Category: Note to self

TOTD: Being pleasant to work with IS a long-term business strategy

You reap what you sow.

Apple’s app store has been an extremely effective way for them to profit off of developers and the innovations of other companies, but it has frequently exercised anti-competitive practices and capricious and transient app store policies:

Is it any wonder that large companies are hesitant to grant the same bully-tactics on the next possible fore-front of innovation—spatial computing?

When I worked on Kindle, the #1 request was always to make it possible to purchase books from the iPhone/iPad apps. The economics simply do not work when you have to pay 30% of every ebook purchase or content subscription to Apple. This is why you have all of these apps that require enrollment and purchasing from a website before the app works and content can be visible inside of the app on an i-device. No company wants to allow the next wave of economic hostage-taking on Apple’s spatial computing platform.

Unfortunately, when I place my cynical hat upon my head, I expect Apple to carve out one-off exceptions for large providers they need—the YouTube’s, Netflix’s, Spotify’s, and YouTube’s (in the past, as with YouTube, this has been through moves like pre-installing the app on their OS)—and then to play hard-ball with the long-tail of their developer ecosystem.

Indie developers should organize now and hammer out an improved deal with Apple for the spatial computing platform.

Thoughts on the World Cup Final 2022

Looking at the aesthetics of the match, France had no business winning; and yet, there they were, in it until the penalty kicks. Argentina owned the entire first half. They were the aggressors, the only ones able to build flow, the only ones able to attack. Di Maria was man possessed on the left side for Argentina, creating space and opportunity reliably in the final third form the left. He was taken down in the box for the first penalty and scored the second Argentina goal on a beautiful run of play a few minutes later.

Most of normal time in the game was fairly routine and boring. France was absolutely unable to get anything going or to find Mbappé with any space to make anything happen. For 80 minutes, it was all Argentina. A masterful game plan that was crushing France’s spirit and leading to an inevitable (and disappointing) overall match for France (but hey, at least Messi was going to get his win and the Golden Boot, right?

But then it all chnaged. France got back into the game on a penalty kick in the 80th minute, followed by an absolute scorcher by Mbappé from the left side of the box 1 minute later. I think it was 90 seconds or less of elapsed clock time that had France tying it and then playing to take the team into extra time. Wild.

Again, in extra time, Argentina is the only one that created a real shot that went in. IMO, Messi deserves the Golden Boot for that shot. He won’t get it because Mbappé was able to sit over yet another penalty kick several minutes later to tie it. Another goal he did not deserve or create, but that he did put away.

Messi gets the legacy he deserves. He played with passion and spirit. I’m happy he got this. For me Di Maria, despite being pulled off in the second half, is the man of the match. Absolutely incredible attacking from the left.

Francis Coppola: The creative process behind “The Godfather”

“The Godfather” (movie) stands the test of time as a work of art because of the hard work that Coppola put into the details of translating the literary work into cinema. When you think about the director lugging this notebook with him everywhere on set and using it as the singular resource for coordinating actors, production crew, etc. you get a sense of how he was able to maintain an understanding of where “true north” was at all times.

Key takeaways:

  1. Record impressions as you have them. You only read the book for the first time, once.
  2. Go deeper. In this case, Coppola was pressure-testing the text against the cinematic context. Figuring out what worked, what would be challenging, what could be dropped.
  3. Make your learning visual. Coppola was careful to preserve the underlying text by expanding the margins, using a ruler to point to passages, and then through utilization of symbols (such as asterisks) for emphasis.
  4. Synthesize, synthesize, synthesize. After understanding the text in great detail, creating a library of things he thought could work, and chunking the book into scenes of his own devising, ONLY THEN did he start mapping the scenes and elements so that they would work on screen. His notes about pacing, character development, synopses, etc. come after a meticulous exculpation of the underlying work.
Francis Coppola’s Notebook on ‘The Godfather’

Followup: Found another, even more detailed look at this notebook.

Forecasting wildfires for 2021 CA based on chamise water retention

Hailing from Redding, CA, I’ve seen my fair share of wildfires. Once, in high school, while late night swimming at Whiskeytown Lake, some friends and I beat out a fire with our towels alongside highway 299. A car speeding by saw us on the roadside, hit the brakes, and sparks flew everywhere, lighting the roadside scrub in an instant and immediately beginning to spread. Scary stuff.

As bad as the last few years have been for wildfires, it looks like this year is shaping up to be apocalyptic. Wired has an article talking about chamise and how the chaparral scrub is being used to measure the ambient water retention in these dry areas. TL;DR, it’s not looking so great:

And nothing scares a fire weather scientist quite like a year with dehydrated chamise. If it’s dry, then that’s a good indicator that everything is dry. “Right now, these are the lowest April 1 fuel moistures we’ve ever had,” Clements says. This is supposed to be the time of year when moisture levels are at their highest, thanks to recent autumn and winter rains. But California is withering in a drought. […] The California landscape appears ready to burn epically this year.

The Humble Shrub That’s Predicting a Terrible Fire Season, Matt Simon, Wired

So let’s check back on this one. I’ve put a reminder to check-in in the CA situation in November 2021 (hopefully post fire season) this year to see how accurate this forecast is.

The value of painting yourself into a corner

Years ago, when I ran The Puget News (RIP), a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in a while, gave me a wonderful compliment during a conversation we were having. He said something to the effect of, “You’ve been writing a lot recently, haven’t you? It shows. You’re speaking beautifully and gushing with ideas.” His words were spoken without a hint of irony and is something I think about quite often, not just because it was a gracious thing to say, but because there are so many times that I struggle to articulate a coherent thought.

Building a place on the internet to call home and then writing to a schedule is a challenge, but one worthy of throwing yourself against. It’s especially worthwhile if your goal isn’t notoriety, but clarity of thought.

One of the personal principles I try to live by is: “if you can’t write it or draw it, you don’t know it.” While it won’t always be pretty, this place is my attempt to live by that principle.

“Enter the Note-taker”, Bruce Lee

I loved this piece about Bruce Lee over on the ever-excellent Brain Pickings website. Did you know that Bruce Lee carried a notebook everywhere? Obviously, he’s exactly like me… just way more athletic and accomplished… and probably better at note-taking… but we both CARRY notebooks everywhere.

When you repeatedly see that successful people are the ones who curate what they think and how they think about it, you start to see why putting pen to paper can be so important. Check out this bit from the post:

When [the studio] tried to cut all the philosophy out of Enter the Dragon because they wanted a vacantly entertaining action movie, Lee refused to go on set for two weeks, insisting that the kung-fu and the philosophy were inextricably entwined, each the vehicle for the other. Hollywood eventually had to relent and it was precisely the philosophical dimension that rendered the movie — just before the release of which Lee met his untimely death — a cultural icon and a beacon of racial empowerment associated with the Black Power movement, later acquired by the Library of Congress as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” artifact.

Bruce Lee’s Never-Before-Seen Writings on Willpower, Emotion, Reason, Memory, Imagination, and Confidence

Lee was comfortable enough with his own values to take a stand for it. A martial artist trying to break into Hollywood who had the presence of mind to say “I want success but on my terms.” This sort of strength comes from a deep understanding of values and motives, something which is frequently uncovered through exploratory writing.

Another element of the post that I found fascinating, is how Bruce seemed to filter his ideas over time, strengthening those that provided the most value, and turning many of them into daily meditations and personal commitments. He captured tons of small details but clearly also took the time to revisit and refine things that he saw as important. This is key element of note-taking systems.

Beyond capture is curation and ultimately creation. Bruce Lee embodied this process in many areas of his life. I strongly recommend clicking on over to the actual post to see exclusive photos the notebooks and letters from the Bruce Lee archive.

Daily creation

“It is amateurs who have one big bright beautiful idea that they can never abandon. Professionals know that they have to produce theory after theory before they are likely to hit the jackpot.”

“What Mad Pursuit,” by Francis Crick

“Quick and dirty” is far better than “never and perfect.” Once you have something down, your mind begins a dialog with what you’ve started and it will hunt until it reaches some resolution.

Create every damn day. You’ll feel better.