Cal Newport writes about his daily “shutdown” technique. It’s not unlike what Aaron and Dave talked about on episode 6 of their Home Work podcast, which spurred me to start a new habit of jotting down the mental loose ends of my day and basically debriefing myself so that when I step away from my computer for the day my mind is clear.
(This of course should not be confused with trying to kick out the top idea in your mind.)
Jason Fried:
Change is important. When we were growing up, we got summers off from school. Summer vacation was change. It was something to look forward to. A few months of something different really meant a lot.
We grow out of a lot as we grow up. One of the most unfortunate things we leave behind is a regular dose of change. Nowhere is this more evident than at work.
Work in February is the same as work in May. June’s the same as October. And it would be hard to tell August from April.
To step out from behind the curtain for a moment and be transparent with you guys, what Jason writes about here has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve been learning to navigate ever since I took this site full time.
I haven’t taken a complete break from this site since I started it 18 months ago. Even on vacation I steal away for an hour or two every day to read and write a bit (and I’m not talking about recreational reading and writing).
Because, in a way, I don’t work for myself. I work for you, dear readers and members. And if I don’t visibly show up every day by posting something, there’s a sense that I’m not working.
Of course, in reality, I doubt any of you are thinking that. But that’s what I assume you’re thinking even though I should know better.
I know how to invest my time in the long-term growth, innovation, and quality of this site. But often it’s the short-term expectations or the seemingly urgent events that take hold of my attention. And, if not that, then it’s the fear that taking a complete break from work (or taking time away from publishing something in favor of working on a different project) will be perceived as laziness. What? Nothing new on shawnblanc.net today? I thought this guy was full-time. Sheesh. What a bum.
In short, I wonder if I would do better, more challenging, and more exciting work if the value and consistency of that work was not measured in 24-hour cycles.
My thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. I have heard nothing but great things about version 6, and many of my tech-savvy friends have begun using it. If you’re in need of a sturdy and classy website and you don’t want to self-manage everything, you should definitely check out Squarespace 6.
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Loren Donelson:
Since I’m noodling a move back to iOS, I thought I’d make a list of things that I’ll miss about Android — things that might make my shiny new iPhone 5 end up on Ebay.
His list is spot on for several of the things I’ve found Android does better or makes easier than iOS. Interestingly, he doesn’t mention Notification Center which I find to be far and away more intuitive and usable on Android than on iOS.
Chuck Skoda, astute as usual:
[Twitter] should have a vision for what the future of communicating and sharing looks like, and be building it.
But from the looks of it, they aren’t. They’re just trying to protect what they’ve already built.
What makes Twitter great is this: it doesn’t matter how many people join the service, or how asinine the trending topics are, because for you it’s only as big or small or smart or silly as who you follow.
I never cared how many celebrities joined, because I don’t follow them (well, I follow some of the cool ones). And so for me Twitter is as small and relevant and interesting now as when I first signed up in March of 2007.
Over the years, Twitter has grown and improved immensely. Twitter is huge now, and that is thanks in a large part to its early adopters and 3rd-party developers.
As Craig Hockenberry, Ben Brooks, and many others have pointed out, some of the best core features of Twitter were invented by users and developers:
It is sad and frustrating to see Twitter try and scare away third-party developers. It is equally frustrating to see their continued commitment to put sponsored content into our Twitter streams. Actions which mean the user experience of many millions of Twitter users who use 3rd-party apps (and I would argue this group makes up the vast majority of the most active and prolific users) will no doubt be seriously degraded in the months and years ahead.
To be fair, as users we have had free access to use Twitter as we see fit. For years our Twitter experience was ad free. Heck, for those of us who use 3rd-party apps exclusively our experience is still ad free. We have been able to freely use Twitter to our enjoyment and to our profit.
And so, what is saddening about all this is not just that Twitter seeks to clamp down on 3rd-party apps in the name of a “consistent Twitter experience“. Nor am I all that frustrated that Twitter wants to integrate ads into my timeline.
What is sad is that as long-time and active users, we’re given no choice in the matter. We must suffer the official clients and we must suffer ads.
So why not let us pay for the ad-free, 3rd-party Twitter experience we have long enjoyed?
Amazon sells their Kindles with special offers, but if you don’t want to see the ads then you have to pay $30 extra.
But I am sure that option will never manifest. Because if Twitter offered an option to upgrade to an ad-free timeline it would hinder the sales of ads. The sheer virtue of the fact that a portion of Twitter’s user base was paying to not see ads would stand as proof that promoted tweets are not a part the ideal “Twitter experience”.
Moreover, it would mean that advertising partners would be buying ad spots that wouldn’t be guaranteed not to be seen by certain users. Of which those users would clearly be the most active and engaged.
If Twitter is going to sell ads they have to go all in. We knew it was coming, and now we know it’s only going to get worse. We can suffer through it or we can move on to something else.
Chris Bowler (he wrote this over a year ago, but it sounds like he wrote it this morning):
Twitter spent the early years building up as many users as possible — due in large part to the third party apps that accessed the service — and decided to put off figuring out how to make money off of their service until later. Now that they have the users, they seem to have no remorse about commoditizing those users and cutting out the very people that helped Twitter become what it is.
And be sure to read the concluding paragraph in Chris’ article. He hits on the same reason that I (and probably many of you) find this transition to be so frustrating.
David Smith:
Twitter seems to have forgotten its roots. The long tail of Innovators and Early Adopters at the head of the adoption curve does not become irrelevant to your audience once you begin to welcome the Majorities. The same people who pioneered the adoption of your platform would also be the people leading an exodus.
Paul Haddad on why Twitter’s API changes won’t have a massive, world-ending impact on Tweetbot:
- Our user cap for Tweetbot for iOS is pretty huge (which is 2* our current users, not 100k)
- At the current rate our user base is growing we won’t hit that cap for a few years
- Our user cap for Tweetbot for Mac is also large and we don’t expect any problems given the smaller market
- Even if we were to run out of room all our current users will be fine
There are some great quotes and stories from Seth Godin in this interview:
I think “creativity” is better described as failing repeatedly until you get something right.
And:
I keep looking to have enough guts to do something that might not work. The phrase “this might not work” is something I try to say on a regular basis.
The video review is pretty brutal. Regarding side-by-side app mode, Patel says:
In many ways this is a dream that has turned into a terrible, unresponsive nightmare.
But hey, at least it’s a feature the iPad doesn’t have (unless you use actual pen and paper).
I had the privilege of being the guest on episode 3 of the internet’s greatest new podcast: CMD+SPACE. It was a huge honor to be on the show because the guests for the previous 2 episodes were big heroes of mine: Merlin Mann and Jason Snell.
Myke interviewed me regarding the membership to shawnblanc.net and we talked a lot about what can make or break a reader-supported endeavor.
Since I’m caffeinated, I’ll get right to it: The Espro Press makes an amazing cup of french press coffee.
These things are finally starting to show up for sale, so it’s time to review the one I got from Kickstarter back in April.
The original Espro Press is an 8-ounce single-serving press pot. I’d never even heard of it before I saw their project on Kickstarter, where their aim was to build a 32-ounce version. Since I am genetically predisposed to back any coffee-related project on Kickstarter, I pitched in my $85 and “pre-ordered” one of the large Espro Presses.
Their project was funded (more than five times over), and in early April of this year I received my 32-ounce (1,000 ml) press.
Seven days a week I brew a cup of coffee. Most days it’s with my AeroPress, but once or twice a week I like to make french press. People often ask me what makes a better cup of coffee — AeroPress or french press? Well, they both make fantastic coffee with their advantages and disadvantages. I enjoy both for different reasons; they’re both favorites, really.
So what is it about the Espro Press that makes it so much nicer than my Bodum french press? Two things:
The pot is durable and rugged. And it’s heavy. Since it’s stainless steel, the best way to keep it clean is to hand wash it. But I’ve been putting it in the dishwasher since I got it and there are no rust spots.
The double-walled steel construction helps keep the coffee hotter for longer. Normally after brewing a pot of french press I would pour it into a vacuum thermos. Now I just bring the press downstairs to my office with me. Though the Espro Press doesn’t keep the coffee piping for 3-4 hours like my vacuum thermos does, it does keep it hot enough for over an hour (about how long it takes me to finish a pot) and it means one less vessel to clean.
| Time (min.) | Temp (F) |
| 41 | 168° |
| 10 | 166° |
| 15 | 162° |
| 30 | 156° |
| 45 | 149° |
| 60 | 144° |
Since the press rod and lid are metal, they conduct a good amount of heat. Which means some heat is lost through the rod and lid, as well as the fact that the lid gets very hot to the touch. But it also means they are built to last — a tradeoff I’m willing to accept.
Double-walled stainless steel french presses are not a new thing. For example: the $100 Frieling french press has a high-quality double-walled stainless steel carafe, not unlike the Espro Press. But the Frieling has the same basic steel mesh filter that you’ll find in a common Bodum french press.
What makes the Espro Press the Espro Press is the filter.
It’s a double-layered micro filter basket with a rubber lip seal. It’s unlike any other press pot filter I’ve seen, and it makes a great cup of coffee.
The filter basket is designed to keep as much of the grit out of the brewed coffee as possible. Here’s a comparison of the grit left at the bottom of a cup of coffee by an AeroPress, an Espro Press, and a classic french press:
Obviously the AeroPress wins the “keep as much grit out as possible” competition because I used a paper filter.2 The Espro Press, however, has far less grit than the classic french press. And since the Espro uses a micro filter, you don’t lose any oils to a paper filter. (Though I don’t know that I’d even be able to tell the difference.)
I drank all three of the now empty cups of coffee you see above. Comparing the Espro Press to the French Press side by side like that I realized just how superior the Espro Press is. The classic french press coffee was noticeably more acidic and bitter (not horribly so) than the Espro Press coffee.
I’ve always loved the rich and bold coffee that a french press makes, and the Espro seems to make the best version of it.
The Espro Press, despite having a much more complex filter than your average french press, is still just as easy to clean.
Removing the filter basket from the pot, I simply rinse off the grounds from the sides of the basket, rinse out the pot itself, and then put the whole thing into the dishwasher.
The basket can be easily separated so as to clean out the middle zone of the double walls. Until today, I had yet to do this. Here’s a is a shot of the grit that accumulated inside the middle filter wall after 30 or so uses of the Espro Press (and, for the record, I intentionally didn’t clean the inside wall of the basket, because I wanted to see how dirty it would get over an extended period of time):
There’s no reason to let even that much grit accumulate. Taking apart the filter basket is quite simple (it easily twists apart), allowing you to easily separate the outer and inner baskets every time you put it in the dishwasher.
The Espro Press carafe can hold 1,500 ml of water. But that leaves no room for any coffee grounds or the filter basket. You can brew up to 1,000 ml of coffee, but I’ve found that the best recipe is when you brew 750 ml.3
The reason I shy away from brewing the full 1,000 ml capacity is that large filter basket gets in the way when you are brewing that much liquid. About 230 ml of liquid are displaced into the basket and thus don’t fully brew with the rest of the water.
Therefore, when brewing 1,000 ml of coffee I do 70 grams of grinds instead of the recommended 60. This causes the water below the basket to brew stronger, and then be diluted a bit once the basket is pressed down and the previously displaced water rejoins the brewed coffee.
The recipe I prefer is the one that Espro recommends for a 3/4 pot:
Now, if you’re looking for an iPhone coffee app, I can recommend one of those as well.
Andre Torrez:
Rather than say: “I am too busy, I don’t have any time for X.” I realize I can be honest and say I am not interested enough in X to do it.
Being honest and saying we’re not interested: honesty to the other person or honesty to ourselves? Probably both.
