What I'm up to - March 2024

Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.

What I did in February

• Finished my residence at Almost Perfect in Tokyo. I gave a presentation Rethinking Work Beyond the Factory Model, about how most of our knowledge work practices have carried over from factories, and are in the process of being rethought. The original talk wasn't recorded, but I published a write-up and recording on the Contraption Company website.
• I was fascinated by stamp culture in Japan. When I returned home, I made some stamps so that I could stamp my own business cards. I've been collecting different business card papers.
• I enjoyed some amazing coffees in Japan. Leaves Coffee and Glitch Coffee were good enough to be among "my top cafes in the world" (alongside April in Copenhagen, Tim Wendelboe in Oslo, and Substance Cafe in Paris).
• I'm experimenting with more content from Contraption Company, and published an podcast-style interview I did with Aaron Cohn about our competing website builders. We chatted about personal email newsletters, craft software versus indie companies, and web trends. If you want to follow future conversations I have,subscribe at podcast.contraption.co.
• Booklet had a lot of improvements - including push notifications and PWA support, unified login, search, passwordless login, mentions, and a refreshed website. I'm embarking on some ambitious new features this month that will drastically improve the product.
• I was a guest on the SaaS Growth Podcast, where I talked about running multiple products, building a product studio, asynchronous communication, and building differentiated products.

Things to share

• Gear : I switched to the Rode VideoMic NTG as my standard microphone for podcasts and content - it's been great. Nord Theme has become my preferred color scheme for coding.
• Tech: Switched from Google Calendar to HEY Calendar. Descript makes audio and video editing so easy - it lowers the barrier to content production significantly.
• Podcasts: Write of Passage Podcast is a fascinating look at the craft of writers.
• Articles: Are small books the future? The Road to Ruin - how cars drove US cities to the brink. Maslow’s forgotten pinnacle: Self-transcendence. Study puts fermentation, not fire, as pivot point behind our ancestors’ increasing cranial capacity. The cities stripping out concrete for earth and plants.
• Books: I just started Slow Productivity, which I've been eagerly awaiting. Second Mountain makes the compelling case that we should seek self-transcendence over individualism. Feel-Good Productivity has been more actionable than I expected. Slowly working my way through Isaacson's Einstein. Things Become Other Things.

Plans for March

• Building some big Booklet features.
• Taking a week with no work, which I haven't done in a long time. (I travel a lot, but rarely take time off.)
• Shenanigans

**Where I'll be **

• 21-31 March: Todos Santos, MX 🇲🇽

Let me know if we overlap!