Category Archives: technology

The Mother of Invention

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. I would say that, more often, problems are. This was recently brought to mind when I read about and subsequently purchased this pencil:

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You see, I have always hated writing with pencils. I hated the way they felt on the page (scratchy), I hated that the line would become uneven quickly as your sharp point quickly ground to dull. I hated constantly having to turn it slightly every couple of words in an attempt to keep the point sharp.

Uni-ball has solved this problem with the Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencil line and it has done so in a very simple way. It has a spring-loaded clutch system that slowly rotates the lead every time it hits the page. This in turn keeps the lead constantly sharp at the point. It is one of those eureka moments that makes one say “Why didn’t I think of that?”.

I suspect the answer to that question is that, most of us, work with a problem instead of looking for a full fledged solution. In my example, I either did not use a pencil or, when forced to, came up with a solution that, in truth, was a way to work with the problem. The difference is a subtle one, but it is often times what separates folks like you and I from the folks that come up with brilliant “million dollar” ideas.

My Daily Log

I have long been intrigued by the usefulness and power of keeping a daily log of ones activities. I felt it was time to fully detail my method and workflow. Recently, I have been coming across many articles surrounding the methods and values of “life tracking”. I have some links to those articles and other related resources at the end of the post.

There are many useful reasons for keeping a daily log. For instance, in a former job, I had a micro managing boss who often popped their head into my office to ask what I had gotten done that day. Because I kept a good time stamped log of what I did, I was always able to tell her exactly what I had done, when I did it, and even how many times I was interrupted by other things that prevented me from doing even more (including her popping her head in my office).

The options and possibilities for how to keep a log are nearly endless. For instance, a simple piece of paper or notebook would suffice. The key, for me at least, is to make your Daily Log as simple as possible to add an entry to.

My daily log is a text file I call @log.txt. The preceding @ sign allows it to sort to the top of my finder window alphabetically. As plain text it is highly “portable” (i.e. I can open it up on any device). The trick is in the workflow and couple of tools I use to add a log entry. Without further adieu, here is how I tie it all together:

To add an entry, I invoke Quicksilver:

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The |niiei|referrer|yznir
advantage of using Quicksilver is that it is available to me from any application I happen to be in at the time. I don’t have to “switch modes” to add an entry. I simply type “@log” and it finds my log file. I then hit the tab key and select the “Prepend Text” command. I personally like having the latest entry first in the file.

I then invoke a TextExpander command, triggered by typing “dlog” that formats the entry the way I wish:

QSLog.1XhPZ88hSwD0.jpg​

I then type the entry, hit return and it is added to the file. The result is an entry that looks like this:

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I store this file in my Dropbox folder so it syncs to all of my machines and “the cloud”. Thus, it is available to me anywhere I can access the internet.

This setup has been working very well for me for years now. I think a big key is to come up with something that is easy and as ubiquitous as possible.

For further reference and ideas, here are some other resources about keeping a daily log:

* For This Guru, No Question Is Too Big – Jim Collins tracks his activities to ensure he is spending time on the things he feels are important.

* Politican as self-tracker – Bob Graham’s notebooks – How a US Senator proved the CIA wrong with his obsessive self tracking.

* Ping’s Thesis – From Diary to Graph – How one man not only tracks his daily activities but also can graph it with fascinating results.

* My Big-Arse Text File – a Poor Man’s Wiki+Blog+PIM – Much of my own inspiration came from this post by my friend and short term personal saviour Matthew Cornell.

* Living in text files – Why do a use a text file for my daily log? The answers are here.

**Update**

In a serious error of omission, I forgot to include probably the best two posts on this very subject written by my friend Chris Bowler:

* Track Yourself With a Custom Log File

and

* Custom Log File Revisited

The forgotten cost of features

A perfectly blank sheet of white paper is a tool of infinite possibility. For input you could use a pencil, a pen, a crayon, a marker, a stamp, a brush or more. You could use all of those at once. You can write or draw or paint in any direction. Even multiple directions on the same sheet. You can use any color you want. How you enter data onto it and how that information is structured seems almost limitless. That flexibility and power is available to you because of it’s lack of features. In fact, it is featureless – devoid of them.

Let’s add a feature. Let’s put some ruled lines on the paper. Make no mistake, this feature adds value. It allows me to be able to write neatly by using the lines as a guide. This makes the data more legible by providing a structure for me to follow. It also has a cost. It takes away some of the flexibility. Could I still write sideways in opposite direction of the lines? Sure. Am I likely to? No. Why? Well, it would go against the provided structure and thus make the data less legible. Ruled lines would intersect and, to a small extent, obscure my words and drawings.

OK, next feature – A box at the top left corner of the short end of the page. Perfect. That empty box has some value. Perhaps I could write a date in there. Perhaps I could use a colored marker to fill it in – color code the page. Perhaps I could put the name of the project that this piece of paper belongs to. Does the box take away from the available free space on the page? Sure it does. It is a trade off though. What I give up in space I gain in value right? Well, that depends on the perspective of the individual, but I think I like it.

Enough on that. Let’s add a feature to that box we added. Lets pre-print what we think people should use that box for. You know, to make it clearer for the end user. Let’s print a label in that box called “Title”. Perfect. Now I have added value by reducing the amount of thought a user of this paper has to put into figuring out why that box is there, right? I think you can now see where I am going with this…

I think it is far too easy to look at the addition of features to anything – hardware, software, analog, digital, even a simple piece of blank paper – as a benefit without also recognizing the associated and often forgotten cost.

In the world of hardware and software, the companies, developers, and tools that get it right weigh the cost of adding features heavily and take every feature addition under great consideration. In fact, they reject most feature requests right out of the starting gate. They appreciate feature requests but more often than not [read them and ignore them](http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/getting_real_forget_feature_requests.php). They simply let the signal rise above the noise to determine what features to add. When they do add a feature, they do it in the most unobtrusive and seamless way possible. They are careful to make sure the value far outweighs the cost.

The costs do not stop there. In fact, if you add a feature you now have to support that feature if it breaks or does not work as the user expects it to. Also, adding a feature could actually loose you a sale. Those of us (I am not alone) who are feature wary may opt for something else just for the simplicity.

This does not mean that you cannot have a ton of features yet still maintain flexibility. One example is [TextMate](http://macromates.com/). TextMate is a very powerful text editing program for the Mac. It is chock full of features and has a robust plug in architecture that allows you to add even more. Yet all that power is hidden in the UI. When you launch TextMate all you see is a blank white page ready for input. The features are not in your way. If you just want to get some writing done in plain text you have the only feature you need right there. The power is not there unless you need it and then mostly as a menu item optionally accessible via a keyboard shortcut.

On the other hand, Notes.app on the [iPhone](http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/) is very basic in features. You can take notes, you can email a note, and that is about it. But that is what makes it great. You can use Notes.app any way you want. Type up a blog post draft. Enter in a book recommendation. Make a shopping list. Note the dimensions of that room you need to buy furniture for. In fact, it’s lack of features and structure are what provide it’s true power.

As you can see from these to disparate examples, It is not about not adding features. Features in an of themselves are not a problem. It is about adding the right features and only the right ones. I like [ruled paper with a predefined area for a title and date](http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/STATIC/Generic.asp?blink=Y&Params=category=326-888|level=2-3|link=LN) just like the next guy. It is about understanding that for every added feature there is a cost and not forgetting to consider that.