First, explain what it is, then make it look nice.
Picasso once said, Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. In other words, one must be doing it — putting itself into the zone — to finally find the solution.
This is evident in Picasso’s museum in Málaga, Claude Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, or Van Gogh’s museum in Amsterdam, where you can see these master’s art in a chronological order, starting from the beginning of their careers.
It’s been a while since I’ve published anything on my blog, but this doesn’t mean I’m not writing. On the contrary, I’ve been incessantly working on my book. But that, on the other hand, doesn’t imply that I’ve made a lot of progress. In reality, it was only today, after starting the third draft, that I was finally happy with the book format.
In addition to Picasso’s mantra, what helped me find my way was a strategy I use when I can’t figure out a solution. What frequently helps is to first explain what it is, then make it look nice. Ironically, that doesn’t seem like it applies to understanding art. Anyway, when I restarted the book for the third time, I did it from the middle, explaining what the Containers of Information are. It was then that I gradually began noticing that parts of it connected to many things I had already written in the two previous drafts, which I started repurposing.
Based on the videos I watched, the Orion AR glasses appear to be a huge step in the right direction. However, when I look at the entire kit, I cannot help but think that Apple is still in a much better position.
All the data processing being done by that little brick can probably be handled by an iPhone. As for the wristband, guess what? There’s an Apple Watch that, by the way, already knows a thing or two about gestures. Additionally, I’m pretty sure Apple is gathering a lot of data from its own AR headset users. But, the most important element is the well-known walled garden.
If Apple feels threatened by a future commercial version of Meta’s product, I bet they will release a kit similar to the one I described above.
Strip down Evernote and go back to basics to focus on notes.
Tired of Evernote’s clutter? Too many features overwhelming you? This is how you can strip it down to a pure note-taking app.
Those of you who have already watched the video at the end of this article, know how happy I was when I first tried that new Sidebar Configuration feature. I was both nostalgic and overjoyed to see my decade-old companion working as a note-taking app again.
If that’s also your goal, here are some tips to convert Evernote into a plain, simple note-taking app. But first, make sure you have the correct version. The settings below are only available on version 10.107.3 or later.
Removing Distractions
Click on your name in the top-left corner of the screen, open the Settings menu and go to the Sidebar tab.
Uncheck the Show Task and Event Creation buttons option to remove the big, super-distracting purple and red buttons from below the Note button. However, as a reminder—or tip—they are still accessible by clicking on the three dots.
The Show note counts is an important element in my Timeline System and I kept it checked. As for Show recent notes, I prefer them on the Home page because I can see the thumbnails. As a side note, both of these settings have always existed.
We’ll soon get back to the last option on that list. For now, scroll down to the section below and click to close as many eyes as possible 🤣. Jokes apart, Here’s what I left visible on my sidebar:
- Home
- Shortcuts
- Note
- Notebooks
We are not done yet, but I need to take a moment to share a tip with those of you who love keyboard shortcuts.
Of course, I’m always trying to convince my family and friends. But whenever I work with a company or any organization, I invite them to create a Mastodon or other Fediverse account. I must admit that the conversion rate is fairly low, but I’m happy to be doing my small part in promoting such a great space.
The more I use the Supernote, the more I appreciate how the system incorporates chronology everywhere. Check out the Recent Files section. It fits perfectly with my Timeline System. How cool is that? Not to mention the Last Opened Document/Note. I use these three buttons all the time.
Recently, I realized why I find reading e-books to be much more comfortable than paper books. I thought it was something related to weight, shape, size, etc., but it turns out to be something that makes more sense.
Reading the electronic version of Mountbatten has proven to be considerably more comfortable and fluid, and that’s what prompted me to start exploring this situation. The pages in the real book are pretty big, and the book itself is super heavy, but none of that is related to the act of reading.
The customizable font and line spacing make all the difference. I noticed this the other day while I was flipping through a book at a bookstore. My eyes were uncomfortable with the lines. Picking up a random book off the shelf confirmed my theory. Again, the lines seemed to be too close together.
Maybe I got used to spacing the lines, maybe my eyes are getting worse, whatever the reason is, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is how simple it is to fix this when reading e-books 😉
Have a lovely week, Vlad.
I'm often surprised by how simplifying things can end up being a daunting task.
Several months ago, I got stuck trying to code a complicated set of rules to try to automate the process of building my newsletter, while also making it more intuitive for readers to understand. That turned out to be a huge task because I’m not a developer, and I went back to the laborious manual process.
However, for some unknown reason, my brain refuses to let go of some projects and continues to secretly work on them. After a few days, years, or hours, when I’m lucky, these bursts of insight begin to emerge in no particular order or interval. For example, In June, I was here doing something completely unrelated, and my brain asked me this:
🧠 “—Why don’t you just send an email for each article you post?”
It was indeed a good idea. It’s not only much easier technically speaking, but Substack, the platform I was already using, had that feature. So, it was just a matter of copying the post from my blog and pasting it on Substack. In hindsight, I don’t even remember why I decided to send a monthly compilation of posts.
Of course, the new plan came with its own set of problems. Because that made things so much easier, at some point I decided to post the articles across more platforms, which led me back to a time-consuming task. Not to mention that I’m unsure if it’s worth the effort.
Little did I know, my brain had been secretly plotting to automate the process I gave up many months ago, and today it came up with another brilliant insight:
🧠 “—Compared to what you attempted to do in the past, I’m pretty sure it is much easier to create an automation on your blog platform to send a single article instead of that compilation.”
That’s a great idea, I thought. And here we are. This is a test article to make sure posts like this get sent automatically. If everything goes as planned, I will be able to centralize all the processes of posting and sending the newsletter in a single place. And it will all be done on its own. Finally!
Update: It worked!
It is amazing that, while trying to simplify a situation, we often end up making things even more complicated. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, sometimes it’s just a matter of turning things around a little to see how simple a solution can be.