http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

The iPad has the same intimate feeling for content as paper. I think it’s a great opportunity for a mac developer to build a plugin to the OSX print dialog for iPad output via bluetooth. Not only is it a great way to share documents with yourself right before heading out, it’s a placebo for paper in those few times we still need it most.

“Missing items in a complex visual search is not a new idea: in the medical field, it has been known since the 1960s that radiologists tend to miss a second abnormality on an X-ray if they’ve found one already. The concept — dubbed “satisfaction of search” — is that radiologists would find the first target, think they were finished, and move on to the next patient’s X-ray.” via

-Even when you think you’ve got it sorted, take a second and look around. I can’t tell you how many hours of future programming time you’ll save yourself by making a habit of taking a few seconds to review your last changes even after they “work.”

Things like this Flickr set make me feel pressure to have gorgeous creative notebooks. I feel like if I don’t, then I’ve somehow failed, or I’m not doing it right.

A while back though, I gave myself permission to use my notebooks for “junk.” Not for finished art. Not to frame. Not to brag about. But to really quickly get ideas out of my head, and thought through in a visual way.

My notebooks aren’t going to be in a museum 500 years from now like DaVinci, and that’s ok. My brain kicks out lots of ideas and 90% of them are bad. I use notebooks to record and sort those ideas, most of which aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Giving myself permission to treat a notebook like a tool, not something precious, has been a good thing in my life. Do you have self conscious thoughts like this that keep you from being more productive?

You could build a cool site where you could see recently commented on articles. See what’s most popular, and see what users are commenting on what. Kind of like TweetMeme. Kind of like Digg.

Already been done? Other ideas?

At Paste we all have degrees related to our assorted tasks. But we have been lacking in a formalized way to continue our education throughout our careers. Sure. Most of us are avid readers of blogs, and keep well up on current events in our industry, -but what about the hard stuff? The hard-won little bits that come from the deep reading of the history and tenets of our profession?

We’re starting a new program today. We’re a really small company so it’s not like “programs” are hard to roll out. But in order to formalize it a bit better for posterity, and because some of you might want to do the same. Here it is.

For all Paste employees:

• Purchase any design or programming related book.
• Read it cover to cover.
• Let everyone know about it.
• The cost of the book will be reimbursed.
• In addition you’ll get $50 for being a better employee.
• If you write a blog post review of the book, you’ll get another $50.

q. Will anyone do it?
a. I hope so. And I think so.

q. Will we go broke doing it?
a. I don’t think it’s possible to go broke making your employees better.

q. Will it improve our products and our workflow?
a. I don’t see how it couldn’t…

“For years, brain scientists viewed a wandering mind as merely a lapse in cognition. But recent studies have found that we lose concentration shockingly often. A 2007 study by Michael Kane of the University of North Carolina found that our minds drift away from our tasks fully one-third of the time. And this suggests that daydreaming can actually be useful- because if it were such a bad thing, it’s unlikely that we’d do it so often,” said Clive Thompson, author of “Flights of Fancy”, WIRED.

WIRED came up with a solution. They proposed an app that, instead of keeping you on task and on target like most apps are designed to do, it pops up every so often asking what you’re thinking about. It encourages you to record your thoughts at that precise moment. In essence, it lets you track your daydreams (if you are off in la-la land) so you can materialize the ideas you’re drifting away to contemplate. Who knows, there might be some instance of sheer genius that you’re subconsciously dwelling on. Get it on paper (or in a word document… whatever), collaborate with a few of your colleagues and the possibilities are endless.

“It’s be like a personal shrink,” said Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychology at UC Santa Barbara.

As app developers, our thoughts revolve around ways to solve problems. Often, these problems are our own to begin with. What if we took advantage of where our brain goes when it’s trying to escape?

Read the article online at www.wired.com.

With the new shortcuts preference pane in Snow Leopard, Summarize popped back onto my radar. I re-added it to my preferred services list by checking the box, then I additionally assigned it a keyboard shortcut.

To use the service, first highlight some text in whatever app you’re in, then hit the key command- or visit the services menu and choose “summarize”.

Once activated, you’ll see a window like this:

The slider lets you truncate as much of the text as you like, getting it down to a much more scannable size. Like speed reading SummaryService is sucking out all the redundant words, transitions, and filler that make text more readable, but less dense.

What you end up with in most cases is a tight little nugget of information that captures the spirit of the source text with a sort of creepy accuracy.

Here’s an example email followed by it’s summarized counterpart.

“Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I think your Jumpchart tool has a lot of potential but it isn’t quite there for me yet. I am a marketing consultant and I work occasionally with clients who want websites. I need something that lets them specify what they are looking for before going all the way to development.”

“The main thing I would like to see is a little more layout control so I can position things on the page. Just boxes would be good enough. My other comment is that your $5 price is reasonable but doesn’t give me enough users while the $25 is way too much for me as I perhaps only do these things 4 or 5 times a year.”

“I look forward to your next release. Do you have any information on the things you are working on?”

The above weigh in at 145 words… Here’s the shorter one.

“I just wanted to let you know that I think your Jumpchart tool has a lot of potential but it isn’t quite there for me yet.”

“...The main thing I would like to see is a little more layout control so I can position things on the page. ... My other comment is that your $5 price is reasonable but doesn’t give me enough users while the $25 is way too much for me as I perhaps only do these things 4 or 5 times a year.”

Down to 87… Not bad. Here’s what happens when you crunch it all the way.

“My other comment is that your $5 price is reasonable but doesn’t give me enough users while the $25 is way too much for me as I perhaps only do these things 4 or 5 times a year.”

Only 38! Although this version isn’t quite as accurate in conveying the whole email- it does do a pretty good job of communicating the spirit.

The SummarizeService is even better for determining what to read out of the many blog articles trying for your attention. Here’s an example of a recent article:

Original article: http://kottke.org/09/09/your-company-theres-an-app-for-that

“But the real problem for other device manufacturers is that all of these iPhone features — particularly the always-on internet connectivity; the email, HTTP, and SMS capabilities; and the GPS/location features — can work in concert with each other to actually make better versions of the devices listed above. Like a GPS that automatically takes photos of where you are and posts them to a Flickr gallery or a video camera that’ll email videos to your mom or a portable gaming machine with access to thousands of free games over your mobile’s phone network.”

“...The internet was pretty obviously in competition with a few obvious industries at that point — like meatspace book stores — but caught (and is still catching) others off guard: cable TV, movie companies, music companies, FedEx/USPS/UPS, movie theaters, desktop software makers, book publishers, magazine publishers, shoe/apparel stores, newspaper publishers, video game console makers, libraries, grocery stores, real estate agents, etc. etc….basically any organization offering entertainment or information.”

1413 words down to 162, and I would argue that the spirit of the article is still there. It’s always a good idea to read the entire article when Kottke’s writing it, but you get the idea.

The Summarize Service can be a really great way to cut through BS, check if you really want to read an article, or get to the heart of bulk info… Wonder if it would help me finally get through War & Peace…