Torley Lives

There isn't a week that goes by where I don't see a productivity tips article covering the same good, basic principles: today, it's "8 Ways to Be Ruthless With Your Time". These articles teach me little or nothing new because I'm so deeply familiar with those principles; what I get most out of them is reaffirmation that others feel the same way I do and are spreading the good word. This particular article is written aptly and presented very neatly, although I feel that key sentences could've been bolded for emphasis — that's a personal style thing.

Recently, I've been saying "chop the slop" more and more to emphasize how I feel about waste in our lives: whether it's spending time in an unhealthy relationship, enduring poor processes to achieve your creative visions and do good work, or being bored on a long bus trip without anything useful to do — these all involve forms of slop that need to be chopped.

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I'm a big fan of Apple's design and my wife is going to make my dreams come true — in the not-so-distant future, I'll be visiting my very first Apple Store.

My main rig is a Windows-powered (XP not Vista thankyouverymuch) PC, but I like Mac OS X on my laptop.

I like how even when some "pundits" (rhymes with you-know-what) acrimoniously attack Apple and/or get things totally wrong in hindsight, it just gives Apple more popularity. Steve Jobs' baby has certainly crossed over from geek bedrooms into the sidewalks the world over, with iPods both an unassumingly everyday yet magically ubiquitous machine. iPods and Macs as tools possess an ongoing utility which can be taken for granted, and is mostly vexing to describe in words, but hard to avoid reacting to.

Second Life is hard to avoid reacting to, too.

Part of my problem with Second Life right now is that unlike water, it's not ubiquitous enough. I know there's lots of words about "crossing the chasm", substance of which I can take to heart but ultimately too much wasteful fluff which is an affront to Moore (that's Geoffrey, not Gordon nor Patrick): simple reality is, if something's around you constantly, it becomes normal. Especially if you grow up with it. This, unfortunately, includes unpleasant experiences like longterm prison sentences, but also describes the wonders of Second Life.

Novelty dampens, the "gee-whiz" factor rots as quickly as Philip K. Dick uses the word "ash" to describe death & decay — and some of what we're left with and soon discard is news/media crap.

Yes, you heard me.

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This involves a touch of philosophy, but it's actually quite practical: not too long ago, my wife and I were sharing a meal, and I recalled Carl Sagan's brilliant presentation about the 4th dimension, using Flatland as example. He deployed an apple (I can hear his voice in my head now!) to describe how utterly alien a concept 3 dimensions would be to the people of this 2D world, and how the 2Dians would just see the "edge" of something so much more.

In much the same way, I've come upon the realization that I often leave sideways ideas in the open — nested amongst other ideas at times, standing by themselves at others, but hardly ever deliberately hidden. They however, remain available for use by anyone able to interpret them usefully.

During the meal I mentioned earlier, I used a napkin to illustrate how I fold an idea sideways — turning the napkin so that you only see its edge. My wife then took the napkin and elaborated on the concept, unplying it and referencing deeper layers.

It's more than an inside joke, and not meant to be an elusive puzzle: to the right people who understand certain points of reference, a construct can easily be assembled and contact with the idea-pollinator made. Further actions can then happen. But these are precious ideas worthy of not just anybody; it takes an uncommonly common understanding to, as they say in geek, grok what you're about.

Maybe you can relate, if you've put an idea out there but didn't make it blindingly obvious, and you were waiting for other likeminded souls to come along and call you out on it. Perhaps secretly, you wished to find friends this way who would really "get" your creativity.

If that's how you feel, I've known that feeling all too well.

I had to smile when I saw their unofficial slogan, "aggregation without the aggravation" on Guy Kawasaki's blog. A little over a month later, I've been hand-picked for the popurls-like virtual.alltop.com alongside numerous other collections of choice sites, like the Official Second Life Blog (DISCLAIMER: I write for them too). This is quite an honor, considering (1) Kawasaki is one of my heroes, (2) I'm a rabid fan of aggregators (efficiency!), and (3) the people behind the site seem really nice (#3 is the most important). I got a most welcome email from Kathryn Henkens (who runs it along with Will and Guy), and I was like "YAYZERAMA!"

Thanks, I feel really good, but I'm having a hard time finding a badge that suits my modesty! (I'll make some sidebar space too…)

But suddenly, I find myself becoming more self-critical whilst questioning the classification of certain other sites: e.g., Gabes Virtual World has a nice set of crayons, but has more to do with virtualization than 3D spaces on the Internet. And those cute Club Penguin guys need a better title than "What's New". I am sure like contents of boxes, this will settle over time. Some of my personal faves have yet to be included, too.

But suddenly (2x), I feel under pressure to write meaningful posts which are useful to you. Good pressure, since I was already doing that, and there's gonna be more. ("Quality in quantity," that's what I say!) Coming up, then:

• What do you want me to blog about?

I also guarantee:

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