Don’t tell anyone. We’re still producing episodes. In this brief episode, Lyle and Lopp talk pens and typography and how they help us say what we need to say… Enjoy it now or download for later. Here’s a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. http://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0005.mp3
The One About Pens
I’ve started a podcast. Each episode, I find a smart person somewhere on the planet, and we talk about The Important Thing. I suspect we’re going to wander a bit, but wandering is usually the best part. I’m just delighted to kick off the first episode1 with Tiff Arment where The Important Thing is pens2.… More
Sponsor: A World Without Pens
I knew I was going to love Spike Jonze “Her”, but I didn’t know that my first opportunity to watch it was going to be on a long transatlantic flight where I’d be able to watch it… multiple times. Like three times. In a row.
There’s a longer article to be written about “Her”, but right now I want to bitch a bit. Jonze imagines a not-to-distant future where our operating system are becoming sentient. It’s not a science fiction movie because Jonze doesn’t get lost in in the science, he worries about how science might affect us socially. So, it’s a social science fiction movie?
There are small touches throughout the movie to remind you of this not-too-distant future. People dress like dorks, video games are awesome and immersive, and the denizens have strange new jobs appropriate to this future. Our protagonist writes personal letters for other people. Correction: he dictates these letters because in this future dictation is perfect and the need for keyboards has apparently vanished.
As I binged on “Her”, I became increasingly concerned about the absence of keyboards. I realized that if we had no keyboards, what happened to writing utensils? Pencils? And pens?
Look around where you’re sitting right now. Reach for a pen and something to write on. Sign your name and tell me how it feels. How does the pen feel in your hand? Too heavy? Too light? How does the ink land on the paper? Too thin? Too heavy? It’s probably been a long time since you’ve obsessed about a pen, you’ve taken it for granted. Now imagine a world with no pens.
What a fucking nightmare.
Jonze’s movie is about how technology is changing our relationship with each other. It’s funny, insightful, and often stop-you-in-your-head brilliant. Watch it. Watch it twice. Watch how in the future they never write, they just talk.
In the present, take some time to be aware of when you write. One of favorite ways to write is with a Zebra Sarasa 0.5mm black gel pen. It speaks to me. For the next two weeks, JetPens.com will throw this amazing pen into any order over $25 when you click on this coupon. This means there might be a great pen in your future.
One Hundred Mondays
I have a superpower, and like most superpowers, it’s not actually a superpower, but only a habit that I do 10% better than most humans. I chisel. Let’s say there’s this big project I want to complete. It’s not a big project; it’s immense. I’ve never done it before, and I’ve no actual idea how… More
The 2024 Bookmark Situation
The New Year is an excellent time to tidy. I’ve been sitting on the same browser information structure for years, meaning cruft has been acquired. My initial plan was to describe the current structure and then describe the proposed changes. As I evaluated my current set-up, a slew of apparent inefficiencies showed up, so this… More
The Software Developer’s Career Handbook
I am delighted to announce The Software Developer’s Career Handbook has been published. I call it the Bird Book because, well, there’s a bird on the cover. The Bird Book is the second edition of Being Geek. The absence of the words “being” and “geek” in the title hints that something is up. Reading the… More
The Business 2023
You’ve had a small number of career-defining moments. These are the select few moments in time when the trajectory of your career changed instantly and drastically. I have two buckets of these: ones I expected and ones that completely blindsided me. While the surprise and subsequent scrambling involved in being blindsided are chock full of… More
Ask Questions, Repeat The Hard Parts, and Listen
One of my least favorite moments as a leader, specifically your leader, is when you ask me to make the decision. First, yes, I know it’s my job to make these decisions, especially the complicated and high-risk ones. Second, it’s true I’ve acquired ample experience over the last thirty years, and the chance I can… More
The Quest for Interesting X
The almost immediate challenge with the introduction of the Internet presented was, “How do I find X?” Now, the actual first challenge was, “I wonder if X exists in this new world,” but that’s still “How do I find X?” This quest made search services the killer app of the Internet. AltaVista was a thing… More
Better, Faster, and More
I’m rewriting The Business for the next book. This piece is almost 15 years old, much has changed in negotiating an offer letter, and I have more advice on how to analyze those offers. So much advice that I am idea paralyzed™ trying to rewrite this piece. So, this is just a section of the… More