Not sure what to read? Buy what people you follow recommend

I’m not sure where I picked up this habit but I’ve been instantly buying (preferably used and cheap) any books that seem semi interesting when I see them shared by someone I follow. For example, this book Just Listen by Mark Goulston was recommended by Michele Hansen on Twitter just the other day.

Because I love books on all aspects of business and with a recommendation like that, I think I would be doing myself a disservice not to get it. The same goes for programming books or even fiction when I see friends talking about it. Besides buying them I’ve also started writing on the back cover who recommended it:

Now when I revisit this book years from now I know exactly who recommended it, and can tell them thank you. It’s just a small way of showing appreciation.

Focus on the target not the hazards

I was recently playing golf at a course I’ve never played before and my playing partner would tell me at each hole what to look out for. “Don’t go left”, “Water to the right”, “Be careful of the sand trap”. I played one of my worst rounds ever. I didn’t realize until driving home what was going on. Instead of saying things like “hit it left center of the fairway”, he was telling me the negatives and subconsciously that became my target.

It’s a minor thing but focus on where you want to go, not where the problem areas are.

Path of least resistance

Why don’t you blog more? I’ve came to the realization that the reason I’ve been slacking is because of the path of least resistance is social media. Just look at how easy making a tweet is:

Write a quick thought, hit tweet and wait for the hate to come in. Where as if you want to write a blog post I get this:

It just feels like I not only need to write, but figure out a title, probably research my argument, and then post it into the void where I get zero feedback.

I’m not saying one is better than the other and I’d imagine blogging with the extra time and effort makes for a better internet but it’s just interesting to me how just a few extra steps makes me gravitate toward the easiest option.

Domain Selling Scam

Lately, I’ve gotten a few spam emails from a person claiming they want to sell a domain that is related to one I own. Here is a sample email:

Hello,

We intend to unload one of our cherished assets,

{domain-name-here}

Would you be keen to discuss this?
This is priced in 3 figures ($199 to $999).
If interested in owning this domain, feel free to contact me.

Of course it looks and feels like spam, but I decided I’d just run a quick whois on the domain mentioned and it wasn’t even registered. I’m going to assume if I said I’d buy it then they would register it for the $12 or w/e and then sell it to me for the amount offered, or more likely they’d just keep my money.

The main reason I’m sharing this is because I thought it was a pretty interesting angle. They have zero invested and just wait for the suckers to come along.

A quick tip for working with Print Styles

If you have to do a lot of work with print styles it can get super annoying because the only way to preview your changes is to hit “command + p” in the browser and have it open the print pdf preview. It’s slow and cumbersome to do it that way and there is a much better solution.

Open the developer tools in Chrome or Brave, then go to options -> more tools -> rendering -> emulate css media type “Print”. Here is a screenshot showing the setting:

After this you can inspect anything you want and see how it’ll look when printed right in the normal browser window.

Analysis paralysis

My RSS reader of choice is Feedbin, but occasionally I like to login to Feedly and see how my feeds look using it. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this and this was the login screen:

Talk about analysis paralysis I have no idea what I originally used to login or to create my account. So now I’ll choose nothing and go back to work.

As creators we need to remember that less options is usually better. Don’t make me think especially when it’s a core tenant to actually using your app.

Selflessness

“A boy doesn’t have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn’t like pie when he sees there isn’t enough to go around.” — Edgar Watson Howe

Keeping the kids busy

It’s the first weekend of a mandatory “stay home” order in my state due to covid-19 and the kids are ready to go stir crazy. Luckily I got a new pack of Field Notes that allow you to customize them with your own circle image. So we had art day…

The end results turned out pretty well…

I’m a big fan of doing things away from screens and this was a perfect activity.

iPhone Home Screen

This is my current iPhone home screen and I’ve been using this for a while now. Basically moving all apps off the home screen and leaving it blank. This way it’s nice and minimal when I pick up the phone with only a few apps right in front of me. I can always swipe to the other pages or use the pull down search if I’m needing something, but I like having all the stuff out of sight.

It’s funny how much this has changed since 2018 and 2017.

Field Notes

A couple of years ago a friend sent me a three pack of field notes and I honestly didn’t get the point. I tried to use them but I didn’t see the benefit over a bigger notebook I kept on my desk.

I was recently doing some cleaning and came across the notebooks again and decided to give them another go. Grabbed a pen and stuck one in my pocket.

It’s been about a week now and even though I work from home having it my pocket is so useful. It’s quick to pull out and jot down a note, a reminder, a quote, or anything else.

Then when I get back to my desk I either copy to my main larger notebook or setup things in my calendar. I’m now a convert and just ordered a couple more sets. Of course, field notes is the main brand but any pocket size notebook will work. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Playing golf during social distancing

Today I played golf for the first time since the social distancing due to COVID-19 started in my area. Here was the rules:

  • Only one person per golf cart or walk
  • Leave the flags in
  • No rakes in or around the bunkers
  • No water from coolers on the course

Simple rules and I think it worked well. My group was able to play with no one getting too close to each other and we all had an enjoyable time.

Hopefully, the curve will be flattened soon enough and we can go back to normal life. Until then little things can go along way.

Stay safe!