Administrivia

Introducing “43 Folders Clips”

Merlin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:17:29 -0500

If you're curious about the stuff that gets my attention and inspires me (and, consequently, inspires the longer essays you see here on 43 Folders), you may enjoy my informal new sub-blog, 43 Folders Clips.

Clips is a public idea board for capturing interesting stuff I've come across and would like to share with you, but which falls short of requiring a whole post on the home page of the www.

My inaugural day of clipping included:

Ze Frank video on executing ideas (as a way to get MORE ideas)
Roger Ebert on Charlie Kaufman's creative DNA
Eric Idle video on John Cleese's maddening approach to writing
Frank O'Hara reading one of his wonderful "lunch poems"
New research on how "nature interaction" helps memory and ADHD symptoms
Dooce's Photoshop technique for "That Lovely Glow Effect"

As time allows, I'll find a way to properly integrate Clips into the mothership in a way that's sensible and unobtrusive, but for now, the easiest way to follow along is to subscribe to the Clips RSS feed. Tumblr.com users can also just click the "Follow" button on the upper-right of any Clips page.

”Introducing “43 Folders Clips”” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 02, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

The Exile's Return or, Still Waters Run Bleachers

Merlin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:39:13 -0500

What Happened to 43Folders.com? | Ask Metafilter

MeFi user, Gerard Sorme, asked a good question over on Ask Metafilter:

Merlin Mann has been a prolific blogger, and one of the better productivity bloggers, at 43folders.com. Yet, he's disappeared! 43Folders last post was on September 25th. This is an eternity for this blog - and for Merlin. He had some other projects, but I can't find a record of his presence anywhere online since late September.

Heh. I don't think I'm that hard to find online, but I was happy to respond to Gerard as to why I haven't posted anything new here in a while:

I'm still here. All's well. Just figuring out where I want to go with the site as I also work on lots of other stuff and do a bunch of speaking and consulting work.

Definitely interested in the direction I'd been talking about, but I'm taking my time to decide what that might look like over time — deliberately avoiding the impulse to "post something" just to — y'know — post something.

Probably coming back soon, slow at first, and I'll be looking less at the productivity meta-process stuff the site's (in)famous for, trying to focus more on the demonstrated practical habits that help pathologically creative people become capable of doing what they do on a year-after-year basis. That's the idea anyhow. We'll see.

Sorry to cause concern, and I very much appreciate knowing somebody cares. Still here, just quiet on that front for now.

If you've been wondering where the new posts are, that's the whole story, right there. I'm still here, but I'm just not here quite yet. But, I expect to be. Soon, probably. (Maybe next week or so?)

The recovering blogger part of me gets antsy when I see how long it's been since I've written something new for this space, but, candidly, that's one of the many reasons I hope folks will join me in starting to see 43 Folders as something other than "a blog," in the typical sense of the word. (I suppose that's easy enough if it's never updated, amirite? High five!)

Thing is, in addition to my doing lots of speaking work, this has turned into something of a rebuilding quarter for me. So, I'm doing a lot of things in other parts of my life that wouldn't be appropriate for the front page of this site.

Putting ducks in rows. Reading. Setting up my first office. Helping family and friends. Signing lots of forms. Writing large checks. Learning how adults run an actual business. Reading some more. Staring and thinking. Watching my daughter learn to walk while talking to a saltine. And, one of my favorite new skills: learning to evaluate (then mostly ignore) any impulse that presses me to publish something here before my brain's done thinking about it. In my opinion, that's a luxury I must figure out how to afford for the rest of my life.

Anyhow. I'll be back very soon. But, in the mean time, there's always:

Kung Fu Grippe
- Where 43f fans should enjoy yesterday's Twyla Tharp video
You Look Nice Today
- Which, if I may say, has been burning lately.
the Twitter
- Yeah, I caved. I'm back.

I know there are lots of words that you can read out there every morning, so, on those future mornings when I have a few new words to share with you, I hope you'll find them worthy of the wait. No promises. But, in any case, thanks for asking. And thanks, as ever, for the time and attention. See you sooner than later.

”The Exile's Return or, Still Waters Run Bleachers” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 12, 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: Time, Attention, and Creative Work

Merlin — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:14:34 -0400

["what is this?"]

Here's something I wrote last week for this site's new "About" page:

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

Call it a motto, or a charter, or -- if you have to -- a "mission statement." But, for both of us, it's a stake in the ground that keeps me focused on what I feel best suited to do for you with this site right now.

I want to help you identify and remove any obstacle that keeps you from making things that you love. And then I want to help you figure out how to make those things even better. That's pretty much it.

R.I.P., Productivity Pr0n

Friends, I'm done with "productivity" as a personal fetish or hobby. There are countless sites that are all too happy to vend stroke material for your joyless addiction to puns about procrastination and systems for generating more taxonomically satisfying meta-work. But, presently, you won't find so much of that here.

Except inasmuch as it can help move aside barriers to finishing the projects that you claim matter to you, "productivity" is often a sprawling ghetto of well-marketed nonsense for people who really just need a ritalin and a hug. So, for myself, random tips and lists that aren't anchored to solving a real-world problem for a smart but flawed adult with a mind are dead to me. Pour a forty on 'em.

From now on, I'm going to talk about how people make stuff. Books, art, code, buildings, ballets, companies, furniture, whimsical hats, songs, or what have you. But understand: this isn't just for fancy people and fine arts majors.

You're already "creative"

If the work that really matters to you involves understanding a relationship between a handful of seemingly unrelated things and then figuring out the best way to portray, magnify, or resolve those relationships, then you're already doing creative work. Any time you make a connection between two or more axes that hadn't occurred to you 10 minutes ago, yes, you've done something creative. Seriously. This does not require your wearing a beret.

But, then -- and this is really important -- if you want to actually make something out of all that insight, and if you have the will and desire to polish and improve the execution of all the things you produce, then we'll have a lot to talk about.

But, if you want a "site about GTD," "a blog about index cards," or a wide-mouthed sluice of recycled links to lists of geegaws that will keep you momentarily distracted from how sad you are, then you're wasting both of our time here. So, go. You're stinking up the joint.

This is now a site for people who want to finish things that they care about -- but who still occasionally need help, inspiration, and the courage to push all the bullshit off their work table. This is about clearing that space every day, and then using it to do cool stuff that makes you proud.

So. What, then?

Does this mean that Inbox Zero, Time and Attention Management, or advice on reducing noise will be going away from 43 Folders? No. Freaking. Way.

If I may say, that's all great stuff, and you're still going to need it if the mind is willing but the attention is occasionally weak (or under attack). No, if anything, you'll be seeing more articles targeted at how to do this stuff well so you can get back into the studio faster.

You're also going to see more material about the habits and patterns that have been demonstrated to work for makers who have had long-lived careers in the creative world. In itself, this is the direction I'm most fascinated with right now, and it's likely one I'll be returning to often in the coming months:

How do you fire your muse and learn to rely solely on working your ass off every day?

As I'm learning, it definitely can be done, but there's no secret or silver bullet; it's just work, work, work, combined with a personal commitment to editing and improvement that produces the best results of which you're capable as often as possible. It's the kind of productivity that's about applying your time to frequent, high-quality "releases" -- not laying in a hammock while people in Bangalore update your website.

But, what about all the cool notebooks, links to lists of "GTD resources," and ponderously detailed tutorials on how to label a file folder? Yeah. From now on, maybe don't expect a lot of that here. Unless I feel it has a direct link to helping you do things.

Here’s the thing

A notebook is basically the creative equivalent of the NFL jersey you picked up at Macy’s; unless you fill it with a lot of hard work and sacrifices, you’re just a dilettante with poor spending patterns. An aspiring something. A fan of the game. An existential cosplayer. And, that’s not what I want to help you to be. Even if you really love Moleskines or the Raiders, God love ‘em.

So, we're going to talk about what goes in the notebook; not the fact that it's pretty and has a little bookmark. Then I want you to leave here.

That's the basic idea. We'll see what evolves.

And, there's these other things

I'm also working on some other stuff for the site that I hope will please more people than it annoys. In any case, they're each important to me. Here's the shape of the map.

1. Less noise in general

Less chrome, less noise, less blah-blah, and less unnecessary anything. On a given day in the future, you may notice this as fewer ads, lower (but higher-quality) post volume, and an ongoing attempt to make the site fast and easy to use. I'm working on this. With money and people and new relationships and so on. More as it develops and becomes worth highlighting.

2. Walking a truer productivity walk

It's important to me that we both try to stay focused on the real goal: which is being done with a project that you care about. It's not about hanging out, smoking cloves, and chatting about "Différance" late into the Paris nights. I want you to visit here, get what you need, then get the hell back to work.

So, if you occasionally notice me smiling, and putting a firm but gentle hand between your shoulder blades as we begin a walk toward the door, it's because that's closer to where your work is. It's not here, it's not in your inbox, and, with all due respect, it's probably not in a list of 5,000 links.

Like I said recently, if you've crossed the river, you should quit carrying the boat. And while I very much hope and desire that you make 43 Folders your first stop when you need to feel inspired and confident about making decisions that support your best work, I truly do not want you to waste time here. That would make me sad.

So, yes, please read this page: How to Use 43 Folders. It's a new page that provides basic guidance on finding fast answers, and ultimately, on helping you figure out why you're here.

I imagine the how-to will evolve as the site evolves, so I would be honored if you would trust me enough to bookmark that page, then consider making it the place where you begin your visits here. With any luck, it can also frequently be the page where your visits quickly end here. And, although I have to imagine it will vex the nice people who are kind enough to sell ads for my site: that's okay by me.

3. Mostly firewalled self-promotion

While it's my site and will always be used to promote my ideas and my business in the way that I think is most appropriate, I also don't want it to turn into a glorified billboard for me -- especially to the exclusion of the writing and ideas that make it theoretically useful. And, especially in the articles and content well. That space is getting more sacrosanct.

With much sadness, I've recently watched some of my most beloved and respected friends' blogs degrade into a depressing slurry of pimping, random affiliate linking, paid (or pseudo-paid) placement, idiotic traffic boosters, and wholesale ego boosting about every bakesale, state fair, or mall opening that its authors plan to chopper into.

Here, except for The Monthly Pimp, I want the content well to stay clean, focused, and worthy of your trust and my credibility. Ads go in the ad zones, and anybody can buy one to sell pretty much anything. But it doesn't buy placement in a 43 Folders post, and it shouldn't buy my association or endorsement elsewhere. Maybe for a truly paid, public endorsement deal; but not for a banner ad buy. That's just weird. Plus I don't own a chicken suit.

This doesn't mean that I won't link to my own work and my other sites and projects whenever I think it's appropriate. It also doesn't mean I'll stop linking to Amazon for products or A2 for web hosting when it's germane to what I have to say. But, I do already have a site that's purely self-promotional. And that's where I'd like most of that that stuff to live now.

OT: If you're a blogger I know and love, maybe at least consider joining me in your own overdue Superfund cleanup to the extent that you're comfortable and able. Too much money can easily buy you a very dumb audience and an astoundingly influential cohort of ex-readers.

4. No more fake "conversations"

I've loved so many of the comments and forum posts on 43 Folders. But, for an endless number of reasons that you've probably seen for yourself across the web, the quality and care of visitor contributions everywhere has hit what I truly hope is rock bottom.

Stupid, venal, ignorant, self-linking comments from people who couldn't be troubled to actually read the article. Angry forum posts full of personal attacks, giant avatars of Manga characters, and 4-vertical-inch signatures about which Golden Girl you are. Nonsense tagging, meta-commenting, ass-kissing, trolling, and...oooo!...video responses....neato! Please. It's nuts and it's pointless and it's really cynical on the part of almost every publisher that allows that crap to go on.

"Conversation," like "friend," is a word that has a meaning to human beings with faces and brains. I will not abuse it as code for the surplus page views produced by someone with an afternoon to kill.

5. This is my site. There are many like it, but this one is mine

43 Folders is now, once again, about what I have to say about things, and I want that to be the sole reason that the idea of a visit here either attracts or repels you.

Yes, there will still be occasional guest posts, open threads, and of course, I'll be linking to and quoting widely from the work of others. But I'm taking a cue from John, Andy, Jason, and anybody else who wants to own every pixel of their site. I'm buying back my own stock, even if it incurs a short-term writedown.

If you have comments about what I say here, post about it on your own blog. That's what it's there for, and it's a place where owning your words will have gravity and, in most cases, will be associated with the name of a real person who doesn't pinch loaves on his own couch.

And, then, there's everything else

Over the next year, I'm going to do lots more speaking, more of my own independent video and podcast projects, and, yes, in all likelihood, I'll finish one book and make progress toward a second.

N.B. In the case of that last thing, it's likely to be the sole public remark I'll have to share until I have a release date, an Amazon page, and a sample chapter for you to download. But, that's getting ahead of myself. We'll see what happens. Do wish me luck.

So, "hi." Again.

I want you to know that I'm back. I'm here. And I'm thinking very much about how 43 Folders can become a focused resource for people who do work that they love and make things that matter to them -- but who just want to do it better and with less bullshit and existential overhead on every conceivable front. And, if it's not clear, I really want that same lack of bullshit and surplus of polish to be evident in my own work as well. It's the goal, anyhow.

We'll see how I do. As ever, it's going to be mostly letters to myself. But, the material is out there, and as much as my schedule for other work and the time I set aside for my family and friends will allow, I want this site to be really consistently good. And, where it's able, I'd love for 43 Folders to help you make your stuff even better.

So, that's it for the throat-clearing and metatalk for now. Thanks for hearing me out, and I hope you'll stop by sometimes if you think 43 Folders can help you make something cool today.

Now: back to work.

”43 Folders: Time, Attention, and Creative Work” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 10, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43f Program Note: The Week Our Gears Shift

Merlin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:09:03 -0400

Reserve Reading: kung fu grippe - "Better"

In light of some new directions I'm taking with my work, 43 Folders is changing focus and approach from being the "blog about productivity" that many readers may view it as today.

So, this week, I'll be presenting a few articles that touch on where I'm heading with this stuff, and why.

By way of prologue, if you've been enjoying the stuff I've had to say over the past few weeks, I think you'll find the course adjustments wholesome and useful. If you haven't so much cared for that stuff, I'm not sure what to tell you. Except there's a strong possibility this won't be the site for you. Which is always a risk, anyway.

If you're wondering about a rough heading on why I'm doing what I'm doing -- and what that means to you as a reader -- please read this post I wrote the other day for my personal site.

Notwithstanding the fact I stuck that article on a way less visible site mostly out of fear I'd freak people out by putting it here on 43f, I now realize that little essay ended up being exactly what I needed to say, and in exactly the way I needed to say it. Think of it as a first draft of a blueprint.

Put differently, if something like "Better" is not what you're looking for on 43 Folders in the future, I can't guarantee that this will continue to be a site you'll enjoy in precisely the way you did before.

As of today, the menu's changing, and the snack platter is gone.

While I'll leave it up to you to decide the degree to which the changes I have in mind will improve 43 Folders in a way you find useful, I hope you'll at least give it a throw, on the strength.

And, if you share my feeling that real "productivity" means a lot more than index cards, lists of links, and endless, free bus rides for bored tourists, I think you'll enjoy and benefit from the change.

I want to take your attention seriously by sharing ideas that help you focus on the hard work of making something that you love -- and making it better.

”43f Program Note: The Week Our Gears Shift” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 08, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Admin: Why a Footer in 43 Folders Feed Items?

Merlin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:19:42 -0400

Why a Footer in 43 Folders Feed Items?

We've added a footer to items that appear in the 43 Folders RSS feed. Here's why.

The 43 Folders feed is a popular way for people to keep up with what's happening on our site.

If you're not sure what we mean by "feed," we're talking about things like "Atom" and "RSS," which are open standards that allow you to subscribe to a syndication feed that displays the headline and full content of every story that appears on our site. And, then, you can use apps like Google Reader or NetNewsWire to read lots of sites, quickly, conveniently, and in one handy place. Pretty neato, right? Totally.

We are very happy to provide this free service at our own expense, since it's a convenient way to let our readers decide how, where, and when they want to read what we have to say.

Our site's RSS feed is inarguably one of the things that helped to make 43 Folders as popular as it is today: a time when the feed loads somewhere in the world over 100,000 times each day. For example, yesterday? Here's the count, according to FeedBurner:

Pretty neat, huh? Yeah, I know!

Okay, so what's the problem?

Problem is: there are unsavory types out there who abuse the openness and flexibility of website feeds like ours to do all kinds of annoying and nasty stuff that's way outside the generous BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License that we have chosen to provide legally-binding guidance on how others may reuse or republish our copyrighted work. And, for any variety of reasons, that abuse is just not cricket.

So, to help readers understand where the feed items came from -- and, yes, to remind would-be scrapers and charlatans whom the purloined words legally belong to -- we've added a modest footer to the bottom of feed items that directs people to the originating post, as well as underscoring the copyright and licensing information. It also directs people to this page in the event that they want to learn more about why the footer exists. Guessing that's how you ended up here. Hi.

Anyhow, here's what the footer for this article's feed item looks like:

Questions, comments, or abuse reports?

We hope that the footer is not a distraction to your enjoyment of the articles; it's something we've been reluctant to add, but, unfortunately, the large-scale, programmatic abuse of our stuff has made this footer advisable and necessary.

If you have questions, comments, or wish to report having seen this footer show up in places that seem to break the terms of our licensing (such as a spam site or any other place that wraps our stuff in frames, other peoples' ads, or some such webcockery), please contact us. Upon your notice, we will dispatch our army of douche-starved goons to pummel these people within an inch of their lives. (Well, not really. But we probably will nicely ask them to please stop.)

And, no matter how, where, when, or even why you've chosen to read our site, we are very grateful that you read it all. So, you know: thanks.

-- Merlin

”Admin: Why a Footer in 43 Folders Feed Items?” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 21, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Know your smoke

Merlin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:05:50 -0400

Is your car smoking from the exhaust pipe?

Reader wemerson was kind enough to correct me on my metaphor in the previous post about tracking down the sources of whining in your life. Turns out that my use of "white smoke" was incorrect. Many thanks -- and I made the correction.

To share the information and prevent future slightly-appropriate-metaphor-makers from repeating my error, here's how to tell what's wrong with your car based on the color of smoke coming out of your tailpipe. From trustmymechanic.com:

White smoke: White smoke is caused by water and or antifreeze entering the cylinder, and the engine trying to burn it with the fuel. The white smoke is steam...

Blue Smoke: Blue smoke is caused by engine oil entering the cylinder area and being burned along with the fuel air mixture. As with the white smoke, just a small drop of oil leaking into the cylinder can produce blue smoke out the tailpipe...

Black Smoke: Black smoke is caused by excess fuel that has entered the cylinder area and cannot be burned completely. Another term for excess fuel is "running rich." Poor fuel mileage is also a common complaint when black smoke comes out of the tailpipe.

Related: in the event that a conclave at the Sistine Chapel has been voting on who the next Pope shall be, here's what Wikipedia says to watch for in terms of smoke (emphasis added):

Once the ballots are counted and bound together, they are burned in a special stove erected in the Sistine Chapel, with the smoke escaping through a small chimney visible from St. Peter's Square. The ballots from an unsuccessful vote are burned along with a chemical compound in order to produce black smoke, or fumata nera. (Traditionally, wet straw was used to help create the black smoke, but a number of "false alarms" in past conclaves have brought about this concession to modern chemistry.) When a vote is successful, the ballots are burned alone, sending white smoke (fumata bianca) through the chimney and announcing to the world the election of a new pope. At the end of the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, church bells were also rung to signal that a new pope had been chosen.

And finally, if you're worried about smoke in your home, here's how to choose a smoke detector:

Depending on your situation and your preference, you can choose to go with a battery-operated detector or one that is hard-wired (AC-powered) to your electrical system. The important thing is that you have smoke detectors mounted in your living and work space...

Consider purchasing a combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector for your home. They are more expensive, but well worth it...

Make sure that the smoke detector you choose has been tested by an independent testing laboratory.

Thanks again to folks for pointing out the error. I'll say it again: 43 Folder draws the best-looking, quickest-eyed readers in the business. Rock on.

”Know your smoke” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on April 12, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"