🔗The Covid Pandemic Has Changed Our Sleep. Here's How - Jeff Huang

The Covid Pandemic Has Changed Our Sleep - Jeff Huang

The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected both our work and our leisure in unprecedented ways. But a third pillar of our everyday lives has been less studied: how has the pandemic affected our sleep?

Some fasinating stats in here (which also has the awkward…these companies know so much about me) aspect.

The never ending quest for the best note system

There are three note applications and systems on my mind at the moment.

1. Evernote

Old faithful. Despite some dark times, Evernote is still solid and reliable as it always has been. I’ve been on the beta recently and there are some good changes coming soon. Evernote still does a few things extremely well.

  • Capture (from webpages and other services)
  • Sync (I rarely have conflicts and notes show up almost instantly)
  • It’s everywhere
  • it’s easy to start with But, it doesn’t have some of the latest ideas like the two other apps I’ve been playing with.

2. Notion

Notion sucks as a note-taking/data storage app. The apps are slow web views and it never feels like you are working with text. Exporting notes isn’t easy and there is a steep learning curve… BUT

  • The organising tools are amazing
  • Collaboration is great
  • The whole idea of Databases is extremely cool
  • You can have notes and project management tools in one place I hate capturing data in notion, but I’ve been using it to organise writing my newsletter and it works so well for this. There is a web capture tool but it feels a bit awkward which sums up a lot of Notion. It’s cool but awkward.

3. Obsidian

Roam research, but local and using markdown files. I was just writing a note in Notion and wanted to make some relational notes as you can in obsidian. Unfortunately, Notion doesn’t work that way. I started using obsidian on my Work PC, with an iCloud folder so in theory, I can add markdown notes anywhere (using drafts on my iPhone) and I’ll get all the benefits of obsidian. but…

  • obsidian doesn’t have a tool to save webpages
  • obsidian doesn’t have a mobile app (so it’s all just plain text on iOS)
  • obedian doesn’t connect to third-party services for easy imports I could probably save webpages as PDFs and then link to those files, but that isn’t quite the same.

So… what do you want to do?

I guess I could …

  • Use multiple apps, each for its own strength… But using one app would be simpler.
  • Settle for just Notion, not have relational notes (maybe they’ll come later?) and deal with the other issues.
  • Settle with Evernote and use a task manager (todoist?) for project management
  • Use Obsidian and be a cool tech guy who does everything in plain text…and maybe use PDF version of saved web pages…

Or maybe there’s another app like DEVONThink…but that’s an Apple exclusive…

🔗 The forgotten political roots of Bridge over Troubled Water - BBC Culture

The forgotten political roots of Bridge over Troubled Water - BBC Culture

Simon talked about using the primetime opportunity as a Trojan horse for “a home movie about where he thought the nation was”. Directed by actor Charles Grodin, Songs of America used the duo’s hits to soundtrack footage of riots, marches and the war in Vietnam, much to the horror of sponsors AT&T, who demanded their $600,000 investment back.

More after today’s post on Bridge over Troubled Waters.

🎵 Mike Love Playing Bridge Over Trouble Water on a Baratone Ukulele 📽

Mike Love Playing Bridge Over Trouble Water on a Baratone Ukulele

And here’s a Telegraph article (paywall) on the feud between Simon and Garfunkle when making the album.

The Transfiguration Sketchnote

I’ve been taking an intro to the New Testament class for the last couple of months. During that time we’ve been learning how to read a text in terms of textural, cultural and historical context using the transfiguration in Matthew as our reference point. Basically, the aim was to read the text as the author intended their audience to. On Tuesday we presented our text and our professor expanded on some points we hadn’t mentioned. This is a #sketchnote I made as he was speaking and describing how the climax of the transfiguration text and how it contrasts with the voice at Jesus’ baptism saying “listen to him”. Before the transfiguration the disciples say he is the messiah but don’t get that he must suffer, after they are distressed that he must suffer and die. Made with paper by we transfer on the iPad Pro.

The Easiest to Use

I’m weighing up three different email newsletter services.

I realy can’t choose.

And then I had a thought:

“When you can’t choose between two options, go for the one which is easier to use. The easier it is to use, the more you will use it.”

Suddenly, that decision doesn’t seem so tricky anymore. I suspect this principle would work for other tool decisions too.

P.s. Yes, I know there are times when you need “more power” and so the simplest isn’t the best. But you can only need more power if you’ve started using something, so start with simple.

That's Not My MacBook

I was reading my daughter “that’s not my owl” and started to wonder what a version for adults would look like. Now I’d like to present the ATP “that’s not my MacBook” bed time story.

A simple writing tip: adjectives and adverbs are lazy

Avoid adjectives and adverbs. Choose precise verbs and nouns.

Yes, there is adjectives in this tip, but sometime there’s no alternative (please do prove me wrong!). Also I break this rule all the time and it dilutes my writing.

Welcome to beta season, where all we can talk about is the beta

I really hate that the next couple of months of Apple podcasts will be almost completely about unreleased features and the beta. I get that there is demand for this content (doing for the clicks) but it just feels kind of pointless. Especially with the condescending advice that you shouldn’t download the beta (unlike us experts) but here are all the things you should wish you had. Then again I find the endless speculation to also be kind of pointless. I really enjoy the podcasts where you learn what you can do with the technology you have and not endlessly dream and complain about what you don’t have.

WWDC Hopes And Wishes 💻

Dear Tim Cook Clause, This year I’d like…

iOS updates

  • Fix whatever the hell happened to editing in text fields with mobile safari
  • A ‘Worktime" feature to compliment “Downtime”
  • Adding start dates to reminders
  • iMessages on windows (I have to use windows at work…so this would be like a glass of water in hell)
  • a bit more refining of how to search through photos (It can be really tricky to get to the right photo and you never want to accidentally go to the start of your photostream)
  • Siri improvements (I too can use Google…it’s not that impressive Siri)

iPadOS updates:

  • Improvements to “desktop class safari”
  • some new homescreen improvements (widget stuff?)
  • Keyboard short cuts for multitasking windows
  • Keyboard shortcuts to trigger shortcuts
  • FinalCut for the iPad
  • A magical fix for the dead pixel in my iPad screen

WatchOS updates

  • More faces
  • 3rd party faces (that don’t majorly drain the battery)
  • Sleep tracking built in
  • more rings (Like a mindfulness one and a sleep one)

Mac Updates

  • stablity. Sorry, Bug fixes and performance enhancements.
  • ARM Macs

Hardware

  • ARM Macbook air type thing
  • Homepod Mini
  • Homepod with screen
  • Apple watch 6 with new sensor

Thank you Tim Cook Clause Here are some cookies

p.s. The thing with Hey sucks. Don’t be that guy.