We started watching Wonka but we wonkad out of it after 45 minutes. OTOH, we got nice naps when the movie put us to sleep, so I’ll count that as a win.
I embark on the dangerous mission of changing task management software
For to-do-list software, I’ve been using Things 3 by Cultured Code for most of the past 14 years, but when I started the new job, at first I thought I wouldn’t be able to continue to use Things, so i switched to Todoist, because it’s a pretty good app and it integrates well with Microsoft Outlook.
Two weeks into the new job, I learned I could use Things after all, and I was getting a little frustrated with Todoist in the Mac. It’s not a native Mac app, and it shows. Working with Todoist seems to require more taps and keystrokes than it should, and sometimes menus scroll off the top or bottom of the screen, requiring scrolling to see everything. And Todoist doesn’t support start dates for tasks, which I find important to my workflow.
This gave me an opportunity to start fresh and reevaluate task management software. Going back to Things would be about the same amount of work as just starting with something new. And Things is rigid—it works great if your brain works like Things wants it to, but I was finding it a bit difficult to work with.
Switching to-do apps is dangerous for me! I have wasted a lot of time fiddling with productivity apps. While I usually come back to Things, I’ve also tried OmniFocus, Todoist, the Tasks plugin for Obsidian, TickTick, Workflowy, Remember the Milk, Microsoft To Do, Taskpaper, todo.txt, bullet journaling and probably others I’m forgetting about.
I realized that what I want is something like Todoist but with a nicer Mac app, and with support for start dates.
So I went to Omnifocus. Here are some first impressions:
Pluses:
- It’s a nice-looking app on the Mac and iPhone.
- Has start dates, just like I want it
- Seems surprisingly flexible. In the early days of the app, 15+ years ago, Omnifocus rigidly conformed to David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, but now It seems pretty loose.
Also added to the plus column: Omnifocus is, as far as I can determine, unique among task managers in that it’s very easy to import and export task lists in human-readable format. So if I want to do housecleaning on the task manager—get rid of projects I’m not going to get to anytime soon—without outright deleting the projects, Omnifocus will let me easily do that.
Minuses:
- Expensive. Mitigated by my already having paid for earlier versions so being eligible for a discount.
Could go either way—maybe a plus, maybe a minus, maybe no big deal:
- Really wants everything to be a Project. I like using single-actions. Yes, “write article” is technically a dozen or so steps, from thinking about how to start research to proofreading and submitting. But I don’t need to list those steps—at least, not in my to-do app. (Though maybe I should—and there certainly are things I do need to write down for every article, like lists of people I want to email for interviews).
- Extremely flexible and customizable, leading to a moral hazard to fiddle with Omnifocus when I should be doing other things.
Jon Udell: Best Practices for Working with Large Language Models
… you don’t need a low-level understanding of the neural networks at the core of large language models in order to align with the grain of that architecture. Although I can’t explain how LLMs work – arguably nobody can – I’m able to use them effectively, and I’ve begun to codify a set of guiding principles.
Here’s my list:
- Think out loud
- Never trust, always verify
- Use a team of assistants
- Ask for choral explanations
- Outsource pattern recognition
- Automate transformations
- Learn by doing
Good rules here. I’ll add a couple of guidelines:
-
Don’t pretend the AI is intelligent or conscious. It’s fancy autocomplete. When you talk to the AI, you’re talking to a version of yourself.
-
Also: The AI doesn’t have feelings. Take advantage of that. The AI is never going to get bored or discouraged. (But don’t be cruel to the AI—it’s a bad idea to be cruel, even to an inanimate object that cannot suffer.)
More like NOPE in a jar amirite
Californians voters will be asked to vote on two opposite initiatives: One will enshrine same-sex marriage into law, formally repealing Proposition 8 in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Obergefell. The second would enshrine transphobia. [voiceofsandiego.org]
Utahns reunited with pet cat they accidentally shipped with Amazon return [ksltv.com]
A Catholic advocacy group created an AI chatbot to answer religious questions. The bot claimed to be a priest, said masturbation is a “grave moral disorder” and that it’s OK to baptize babies in Gatorade. [businessinsider.com]
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole of 60s kitsch pop music
One Tin Soldier youtu.be/o8JtNHGSO…
Written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, first recorded by Canadian folk group The Original Caste. A 1971 cover by Jinx Dawson, lead vocalist of Coven, became a hit in the US after being featured in the movie “Billy Jack.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Tin_Soldier
I’m pretty sure we had this 45 when I was a kid.
I never saw Billy Jack, although my 8th Grade social studies class did a table reading from the paperback version of the script over the course of several days. Our teacher, Mr. Geig, was a hippie. I also read the Mad Magazine parody.
Here’s a trailer of the movie.
It looks … earnest.
“Coven” was a pioneering metal band that used occult themes, and introduced the “sign of horns” to metal.
“One Tin Soldier” is an example of a “strophic ballad,” where all the verses are sung to the same music.
It is also an example of the pop genre, “This song isn’t long enough so just repeat a couple of bits of it so it fills out the 45.”
Also: “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” by Paper Lace (1974) youtu.be/T2seUCc3o…
Paper Lace didn’t succeed with the song—Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods recorded the hit version.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Don%27t_Be_a_Hero
Here are Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. They are 70s-tastic.
However, Paper Lace—“reportedly the most successful band Nottingham ever produced”—scored a hit with “The Night Chicago Died,” which is a fun song and this is a fun video.
And here’s “Knock Three TImes” by Tony Orlando and Dawn.
I had a conversation with a new neighbor. His name is Oscar. He has a husband, whose name is not Felix. This seems like a lost opportunity.
I can’t understand why the dog continued with her behavior
One of our neighbors has a new dog, a big rambunctious golden retriever that repeatedly jumped up on me to say hello. Our neighbor would drag the dog away and the dog would race back and jump up on me again.
This was despite my attempts to discourage the dog by (1) skritching her behind her ears (2) rubbing the dog’s cheeks and (3) telling the dog she was a beautiful girl and very sweet.
I was awakened with a start in the middle of the night
I was abruptly jarred out of a sound sleep by terrible screaming. At first I thought Julie was in great distress next to me. Then I thought it might be a siren close by the house.
Then I figured out what it was. One of the cats was meowing. Loudly and directly into my ear. She wanted me to pay attention to her, so I reached out and gave her skritches, which I’m sure will not enforce this negative behavior.
I’m leveling the playing field, transforming and revolutionizing business models and delivering actionable insights. What are you up to today?
Elon Musk – Dead at 52 – Says There Is No Need for Misinformation Laws [theshovel.com.au]
Nurses Protest “Deeply Troubling” Use of AI in Hospitals [404media.co]