What thinking about doing a video tutorial taught me about simplicity
I was wondering how I could do a video for a sketchnote tutorial at my desk.
I started thinking about getting an HDMI in so I could hook up my mirrorless camera, then maybe rig a phone above my desk, perhaps move the screen so the camera could be more in front of me… And then I realised that using continuity camera and desk view would be perfect. I tried it rigged above my monitor and it was too high away which revealed the final truth.
The best (simplest) setup for doing a sketchnote tutorial video is probably a mac laptop with an iPhone doing continuity camera1.
Not just tutorial videos
Of course, this isn’t just about the amazing continuity camera, but many other “defaults” and built in experiences are good enough.
Yes, there are definitely exceptions (the webcam on my 2020 Macbook Air has A LOT to be desired) but the additional complexity comes with a lot of extra resistance.
There’s a reason the smartphone is the most popular camera in the world.
It’s also why even though I can see the value in all the bells and whistles of omnifocus, I’ve never managed to make it stick. Although, it does present a good example of an exception.
Exception: When you love the details
The people who I’ve noticed love Omnifocus find all those bells, whistles and automations to be joyful. Sure, they have setbacks but they never seem to find them frustrating. While I don’t find this the case with omnifocus, there are other tools and systems where I do experience it.
That seems like a good guideline for whether the more or less complex solution is right for you.
-
I need to make sure it works as advertised, after all, perhaps the desk view falls apart when drawing. ↩︎
I have many more videos of the kids sledging with my drone. I think I might have to upgrade my microblog account!
A few (personal) principles of cooking.
- If it has garlic, add an extra clove.
- When cooking for kids, reduce the onions by half and always cut finely.
- You shouldn’t add sirrachi to everything, but you can (and you know you want to really) Will add more later.
The Year of Health
As I was listening to the latest episode of Cortex on “Yearly Themes” I instantly knew what mine should be.
The year of health.
It’s the culmination of several factors in life at the moment so let me explain.
An apocalyptic moment
A few week’s back I noticed that I was struggling to see the tiny text on my laptop screen.
Normally, I work at a 32" 4k monitor so I hadn’t had to test my eyes. But this one moment revealed both that yes, it is indeed time for me to get my eye’s tested again and, more significantly, age is affecting my body.
It was a watershed moment that broke through my complacency. It also made me reframe several other experiences and ideas from recent weeks.
But it wasn’t just about physical health
The year of mental health
(note: the following is very personal, mental health like physical health is complex. Take with large amounts of salt and speak to a trained professional if you need help).
This last year has been very difficult for me for a few reasons some of which I can’t divulge on the internet. When added to the usual work and family stresses (and noises — my daughter is currently in a neighbouring room blowing a whistle with much gusto), it’s affected my character for the worse.
I’d love to say I’ve been able to respond rationally and affectionately to every situation but in truth I’ve been reactive with an unpleasant tone far too often.
Honestly, if I carry on like this I will make my own life, and the ones of those around me, worse.
I need to look after myself so I can look after them.
The connection of physical and mental health
Physical and mental health work together.
While it’s possible to be ill mentally or physically and be well in the opposite field, it’s far more common for each to affect the other.
- Get a cold and your mood is likely to get worse.
- Look after your body and you’ll probably feel better about yourself.
So when one area is doing well, it’s far easier to help the other. And if you have a serious issue in one area, it’s worth helping the other.
That means that a lot of actions to help my physical health (eating better, exercising more) will help my mental health and some to help my mental health (socialising more) will help my physical health too.
One of the simplest tools I’ve found so far is a maxim I’ve taken on.
“Make the healthy choice”
I started using this simple phrase when I had my laptop revelation.
As I was thinking through some unhealthy habits (drinking too much coffee, eating certain junk foods) I had the thought “I want to make the health choice”, and it stuck around.
Now, when I’ve had a moment where I’ve been choosing between drinking a coke or having a cup of tea, I’ve gone for the tea. Or when I really wanted to take the kids to the cinema so I could rest rather than the nearby park, I went to the park as it was the “healthy choice”.
I’ve still indulged at times like Christmas and New Year, but those are exceptions rather than rules.
The first steps and the next ones
I still have bigger actions and project I need to address for my health, but this little saying and the idea of the year of health have already helped me change my lifestyle.
Taking on these bigger projects will be harder but the early rewards are giving me the motive to invest more.
Whatever your yearly theme is, I wish you the best of luck.
Live by the attention economy, die by the attention economy.
Attention is one of the most valuable resources around [ˆ1].
Tech giant compete for even more ways to grab our attention, and content creators now hire dedicated thumbnail creators to increase their click through rates and so ensure their profitability.
I’m sure you’ve experienced a moment, probably in the last week, maybe in the last day, where you felt your button’s being pushed. Something that either deliberately made you angry, or vague so it made you curious. If I’m honest, it’s something I think about all the time in the writing I do (although i’m trying not to fall into that trap sometimes). In fact, on my walk this morning I saw my local Indian restaurant is closing down…so it can move to a new bigger location. That sentence is a perfect example of this kind of “tension, release” type writing.
Sometimes it’s just plain clickbait, other times it’s not deceptive, but still manipulates your emotions — like my previous example.
This situation presents us all with a dilemma.
Do we use the one ring?
In the fellowship of the rings, the council of Elrond has a dilemma; use the one ring against Sauron, or not.
Knowing the end of the Lord of the Rings, it’s obvious they shouldn’t, but from their position, it’s not clear. It is a great weapon, filled with great power, it could help them defeat their enemy.
In the end, they have the wisdom to not use the weapon and destroy it.
In real life we rarely make this choice. Instead we decide that we are the noble and right ones, therefore it’s okay for US to use this power (but they are bad and evil and so it would be wrong for them to).
Going against this logic is naïve.
In many situations it means we lose and they win, and that can mean real suffering. However, the example of the one ring should remain with us. We can win but in fact lose. By using the ring, we can become the same thing we hate.
True wisdom involves knowing when it is right to compromise on some values for other ones; fake wisdom abandons all principles for power instantly.
So what about attention?
Respecting other people’s attention
What if we treated each others attention with respect? If we used some of the principles of being “attention grabbing” to be clear and informative without hijacking people’s focus.
In generally I think this means we should avoid inflammatory language and above all make people not feel tricked.
Don’t validate the attention mongers
Today I saw a thumbnail for a video of “essential” tools.
In the thumbnail there was a pair of AirPod Maxes.
I felt that inflammatory reaction and wanted to watch the video and leave an angry reply about how they couldn’t possibly “essential” and even headphones weren’t.
But I stopped (this time).
Thousands of others didn’t (judging by the views), but the more of us who resist, the better for the internet it will be.
[ˆ1]: Judging by current stock prices, perhaps compute power is the most valuable resource right now?
Finished reading: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 📚
Well argued, I still wonder what role economic anxiety has affected teens (via parents?) but social media and smart phones have definitely played their role. The actions seem reasonable, but politically difficult too.
Tsundoku, but for notebooks.
🎧 The Esau McCaulley Podcast - What is Bible Reading For? (Featuring Kevin Vanhoozer)
First of all, the Bible, unlike other books, is the Word of God. So God is addressing us, and that’s huge. […] All Christian readers are answerable to this divine address.
- Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer
Being the (blogging) change I want to see
I love Micro blog. I’m not sure why exactly, but it always feels like a nice place to go on the internet. I’ve met great people there whom I’ve then met in real life and exchanged gifts with. I’ve been challenged by different perspectives, and grown from people further along the path than I am.
It’s my favourite social network.
But I feel it’s changed over time[ˆ1] and I want to push against that.
A return to blogging
There’s nothing wrong with microblog post, but there’s something special about a blog post.
Someone taking the time to give a post a title transforms the fleeting thought into a codified idea takes time to create and consume properly. It’s so easy to gravitate to shorter, louder and reductive content that gives quicker rewards.
But when I spent time indulging in richer and longer content, I always feel the better for it.
So, I’m trying to be the change I want to see.
More blogs next year
For next year, I’m committing to share more longer form posts.
I’ve had several posts in the back burner or half drafted, this year I’m going to do better at finishing things off (or not let a technical issue stop me from publishing!).
I don’t know exactly what these posts will be on, but we’ll see.
Just longer blogs?
Nope, I also want to share more links of great content that I’ve found as well.
It was something I did a lot in the early days of Micro.Blog but I fell out of the habit of doing.
Burning the Ships
A final change I’m making is closing down a couple of old sites.
I had a personal site which I started more than 12 years ago. It started as very general thoughts, became street photography focused and now lies neglected (but still makes some Amazon affiliate link money).
So I’m merging it with my micro.blog account.
Hello 2025
I’m sure some plans will change in 2025, but these are my current plans.
I can’t wait to see what you share too.
[ˆ1]: This is 100% subjective. I’m aware of evidence against this including the name of the site.
So I have a drone...(yes, I have pictures and a video)
When I was a kid, I would go to the model shop every month or two. I looked at the remote control cars, planes and helicopters with great envy and usually came home with only a humble model plane to my name.
So when drones first became mass market, It felt like my childhood dream was finally within reach. And yet I waited. I didn’t have masses of disposable income and when an opportunity to get one did come up, there was always a better thing to buy.
Until this winter. Now, thanks to some vouchers for performance from work and the benefits of a tax write off combined with Black Friday sales I am the owner of a DJI Mini 4k, the cheapest drone around.
The Mini 4k
Why this drone? Well, it’s simple.
I know and trust the DJI brand (not perfect, but good enough).
I did wonder about their even cheaper NEO which has some pros (can be used without a remote, cheaper to start with, can do FPV too) but some big downsides too. The phone and handsfree modes have very limited distance, and when you add a remote, it’s more than the mini 4k.
So I went for the mini 4k without the fly more combo (mistake! I already want more batteries so i can have longer flights. I’m also envious of the mini 3 which can do vertical video and you can get a remote with a screen built in).
But even with the benefit of hindsight, I think this was probably the best decision I could have made with the information I knew at the time.
You could have told me all the points I’d made but it would probably have made me not get anything. So here are a few things I wish I had considered before getting my drone.
Get a micro SD card and a landing/launch pad
I had an old Micro SD card from back when I had an android phone (Yes, it’s been a while!) but I soon found problems. The write speed of those old cards just isn’t enough for 4k video.
Luckily, getting a 4x larger card with a faster write speed costs 10X less than what I paid back then! Still, I wish I had ordered one when I got the drone.
Similarly, I didn’t know about what you need/should have to launch and land a drone. While you can in theory launch from any old surface, it’s not a good idea and drones certainly don’t want to land on uneven dirt.
Enter a landing pad! A flat and bright surface to help launch and land your drone.
Most of my early expeditions have been at urban and concreted locations so I haven’t NEEDED a landing pad, I’m still planning to get one for more grassy launches.
Will the novelty wear off
Yes, I’m sure it will.
Novelty ALWAYS wears off, but sometimes function, enjoyment and satisfaction fill its place. I’m hoping that will be the case here but I’m aware that it will most likely become like my photography hobby — something I indulge occasionally but don’t regularly pursue.
Still, for the moment I’m enjoying the drone and it is making me look to go out more.
I think I’ve shared this idea before but I’d love micro.blog to let me switch between a feed with everything, a feed with just longer posts (and maybe a book only/photo only feed but I guess sunlit/epilogue cover those). I’d love macro blogs to be more discoverable.
I didn’t share the last image for sketchy adventh so here’s week three and four together (I’m proud of both). I’ve got one more for Christmas morning ready to drop!
I’ve used a logi lift almost non stop for at least a year. But this week I’ve been back to the Magic Mouse as my logi battery is running low, and it’s been better than I remembered. I haven’t felt the rsi issues I had in the past and the ability to sideways scroll easily is great. BUT I really hate the random jumps between spaces.
Taking the kids to the Kraków garden of lights. This year’s theme is „mini world” and my favourites part is that America is definitelyed by burgers and fries. (There were other things…but it still rings true). We’ve been about four years now and I think this was the best.
Colleague at work did what I can only call a power play on me. It’s very frustrating as she has caused the same issue she really hates when working with me and if she’d followed the process we should have done, it wouldn’t have been an issue.
📹 The Best and Worst Camera Gear of 2024 - Peta Pixels Jordan and Chris I’m not as into photography and don’t follow reviews at all, but I will always watch this end of the year review with drinking games.
I’ve got some Audible credits, are there any books you recommend as audiobooks? (fiction, non-fiction I don’t mind. I also wouldn’t mind a scifi series but I never know what book to start with).