Ask HN: What tools do you use to manage your life? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> A few systems, always a work in progress.

\- [https://xph.us/2013/01/22/inbox-zero-for- life.html](https://xph.us/2013/01/22/inbox-zero-for-life.html) for managing email

\- bitlbee + weechat for managing social messaging. Slack for work.

\- A custom deployment of [https://github.com/gollum/gollum](https://github.com/gollum/gollum) for managing all notes, personal and work related. Can easily share Markdown files with teammates / friends. [https://github.com/zachlatta/mullog](https://github.com/zachlatta/mullog) is code for custom deployment. I usually edit locally using vim and have tons of shell scripts specific to note management to automate file creation, renaming, and git usage. This is my most used life system and I'm almost constantly using it.

\- Arch Linux with i3 and tons of custom scripts for managing how I use my computer. Have heavily customized my machine in [https://github.com/zachlatta/dotfiles](https://github.com/zachlatta/dotfiles).

It's difficult to predict the future and unlikely that someone else will build a tool that will always meet my personal needs, especially as they change over time. Better to use systems that lend themselves to customization so I can always build systems that work for me – hence heavy reliance on scriptable programs.

</comment><comment><USER3> \- atimelogger for tracking all my time on my phone : [http://www.atimelogger.com/](http://www.atimelogger.com/)

\- Zim for my todo and write down my ideas/projects [http://zim- wiki.org/](http://zim-wiki.org/)

\- Syncthing to synchronize and backup :[https://syncthing.net/](https://syncthing.net/)

\- Secret voice recorder to save a quick vocal message without the pain to turn on my phone and write my idea: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miragestac...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miragestack.secret.voice.recorder)

\- GPSLogger to save my gps position every 10 minutes and save it as gpx, and synchronizing the files with my server : [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gp...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gpslogger&hl=fr)

<comment><USER4> How do you manage to have a consistent logging with atimelogger, without having spurious information? I mean, I can say I'm working, but I can be distracted for a few minutes and come back, or something else. Do you stop/start the timer each time you switch? I find that really annoying about using these kind of trackers, which of course is a problem with me, not with the tracker itself. But nevertheless, I'd like to know what your approach is..

<comment><USER5> If it's only about a few minutes of distraction every time, and that's the way you get your work done, just integrate it into your working time. Getting something to drink or having a roundtrip to the toilet is simply necessary to support your work.

I also don't really track time for projects specifically, but rather say that my time spent was 'focused' on a work task or 'not focused'. Focused just means that I planned ahead and committed to do a task, as opposed to just picking up thing as I go along (which sometime works pretty well, and can be more creative).

As for larger distractions, or forgetting to switch the task in the time logger, I'm using an app that beeps me every 20 minutes so I notice the passing time better. I'm using BlipBlip for Android.

It can also help you get started with lucid dreaming, which is awesome.

<comment><USER4> Ohh, that'd be awesome! Please share any tips on how to get started with lucid dreaming!

Thanks for the useful response!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I use Trello for all kinds of stuff. For example we have a grocery board, so if I'm at the grocery store I can pull it up and make my trip more effective. Every Saturday morning I bang out my weekend todo list in Trello. Whenever my wife and I are going to do just about anything: go on a vacation, buy something, whatever, we make a trello board for it.

Also Google Inbox's reminders were an honest to god game changer for me. I pretty much don't forget anything anymore. I even have a recurring "take out the trash" reminder pop every Sunday for example.

<comment><USER7> I don't use inbox. How its weekly reminder different from a calendar based reminder?

<comment><USER8> I started doing GTD. I use Calendar for my "hard schedule"—things that I have to do on a specific day and/or time. I use Inbox reminders for my "hey do this if you get the chance." And then I keep my big todo & projects list in Docs. I find they all occupy a slightly different and nice niche—todos & projects in permanent stuff, inbox for "soft time", calendar for "hard time." I find there's a lot of mental benefit to separating these things out. When something is on my calendar, I know that means do it. When something is in Inbox, I know I should just get to it as soon as I have the time and energy. (This works better with inbox zero though; if you have a bunch of other emails etc lying around it dilutes the reminders.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I try to keep things super simple...

\- Native notes tasks and calendar for iOS/OSX, I can sync it with work's exchange / iCloud / gmail and it works with "Siri - remind my to do x on y time" tried other dedicated apps, but this just makes everything simpler.

\- Pomodoro app on my phone, this is simply amazing, best way to get work done

\- [http://musicforprogramming.net/](http://musicforprogramming.net/)

\- Google sheets and Mint for budgeting etc.

I tried other apps and tools (RescueTime was nice but I can't use it at work or on iOS)

Didn't try IFTTT or similar tools but never found the need.

<comment><USER10> This is a nice list.

Some things I've used at various points in the past for specific goals:

-My fitness pal for tracking food

-Spreadsheets for tracking workouts. I found it worked easier if I just listed everything I was going to do weeks in advance and just cross it off as I did it, vs writing it down as I did it

-Tiny but gmail keyboard shortcuts - makes sorting and going through email a breeze.

-Back again chrome extension. When you land on a page it tells you how many times you've been on it that day. Useful for curbing the HN and reddit habit.

That's it!

<comment><USER11> I use Strong for tracking my lifting as opposed to a spreadsheet. Found it to be good for at least my style of working out.

<comment><USER10> I got you - I'll take a look.

My main issue with apps and even paper notebooks is every time you go to the gym you have to take an action.

If I lay out a schedule for 6 weeks with exactly what I'm going to do with dates, all I have to do is cross it off. And if I don't remember to cross it off, it's fine because I can just go by the day.

I found I was much more likely to stick to a long program when I did that vs logging it the old fashioned way.

<comment><USER12> I recommend and use this log system where you only have to take an action when you beat your rep range: [http://exrx.net/WeightTraining/Log.html](http://exrx.net/WeightTraining/Log.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> After trying a lot of digital list/note-creating products, I now primarily use paper and haven't looked back. Writing the grocery list on paper is much easier than fumbling around with (and dropping) my phone while I'm shopping, for example. If I will ever look at it while not on my laptop/desktop, it always goes on paper. Some things (mostly work TODOs and notes) go in plain text files. I find tagging/organizing digital notes takes me more effort than it's usually worth.

I use 1Password to synchronize and store logins, passwords, CC/bank info, and other specific personal numbers (passport/ID, membership programs, etc). This solves two problems: I can view the info easily without hunting for the information, and I can sync it easily with my spouse. Moving to this has simplified a lot of the tedious "number management" that is modern life.

Important single and recurring events for me and my spouse go in digital calendar that syncs to mobile devices, with reminders. I use this for everything - work meetings, travel, fill out my fantasy sports roster, change my toothbrush, etc. You shouldn't have to live off your calendar, but I've found this very useful for things I'd like to make sure I do but would forget with high frequency.

</comment><comment><USER14> \- Scraps of paper on the fridge. High-priority items go on the hood above the stove where everybody sees them.

\- Outlook for everything email/calendar/notes

\- Alarm clock on the phone for stuff I might forget

</comment><comment><USER15> I have a notebook called "Captain's Log" that I constantly post things into. I have my Evernote app set to default to that notebook. Everytime I hear something on the radio I want to look up, I type a few of the lyrics into a note and save it and it goes into the Captain's Log for perusal later. Everytime I have something I need to remember to do I post a note into the Captain's log and add a "todo" tag to it so I can sort those out when needed. All meeting notes go in there too. When I start coding something I take notes on what I'm working on in a note so that I can go back and remember what I did when I was working on that thing I can't quite remember.

I can sort that notebook by "date created" and see a log of my life going back in time and I've found it very useful.

<comment><USER10> This is very cool.

I've always wanted to create an app that optimized for exactly something like this.

Like a Zenefits almost for personal life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I primarily use an app that I wrote: [https://github.com/ioddly/meditations](https://github.com/ioddly/meditations)

Basically it's a todo list based around habit formation. It also has journal functionality. I set it to open when I open my browser; the idea is that keeping track of these things should be as low friction as possible.

As an aside, journaling (which requires minimal fancy software, or none if you use a paper journal) has been critical in accounting for where my time goes and what I spend my time thinking about.

I use ledger to track my finances. Also low friction, high return; my frivolous expenditures have gone down remarkably since I started doing this last year.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've written custom webapps for the following:

1\. Brainstorming/thinking - [https://thoughtwriter.org](https://thoughtwriter.org) (which I just launched)

2\. Remembering stuff (books, shopping, project ideas) - list limited to just 100 items (so it can't get too long)

3\. Tracking habits - daily, weekly, and monthly trackers that only track current period and previous one. (So I can make sure not to skip two periods in a row)

4\. Planning - an hourly schedule and a weekly worksheet to track most important tasks, fun, etc.

5\. Capturing new ideas - queue that deletes items older than a two days (so it forces me to review things, or just let them go)

</comment><comment><USER18> So I've tried probably every note taking and todo list tracking application out there. They all suck. This is what I do which is _okay_. I'm tempting to write a custom solution, however...

\- Use Evernote with 3 Notebooks (Inbox, Filed and Shared). Anything I think of that I want to remember later, regardless of what it is, I toss into Evernote Inbox. I later add tags to it and move it to Filed. This allows me to do a quick tag search (either by clicking on tags or typing them out) to find stuff very quickly. This works but Evernote is really meh it just is the only thing that fits how I use notes.

\- Tasking I use Todoist but, honestly, I rarely end up using it. It's a chore with every Todo app. None of them sync with my calendar and, at the same time, is available to me on all devices while also allowing quick entry and quick re-organizing.

\- I use Fitbit to track my movements. Works decently well unless I forget to wear it.

\- Dropbox handles anything I want to sync to any computer (usually not very large amounts of data) and I keep common files and documents stored there.

That's it. My biggest problem is I've found that organization _later_ or _temporary_ organization is far better than any organization up front because nothing is perfect the first go around but there is almost NOTHING that lets you do this and, at the same time, offer good things like calendar integration and multiple platform support.

Wow, I didn't realize my post would end up being more of a rant than anything else. Hope it's helpful to someone else though.

<comment><USER19> Todoist syncs to my GCal quite well? using Settings -> Integration -> "Subscribe with Google Calendar" read-only sync.

I think the Android app is really great and allows me to add entries w/ dates via voice e.g. "OK Google, note to self - go to bank tomorrow". Not sure if iOS integration is as good!

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The iOS Reminders app easily sees the most day-to-day use for me in the daily management/productivity realm. Many times a week I'll just say "Hey Siri, set a reminder for 7pm tomorrow to do X" and then I can just forget about it. My memory's not the greatest, so I find that offloading even the smallest tasks to the Reminders app has helped me immensely. :)

For longer-term events, I used to be a heavy Google Calendar user while in college, but now I typically just throw events onto the Reminders app as well! I like to set them for a certain amount of time before the event in case I need to remind myself to accomplish a few sub-tasks in the days/hours beforehand. For example, if I'm flying out to a different city a month from now, I'd schedule a reminder about that flight for a few days before the day of the flight, and when it goes off I know to create some reminders like "do laundry" for the next day and "check in for flight" for the night before.

Of course, sticking with a calendar is probably the better approach for this entire thing. :P I still pop things on my calendar, but I just like the sense of checking items off once they're done.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm a big fan of Gtd since 6 years. I used to use CulturedCode Things, Evernote, Dropbox, Minco(time tracking) and Mail.app.

After some years of use and multiple spikes into other setups, I migrated to using Emacs org-mode with git and mu4e for everything. It's cross platform, text only, does have a stable UX and API and the licenses don't expire all the time. Couldn't be happier!

<comment><USER22> I also revolve through many tools. The issue for me is that I am better with one on my mobile and another on the computer.

Are you always by a keyboard or do you find yourself with just a phone sometimes?

<comment><USER21> I learned that my mobile is (to me) mostly a distraction and sometimes good to look up things. Actually moving the tooling to the desktop was therefore a good thing.

But: I definively can look things up from org through an app called MobileOrg. Also I can put things into my inbox. Mail still works the same with the built in mail app.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> PC:

\- org-mode for meeting notes, ideas, todo-lists, agenda

\- ledger for personal finances

\- pass for password management

Mobile:

\- Note Crypt Pro for tracking ideas on the run

\- OpenScale for weight tracking

\- Wunderlist for sharing shopping lists with my wife

 _edit: formatting_

</comment><comment><USER24> My digital life is undergoing some great transformation. I moved over pretty much all of my stuff to Cloudron and it's been working out very well so far.

The apps I use are

\- I use Cloudron's built-in email with bluemail android app

\- nextcloud for photos, files, contacts. on Android, davdroid works great. For passwords, I use Keepassx with sync to nextcloud. on android, there is keepass2android.

\- meemo for my notes and bookmarking

\- gogs for my git hosting.

\- tinytinyrss for my rss feed. i really wish someone makes that ui a little more pretty but the android app works quiet well

\- I have our family's baby blog, personal blog/website and my niece's blog on wordpress. There's a piwik setup for analytics as well (via wp piwik plugin).

What I do not self-host: Wire messenger (maybe Riot/Matrix app will become good enough some day but I need video calls). I used to use Skype but it has become very unreliable off late.

</comment><comment><USER25> OneNote for broad concepts and Google Keep for day to day. Tips:

OneNote - use tags. I mostly use the checkbox and question tags. You can pull up every unchecked checkbox in a document or review everything labeled a question. Great for finding things you forgot to finish. I borrowed from Wiki and made an stub tag for things I want to fill out later after I'm done brainstorming.

OneNote - put double brackets around a word or phrase to create and link to a page with that name. Great wiki functionality.

Keep - Pin important actionable items. Make a widget and put it on your homescreen. Set it up so that at the end of a productive day your todo list is empty.

Keep - Use location based reminders. This feature alone has saved me many trips to the hardware store.

Keep - Use hashtags to tag items. A great way to jot down ideas and review sets of them at a later date.

</comment><comment><USER26> I keep a small Moleskine notepad and a 'Space Pen' in my pocket, mostly just for remembering things and stuff like shopping lists etc. I've tried heaps of apps to do the same thing, but I found something I didn't like about each one. I find taking a few minutes to actually write down a note is actually quite relaxing, and because it takes a bit longer than using an app and it's a bit more involved I tend to remember things better as well.

At work, I have a similar system just with a bigger Rhodia notepad and Lamy Safari on my desk.

Beyond that, I occasionally use Siri as a kitchen timer or to remind me to do stuff if I don't have my notepad with me. Also Gmail/G-Suite for email and storage with my own domain name.

</comment><comment><USER27> \- Evernote is awesome, and I use it for all kinds of things (desktop, web, and mobile.) It's kinda the building block of my life. (I make sure to export the database regularly and back it up to Google Drive, just incase.)

\- Google Calendar is what we use to manage the family schedule (particularly kids events, etc.)

\- Google Sheets for finances and other family stuff. It's simply fantastic. (I used it 10 years ago to plan my wedding.)

\- Keepass and Lastpass for password management. (Keepass for critical "root of security" stuff, and lastpass for everything else.)

\- I've been using Google Voice as my main phone number ever since it launched.

\- Google Drive for almost all my data (scanned docs, taxes, books, projects, etc.)

\- Crashplan to backup everything (including what's in Google Drive.)

</comment><comment><USER28> I suppose you mean software, and by manage you mean maintenance tools, tools that you use all the time as opposed to one-off cases where you might use a specific tool once to solve a specific problem that won't likely appear again.

If that is the case I don't use any tool. I don't use notes, neither software notes nor paper notes, and I don't use calendars. I try to keep my life free enough of stress so that I don't need calendars to remember what I have to do. If I can't remember what I need to buy, it probably means I don't need that item anyway.

I don't use spreadsheets or anything like that for tracking expenses either.

Of course I use stuff like e-mail, although I would not put that into life- management category.

</comment><comment><USER29> For grocery shopping, I use Google Keep and constantly update the list of groceries the next time I go grocery shopping, which is usually 1-2 times a week.

I usually add items on the desktop version and then remove them on the mobile version when I'm at the store.

<comment><USER30> Amazon Alexa is perfect for this. Any family member can add things to your shopping list with just their voice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> \- Todoist for all work & personal tasks I want to complete, scheduled by target completion date. Native OSX global keyboard shortcuts plus Android task addition "OK Google, note to self- mail out quarterly taxes on Tuesday", it's far and away the best todo tracker I've ever found to date.

\- Workflowy for structured idea-generation and brainmapping

\- Gmail for all inbound tasks, that other people want me to complete. Chained with followupthen.io (which lets you bounce/snooze emails for specific time intervals)

\- Gcal for fixed-date events (meetings, birthdays, vacations)

\- Dashlane for password mgmt. Used to be unstable but great now!

</comment><comment><USER31> iMessage, Trello, e-mail, Apple Notes, Apple Reminders

iMessage: I travel a ton for business and this really keeps me in touch with people I care about. Everyone I care about has an iPhone so it works (including my children)

Trello: I'd like to use Things but Trello is easy to set up with Zapier to remind me to do things, and to invite other people to the board. Planning a vacation or just sorting out all my priorities it works. I really don't like the mobile app though. It's way too slow.

e-mail: Mostly incoming mail from companies I buy from, or notifications from my bank.

Apple Notes: It's great to type some stuff up and share it with the family. My oldest daughter has an ongoing note shared with my wife and I on how much we owe her for babysitting her younger siblings. Emojis are used to signify payment status.

Apple Reminders: I travel a lot and I'm shit at packing. I use reminders so I don't forget something. I often use it to remind me where I parked (I tell Siri to add a reminder). Also up until we started grocery shopping with Shipt I used to be the one to go because my wife hates the grocery store. She would share a grocery list with me in the reminders app and it's easy to add something last minute or see how close I am to being done in the store as I check things off.

</comment><comment><USER32> At work: Jira, Confluence, Skype, E-mail.

At home: Paper for grocery lists, conversation and my wife's amazing memory for most other things. Sometimes e-mails have something essential, like flight numbers or registration codes. Oh, and the password manager on my phone. My wife keeps various journals on paper, and those help her track longer-term trends in her life. Sometimes I'll set a calendar notification on my phone, but that's a little rare.

</comment><comment><USER33> I actively try not to "manage" my life. If some part of life is too complicated to manage without a tool, that part of life has to go.

To keep track of any temporary complexity I use a hard-cover notebook that keeps track of the complexity until I find a way to eliminate it.

The goal is to build abstractions so that the details don't matter. Managing detail is a trap. Complexity and "managing" said complexity is a code smell.

</comment><comment><USER34> I use Bulldock Browser to create dedicated apps for the common sites I use in my browser.

This declutters my browser and give's be quick access, I 'alt-tab' to my apps.

For example I have dedicated apps for Gmail, Trello and HN (I have the HN app in compact mode, floating mode and have it auto reload 5 mins).

Disclaimer I'm the developer, [http://www.bulldockbrowser.com](http://www.bulldockbrowser.com)

<comment><USER35> Thanks, that looks really nice, bought. I used to use another app that did a similar job (Fluid?) but the performance was appalling. This seems super quick so far, great work.

<comment><USER34> Thank you for the very encouraging comments :)

<comment><USER35> Update: performance is perfect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Google Sheets for most of my todo and idea lists.

Qbserve for time-tracking.

Just started using Todo, Microsoft's replacement for Wunderlist. Seems pretty decent.

Alexa for Pomodoro-like timer.

Pinboard for bookmarking.

</comment><comment><USER37> vimwiki + Taskwarrior. Taskwarrior is absolutely amazing. You can add tasks, assign them to projects, tag them, assign priorities, create recurring tasks, set deadlines, set since when task should be visible on tasks list (e.g. I have recurring daily task that I set deadline for 19:00 but I don't want to see it during the day as it clutters up my tasks lists so I have it set to wait untill 18:30 and only after that appear on my tasks list), make tasks depend on other tasks and so much more. My absolutely favorite thing about taskwarrior: reports. There is a lot of different reports that you can filter via projects, via tags, etc. You can see monthly reports, daily reports, yearly reports.

And all of that (current and completed tasks) is saved in a file format that is really similar to json.

Oh yeah and it's free and opensource: [https://taskwarrior.org](https://taskwarrior.org)

<comment><USER38> How do you handle mobile with this setup? I have looked at taskwarrior, but I _need_ something that is easy to use on iOS. Hence, Taskpaper.

<comment><USER37> I use android so unfortunately can't help you with that, sorry. I guess that's one downside of taskwarrior. With stuff like orgmode or todo.txt your todo files are just simple text files and you could edit them with any text editor on ios but taskwarrior uses a pretty specific file format with task being assigned generated uuids so it's not that easy to just edit them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I'm pretty dependent on my primary email account at GSuite. I'd also have a hard time without 1Password.

I've built a custom note taking app that I 'self-host' on Heroku. I've also got a bookmarking app I built running on there.

Open tabs on my mobile are my reading list. I only really read articles and posts on my phone when travelling etc.

</comment><comment><USER40> I live in Wunderlist. Pretty upset that Microsoft plans to sunset it. It has nothing else or more to add/remove from it.

The To-do app they have seems ok too, but I bet it'll be changing all the time, which will suck. Looking for next thing that would be equally inexpensive for OSX/iOS/cloud.

<comment><USER41> ticktick.com is almost a 1 to 1 replacement for Wunderlist. Check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Shared Google calendar for family events. Shared Google docs for to-do lists, address books, family finances, etc. (Some Dropbox, too.) LastPass for shared password management. Mint for finance tracking (but not budgeting). Apple shared photo album for sharing kid photos with extended family.

</comment><comment><USER43> * Gmail's inbox for TODO list (email myself if it wasn't initiated by an email)

* Google Calendar for events and reminders

* Google Docs for finances and checklists

* Plain text editor on smartphone for personal notes (keeping them cloud-free)

* A few social networks for keeping in touch with people in my life

</comment><comment><USER44> Xmind for thinking and especially for drawing root cause diagrams/fishbone diagrams. Graphviz for diagrams of ideas. Evernote for notes. A home made Pomodoro timer to practice to Pomodoro technique.

</comment><comment><USER45> Wrote a small desktop notepad to keep all my tasks, goals, and notes in it: [https://github.com/Y2Z/Doer](https://github.com/Y2Z/Doer)

</comment><comment><USER46> Evernote (notes), Reminders (short term reminders), Google Calendar (for recurring/shared reminders), Instapaper (for links storage), Trello (for home inventory buying/planning)

</comment><comment><USER47> Bash scripts, curl, a daemon, and a Slack bot! Just whipped out an interactive todo list demo. Won't be sticking with Bash, but it was fun to start with.

</comment><comment><USER48> We use Google Keep at home to share shopping lists. I also use it for quick notes on any of my devices.

For reminders, meetings, events, etc I use Google Calendar.

</comment><comment><USER49> Good old excel to keep exact track of all my stock trades, for the rest of my life, I like it a bit chaotic- it's more fun that way...

</comment><comment><USER50> project management (personal projects, long-term house chores, etc): \- [https://clubhouse.io/](https://clubhouse.io/)

notes: \- [https://boostnote.io/](https://boostnote.io/)

backups: \- rclone + google drive

</comment><comment><USER51> [https://workflowy.com/](https://workflowy.com/)

</comment><comment><USER52> I manage my life mostly with calendar.

iOS: Fantastical, Notes Mac: Fantastical, Notes/Quiver

<comment><USER53> Is fantastical worth the money? The natural language queries seem like the biggest feature and I love it, but not sure about the rest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> I dont leave todo lists, cleandar events and life handling tools in general to take over my brain. He is the best tool because it pop ups the mos important thing to the present and if something has been forgotten, well, that's because there was a more important thing in the stack : )

<comment><USER22> In theory, it is the opposite. Because you keep all that in your head, you have this large cognitive overload.

Better to dump it out and just your brain for what you are working on at the moment.

<comment><USER54> but in practice I have less stress, more self stem and a feel of autonomy without external and unpredictable events that switch my mind artificially. The effect is I am more productive since I refused to use outlooks mindmappings todos and the likes. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> Routine and a wall calendar.

</comment><comment><USER56> Whiskey and caffeine

</comment><comment><USER57> Every day I write 750 words on 750words.com, it keeps my content generation muscles strong and keeps me journaling. I have a script that maintains local copies of what I write.

</comment><comment><USER58> iOS reminders, notes and Siri. I run a financial/budget spreadsheet in Numbers. Shopping comes via Ocado.

</comment><comment> Z-Widwil A hierarchy of note taking. After trying all of the top organizational tools, I settled on a combination of what worked for me. Here is the basis of it:

\- A pen. Simply something to write with. This is important as you may not always be in a situation where you can record items digitally.

\- 1 3/8 x 1 7/8 Post-It notes. These are for quick, temporary notes. Things such as minor tasks, small reminders, or short messages to others, should be recorded using these. They are then either placed at my desk (home or work) or on the desk of the intended recipient.

\- Pocket notepad. This is the companion of the pen and should be carried around everywhere. Where Post-It notes are intended to be disposed after completion, the notepad is for long term records. Anything written here should have a bit more information. Specifically the type of note (task, event, idea) and date/time. These are then transferred later on. I've carried a notepad for a while, but it was always a little disorganized. I found myself with notes without context or direction. Adding simple categories didn't really help organize the notepad, but it did help organize ideas that could be transferred to a more manageable program.

\- Zim personal wiki: This is simply a knowledge base to organize everything. All the categorization from the notepad is used to direct where to record notes in your wiki. The root of it for me comes down to Personal, School, and Work. Each one has many sub pages intended for specific things. You can do this with almost any wiki. I've tried many and settled on Zim because it fit exactly what I was looking for. It's easy to use, desktop based, I can access is remotely, it works with my backup system, and I can publish it if needed. I would like to try org-mode eventually, but haven't gotten around to learning emacs yet.

\- Google Calendar/Mail: The final piece is a global calendar and messaging system. Gmail fit that bill. If an event comes up, it's usually written to my notepad, manually transferred to Zim, then created in my Google Calendar.

\- Motivation: The most difficult part was getting myself to commit to the whole thing. It may not sound that hard, but developing the whole system required a lot of trial and error and eventually drawing out the hierarchy of what worked best. Since this system is based on a lot of other's recommendations, part of that motivation is building it to suit yourself. If you want to be able to fully manage yourself, it can take time to build what you need.

I've used this system for several years now, but it took me much longer to perfect it. I've tried several apps to support it, but found that recording things digitally leaves them in a weird place of not being seen as often and easily forgotten about. Using the notepad provides the physical interaction of writing it (which helps commit it to memory) and the constant view of it, since I see my last notes before writing another. This may seem elementary for many people, but it does really help me out. The Post-Its started as a thing between my wife and I, but turned into a crucial part of the system. I had many notes in my notepad that didn't really need to be there. If they could be written and removed in a day, they seemed much more temporary. So I started carrying small Post-Its as well. I started the wiki for school, but ended up using it for work and home projects as well. The calendar/messaging piece is one that I wish I could automate from the wiki, but a lot of it is manual, which I don't mind. Each week I can sit down and record things from the previous week, while planning out the coming week. It's a small period of reflection which helps me out quite a bit.</comment>


Warren, Ocasio-Cortez propose halt to big mergers during coronavirus pandemic - <AUTHOR> https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/warren-ocasio-cortez-propose-halt-big-mergers-during-coronavirus-pandemic-n1193756 <comment><USER2> I have very mixed feelings about this. While the proposal is new and commentary, thus far, is limited, I mostly see discussions of how this impacts the big players (Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc...) and the small startups that would otherwise be scooped up.

What is an interesting question is how this impacts the companies in the middle - i.e. sizable tech companies with, say, $50 million in annual revenue, who don't typically have the resources to acquire startups that are being pursued by the big players.

Would legislation like this allow those middle-market players to grow via acquisition and, thus, create a larger pool of "big players" post-pandemic?</comment>


Delaware judge suggests turning to Blockchain to Protect Investor Votes - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/10/21/turning-to-blockchain-to-protect-investor-votes/ <comment><AUTHOR> Non-paywall link: [https://archive.fo/JTFS4](https://archive.fo/JTFS4)</comment>


Politicians call for UK security services to be given greater monitoring powers - <AUTHOR> http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22891845

<comment><USER2> This piece is by Allegra Stratton, somebody with well known ties to the Conservative party. She is giving this letter more weight than it is worth (none of those opposition MPs are part of the shadow cabinet, and their positions on this were already known as far as I remember) to try and put pressure on the Lib Dems to cave on this issue. Not that I believe Labour is going to fight this, just that this letter doesn't represent any change or "renewed pressure". John Reid, another Labour former Home Secretary, was already making a disgusting spectacle of himself all over the news in the days after Lee Rigby was murdered saying it showed the need for more government surveillance.

Additionally, when Jack Straw comes out in support of some new Home Office policy, you have to put that into context. He should be facing public trial over deporting people to be tortured and lying about it[1][2], and the current government aimed to prevent that with their expansion of secret courts (part of the Justice and Security Act)[3], so he owes them big time.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Straw#Rendition_and_tortu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Straw#Rendition_and_torture_allegations) [2] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/02/abdel- hakim-b...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/02/abdel-hakim-belhaj- jack-straw) [3] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/sep/25/secret-courts- the-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/sep/25/secret-courts-the- essential-guide)

<comment><USER3> I also suspect that the timing works against this bill. It takes brashness (and not much sense) to propose this bill at this time.

Yes, in the middle of a major international scandal, let's imitate the bad guys. That's a great idea....

<comment><USER2> It's hard to say what will happen. Milliband will whip his MPs to vote in favour of it, so it can pass without Lib Dem support. That would risk collapsing the coalition though. Fixed terms mean that the Tories would probably limp on as a minority government till 2015, but without much ability to get anything through (and they have little chance of getting reelected in 2015) so they would have to be really committed to this issue to do that.

Lib Dems know they are going to get a hammering in 2015 and they need to start differentiating themselves from the Tories to have any hope at all, but it seems too soon for that at the moment. Thus-far they have proven incapable of taking a stand on anything of significance. Sadly polling probably indicates that this isn't something the public care enough about to make it worth them bringing down the government over, so I can easily see them rolling over in exchange for a few more years sucking on the teat of power. Or perhaps the most cowardly thing of all: making it a free-vote so that enough Lib Dem MPs will vote for it while Lib Dem HQ can claim to oppose it without any risk to the coalition.

It may be decided by UKIP and backbench Tories. If they are against it I can't see Cameron pushing it. Unfortunately a lot of the Tory backbench rebels are also staunch Atlanticists and heavily involved in the defence/security industry (think Liam Fox).

Whatever happens this will be on the books by ~2016 unless there is a significant public backlash.

<comment><USER4> You seem to know your shit. What resources do you follow to stay current with UK politics?

<comment><USER5> Without wanting to be rude about anon1385 (who I'm sure does know his shit), I'm not sure he said anything particularly insightful. I'd have had pretty much the same ideas that he had (though wouldn't have articulated them so well), and while I do have a general interest in politics, I really don't do a good job staying up-to-date on current affairs, so for the most part my knowledge is reasonable but not at all detailed.

Perhaps if you yourself are not in the UK then that's why you ask, as I guess foreigners would need to more specifically try harder to keep up to date with our politics than we do here (even with my loose following of current afairs, the papers I read are written with a UK focus, the topical news quizzes I watch on TV are UK focused, etc.)

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I've nothing particularly insightful to say here beyond things that become apparent if you follow UK politics. To those who don't I'm sure it gets fairly confusing; there are a lot of byzantine things about the process of UK politics. I was mostly trying to provide a bit of context for the non-uk readers.

Having said that, if people are interested in the day to day then the Guardian do a live politics blog most days which will have coverage of speeches, important votes and links to articles and comment pieces in the other papers.

Also if you are a UK citizen and care about politics I think it really is worth your time to actually sit and watch parliament at some point. Preferably try and work out when they will be talking about an issue you care about or have an interest in (I'd advise against Prime Ministers Questions, it's mostly a lot of pre-prepared soundbites and weak jokes with very little answering of questions). It will probably reveal quite a bit about the real positions of backbenchers, the main parties etc beyond what you see in the papers or the soundbites on the TV news. You may find it surprising who you are agreeing with or not. Also there is a lot of theatre and protocol to it which is kind of entertaining at times.

<comment><USER5> I'm a big fan of the Guardian, but I'd also suggest that for anyone who has trouble keeping up-to-date, you're probably best off trying out difference sources and finding the one that suits you. Whether that's a source that's extremely left- or right-wing, or somewhere in the middle, if it works for you, chances are you'll read it more. Of course, the next improvement up from this is to read multiple sources to get the fuller, more objective picture.

Also, I've found comedic sources can be great. My two are Have I Got News For You (Friday night comedy panel show based around current afairs - doesn't run all year round though) and Private Eye (satirical current afairs weekly magazine - coincidentally edited by one of the permanent team captains on HIGNFY, Ian Hislop). They can be great fun if you know what they are going to cover already, and they can be a great way for people who are less interested, or just less up-to-date, to get a snapshot of news without having to try too hard to get into it.

<comment><USER6> There are also multiple satirical current affairs shows that alternate on BBC Radio 4, again broadcast on Friday evenings among other times. If you enjoy _Have I Got News For You_ then _The Now Show_ or _The News Quiz_ are probably worth your time as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Typical stuff from the Labour authoritarian-brigade (Straw, Johnson), joined as usual by their Tory clones. I'm surprised to see a Lib Dem signatory, but then you can find _a_ LD somewhere who'll sign up to anything (much like academics).

The more disturbing thing is the political language in the letters, first accusing the Lib Dems of exploiting "coalition niceties," rather than standing up for person liberty and privacy, and secondly by trying to make it look like corporate interests:

 _" We find it odd that many critics of the Bill prefer to champion the rights of corporations over democratically accountable law enforcement agencies."_

when in fact it's about individuals' privacy from state spying! Yes broadband companies said they didn't want to be responsible for logging all this data, but that's beside the point, really.

This sort of rhetoric will chime dangerously well with the tabloid-reading public, on top of the arms race against criminals/terrorists/drug addicts/whoever the "bad guys" are today -- I'm worried it will be a politically effective tactic.

<comment><USER8> Just to point out, you missed out "Paedophiles".

<comment><USER9> As usual, thinking of the children.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> UVB-76 There's something particularly vile about the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby being exploited to advance this legislation.

<comment><USER10> Sadly this seems to happen a lot. Playing on the emotions of the voters is the quick and dirty way to pass something.

<comment><USER11> There is something about the political opportune moment. These are to a certain degree even predictable. For example currently it looks like we are building up the infrastructure for pushing through gun legislation. All we are waiting for is another Caucasian kid to nuts with a gun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> As one of the commenters on the BBC website points out, it's more likely this is about retrospectively legalizing what's already being done rather than anything new. After it was exposed that GCHQ "may" have been using Prism data (ie. of course they were) GCHQ employees are now open to being sued for contravening RIPA _unless_ they can get something on the statute books pronto.

</comment><comment><USER13> Nick Clegg just said "it's not going to happen with me in the government" \- I'm dead worried now. They are going to push this very soon.

<comment><USER6> It will be nothing but good for Nick Clegg if they do. He could threaten to break the coalition over it on a point of principle, and in doing so make amends for the tuition fees betrayal. He could put the Lib Dems back on the political map and reassert their authority for the next two years in government _in a single sound-bite_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Lol they see the outrage of the American population over the snooping programs and they think... "I want a program like that too". Talk about selfish and not working in the peoples interest.

<comment><USER15> It was originally proposed a couple of years back and dropped. Then following the murder of a soldier on the streets of London it's back on the agenda. They are probably cursing the timing of the NSA revelations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> "The proposed Communications Data Bill does not want access to the content of our communications but does want to ensure that enough data is available in the aftermath of an attack to help investigators establish 'who, where and when' were involved in planning or supporting it."

So there's a limitation in the bill which says that the proposed data can only be collected following an attack? Not that I've seen.

<comment><USER6> It's also surprising that they claim to need all these powers _without a warrant_ if they're only going to be used after an event to try and figure out what happened.

I do think it's important not to over-react to things like this and neuter the security services when they really do have legitimate grounds to investigate someone and they really are doing their jobs under a reasonable level of scrutiny and oversight.

However, how often would security services really need to act so fast that they had to circumvent getting a named minister to personally sign off on their actions (and accept responsibility for them, presumably) or getting a court order for surveillance based on making a case that it was a reasonable to invade someone's privacy under the circumstances?

William Hague keeps talking about how all of this spying is done under a legal framework, but I think he loses a lot of credibility making that argument as part of an administration that argues for secret courts and the like, standing next to the senior foreign representative of a nation that uses blatant legal trickery so it can detain people indefinitely without trial contrary to even its own normal legal rules. What's the point of having a legal framework if most people can't see that law in action or if you can just circumvent the framework when it's inconvenient?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> What can I do, as a UK citizen, to stop this from happening?

<comment><USER18> [http://www.writetothem.com/](http://www.writetothem.com/) I guess, for all the good it will do

<comment><USER19> Certainly voting doesn't seem to change anything, given the present lot want general surveillance and the last lot wanted ID cards.

I've just written to Andy Burnham about it. I can only hope he's receptive, though from his voting record it doesn't seem likely.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I find that peoples understanding of this issue is way too simplistic.

It won't help to stop terrorists because they will always use the internet in ways that cannot be monitored (https, VPN, etc.).

It will allow the gathering of everybodies data in one place, which is dangerous as hackers are regularly gaining access to this kind of information.

Another problem is that innocent people are sure to be branded as possible terrorists and refused entry on flights etc.

<comment><USER21> Worth reading: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002)

In an exercise, an enemy using a method not easy to intercept sunk the US Navy. Oops.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Great, more government surveillance, that's exactly what we need. Maybe the Brits could just copy the language of the "Patriot Act" outright and implement that.

</comment><comment><USER23> They will just use it to fine more people for misplacing their trashcans, like they did with all their security programs.</comment>


Min: the world's fastest CSS framework - <AUTHOR> http://mincss.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Author here. If you have any questions, or want help integrating Min into your site, or are wondering how it's different from other CSS frameworks, ask away.</comment>


Attracted to Hard Problems - <AUTHOR> http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2013/05/attracted-to-hard-problems.html

<comment><USER2> Not much depth to this piece, seems like an unusual amount of links to his other articles...is this some sort of SEO test bait?

<comment><USER3> It sounds like a cry for help.

"Every day hard problems that I'm passionate about haunt me because I'm not working on them..."

:(

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm attracted to easy problems that look hard. ;-)

<comment><USER5> The only problem is that there is a small window to execute before everyone catches on. ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> A lot of people seem to be attracted to hard problems of their own creation. E.g., taking a problem and solving it in a much harder way than necessary. Hey... different strokes for different folks. However, this gets annoying when, later on, you inherit their code.</comment>


The Curious Properties of a Molten Glass Blob Dropped in Cold Water - <AUTHOR> http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/03/prince-ruperts-drop-the-curious-properties-of-a-molten-glass-blob-dropped-in-cold-water/

<comment><USER2> To apply a fairly abstract curiosity to the contents of your pocket, it is closely related to Gorilla Glass[tm]. Gorilla Glass is chemically treated "tempering" rather than heat treated.

Ref: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glass#Manufacture>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughened_glass#History>

</comment><comment><USER3> This is true of all tempered glass, not just that dropped in cold water. The side windows of your car can do the exact same thing because tempered glass is under stress and, when something comes along to break it and release all that stress, it explodes just like the sample pictured in the article, which is why we have to cut and seam it before tempering it. (Your windshield is laminated. Having it blow up like that sample pictured--a very real possibility--could easily cause an accident.)

Normally you don't see windows explode because the edges are smoothed before tempering and protected inside a frame. But if you happen to have a piece of tempered glass and nick the corner against something, it will probably blow up. Actually, tempered glass occasionally blows up all on its own, usually during winter, but you probably won't see that unless you've worked for a cut & temper operation.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you want to know a lot more about this, take MIT's 3.091x (Introduction to Solid State Chemistry) from edx.org. It's quite a fun course.

</comment><comment><USER5> I like a glass of cold wate on occasion.

</comment><comment><USER6> "cold wate"</comment>


How Your Social Class Affects Where You'll Move - <AUTHOR> https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/04/how-your-social-class-affects-where-youll-move/557060/ <comment><USER2> I think the visualizations are remarkably inuitive. A rarity for the net.</comment>


ICO Review: US Dollar - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@ottomanbob/ico-review-the-us-dollar-f15d15773e8c <comment><USER2> Critique in minting/mining and production cost do warrant heavy scrutiny for any trading medium without concrete value to back it up.

Bitcoin is created by running a piece of software.

Satoshi wrote the rules so that the majority of the supply of BTC was minted to the himself and a few other users for the least amount of energy/value input to the network. In summary, the largest percentage of the supply was produced for the least amount of effort to the smallest group of users from the start.

And now miners are wasting an absurd amount of electricity in what amounts to a lottery for a paltry sum of credits in a database. All of which can be produced for much less.

It would be nice to see a minting algorithm that wasn't so easily co-opted by greedy early adopters simply hording the supply, along with resisting such a wasteful minting/production method.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is it still worth it to buy Bitcoin? Or is Ethereum a better move?

<comment><USER2> Baseball cards, Beanie Babies, or Pogs?

<comment><USER4> That's a fair comparison...</comment></comment></comment>


A Guide to Optimized Napping - <AUTHOR> http://priceonomics.com/a-guide-to-optimized-napping/

<comment><USER2> My experience in American corporate is characterized by management organized to eek out every last bit of productivity.

What _doesn 't_ make any sense is management's typical blindness toward the reality of the mid-afternoon nap. 5-hour energy is making millions because we won't slow down and let our bodies rest in the afternoon when we biologically need a few minutes to recover.

It seems a company that fully embraces the productivity gains of a half hour nap would be both successful and loved by employees. But I would be chastised for taking a half hour nap in the middle of the afternoon.

<comment><USER3> _My experience in American corporate is characterized by management organized to eek out every last bit of productivity._

Should that perhaps read: "...management organized to eek out every last bit of activity"?

There is a bias in favour of 7.5 or 8 (or more) hours of "active work", that is, "doing stuff", and many workers figure out how to fill their day with activity in the guise of productivity. Eventually management realizes workers have more time than they need, send in efficiency experts, people are laid off and tasks reassigned, and the cycle begins anew.

Workers tied to tightly synced processes, e.g., production lines, don't have this experience, generally, they are basically self-maintaining production machines themselves (no insult intended, some are highly skilled, but they plugged into an assembly line doing work machines cannot yet do - or for which capable machines are too expensive).

For the rest of the working world, let's baldly and boldly and wrongly say there are two other types of workers, so-called knowledge workers and all others (service industry agents, social workers, etc., etc.).

The latter are effectively in a process-oriented workflow whose event timings are unpredictable but broadly known. Escaping the activity trap would require data and prediction and flexibility that may simply be unfeasible with processes that are nearly 100% person dependent and person oriented. As long as management knows this, and accepts it, then there should be less need to fill in time appearing active, because productivity will occur when it needs to.

But when management loses sight of this, all manner of upset happens.

For the broad knowledge worker class, the solution is milestone-based management, with reasonable consideration given for reasonable downtime, since time spent not on the problem, whatever it is, is often the best time spent on the problem, because of the flashes of insight and mental rest that occur when not working so hard on whatever it is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> On the subject of all-nighters and sleep debt:

You might be surprised at what a difference just a few hours of sleep + and afternoon nap can make. The downside is that it's really hard to wake up at that point (due to sleep inertia as the article calls it) and you feel really crappy- probably crappy enough that you might think "I'd feel better if I had just stayed up", and you wouldn't be wrong.

However, the upside is that you will be much more clear-headed _later on_ than if you had stayed up. My personal guess is that after about 3 hours, most of the neurotransmitter metabolite soup has been cleaned up in your brain, and the rest of the normal sleep cycle is maintenance and repair (very important, but not 100% essential to basic functioning for a typical 8-hour work period).

I always ask myself whether I really need to be up all night or I could afford to spare a few hours for sleep.

</comment><comment><USER5> I can only sleep when I'm extremely tired. I could use a daily nap but I just can't fall asleep; the mind races instead. Any tips?

<comment><USER6> This will be on a longish side, since it's a book, but first you need to understand _why_ the mind is racing and _why_ it's undesirable.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> My friend who works in industrial engineering told me that at an assembly plant in Japan, around 1 pm they will turn off the lights for 30 minutes so all the workers on the floor can take a nap.

[http://biznik.com/articles/afternoon-nap-is-the-new-trend- in...](http://biznik.com/articles/afternoon-nap-is-the-new-trend-in- productivity)

<comment><USER8> I did a week's contract at ZyXel in Taiwan. Same thing. Once I'd got in to the swing of it, it really helped me to keep focused during some long days

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I tried reading the article but my ADHD started a fistfight with me. I did, however, look at this guy's kickstarter, and was pleasantly surprised to find someone execute on an idea that I've had in the past and have never been able to find. I don't really bother with pre-ordering things, but I will definitely get one when they are released.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think naps are great, and agree with the 20mins or 90mins time they advocate -- from my own experience this works.

On the other hand, as a parent of young child the suggestion that I have sufficient control over my days to be able to nap is amusing.

</comment><comment><USER11> I lay awake wondering if I'm napping properly.

</comment><comment><USER12> Optimized napping? This isn't clever or informative, so I'm not sure why people spend their time reading this stuff, never mind write it.</comment>


U.K. To Roll Out Developed World's First 'Digital' Tax - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-to-roll-out-developed-worlds-first-digital-tax-1540831931 <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18330228](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18330228), where the article is more accessible and perhaps closer to being an original source.

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://outline.com/eRxnDj](https://outline.com/eRxnDj)

</comment><comment><USER4> [https://www.fullwsj.com/articles/u-k-to-roll-out- developed-w...](https://www.fullwsj.com/articles/u-k-to-roll-out-developed- worlds-first-digital-tax-1540831931)</comment>


For Developers, Ego Is the Enemy - <AUTHOR> https://medium.freecodecamp.com/ego-is-the-enemy-for-software-developers-585909fb0501 <comment><USER2> The dynamic for founders is completely different from employees in terms of work ethic, a job is a job, a company you own a large number of shares is a lifestyle choice of dedication. Nothing about the quotes seems to reflect a lack of ego, I would argue they all had a bit of ego in their earlier years. Each of the quoted were set on making a profound difference in world with their ventures. That in itself likely requires that you maintain the idea that your efforts and ideas have significant importance in the world and transitively you as a person have profound importance aka ego.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> A short excerpt from the article:

"When you hear the word enemy, you probably think about regular expressions, bugs, deployments, meetings, and deadlines. Actually, in our quest to reach our goals and become the software developers we want to be, we are usually our own worst enemies. Ego is what prevents us from asking for help, learning, collaborating and working hard."

</comment><comment><USER3> Larry Wall disagrees - Laziness, Impatience, Hubris - and I'm inclined to believe him.

To succeed at programming requires a level of ego, if you don't tackle a problem from the "I'm going to win" mindset, the compiler, the interpreter, the debugger will beat you every time.

<comment><USER4> I had been at my first developer gig for about 6 months when we hired a new team lead. He was a good leader and a talented developer. I wanted to learn as much from him as I could. In my first 1:1 with him, I asked him to be as brutally honest with me as he felt I could handle, in his feedback, be it code reviews or whatever. There were many moments in the next year that I regretted asking that. But those were the moments of weakness, moments when my ego was taking a beating and I didn't think I could handle one more PR comment. If I had deferred to my ego, if I had intimated that I couldn't handle that standard, that would have been a mistake.

Hubris is great in the binary. This thing is going to happen. Or like you say, "I'm going to win." It may be less helpful in the gradient.

Feedback may not be painful for everyone, but it is for me. And it takes reigning in my ego to be as receptive to feedback as I should be.</comment></comment>


Google buys France's FlexyCore for better-performing Android - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2013/10/22/google-buys-frances-flexycore-for-better-performing-android/

<comment><USER2> Found the DroidBooster benchmark application APK after searching around a bit (it has been pulled from Google Play).

If the benchmark isn't just for the show off and is actually benchmarking something, then the results are impressive - on my phone (quad-core ARMv7, MTK 6589 at 1.2 GHz) it reports a speedup which is, on average, 7x. Obviously, the benchmark could be just testing some edge case that, when Dalvik gets in the way, goes pretty slowly, when compared to native binaries. Seeing as Google bought FlexyCore, it's probably because it's something serious. Too bad the benefits will probably only be available to future versions of Android to which I won't be able to update my unpopular phone or my damn slow ARMv6 tablet.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lack of innovations and talent in-house</comment>