Fire and Knowledge

I’m curious how other people track the projects they are working on. I usually have about 50 or so projects I’m tracking at any one time, and I use a combination of a paper daily task list, spreadsheets, basecamp, and a task management application (Things).

How ’bout you?

Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service. They form tighter clusters on the network—they follow one another more readily, they retweet each other more often, and more of their posts are @-replies—posts directed at other users. It’s this behavior, intentional or not, that gives black people—and in particular, black teenagers—the means to dominate the conversation on Twitter.

—Farhad Manjoo, “How Black People Use Twitter”

(via Abraham)

Sharpie’s new “liquid pencil” is a fantastic idea. They made a pen of liquid graphite which erases like a pencil but dries permanently in three days. The best of both worlds!

For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I’m conservative. We disagree…But I don’t need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

—Rep. Bob Inglis, a conservative Republican who lost to a tea party candidate

I’m with Mayor Bloomberg on the whole mosque-in-NYC thing:

Mayor Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and 10 religious leaders of various faiths journeyed to Governors Island this afternoon to show their support for the proposed mosque and community center near the World Trade Center site.

[Bloomberg said:] “This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.”

This is America. We believe in freedom of religion. It means pastors can turn a shopping mall or stadium into a megachurch. It means Mormons can knock on doors. It means you can believe in one god or three or three thousands or none.

And it means someone can build a Mosque in NYC near the trade center site.

Get over it, people. Otherwise your religion might be next.

I found these two sentences in an email reply, and I think it’s a great example of how not to write:

Your concern has been forwarded to the proper unit for handling. A department officer should contact you at their earliest convenience to provide additional feedback.

Yikes.

This is a pretty big difference:

77% of iPhone owners say they’ll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they’ll buy another Android phone.

W. Clement Stone, who built an insurance empire worth hundreds of millions dollars, would make all his employees recite the phrase, “Do it now!” again and again at the start of each workday. Whenever you feel the tendency towards laziness taking over and you remember something you should be doing, stop and say out loud, “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” I often set this text as my screen saver. There is a tremendous cost in putting things off because you will mentally revisit them again and again, which can add up to an enormous amount of wasted time. Thinking and planning are important, but action is far more important. You don’t get paid for your thoughts and plans — you only get paid for your results. When in doubt, act boldly, as if it were impossible to fail. In essence, it is.

—Steve Pavlina