There’s more types of graph paper than I realized existed, free to download, at Incompetech.com.
I already knew polar graphs existed, but it’s nice to find a place to download those. Polar graph paper isn’t typically stocked at your local office supply store.
Also, there’s accounting ledgers, and paper for writing music too.
It’s a very handy site.
I listen to some small business and entrepreneur podcasts. One of the phrases I frequently hear is “slow down to speed up.”
I’ll be honest, I typically hear that right before the host explains why they fought that idea when they first heard it, before having to learn it the hard way. And by “hard way,” I mean by repeated painful experience. Anyway, I’ll get back on topic.
Slowing down to speed up also applies to writing. I used to wonder why there were so many different types of notebooks and stationery. For that matter, why were there so many different types of accounting ledger books?
In both cases, writing something down and then rewriting it somewhere else in a different way helps focus the mind.
For writing, I’ve seen guidelines which say there is a creative mode which runs fast and often a bit too free, then there is the editing mode. These are different parts of the brain, and trying to switch in and out of editing mode while ostensibly being in creating mode doesn’t work that well.
I’ve tried that with writing and it does work. I’m still not fully in the habit. But each time I get a little bit better are remembering to let it flow first and then go back and correct later.
I’m also finding it helps to do that with money. I don’t write down every cent of every transaction, but I’m starting to create a list of regular expenses, pulling the information from multiple other places it’s recorded. And it is helping me focus on what I want to keep and what I’m fine letting go.
Technology has created so many time-saving services, it’s erased the friction which used to exist. So we all, myself included, want to let the apps and programs and whatever do it all for us. When we do that, we convince ourselves we’re going faster and faster. But we’re planning and considering less and less.
A re-read and rewriting of a good idea is better than writing it hurriedly fifteen times. And it will be fifteen times because we’re moving so fast we forgot what we already wrote.
An inventory and accounting of what classes and guides and books have already been purchased is better than purchasing more variations of the same thing. But it’s faster and feels faster to just buy more of what has already been purchases.
Slowing down to go faster is a real thing.
Yes, I know I just wrote a post on not buying things I don’t need.
In case I ever need this, I’m going to write it about it here.
The original article I found is “ReMarkable emits Type Folio keyboard cover for e-paper tablet”, by Liam Proven in The Register, dated March 16 2023.
I’ve seen articles about tinkerers buying or repurposing e-paper displays (I think I’ve also seen them called e-ink displays) for their projects. This article describes some of the first commercially produced items I’ve seen with e-paper displays. There are several mentioned. If I ever get one I’ll probably go with reMarkable, but I’d have to be writing a lot more than I currently do before I could justify the cost.
Digging around I found another article on The Register by that same author on writing tools. I agree that the biggest obstacle to writing on most tablets is the lack of a keyboard. The articles are “Where are all the decent handheld scribbling tools?” Part 1 and Part 2, dated November 10 2011.
I heard the term Tool Acquisition Syndrome on some welding or woodworking podcast. It’s witty and descriptive. “Shiny Object Syndrome” is a similar term I’ve heard in entrepreneur and small business podcasts.
Both terms describe the tendency to buy more tools. Usually this ends up delaying a project: the tool must be bought, arrive, be unpacked, the manual read, and so on.
I’ve found one of the counters to TAS is to look through all the things which can be done by the tools I already own. Many electronic devices can do a surprising number of things.
Once in a great while there will be a great sale on a tool I don’t actually need. I’ve purchased some really interesting tools that way. But generally, I don’t need to buy new tools, I already have what I need.
I’ve recently been helping a friend organize some files from a series of backup drives and thumb drives.
I’m finding several zipped file folders. I’m often looking into the contents of those zipped file folders.
I’ve found that while I can’t paste anything into the zipped file folder while it’s still zipped and compressed, I can delete files and folders out of those zipped file folders. I can do that while the folder is still zipped.
My friend thinks the “zip files” are a sacrosanct golden standard. I’ll explain to them that they’re not.
Last week I wrote about human-machine interfaces and how difficult it is to make an interface which is intuitive to use.
One of the promises of modern software, smart devices, and development, and software frameworks is how much easier it will make things.
But does it really?
One examples I run into a few times a year is a scoring program for a kids’ competition. The competition is archery, there are multiple age brackets, types of bow, and clubs. Each round generates anywhere from 20 to 40 scores per competitor who competed that round. There are two software programs I’ve heard of which are written to keep track of all this for competitors (and more importantly, competitors’ parents and coaches).
One program is an Excel spreadsheet with a bit of macros and VBA programming. The other is a tablet-based app.
The tablet-based program is “simpler” and “easier” and its fans describe it as simpler and easier. I have not looked at it closely, but questioning people who have used it or been present at matches where it has been used, I’ve found out a bit about how it works. The tablet-based app won’t work without an internet connection. So some major part of it’s functioning does not take place on the tablets.
An internet connection with multiple devices requires a router. All routers have a finite amount of connections they can handle at one time. How the router handles more devices talking to it than it has channels to talk depends on the router and the devices.
In addition, because the tablet-based app is “simpler” and “easier,” and unspoken is the always present belief that technology is magic and always makes things better, paper scorecards are not used. Score are entered on the tablets. I don’t know the exact interface for the competitor to confirm yes, that is their score. But I have heard from multiple parents and coaches that scores can be lost if a judge or competitor presses the wrong button on the screen. I’ve even heard that multiple competitors’ scores can be lost if a wrong button is pressed on the screen.
Assuming all goes well, the score will be sent to wherever it is processed. Entered scores can be accessed via the internet with anyone with an internet connection. So people present at the match can look up scores on their smart phone.
Now I will discuss the old, difficult, outdated Excel spreadsheet method. Scores are written down by judges on paper scoresheets. The competitors get to see their scores and agree to them before the scores are sent to the scorekeeper.
The scorekeeper must have a Windows PC with Microsoft Excel running on it. The scores are entered by hand. The Excel spreadsheet does have an option to compute what has been entered. When it does so, it creates a page in the spreadsheet which is formatted to be printed on 8-1/2″ x 11″ inch paper. The paper gets posted when a new copy with new scores is printed.
If Microsoft Excel is running locally on the Windows PC, then no internet connection is required. It is not possible to lose all scores for a competitors’ round by hitting the wrong button on a screen; the paper scorecard still exists, regardless of how many buttons are pressed on which screens.
A parent in this sport told me their club started telling competitors to keep their own copies of their scores. They said this at matches where the newer, simpler tablet-based app was being used. They said this because there were so many problems with the tablet-based app losing scores. And once a score was lost, it was unrecoverable because there was no paper copy.
Technology is not magic. “There’s an app for that” is not the answer to everything. The easy way is usually mined.
I get hardly any comments on this blog. There was one when I first started about seven months ago offering to help me set up WordPress sites.
But occasionally I get comments which appear to be gibberish, or encrypted text. I’m not sure which. The email addresses are always in Outlook. The user name is gibberish. The other user information (besides the email address) is gibberish. The comment itself is gibberish.
It’s very odd.
Humans do not think like machines. Machines do not process information like humans.
Which is obvious, yet the results are often not considered.
Making a machine interface that is intuitive to humans is really difficult. Presenting complex information in way that is easy for humans to read is really difficult. Here are some of the things which have to be considered:
Those issues are things I came up with just thinking about it as I’m writing this. There were and still are whole entire disciplines and professions devoted to this.
When I find something which is intuitive to use, whether it’s gas pump prices, a website, or the dashboard of a car, I try to stop and admire what was achieved. I also try to see what I might learn. If there’s a lot of information shown in an intuitive and easy-to-understand manner, someone put a lot of work into that.