Growing big doesn't always mean you lose your way.

But it often requires being reminded of your roots, and the pure essence you grew from. This is a purity which is open to fusion with valuable elements, but absolutely closed (at least in theory) to scams and other such rubbish.

If you look around, personal productivity has become like a religion. And not just that, but it's splintered into numerous schisms. As I remarked earlier on leading productivity site Lifehacker:

…all of this has led to a saturated field with many copycats. Like religions, there are too many splintered strains, altho oddly enough, not enough freesouls and original thinker-doers. This inevitably leads to collapse in some areas when people are disappointed that they're spending too much time obsessing about a system and organizing things rather than doing things.

Spiritual terms are even borrowed to market more effectively, like Leo Babauta's Zen Habits. He's a godfather in this field, and just like he took parts of David Allen's GTD principles and created his own teachings out of them, so are others doing to him. "Alternative productarians" are rare: I consider myself one in the most forgiving sense possible, and also point to one of the finest "insider" satires by Clay Collins. He nailed it, dissecting the formula to writing an archetypal productivity post with razor-sharp wit and precision.

It's not just a productivity problem

The above observations also apply to the broader "social media" craze, which is well-known for selling books, DVDs, and evangelical seminars on how to talk and behave as a human. Big companies pay big bucks for this buzzword-binged stuff, and I find much of it is silly. Beneath all the gilded lilies and "having thoughtful conversations with your customers" slop is the actual, earnest flow of doing it. Not just talking about talking, but doing talk, then awesome followup.

I urge you to digest knowledge with great alacrity. But at the same time, if you read a book or blog post detailing a productivity system, always ask yourself from the middle to the end: "Am I applying what I've learned?" If you're not, then it is, in the truest sense of the word, useless. (Exactly like reading about a diet then not eating healthy.)

It's about you

Unlike a tangible tool like a computer or wrench, the entirety of a productivity system can't be transferred from one person to another. You can describe mechanics, but your life experiences will color and shape continual efforts. Much as a teacher can improve their disciples but not duplicate the skills of a grandmaster, ongoing practice is essential to being better. Not a copycat.

Hence, it's valuable to be skeptical. Don't take 4-hour workweeks and ROWEing your boat at face value, but rather, perform your own sequence of experiences and see if a system, or parts of it, works for you.

Being effective isn't new. It didn't start with Peter Drucker either. But it must include the self-awareness that mantras aren't the act — they may inform, or prompt its happening. And without those happenings, empirical evidence to show you're actually benefiting from a system or its adaptation, there's no substantiated proof that you're gaining anything at all.

And by the way, some of the most important things, like being happy, can't be measured in numbers. But you can't lie to yourself, and therein lies the truth.

"all of the events, interviews, production, commentary and more on my work as Eric Doyle on Heroes"

At first glance, because there are unfortunate people that shoddy this up, one might mistake this for empty egotism. Absolutely not. It's a man who's done some great and fun things for the benefit of his fans. I know this because I asked him, and after examining the empirical evidence, know it's true.

But even if you aren't in the spotlight like David is, it's really important to keep track of yourself. Save every single piece of praise you get as well as useful criticism — especially that which you've applied and come away with success. Bookmark your participation on blogs and social sites thoroughly, and where it might fade or disappear (the Internet is fickle like that), take a picture. Screengrab and archive it. (It's true, it'll last longer.)

This, by the way, also makes it easier to compile material for a resumé, business report, and numerous other sorts of documents which demand you to summarize what happened in the past. It's your history, after all. You oughta know you best. Clip, save, and retrieve as-needed. And once you have a process in place as I do with great tools like Things, Evernote, and Scrapbook to help, it takes mere minutes a day to catalogue your life… ongoing.

I have a big love and admiration for people who are uber-compilers, because they have foresight into our shared timeline most mere mortals do not. They don't forget mistakes, and they can assess their ascent into the future more reliably because they keep their "chain of history" close, even as it weighs heavy. I've learned from experience as to how this has helped me, and it can aid you too.

So, be like David H. Lawrence XVII. It's also inspiring to visit his blog, where he's 100% clear about his versatile aspirations, shows off his passion, and channels forth one-of-a-kind energy. It's also where you can learn how he got that name.

By the way, if you've ever called AOL, you've heard his voice.

I was among them, and I wistfully recall how Orbital's "Halcyon + On + On" was like the mutual glue that connected those 2 seminal albums. A one-of-a-kind track with backwards-riffed vocals originally sung by Kirsty Hawkshaw on "Fine Day", then resampled for the atmospheric, dreamy, and somewhat unsettling dancescapes of the Brothers Hartnoll.

To this day, "Fine Day" remixes continue to be raved about/to by many, including a 2008 remake by Kirsty vs. Kinky Roland. While the renegade days of soundsystems threatening to blow apart illicit warehouse activities are but a memory, I'll note that Kirsty later found her way into leading virtual world Second Life (who I was inspired to work for after seeds were planted having Mortal Kombat & Hackers many times on repeat). As helpfully explained on Wikipedia. I've not yet met her inworld, but I welcome having an organic encounter.

Today, I was revisited by the stabbing grooves of Mortal Kombat & Hackers when I noticed that Psykosonik's canon is on the iTunes Store. Both Psykosonik albums, the eponymous first and sophomore Unlearn, mean little if you don't have memories associated with them. But I used to visit their Bitstream home page obsessively. This was an age before MP3s were popular, Flash wasn't the rich media juggernaut it is today, and even downloading a single song was an inconvenient pain… but for great music, how it was worth the trouble! It could take a rather long time on a 28.8k modem, or even a 56k if you were lucky. (The reception in my area was noisy, and I could often only get through at 40k. The harsh dialtone sequence became like a mantra, and staying online without keeping track of my usage hours, or even minutes, was but a promise of time that had to catch up.)

I know this isn't the first time I've reminisced, but like that Voyager ep, Shattered, I feel like Chakotay, different parts of me fragmented across the timeline. I think of when I used to listen to those soundtracks and get inspired by the electronic sounds inside, and on my first "pro" synth, start to emulate, take my baby steps in constructing my own sounds. Over a decade later, here I am, taking some new baby steps with today's modern tools… another generation in itself.

I feel better being able to talk about, to share this, and explain some of my roots and what's influenced me. Because the next steps are coming in 2009, and I can already tell it's going to be a wild ride.

1. Show Tree Style Tab, which gives you a simple-yet-awesome way to manage lots of tabs in Firefox… by arranging them in a vertical column. No more of that dinky horizontal strip nonsense. I've talked about it before but this is the first time I've really video'ed it to show you exactly how it looks on my setup.
2. Practice uploading video tutorials to YouTube HD, whose quality surprises me. It looks even better in fullscreen mode — true 1280×720!.

Have a watch and try Tree Style Tab out, as its usefulness becomes more apparent with extended usage. Once you go vertical, you'll never go… er, you understand.

Curious for more detail on #2?

I'm setting up a faster pipeline in which I:

• Record my Mac's screen with iShowU HD. Currently using Photo-JPEG but I notice that has odd discoloration and turns grays into slight greens, so I'm going to try Apple Intermediate and Animation codecs next.
• Drag the saved movie file into Compressor. iShowU is fast: the movie is ready seconds after save, it doesn't have to be rendered like ScreenFlow and others need to do.
• Submit the file with my tweaked preset, render to H.264 @ 1280×720. I ran into numerous -50 error problems upon completion and am still trying to find out what causes them. But I finally got settings which work right. OH! And if you're wondering why I run this through Compressor, it's because it has a built-in Peak Limiter which boosts my voice levels. Not as comprehensive as the effects chain I have in Sony Vegas, but a lot quicker. If iShowU had this built-in, maybe I could record straight to H.264. More apps should have limiters, and this is proof.
• Upload to YouTube. It can take awhile for the HD version to show up and the standard version is utterly unacceptable, so I proceed to other activities until it's done. Then…
• Use YouTube Code Generator, set width to 720 pixels, and copy the "Wide screen embed (high def)" snippet into a blog post like this!

What else could be improved?

I wish On Demand thumbails got autogenerated by WordPress, but they aren't, so I use YouTube's own. The featured images for my blog can be considerably larger (up to 800×350), so I capture them separately. Currently playing with Skitch and LittleSnapper as well as some web tools to find out which is the best for my quickfire screenshot needs.

The QuickTime H.264 gamma shift bug is one of those issues.

Here's what I've gathered so far:

1. It can make movies exported via H.264 (an overall excellent codec) look unwantedly lighter.
2. It's been a problem (or at least noticed) for over 2 years, since 2005.
3. Numerous workarounds have been prescribed, but most are kludgy and unreliable.
4. Ironically, it only affects Mac movies. Exporting QuickTime on Windows doesn't exhibit this.
5. Apple has yet to fix it as of QT 7.5.5. There exists no elegant fix for it… yet.

I've heard of this bug for awhile, but it didn't affect my workflow until I got a Mac Pro. Recap of my setup: I edit video in Sony Vegas on Windows, then export it to a QuickTime-compatible format. I was hoping the Mac would speed up things, but saidgamma shift has been quite frustrating.

Additional observations:

1. It affects QuickTime (QuickTime Player's File menu > Export), Compressor (included with Final Cut), After Effects (according to this), Stomp, and other apps which use QuickTime for encoding.
2. It doesn't appear in all situations. E.g., if you play the movie files in Windows, they appear with the same gamma. But if you play them in Mac Firefox or Safari, they don't. I tried Mac VLC and they have the same gamma, albeit both are lighter.
3. It doesn't affect all source codecs.
4. It affects uploaded videos. Which means by then, it gets hardcoded.

More details about the last 2 points: Photo-JPEG seems fine, whereas Animation is not. This is based on comparing my Mac encodes to encodes done solely on PC before. Some've reported otherwise, but I tested this by exporting from Sony Vegas into those codecs, then bringing the separate files to the Mac side and exporting them to the same destination MP4 settings. I use the non-containered "Movie to MPEG-4" instead of "Movie to QuickTime Movie". Vegas has its own, broken MP4 implementation — they didn't license Apple's so I use this intermediary method to get better overall quality.

As a demonstration, here's clips I uploaded to Vimeo. The first comes from Photo-JPEG (looks right), and the second is Animation (too light):

It may be subtle, but nevertheless notable. Animation codec can be lossless, but also results in much bigger filesizes. I'd rather have some minimal lossiness to get correct gamma on my way to the web. Here's another side-by-side view. Again, the Photo-JPEG version (and its stats) are on the left, clickthrough for fullsize:

And this shows they both look the same in Windows:

Note they are both lighter than on Mac. This is because I've deliberately set my Mac to a lower gamma because I like the dramatic-looking curve, which is the opposite of how it's usually done, since PCs are 2.2 and Macs are 1.8. I may adjust this further to taste soon, but color correction nitpicking aside, the point is: they look the same.

Related resources

I've been intently tracking updates and compiling progress related to this problem, as numerous people have noticed it but aren't sure what to call it other than "movies look too light/bright" — so "gamma shift" will do.

• Brightness Issues with H.264 QuickTime Movies - The best article I've found so far. Debunks some of the common myths, mentions a hidden tag is what's causing this. I tried the tag stripper and it didn't work. Then I mentioned it to Neil, who made Stomp.
• Fix QuickTime Gamma Shift - From the usually-golden Video CoPilot. This didn't work for me at all. The previous article recommends not doing this.
• QuickTime 7: H.264 Export Issues - From MacInTouch. Some of the earliest mentions of this problem.

Needless to say, there are numerous more threads and pages which echo the above. I'm thankful to have a separate PC box. If you don't, exporting from Windows QuickTime, even virtualized or Boot Camp, isn't an effective solution since it's so inconvenient and slower. H.264 can be a hog to encode, even on the fastest Mac Pros, and the accelerated solutions I've seen so far have been dismal. But I don't give up hope that Apple will fix this. It's surprising because it's such a major problem for video professionals, a core Mac userbase.

What I'm going to do next: continue experimenting. It seems Vegas -> Photo-JPEG .mov -> Mac QuickTime H.264 .mp4 is viable as I've mentioned, but I'll need to test this further.

If you have useful info to add, shout it out in the comments!

There's a part in all of us, a primal portion of our brain which is wired to react in a startled, irrational way. It isn't just sudden external stimuli that exposes this, but apparently, if our brains can make sense of squiggly shapes into words, especially words that form statements we vehemently disagree or even violently oppose, then we can act like utter morons in response.

Tragicomedy results from Gladwell's "10,000 rule":

This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.

This fundamentally means: 10,000 hours is the minimum period of quality time needed to be an expert in a given field. It's an incredibly tough thing to summarize because of all the interdependencies and edge cases (including subjectivity on "What's an expert?"), and Gladwell himself repeatedly states it's not an absolute rule without inflexibility. Referring to computer magnates, he opines:

I don't mean to suggest, of course, that every software tycoon in Silicon Valley was born in 1955. But there are very clearly patterns here, and what's striking is how little we seem to want to talk about them.

Read the full extract.

My point here isn't to challenge the validity of the rule. I understand the word "rule" makes most people think it always applies. (Remember, Gladwell says this is not so.) It's to point out the many incorrect interpretations of such a statement. Even Seth Godin gets it wrong, where he incorrectly exchanges "expert" for "superstar".

No.

Having the skills, the expertise for success certainly gives you an aggregated advantage. A higher probability. But it doesn't invariably mean you will be successful. One of the best examples of this are all the talented classical musicians who've practiced lifelong, play for peanuts, and shake their fists at popstars who've taken the easy way. Popstars who are successful (if we define that  to be commercial viability and fanbase size), but not experts.

If you put in 10,000 hours of effective time, you'll inseparably have vastly more experience and knowledge than someone who hasn't lived that. During that time, you'll likely have had successes, even found shortcuts. Obviously, if you can grasp concepts with ease, you can apply them faster too, hence the modern emphasis on "quick learner". It's not incompatible.

But I reckon Gladwell, not unlike meth addicts who look like him (see top-right), knows this controversy will give him peripheral attention. A practice of what he preaches. Maybe it'll even sell more books. And to make sure you take this the right way, I'm in the midst of listening to the audiobook version of Outliers (as purchased from the iTunes Store), and I think it's fantastic so far.

If you know, do you do?

1. LOVE. Always love first.

It's the first whole year I've spent cohabiting with a woman who isn't my mom. That woman is my beautiful wife Ravenelle, and she pays extra-special attention to me every day. At first, it sure was strange. But we've grown in love together. After this blog post is done, she'll satisfy my hongar with a yummy breakfast. She's a great cook and I don't cook, so there!

You gotta believe in yourself. But it sure gets a lot easier if you love someone who believes so much in you. Which she does.

2. Pets are cool too.

I was anxious about getting a cat, but we adopted Sushi. He's our black, fat furbaby. I won't embarrass him on the Internet by going into detail about his hygiene issues. Truth is: I was attracted to his personality the moment I put my hand down and he headbutted me. (Other cats in the shelter didn't.) My first pettable pet. And he makes biscuits to techno, too!

3. Be gracious when you receive praise.

This won't be a list of "give thanx for eeeeverything" x100!

But.

I love hearing feedback about my video tutorials. While it's gotten to a volume where I can't reply to every letter individually, I find myself saying THANK-YOU dozens of times a week. It's spirited, encouraging, and certainly motivates me to make more vids. (It also helps me show they're a valuable — the most valuable aspect of my work time as a Resident Enlightenment Manager.) I also hear this about my piano performances. I delight in delighting.

So if you've ever said thank-you to me, thank YOU.

4. Reward your admirations directly.

The fluid nature of the world rewards mutual flow. Don't just suck in praise, give it back in starbursts. I've sent out many enthusiastic (what other kind could i send?) messages expressing kudos. When appropriate, I've offered monetary compensation. I pay for exceptional music, like Trifonic's Emergence album, because there isn't enough of it. I buy elegant software that I can talk forthrightly to the creators about, like Hazel, iShowU HD, Wallet, and Things. It's homegrown and so techy at the same time. Sub-lesson: you'll always go right sharing what you enjoy. That being said…

5. The overwhelming majority of criticism is worthless.

I don't just refer to Internet trolls and mudslinging, but constructive criticism which simply isn't applicable. The worthwhile criticism tends to be disproportionately so; I treasure it intensely. This inspired me to write a manifesto: "To Criticize Is To Publicize: Make The Best Of Bad Words!"

6. Even when you're succeeding, grow additional strengths.

I've an awesome job working for Linden Lab, makers of my fave virtual world, Second Life. But I also have diverse interests which extend outside that scope, like making beats and blogging. So what do I do? Integrate them into something job-related (monetize hobbies) and/or pursue fresh opportunities.

In 2008, I've had the honor to write for several of the world's top blogs in various categories, including Smashing Magazine (graphic design), Wise Bread (personal finance), Mashable (social media), and Lifehack (productivity). I've also purchased some music gear to get me back on track. And during the course of creating SL video tutorials, I wanted to get more involved with the amazing special effects plugins that NewBlueFX makes. Naturally, I got to know visionary Todor Fay and I'm professionally involved now. Stay tuned in '09.

7. Great tools will save you an amazing amount of suffering.

I cast shame upon mere tools fetishism, which is like spending more time setting up a GTD system than getting things done. But that doesn't devalue choosing the right tools to help you streamline processes and even escalate your fun. Sometimes, I've hesitated getting a tool because of its price, but I now weigh that more clearly vs. its convenience. Case in point: my new Mac Pro. An expensive computer, yes, but it's been a superb timesaver for not having to deal with Windows waste — at least not as much, because my Q6600 is still in action for things not as native to the Mac, such as video editing in Sony Vegas.

8. A different operating system changes the way you look at the world.

OSes are an intriguing microcosm of learned human behavior. There's been no end of tips and guides showing how to migrate from one platform to another. Even for non-geeks, it's like learning a different language, with root similarities but subtle-yet-striking differences. Like the position of the main modifier key. And once you become a fervent believer in doing things a given way, you may evangelize that to others. It's especially true if a transition has, as I said above, cut down on trouble manyfold. That's a key reason why people are so passionate about their Macs, finding iconic relief they can share with others. (As any spreadable religion or marketable product operates.)

9. Tomorrow often isn't the right answer. Today is.

Get me right, there are tasks you should think about and sit on. But there're also tasks which add up, that you need to — and very well should — be doing now. If not now, before your next nap. My fave todo app, Things, has been a great help in showing what needs to be accomplished today. And it feels darn good to check a batch of things off!

10. Don't drink coffee on an empty stomach.

Gives Torley tummyache. @_@

11. State things positively: not to spin, but to win.

Too many people focus on what might go wrong instead of what could go right. Their sayings hedge on bland passiveness instead of an affirmative spark. It's why I prefer saying "get me right" over "don't get me wrong".

12. Most people won't get you. Don't dwell on that.

You can't count on strangers, let alone friends, being able to intuitively understand your deepest thought processes. So there's no need to be angsty. You should keep finding people who do get you, and others will follow you in time. Sizeup rapidly, develop intuitive aptitude (to understand, not kill as Sylar does), and be courageous to run psychological experiments on people. There's everything right with someone being worth your resources and vice-versa. THIS IS HOW LONGLASTING FRIENDSHIPS ARE BORN.

And: if there's something wrong in a relationship, say it upfront. Business or pleasure, I don't care, but I do care that you can aggressively prevent festering resentment. Shying away from this just means you'll be used and abused by manipulators. You don't (always) need to call them out, but be aware where you stand, and what you stand for in the cosmos. I've known about this lesson for years, but only in 2008 did I acknowledge it openly, and it's led to many wonderful happenings.

Also… leading means being first, not waiting to see how everyone else makes up their mind. (Because that's not the "wisdom of the crowds", it's the dumbasses of the masses!)

Corollary: don't count on "experts" to get you, either. There's much to look up to in people who know and have done a lot, but they're also more vulnerable to be less hungry for growth, since they've already experienced life's successes and may be getting old (not just physically). A family man with accumulated wealth isn't going to be a ballsy daredevil, unless your name is Sir Dick Branson. "Years of experience" is a double-edged sword, and it's incredibly hard to find someone who's both up there and insatiable for new ideas. I want to be one of those when I'm an old dude.

13. It's okay to talk about yourself in 3rd person.

Some folks make a big deal about this. Including when they write self-promotional blurbs and About pages. Apparently, a lot of autistics don't have a problem, and don't care. I say, trust the auties on this. (Torley has Asperger Syndrome so he's not impartial.)

14. Iterate, iterate, iterate.

I've heard this good chunk of advice from several wiser than I, across various disciplines. They're 1,000% right. Your life, like software, should continually evolve. You're never at the final release until you're dead. I look out for small stuff I can fine-tune everyday; not meaningless minutiae, but tiny things that cumulatively make a big difference.

15. I should've invested in certificates of deposit.

With a lot of options out there, I got confused. I left my money in savings which is "OK", but my bank's (you can guess which one, heh) interest rate plummeted over the last quarter of the year. If only I had locked some of that up earlier! I acted too little, too late. If the economy grows to good health, I'll do this, and not just keep waiting.

16. Paying for fast shipping is often worth it.

Say it with me now: you can make more money, but you can't make more time. When I was a kid, I had a lot more hours to tinker and figure things out. Presently, while I appreciate relaxation, it doesn't come as often. Even during the holidays, I'm busy learning new skills. One way of doing this is acquiring tools (you see how my lessons are connected?), and fast shipping is part of it. Getting a tool tomorrow as opposed to a week gives me 6 extra days of headstart. Amazon Prime helps a lot too.

17. When you're making a living, a previous career can become a hobby.

I used to make music fulltime at the dawn of the MP3 revolution, freelance baby! Now, I admittedly don't have enough time or energy to do it 12 hrs./day, but despite my hyperacusis, I still have a penchant for tunes. So I've purchased various electronic music instruments and've been noodling about. It's more of a luxury than a position of desperation. (Which it was a decade ago.) Nothing serious for the dancefloor yet, but maybe 2009 will open up like 909 KICK DRUMS THUNDERING DOWN!

18. Be brave to walk away.

Some opportunities are clearly better for your worldview and longtime health than others. I've had to say no to timesuckers and offers which sounded nice on the surface, but ultimately resulted in nothing (I've been burned a few times). Or, good stuff that wasn't as lucrative as other activities I'm involved in, which I declined due to lack of what they call "personal bandwidth".

Here's the funny thing: saying NO is hard at first, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Inversely, so's saying YES. If you're dragged to the bottom with mediocre crap, how do you ever expect to float higher?

19. Time-shift holidays For The Win.

Christmas craziness is ludicrous. I laugh because I know the best deals happen after Christmas, despite holiday sales to move stock. Then I cry because so many fellow humans fall into this crap. Traditions matter only if they have meaning, and it's pointless to fritter away your paycheck.

It's also such a pain to go shopping when it's densely crowded, and having relatives & inlaws you don't get along with is even worse. Simple solution: celebrate when it's just "everyday" to others, not the "holiday season". Yes, some people — including blood relations — will think you strange, but they're also trapped in the Hallmark definition of happiness. Like Neo, maybe you can free them from the Xma(s)trix? There's everything right with expressing pure joy, everything wrong with forced, fake smiles.

My mom taught me the seeds of this and it's true for other acts too, like going to the supermarket when it's not rush hour — small or nonexistent lines. In short, one of the ways to make more time is to look where most people are being wasteful or cramming together, and untethering thyself from the madness. It also gives you reduced blood pressure, since you'll be less stressed.

20. Instead of arguing, act.

Too many people get into blahblahblah wordwars. Stupid! It doesn't matter who talks about right and wrong, it matters who does it. Wordwars taint the depth of valuable debates, and just invent problems for humankind. Being a nice guy also means there are times I'll look at a discussion gone horrifically wrong, and think, "Do I want any part of this lame-ass drama?" "Of course not, I have joys to accomplish." This can sound arrogant to someone whose mind isn't conditioned for such ongoing action, but if you know what I'm on about, then you're genuinely glad to hear this.

21. LOVE. Always love last.

When all's said and done, hopefully more was done than said.

What life lessons did you learn in 2008 and promise to apply in 2009?