Next year it will be 10 years since I purchased my Specialized Langster bike. It's still running well and is a solid bike. Like any bike fan though, I do crave that chance to purchase something new. Will 2016 be the year to purchase a new Langster? It's looking that way.
One index card, three words. That's all it takes.
... The complete list. One of NB's best in my opinion. Definitely in the top five.
In a shock turnaround, Marco Arment has pulled his ad blocking app, Peace, from the App Store. Later on Apple also started refunding everyone who bought it on the App Store.
Achieving this much success with Peace just doesn’t feel good, which I didn’t anticipate, but probably should have. Ad blockers come with an important asterisk: while they do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don’t deserve the hit.
— Just Doesn't Feel Good by Marco Arment
I admire Marco's decision to step back from the ad blocking market. I wonder how many others could turn their back on a successful app?
A good three step guide to de-cluttering from NB.
My Hobonichi Techo planner arrived yesterday. Still can't get over how small it is. Can't wait now to start using it!
Jason Fried answers this on Twitter.
Why do I like to write? Because words are fucking fun to play with. Writing is playing. Can't think of a better reason.
— Jason Fried (@jasonfried) September 17, 2015Ever since Medium opened its doors to the world it has attracted fans and critics. People that use it rave about its simplicity. Critics of the publishing platform (including myself) have voiced their opinions on why Medium is not for them. Its magazine format, “one for all” style and lack of custom domains was why it didn’t make everyone a fan. After its release, my opinion of Medium was that it wasn’t my idea of a good publishing platform.
Over the last few months though, Medium has in fact become a good source of content for me. Falling just behind my curated list of RSS feeds and my Twitter stream, Medium’s daily newsletter offers a daily list of curated stories from its users. I don’t see Medium taking the top spot any time soon but being a source of good content makes it hard to ignore. These stories are then added to my reading list. The lucky ones get quoted on my blog. I’m not a big enough sample set to say this is a sign of Medium’s impact on the world, but I’m surely not the only person who thinks that the Medium platform is a good source of content?
So what made Medium the next big thing in blogging?
Traditionally blogs were the primary means of publishing content. You could go down two roads.
The first was by using a hosted service such as Tumblr, Wordpress or Blogger. Through a simple sign up process, anyone could have their own little space on the Internet.
The second is to host your own blog. Thankfully things have gotten a little easier over the years to do this but it can still be a challenge if you’re not confident with the tools and services needed to make it happen. It’s not rocket science but it’s still a hurdle that many are willing to walk away from in favour of something a little easier to manage.
Over the years the hosted services have grown and matured, some have closed down, others have started up in the quest to be the hot spot for publishing content for the masses. No service has captured this idea like Medium has. Its basic process of writing and publishing makes it simple to put your stories out there for the world to read. The minimal floating toolbar for changing styles, the lack of distracting settings and the ease with which you can add supporting content like images to your story makes Medium an attractive choice for those looking for a hosted service. And that’s why it has taken off in the way it has. Its simplicity has captured many and offered the path of least resistance to publishing a story.
The benefits of Medium are clear but what about the drawbacks? Sure its look and feel is the same for all of its users and the choice of adding your own custom domain isn’t available for all. It will come soon though. These drawbacks are minimal if I’m being honest. When I look at Medium now I see that I’m nit picking at the platform which has become the killer app for publishing.
Which brings me onto my last point. Even though I’m not a user of Medium for publishing content, should I be that critical of it when it does allow people to share their content more easily than most other platforms? No, I shouldn’t. Any product or service that allows people to connect and share their experiences in a easy to do fashion should never be dismissed. It’s just not for everyone, but for most it is the ideal tool to use.
I used to be critical of Medium but my view on their service has changed over the last couple of months. Medium isn’t for me but I would recommend it for others that weren’t comfortable with hosting their own blog. Sure it has its drawbacks but so does every other publishing tool on the Internet including my own preference of Jekyll and Heroku. The reason I’m sticking with it for the moment is that it works for me.
Will I switch to Medium? Maybe. I don’t know. Probably not, but I am curious about using it for a short term period to see what it can offer, I just haven’t found that particular reason to use it yet.
Every now and again the conventional way of doing things is challenged with something a little bit different. Medium done that when they started and they’re still here today, daring people to change how they publish. Many have changed and even people like Jason Fried are giving it a try. Is this the end of the Signals vs. Noise blog? Probably not but the fact that the owners and employees of Basecamp are giving it a try is a testament to what Medium offers.
A bloody good publishing platform for the masses.
A writer has to focus. She can’t just flip a switch and start grinding. She needs time to settle in, to let the current start to flow. She can’t do that in fifteen-minute increments with the kids screaming and her husband phoning from the office. Nobody can.
— Our Fractured Days
by Steven Pressfield
Read on for Steven's rules on dealing with those days that fracture.
The new posting rhythm continues. A snippet and a couple of link posts each day. I'm publishing something a bit more long form tomorrow morning. Less is more as they say!
New brand. New website. New apps.
Todoist has been my task manager of choice for a long time now and it will continue to be so thanks to a service that just works.
Arment has expressed his hope that blocking bad ads will lead to publishers being forced to adopt “better monetisation methods”, from selling adverts directly (and so cutting out the data-collecting middlemen) to collecting direct payments from readers. To that effect, Peace offers the ability to “whitelist” sites easily from the share menu in Safari, if a user wants to support a specific publisher.
— Adblockers shoot up iOS 9 app charts on day one by The Guardian
I've got a couple of adblockers installed on my iPhone, No more dodgy data hoarding ads for me. This is definitely the mark of a new age of Internet folks!
There's reading and there's reading. Find out the difference.
via Sandbox Rim
More wise words from NB.
There is another way: work from a 3 by 5 card which highlights your vital few, high-payoff activities. Ignore the trivial many. You can't do it all: the predator is lurking, ready to pounce on the fatal human weakness; trying to do it all and being addicted to the unprotected and swampy by-ways of irrelevant minutiae.
— Jagged Thoughts for Jagged Times 154
by Nicholas Bate
I missed out on getting one of these last year but I wasn't going to make that same mistake twice. The increasing usage of pen and paper continues. Who would have thought in this digital age that these basic tools would be in so much demand?
Thanks everyone for the keyboard recommendations from yesterday and thanks @patrickrhone for the RT.
To me the sports are not comparable; they are simply different games. I prefer to watch football in my home. I can yell, cheer, and make a fool out of myself with only my family around to see the spectacle. Baseball is a game I truly enjoy watching at the event. It allows me to observe the preparations, and many interactions I simply don’t notice at a football game.
— Sunday by Kurt Harden
I completely get where Kurt is coming from. Me and Jen love going to the baseball when we visit Toronto. You get to see the baseball game more up close than you would a football game. Also the beer and hot dogs aren't a bad thing either!
Myself an Jennifer made a decision over the weekend that will break a minor tradition in the family. It wasn't an easy decision to make but done for the right reasons. I'll explain more in a couple of weeks.
Can I have your OS X wireless keyboard recommendations please?
Thanks to everyone who emailed and DM’d to keep my blog going!
Received a word document that a school wants to use as a web page. Feels like the late 90s all over again. #frontpageftw
Playing the DNS propagation waiting game.
Using Ruby on Rails with SQL Server. I didn’t think I would ever have to do work with SQL Server again but there you go.
