Monthly Archives: August 2008

My Personal Productivity Suite

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Someone on Twitter, several weeks ago, asked me how I manage close to a dozen social profiles and life. I didn’t really have a proper answer at that time, however. So, I’ve been trying to figure out how I manage to be as efficient as I am, and it comes down to several good apps and just some simple real world note taking.

Browser

The #1 productivity tool I have is Firefox. It trumps the rest of the browsers in usability, speed, and security. I have issues with the other three, IE is slow and not quite secure, Safari is pretty much Firefox without any real way to improve it’s productivity, and Flock seemed way to cluttered for regular use. I use a clean filing system on my bookmark toolbar to make it easier to get the sites I want when I want them.Then I also use several add-ons that also reduce the time I spend completing tasks. The 3 that I use most often are:

Feed Sidebar, provides your feeds anytime you want without having to visit another site. I find it better than Google Reader as it provides same pre-content viewing when you click the link and opens it when you double-click. It has a multitude of options that allow you to set how often it updates, how long the list remains, and how you want to have the pages opened. The only thing is that your feeds don’t exist in the cloud.

CoolPreviews, formerly CoolIris Previews, an add-on that displays a little mouse-over button that provides a preview of the page on the other side of a link. Think Snapshots without the automation and annoyance of interruption.

Firebug, this one’s going to help web developers and designers out a bit. It provides debugging for your web pages, quick viewing of how a technique someone has on their page that you would like, and also provides some nifty tricks for scraping media.

One more thing to add, not an add-on per say, but Ubiquity is a nifty tool so far. We’ll see if it gets better.

Microblogging and IM.

I use Twhirl for staying up on Twitter and if I need to I can cross post something to Pownce. Very productive tool as I can catch up on close to 200 peoples tweets for a period of 4 hours in a matter of 10-15 minutes.

For my IM client I use Trillian, it allows me to incorporate all my accounts into a single interface and provides me with alerts when I receive an Email so I can respond relatively quick. The cloud variant of this is Meebo but doesn’t provide the email updates, but still a nice piece of browser based software.

Notes, Writing, and Schedule

Notes depending on what the content is. If the note’s just something simple and I’m at my desk I’ll just scribble it down on an index card very simple and old school. If it’s something a bit bigger like a chunk of info off the web I just quick copy it to MS OneNote and clean it up later. I occasionally use Evernote but, it hasn’t become a necessity as I usually am on my own computer.

Writing, I use Onenote because If I need to post something to the web i can just drag it out of the window and drop it. Makes the copy and paste an inefficient process.

For a schedule, I use an old school calendar and just write my info in real quick.

Desktop

I use Vista, honestly not that bad but, I have 1 icon on my desktop, Recycle Bin all the programs and folders I use are stored in the quicklaunch. Quicklaunch means I don’t have to leave my browser window to open up Photoshop, Trillian, ITunes, Secondary Browsers, or my editors.

P.S. This is just what I do to stay productive I don’t know how much or even if any of this advice would help you.

Links From August 11-27

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Something extra for you this week. Some links I really enjoyed the past 2 weeks. Decided I needed to post them before they become to old and irrelevant.

Robert Scoble on passionate user adoption and Ubiquity. This is just something that I enjoyed reading especially after using Ubiquity for several hours yesterday. If you want to use it I recommend reading the tutorial and watching the video.

An article, from Business Pundit, on the enlightenment complex that we see stateside also developing in the Chinese culture. A bit of an insight into why my generation, for the most part, feels so damn entitled. Also, suggest why depression is on such a climb.

This is one of several articles that prompted my last post. It is promoting some smart financial advice on steering clear of private lenders. However, it all so shows weak decision making on behalf of the government, in allowing people weakened by the subprime mess increased loans.

A really thorough and thought provoking conversation with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of ‘The Black Swan‘ and ‘Fooled by Randomness‘, provided by Portfolio.com. It looks into his life and how he removes the noise of now.

As somewhat of a bibliophile this last one is just an amazing list of 50 Essential Novels, provided by Leo Babauta at Zen Habits. It is such a substantial list of both classic literature and current hits that are certain to last for a long while. I recommend checking this list out if you enjoy reading.

College Is Taxing the System

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Something I’ve noticed the last week is that discussions on education have been popping up everywhere. Our economic system is facing collapse, and the main issues are all centrally connected to the way our secondary-education system is founded and unregulated. The payment of the tuition is resulting in the major collapse but no one wants to focus on it. You have parents taking out mortgages, the government heavily subsidizing tuition, and student lenders, all taking huge losses on college.

I mentioned this in an old post that was originally written in the middle of March, though it focused on only the government subsidization. The issue is not that government shouldn’t assist, but they are hurting themselves and the economy by not regulating school rates. Over a 30 year period they have wasted approximately $2.4 Trillion( with a T) on education. Meanwhile, college rates are rising doubly as fast that of interest rates.

The people who were taking out loans are hurting but if they claim bankruptcy that is only making it worse for everyone else. The students with 30 or 40 thousand dollars in loans are going to find it hard to pay back because of the weak job market, and the parents who took out mortgages are are probably hurting tremendously. Yet, today the NYT’s posted an article on how the lenders should be taking the brunt of this blow. By allowing the students to claim bankruptcy on these funds.

This article is fucking ridiculous( pardon my language) , this will allow for billions of dollars to be wiped from the slate. This leaves the lenders with no capital to provide for the future borrowers and no profit for their services. What needs to happen is a reformation of the collegiate system.

The problems of our current economic tumults are founded upon these 2 systems the collegiate and the lenders. They are the major issues that caused the collapse in the housing market collapse, outside of the pricing bubble. Colleges have been and will be taxing the lending system both private and federal, making it harder to produce revenues to reach the equilibrium needed. College is generally going to cost you more with less job security and lower standards of pay. Lenders are feeding on this fact for interest and fees.

So the point I’m trying to say, is that even if we find a way out of the housing bubble, we still have a huge problem. If we don’t do something to reform college funding we will see this strain the system to a point of another economic collapse. I can see this occuring anywhere from less than 5 years to 10-20 years from now, it will happen if we don’t do anything.

Dealing With The Customer

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So, here it is almost Friday and I haven’t posted a thing in a week. So I’m going to discuss why that is. I would also like to mention some other things that I saw during this issue.

Last weekend, I purchased several domain names for a project I’m working on and decided to also get theinnovationist.com, this where my issues began. I redirected my blog there and then Sunday I noticed that my archives where down. I left a message for customer service at the site and then went about to fix the issue myself. I ended up working Sunday night and most of Monday on this issue, instead of writing.

Monday afternoon I get a call from GoDaddy thanking me for my purchase and ask me if I have any issues. This is great customer service, they preempt any issues that I may have and offer me advice. I thank them back for this as I was shocked at this level of gratitude coming from such a large company.

I also go to see if I have recieved a reply from the customer service of my blogging site, no reply. It takes until late Tuesday night before I get a reply and they also tell me that my comments aren’t working, hooray. So it took them two days to tell it’s even worse than what I had suggested, I reply back asking if they could explain the issue in further detail and had to wait until earlier today to get any confirmation on the issue. Of course, I had already discovered the issue late Wednesday night and everything was working again before they contacted me. So, I’m a bit miffed at the service provided.

This just shows that how you treat your customers is extremely important. Your customers are your lively hood, if you don’t treat them with respect how can you expect repeat business. GoDaddy came to me, someone who isn’t pulling in anything by measure to their revenue. The other place left me to deal with my issues, sure they assisted but the service was so damn slow. This is how to build and destroy your brand, GoDaddy left me with a great feeling and the other company left me to stranded and pissed.

So here’s me trying to be preemptive, you guy’s are my customer. I want to know who I’m talking to, who I’m providing information, and I want to know what you guy’s are looking for from me. You can give me suggestions on stuff to talk about, I’ll do it, I don’t mind doing the research. I write for myself, but I’m here for you, I could just as easily keep all this stuffed in a book on my desk or scattered around in pages.

“Tell me what you want out of me and I’ll step up and try and provide it.”

P.S. If you would like some really good advice on building your brand and dealing with your customers, I recommend GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Edit: Sept 22, 2008 No longer using the same blogging service (uber.com).

Choices

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I noticed myself disgusted at dinner Tuesday night. I had to decide on the same meal, one I had to assemble or one that was already assembled. I chose the latter and was then disappointed in that I had to do the work to assemble it before i could eat. Yet I chose it for the freedom of making how I wanted.

How many times a week does this happen to everyone? You make a choice for a perfectly logical reason, but the outcome isn’t what you had expected and you’re disappointed. Barry Schwartz uses the example of jeans and dressings in this TED video, but it’s anything that offers you a choice with to many alternatives. You psychological punish yourself afterward because your afraid you made the wrong choice.

The same issue occurs in a democracy, we provide to many options with to few choices of representation. It is the flaw in democracy those who vote decide who represents their group, but the people who don’t vote are free from having to decide on inadequate representation. They should also be able to own up to their choice of inadequate representation rather than attack the person that was chosen for them by the masses who did vote. If the person is a horrible representation, “Hey, you had nothing to do with it so you shouldn’t care. You didn’t care enough to vote on time, so don’t cast your ballot after the fact.”

Like they say in court, ” If you can’t afford a representative, one shall be provided to you by the state.”

Wasted Too Much Time With The Dark Knight

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Link Dump today, I was busy studying the different aspects of the Joker and forgot to write something. Movie was a bit bland wouldn’t recommend it without Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker, he literally carried this movie for me. So I’ll leave some of the things I found of interest the past 2 weeks.

I-Power is an interesting idea from Kevin Rose. Basically, the idea is to add background software to the Iphone and hardware in your home that acts as switches. The Iphone sends out a gps signal that registers on the hardware when you leave the range it shuts everything off and when you enter it comes back on.

Content and Community video from Gary Vaynerchuk, an amazing guy, is something I enjoy because he cuts out the BS. He gives it to you straight, it’s not about you it’s about the customer. This applies to life not just a vlog.

20 Strategies to Defeat the Urge to Do a Useless Task over at Zen Habits something that really strikes a chord with me. Recently, I was asked how I manage so many social media sites, approximately a dozen. I replied with, “I guess I’ve just become atuned to doing it.” This lists the processes that I use and some I don’t, it lets you have some flexibitility.

Innovation Step By Step Instructions from Musing on Marketing provides a pretty simple guide to innovation. It’s something that anyone looking to innovate a market should read. I plan on looking at it when I need to clear my mind and drop back to the basics.

Forrest Gump: How to Build Your Self-Confidence over at Success Soul is about being creative, confident, and how to lead. It shows the values that truely matter, not the knowledge that we are forced to believe matters. It is there to prove that you can do what you want and the wisdom all came from Forrest’s lips.

Well, that’s what I have for you tonight, be back with new stuff on Friday.

The Three Hierarchical Layers Of Books

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My friend, Glenn, over at My Adventure to Enlightenment is studying-abroad this semester in Morocco. He’ll be leaving in a few weeks and realized he only has room for roughly 6 books in his luggage. He is looking for books that have re-readability, provoke deep, challenging thought, and he is seeking non-fiction. This made me think what determines re-readability in a non-fiction text.

The Personal Library
The Quantum-Library
The Anti-Library

The Personal Library is a the basic layer containing all of your possessed books and other literary works. It possesses those that you have read, re-read, and have yet to read. For the separation of the layers this is the only layer that contains books that you have read only once.

The Anti-Library is something that has become a bit of a buzz word after being mentioned in Nassim Taleb’s, The Black Swan. He quote’s Umberto Eco on his view of a library(quote provided below). It is the layer that holds text that you have yet to read.

‘”Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight read-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an anti-library.”‘

However, there is another layer that is not discussed as of yet. It contains the texts that you have read, but ultimate meaning still eludes it’s readers. A book that shifts meaning depending on the perspective used to percieve it’s words. A layer that contains the ultimate in re-readability. This layer is like a movie, you watch it once and you enjoy it, you watch it several more times and you notice several subtle nuances, and the longer you re-watch the more you notice. These are the text’s that he is wanting to pack.

The Quantum-Library is the layer that co-exists as a member of both the Library and the Anti-Library. It is something you may have read, but when read again with a different perspective it exists in another form. These type’s of books are the ultimate for a bibliophile. It is the layer described above and contains the texts that you re-read.

So if you know of any texts that exist in the Quantum layer leave a comment here or over at Glenn’s blog he’d really appreciate it.

Addendum:

Seeing people come in from Zenpundit, Jay@Soob, OZ Deichman, and Ace Hanna, I have added my own list with reasons for their selection.