I’ve been using OmniFocus for task management for at least a decade. In all that time, I’ve struggled with getting a key part of GTD right. The intention behind any task management system is that you put all your stuff in there so that at the exact moment you need it you find it. When it works, it’s the kind of magic that leads to having a truly “trusted system”.

I am diligent about putting items in the Inbox, tracking them, moving them into projects, setting defer dates, and reviewing regularly. But, until recently, I didn’t have a good answer for how I figure out what to work on next.…

I’m a big fan of larger frameworks like Django or Rails or UIKit. I know there’s a bit of a war between the folks who like the out-of-the-box kitchen sink frameworks and those who want to mash together their own framework from a series of libraries. I find that most projects (even in the microservices world) approach a size and scale quickly that makes the larger frameworks worth it. Otherwise, I often end up reinventing stuff that has been done better by people way smarter than I am.

However, I recently got a reminder that sometimes small tools built from libraries can be elegant.

I just…

As much as we’re all going to need to watch our subscription counts, I’m looking forward to the world of subscription publishing Ev describes here.

Anything that increases the quality of journalism is something to be excited about. The resurgence of the Washington Post after Bezos’ purchase is, I think, evidence for the power of what stable revenue can do for publishing. Technology isn’t a good replacement for a lot of talented and motivated reporters.

That said, I don’t think it’s likely that this does much to address media polarization. Maybe with better journalism we get more of the…

RescueTime suggests that peak programmer hours are on average between 2pm and 6pm. This aligns with my experience that we need a solid ramp up period before being productive developers.

Once programmers have gotten going, interruptions are incredibly destructive to the tune of at least 15 minutes to ramp back up depending on memory load.

The ramp up period is so important and the cost of interruptions are so high that it’s important to find ways to defend your uninterrupted time. Book periods of work on your calendar, put up Do Not Distrub signs, get out of the office, etc.

It’s also really…

There’s been a bunch of discussion about Mark Gurman’s article on Apple working on a single user experience for iOS and Mac apps. We’re not entirely sure what Apple intends here, which is leading to a lot of concerned speculation. One take (summarized well in John Gruber’s article on the subject) is that this will cause developers to port their iOS apps directly to the Mac, resulting in a mass influx of poorly designed Mac apps. “Write once, run everywhere” has never gone well.

I’d like to propose a possible middle ground suggested by React Native:

It’s worth noting that we’re not…