The forgotten manuals

General life lesson: If everyone else is doing Thing A, there's probably an advantage to be gained doing something other than Thing A.

I’ve seen at least one study [PDF] that shows that we’re reading significantly more thanks to the internet, and we’re spending a lot more time doing it. That's not to say we're consuming better information; we're just consuming more of it.

In this case, Thing A represents reading current web-based words. It’s never been more important for you to think about what you’re reading.

For the last couple of years or so, I’ve tried to follow a very rough rule of thumb: for every minute I spend reading current, web-based content, I’d like to spend at least a minute reading book-bound content (incidentally, mostly stuff written before the 1960s). It’s not something I’m completely successful at. I don't even track it. I just think it’s a useful awareness-oriented goal.

Great writers who lived before the internet could afford to take longer to get to the point. They weren’t restricted by arbitrary character count limitations—implicit or explicit.

And they were forced to paint pictures in words alone. As such, they reached descriptive depths rarely seen online. And from those depths emerge characters that teach us more about ourselves than we could learn in any other medium.

Understanding people—the fundamental ingredient in any personal or professional pursuit—is probably the most practical knowledge you can have. And there's probably no better place to read detailed descriptions of people than fictional stores.

Anne Kreamer writes about several studies that build a business case for reading novels.

For instance, in fMRI studies of people reading fiction, neuroscientists detect activity in the pre-frontal cortex — a part of the brain involved with setting goals — when the participants read about characters setting a new goal. It turns out that when Henry James, more than a century ago, defended the value of fiction by saying that “a novel is a direct impression of life,” he was more right than he knew.

She also recommends several books. If I had to recommend one, it would be The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky lived more than 100 years ago, but he knew the same people we know.

Gesundheit

Graeme Wood ponders what might come of us:

Most humans who have ever lived have died in conditions almost exactly like the ones into which they were born, and without written history had no way to grasp that the future might be different at all. Only now have we gained the scientific knowledge necessary to appreciate how exactly how deep a rabbit-hole the future really is: not just long enough to see empires rise and crumble, but long enough to make all human history so far seem like a sneeze of the gods.

Fantastic article. I found it via Justin Blanton, a guy whose site, Hypertext, has a comfy seat in my RSS Favorites folder.

Pinboard: the cement in my 'read later' workflow

One of the greatest benefits of writing PE is learning about new things from readers. Pinboard is a great example of such a thing. A while back, I wrote a post on how to deal with “read later links” that you get by email. Michael, one of the commenters on that post, mentioned that he was using Pinboard to keep up with his Instapaper articles. I was intrigued, so I grabbed a Pinboard account myself.

In hindsight, jumping on the Pinboard bandwagon was smart for at least two reasons:

  1. Pinboard’s one-time cost goes up a tad every time someone new signs up
  2. Pinboard is awesome

How I’m using Pinboard

For me, Pinboard is beautifully boring. It’s a no-nonsense, just-works means of bookmarking almost every article that makes some sort of impression on me.  Any article or site that I’ve had some interest in reading in the past and may want to revisit in the future resides in Pinboard as a bookmark.

These bookmarks arrive in my Pinboard account through three primary channels:

  • Instapaper
  • Links I share on Twitter
  • The Pinboard browser bookmarklet

Instapaper + Pinboard

I rarely read full articles in my RSS reader. Instead, I usually look at headlines, teasers, or skim. If an article looks interesting, I send it to Instapaper, the final destination for just about everything I want read on the web.

Pinboard is the ultimate cement in my “read later” workflow. It keeps track of every article I send to Instapaper. This lets me happily archive things in Instapaper with the assurance that I can easily find the article again in the future using a simple Pinboard search.

You can make Pinboard watch your Instapaper Read Later folder (or any folder) by copying the folder’s RSS link into the Instapaper feed URL field in the Pinboard settings:

Where does one find this URL, you ask? Look for “folder tools” on the right side of the page when you’re signed into Instapaper:

Twitter + Pinboard

Well crap. What was that link I shared on Twitter the other day? Something to do with keyboard shortcuts or something. Let me scroll through my timeline to find it.

Been there? I sure have. But I'm not going back. Pinboard collects every link I share on Twitter, tags them "from twitter," and makes them searchable. It will do the same for you if you tell it to in your Pinboard account settings:

The Pinboard browser bookmarklet

Pinboard offers lots of bookmarklets on their “howto” page. These special bookmarks give you a lot of flexibility for bookmarking pages you encounter in your browser.

I keep a Send To folder on my Safari bookmark bar for bookmarklets:

I use the Pinboard Popup bookmarklet a lot. When clicked, it launches a window that lets me edit the bookmark title, add a description, and add tags.

Tip: If you select text on a web page before clicking the popup bookmarklet, it will save the highlighted text in the description. Useful.

Both the bookmark title and description text are searchable in Pinboard.

Other Pinboard features

There’s much, much more to Pinboard than what I’ve described in this post. I only hit the highlights of how I use it.

If you’re looking for a better way to socially (or antisocially) bookmark web pages or want an alternative to certain other bookmarking services with less-than-certain futures, Pinboard is worth every cent.

How to read stuff you hate

Maybe you’re a student that’s been sentenced to read a book you can’t stand. Maybe you’re a lawyer who’s had to read some mind-numbing document for a case. Perhaps you’ve had to digest prodigious pages of mice type in a medical insurance policy. Whoever you are, at some point you’ve probably had to break through a thick wall of tortuous text to achieve something worthwhile.

As an actuary, I’ve had quite a bit of practice at this. Not only do I read things boring enough to tranquilize a rutting elephant for my day job, I also instruct actuarial exams on the side. The syllabi of these exams can easily span a few thousand pages of non-recreational reading.

Don’t get me wrong. I like being a synthesizer of complicated information. It’s just something I’m built to do. Best part: getting past through thick walls leads me to the rewards on the other side.

But one thing I’ve learned is this: I can’t simply read a 100-page technical PDF and remember it. The process has to be active and finger-involved. Reading technical literature passively is a colossal waste of time.

So, I outline. But outlining is too boring a term. I prefer to think of it as reversing the final stages of an animal carcass’s return to nature. That sounds gross and makes no sense at all right now, but it will if you keep reading.

I’m going to talk about my outline process and some nice tools for getting it done.

My outline process

Step 1: Make some bones

If your document has a table of contents, rejoice. TOCs are your bestest of BFFs. Use them to establish the skeleton of your outline.

Simply writing or typing out a TOC is also a super easy, low-brain power activity that gets your productivity engine humming. It creates the instant perception of progress. Getting started, after all, is often the hardest part.

If there is no TOC, fret not. Skim the whole document at light speed. Look for headings, bold text, first sentences, anything that can serve as a mile marker. Put that stuff into an outline. Go quickly, though. Don’t make it hard.

Step 2: Look at the bones

Step back, and look at your skeletal creature. Take it in. What do you see? Structure, concept, order, and form are all good answers.

These bones are a road map that will keep you much more oriented throughout the reading/outlining process than if you just dive in and start mindlessly making bullets from the first paragraph.

Remember: You aren't reading this stuff for "fun." Don't worry about spoiling the ending. With technical documents, it's much, much better to know how, why, and where you're going before you get there.

You’ll probably also notice that perhaps the first twenty pages are just a summary. It might be best to just skim those pages instead of outlining them. Save your fingers for later.

Step 3: Put meat on the bones

Once your outline is established, life is immediately easier. Instead of having to slay one massive beast, now you just to have to dispatch a bunch of little beasts. A 100-page document is only five 20-page pieces after all. Your outline puts this fact much more in focus.

Now, just schedule the dispatching. Come up with a reasonable number of pages to process today, then tomorrow.

As you read, jot down keywords and phrases. Routinely step back and look at the big picture. This helps you remember the view from the hot air balloon above as you hack through the brambles below – a critical aspect of learning things from boring text.

Make your outline unimportant from the start

This sounds weird, I know. But it’s important. I mean, it’s unimportant. Er…

Don’t make your outline pretty. Odds are, you’ll never bring this creature fully to life. If you do want to make it into something more presentable later, that’s great. But first and foremost, your outline is just grease to get you moving and processing. Allow it to be imperfect.

My main outlining tools

Plain text outlining

Notational Velocity is my favorite plain text writing tool. No shock there if you’ve read this blog for any length of time. Notational Velocity works well because there’s no friction between needing to write and writing. Sometimes I also create separate notes (as individual text files) in Notational Velocity for sections of larger documents.

Markdown syntax is very useful for making quick plain text outlines. A bullet is simply an asterisk. Indents create sub-bullets.

Topic

* Bullet 1
* Bullet 2
    * Sub-bullet

Most of the time, my ad hoc outlines stay in plain text.

Meatier stuff

For larger outlines, I highly recommend OmniOutliner. It’s fantastic for outlining large technical PDFs and books. What I love most about OmniOutliner is that I can quickly expand and collapse sections. This lets me zoom in and out of my outline with regularity and ease. I can also use checkboxes to mark off main sections as I complete them.

Mind mapping

Mind maps are an excellent way to outline things, particularly when the destination is unknown and the path to that destination isn’t straight. As such, I don’t normally use mind maps to outline technical literature, which is typically quite linear and hierarchal. If you like the form and feel of mind maps, they may be a good choice for you, however.

Other creative ways to outline

  • Use Preview on your Mac to highlight parts of documents. You can see a list of all your annotations in the sidebar at any time.

  • Reading a larger book? Use an e-reader to make highlights. Kindle even lets you access your highlights online at https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights.
  • Use GoodReader on your iPad to highlight and markup text as you read. I find that I can often make more progress reading on my iPad than my Mac. GoodReader also allows me to save PDF changes to Dropbox, so I can get to my PDF anywhere.
  • iAnnotate is another great iPad app for working with PDF. Like GoodReader, iAnnotate lets you do all sorts of annotations. You can even email highlighted sections to yourself. I’ve used this as the basis for starting an outline, and it works well.

Have fun

Find a way to make a boring thing less boring and more engaging. I actually get a kick out of using great Mac tools like OmniOutliner to get things done that would be miserably boring otherwise.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying the process of using well-made tools to achieve progress. Figure out what it takes to get yourself moving forward, and do it often.

Everything I know about Instapaper [updated]

Note: This article has become somewhat outdated, though many of the tips and tricks below still work. For a more recent overview of Instapaper, see my Macworld article "The Expert's Guide to Instapaper."

* * *

Each time I think about how I read the web before Instapaper, I vomit a little bit. I actually used to stop what I was doing all the time to read things an inopportune times.  I also missed a lot of great articles because I didn’t have the time to read them – and no practical way to save them.

But that was yesterday, before I figured out how to turn the colorful, noisy web to calming shades of black and gray.

Now, virtually all of the (interesting) URL droplets that rain steadily on my attention during the day flow through various workflow aqueducts – some wide, some narrow – but they ultimately funnel into a common Read Later reservoir: Instapaper.

I hear people rave about Instapaper all the time, but I rarely see them expound on their affection in any detail. This post is pretty much the most thorough thought dump of how Instapaper works for me in 5 categories:

  1. Uses for Instapaper folders
  2. Instapaper search
  3. Getting information into Instapaper
  4. Miscellaneous Instapaper extras online
  5. iOS Instapaper app options and tips

At the end, I wrap things up with my wish list for future Instapaper features.

1. Uses for Instapaper folders

By default, a new Instapaper account only has two folders: Unread and Archive, but you can add more. Here are some reasons you might want to:

  • Use folders as parking places for content you want to blog, reference, or do other stuff with later. For example, if I read something I might want to reference here on PE, I move it to a PE folder. I’ve also used folders to store Cliffs Notes pages. You could also a add folder like “To Evernote” for stuff you want to clip up later. Instapaper folders offer a nearly effortless way to corral information for later use.
  • Create an RSS feed for any folder, even starred items. Subscribe to it in Google Reader, or publish the feed somewhere for others to view. For example, if you want to share every article about Chilean birds you read, you can create a folder for that, then share the feed for that folder.
  • Add a folder for another Instapaper user’s Starred items. You must know their Instapaper username.
  • Create a “Videos” folder for video content that you’d rather watch at a full computer.
  • Create folders that denote the amount of reading time needed for each article (1min, 5min, 15min, etc. or just “Long” and “Short”).
  • Create folders for different genres of content (entertainment, technology, news, art).
  • You can edit and reorder folders by clicking “edit folders” under your folder list online.

2. Instapaper search

Instapaper doesn’t currently offer a way to search archived articles, but there are a couple of tricks I use:

  • Subscribe to your Unread folder’s RSS feed in Google Reader. You don’t necessarily have to read any of the articles in Google Reader, but you can use Google Reader to search the text of each article’s title. Google Reader keeps a long history of feed items.
  • Export your Instapaper articles as a CSV or HTML file. Search the file for keywords, then past the URL into your browser.

3. Getting information into Instapaper

  • The Read Later bookmarklet is the most well known way to save an article to Instapaper. It works in every browser worth a damn. The default Send To bookmarklet sends pages to your Unread folder, but you can also get one for any specific folder.
  • I keep a "Send To" folder the bookmarks toolbar of every browser I use. I keep all of my Instapaper bookmarklets (and others) in that folder.
  • If you use Google Reader, you can add Instapaper as a “send to” option. This is a quick way to move articles from Google Reader to Instapaper.
  • Many mobile apps offer an option for sending links to Instapaper. A few I use all the time are Reeder and Osfoora HD (a Twitter app). More often than not, I send articles to Instapaper rather than read them in the app where I caught them. Even Android users can use the “Hard Copy” app to save URLs to Instapaper. Typically in an app that supports Instapaper, all you have to do is tap and hold a link to see the option to send to Instapaper.
  • Add your unique Read Later Instapaper email address to your email contacts so you can forward links you receive through email straight to your Unread items. Don’t let links sit in email. Your Read Later address will look something like readlater.gobbledegook@instapaper.com, and it can be found under Instapaper Extras. Note: if you have the iOS app, see below for a quick way to add this address to your contacts without typing it.
  • Email links from from your iPhone or iPad when you encounter links in apps without an Instapaper option. Most apps support email. You can also email directly from Safari on your iOS device.
  • The subject line of the email you send to your Instapaper address will be the article title you see the next time you look at your Instapaper Unread folder. It’s totally editable too.
  • Add links to your Unread folder manually by clicking the “Add +” link near the top of your Instapaper page.

4. Miscellaneous Instapaper extras online

  • Use the text bookmarklet to instantly view any page in Instapaper format (does not save page to your Instapaper account). Aside: Readability is another cool (non-Instapaper) way to unclutter web pages.
  • Find great articles at givemesomethingtoread.com, a collection of the top articles bookmarked on Instapaper. Each article has its own Read Later button. Give Me Something to Read is a Tumblr site, so you can follow it there too.

5. iOS Instapaper app options and tips

  • Adjust font size and style in the reading view.
  • Adjust the brightness setting in the reading view. I usually go for the dimmest setting I can see comfortably – particularly if reading in a dark or dimly lit room.
  • You can create folders that watch specific RSS feeds. Just add a new folder in the iOS app, and you’ll see an option called “go to a specific site.” This is only available in iOS apps, not at Instapaper.com. [Update: This feature was removed in version 3.0.]
  • Define words by tapping and holding. The built-in dictionary is one of the most powerful but undersold features of the app, in my opinion.
  • Tap the share icon at the top of the page to send the article by email, post to Twitter, or Tumblr. You can also quote specific chunks of text on Tumblr directly from the Instapaper app. Just tap, hold, select text, and then tap share.
  • Install the Read Later bookmarkets in iOS safari. Go to the Instapaper app settings, and you’ll see instructions.
  • Quickly add your unique Instapaper email address to your iOS contacts by going to the Instapaper app Settings and tapping “Add Read Later by Email.”
  • Turn on pagination by tapping the page icon in the reading view. When pagination is on, you can flip through articles one page at a time (no scrolling). I find this useful for longer articles.
  • Adjust line spacing in the reading view settings.

The future of Instapaper

Instapaper is very popular right now. Its future is probably bright given that the founder of Instapaper, Marco Arment, recently left his position as lead developer of Tumblr to focus on Instapaper.

Here are a few wish list items I have for Instapaper:

  • Native archive search online and in the iOS app.
  • More support for direct RSS feeds. I think Instapaper could evolve into an RSS feed reader.
  • Add PDF support. PDF are very pesky in my “read later” workflow. If I could somehow “pin” them to my Unread folder in Instapaper, that would be huge.
  • Partner with popular magazines and newspapers to have content delivered in Instapaper format.

Let me know which Instapaper tips and tricks I missed.

Update: Thanks to Andy in the comments and David Sparks for pointing out the new Instapaper subscription service that I overlooked. For only $1 per month, you can support Instapaper. I have little doubt that good things will come to Instapaper subscribers.

Update 2: Instapaper 2.3 brings all kinds of new goodies.

Update 3: Instapaper 3.0 represents a brand new design. My favorite addition are the social features that make finding articles "liked" by friends super easy. Marco also removed the RSS feed option in this release.

To RSS hell and back

Really simple syndication (RSS) can get unsimple in a hurry. When you first discover RSS, it may feel as though you’ve been bestowed a gift from the cyber gods. RSS initially feels like a vessel that can take you from ignorance to the information promised land.

One day, however, you may look up to see that Charon is piloting your RSS ferry.

3 landmarks along the path to RSS hell

  1. Discovery. Wow, RSS is awesome! I’m going to subscribe to every page with an RSS icon, starting with the high-volume blogs and major news sites. Where has this been my whole life?!?!
  2. Delusion. Yikes, this is getting a little out of hand. I can’t figure out what to read first. I need to devise a sophisticated tagging taxonomy so that I can see my new content by category. Okay, sweet. These 49 tags will definitely help. Back in business!
  3. Hell. Tags aren’t working! I’m spending way too much time on this. I’m reading RSS all day. And if I miss a few days, my RSS reader explodes, and I’m in jail. And so many duplicates! Apple just surpassed Microsoft in market share 17 times in 12 different feeds. I can’t remember the last time I ate, slept. I feel gross. I have a kid?

Like any other tool on your belt, RSS should ideally be more of a blessing than a curse. If on average I hit my thumb 8 times out of 10 with my hammer, I’d probably look for a new way to drive nails.

But don’t worry. RSS can be very useful; it just takes a bit of focus and maturity to keep it in its place.

Tagged: blessing, curse

When it comes to tagging systems, the sky is the limit. That’s a huge part of the problem. Tags are simply medicine – they can help, but only if taken in the right quantities. Overdosing can be more harmful than not treating the problem at all.

I have a theory that we tend to abuse tags for the same reason we overuse any other digital “object.” It’s because there is absolutely no (ostensible) physical or financial incremental cost incurred when using them.

In the non-digital world (known to some as “IRL”), we tag objects too. They usually have sticky stuff on them (price tags, name tags, etc.). But using IRL tags requires physically doing something, often paying for something, and quantities are limited. Keyword: limited. Natural limits keep things in check offline.

When you are not IRL, limits only come from one place: you.

Being practically efficient with RSS

There are so many different tagging approaches you can take. And what works for one person may not work for another.

Me? I find that a tagging system that ranks frequency over content helps me use RSS the most efficiently. Knowing which feeds I can blow off when I’m busy really helps keep me focused – and it helps ensure that I get to see the stuff I most likely want to see.

The three main tags I use are:

  • shovel
  • favorites
  • research

Tag: shovel

Merlin Mann is the first person I heard coin the term “shovel blog.” I won’t call any out by name, but you know who they are: the blogs that pump out 30+ posts a day like it’s their job. Okay, it is their job, and that’s why they do it.

I only follow a handful of shovel blogs. Regardless of their genre, I tag them as “shovel.”

I find that my time is best used if I don’t check shovel blogs more than twice throughout the day. It’s better to just let my shovel tag accumulate unread items and then scan headlines at the end of the day.

In this way, I impose a limit on how often shovel blogs can invade my realm of focus. The shovel tag is like a reminder that my time is limited, and I can only read so much of them. The update frequency outweighs the genre’s importance.

Shovel is also the first place that I declare RSS bankruptcy if I need to. I’ve made peace with the fact that I will miss a lot of what lands in shovel. I am NOT going to try to read it all. But every now and then I do see an interesting headline, and for that, it’s worth my time to do quick scans.

Tag: favorites

Sites must satisfy two criteria to get tagged as a favorite.

  1. They mustn’t update more than twice a day on average.
  2. They must be interesting to me.

I enjoy going into my favorites the most. I know that I will find really interesting articles typically written by single-person blogs. With few exceptions, my favorites tend to be less newsy and more “thought” oriented.

Tag: research

I’m always researching something. It’s just what my DNA told my brain to tell my fingers to do on a regular basis. I use Google Alerts to carry out some of my web-based research. Google Alerts are basically saved Google searches that run constantly.

I have mine set up so that when they find pages matching the search, they put the pages into an RSS feed. All of my Google Alert RSS feeds are tagged “research.”

Research also tends to be a high-volume tag, and I certainly don’t attempt to read everything that goes in there. Rather, when I want to “check my nets,” I can quickly scan for useful content, then purge.

Other tags

I have a handful of other tags that I use for feeds that don’t quite make the “favorites” cut but aren’t high-volume either. These get reviewed on a less routine basis.

The moral of this RSS story

If you find that my RSS strategy is useful for your own purposes, that’s fantastic. But the main message I’m trying to get across is this:

It’s well worth spending some time thinking about your RSS habits. Develop an organization scheme that promotes efficiency by minimizing the time you spend in your RSS reader.

If you’re the kind of person that feels like they need to see and read it all, please tread carefully with RSS. You may end up wasting a lot of time there. Remember that people existed long before RSS, and we got by fine.

RSS is just a tool.

Even if you only catch one or two interesting articles a day, you’re more informed than you were without RSS. You don’t have to read it all.

If you’ve been to RSS hell and made it out to tell the story, share it in the comments.

[RSS icon by barrymieny]

Instapaper is a great e-book companion too

I’ve made it clear in previous posts that I believe e-readers like the iPad are here to stay. One of the best features of a device like the iPad is that it not only provides a platform for reading, it provides limitless possibilities for what I call e-book “companion” apps. Google Maps, Wikipanion, and the Dictionary.com app (just to new a few) allow you to instantly learn more about something you see on a page. It’s all right there – on one device. Navigating back and forth takes only seconds.

We’ve never had technology that allows us to instantly translate a French phrase, see the topography of a battleground site in Europe, or read biographical information on a famous person by simply moving our fingers across a screen. Sure, you could find the same information on a laptop, but the iPad’s size, shape, portability, and instant-on nature make it a much more natural device for reading and synthesizing information.

I recently heard someone remark that the iPad “isn’t just a thing; it’s anything.” From an information perspective this statement rings more true with every app added to the App Store.

Instapaper as an e-book companion

Instapaper is my favorite service for reading web pages that I “capture” during the day. The Instapaper iPad app is my favorite way to read my Instapaper content.

Recently, I discovered another great use for Instapaper that also puts it in the category of e-book companion apps I just mentioned.

I like reading classics, and I often use Cliffs Notes or SparkNotes for help in understanding characters, plots, etc. Surprisingly, neither company has an app in the Apple Store – at least not as of the date I’m writing this.

Going to the actual websites of these study aid sites on the iPad is easy enough, but it only works when I have a WiFi connection (I don’t have the 3G version). There are also a lot of ads to work around once there.

It occurred to me that I can invest a little time upfront archiving these reference pages in Instapaper for a book I’m reading. I can do this either on my iPad or Mac. It doesn’t matter. Once synced to the Instapaper app on my iPad, they are all there. I star each one and archive. This keeps them separate from my other “read later” material and also makes them easy to find. I can simply go to starred items.

When used in this way, Instapaper becomes a clutter-free repository for temporary reference material that I can jump to anytime I want, even in the absence of WiFi.

I think Evernote could be used for the same purpose, but I prefer to store temporary webpages in Instapaper. Once I’m done with information in Instapaper, I can simply archive or unstar it, and it goes away.

Sometimes letting go of information is just as important as capturing it. Instapaper does both well.