Welcome to this week's [evening] edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee, find a comfortable place, and relax.
Photo: Paul Stamatiou
Made on an iPad Pro »
Paul "Stammy" Stamatiou wrote an in-depth review of the 12.9" iPad Pro as a laptop replacement in his work and day-to-day life, from writing and publishing to photo editing to file management and more:
Against my better judgement, I decided to give tablets one more chance. On the last day of a vacation that started in Rwanda and ended in the UK, I walked into the Regent Street Apple Store in London and purchased a 12.9" iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard.
That was a few months ago. A few months in which my 13" MacBook Pro has not even been powered up once. Any new gadget novelty has long since worn off and I’m still loving and using this iPad Pro daily.
What changed this time around?
In typical fashion, he's loaded this article with fantastic photos. And as a longtime iPad-only user myself, even I learned a new trick for invoking Split View (bold emphasis mine):
If the app you want isn't in the Dock and you have a keyboard connected, you can also type Command + Space to open up Spotlight, search for the app and then drag it down.
Now I have an actual reason to use Spotlight on iOS ?
15 Years Ago, I Went Indie and Didn’t Know It »
Max Seelemann, co-creator of the Ulysses writing app — which is so good we made a course for it — is celebrating his company's 15th anniversary and decided to share the story of how it came to be what it is today:
When thinking back, what strikes me the most is how I never planned to become who I am now. I’d attribute most of my path to a privileged childhood, coincidence, timing, dedication, perseverance and a portion of luck. In hindsight, one could think that I carefully planned the consecutive steps towards a goal. But I never had that big a vision for what I wanted to become, where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do “later in life”. Instead, lazy as I am, life just played out step by step.
What strikes me is that he started this project when he was 16 years old:
During the first years, I would make sure nobody would see my age. I was 16. What sane [person] would base her/his professional writing life on a tool hacked together by a kid? Maybe that doesn’t make sense, but it was a real concern for me.
+ As it happens, our pal Stephen Hackett is celebrating three years of being indie. Kudos to him, Myke, and everyone else at Relay FM for what they're doing over there.
Endings: The Good, the Bad, and the Insanely Great »
Screenwriter Michael Arndt — known for writing films like Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens — produced a fantastic video essay on how to end a film. It clocks in at an hour-and-a-half long and is full of screenwriting wisdom, so save it for late-night watching this weekend. Thankfully, this page where the video is embedded has timestamps for the various sections in it.
He also has a (https://vimeo.com/237921575), though that one is only 8 minutes long:
(Apologies for neither of these embeds working on T&T — there's unfortunately nothing I can do about the setting they've used, which prevents it.)
Less, More, and None »
I love the minimal design of the personal website of Hawaiian elementary schoolteacher Jacoby Young, where he keeps a handful of running lists and things he's currently about. If you follow my Linkage columns closely at all, you'll know this sort of "old-school blogging" thing is right in my wheelhouse.
Anyway, one list that isn't listed on the lists page (ha) is "Less, More, and None", which...er, lists things he wants to do less often, more often, or not at all. I like this idea a lot and think it'd be a useful exercise for anyone.
Photo: Fran Caballero, The New York Times
Why You Can’t Really Trust Negative Online Reviews »
In this piece for The New York Times, Caroline Beaton reveals some fascinating data on user reviews and the motivations behind them:
What’s more, reviews are often capricious and circumstantial. For example, the sentiment of travelers’ reviews hinges on their companionship. A study published last fall in Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, looking at 125,076 online reviews, found that people traveling with significant others wrote the most positive reviews, followed by those traveling with friends or family. Reviewers traveling alone or for business were the most negative. Our experiences change depending on our expectations, travel expertise and who we’re with.
Useful to think about next time you're checking Yelp or Amazon.
Photo: Dan Gold
To Cure Affluenza, We Have to Be Satisfied with the Stuff We Already Own »
Helpful reminder by Richard Denniss at The Guardian (bold emphasis mine):
But the love of buying things can, by definition, provide only a transient sense of satisfaction. The feeling can be lengthened by the “thrill of the chase”, and may include an afterglow that includes walking down the street with a new purchase in a branded carry bag. It might even extend to the moment when you get to show your purchase to your friends and family.
But the benefits of consumerism are inevitably short-lived as they are linked to the process of the purchase, not the use of the product. So while consumerism is the love of buying things, materialism is the love of the things themselves – and that’s an important distinction.
Neat Stuff We Published This Week
- Guide: "Four Fun Cookbooks"
- Be the airport terminal hero: Cable Matters 4-Outlet Power Splitter Cord (2-Pack)
- Get better sleep: Alaska Bear Natural Silk Sleep Mask & Blindfold
- Toss your old screwdriver: Wera “Kraftform Kompakt 27 RA” Ratcheting Screwdriver
- ...and get this
mankid ashieldweapon: Nature Launchers Hand-Carved Animal-Themed Slingshots
Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.