes exactly how I feel about a certain topic.

Another reason I write those things is kind of the converse of the first reason — sometimes I’ll start writing something to myself, forming an argument or something, only to find that my opinion is totally wrong (maybe the premise was off-base, maybe I was making some assumptions that were too far-fetched, maybe I can’t find a way to justify something I just wrote). Writing down what I think is a great way for me to make sure that what I think is actually true and right and/or find out if it’s totally wrong.

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Long ago, I used to try to write in a notebook every day. A couple years ago, I went back and read through that notebook, and it was interesting to see what I was doing/thinking 10 years ago. It occurred to me that blogging software would be perfect for that kind of thing; it would even be searchable, etc. So as an experiment, I set up Apache, MySQL, PHP, and wordpress on my laptop. It was perfect. I had my own blog, but it was local to my laptop.

A couple years ago, I took a trip far away. I wanted to be able to communicate with my family while I was gone, so I moved my blog online, where it still is today. The catch is that I block search engines, so anyone can read it if they know where to find it, but it doesn’t show up in any online searches. As far as I know, only my wife, daughter, and a few of my siblings ever read it.

So it’s not that I’m writing super secret private things. I just find that writing helps me organize my thoughts; that’s why I do it. So unlike most blogs, I’m not advertising or looking for more subscribers. I don’t mind if a few people read it, but I also don’t care if nobody does.

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I use Expression Engine to run a members-only site. I also use robot.txt files to block it from search engines, and the domain is privately registered. I will be writing a PHP script, too that redirects anyone who might find it through a search engine back to the referring search engine. Nope, not paranoid. At all.

I use a locked down twitter account as well under a name that most people would never guess. Just in case they search for me…

I keep the most private, venty type things in a Moleskine, because somethings REALLY don’t need to be on teh interwebs. *grin*

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I use a secret wordpress blog which i protected through several password systems in which i post kind of a private journal to collect my thoughts and my very private ups and downs in life. I use it every end of the year to have kind of a backview of my passing life and to hand it over to my kinds once i will have to die. It will be a very private present for them.

Additionally, I use a second blog just for my close friends which is also password protected, so that they can follow me while i am traveling. I came up with this idea because i have a lot of international friends and so i can keep in touch with them on a special way.

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I started an “anonymous” blog on Blogger in 2002. Created a self-deprecating pen name and blogged about my depression, anger and ADD to no one in particular. I figured eventually I would find an audience of people who would read me, even if they did not agree with me.

I was driven to anonymity from being so bold (or stupid) as to write openly, online, about feelings as myself. This lead to trouble in my primary relationship and of course curious parents with web browsers could also find and read the same things—which lead to awkward conversations. In my online travels I noted people who were writing things I suspected or things I had been thinking, but doing so freely under assumed names. I decided I wanted that for myself.

Currently I own a domain name, a TypePad account, Tumblr blog, a Gmail address, and a Twitter account for this alter-ego. My domain registrar has identity obfuscation tools, allegedly for security, but through which I can remain compliant with ICANN without revealing to any WHOIS request who I really am. But I am not so foolish as to think anything I do can’t be found out. I assume most people in my life don’t know, but I also assume more people know than will tell me.

I don’t mind telling people that I write under a pen-name, but there are very few circles in which I would reveal my topics of interest let alone the alias I use. I revealed my identity to one old friend, left a breadcrumb trail for another, and I would not have been engaged to the woman I am engaged to without it. But it is risky. The one person who I most did not want to find out about it did ultimately find out, though my own mis-steps. An alter-ego is not to be taken lightly. I have created and destroyed relationships directly and indirectly as a result.

That said, on the same token that alter-ego has opened doors, revealed new worlds, and lead to much deeper understanding of myself than would have been possible without it. It gave me the chance to take risks that I would never have before, and, dare I say it, the bonds I forged through it buoyed me during some of the darkest times of my life.

I apologize if this is particularly cagey, but I am still protective.

A final thought is that I suspect many technical and web-savvy people have donned alter-egos at least once. I know some who have had many identities, simultaneously or serially. Most “anonymous” blogs have a shelf life of 6 to 9 months. Either the raison d’etre disappears, they are found out, or they realize it’s a lot of work. And it is.

For me, it’s a labor of love. I relish the sense of risk, the clandestine, and the other-worldly or under-worldly aspects. And, ultimately, I do it for the feedback that I am not alone, that in the world there are people who think in feel in many ways the same as I. No matter how frank I am, no matter the topic, I am encouraged for the honesty and the willingness to put it into words. Rarely does anyone troll or flame me.

I’m pretty grateful for that.

Thought I would take a bit to share my absolute favorite minimal audio setup…

What you are looking at here is my iPod 5G connected through the auxiliary jack of my Tivoli PAL radio. This little setup has some great advantages and awesome sound. Obviously, the iPod could be substituted with any other player here. The real story is the PAL.

It is actually kind of magic how Tivoli has managed to make one speaker give rich, warm consistent sound that can fill a room. Don’t just take my word for it, go read some reviews of this thing. The sound is nothing short of amazing. It sounds similar to an old tube system. Not only that but, as you can tell using the iPod as a comparison, it takes up very little space. It is easily “portable” to take on a trip. Also, the PAL has a built in rechargable battery and rubber coated housing designed to be taken outside. Plus, of course, there is the option of unplugging the iPod and just listening to the radio.

If you have a small space and you want a quality sounding audio solution, that is affordable, it is hard to go wrong with this.

“It is an attempt to loosen the mental blockages to recording information and to scrape away the tartar of convention that handicaps its retrieval. The solution is by nature noncomformist.”

I’ve written about Notational Velocity before. In fact, it was one of the first posts here on Minimal Mac. There is good reason for that. As applications go, it is the very definition of everything I believe minimalist computing should be. It has exactly the features it needs to have, the interface is focussed on the task at hand and driven by the keyboard, and it’s beauty is found in that simplicity.

This is the first update to the program in 5 years. The new version is ripe with new features but the ones added make sense, are useful, and in no way distract from the simple interface and data focussed experience. Some of the new features include:

• Partial word by word search.
• The ability to rename a note by long click in the list.
• The option to save notes a single plain text files versus a database (making them available for Spotlight search)
• AES Encryption.
• Multiple column sort.

Most important of all for those that may want to extend or build tools to work with it:

• Notational Velocity is now a BSD-licensed open source project, and is soliciting contributions from those that wish to help out.

That’s not even half of it. Fellow NV fan indood has posted a more comprehensive list on his site. I don’t even know where to begin on how happy I am about this. It really is an awesome program that just got a whole lot more awesome.

Oh, and the new website is just beautiful. Go. Check this out. Now!

Printers do not get a whole lot of attention when it comes to minimalist computing. After all, one should strive to be paperless right? But seriously, let’s get real. There are times when you do need to print something. Be it a document, directions, a photo – the paperless society is a myth right up there with Santa Claus and free beer. That said, printers are a complete scam. They are the modern version of the razor. Let me explain.

You see, at some point after you get to shaving age, a little box shows up in the mail. “What is this?” you say. Well, son, that there is the latest greatest ultra-quintuple razor with new and improved patented fast guard technology. It’s normally fifteen bucks if you buy it at the store but, today, it’s yours, free. Take it with our complements. Of, and here is a fifty cent off coupon for some blades when you need to replace them.

Well, it seems like a good deal until you find that the package of blades is two thirds the cost of the razor, and that you are going to be buying a lot of them…

Printers = Razors

Ink = Blades

This is one of the reasons I have been recommending the latest in the line of Kodak printers to a lot of my clients. They have come up with a more reasonable strategy – Sell the printers for a little bit more, sell the ink for a lot less, market the heck out of that:

I have had a chance to play with them quite a bit and, I can tell you, the quality is as good as anything else you can get in this area. They are also, in my opinion, nicely designed. I can say for sure that the next inkjet printer I get will be a Kodak.

While we are at it, a final printing tip – make sure you get a printer that can do duplex (two sided printing). Make it the default setting. Mother Nature will thank you (as will Mr. Miser).

This is a true story.
A couple of weeks ago I had just tucked myself into bed, had turned off the light, and was beginning to let my mind wander down the long path to sleep. The road to sleep for me is usually a long one. It is just about that time of the day that my manic brain starts to swirl with thoughts. It usually takes me at least a half hour after I close my eyes for my brain to shut down enough to actually turn off. Sometimes it takes much longer than this. What goes through it is usually thoughts of items to do the next day and new ideas which, if I have not captured them, I must get up and do so, thus starting the process again. It was in this swirl of commitments, responsibility and desire that the following two words came to me:
Minimal Mac
Now, I don’t know what most of you do when intriguing words and phrases pass in that fleeting space that lies between the ears. My first thought is always, “I wonder if that domain is available”. You would be surprised at the domain names I own because of this habit. I pick up domains like most people retrieve squandered heads-up pennies on the street and largely for the same reasons. So of course I had to get out of bed, wander over to my Macbook, and check to see if serendipity might allow me to own this one. As luck would have it, it was available. I registered it.
Of course, this was a big mistake. Why? Well, I just guaranteed that I would not get to sleep for several hours as my head swam with ideas of what I could possibly use such a thing for. I mean, my head was exploding with possibilities. Yet, in the midst of the chaos, one thing came floating by that made me pause. One memory that I have had bubble to the surface of my brain since I was a much younger man. One idea, that I recount in this post from my new project, quoted here in it’s entirety:

Many years ago, I saw a picture in a magazine. I can’t even remember which magazine but it was in a feature article about creative office setups. One of the examples was essentially a large square low table, probably a coffee table, with large floor cushion for seating and a single Powerbook on the desk and nothing else. That image burned a hole in my brain like no other for some reason. I remember it just as clear as if I was looking at it now. I think it was just the idea of being able to have something so simple as your “office” was inspiring to me. No chair, no desk in the traditional sense, no filling cabinets – just a laptop and a cushion and a surface. There was something so raw, simple, yet complete about it. I’ve been dreaming of achieving the same ever since.

It was really then that Minimal Mac was truly born and I was able to get some sleep for the night.
The next morning, after waking up, dealing with helping get Beatrix off to “charm school”, having coffee, etc. I continued to run through my head possibilities of what the site should really be. I knew the goal was to challenge myself, as much as my readers, to get to an equally ideal and complete state as that image in my head. But there is so much more about the back end stuff that needs to be decided before lauching a blog…
What blogging platform? WordPress? MT? No, Tumblr. Tumblr is easy to post stuff to. OK, gotta find a theme. Has to be a minimalist one (obviously). Let’s look at whats out there. OK, hate that. Hate that too. Oh, this one is OK. Need to customize it a bit though. Hate that font size. How’s the CSS? Not to poorly formatted. I can figure this out. OK, let’s do this… Wait! I haven’t even thought of the content. What about the content? Screw the content for now. Let’s build this thing. OK, it’s built. Font size still not right globally but I’ll do that later. Need to think about content. Let’s see, I got all of these links and quotes and photos and links and stuff about minimalism and simplicity saved up in my Evernote. I can front load this thing with a bunch of stuff and just throw it out there. See how people respond.
… and here we are today. To say the response has been tremendous is an under statement. Without going into details on the numbers let’s suffice to say that it has far exceeded any other project I have ever launched and naturally my wildest dreams. The feedback I continue to receive, the submissions from my readers, the people emailing to let me know it has helped them come to terms with what is “enough” for them – humbling does not even touch it. Every time I think it has reached a new highlight I discover there is another just around the bend.
Not bad for an idea that was conceived and executed in 24 hours.

Those of you who are visiting the site will notice a slight design change and, more importantly, a new addition to the right of the content area. Thats right, it’s an advertisement. Not just any regular advertisement mind you, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
Here’s the thing. I never have wanted ads on my site. I even mentioned such in my post on Value. Based on that premise, placing ads on patrickrhone.com is a huge about face for me and might even cause some to scratch their heads in wonder.
Anyone who knows me knows I hate most advertising on the web. Everything I said in my Value post still stands. I never considered advertising on this site because, to me, it detracted from the value of the content and did not enhance it. It seemed just some blogger’s low rent way of making a few extra bucks off of their site. I continue to hold this view, nothing has changed there.
What has changed is that I now make one exception – Fusion Ads. A big part of how they are different is right on the front page of their site:

“Fusion rethinks traditional advertising by offering well-designed, premium advertisements to an engaged audience. The distinguishing factor between Fusion and typical ad networks is that only a single Fusion ad is shown per page, and each ad is displayed prominently ‘above the fold’ on all sites in the network. There are currently fifteen advertisement spots available, and with the exception of “roadblocks”, all ads rotate equally between each of the thirty-two sites and services.”

“While this is contrary to the traditional wisdom of advertising — cramming as many ads as possible on a page — we believe that the value of Fusion’s ads are that they’re exclusive. With a single, unobtrusive ad shown on each page, sponsors don’t have to compete for attention among other advertisers, and readers don’t feel insulted by flashy banner ads”

I love Fusion Ads. I love the design. I click on them. I buy products from them. I unblock them from my ad blocking software. I keep them on in Tweetie and actually have scrolled back through my tweets to try catch ads I have missed. I don’t do this only because I like and respect the folks at Fusion and want to support their hard work (which I do). I do this because I often can’t wait to see what the next ad is and will reload a page I am on with a Fusion ad to see if I get one I have not seen before. It’s crazy. It’s just not like me. I feel like such a gushing fanboy even admitting to it. It is one hundred percent true. I feel Fusion ads actually add value to my content.
Then there is this, taken from the copy on their front page:

Membership to Fusion is by invitation only. By controlling the quality and relevance of the sites on our network, we preserve the integrity of the advertiser’s target market. Sites on Fusion are the best in their class — chosen based on their exceptional quality of content and established readership.

In other words, to be invited to join the Fusion Ad network is an honor. Especially considering some of the other sites that are members, I see it as a stamp of approval from a well respected peer. A sign that, somehow, I have managed to write enough quality content or sphere of influence that I would be among those respected enough to host Fusion Ads.
I could not be more happy about being so previously wrong.