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š® Oops, I didnāt take my watch off
Remember my video about why I chose a Garmin instead of an Apple Watch? I was sending and painting for a while when I realized I had forgotten to take off the watch. If you look closely enough, you will notice that there are paint drops on my arm. Some of them ended up on the watch, but that’s alright. All you had to do was wash it, and everything worked out fine.
Why not an Apple Watch or Wear OS?
Before the Apple Watch, there was the PebbleĀ (image below). I loved that smartwatch, but the end was inevitable, the company eventually went bankrupt, andĀ was sold to Fitbit. The final nail in the coffin was the watch being discontinued, and the servers turned off.
Without the servers, many features would stop working, and the experience wouldn’t be the same. To save us, aĀ group of enthusiasts created Rebble to bring life back to the Pebble. I appreciate what they did, but it’s not the same. Our watches would inevitably get old and parts would break.
Long story short, I could never find a smartwatch alternative that would check all the boxes: waterproof, buttons instead of touch screen, e-ink display, long-lasting battery, health sensors, and good quality build.Ā I ended-up moving to a G-Shock, that I absolutely love. However, it was not a complete experience. I was constantly missing the health sensors.
It was only recently that I came across an alternative from Garmin. Yes, I completely missed the original Instinct release. But that’s ok. I recently got the Instinct 2, and I’m thrilled. Not only it checks all the boxes, it looks like the G-Sock I was wearing.
Apple IIe not working
TheĀ Apple IIĀ was the first computer I ever used. This is aĀ IIe I recently got on eBay, but unfortunately, it is not working. When I plugged it in, I saw smoke coming from what, I think, is a capacitor on the C15 position on the board. Next step, figure out what that part actually is and order a replacement.
I have no experience with electronics, multimeters etc. This is definitely going to be a long-term adventure.
Human Driving
I lived in this world where most of the cars were self-driving. So much so that I was one of hardly any people still actually driving. For some reason the awake me can’t understand, I was not happy with all those autonomous vehicles and commissioned a bumper sticker to protest:
HUMAN DRIVING
When I woke-up and was proudly sharing my brilliant sticker idea with my wife, it occurred to me how silly that was. After all, no self-driving car would ever read it.
By the way, I love the idea of a world where no humans drive. Or at least I thought so.
Getting away from the problem for a while often leads to new insights
Taking a break is as important as getting into the flow
Itās my belief most people come here for the free Wi-Fi. Not me. I have an office, that is also my studio, and even a comfortable home office. But I do my best to come to this Starbucks at least once a week toĀ edit a video.
Why?
I call it my Coffee Office Day. And last Friday was a special one. The city streetsĀ are not empty anymore. On contrary, everything is getting back to normal. Iām hearing people speaking English, French, Spanish and some other languages I have no idea what they are.
Welcome back, Porto!
Randomness
Have you readĀ The Click Moment, from Frans Johansson? One thing Iām looking for when I come here is getting away from my comfort zone.
You need to take time, even schedule time, to explore things that are not directly related to your immediate goal. You need to take your eyes off the ball in order to see and connect with the possibilities around you.
āFrans Johansson
The Flow State
There’s more. When Iām here, I seldom ask for the Wi-Fi password, or connect my phone to the computer. My goal is to avoid online distractions, and, at the same time, enjoy people speaking a multitude of languages. I love to edit here. As soon as I sit down and open my computer, I enter the Flow State. Itās magical.
Flow is great, but one has to escape from it once in a while to avoid exhaustion and to break the blind alleysā paralysis. At my office I have a different strategy, but here I do it by raising my head and looking around for a while. It never fails. In essence, this is how theĀ Pomodoro TechniqueĀ works.
During that moment, I try to guess what a person is doing. Is he working? Is she messaging a friend? Where are they from? Iāve seen it all. From job interviews to friends from different countries meeting accidentally.
It takes no more than a couple of minutes. Suddenly everything becomes background noise again, and I’m back to the computer.
Something tells me I developed this ability when I lived in Boston, back in 2015. But this is a story for another day.
Have a nice week!
Maias' Day 2022
As in so many other countries, the first of May is Labor Day in Portugal. However, there’s also an old tradition linked to this date. It’s known as āDia das Maiasā (Maias' Day).Ā In fact, it all starts on the 30th of April, when people put yellow genisteaeĀ bushes outside windows and front doors.
There are several theories that explain the origins of this tradition, most of them connected to religion. As an amateur gardener, what resonates with me the most is the symbolism of the end of the winter.
š± I love the way plants respond to spring. It feels so magic
Unfortunately, we don’t haveĀ giestas amarelas (yellow genisteae) bushes, but my wife picked-up some yellow flowers early today when she was walking our dog.
It feels like driving on a highway not wearing a seat belt.
When I arrived at the checkout counter, all the other cashiers were teasing him.Ā I only understood all that buzz when I looked up. He wasn’t wearing a mask.
I was aware that the government was discussing new measures that day, but my brain took a while to assimilate that a store employee, that person right in front of me, wasn’t wearing a mask.Ā He had this wonderful happiness face, replying to his friends:
āNo, I’m not going to wear it anymore!
That was a great smile. Made my day.
Starting on the last last 21st, masks in Portugal are only mandatory on public transportation and health related situations, like hospitals, home care, etc.
It’s remarkable how we humans get used to new habits.Ā It’s a week after the new rules, and it still feels like something is not quite right when I enter a store without my mask.
šÆ Feels like driving on a highway, not wearing a seat belt.
Will the world ever get back to how it was before?
Last month, after so many months in lockdown, I finally got fully vaccinated against the Corona-19, and now Iām gradually starting to enjoy simple things again. My wife and I went to some of Portoās popular touristic sites the past weekend, but something was off. No busy people walking around, no crowds on most streetsā¦
The Memory Illusion
The Memory Illusion was one of the most amazing, accidental reads I’ve ever come across. It was recommended by the library to my wife, but I was the one who ended up reading it.
Similar to Algorithms to Live By, this book provides a wealth of scientific insight into numerous practices that I have developed throughout my life pertaining to note-taking.Ā Ā From how I learned to take notes as a child to the way I use tags to connect thoughts, and much more.
I enjoyed it so much that, after reading it more than once on my Kindle, I purchased the paperback edition.
Cool Tricks from One of Brazilās Evernote Experts
Cool Tricks from One of Brazilās Evernote Experts 2017-04-28
This article was originally posted on Evernote’s blog by Pamela Rosen on 27 Apr 2017.
Evernote fans are a passionate bunch. But then thereās Vladimir Campos, an Evernote enthusiast in Brazil who turned his affection for organizing notes into a full-time job. As an Evernote Certified Consultant, Vlad helps entrepreneurs make the leap to organizing paperless offices. On top of that, he has a popular YouTube channel to teach Evernote tips and tricks to the public. He also hosts a weekly Evernote-themed podcast, called An Elephantās Journal, and heās the author of Organizando a vida com o Evernote_ (Organizing Your Life With Evernote), a best-selling book in Brazil.
Some of the tips he offers his listeners and readers may already be familiar to long-time Evernote fans, but to those just starting out, Vladās recommendations are a revelation. One of his favorites is a simple naming convention that helps him remember which notebooks to send emails to. āI can email directly to a notebook, but I have to remember the name of the notebook to do it,ā he says. āSo I keep the notebook names as simple as possible. One word. This is especially good for companies, where many people are emailing information into the same notebook. I keep notebooks called āHealth,ā āClientsā, āPublic,ā and so forth. I donāt have to remember so many notebook names.ā
On the Road to Paperless
Vladimir has a simple strategy for building his businessāgiving his knowledge away for free. Thatās the model behind his podcast and videos, which leads to both consulting jobs from business customers and increased book sales.
āBusiness clients come to me when they realize they canāt find things, and they know things are not working,ā Vlad says. āRealizing they need help is often the hardest part of the journey.ā Once Vlad starts with a new client, he starts by figuring out how best to integrate Evernote. Or, if the company doesnāt have one, he collaborates with his clients to build a workflow for them. āI let the clients do most of the work because they have to learn how to do it on their own,ā Vlad explains. While he works with management, he makes sure that all team members take his online course, Evernote for Beginners. The goal is to make his business teams as paperless as possible.
“Iām not against paper,ā Vlad is quick to point out. āItās just that itās harder to find information that way. Itās so much easier to have things stored electronically and then do a search from wherever you are. Thatās what I teach my clients.ā
āIām not against paper. Itās just that itās harder to find information that way.ā āVladimir Campos, ECC
Tag, youāre organized
Before Vlad comes along, the businesses he helps often find themselves repeating tasks needlessly, lost in the paper trail. āIf you have several calls with the same customer, and they talk to different employees, sometimes itās hard to find records of the previous calls. So often, the information is scattered. If you have one shared notebook, and everybodyās working in it, everyone can see the information and pick up where they last left off.ā Vlad describes a scenario in which each client has a notebook, and everyone who deals with that client adds to it. āSet up a simple system of tags, and after each contact, tag the notebook with the stage of the sales process each client is in,ā he says. āThen everyone will be in the loop all the time.ā Vlad notes that many of his clients are surprised how quickly they can find the document they need, even if their new system hosts over 10,000 items.
The keys to a finely-tuned search
Though his business clients are often newcomers to Evernote, Vlad sometimes uses his blog and podcast to geek out over more advanced Evernote features. His favorite trick involves search syntax. āThese are words you can use to create a more powerful search combining different needs in one, Vlad enthuses. And if you want to exclude certain items like tags, just use the minus symbol -.ā
An example of Vladās syntax formula might look like this: notebook:Health -tag:appointment. That would open all the notes in the notebook youāve named āHealthā except for the ones tagged appointment. It sorts through notes for you and helps you find what you need faster. āThis syntax isnāt limited to two items, as this example shows,ā Vlad advises. āThe beauty of it is that you can combine as many parameters as you like.ā.
Vlad uses variations of this trick for his own life. āOnce you set this search syntax, you can save it to your shortcuts so you can use it again,ā he says. āFor example, I travel a lot. I set up a rule in Gmail to automatically send travel-related email to my default notebook, called āArchive.ā In Evernote, I saved a search for the word āticketā in the Archive notebook minus the tag ādone,ā like this: notebook:Archive ticket -tag:done. I use the minus sign to filter out the word ādoneā so that I donāt see trips Iāve already taken. That will bring up the tickets for all my upcoming trips, all in one click.ā When Vlad returns from a trip, he tags the notes from the trip ādoneā so he can filter his completed trips in or out of future searches.
Producing vast amounts of content for a blog, a book, a podcast, and his increasingly popular live workshops calls for a constant influx of new ideas. Vladimir says that ideas come to him just by going about his daily life, solving productivity problems for his clients or promoting his work. He often says that a successful business means to āchange or die,ā so he now looks to gain more knowledge about human behavior and machine learning.The more he knows, the more he can teach, but from new editions of his book, more podcasts, and a growing calendar of live workshop dates, he knows that Evernote will be at the heart of it all.
Wow, what an amazing view!
She asked me for my name for the cup writing thing and said “Campos”. “That’s my family name,” she replied š¤. I smiled and said it was in reality my family name too. We both laughed.
That was already a nice story for my journal, but when I sat down and looked out the window, there she wasāthe Sagrada Famlia church was right there in the corner.
Wow!
Algorithms to Live By
Algorithms to Live By is, undoubtedly, the most important book I have read. It shed light in the form of scientific explanations for many things I was already doing, but that I had learned the hard way.
If my memory doesn’t fail me, I learned about it in 2016 listening to a podcast while jogging in Santiago, where I lived at the time. The conversation blew me away, and I got the Kindle edition as soon as I got home. I bought the hard cover and the audio version a few years later.
It’s probably not a book for everyone because of the many detailed explanations. My suggestion is to download the sample to make sure it is something that’s compatible with the kind of books I enjoy reading.
Where is my red carpet?
Back in the 80s when I was about 14 I boarded a Fokker F27 from TAM Airlines for the first time. The company was just another small regional airline in Brazil and to compete with the big ones part of the strategy was to provide a high-quality service. The memory of those early days is preserved by the phrase āThe Magic Red Carpetā painted next to the cockpit windows of present-day planes.
Red carpets were actually placed by the stairs of each Fokker 50 during the boarding process, but this was just part of a broader plan. TAM gradually acquired other airlines and also became a CRM master, at a time, no other company in Brazil was technically prepared to explore this kind of personalized interaction with clients.
Among other magic moments, TAM call center would answer calls knowing the passengerās names and agents would wish us a happy birthday at the check-in desk. It was remarkable, and it worked perfectly with other strategic moves. By the time I was finishing university, TAM was about to become the biggest airline in the country.
It is time to go to Cuba
The fact that President Obama is focusing on reestablishing diplomatic ties with Cuba is a significant development, but it also means that there is a good chance that things will begin to change there at a rapid pace. That’s why we decided it was time to visit Cuba and see the country as it is now.
We are currently living in Chile, but our passports are from Brazil, which created an interesting story.
TheĀ consular officer typed a formāyes, you heard that correctly, with a typing machineāand asked me to check if my personal information was correct. When I told him that I was born in Brazil, not Chile, he looked at me like I had done something horrible and started typing everything again.Ā
After I said all the information was correct this time, he went back to his desk, typed another thing I couldn’t see, attached it to the wrong form, and filed everything. That was something I was not expecting at all. It is a level of bureaucracy that I thought I would only see in a comedy movie.
Goodbye, Boston
I initially planned to work from home, but it didn’t take long for me to start experimenting with different coffee shops. After a few weeks, I picked this place next to my father’s office and began coming here regularly. I wrote many of my podcast scripts, blog posts, and chapters of my books at this Starbucks.
This is the third time I have lived in Boston.Ā It is now time to leave. Again.
We are leaving soon, and it’s been hard to say goodbye.Ā Part of my family lives here, and the city itself holds a special place in my heart.
Thank you, Boston!
Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!
Yes, I did want to know who Marissa Mayer was, but that was secondary to my main goal when I decided to read this book: learning a bit more about Yahoo’s history.
To some, AOL is synonymous with the Internet, but in my case it was always Yahoo. It was such a prevalent company that when my son was born in 1998, I created a Yahoo Mail for him to reserve a short username.
In addition to their email application, I used the “My Yahoo” page as my browser homepage, Yahoo Messenger, and so many other services, including niche ones like the “Y Drive”, the great-grandfather of Dropbox. Of course it was not all roses; at some point they purchased and ended up destroying many great companies, like my beloved GeoCities, the home of my first-ever website.
Anyway, back to the book. I enjoyed going back in that memory lane and, in the process, learning more about a company that was part of my first steps online.