June 17, 2020

First Impressions of Hey

Hey is a new email service (not just a new email app but an entire new system) from the makers of Basecamp. The discussion around Hey has, so far, been mostly about its troubled App Store experience.

I’m going to side-step that entire discussion to talk about the product itself. I’ve had access since launch and have gathered a few early impressions.

My main take-away is that I like this a lot and will most likely pay to keep using it as my main email system, but I want to dig into a few of the concerns I have so far.

Read More → digital lifestyle technology

June 11, 2020

A Closer Look at the Magnificent, Mysterious Sperm Whale

Adapted from a photo by Shane Gross, Shutterstock

It is in our nature to be anthropocentric—to believe that everything revolves around human beings and our needs.

When we consider what sets us apart, we think of things like culture and traditions, the importance of family, a sense of self, and the ability to reason and introspect. We consider that our large brains grant us a position of superiority.

I assume it would bother people who think this way to learn that we are far from unique in these respects. In fact, I hope to bother them today with a brief discussion of one of the animal kingdom’s most intelligent, mysterious, and impressive denizens: the sperm whale.

Over-Shared →

For someone like me, whose life has been fundamentally shaped by a fascination with nature and the desire to protect it, reading articles about how social media fuels its desecration is very difficult.

At the same time, I think that Lisa Chase is right to caution against undue anger. In her recent piece for Outside Magazine, she writes:

I sense and share your despair over our current state of affairs. The ill-prepared selfie acquisitors don’t know what we know, what I learned in my twenties when I was a young editor at Outside: stay on the trail, pack out what you packed in, bury poop at least 200 feet from the stream, tread lightly. Nobody taught these newcomers to tread lightly. At their point of entry to the natural world—where they went for the picture that shows they were there—they don’t yet see it for the vulnerable temple it is.

“Vulnerable temple” is such a beautiful and apt understatement.

Read More → link nature digital lifestyle

June 5, 2020

The Pitfalls and the Potential of the New Minimalism →

Sometimes, what seems like a great idea at first hides less appealing consequences beneath the surface.