I mean, who doesn’t love a fancy new app?
I mean, isn’t that what so much of the industry invests its resources to? Creating something that looks incredible and feels like it adds some kind of value too your life?
So often, the value is a verified distraction. The value is in the mood boost you get when you don’t have to pay attention to whatever is bothering you, even if it’s just for a moment. You don’t need to grind through doing the work if you spend more time planning the work in a new, fancy app.
The illusion of productivity, brought to you by productivity apps.
Watching The Con Queen of Hollywood and there is a scene where the investigator notes that the con artist kept notes and tabs on his cons, which sometimes involved dozens of people at the same time, in draft emails in his (yes, the Queen was a guy after all) Gmail account.
No external app, no CRM, not even a notebook. Drafts, in Gmail. I want this to be full of holes, but this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. The high-profile affair between Petraeus (former CIA director) and Broadwell left messages for each other in the drafts of a shared Gmail account. The idea being, I guess, is that if the messages didn’t go through a server, they wouldn’t be…traceable? hackable? admissible in court?
Since we know about it today, you can only imagine how well it worked out.
When I first set out to slash the number of apps I use to manage all the silly aspects of my life, my goal was simple: less inboxes meant less noise meant a better headspace. As time progressed and circumstances changed, the goal of this project has evolved in kind. In addition to simplifying my life, I want this project to:
- Reaffirm and shore up my values by only using applications, tech, and methods that work with my personal ideologies. The recent big-money donations to the trump inauguration funds mean I need to exclude OpenAI, Meta, and Amazon (we ended our Prime membership after the local Whole Foods left the community in a bit of a lurch after Hurricane Helene, and just yesterday I closed out the entirety of my Amazon account).
- Focus on privacy and security. And yes, I recognize there is a bit of irony with this coming from someone who is keeping a personal, old school blog.
- Emphasize offline and decentralized methods. Offline was an original key goal to this project – I didn’t want to rely wholly on digital means to appreciate things in my life. As decentralized and open source applications get more attention, there is now the opportunity to use the technology without having to sign into a monopolistic venture.
A few minor successes:
- Amazon is gone. Finally. Now, acquiring consumables is a more involved process – which only seems inconvenient. Buying things online is now an open process that brings me to all manner of storefronts – of which many have more, better product at a cheaper cost. Two day shipping hasn’t been a promise kept to my address in a long while, particularly since the hurricane.
- Dumbphoning – sort of. A year ago I picked up a BOOX Palma – an e-ink reader that isn’t tied to Amazon. Back then I wanted something that would talk to ALL of my ereading apps, PDFs, and other nonsense – but I didn’t want to read on my phone (the glare, the distractions, you get it). The Palma did the trick. Light enough to go anywhere, clear screen, all the books I could ever possibly shake all of the sticks at. Plus, Google docs (and all other Android Apps) work on it, so I have a place to cut and paste passages worth remembering.
Persistent Challenges
- My ADHD proves to be a problem time and again. I’m great at writing things down and never doing anything with them. I’m terrible at going back over notes. I think I need something to re-percolate things I’ve taken down but haven’t done anything with.
- Google. Where to stand with it? They are long-past the whole “Don’t Be Evil” thing, which was removed from its culture documents ages ago. Just by the size of the company they have to be evil. But…it all works so damn well. Google leadership, which is facing an ongoing antitrust suit, says they have faith in the justice system, but you also know they will be taking full advantage of the incoming administration. My issue is with the data – what are they keeping, what are they selling, and how can I keep my accounts under complete control?
- The Google challenge feeds right into my “dumbphone” challenge. As I’ve moved around and travel a lot more, my sense of direction isn’t quite what it used to be. I, like everyone else, use navigation anytime I’m going anywhere new. What’s my option? Ask someone for directions (so they can pull out their own Google Maps and show me where to go?)
- No one knows how to get anywhere anymore.