From the blog

Essays on writing

on the craft of writing and rewriting.

January 18, 2023

The Tiny Markdown Course

Learn Markdown, for good, in a one-week email course

"A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." So said the Othello game box, a version of Reversi I played growing up. It's a simple enough game, but you'll master the nuances only with practice. So it feels with Markdown, t…

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December 8, 2022

On Accidental status symbols, and designing new ones

.com matters, only if you think it matters.

“And I’m not proud of my address. In a torn-up town, no postcode envy.” Lorde, Royals The first status symbol I recognized as a child was license plates. For license plates, where I lived, revealed your country, and y…

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December 1, 2022

Email is the most accessible API

Somehow email brought us web 2.0's promise of interoperability and made it work for everyone.

You’d hardly expect to launch a new note-taking device in 2022 without syncing, collaboration, text recognition, integrations, or even an API in the hopes the ecosystem will build itself. Yet Amazon did, with their Kindl…

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November 2, 2022

On OKRs and the art of setting unobtainable goals

In the pursuit of the impossible.

Goals we understand, almost intuitively, from childhood. We’re imitators, repeating what we see others do until we, too, can do it. One foot in front of the other, falling until we figure out how to walk then run. Babbli…

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October 27, 2022

How to stop Google Calendar email notifications

You need to know when meetings are coming up. But one notification’s enough.

It started with one email. Then two. And before I knew it, somehow, some combination of Apple Calendar and Google Calendar had decided to email me over and over—sometimes as many as 9 times—each time I had an event. It …

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October 21, 2022

The Canon Cat and the Mac that Steve Jobs killed

A software design framework for humans, distilled from Jef Raskin's Humane Interface.

Imagine an original Macintosh, a beige box with an oversized chin and offset floppy drive. A friendly little machine. You sit down to draft a letter, tap the keyboard to rouse the Mac from its slumber, and discover the M…

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October 14, 2022

The Friday Update: On journaling to get things done

Tell them what you did. And what you're going to do. And how you're going to do it. Weekly.

Where'd the time go? It's not that you were sitting around doing nothing. You were busy, with emails and meetings, going through the motions of work. But was it all for naught? Did you actually accomplish anything? Or wa…

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October 4, 2022

Don’t watch your word count.

Longform is good. So is shortform.

Word count matters. The more you say, the more they’ll listen. One can’t simply share a recipe or tip. You first must tell your life story; only then can you relate a tip or three. Or so goes the standard online advice, …

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September 13, 2022

We need a do-not-disturb mode, for collaboration.

The best collaboration comes in spurts.

You’re finally focused, typing, pouring everything in your mind onto digital paper, writing the thing you’ve put off ‘til the last minute. You’re in the flow, or something approximating it. A few more hours of this, and …

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August 29, 2022

Microsoft and the art of distributing something new.

Full-time employment is leveraging your employer's distribution. So is writing for a publication, recording under a label, releasing software in a bundle, or making the first app for a brand-new platform.

The first time Microsoft sold a spreadsheet, it didn’t even sell it itself. The spreadsheet standard had been set by VisiCalc, that first killer app for PCs. Microsoft had to follow, fast. Which is what it did best. If V…

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Write. Rewrite. Revise.

Reproof is the app to write until you get it right. Free forever for 10 documents. $10 a month or $99 per year for unlimited documents.

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Essays on writingwriting

The Tiny Markdown Course

On Accidental status symbols, and designing new ones

Email is the most accessible API

On OKRs and the art of setting unobtainable goals

How to stop Google Calendar email notifications

The Canon Cat and the Mac that Steve Jobs killed

The Friday Update: On journaling to get things done

Don’t watch your word count.

We need a do-not-disturb mode, for collaboration.

Microsoft and the art of distributing something new.

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Write. Rewrite. Revise.

Essays on writing

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