RobSog

More Golden Grahams

No, not the tasty breakfast cereal, but another gem from Mr Paul Graham that I post here mostly for my own reference. Apologies for this selfish but all-too necessary act. I quote:

'As for how to write well, here's the short version: Write a bad version 1 as fast as you can; rewrite it over and over; cut out everything unneccessary; write in a conversational tone; develop a nose for bad writing, so you can see and fix it in yours; imitate writers you like; if you can't get started, tell someone what you plan to write about, then write down what you said; expect 80% of the ideas in an essay to happen after you start writing it, and 50% of those you start with to be wrong; be confident enough to cut; have friends you trust read your stuff and tell you which bits are confusing or drag; don't (always) make detailed outlines; mull ideas over for a few days before writing; carry a small notebook or scrap paper with you; start writing when you think of the first sentence; if a deadline forces you to start before that, just say the most important sentence first; write about stuff you like; don't try to sound impressive; don't hesitate to change the topic on the fly; use footnotes to contain digressions; use anaphora to knit sentences together; read your essays out loud to see (a) where you stumble over awkward phrases and (b) which bits are boring (the paragraphs you dread reading); try to tell the reader something new and useful; work in fairly big quanta of time; when you restart, begin by rereading what you have so far; when you finish, leave yourself something easy to start with; accumulate notes for topics you plan to cover at the bottom of the file; don't feel obliged to cover any of them; write for a reader who won't read the essay as carefully as you do, just as pop songs are designed to sound ok on crappy car radios; if you say anything mistaken, fix it immediately; ask friends which sentence you'll regret most; go back and tone down harsh remarks; publish stuff online, because an audience makes you write more, and thus generate more ideas; print out drafts instead of just looking at them on the screen; use simple, germanic words; learn to distinguish surprises from digressions; learn to recognize the approach of an ending, and when one appears, grab it.'

Mac[adamia] nuts

Paul Graham writes:

'In 1994 my friend Koling wanted to talk to his girlfriend in Taiwan, and to save long-distance bills he wrote some software that would  convert sound to data packets that could be sent over the Internet. We weren't sure at the time whether this was a proper use of the Internet, which was still then a quasi-government entity. What he was doing is now called VoIP, and it is a huge and rapidly growing business'.

Well ain't that the truth. A travel company that I have dealings with is now using Skype to save on it's phone bills. Yesterday, I grabbed a headset to experience first hand 'if it did just work' and the QoS was excellent. Infact it's better than our BT landline that keeps cacklin' and cracklin' like some poorly tuned radio thingy; even after numerous engineer visits – 'must be damp in the line mate'. What this means in the long term for the telcos I'm not sure. Even Peter doesn't have the answers.

What's of interest here (if anyone's still reading) is that the afore mentioned travel company can further reduce it's overheads and pass these savings onto their customers. They are an online company – 'no we don't produce a brochure' – so this new use of technology, combined with the website's use of RSS feeds backs-up their claim to really deliver the best of both in terms of quality and price. Now all I have to do is convince a couple of the crew to blog and I'll be happy as a pig in shit.

Don't think twice?

Great post from Evelyn on why doing something lots of times is the best way to learn. I for one spend far too much time trying to picture the perfect result in my head in a lot of my design work before I knuckle down and get my hands dirty. Why? Fear of criticism of course. But I console myself by remembering that 'fine words butter no parsnips'; that each small stumbling step is (hopefully) in the right direction, and that criticism and alternatives always appear after the act.

Paul Graham makes some interesting noises in this direction with regard to getting V1.0 of your software out as soon as possible. Don't faff, just get on with it, or get real as 37 signals so nicely put it. (Note to self: read all Paul's essays again. Lucid, clear and inspiring writing doesn't present itself very often – certainly not in this neck of the woods but thanks David for the vote of confidence you lovely man).

A final thought on 'getting real' paraphrased (from those 37 wizards that bring you the excellent Basecamp application) on producing rather than pondering – a functionality document has no real functionality. Better to start building and testing things as soon as possible rather than mollify for the sake of getting consensus in a project meeting.

Right, better get on and make things (happen?).

Pimp my ride

And I thought hacking around Cambridge on my road bike with my laptop looking for 'open' WiFi spots was the way forward. (Aside: you would think Cambridge would be 'connected' but that's not the case. So far). These knowledge workers take the idea a bit further, combining it with somewhere to live during the week. Now that I'm without motorized transport (or soon will be when David gets back from NZ and reclaims the Landy), maybe I should look into something similar? Any suggestions?

>> Crash pad
My new gaff sees my journey time to work down to about 3 mins (on foot) that's about 10 by bike (well I keep finding excuses to go round the block a few times) so maybe I'll just assign a tag to the above link and visit it in a few months time when the lease runs out. In the future, there will no doubt be less 'road warrior time'. As Peter Cochrane says:

Of course, if we do not solve the growing energy crisis, we will ultimately see physical travel curtailed and a return to the static life of 50 years ago. The good news is that if that were to happen, IT could fill the gap. We have the technology, we just have to want or need to do it.

Trouble is, us humans (I include myself in that term in the broadest possible sense) need physical interaction if we are to be productive at work and at home, At a most basic level we all need to see what other people are up to out there – whether they're doing similar stuff or bashing the crap of established ideas. And what do I want? Something way, way out of reach.