Ten Reasons Why I Couldn’t Come Up with 10 Reasons

Web application Second|Brain helps you organize your online life by providing all the content you choose to import in one place.

Said content can include (but is definitely not limited to) bookmarks from del.icio.us, microblogs on twitter, digg, your own posts at wordpress, your feeds in gReader, flickr… The list goes on.

Thus, here’s a list of ten reasons why you should use Second|Brain (I know, I’m very anti-linkbait):

1. It will save you massive amounts of time. You use an RSS feed reader for your blogs, right? Well, this is an RSS reader for things you liked when you read your RSS reader.
2. It’s in Beta. Hence, it’s buggy. The only way they’ll ever eliminate any bugs is if you report on them!
3. You can win a MacBook Air.
4. You can follow both me and Alex over at Blogsessive. Awesome, right?
5. Because I don’t think I can list ten reasons, but I’ve already given you three awesome ones and one linkwhoring one.
6. The community is still relatively small, and you have a chance to become an oldbie on a fantastic website. Imagine you were one of the first thousand people to sign up for StumbleUpon. Wouldn’t you feel entitled to some kind of ego?
7. Because it’s free (as in beer).
8. AAAAAAA A AAAA AAA!!!!
9. ?????
10. Profit!

Now, all this being said, there is some criticism of things like this, which I have wanted to say for a long time. And I think I said it rather well (don’t you agree?) over at Blogsessive (I think Alex may be a little frustrated as well):

I signed up for Twitter about two weeks(?) ago, and I think I used it for about two days to talk to a friend I have in Alabama. Think I’ve logged in once since.

It’s not that I don’t like these things; I think it’s more what all these webapps are suffering from, and that’s “done it before.” Even being able to mention three off the top of your head is a major problem, and that’s even leaving out Pownce.

I hear so many great things about these sites, and I put them on my “I’ll try it” list, try it, and then don’t really see anything particularly impressive. Maybe it’s just because I’m not a huge fan of “microblogging” (in case you haven’t noticed, I like to talk… a lot.).

But most likely it’s because I hear so many things about how great X is and how it’s better than Y and Z, but I don’t really want to take my foo over to yet another bar, if you know what I mean. It’s happened with digg, del.icio.us, stumbleupon… I’m trying really hard to return to these things, but I just don’t have the patience.

I’m also not the biggest fan of this whole “Web 2.0″ buzzword thing we’ve got going on. It’s not that I’m not enjoying the buzz just as much as everybody else. It’s just that it requires a lot of effort to keep up with, and I’m lazy beyond reason.

Maybe I’m just getting too old for this stuff, when I’m just now nearing the edge of 18? Is it possible to be jaded with the internet?

Now, all this being said, I still feel there’s room for more of these sites, with a little ingenuity and innovation. I feel Second|Brain has done this. Rather than just cloning Twitter, they seem to capitalize on all the clones, allowing all these clones to be fed into one concentrated area.

Thank you, SecondBrain, for not following the trend. I applaud you.

So that’s it. Head on over to Second|Brain and be welcomed to the rest of your 2008 life!

A Failed Test in Time Management

So, I’ve been “busy” lately – apparently for two months, since it’s been that long since I posted. Looking back, I’m trying to remember what I’ve accomplished.

Sadly, it’s a very short list:

• I am now a high school graduate.
• WikiHowNot has officially launched.
• Pure And Simple Dating is failed and in the works for a rewrite.
• I have pushed the Stumble button about a thousand times.

Two months is a long time, and I feel I’ve been busy for most of it, always trying to accomplish something. However, I seem to have failed miserably, or perhaps I have not documented my work as well as I should have.

Now, I’ve returned to write another post, using what I have learned. What could have happened differently to make this all the more successful. I should have…

Spent less time thinking about what I wanted, and spent more time getting there.

Now, mind you I did spend quite a bit of time “getting there.” It’s just I also spent a lot of time wishing for “some big thing” to come along.

Learned to avoid distractions.

Again, it’s not that I was particularly distracted the whole time. It’s just the stumble button was so tempting, and I read so much of slashdot and lifehacker, that I got into the habit of spending time unwisely. Instead of being productive, I was looking up tips on how to be productive.

Stopped when I couldn’t keep going.

This is a horrible habit of mine. It’s a tendency in all of us, I feel, to ride the momentum of success we feel until it’s completely blown out. For example, when I make progress on a bit of code that’s been bugged and bugging the sanity out of me, I’ll move on and start writing a new piece of code, rather than sleep or take a break. I’ll continue this until I hit a wall or have nothing else to write for the moment, and then fall asleep. Unfortunately, the time this happens is usually around 7 AM. Mind you it’s now summer. However, it’s also my last summer before college, and soon, not only will missing class make me fail, but it will also make me retake said class, which costs money, kill the chances of graduating summa cum laude, and possibly drop my GPA low enough to take away my full-tuition state scholarship. Ouch.

Learned how not to spend all my time on everything, and none of my time on any one thing.

I made great progress in plenty of things. I can now do vary small bits of coding in Python, I now have a couple friends checking out my site and hopefully being viral about it, I have found tremendous amounts of sites to feature on my various blogs, I’ve applied for tons of jobs, and I have mapped out classes to take at UNM for my Computer Science degree. But is any of this in the public eye? Can I hand any of these things to any one person and have them say, “Good job, you spent your time wisely?” Absolutely not. Not a thing. Maybe the class map would work out, but it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to give to anybody, as plans change.

I scheduled this week on Sunday: Monday, I would pick up my diploma. Tuesday, I would apply for more jobs. Wednesday, I would post here (bringing the total for this week to three, mind you). Thursday, I would travel to UNM and take my compass exam to test out of remedial reading (I scored very, very low on the science portion of the ACT). Friday I would check everything out, tie up loose ends, and prepare to enjoy my weekend.

None of that is done.

And the final thing I should have done: Given myself a break.

I spent all this time stressing about things, and yet procrastinating beyond reason. I didn’t accomplish anything that wasn’t due, and I didn’t accomplish anything that was due until the morning it was due.

Right now, I realize not a whole lot of my advice is valid, but I have a couple bits:

• Do spend your time planning. However,
• Do not spend all your time planning.
• Do worry about the future. However,
• Give yourself a break.
• Do pace yourself.
• Do something most of the time.
• When you are not doing something, do something: Relax!
• Do not burn yourself out before anything is done.

Finally,

Treat yourself to a hot bath and a nice plate of sesame chicken every once in a while. It may be expensive, but it’s far better to keep yourself going than to just turn off the senses until death comes.

The Pros and Cons of Pen and Paper

The opportunity or necessity to take notes poses a tough question to answer, similar to the one posed at every supermarket: Paper or plastic? However, in the sense of note-taking, plastic refers to the plastic, metal, glass, and whatever else makes up your computer.

For quite some time, this has been a great, but quiet, debate in many peoples’ minds, mostly productivity-philes. Computers are undoubtedly faster, so long as you have typing skills. For the most part, legibility in handwriting are not going to compare with typed words. And should somebody else like to have your notes, email is only a few clicks away, and reproduction is no problem.

Thus we have the age-old question: Paper, or plastic?

Should you choose to use pen and paper, there are some very good advantages. Paper cannot lose all information it holds if somebody runs a magnet over it. Paper is relatively cheap up-front, and most of us have some laying around the house anyways. Paper provides a much more personal medium in which to communicate. A hand-written letter is typically much more sentimental than an email or text message. Paper provides a simple way to meter progress: A 200-count stack of paper in 10-point font and standard margins showcasing your novel is undoubtedly more impressive immediately than a 200-page document in Google Docs.

Unfortunately, paper provides many disadvantages: In handwriting, mistakes are much easier to make, and much more difficult to correct. A necessarily perfect two-page essay could require many attempts to sucessfully finish. Typing, however, is much simpler to correct with the advent of the backspace and delete keys.

Secondly, should all work be online or backed up to an external location, a housefire will not destroy all that perfect work you’ve accomplished on that novel. A stack of paper does not, however, hold up well to fire. Mind that a harddrive does not either, and thus keeping everything stored in a remote location is absolutely necessary.

Computers are more expensive up-front, but paper can get costly in the long-run. A $500 dollar laptop could potentially be a great deal, and will also keep one set for years, even up to a decade, possibly more if you’re stubborn. Paper can be costly at times, as you must consider how many drafts you would attempt for a 200-page novel. Also consider the cost of throwing it away, hauling it to recycling, burning it, etc. Consider the trees, the exhaust — paper is costly, and this is why many banks have switched to paperless bank statements. Mind computers are also costly for maintenance, for power, and they also produce CO2. However, more computers these days are becoming more eco-friendly, so don’t let that stop you.

The sides can go on for hours, and I feel most people have already made their decisions. I have chosen to keep most of my things online, as I feel this is the direction mankind is moving, and I want to stay at least a little close to the times.

In the end, though, it’s your choice. So, what would you like, sir?

Paper or plastic?