The Outsourced Brain

NYT's David Brooks on outsourcing memory, reference, and decision-making to things that theoretically do it better:

I have relinquished control over my decisions to the universal mind. I have fused with the knowledge of the cybersphere, and entered the bliss of a higher metaphysic. As John Steinbeck nearly wrote, a fella ain’t got a mind of his own, just a little piece of the big mind — one mind that belongs to everybody. Then it don’t matter, Ma. I’ll be everywhere, around in the dark. Wherever there is a network, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a TiVo machine making a sitcom recommendation based on past preferences, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a Times reader selecting articles based on the most e-mailed list, I’ll be there.

And, ironically enough, if you didn't catch the Grapes of Wrath reference, it's easy enough to find it. Because, if you're like me, sometimes you also outsource your pop culture knowledge to Google, Wikipedia, and IMDB.

I was recently skimming through my beloved old 1934 edition of Progressive Indexing and Filing, which I inherited at a young age from my grandmother—probably my first piece of productivity porn (the book, not my grandmother.) On page 85, I stumbled across a delightful little gem. Apparently, not only did the David not invent the tickler file (news to me), but it's been around since at least 1934.

• AppleInsider | Road to Mac OS X Leopard: System Preferences - Entertaining and nostalgic walk through the Mac's iterations on the [Control Panel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_panel_(Mac_OS). I vividly recall sitting in the Science building at New College in 1987, staring at the 9-inch black and white screen of a Fat Mac, and thinking: "These little drawings have got to be coolest thing I've ever seen." God bless Susan Kare.
• How-to: Proper Gmail IMAP for iPhone & Apple Mail - Metric buttload of great tips for using Gmail IMAP with your iPhone. Nicely done. [via Lifehacker]
• Tasks bundle for TextMate - Henrik's TextMate bundle will surely be of interest to folks using TaskPaper.
• dotfiles.org - "community for sharing dotfiles like .bashrc, .vimrc, and .bash_profile" Handy if you're getting started with the terminal and want to trick out your profile. Get a great bash .profile and half the work is done for you. [via torrez]
• No Slippage! - Sean Bonner adds skateboard grip tape to his too-slick iPhone. So smart. I've been meaning to try this with the edges and corners of my MacBook Pro for months. Just ordered this guy to take a crack at it.
• My evenings are a waste of time. | Ask MetaFilter - "So, bottom line, what can I do (and what do you do?) to be as productive, motivated, and energetic during the evening hours as I am during the day?"
• Cool Tool: AlphaSmart Word Processor - Paul Ford has talked about the distraction-resistant AlphaSmart Neo here before. Very tempting little chunk of func.
• jwz - PSA: backups - "'OMG, three drives is so expensive! That sounds like a hassle!' Shut up. I know things. You will listen to me. Do it anyway." Possibly the simplest and most do-able approach to brain-dead backup I've seen. Recommended. [via Nelson]
• Food: Monitor Food Expiration Dates with Best When Used By - It would appear there is a web application that will help you track when your food is about to go bad. And here's a blog post that someone wrote about it. See, back in the coal-smudged, Dickensian second world of Web 1.0, you would have to monitor this kind of stuff yourself -- or you could hire someone like Bobby Hill. Alas, technology marches on, and I, for one, will not stand in its way. (Because I actually have some Bulgarian Rails developers building a web app that will stand in the way of things for me. Right now, it's in a private beta after closing a lucrative angel round.)

Hog Bay Software's TaskPaper was recently released in a completed 1.0 version (previously), and if you're the sort of person who casts about for a simple way to manage projects and tasks from a Mac, this just may be your app.

But, even more significantly, if you're not looking for a simple action management system -- if you're that particularly pathetic sort of character who's convinced that features like tagging, syncing, collaboration, graph paper generation, and the introduction of an onboard artisanal breadmaker are all that stands between you and getting your stuff done -- well, you may need TaskPaper more than anybody. Because, friends, TaskPaper is just about fiddle-proof, and, frankly, I know a lot of people who could benefit from that today.

Here's what a simple document looks like in TaskPaper:

I wanted to piggyback off Merlin's post about paper yesterday because, A) I thought it was spot-on, and B) he scooped about 90% of what I wanted to write today. Nonetheless, he nailed something that sent me into a tizzy of note scribbling and bedtime brainstorming, about paper's sweet spot:

Still, for thinking, capture, and live collaboration, paper is one of the best friends you’ll ever have. And as long as we use it properly, it’s going to continue to enhance the creation of all downstream media.

This struck such a nerve because lately, I've become increasingly aware of how paper plays that role in my work. Like I said before, I'm the last person you should be listening to for advice on personal systems, but no matter what shape or form of digital doodads I'm using to hold my stuff, I always have some paper handy when I really want to get busy. Lately, it's been a Moleskine notebook, but it could be index cards, Post-It notes, or some good old fashioned college-ruled; it doesn't matter. My best work always comes out of sitting in front of the word processor with a pen and paper right next to me, ready for brainstorming, ad hoc project planning, and straight-up doodling.