Minimal Mac

Full audio to the Q&A that Apple’s COO Tim Cook gave at The Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference a couple of days ago. It is a really fascinating listen and the more I listen to Tim, the more I feel that Apple would be in good hands after Steve Jobs. This is especially true whenever he alludes to the culture and people at Apple being what drives the innovation and how much thought and purpose is put into hiring just the right people. There is some very telling stuff here.

You hate Jane, don’t you. Just say it. Go ahead, give her that netbook and slap her in the face. You jerk.

Meet Jane.

My point, such that I have one, is that simplicity is easy to describe but difficult to achieve. Especially (though not exclusively) when there are other people in your life.

Gosh, this is so very true. A hilarious must read. (thx Jonas Wisser)

When I published my post titled, “Dear Mr. Jobs” last week, I heard a couple of comments about my “cluttered” menubar. It got me thinking about the current move towards minimalism and simplicity in regards to our digital tools. It’s a movement that I’m greatly in favour of. It has been wonderful… to see a work like Patrick’s Minimal Mac receive so much attention and success.

But at times, I wonder if it isn’t just the next fad. It’s certainly partly a backlash to the personal productivity movement, with GTD at the centre. But maybe it’s also the new GTD. Instead of doing work, people are still tinkering. But now they do so under the guise of ‘reducing’ or ‘simplifying’. But in the end, it’s the same issue. The boring tasks that you need to do are still on your list. But we have a whole new generation of singly focused, minimalistic tools that tempt us to switch from whatever we’re using now.
Please don’t take this the wrong way. I love what Patrick and others are doing: helping people focus on what is needed and avoiding what they don’t. But the whole genre is vulnerable to going down the same path that personal productivity did.

And so, back to the comments that were made about my menubar. Cluttered? Only if I didn’t use the items that reside therein. Which I do.
I prefer, when possible, to keep an item in my menubar rather than in the Dock. I prefer a tool in my menubar over a Dashboard widget. Why? Because it suits my preferences and fits my workflow.
I’m fairly sure I could lose 2 days of work looking for ways to configure those tools to be accessed in some other fashion. But why? Just so I can post screenshots that will cause others to say, “This guy is so zen. He’s must be in the zone all. the. time!”
Minimalism in computing is not about how your computer looks. It’s about how you use it — ensuring it has everything you need and nothing you don’t.

It should come as a surprise to no one who has really been following along here for the past several months that I agree with Chris 100%. I have said as much here, here, here, and even more I will not bother linking to (seriously, search around, I say this stuff all the time).

See, I am in this weird position. I feel like I kind of helped to start something that has nothing to do with what I believe in (which is what I have said I believe in and what Chris believes in, as he so elegantly stated above). Yet, the only way for me to combat it is to show up every day and continue to express what I believe in. Which, inevitably, some people myopically think is something other than what I believe in.

Believe me when I tell you this stuff weighs on me heavily. Like, really heavily. It is the reason why you see no posts for a day or two at times. I just not sure I want to contribute to all of these people who think the key to “minimalism” and “simplicity” is killing off their menubar and dock. I can’t tell you how many times my finger has hovered over the delete account button… Sigh.

Just so we are clear…

I believe the most minimal computer is the one that is optimized for you. How you work. The menubar items you need. The dock items you need. The applications you need. The system you need. The peripherals you need. The tools you need to get the job done.

I believe most of us do not take the time often enough to evaluate what that need is. The entire mission of this site is to help you ask those questions and find the answer that is right. The only answer that is right. The one that is right for you and only you.

Update: I have added this info to the about page.

Update #2: Chris and I have had this back and forth before. Resulting in pretty much the same response by me… Good times.

From the consumer’s perspective, I don’t see a compelling reason to keep the iPod around. If presented with the option of either an iPod Classic or Nano model or a touch OS device for the same price, I suspect 19 out of 20 people would select the Touch.

Gosh, I can’t help but feel Sean is right about this. It is something I have felt for a while but have been afraid to publicly vocalize. I do have to say that, though it goes against what I believe in, I’m very tempted to buy an iPod nano just to have one before I can’t anymore.

That said, I do think that a device in the nano and shuffle range fills a need for a certain segment of folks that the touch does not. That segment is workout enthusiasts and active folks who need something small and incredibly durable. That female snowboarder who was singing out of tune at the top of her lungs before her Olympic run was rocking a nano. I just can’t see a touch taking that kind of abuse (tonal or otherwise). On the other hand, as Sean points out, this is a niche segment that Apple has no financial reason to cater to.

Ephemera – If you are looking for a simple way to get your Instapaper cache into your eBook reader (It supports just about every device), this looks like a slick way to do so.

There’s been lots of talk of it being a ‘third’ product, in-between iPhone and laptop. To me, this reminds me of ‘third places’. That’s a Ray Oldenburg term, of The Great Good Place, and generally refers to cafés, bars, libraries etc. Thus the iPad to me feels more like a product for third places rather than a third product. Its form factor and service model is defined for in-between spaces. Although it will float around the home and the office perfectly well, it comes into its own in these third spaces in a way that that phone and laptop cannot, being either too small or too large respectively.

I have largely avoided posting much about the iPad here lately. Largely because most of the conversation has been lots of takes on the same issues (multitasking, Flash, the future of the UI, etc.). This piece is very different and refreshing. It provides some new perspectives I certainly have not seen elsewhere. Worth the long read. (thx Marco. Seriously, thanks.)

Despite their humble, decades-old base technology (plain text), innovative uses of lo-fi technologies can be remarkably hi-fi, as in the case of AJAX (whose most famous application may be Google’s Gmail service).

Some things we believe in here for sure.

This is a very nice piece with helpful links about why the combo of Notational Velocity, Simplenote and Dropbox is such a game changer for .txt nerds like me. Having seamless syncing and super fast searching of my text files on all of my Macs and my iPhone feels a whole lot like magic to me.

I don’t normally link to my own work other places. That said, I will do so when I feel it is appropriate. Ever wonder how I manage to sift through a ton of noise to find the stuff that I curate here? This is how.

The thing I like most about this particular entry in Shawn Blanc’s totally voyertastic Sweet Mac Setup series is that it proves the sweetest setup is the one that works for you. In this case, Sean has his Macbook Pro, Magic Mouse, and whatever flat surface he has at hand. No fancy desks. No multiple monitors. Just the minimal tools he needs to get the task at hand done. That, my friends, is what I believe in.

(Also, the Drobo, stuck sitting in the corner is the icing on the cake).

I spent some time reading different comments and articles about the pro’s and con’s of the idea behind the iPhone OS, most specifically the fact that it is hiding the filesystem from the user. Personally I think it’s a great idea.

I do too. Read the whole thing. Some excellent points made toward that argument.

Those who know me know I LOVE getting a peek at other peoples workflows. I think the reason for this is that it always helps to spark new ideas about how I might improve mine. This one fits the bill especially well because, while I use all of the tools here, the flow is completely different than mine. I find such things fascinating.