I remember the days of paying $300 for a piece of software. That $300 was a one-time fee, and you’d get even get a real box and CD-ROM. That piece of software might generate a decade of utility before it’s worthless. Software updates would be frequent. And now, most of the services I use are subscription-based. I pay for them monthly or yearly at a discount. The only exception is my beloved Omnifocus, though I do pay for an upgrade every 5 years (my back of the envelope calculations say that I’ve paid a dollar or two per month for this life changing app).

+++ title = “01” date = 2019 +++ I used to love movie trailers as a kid. So much that I’d be upset if I was late and missed even one of them. There was something magical to me about the telling of these mini-stories. I loved following up by seeing the movie advertised and would get excited when I’d notice a scene from the trailer and how it fit into the film.

While my wife and I were expecting our first child, I often asked a question to parents that I would meet: what is one thing you wish had been told before the birth of your child, and one thing that you were told very often that didn’t end up true for you? The answers were interesting and definitely will be the subject of an upcoming video or post, but I’m now being asked by the same people what I would say if I was giving advice to expecting parents.

I read about a radical idea a couple years ago. At least it was radical to me. I was researching procrastination because I felt like I wasn’t getting enough done despite having quite a few hours in the day to do things. I felt like I was wasting time but couldn’t quite figure out where the time was going. Like all the missing socks eaten by the washer. I started to track my time in the same way a dieter tracks calories.

Conversation. Next time you’re talking to a friend, be aware of metaphors in conversation. Even if they’re cliches. Throw the baby out with the bath water for instance. I remember a friend of mine once saying “I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn.” Advertising. If you see an ad on the subway with copy (words), those words were carefully chosen, revised, chopped up, and re-ordered. The only thing that separates this from poetry is that the words are used to sell.