It’s been a few weeks now, but I’ve pulled out some quotes from other folks' retrospectives on Apple’s 50th anniversary that I really enjoyed and added them to my blog post for your perusal.
Nate Reuss finally has new music out via his old 2000s-era band The Format! 🎵
Size-extreme Macs, a Bear blog calendar, an Olive Garden-pointing compass, a human-signaling Am Dash, a Markdown mnemonic, a young origami researcher, and a defense of processed American cheese.
Andy Nicolaides blogs in ‘I’m not a Pro, and that’s okay’ about how buying the best of everything felt overbearing, but his new experiment in buying basic has been liberating:
Because it cost so much, I ended up almost feeling pressure to use it for every task I had, whether it was suitable for the task or not. […]
I can admit now I’m no photographer, writer, podcaster, video editor, or anything else I somehow thought spending thousands on hardware I ended up only using 5% of the potential of. And, at 40 years of age, I never will be, and you know what? That’s just fine by me!
It’s funny the number of blog posts I have cooking in the back of my mind, only to discover that @gregmorris has already written them. Here’s one: ‘I Rent My Entire Life’
Developers who used to sell apps for a one-off price now charge yearly, and the app stops working when the subscription lapses. I understand why they do it, ongoing development needs ongoing funding, and I defended the model at the time. The economics make sense for developers. What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was the cumulative effect on the person paying.
Greg Morris: ‘The Things I Stopped Caring About’
The strange part isn’t losing the opinions. It’s what remains when they’re gone. A surprising amount of my identity was tied up in being a person who cared about this stuff. […]
I think what happened is the tools just got good enough. Not perfect, not exciting, just good enough that the differences between them stopped mattering. The gap between a great note-taking app and a decent one used to feel enormous. Now it feels like nothing.
I, too, sort of miss the enthusiasm. But I’ve also been happy to move that enthusiasm to other things.
Huberman mentioned Paul Conti’s view that envy is what kills personal development. Not anxiety or fear. Envy.
That tracks with what I see online. Someone’s life looks better than yours on Instagram and suddenly you’re either tearing yourself down or posting something designed to make them feel worse about theirs. You see someone’s project launch and instead of starting your own, you either convince yourself you’re not good enough or you start picking holes in what they’ve built. Both responses come from the same uncomfortable place. Neither helps you.
I quite like what Brent Simmons has done with his ‘What I Do’ page to explain his mysterious and important work:
I know I’m a big nerd and what I do must seem all super nerdy and vague — and it is pretty nerdy but it doesn’t have to be vague. I’ll explain what I do and why. 😀
I do two main nerd things: write a blog and make an app.
A fun way to reveal the non-obvious parts of what you do for curious friends and family, and squash misunderstandings. A candidate for a new @robb@social.lol Slash Page?
Marcin Wichary calls attention to Wakamaifondue’s excellent file dropping experience—you can drop it anywhere and it’s accepted:
Why is all this important? Because dropping a file into a browser is a notoriously frustrating experience. If the tab doesn’t claim the file, left to its own devices the browser will do anything from replacing the current tab with the contents of the file, through opening a new tab, to… starting to download the file you just dropped and ask you for its new location!
I ran into this very problem today in Micro.blog. Wakamaifondue gets it right and looks good doing it.
Manton Reece explains how Panic’s hard stance of limiting games on their Catalog that were created with AI assistance stands in contrast with Apple’s iron grip on the App Store because of one thing — the Catalog isn’t the only place to legitimately get games for your Playdate:
Panic has achieved that balance with the Playdate. Catalog is a curated store. Seasons are even more limited, only the select games Panic wants everyone to have. Developers who don’t want to play by Panic’s rules can distribute games elsewhere. If only Apple would adopt the same approach.
This is the way.
Love opening the ADK rock season with the classic Pete’s Farewell. Great day out with @bbrianandersonn!
Happy retirement, Dad!
That last day of work pic! Happy retirement to my dad, who helped establish the family business 43 years ago with his dad, grow it into the community staple it is today, and is now leaving it in capable hands to spend more time with his grandkids. A local success story!
He has always demonstrated the qualities that I think make a good businessman: put in an honest day’s work without complaint, provide a quality product at a fair price, and, above all, treat your coworkers and customers with kindness and respect.
Very proud of you, Dad! Enjoy your well-deserved retirement with Mom! 🫶
Kicking off the NEU8 with the Taconic Crest Trail
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of starting a new journey with Todd: the Northeast Ultra 8. After completing his winter 46ers, Todd wanted a new challenge, and the @northeast_ultra8 is it. 8 of the most challenging through hikes in the Northeast, each done within 24 hours. Our first, the Taconic Crest Trail, stretches ~38 miles across New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont with ~8000 feet of elevation gain (depending on who you ask) and we got it done in 16.5 hours.
We encountered rain, wind, fog, sun, porcupine, cow, deer, mouse, bear(!), countless PUDs (pointless ups and downs), and (still) some snow. 😅 We even got some views since the tree cover hasn’t come in yet! It was a grand day covering tons of terrain with a good friend, and it clued us into what we’re up against with the rest of the hikes.
The Devil’s Path is up next in May! Can’t wait. 💪
Restarted: Shrinking Season 1 📺
Guess we’re going back to the start!
Three-tiered multitasking, please
Federico Viticci has tried a bunch of foldables and they’ve left him excited for Apple’s upcoming folding iPhone. As an iPad expert, he’s curious about which direction Apple with go for its multitasking system:
But here’s what gets me excited about Apple entering this space: the company has decades of expertise in designing polished UIs, windowing controls, and multitasking systems that they can bring to the table and instantly one-up every other Android manufacturer. Apple can literally go shopping in the iPad’s long archive of current and formermultitasking UIs and choose whatever they see fit for an iPhone Fold. Split View? Been there, done that…multiple times.
After trying iPadOS 26, I’ve come to appreciate how good we had it with iPadOS 18’s Split View and Slide Over. I think I’d want SV/SO for a naked, touch-first iPad or iPhone Duo. iPadOS 26’s new windowed multitasking is a fine option for when you’ve connected a trackpad and keyboard. But you should always be able to return to SV/SO. Or turn those off too for a true single window mode. Three established levels of increasing complexity doesn’t seem like too much.
Started reading: Artificial Condition The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells 📚
Okay, let’s see where this story goes…
Started watching: Slow Horses Season 5 📺
Almost forgot there was another season out!
🔗 ‘On becoming a day person’ herman.bearblog.dev
Greg Morris: ‘The Sidelines Are Sterile’
That’s the sideline nobody talks about. It doesn’t look like sitting still. It looks like preparation. It looks like being sensible, doing your homework, waiting for the right time. I’ve lost count of how many things I’ve “nearly” done. Nearly applied for that job. Nearly published that post. Nearly signed up for that race. Nearly is just the sideline with better branding.
AKA “workcrastinating” — something I’m exquisitely good at. 😬
Watched: For All Mankind S5E3, Home 📺
😢 Outstanding performances across every season. At ease, Admiral. 🫡
Nick Heer, Pixel Envy: Macworld: ‘Use Apple’s App Store at Your Own Risk’
Price calls the App Store “rotten” — is there any other word? — and says Apple should “give iPhone users the freedom to install from other places. Or just stop pretending the App Store monopoly is about anything other than revenue” if it cannot effectively police its wares. I imagine Apple would argue it enforces its rules all the time and sometimes things just get through.
I sense we’re nearing a boiling point on the App Store’s governance. I’m hoping for some radical change, challenging as it will be at its scale.
Terry Godier argues that App Store ratings are fundamentally broken:
But sometimes they’re impactful in a way that doesn’t match the reviewers intent. For example, if you have a 4.1 star rating in the App Store, any 4 star review is going to decrease that average. In other words, leaving a 4 star review is essentially leaving a negative review.
I agree with Godier’s premise and conclusion, but not totally with the point above. A 4 star rating is still a good one, but perhaps not a great one. So pulling down the average might be justified. Still, other systems are better.
Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚
I highly recommend this one! It goes down quick and smooth, but will keep you thinking about it long after you finish the final page. Keegan captured the inner dilemma of human morality here.
Watched: Outcome 🍿
A weird one. Felt more like a long YouTube, or rather Vimeo, film than anything else. The A-list cast and their skill kept me watching cause the story sure didn’t. Oh, and Jonah Hill was unrecognizable until he spoke! A rare miss from Apple TV.
One of my favorite-ever days of guiding was taking Ian rock climbing! He was so brave while doing something brand-new, and showed the world that nothing will stop him from achieving his goals!
