Life Hacks

Danny O-Brien, Merlin Mann

(DoB: last year's summary)

• hackers ♥ plain text
• my other app is in ~/bin ( keep your own scripts; make lots of glue)
• network, network, network. Share everything. Social organisation rules

This year: It's not just for α-geeks
great apps:

• decent email search – gmail, lookout, tiger spotlight
• social file sharing for everyone – flikr, novell iFolder, Groove
• easy web scraping – RSS
• keyboard macros for win/linux: c.f. quicksilver

(MM: What's popular on 43Folders right now?)

• GTD - especially implementing it in real life
• lo-fi hacks: whereover possible, think about the simplest way to solve a problem – paper
• make failure difficult (the 'forehead ticket hack')
• quicksilver: like a GUI bash – minimise distractions
• remind
• more people wanting to tailor their own working environment

(DoB: What crossed over, and why?)

• text editors – didn't make it into the mainstream
• keyboards: people like them. When you're using the keyboard you can get into the 'zone', mousing disrupts flow
• novice users never get 'flow' so the keyboard doesn't mater for them
• why big screens? (c.f Mary Czerwinski). big screens are more productive and reduce cognitive load – no overlapping windows
• there's no muscle-memory to alt-tab – this is why quicksilver is so much better
• The dark secret of life hacks: turn off the sodding computer. Eliminate navigation, eliminate distraction

this years killer apps

• google suggest (p=1)
• passive informants – dashboard, emacs remembrance, IRC - background info (p=0.7)
• unified notification (Growl API) (p=0.6)
• the nightmare of desktop search (p=0.3)

MM: what is a life hack?
A) It's a way of patching around a problem. What happens if you fix, rather than patch? What comes after the hacks ?

Chris May : 17 Mar 2005 20:19 |  Tags: Etech |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem