Followup/Distraction (Ftrain.com)

Paul Ford, eloquent as usual, on the two kinds of distractions--the wide kind that are the equivalent of a kitty toy for distractible humans, and the narrow kind, which stimulates you to follow a train of thought into tunnels it's nary entered. Paul concludes, in part:

On the Joys of Primitive Computing: The AlphaSmart Neo

I keep hearing rumblings about the AlphaSmart Neo, but haven’t put my hands to one yet. Anybody out there got one? Tried one? Seems a bit steep at $250, but I’d love to play with one (<accent belle=“southern”>Why, I declare: I do believe I’ve dropped my kerchief: AlphaSmart, would you be so kind…?</accent>).

Kendall Clark seems to think Neo’s part of a larger trend:

Lifehacker - Feature

Our pals over at Lifehacker have a new section of Features where they’re posting longer how-tos and tutorials on all manner of cool stuff. Don’t miss How to set up a personal home web server, How to control your home computer from anywhere, and Professional E-mail Tips. These are all very well done and super-useful.

Permit me to extend two enthusiastic horns of rock toward the Lifehacker domain to celebrate this august move. The crew there is composed of some very smart cookies, and it’s really cool to see them spreading their wings and being encouraged to augment their link blogging with excellent original content. This is good.

Just because no one’s asked me yet, I’ll volunteer a stray factoid: the sites like 43F that I ever visit more than occasionally have some things in common: a) they have an original voice and a point of view, b) the authors make an effort to create and share new content and ideas—or at least present old ones in a new or contextual way.

Over on DIYPlanner.com, SusanBeth outlines how she’s created a writer’s version of the Hipster PDA.

Roy Peter Clark has distilled the concept of “writing as carpentry” down to twenty simple techniques for tightening up your work.

Useful set of tips on improving the carpentry of your writing by avoiding cliches and colorless (or too colorful) language.

Cool site with a bunch of tools, games and articles that will appeal to word nerds.

put the puppy back on the paper, originally uploaded by hotdogsladies.

I’ve previously mentioned Bay-area writer Anne Lamott in the context of her fondness for index cards and her belief in the importance of capturing ideas at the moment they come to you (it’s something I also really believe in). It’s fun to hear her talk about this stuff, too. She has a discursive speaking style that’s, by turns, insightful, frustrating, and very funny.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading her book Bird by Bird a section or two at a time whenever I have a few minutes, and I have to say, it’s one of the most inspiring books I’ve read in a long time.

As a guide for young or aspiring writers, I’d put it up there with On Writing Well and Writing Down the Bones in terms of practical, really useful advice. She strips away so much of the pretense and BS about the writing process and encourages you to just start writing—focusing on small assignments (all you need to do is fill a 1″x1″ picture frame with words) and what she calls “the shitty first draft.” Great stuff.

But I think some of the most amazing passages in the book have little to do with writing, per se. It’s all about how we choose to look at the world and ourselves.

Jeffrey Windsor shares a great tip for making it easy to start work in the morning—by always leaving your work at a point where it will be easy, intuitive, and interesting to pick things back up. Instead of grinding away until you're drained and out of enthusiasm, quit while you're on a roll.