cmod

This is nothing if not a dark pattern, and I would be very suspicious of what metric triggers "looking at the room"

Yoshino is a gem. I'm running a retreat there later this year with Jan Chipchase.

I've struggled with this popup (keeping it or nixing it; I'm the owner of the site). Sadly, it's insanely effective at converting folks (thousand of subscriptions over the last few months; high retention as I track those subs separately). It shouldn't trigger while reading unless you leave the window. And also won't trigger until you're at the bottom of the screen. And if you dismiss it once, you should never see it again with that browser on the site.

That said, it is annoying, especially on a page about newsletters. So I just modified my templates to take a variable to turn it off on a page-by-page basis (using Hugo to generate the site). Won't appear for this post anymore.

I've tried to split the difference. All my newslettering is also published on my site, with attendant RSS feeds. The thing about the newsletter I love, as I explained in the essay, is the quality of conversation is so much higher than anything I've found outside of the inbox. (Hacker News excepted; this place deserves its own love letter.)

Perhaps easiest to use Goodreads date search as a basic filter: https://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/1923/

I think there is a subset of users who interact with text far more than others. I find I can't read without a pen in hand — if I am not marking up the text or taking marginal notes then I feel like I'm only receiving a narrow sliver of what I consider a "full" reading experience. (This is true for novels as much, if not more, as it is for non-fiction.) My suggestions were to bring to the Kindle something akin to the experience of reading paper with a pen in hand.

Author here. Thanks for your response. (I've had a few ex-Kindle folks reach out with either precisely similar or precisely opposite sentiments; I guess it's a big team.)

I originally had a huge footnote acknowledging that much of this is obvious and that the Kindle team is full of smart people who have data showing that maybe these aren't the best optimizations. I'm just describing my expectations from having used Kindles for ten (??!) years coupled with having worked on designing digital reading interfaces for a similar amount of time. I'm certainly an edge case user.

Having seen my mother (edit: and, more pertinently: myself) struggle with her Kindle, I do think the interaction model is one-degree unnecessarily complex — all of those hidden spaces.

You could distill my whole piece to: This is a single purpose device that's been designed like a multi-purpose device.

Page turn buttons + menu button would all but eliminate any interaction ambiguity. And could be done quite beautifully.

Although I don't have access to any data, I think there might be a subset of casual users who would prefer the screen to do nothing when touched.

For an archetype of the anti-sentiment to your post, I highly recommend the autobiography of Donald Keene, renown translator of Japanese literature: Chronicles of my Life: An American in the Heart of Japan [0]. He never stops working on the next project, biting off the next book. It's an inspiring life of rich and endless output, lived in such a gentle (almost heartbreaking) way.

[0] https://amzn.to/2GZk0Am

One example in the positive column: Robin Sloan has consistently written optimistically about SF, both in Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, and his new novel, Sourdough.

I believe the main issue is that people use facebook as if it were the open web. People aren't posting because they want to keep their content in a silo, but rather because they don't know of / have an alternative publishing vector.

Nobody is saying don't have private silos, but I believe Gruber and co are saying don't pretend like a private silo is public, when it isn't.

I recommend Hiut Denim:

https://hiutdenim.co.uk/collections/mens

Reasonably priced. Exceptional quality. And you get to support a community of jeans makers in Wales.

Also — free repairs for life. I've sent a couple of pairs back a few times because I wear the hell out of my jeans, and they return with repairs almost more beautiful than the original fabric.

Truly one of those rare companies that does one thing extremely well.

If you've ever wondered why so many people review cameras, it's because it's a relatively easy way to rack up high-cost, good %, affiliate returns.

I'm hesitant to recommend this but Flume is a wonderful full client Mac OS app (Hesitant because I don't know how it hasn't been shut down, and I love it dearly and use it daily)

And another Times article on Jizos by Peggy Orenstein from 2002 that also mentions the abortion angle: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/magazine/mourning-my-misca...

I found "resetting" my timeline to be helpful. Post-election the entire Twitterverse felt like an indignation machine, but then I realized it was a machine I had made.

This Chrome extension worked perfectly for me: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/twitter-unfollow/m...

I've unfollowed everyone (eight years worth of following!), and have been slowly rebuilding the timeline. Strangely cathartic, and the FOMO fades quickly.

It's also nice to start from zero again, rebuilding your interests and filling your universe with thoughtful people in a deliberate and considered way. I wish more social networks made un-collecting as intuitive and organic as following/collecting.

Wonderful story!

My walking mentor — John McBride — walked Shikoku when he was 18 (nearly 30 years ago) as well. He stole some money from a temple (he was doing it with no cash). Felt so guilty he went back a few days later and confessed. The priest made him clean the temple for a week and taught him how to beg for food in the traditional pilgrim way: standing out in front of houses and announcing your presence.

He completed the entire pilgrimage that way. This last December we did 10 days of Shikoku and went back to the same temple — the priest was still alive! In his 90s. He didn't remember John, but John had a photo of the two from 30 years prior. Incredible to see him be able to trace back and close that loop.

Amazing little moments abound on walks like these.

Oops — fixed. Thanks. Was missing an http. Here it is if you were curious: http://walkkumano.com/kickstarter.com/projects/craigmod/6152...

Absolutely agree — this is why I keep going back to Kumano.

Japan has Nakasendo, Tokaido, the Shikoku pilgrimage, salt roads, Basho's backroads to the north, the paths of Dewasanzan, etc etc etc. It's nearly infinite. I figured if I spend ten years walking Kumano I might have the slightly chance of possibly understanding a small piece of it.

(Co-creator here) — Thanks for the comment. I've hiked these trails over and over and each time I've wondered about camping. I figured being discrete was key. Might give it a go with an ultralight tent or bivy sack this spring.

And on the typography front:

* Properly hyphenates

A good case where design really does matter. These things stick out like sore thumbs. Good museum labels blend. They certainly don't look like old thermostats.

I can't imagine most museum curators would dare to put these on their walls.

And anyway — why constrain all information to a single display. If the goal is to get more information about a painting to a view, there are more solutions both more efficient and kinder to the patrons.

This feels like a case where a simple (dare I say it?!) QR code would have much longer, smarter legs.

Amazing. Care to share the names?

Taking writing more seriously and approaching it with more rigor.

Everything and everyone interesting in my life from the past six years can be traced directly back to writing. Jobs I've gotten, deeper relationships with people whose work I love and respect — all tied together by words.

In my life, I can't think of a single thing that has a better return on time in to value out. (Outside of family / children.)

What's My Name?

Beautiful little 20 min doc on his life and, yes, his name: http://www.nytimes.com/video/sports/100000003216440/muhammad...

This Pico Iyer TED talk is a great example of how a talk can be so well crafted, rehearsed, and mapped, and yet still so conversational and welcoming. Almost a inversion of PG's piece — type as you talk and then talk as you typed.

https://www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_where_is_home?language=e...

Techmeme is a prime example of this — bookmark it on your homescreen and it's as good as an app. Their mobile design is, IMO, easier to parse than the web, too.

This is why the first thing I install on any Mac is MenuMeters. Beautiful, simple, and, as you impress, essential:

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

Liz Danzico's Bobulate[0] has had a "night mode" for years, based on your local time-zone:

[0]: http://bobulate.com/

I've been a delighted Rackspace user for over a decade (!!) now. Recently switching from dedicated server to their cloud service.

They also have a startup program where they'll subsidize $1000 of hosting for six months: http://rackspacestartups.com/

If you want some extra context for the awesomeness that's happening here (especially around the power of reusable components), try watching When We Left Earth:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_M...

It runs through the making of Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle, Hubble, and the ISS.