Author: William Gallagher

What, even Sundays? Do something every day

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Getting up, for one. Probably eating. Exercise if necessary. But then also at least something, just something of whatever you're working on:

NO ZERO DAYS. A zero day is the day when you don’t do a single thing towards your goal.

Its 11.58pm and feel like you didn’t do anything? Do that one pushup. Write that sentence. Read one page.

You may say its not much but hey, its not a zero. 1 is much much better than a zero. Zero is your enemy. Fight it, ruthlessly.

Limitless

It's similar to the Jerry Seinfeld Technique (now famously denied by Seinfeld who says he has no idea where it came from or why it's named after him) and it's similar to my own Bad Days advice. So that's three people or three entire philosophies in agreement: can it possibly be wrong?

Nod to Lifehacker for reading Limitless

2014 is the Year of Deep Linking

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Sure it is. It’s also the Year of the Horse, the Year of Family Farming, the Year of Encryption, you could go on and it feels like I have done. But this claim of the Year of Deep Linking aside, writer Liron Shapira makes a reasoned argument for why deep linking is important – and just what it is, too:

Say you’re looking for an awesome karaoke bar, and use Yelp for a quick search. What’s wrong with this picture? Your friend goes on Yelp’s website and searches for nearby karaoke places, then texts you: “Check out all these karaoke places! Here’s a link.” The text comes with a link to a Web page full of karaoke search results. That’s convenient, and exactly what you need. But if your friend is using the Yelp app, the text has to read: “Check out all these karaoke places I found! Open Yelp and search for ‘karaoke.’” The app can’t offer a direct link to the right content, putting you and your friend one step farther from your signature rendition of “Lights.”

Liron Shapira – 2014 Is the Year of the Deep Link – Re/code (15 May 2014)

Okay, so that’s what it is and there is money in searching. Read the full piece for what is happening with this idea, why firms are investing in it and how we are likely to see it everywhere soon.

PS. There are no awesome karaoke bars. Just wanted to save you the trouble of searching.

Do self-driving cars come as standard or is it a KITT?

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Re/code has an interesting view on Google’s self-driving cars, the invention we’ve wanted since Knight Rider began in 1982. And it’s the invention we are surely most wary of:

The Google self-driving car has come a long way. On a demo excursion through Google’s Mountain View campus and surrounding neighborhoods today, the white Lexus self-driving test vehicle I rode in was much less of a conservative driver than I anticipated.

Sure, it followed the rules of the road, but it also accelerated into the open lane in front of us and then nudged itself around a truck that was edging into our lane so we could drive ahead without pausing.

Maybe I was kidding myself, but from my vantage point in the back seat, I didn’t feel unsafe in the least. The car braked for jaywalkers, paused when it was coming around a curve and couldn’t see whether the light in front of us was green or red, and skittered when it worried that a bus might be turning into our lane.

Liz Gannes – Re/code (13 May 2014)

Gannes’s full feature is a balanced look at the pros and cons of driverless vehicles and of exactly where we are with them now.

This is how to pitch yourself to a magazine

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I had 200 unsolicited submissions when I was features editor on a magazine and I rejected 199 of them. This one would’ve made it 198: this is so much how a terrific writer should and did pitch that I’m recommending it to you even though it failed.

Eighty-one years on, I hope The New Yorker magazine is ashamed of its stupidity.

March 15, 1933

Gentlemen,

I suppose you’d be more interested in even a sleight-o’-hand trick than you’d be in an application for a position with your magazine, but as usual you can’t have the thing you want most.

I am 23 years old, six weeks on the loose in N.Y. However, I was a New Yorker for a whole year in 1930–31 while attending advertising classes in Columbia’s School of Business. Actually I am a southerner, from Mississippi, the nation’s most backward state. Ramifications include Walter H. Page, who, unluckily for me, is no longer connected with Doubleday-Page, which is no longer Doubleday-Page, even. I have a B.A.(’29) from the University of Wisconsin, where I majored in English without a care in the world. For the last eighteen months I was languishing in my own office in a radio station in Jackson, Miss., writing continuities, dramas, mule feed advertisements, santa claus talks, and life insurance playlets; now I have given that up.

As to what I might do for you — I have seen an untoward amount of picture galleries and 15¢ movies lately, and could review them with my old prosperous detachment, I think; in fact, I recently coined a general word for Matisse’s pictures after seeing his latest at the Marie Harriman: concubineapple. That shows you how my mind works — quick, and away from the point. I read simply voraciously, and can drum up an opinion afterwards.

Since I have bought an India print, and a large number of phonograph records from a Mr. Nussbaum who picks them up, and a Cezanne Bathers one inch long (that shows you I read e. e. cummings I hope), I am anxious to have an apartment, not to mention a small portable phonograph. How I would like to work for you! A little paragraph each morning — a little paragraph each night, if you can’t hire me from daylight to dark, although I would work like a slave. I can also draw like Mr. Thurber, in case he goes off the deep end. I have studied flower painting.

There is no telling where I may apply, if you turn me down; I realize this will not phase you, but consider my other alternative: the U of N.C. offers for $12.00 to let me dance in Vachel Lindsay’s Congo. I congo on. I rest my case, repeating that I am a hard worker.

Truly yours,

Eudora Welty

From Letters of Note (UK edition, US edition) via Brainpickings

Vincent Van Gogh go go

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The artist and latterly Doctor Who star Vincent knew his onions about being productive and creative:

Get started: Don’t wait for everything to be perfect. “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile,” said van Gogh.

Do the work: Commit to your goals and go through the motions to achieve it – whether the outcome is good or bad. Vincent van Gogh believed if you do nothing, you are nothing.

Work for yourself: The longer you work and figure things out for yourself, the more active your brain becomes. An active brain is a more creative brain.

The Importance of Doing – 99U

That’s paraphrased Van Gogh. Paraphrased twice over: 99U writer Stephanie Kaptein has a piece examining Think Jar Collective with creativity author Michael Michalko who in turn examined the work ethic of artist Vincent van Gogh. Do go follow the rabbit hole into more and more detail about this.

Just look at this and go grab Word Lens now it’s free

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That’s what it does. Isn’t that amazing? That’s the English to French option and right now, as reported yesterday, you can get Word Lens and all its dictionaries for free.

I remember the day a group of us first saw Google Earth and one guy called it the most impressive thing he had ever seen on a computer. I agreed then, I agree now, yet with Google Earth you can comprehend how it works. It’s a lot of photographs of the Earth. Impressive, even staggering, but comprehensible.

I can’t comprehend Word Lens.

If it just translated, well, fine – listen to me using the word ‘just’ there – because you could rationalise that it must take a word and find whatever the dictionary says is the equivalent. But Word Lens does it in the font (or at least very nearly) of the thing you’re looking at. It does it in the image: it isn’t a report or a notification, it is in the photograph right where the original text was.

If you understand that, fantastic: I will love you forever for telling me.

But in the mean time, mind blown. Go grab it, okay? Word Lens for iOS is right here.

Grab Word Lens right now – it’s suddenly free

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It's the app that looked like a joke: point your iPhone camera at a sign written in French and on the screen, you see it in English. It's the universal translator of Star Trek or the Time Lord Gift of Doctor Who except that it is real. Like many, I downloaded the free app just to see if it were true and it was. But you get only a kind of demo limited unless you buy packs such as English to Russian. I can't remember how much those cost but it was enough that I put it off until I was going to a country. I never once remembered to do that.

Except.

Now we don't have to: the whole thing, in-app language packs and all, is free.

It's free because the development company has just been bought by Google. The mark has turned everything free and I am downloading it all right now.

I'm sure it won't remain free for long. I'm not sure whether it will continue as a separate app, though: you can well imagine that Google is intending to incorporate this technology into its other offerings. Fine. Good, even. But the current Word Lens app may not survive so grab it while you can.

Word Lens on the iOS a App Store

Shit Writing Syndrome and its cure

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They found it by accident. I had gone to the doctor for a routine penile enlargement procedure. I had filled out the standard Writers Guild insurance forms, and that’s where it turned up. When my doctor walked into the room, she had a hard time making eye contact.

“We won’t be enlarging your penis today,” she started, haltingly.

Ordinarily, she spoke with such clinical reserve. But this was different, personal. “When we looked at your paperwork, something seemed off. I took the liberty of sending it to a lab,” she continued. “Andy… your writing… it’s almost a hundred percent shit.”

How Writing for the TV Show “Community” Cured Me – Andy Bobrow – Medium (14 May 2014)

Writer Andy Bobrow naturally writes very well about writing very badly – and what little you can do about that – in the full piece.

Working, Waking, Walking hours

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Go for a walk. Now.

A recent study conducted by Stanford University (so you KNOW it’s legit) found that people were way more creative when they walked as opposed to sat. The study was conducted with human subjects. I was curious whether they had rats run a maze and then see if they could come up with better stories for 2 BROKE GIRLS.

These findings are no surprise to me. Often, while writing, I’ll pace with a yo-yo. (Still waiting for the study to conclude that yo-yo’s are the key to creativity – get busy Stanford.) But moving around seems to free your brain a little. Perhaps it’s just the increased activity. I don’t know. I was rejected by Stanford.

Unlock the Creative You – Ken Levine (15 May 2014)

Lest you read that article's title – Unlock the Creative You – and assume this is from some blue-sky, happy-clappy kind of site, it's actually from comedy writer Ken Levine. Usually he talks about comedy, sometimes he talks about baseball or some other sport, this week he touched on that study.

Read his whole piece here. I do also recommend the blog in its entirety but this is the first post I've read that I felt should be mentioned here on a productivity site.

Do more this weekend – if you must

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I used to treat Saturdays and Sundays more or less the same as any other day. You'd get family expectations but eventually they figure it out and let you alone as you carry on working. Since doing The Blank Screen and managing my time better, I've tended to take weekends off like a normal person. Not entirely, there's no need to be daft about it, but far more than ever before. I have even lazed around on a Saturday. And yet there's always someone to spoil it:

On Saturday morning I make a list — it usually includes hoovering, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, reading a book of choice, a gym session, some research or catching up on my Pocket reading etc. By having a list I can see how I progress throughout the weekend. Although I leave large gaps for general relaxing or wandering time (for a relaxing walk for example) usually I do something that’s on the list.

My proven ways to turn a lazy lie in — into a productive active resting and satisfying weekend
Krystian Szastok – Medium

Krystian has a lot of good ideas like that, dammit. Read the whole piece to see if there is any bit of it that you'll be able to do yourself for real.