Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.
Our Most Popular PostsDeath and Underachievement: A Guide to Happiness in WorkRyan Norbauer | Dec 31 2007The trite wisdom of contemporary folklore instructs us that the arrival of the New Year is a time to reflect on the achievements of the preceding 365 days and to bear down and "resolve" to achieve more in those to come. Over time, we learn what a hydra-headed beast this is: no matter how many projects or actions we may whack off our ineluctable lists, it seems that yet more (often increasingly ambitious) commitments spring up in their place. With each new year come self-recriminations for our failure to meet the unlikely goals we've set for ourselves—lose weight, read through those piles of books and RSS feeds, start picking up our socks—and a stultifying brainstorm of new projects we'd like to take on. This New Year as I contemplate my resolutions, it's the underlying concepts of achievement and productivity that are on my mind—and by extension the still grander issues of purpose and meaning in work. I invite you then, patient reader, on a desultory First Night journey with me as I take our mutual favorite hobby—the idle navel-gazing contemplation of productivity—to its most absurd yet logical conclusion: to ask whether eradicating the need for achievement itself might not be the key to happiness in work. read more »38 Comments
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What are _you_ 'waiting on?'Merlin Mann | Oct 5 2004A confession. I’ve been reloading this page every 3 minutes for the last week. I’m totally fixated on obtaining a copy of TextMate and have already mentally ascribed it powers that include many of the miracles described by Saints Matthew and Mark. Setting my saliva and expectations aside for just a moment, this has me thinking a bit about my “waiting on” list and just how effectively (or not) I’m using it to get things done. read more »POSTED IN:
On Thumbs, Stars, and Little MenMerlin Mann | Jan 28 2009Robert Christgau: CG 70s: The Grades I love Christgau’s original (pre-1990) explanation of how he grades the records that he reviews. read more »POSTED IN:
Guest post: More on distractions, from Paul FordPaul Ford | Oct 24 2005Last week, I enjoyed and linked to Paul Ford’s Ftrain post, “Followup/Distraction.” It led to us exchanging a few chatty emails, so I asked Paul to favor us with a deeper write-up on his idea of narrow vs. broad distractions. More specifically, I asked: “Is there such a thing as a good distraction?” Are there "good" distractions?by Paul Ford ![]()
Gary Benchley, Rock Star
by Paul Ford I don't want to differentiate between "good" distractions and "bad" distractions. I want to stick to the idea of "narrow" and "broad" distractions. Because sometimes a broad distraction--like, say, getting drunk and watching the movie Red Dawn--is exactly what you need. In fact, one of the best things I can do when I'm in a rut is go see some utter-crap movie that features CIA operatives and lots of gunfire. I like to goof off a whole lot. I think it's insanity to try to justify that in any way. I struggle, though, because my PC can play a DVD of Red Dawn while I check my email and work on an essay. This sort of computing power is fine for strong-willed people, but for the weak-willed like myself it's a hopeless situation. My work requires me to patiently work through things and come up with fresh ideas. And I can honestly say that since broadband Internet came to my home a year and a half ago my stock of new, fresh, fun ideas has grown very thin. It's just too much. My mind can't wander, because, with anything that interests me, I can look it up on Wikipedia to gain some context. Before I know it I've got thirty tabs open at once in Firefox. Then new email comes in. I loathe the way computers blink to demand your attention; the computer wants to tell me, for instance, that it can't load a web page. On the Mac, my Firefox icon starts jumping up and down like an anxious toddler (I know I can probably turn this off, but there are always more pop-up windows). My computer constantly wants to share totally asinine, useless information like that with me. So I've started using an Alphasmart Neo to draft text, and WordPerfect for DOS to edit and revise. My average daily word count has doubled as a result, and my stock of fresh ideas seems to be replenishing. read more »POSTED IN:
WriteRoom: Free full-screen writing app for OS XMerlin Mann | Jun 30 2006O, how we distraction-prone people pine for persistent and ubiquitous full-screen mode. And it looks like the good folks at Hog Bay have come up with an elegant freeware app to help save the beleaguered writer from him or herself. read more »POSTED IN:
aTV Update Gives AppleTV FTP and USB Drive SupportMerlin Mann | Jul 25 2008aTV Flash - Ver. 3.2 - Apple Core, LLC The 3.2 version of Apple Core's patchstick for the AppleTV is out. And it's pretty amazing. If you've never heard of the aTV, I'll point you to the product page for all the feature details that turn your AppleTV into a tricked-out media center that runs an assload of codecs without PitA transcoding. And, yes, you will need to read the detailed instructions on how to make this work -- there's a lot of them and it's not for the impatient or the faint of heart. For now, I just want to highlight why this particular release of this particular product has scratched such an itch for me. read more »POSTED IN:
Ben Franklin: Keeper of his own 'Permanent Record'Merlin Mann | Sep 1 2005Ben Franklin nerded out in so many ways. Check out his cool little book for tracking his adherence to “13 virtues.” read more »POSTED IN:
Note Taking Tips?Adam Schoales | Sep 29 2007I'm in my first year of university and trying desperately to come up with the best way to take notes on my mac... I've been looking into notae and yojimbo (I like the tagging features alot, but dislike that I can't put in pictures and such) but have heard good things about journler and devonthink. read more »POSTED IN:
The Problem with “Feeling Creative”Merlin Mann | Jan 2 2009If your mall's bookstores look anything like mine (and it's probably safe to assume that they do), you'll find numerous sections devoted to helping writers, painters, musicians, and other aspiring artists to become successful in one way or another. There are books chock full of tips on finding an agent, on painting like the masters, and on composing and selling a hit song. There are also dozens of books on "creativity" itself. Guides that are meant to help you access and unlock the artist within and to see the world in more creative ways. How to "be" creative, how to generate ideas, and how to learn to think "laterally." Some of these books are just terrific, many are atrocious, and, at least in my anecdotal experience, only a handful challenge their readers with a fundamentally unmarketable premise: Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don't understand that it's ultimately still work. read more »POSTED IN:
iGTD: Strong OS X app with powerful Quicksilver integrationMerlin Mann | Apr 8 2007As I mentioned on MacBreak Weekly the other day, I'm very impressed with what I've seen so far in iGTD, a new "Getting Things Done" application for OS X. read more »POSTED IN:
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