I don’t normally write about new gadgets when they come out, but once in a while, a new device captures my imagination and creativity so much that I can’t help write a little bit about how I use it, and why it gets me so excited. The last time this happened, it was about the 2018 iPad Pro which I still use daily. This time, it’s about the Surface Duo, a dual-screen folding phone-tablet hybrid from Microsoft running a funky crossover of Google’s Android with Microsoft’s services.| thesephist.com
I've been thinking a lot about personal data lately: where it's stored, how to extract it, and what to do with it. Here's where I landed.| Josh Can Help
As I’m thinking about defining more narrow focuses for my independent work next year, one area has stood out consistently as both personally exciting and more widely important: imagining and building better ways computers can help people do their best creative, thoughtful work, and in the process rethinking the relationship creative people have with the computer as a part of their work.| thesephist.com
A month ago, I built a personal search engine called Monocle that let me search through a trove of personal information I’ve saved over time, from notes to journal entries to bookmarks and tweets. Shortly thereafter, I switched my default search engine in my web browser from Google to Monocle, marking the start of my slow descent into the fascinating rabbit hole that is transmogrifying my web browser into my best, most flexible, most versatile tool for thinking, learning, and remembering.| thesephist.com
I’m a hyperlink maximalist: everything should be a hyperlink, including everything that is hyperlinked by the author, everything that isn’t hyperlinked by the author, and perhaps even the hyperlinks themselves. Words should be hyperlinked, but so should be every interesting phrase, quote, name, proper noun, paragraph, document, and collection of documents I read.| thesephist.com