Admin

Admin: Pardon My Dust (On Many Levels)

Merlin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:10:01 -0500

Forgive the site some hiccups over the next few days. After what feels like decades of neglect (read: ugh, book), I'm happy to say I'll be returning to occasional 43f posting this week.

Easy tiger: no promises on volume one way or another. Still the same slacker; just trying a little harder, y'know? Exactly.

Oooo, shiny

Anyhow, I'm tweaking or adding a few site features over the next few days, including, by popular demand, the return of Remaindered Links, which, in its day, was one of the most popular things on the site. Plus, frankly I've missed having a place to put that stuff, and my Tumblr friends are probably getting sick of all that fiddly productivity crap landing in their dashboard.

So, bear with me, and thanks -- both in advance and in retrospect -- for your patience with me. This week I shall mercilessly pound my Drupal install with a very large crescent wrench until interesting words fall out and land with a productive THUD in your RSS reader. Fingers crossed.

[Also, "Hi." I've missed you.]

Busy, Busy, Busy

”Admin: Pardon My Dust (On Many Levels)” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 01, 2010. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

The Monthly Pimp: January '09 Edition

Merlin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:19:02 -0500

Although it's been way more than a month, per our little agreement, here's some recent Merlin-related stuff that may interest you. Really good stuff this time around.

Today/Friday: Macworld PULSE

Like Chairman Gruber, I'm frustrated that it's crazy-hard to link to our session. But, basically today is one (wow, long) day of TED-ish 20-minute presentations from...

Dan DiPaola, Co-Founder, HD-encoding.com

Adam Engst, TidBITS

John Gruber, Daring Fireball

Craig Hockenberry, The Iconfactory

Andy Ihnatko, The Chicago Sun Times

Vincent LaForet, Photographer

Merlin Mann, 43 Folders

Chris Pirillo, Lockergnome

Rick Smolan, Photographer

Ge Wang, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University

Musical Group LIYANA

Great group, if -- yikes -- a total sausage fest. Come hear me make shit up about "Design Patterns" for creativity.

I'm pretty sure my session is at 11:20. Right after Gruber. So, if anyone asks, I'll be happy to do my impression of him. He loves that.

New Video Project: "Most Days"

Most Days

Most Days (2009-01-04) from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.

I'm trying my hand at a (close to) daily video. Basically, every morning, I turn on the camera and just start talking. With the barest of preparation, no script, no editing, and ideally no more than two takes. The primary goal is regularity over polish, and the ideal outcome is whatever the heck it turns into.

I'm only committing to doing it (daily) for a week. But, given what I'm hoping to do with video over the next year, I have a feeling it'll go longer. We'll see. It's an exercise in I'm-not-quite-sure-what, but I hope you'll enjoy it. Or at least tolerate it.

In keeping with that lack of certainty (and with a deliberate openness to whatever the project decides it wants to be), I've titled it, "Most Days."

I'm no Jean Shepherd, but, what the heck, it's a project.

CBC Spark "How to Blog" Series

Spark | CBC Radio | Full Merlin Mann Series: How To Blog

I do a regular bit on CBC's wonderful Spark radio program. If you enjoyed my "How to Blog" video, you'll like this 5-part series we did on the same topic. Man, I love working with Nora and Dan. They're just great people and total pros.

Here's a zip file of all the Spark segments in one place.

You Look Nice Today: "The Noises Rest"

"The Noises Rest" on Vimeo
The Noises Rest | You Look Nice Today

OK, I'll admit it: I'm really proud of this.

MoMA (yes: that MoMA) asked us "You Look Nice Today" guys to make a video response to some silent films that they screened the other night. So, Adam, Scott, and I got together in LA a few weekends ago, and made "The Noises Rest."

It's a short film about doing "Foley" for silent movies. We wrote and shot it ourselves, and Adam (as usual) did an amazing job with editing the final product. Supposedly Michel Gondry was at the screening. Which is terrifying.

Looks way better in gorgeous HD, but here's an embed for you:

"The Noises Rest" from lonelysandwich on Vimeo.

Don't tell anyone, but "You Look Nice Today" is my favorite thing I do. Love those magnificent bastards. And their car horns. Subscribe to YLNT on the iTunes.

Also

Exclusive Audio Interview: Leo Interviews Merlin Mann of 43 Folders - I really like this interview. Leo was nice. If you enjoy the "new" 43f direction toward creativity, rather than "productivity tips," you'll get some insight into how I arrived here. If that matters to you.
SF Sketchfest: Monsters of Podcasting w/ Jordan, Jesse, Go! and You Look Nice Today at Eureka Theatre (Sunday January 25, 2009) - Upcoming - Come see You Look Nice Today and Jordan, Jesse, Go! live on stage, at the insanely great SF SketchFest. Tickets here.
Integrated Media Association Conference - Pretty sure I'm confirmed as a speaker at this public radio conference in Atlanta next month. Hoping I can finally meet Jay Allison and give him his long-overdue opportunity to punch me in the mouth. While someone gently fingerpicks a guitar.
43 Folders Clips - Don't forget about the new 43f sub-blog of notable things that are getting my attention. [RSS it]

And, finally

You should totally hire me to speak to your company or group. I'm good at it, plus it's really fun and theoretically useful. Now booking Quarter 2 and beyond. Email Erica: speaking at merlin mann dot com.

As ever, thanks for your patience with the pimping. I appreciate your time and attention very much.

”The Monthly Pimp: January '09 Edition” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 09, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

How to Use 43 Folders

Merlin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:20:05 -0400

A very simple guide to leaving here quickly so you can get back to making something awesome.

Ask yourself…

Why am I here right now instead of making something cool on my own? What’s the barrier to me starting that right now?

This is not an insult or put-down. It’s a useful question. Please, think about it, then search the site to see if we have anything that might inspire you to make something awesome today.

What Sucks?

Looking for specific answers to what sucks for you today?

“My email sucks.”
“My attention management sucks.”
“My compulsive web browsing sucks.”
“My lack of resolve to put my art first sucks.”
“My procrastination sucks.”
“No, seriously. My procrastination really sucks.”
“My fiddling with ‘productivity systems’ sucks.”
“My to-do list sucks.”
“My blog sucks.”
“My band’s stupid website sucks.”
“My meetings suck.”
“My PowerPoint presentation sucks.”
“I suck.”

More ideas

Still sucking? No problem. Here’s more places to scratch around.

Popular now — Here are the hottest articles on our site (right this minute).

Title	Recent
Getting started with "Getting Things Done"	238
Introducing the Hipster PDA	134
Hack your way out of writer's block	94
Inbox Zero: Five sneaky email cheats	93
Procrastination hack: '(10+2)*5'	89

Our Most Popular Posts — Okay, technically, it’s the most popular from January 2007 til now. But, you know. You get the gist.

Title	All-time
Getting started with "Getting Things Done"	2050053
"Perfect" iTunes equalizer setting	1634742
Introducing the Hipster PDA	1496773
Writing sensible email messages	547638
Building a Smarter To-Do List, Part I	522002

Still Lost?

Try a mental sweep, do a shitty first draft, or consider a modest change.

Maybe just get away from the computer for a while by taking a nice walk. Without your phone. We’ll still be here when you come back. Promise.

How to Know When You’re Done Here

You’re done here whenever you’ve found just enough information to get you back on track for today. If we don’t have the right fit for you, we sincerely hope it won’t take you half a day of surfing to figure that out.

We love having you visit with us here, and we hope you’ll return many times — whenever you think we might have something that might help you get over the hump. But.

The Only “Productivity” That Matters

The best advice we can offer is to just put your head down, push yourself harder, and try to figure out what you need to change today to get a little better.

“Productivity” isn’t about about making more widgets per hour or being efficient and organized for its own anal-retentive sake. Real productivity means getting faster at moving the crap off your desk so you can have room to focus on the creative work that only you can do.

Figure out how to do that every morning, and you’ll be ready to go pro.

”How to Use 43 Folders” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 05, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

The Monthly Pimp: August Edition

Merlin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:11:54 -0400

Here's the latest stuff Merlin's been up to, here and abroad.

Huh? “Monthly Pimp?”

Meta: New experiment. Everybody hates endless self-promotion. I know I do. So, except where called for by amazingly useful exception, I’d like all “Yay Merlin” stuff that makes it to the content well of the 43f home page (including recent interviews and podcasts, new projects, as well as recent and upcoming appearances of possible interest) to be ganged into a single monthlyish post.

Nota Bene: I’d also like to encourage all my friends with blogs to try a similar experiment in personal curation. Our internet visitors are here to be delighted by useful stuff, not to watch a blogger smell his finger. Right? Exactly. Welcome. And thank you. No, thank you.

Merlin's Upcoming Stuff

Start. A Conference for Entrepreneurs. Tomorrow, my pals, Jeff and Bryan are putting on an amazing conference for people who are thinking of doing a startup. It's very close to sold out, but there's still time to see me, Mena, Ev, and many more folks talk about how to sensibly take your idea to the web. Register while you still can (it's cheap). Who knows? You might even get to see something special.
IzeaFest. In September, I'll be in Orlando, Florida to talk about how to build a smart blog for smart people without resorting to tricks and games. And, no: I will not be holding up AdSense checks for "Cash Proof."

For more information about inviting me to speak at your company or event, drop a line.

Merlin: Recently and Elsewhere

Guestblogging: Blogging at Maximum Fun. For the next couple weeks, me and the other You Look Nice Today "talent" will be guest-blogging over at Jesse's site; Jesse has apparently fooled a woman into marrying him. (Congrats, J&T)
Appearance: iPhone DevCamp. Participated in a fun panel with Dom, Mike, and Brian, talking about what we want from iPhone apps, what patterns to replicate, and which pitfalls to avoid. As ever, much love for Remote.
Interview: Real estate information overload | Inman News. Really enjoyed this interview with Glenn in advance of my talk at the Inman Connect conference a couple weeks back. How can you tell a good interviewer? You talk a lot about things you didn't realize you were thinking about.
Interview: "Technology in the Arts" podcast. Was interviewed by a very nice man called Brad about productivity, "branding," and why editing helps everything not to suck.

Player

Merlin's Ongoing Projects

Podcast: You Look Nice Today. We're off on walkabout until the end of the month or so, but it's a great time to catch up on recent episodes. Also the perfect time to go all the way back and start where it all began: Episode 2.
And, remember: You Look Nice Today is not safe for anything. Not even as a floor wax.
Blog: Kung Fu Grippe. My favorite recent posts on my personal blog were about MLM videos, the Flip Video camera, My Neighbor Totoro, a fertility monitor, Twyla Tharp's advice on creativity, and a test of Modomi, featuring The Long Winters.
Photos: Flickr. People recently enjoyed images of a business offer for YLNT, a banjo, the Dwight Schrute my daughter broke, and a delightful short film that my daughter directed.
Toots: Twitter. People seemed to like Toots about books, the internet, speakerphones, and my new catchphrase. Then there's my new nemesis, fakemerlinmann.

Thank you for bravely suffering my pimp. See you next month.

”The Monthly Pimp: August Edition” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 06, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43 Folders Blogger FAQs

Merlin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:31:39 -0400

Since we've begun to break from the tradition of totally Merlin-centric blog posting on 43 Folders, here's some answers to theoretical questions people may have about our new bloggers and their contributions.

Last Updated: 2007-10-19 13:27:26 PT

Who are the bloggers on 43 Folders?

From 9/2004 through 9/2007, Merlin was the almost exclusive contributor to the 43f blog. But with the relaunch of 43f in 9/2007, we began offering a few select folks their own 43f blogs, to have and to hold.

Here's a list of the current 43f bloggers (which is to say: those who have blog privileges and have posted a bio and photo to their profile). If you have blog privileges but haven't yet tricked out your profile, please do so, and you'll soon start appearing on that page.

How do you decide who gets a blog?

Right now it's mostly voodoo and happenstance; at this point, it's purely Merlin's caprices.

People who Merlin has asked to write guest posts get a blog, plus there's a number of folks whose work Merlin admires who -- while not having posted yet -- do have the freedom to do so whenever they like and as often as they like.

Do all bloggers' posts automatically get promoted to the home page?

Nope. Merlin and his editorial elves will promote stuff to the home page that they think is particularly interesting -- this can be blog posts, forum posts, static pages like this, you name it. If we think it's good, timely, and/or interesting it goes on the home page.

Almost all of Merlin's posts are promoted to the home page, because he's a power-mad narcissist, and he can't be stopped.

Where can I see all blog posts by everybody?

This page shows you all blog posts by everybody on the site, in reverse chronological order.

You can also subscribe to this RSS feed to see everything published by our bloggers as new posts appear.

Bonus Hint: Visit the completely awesome sitemap page to see some of the bajillion different RSS feeds you can subscribe to. Note that, near the top of the page (where it says "Blogs"), you'll find links to all bloggers who have published something here, as well as links to the RSS feeds for each of these folks.

How's that different from the regular old 43f RSS feed?

The main site feed shows only stuff that's been promoted to the home page (which can also include "non-blog" stuff like this static page and promoted forum posts). Think of the home page as our idea of a "best of."

Can I still get a feed of just Merlin's blog posts?

Sure. Grab this or visit here.

Do 43f bloggers get paid?

Only in high fives and the occasional Brandy Alexander.

Why would someone write for your site for free?

Because they love you and want to share awesome things that they know and think with you.

It also probably doesn't hurt that their bio will contain links that acquaint readers with their other work.

Will this turn into one of those sites where contributors are compelled to meet "post quotas" or where beleaguered writers earn their keep by generating lots of traffic around nutritionally bankrupt "Top n" posts involving graph paper generators and new ways to put your pants on faster using a special stick and 10 lines of open source code?

I sincerely hope not.

What if I'm just not into this whole idea?

I dunno. I guess I'd say give it time to grow on you. There's a lot of smart folks who will be writing stuff here in the next little while -- people Merlin thinks a lot of. If you like his stuff, there's a pretty good chance you'll like theirs, too.

If you don't like any of the stuff here. Well. There's still lots of internet out there, and you're welcome back any time. No hard feelings.

How do I apply to get a 43f blog?

We're not accepting new applications from folks right now, although we very well might after Merlin returns from paternity leave.

In the mean time, the best way to get noticed is to post great comments on other people's posts and forum threads. We will notice you, I assure you.

How can I tell if I have blog privileges?

First, you'll just have a certain swing in your step, and you probably wear your fedora at a jaunty angle and help old ladies carry their groceries. It's something you just feel in your gut.

Here's another way to tell: if you visit this page, and can see "Submit New Blog Post," and have the ability to make a new blog posts, you're a blogger. If you see something about "Access Denied", then you're not. So it goes.

Also, if you have blog privileges, there's a high probability that Merlin contacted you personally and informed you of same. He's like that.

If I have blog privileges, how do I post new blog entries?

We're working on improving the UI for this, because it's all but non-existent right now, but going to that page linked above will let you publish new stuff directly to your blog:

http://www.43folders.com/node/add/blog

Save drafts for as long as you want, then tick off the "Published" button and hit "Submit." Swish, you're an internet star.

To see all the stuff you've ever contributed to 43f (including drafts), hit the "Track" tab on your profile page.

Hey, you didn't answer my question.

You're right -- I totally didn't. Sorry!

Maybe post your question to the forum?

”43 Folders Blogger FAQs” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 19, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Hi again.

Merlin — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:42:32 -0400

This afternoon we're (softly, gently) rolling out a new version of 43Folders.com. Here's some of the new stuff that's happening.

Without going into extreme amounts of nerd detail, 43 Folders now runs on a content management system called Drupal that lets us do a bunch of neat stuff I've been wanting to do for a while now...

The Good

Membership - You can now become an o-fficial 43 Folders family member, with your very own profile, comment and posting history, plus, of course, a clever little avatar of your own design that shows up next to stuff you do. More here on membership (including how to sign-in with your previous 43f forum login)
Reader contributions - This one will start out slow, but do watch for contributions from more folks who aren't me. I promise we're not going to start shoveling peanuts into your bowl every minute, so don't sweat it. But a whole bunch of Friends of the Folders you already know and love will soon be contributing to the site with their own blogs and guest posts on a regular basis. More on this soon.
Forums integrated - Our messageboard (which used to live at board.43folders.com) has always been a wonderful place to ask questions and talk to other 43folk, but it was kind of an island compared to the triple-dub. The new forum is much more a part of the site and has a less overwhelming feature set. Also (and I love this), that means the posts live right alongside blog posts...
Easier to find related stuff - Now that blog posts, forum threads -- even static pages and news stories -- all live together in perfect harmony, you should have a much better time finding stuff that's similar to what you're looking at at a given time. For example, look at most pages (look, here's one), and notice the handy "Related Stuff" note that points you to other things on the site you might enjoy. We live to serve.
Much better topics (tags) - I've way trimmed down and cleaned up the tags we use to run the site. This means there's a lot of interesting stuff we'll be introducing to help you, again, find stuff that's similar or related to things you enjoy here. I'd also note that we now have a separate feed for every topic. So if you hate Macs but love GTD, this feed should help minimize the noise in your RSS reader. And, as long as we're on the topic...
More feeds - That sitemap page gives you an idea where we're heading with RSS feeds. I know some of my best pals never visit the site, ever -- preferring to live only in a feed reader -- and I want to make that easier and more flexible for everybody (even as we try to make the site more fun for the folks who do enjoy visiting). Other good feeds to know about?
- Here's just posts that are promoted to the home page
- Here's just all blog posts by anyone
- Here's just my/Merlin's blog posts
- Here's recent site-wide comments
- Here's just new Forum posts
- If people ask, I'll make a feed that spits out everything everything, but I pray the demand for that would be sparse.
New design - Oh, yeah. Guess I should mention we've got a stellar new design courtesy of my personal hero, Chris Glass (you know him from Wire and Twine, his amazing photos, and, most importantly, Being Fiona Apple). He did an astonishing job and just makes me want to be a better person now. It will also not go without noting that RoopleTheme were indispensable in taking CG's design and slicing it into an amazingly flexible Drupal theme (more on that later if you Drupal nerds want details). I'll just say that a Drupal site doesn't have to look like "a Drupal site" if you've got talent behind the knobs. And, man, I've had that in spades.

OK, that's most of the big stuff. I'll add more as it occurs to me.

The Bad

Permalinks are broken thither and yon (especially on the forum). We're working on this.
You'll see the occasional visual fart (esp. if you're on Explorer, God bless you)
Broken stuff and bugs are out there. We're working on them, but we encourage members to post bugs to the forum. It's a mitzvah.
Added 1:12pm: And, well. Yes. As we already can see, the load issues are going to be a homemade bitch. We're working on it, so don't be surprised if the site bobs up and down like an apple throughout the weekend. First-world problem, from my PoV.

The Awesome

I'll close by saying a few thank you's.

You. Sorry things got so slow on the site while our skeleton crew worked on this. It's not because I stopped loving you; I just needed to get this up. Thanks.
Ben Durbin - My consigliere, producer, and president-for-life who did all the heavy lifting and code-wrangling necessary to move my show from WordPress to Drupal. He did tons of other stuff too that you won't find that interesting, but essentially, he completely saved my ass. Ben's starting to accept freelance work, so if you need a stud, totally hire him -- and tell him I sent you.
Chris Glass - The man went above and beyond with this design. For real. I mean, come on, a Hipster PDA? How awesome is that? Maybe help me thank him by purchasing a Tii Shirt or other Wire and Twine goods that suit you.
RoopleTheme - Bill and his posse did the impossible day after day -- mercilessly fileting Chris's design into an insanely flexible theme. For a further taste of RoopleTheme magic on your own Drupal site, download one of their sweet-ass themes (demo all of them here). Better still. Hire RoopleTheme. I can highly recommend 'em.
My pals, the moderators and testers - Especially Berko, emory, and mathowie. Double-plus thanks to Matt for letting me steal his idea.
The Lullabots - jjeff and his team provided irreplaceable advice on best practices and how to make a Drupal site that scales and takes a load.
Ethan Kaplan - Maybe more than anyone I know of, Ethan is insinuating Drupal into places you might not expect. Watch this man. His advice to me has been priceless.
Madeline - My lovely wife's patience with this mess has been infinite.

Anyhow. Thanks, have fun, and feel free to use your newfound membership privileges to tell me what you think.

”Hi again.” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 21, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Legal Stuff & Comment Guidelines

Merlin — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:07:55 -0400

Legal Stuff & Disclaimers

Tedious junk that it’s still important to mention and get out of the way.

43 Folders® is a registered trademark of Merlin Mann. It's true. His lawyer helped him get the trademark, and now it's all official. Pretty crazy, huh?
All 43 Folders posts and comments © their original owners. Everything else (including the design) is © Merlin Mann, 2004-2008. Writing is reusable solely under the BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License. Please don’t be a douche with our stuff.
The site is not affiliated with or particularly approved of by any of the companies, products, methodologies, or people that it mentions (apart from enjoying the occasional but surprisingly modest lucre that is afforded by Amazon Associate links, Google AdSense ads and the like).
All names and trademarks mentioned on the site are the property of their respective owners. But you knew that, right?
Here’s David Allen’s “official” definition of “GTD”. He seems to like when people link to it.
All information, links, and other content on 43 Folders and its related sites are provided in the hope that they will be useful, but they are all offered on an as-is basis and without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Your mileage may quite definitely vary, et cetera.

Other pedantic notes (that will save us both time)

First email flame goes to /dev/null; second (and subsequent) goes “bouncy bouncy” without further comment.
Invitations to exchange links, participate in “free iPod”-style offers, and similar nonsense all get deleted immediately.
You can send us stuff to review or suggest things to talk about on the site, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that it will result in a post—let alone a positive post. We like presents more than flacks, but who doesn’t, right?
We’re not nearly as tight-assed as this all would have you believe, but the world is complicated, people can be tools, and there’s only so many hours in a day. But, again, you knew that.

The rules for commenting

AKA: “Any man don’t keep order spends a night in the box.”

(This needs an update for our new membership-required site, but you get the idea)

All comments and TrackBacks are deletable or cunningly re-editable at our sole discretion.
Own your comment with a real name and real, permanent email address. If we respond to your comment offline and it bounces, you’re out of here. Comments with fakey (or non-permanent) emails are deleted without comment and the user may be banned at our discretion. (Quite a meanie, eh?)
Comments in a post are not the place to post bugs, “say hi,” or piss and moan about how we don’t talk about Windows (boo hoo). Off-topic comments are removed with neither hesitation nor notice.
Comments don’t need signatures. There are fields provided for your name and the URL of your site right above the comment textarea, so please don’t duplicate that info in your actual comment. I know the books on marketing via weblogs say this is a great idea; it’s not. It’s cheesy, so don’t do it. How are signatures deleted? That’s right; without comment.
Please don’t troll, derail threads, or speak harshly to the other children. Deletion is a no-brainer; banning is a tantalizing option.
We’re not here to help promote your blog or your business; self-links are okay if they’re acknowledged as such and are really pertinent; if we think the link is mostly self-promotional, your comment will be removed or edited without notice. If you’re not sure whether a link is appropriate, just ask first. Related…
Important: If you’re recommending (or, for that matter, slagging) something, and most especially if you’re linking someplace, disclose any relationship that you have to that person, product, or company. This includes, but is not limited to:
- friends, family, employers, employees, investors, investees, and partners
- former or likely friends, family, employers, employees, investors, investees, and partners
- BzzAgent-style CheeseBrokers offering Fabulous Prizes™ in return for your Astroturfing (get the feeling we don’t like BzzAgent so much? Cool. We can live with that.)
- Any other relationship that—when later discovered by me or intrepid readers—would make people say “Well, dang, that’s kind of lame.” Listen to your heart, and please don’t try to spread cheese on my site.
Try to be funny, nice, or smart. Being more than one is truly intoxicating to us.

”Legal Stuff & Comment Guidelines” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 21, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

About 43 Folders

Merlin — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:18:19 -0400

Listen:

43 Folders is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

And, Hello.

43 Folders was launched by Merlin Mann on Wednesday, September 1, 2004 with an introductory post whose improbable title suggested that productivity can be like sausage; no one likes seeing it discussed at length on the internet by middle-aged men.

The site continues to evolve, grow, contract, expand, recede, explode, go dark, go weird, go personal, and even occasionally reinvent itself -- all depending on where Merlin's interest, attention, and obsessions find him at a given time. But, in fairness, they are his obsessions, and he owns that.

What's Here

Right now, 43 Folders is focused on an arc about how to improve the quality of your career and life by managing your attention in a way that allows you to work your ass off on the creative projects that matter most to you.

No Tourists, Please

We hope very much that you find things here that will help you do and make the things that matter to you, but 43 Folders is no replacement for actual work. Please do not use 43 Folders as an excuse to procrastinate. That would be so ironically unwholesome as to stagger the mind.

Don't let us catch you dicking around here all day, okay? Okay, then.

But, Where to Start?

If you’re new here, there are a few dependable places to begin scratching around:

How to Use 43 Folders. A blindingly fast way to find what you need. So you can get back to making things. After all, this isn't your lodge hall.
The Home Page. Latest articles, news, and information on 43Folders.com
RSS Feed. Basically it's our Home Page -- but in a handy, to-go box.
Recently Popular. Recent articles that visitors have read the most times.
All-Time Popular. Articles that have been read the most times since 43Folders.com launched in September, 2004.

So, Now What?

If you're still here, you should probably get back to work.

But, if you're looking for things to click on, you can learn more about Merlin, his uneventful bio, his other stuff, the questions he answers a lot, or, most importantly, you can learn how to give him lots of American money to speak at your company. He's really good at it, and it will make your employees happy and less likely to chase you into a castle while brandishing torches and pitchforks.

You can also send Merlin email, but mostly he really wishes you wouldn't. Unless, of course, you're trying to give him lots of American money to speak at your company. In which case, you should totally email him right now.

”About 43 Folders” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 19, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Admin: Why things are kind of slow around here

Merlin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:40:47 -0400

Pardon a meta post, but I wanted to offer an apology for the paucity of new feature-length posts here recently, as well as to provide some context for where that time's been going. A little "behind the scenes" insight, if you're curious.

Until this summer -- apart from the occasional guest post and the wonderful ongoing assistance of our intrepid wiki and forum moderators -- 43f has been a one-man operation. The content stuff, I could handle, but I'm the first to admit that a lot of useful features have gone unimplemented, and a humiliating number of technological broken windows have stayed well and truly broken. And, so, as the site approaches its third anniversary -- and especially as it has become my de facto "job" -- I decided it's time to get serious and to get some help.

With the wonderfully able assistance of my consigliere and president-for-life, Ben Durbin, a big chunk of my time this summer is going toward changes under the hood across 43 Folders. Big changes. I don't want to get into too much detail or risk overcommitting, but, suffice to say, we're working on making improvements that the regulars here will really enjoy.

So I ask your patience and forbearance, because if you enjoy the features and the longer pieces and the original tutorials and reviews, things are about to get more interesting and diverse. But to get to that point, I hope you'll forgive me a handful of Mondays without a drop-dead classic. Given that I'm in this for the long haul, I have to think it's best if the broken windows get fixed and a few fancy new ones get installed alongside.

Thanks a million -- I really hope you'll stick with me, and stay tuned.

”Admin: Why things are kind of slow around here” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 13, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Announcing the 43 Folders Job Board

Merlin — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:54:12 -0400

I've recently added a 43 Folders job board, and I wanted our first post about it to feature family, so I asked some friends to post open positions in their organizations.

Support Ninja - The Omni Group, Seattle, WA
Marketing Manager - Adaptive Path, San Francisco, CA
Intern / Indentured Servant - The Sound of Young America, Los Angeles, CA
Designer - Grockit, Inc., Telecommute
Chief Wiki Czar(ina) - 43 Folders, San Francisco, CA

We also carry jobs posted from selected other sites, so there's already plenty to browse. Want to be an iPhone Engineer at Apple? How about working for The Motley Fool? Maybe just make a quick $1,000.00 on a referral? Well, dig in.

And for the folks out there who need to put butts in Aerons, it's fast and easy to add your own organization's jobs to the board. Plus your job may be featured in posts here on the site highlighting the more interesting-looking positions that have been added. (Hint: Check the footer of posts in the 43f RSS feed for news about a substantial launch week discount -- ends 7/20, so act soonly)

Thanks for the interest everyone has expressed in us adding a job board -- whether you're looking or hiring, I hope you'll find it useful and vocationally satisfying.

[Note, 2007-07-10 11:27:35: adding new pal listings as friends come on-board.]

”Announcing the 43 Folders Job Board” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 10, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"