Please, just watch this.
minimalmac:
(via Made by Hand)
This has nothing to do with Macs but in so many, many, ways, everything to do with what we believe in.
(Thanks Garrick)
One Masterpiece At a Time
I have many creative passions. Most of them are centered around writing — fiction, poetry, music, filmmaking — but I also enjoy painting, drawing, photography, and even cooking. I am, after all, an artist.
In the past, I’ve tried to engage many of my passions at once. I’ve sometimes even tried to entertain them all. I’d have something like three short stories, a novel, some footage I’d taken for a short film idea, and a half-dozen blog posts all sitting unfinished on my hard drive at any given time.
This is a terrible creative strategy.
When Steve Jobs first returned to Apple in 1997, the first thing he did was put an end to almost every project that the company had in development. Then he drew a box on a whiteboard and separated it into four quadrants. Each quadrant contained a product type, and those four products were the only things Apple would be working on for the foreseeable future.
Apple, of course, had hundreds of employees dedicated to working on those four projects. I on the other hand, am only one person. I can only work on one project at a time.
Tomorrow marks the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so for the month of November, I will be working on only one project: The Best Thing I’ve Ever Written (note: this is not the novel’s official title, merely an explanation that the novel I produce in November will be the best thing I’ve ever written).
I’ve written first drafts of novels before, but then I’ve set them aside, promising I’d come back to them later for editing and revision. Unfortunately, I eventually lose interests in these projects once I’ve set them aside; my creative mind has simply moved on to different interests, and by then, it’s too late to return.
“Real artists ship.” — Steve Jobs
I will work on The Best Thing I’ve Ever Written, however, until it’s all the way in the publishing stages. Only once I’m sure that it is going to reach the hands of my costumers will I move on to my next project. And I’m going to apply that same philosophy of focus and passion to the next project, and the next, and the next.
And each one will be a masterpiece.
“A smaller home results in more social interaction among the members of the family. And while this may be the reason that some people purchase bigger homes, I think just the opposite should be true.”
Important thoughts on social media from Patrick.
observations from a starbucks, Saturday, October 15, 2011
i’m sitting in a starbucks.
i sip gently on my pumpkin spice latte;
i order one each year.
i used to come here all the time,
this very starbucks, with a few very
good friends. then, the
walls were full of art — paintings, photography.
now, the walls are bare, beige.
and for some reason
the music isn’t on.
outside
six kids are sitting. one is smoking.
they’re all dressed in garish suits
and sneakers.
garish dresses. garish corsages.
homecoming, they call it. they’re talking
on their cell phones, each and every one.
and now two are smoking.
this latte
is very warm, very smooth, a little sweet.
right now, this latte, these pages, these
words, are all i need. little, but
in this moment, enough.
I’ll be starting an experiment tonight in which I sleep on the floor with no bed. I’m going to start with one week and post my thoughts then.
This is a great song about consumerism
Here’s to the crazy ones… (Taken with instagram)
Passion, writing, and Steve
I planned on going running tonight, but then I heard that Steve Jobs died, and I knew I had to write instead.
I love writing. It’s one of my greatest passions, and Steve taught us that, when we’re passionate about something — and when we live that passion — we can change the world.
I started writing my first novel on a Mac. I finished it on an iPad. I’ve written poetry and essays and short stories, and I’ve wept while writing some of them, smiled while writing others, and told myself, “No one will ever want to read this,” while writing them all. But I published them anyway.
There’s a common piece of advice that’s been circulating amongst writers forever: Write what you know. That’s crap of course, the opposite of innovation. Instead, Write what you want. Write what you love. Write what you would want to read.
Steve did this. He innovated. He made what he loved. He didn’t know the Apple II before he designed it. He couldn’t know it then; it didn’t exist. But he wanted one, so he made it. He wanted an iPod, so he made it. He wanted an iMac, so he made it. He wanted an iPhone, so he made it.
In 1997, Steve Jobs answered a question that someone posed to him about computer networking. Steve responded by describing a vision of world where he could access any device — his phone, his home computer, his work machine, anything — and pick up right from where he left off on another. In the summer of 2011, 14 years later, Steve revealed the result of this impossible vision to the world. He called it iCloud.
And then, only months later, he died.
That’s why I’m not running tonight. I can run in the morning as the sun rises on a brand new day, a brand new era. But tonight, tonight I know that I have to write. So instead of gym shorts, a track, and a pair of minimalist running shoes, I’ve got a cup of tea, an Apple bluetooth keyboard,
and this.
parislemon:
Apple’s vision for the future of computing versus Microsoft’s vision for the future of computing.
Any questions?
Can you guess which one matches our philosophy at This Is Less?
