The Rise of Simplicity
We’re going to see the rise of a simpler aesthetic. Clean lines. Minimal cuts. Available, reparable, adaptable materials. An emphasis on finish but not adornment.
Why? Because simplicity is a function of constraints. The more constrained your resources (time, skill, materials), the simpler your product will be. (Or, if you lack discipline, the more unfinished.) And we’re hurtling into an era of constraints.
Idea: Kickstarter for Lobbying
A variant on Kickstarter for lobbying initiatives. May as formalize existing flows of capital in exchange for influence so more can participate and benefit instead of just the few.
These could be local. Force a bank to clean up a foreclosed home. Front-yard garden/goat/chicken friendly laws. Make it illegal for debt collectors to be on your street. At the state level. End marijuana enforcement.
Figure out who needs to sign off on the permit/law. Fund their next election cycle (the current standard for bribing). Fund a decade of cushy non-jobs. All the standard lobbyist tactics. Retainers at restaurants. Fund their spouses non-business. Put their (18+ independent) kid through school.
Hey, bribery-as-a-service has a nice ring to it. Essentially act as a white-label PAC.
Infographic: Dropouts
Personally, this points to a broken system that doesn’t need to be facilitated into a working system. The goal isn’t to get kids into college. That’s not a useful activity unto itself. (Unless you work for a college.)
The real goal is to get these kids productive. Generating value they can trade to increase their standard of living. Teach them in a way that works for them. Mentor them (seems to be the goal of the organization that created the graphic) to understand they can participate in bigger/better markets (than low-level drug slinging or robbery or fast food/TSA service).
Idea: Improving Daedalus Touch
Following up on my review, Daedalus is great for writing and organizing parts of a workflow. Needs add editing functionality to close the loop.
I’m looking for the ability to blow apart a page (which are infinite). Specifically, a way to look at the elements of a page and reorganize them as needed. This would be invaluable in the editing process. Not just for stuff you write yourself, but things other people send you.
How this could work: Hit a “edit mode” button, and zoom out to see the entire page. To the right, you see the listed ‘snippets’. By default each snippet is a sentence. You can modify the length of the snippet by drawing a line over a set of words.
You can drag and drop the position of the snippets relative to one another, consider, and remove if necessary. This works with the current page and stack logic. Mockup:
Add versioning control and Daedalus suddenly becomes the only iPad app that takes advantage of the touch interface to help you get stuff written, developed, and edited in a slick way (really, without getting in the way – as I fear LiquidText will with all these features).
Review: Daedalus Touch and Writing On The iPad
I’ve been looking for good writing apps. Scrivener is amazing for Apple laptops. But since I switched to an iPad full-time, that’s a no-go (and for whatever reason, it’s not forthcoming as an iOS app).
I tried WriteRoom, which is great for getting words out, but the file structure is stupid, and writing anything of many pieces or length is a real pain. Further, I didn’t have control over formatting the way I like. (Also, anyone who has ever worked with me will tell you I have an odd formatting habit. Basically, 1.2x spaced Georgia with a bolded huge Helvetica headline. If you don’t send it to me that way, I’ll change it so that it is. That’s not an option with WriteRoom.)
Pages is OK for short work (under ten pages), but not long (book or book-t0-be). I love OmniOutliner on the laptop, but not sure if I want to spend the money for the iPad version.
Enter Daedalus Touch. Cool product. Lets me write white on black, which is great on the eyes. The formatting I like is default. Anyway, much more importantly, they really get design for the iPad. Gestures are both intuitive and useful (oddly rare in the current generation of apps). The document structure is coherent and useful (you essentially get infinite-length pages that you can stack atop one another). For example, each of my stacks is a book or article in progress. Individual pages are sections. It just works. You write and organize and move on. They need help with the editing part of a writer’s workflow though. More on that in the next post .
Below is a video that illustrates the concept.