¶ The Serious Writer's Syntax

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Just over a year ago, I decided to do a little experiment with the way I write. Not so much the style or voice of my writing — which is being continuously developed — but rather with the process.

Up until last September, I relied upon the WYSIWYG editor of whichever platform I was using. I had a fair understanding of HTML basics, but HTML is a bit messy to deal with when composing a written work. It can really derail a train of thought. Often, I would write out an article then go back and add links and such, but with a lengthy article, even that could be burdensome, trying to remember the exact phrases I wanted to have as a link.

Never mind the markup that WYSIWYG editors produce is fairly horrendous.

I switched to Markdown. Markdown is a simple markup language that converts plain text to valid HTML. It’s clean, easy to learn, easy to use, and — best of all — makes sense on its own if you were to print out a written work marked up with Markdown and hand it to someone to read.

Another advantage of Markdown is that it is just text. I store everything I write in Markdown as a simple .txt file. Plain text is probably the closest thing we have to an eternal and universal file format. Any computer has the capability to read plain text, and it is likely to always be supported.

The only tool you need to write in Markdown is a text editor, which every computer has. On the Mac there is TextEdit, Notepad on Windows, and heck, you could even use Notes on your iOS device. This are all very serviceable tools. However, there are other tools that can greatly enhance the Markdown experience. On the Mac I use the wonderful Byword, and on iOS I use Elements.

If you need more convincing, check out Brett Terpstra’s Two-Minute Explanation of why Markdown is amazing.

Markdown is an indispensable tool for the modern writer. Whether you write for print or the web, for fun or your profession, an article, blog post, or a book — Markdown simply gets out of your way and lets you write.

If you are a serious writer, I can’t see why you’d want to use anything except Markdown.

AirPrint Gaining Traction

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A while back I pondered why HP had a monopoly on Apple's AirPrint wireless printing standard. Today, I was happy to see that Canon has three printers available today featuring AirPrint, and Epson has thrown in their commitment, as well.

It just so happens that my beloved Canon printer of the past half-decade is starting to show its age mechanically, so maybe I will look into one of these AirPrint-capable models in a few months.

¶ The Lizard Brain Lobotomy

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One of my greatest enemies is the lizard brain. That part of me — part of all of us — that chooses between fight or flight when fear is introduced. The part that sabotages my own personal goals, that sets myself up for failure. I often start a project with great ambition, but somewhere along the line I tell myself I am no longer capable of succeeding.

Amazingly, I go through this process with almost every single long form article I post to this site. Rare is the day where my drive to write and click publish overwhelms the lizard brain on the first shot. Thankfully, not every person has this magnitude of a battle with the lizard brain, but I certainly do.

If you are like me, constantly questioning your ability to succeed, I want to issue a challenge to you and to myself. Lobotomize the lizard brain. Find the courage to push through. Find someone to confide in to keep you accountable to your tasks. Recognize the consequences of succumbing to the heckler inside of you.

Now, a word of caution: the lizard brain, like an appendage on a lizard, will grow back. We're human, after all, and self-doubt will continuously rise up against you. There is hope though, that each time you defeat the lizard brain, each time you lobotomize it, next time it won't grow back quite as strong or quite as large. Your confidence will grow in its absence.

Sustainability

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Ben Brooks on how to keep a business solvent:

Time again there has been one business model that has proven to be successful, as stated recently by Marco Arment:

[…] the traditional style of spend less than you make.

That’s the only way to make money, short of fooling someone into buying your company for more than it’s worth.

Ben mainly cautions business owners about the dangers of firesale prices. If you own a business or are in a position to make financial decisions for a business, consider Ben's article required reading.

Responsive

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Today the Boston Globe launched a redesign. This design is utterly amazing in that it is responsive. What is responsive web design? Well, go visit the Globe's site on your iPhone. Looks great, right? Now turn your iPhone on its side and watch the design adapt to the new width. The same works for your iPad. Or your traditional browser on your computer (go ahead and resize your browser window a bunch and see what happens).

To celebrate, A Book Apart has knocked 20% off their 4th installment — Responsive Web Design — using the code BOSTON today only. I hadn't picked up this book yet, but grabbed it today. I trust it will be stellar, just as A Book Apart's previous publications.

Seeing the Boston Globe embrace something like responsive web design is inspiring. The real treat is how when the screen or window is smaller, the Globe puts content first by sending the ads below the scroll.

More of this, please.

¶ We Believe

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This is what we believe:

Technology alone is not enough.

Faster. Thinner. Lighter. Those are all good things, but when technology gets out of the way, everything becomes more delightful. Even magical.

That's when you leap forward. That's when you end up with something like this.

-Apple's iPad 2 Ad, We Believe

For my initial reaction to Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO from Apple, I made a conscious point as soon as I heard the news to read nothing else other than Steve's letter and Apple's PR statement. I wanted my reaction to be my own.

I have found that reading other writers' thoughts on a topic can sometimes sway my own, which isn't necessarily bad, but can sometimes leave me feeling as if I just regurgitated their statements with my own slight spin.

For my reaction, I focused on culture. It looks like I wasn't far off the mark from fellowwriters. The above video echoes this belief of changing the world. Technology isn't enough. It is a means to an end. And that end is to bring delight and magic to mere mortals.

John Gruber paints this culture in a fascinating way:

Apple’s products are replete with Apple-like features and details, embedded in Apple-like apps, running on Apple-like devices, which come packaged in Apple-like boxes, are promoted in Apple-like ads, and sold in Apple-like stores. The company is a fractal design. Simplicity, elegance, beauty, cleverness, humility. Directness. Truth. Zoom out enough and you can see that the same things that define Apple’s products apply to Apple as a whole. The company itself is Apple-like. The same thought, care, and painstaking attention to detail that Steve Jobs brought to questions like “How should a computer work?”, “How should a phone work?”, “How should we buy music and apps in the digital age?” he also brought to the most important question: “How should a company that creates such things function?”

Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.

Some get it. Others are screaming Apple will falter soon, just like it did in 1985. The big difference is last time Jobs left Apple he was forced out, exiled. He was a different man then. During his exile he learned a lot, found his footing. And when he came back he cleaned house and reshaped Apple. He surrounded himself with like-minded individuals.

Apple is not just Steve Jobs, it is the sum of the many parts of creative talent and thirst to change things for better.

This is why Apple will continue on and see its best years ahead of it. Steve is certainly one-of-a-kind, but we are Apple.

Just remember, Steve Jobs hand-picked Tim Cook to succeed him. Michael Grothaus shared his personal story of Tim Cook, in which he says:

No one can ever replace Steve Jobs, the man, the genius. But Apple is not only Steve Jobs, no matter what anyone thinks. Apple is the interns and executive assistants; it's the retail employees and the designers; it's the marketing and PR departments, it's Scott Forstall and Jonathan Ive; Bob Mansfield and Phil Schiller; it's the dozens of other names you see on all those Apple patents that we talk about every week. Apple is not any single one of these people. It is the sum of them all, run by a leader who possesses enough wisdom to know that everyone in the company matters, that everyone's concerns are valid and deserve attention. Tim Cook is such a leader.

Culture is one of the most important things for people. It defines who we are, and guides us on our future paths. Tim Cook believes in the culture Steve Jobs inspired. The people who create wonderful things at Apple believe it. We who use these tools believe it. I believe it.

We are Apple, and our greatest days are yet ahead of us.