On Stock and Flow

I recently came across a 2010 blog post written by Robin Sloan called Stock and Flow that really resonated with me. As it turns out, I'd apparently been living under a rock until now because this piece has influenced some of my favorite writers on the web.

The idea is simple:

“Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people that you exist.

Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.”

This, in a nutshell, is how I've tried to run Unretrofied: writing longer, column-like articles now and again, and keeping up the momentum with link-posts in between. Shawn Blanc explains this practice perfectly:

“[...] there’s just no way I could write the sort of original content I do often enough to keep the site updated on a near-daily basis. I spend a lot of time reading and researching, and I love to pass along links to the things I find of value.

If I were to shift the time I spend posting links to be time spent on original articles instead, it’s not like there would be a new article every day. Because I would still be spending time reading and researching and working behind the scenes. And I’d still be discovering the same stuff I am now — I just wouldn’t be linking to it.”

While the idea is simple on the surface, finding the balance between stock and flow can be difficult at times. Making both types of content great is even more so.

Most writers will be familiar with the difficulties of writing stock often and well. With any article of lasting value, there is always a certain amount of research to be done, data to be gathered, thoughts to be articulated, phrases to be turned. This is where the majority of our energy is devoted, and rightfully so.

Flow is another matter altogether. It can still be well-written of course, but it feels less like capital "W" Writing and more like a conversation with friends. It's only natural for us to share awesome stuff with like-minded people in our lives, and that's kind of how I view link-posts.

But here is where the difficulty lies: you wouldn't purposely share crappy stuff with the people you care about. You want to point them only to the good stuff, and there is a lot of it out there to sift through. You also don't want to overload them with this stuff, because if they're your friend, they're likely more interested in your story than all the cool stuff you happen to find.

And trust me, it's all too easy to get caught up in linking to cool stuff when you should be writing more stock.

So again, it's all about finding a balance. People read your blog because they want to see the things you write about, and maybe some occasional tidbits of things that are on your mind (but not too much). This is why the term flow is so perfect. It's about telling a story.

I realize that I'm about to link to Shawn's site for the third time in this piece, but one bit that came up during his interview with John Gruber several years ago is too fitting to pass up:

“As for what I link to and what I don’t, it’s very much like Justice Stewart’s definition of obscenity: “I know it when I see it.” There’s a certain pace and rhythm to what I’m going for, a mix of the technical, the artful, the thoughtful, and the absurd. In the same way that I strive to achieve a certain voice in my prose, as a writer, I strive for a certain voice with regard to what I link to. No single item I post to the Linked List is all that important. It’s the mix, the gestalt of an entire day’s worth taken together, that matters to me.”

So you see, there's definitely an art to all of this, one that I'm continually trying to improve on for myself. There is no formula, no perfect ratio, no right or wrong answer. But it is good to create some guidelines for yourself as a writer, in order to create a better balance.

Audience Quality > Audience Quantity

Myke Hurley, filling in for Stephen over at 512pixels, explains why he stopped paying attention to stats and numbers:

“At one point, 70Decibels had 12 active shows. At the time, I was checking performance for each one – logging into separate hosting accounts – multiple times per day. I was consumed by the numbers. I obsessed daily, weekly and monthly—desperately trying to find some sort of formula or correlation to achieving success.

Even after we were able to get long-term sponsors on board, I was still meticulously checking these numbers—it became a habit. I wanted to ensure that I was doing the right thing and I felt like I could only find vindication and answers in the graphs.

But then something changed. After listening to that SXSW talk earlier this year I started to consider things differently.”

I've been quite guilty of this same behavior. Always checking my page views, seeing how many people have faved that tweet I'm proud of, worrying about how many subscribers/followers I've got at any given time...none of this is healthy behavior (ahem, sorry Myke, behaviour).

In the last couple of months, I've quickly learned that having thousands of page views doesn't necessarily equate to gaining legions of new, loyal readers. Only a tiny percent of these are what I would call quality page views, and that's been a valuable lesson for me to learn.

Thanks to some much-needed perspective, I feel like I've broken out of some kind of deranged fever. I hardly worry about the stats anymore, and simply try to do good work as often as I'm able. It's good to hear that someone like Myke, a guy I hold in high regard whether he knows it or not, has had the same revelation.

New RSS Feed

Hey guys, just a quick update about the Unretrofied RSS feed. I've set up a new feed over at URI.LV, an awesome service that was built as an alternative to Feedburner (which is likely to die soon, if Google Reader is any indication). Here's the new feed url:

http://unretrofied.com/feed

Why do this? A few reasons:

• Squarespace still has yet to re-implement RSS tracking. I say 're-implement' because it was a supported feature during the Squarespace 6 beta (and also existed in Squarespace 5) before being dropped.
• The old feed URL was ugly and more difficult to remember (http://unretrofied.com/blog?format=rss)
• I want a feed I can control, not one provided by my webhost.

I would appreciate it if you would update your RSS reader to use this new feed, although you don't necessarily have to at the moment. As long as I'm on Squarespace 6, the previous feed will work as it always has. But I may decide to move this site elsewhere someday, and if you update to the new feed now, any future transitions should hopefully be smoother for you as a reader.

Thanks!

'How To Add iOS Touch Icons to a Squarespace 6 Website'

Will Kujawa put together an awesome little walkthrough and code snippet for changing a Squarespace 6 website's bookmark icon (the one that gets saved to the iOS home screen) from an ugly screenshot to something nicer. Preferably a logo but you could technically use anything you want.

I just went through the process myself and it worked perfectly.

An Address to New Readers

Hello, everyone. Over the weekend, my Apple Store piece gained quite a lot of attention thanks to sites like Hacker News and Reddit. The count is still climbing as of this morning, albeit a bit more slowly, but so far it has attracted 70,400 views. This is a high enough number that it makes the previous years' worth of traffic almost look like a flatline:

Needless to say, I've been a bit beside myself watching all of this happen. I never anticipated such a strong response, which has naturally been both positive and negative. The positive feedback I've received has far outweighed the negative, but those few negative responses still bothered me.

After a while, I simply stopped reading the Hacker News and Reddit threads, but before doing so I saw that my story was being called into question. I'm not about to address every single complaint, but I would like to clarify a few things:

• Yes, these events really happened.
• Yes, certain parts of the story were a little embellished, a tiny bit of which was for storytelling purposes but mainly because the event took place 6 or 7 years ago and my memory is terrible. In all honesty, they may have all been purchasing iPod Touches rather than MacBooks and I could be misremembering. It's certainly a gigantic difference money-wise but that's also not really the point of the story.
• No, I don't remember what the name of their school was or why they all knew sign language if they weren't deaf. They may have been training to become deaf translators, for all I know. I had a couple of friends back in high school who were doing exactly that, so I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility.
• No, I didn't write it to pat myself on the back. It was an experience I had that I felt like sharing, that's all. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I am definitely not someone who seeks out lots of attention. I wrote this as someone who doesn't expect more than maybe a few hundred page hits on a given day, and that's if I'm lucky! To be quite honest, being in the spotlight is an uncomfortable position for me, as I'll talk about in a minute.
• When I said the students were going store-to-store, I didn't mean that they went on a huge shopping spree. They were in the mall mainly to visit the Apple Store, but they visited various stores (not every single one) and spent a few minutes simply trying to ask employees questions. One example I remember was a student trying to ask someone at one of the clothing stores where they could find a certain brand of jeans. The point of the assignment was to see how employees dealt with these types of situations, not to buy anything.

After the story blew up, I wondered if very many people were subscribing to the site's RSS feed. I have no way of telling, since Squarespace 6's RSS service doesn't track that sort of thing. I do know that I gained several followers on Twitter and nearly doubled my follower count on App.net.

For a short while, I hesitated to post anything on either service for fear of suddenly alienating all these new people. I've since decided that it wouldn't be fair to myself not to express my thoughts in the way I choose.

I'm going to continue doing exactly what I've always done, which is post stuff that interests me, make the occasional bad joke, and not worry whether or not people who found me through a lighthearted story get offended that I have certain strong political views (just to get this out of the way right now, I'm about as liberal as it gets). I may lose the new followers, and already have lost a few, but I figure they probably wouldn't have stuck around long anyway.

The same kind of thing goes for this site. Any new readers should know right now that I don't constantly post long, personal, feel-good stories. They do come up occasionally but aren't the focus of this site. Check the archives if you want a better idea of what I do here. Yes, I have link-posts like many other tech bloggers do. Sorry if that bugs anyone.

Again, I sincerely thank everyone for all the kind words I've received these last few days, and I hope many of you will stick around as regular readers :)

*Whew!* Now I've got all that off my chest, back to work.

The iPad Apps that Power my Tools and Toys Workflow

One of the topics I’ve been most enthusiastic about lately is the idea of using only an iPad to do all my work. I’m not talking about my day job here, but rather my writing workflow, and more specifically the writing I do for Tools and Toys.

(I would love to have a nice workflow setup for Unretrofied, but unfortunately the Squarespace iOS app is pretty terrible and there are no alternatives due to their lack of an API. So while I may do some writing for Unretrofied on the iPad using Byword, I almost always publish from the back-end CMS on a desktop or laptop.)

Since Tools and Toys runs on WordPress, there are a wider array of apps I can use for publishing, which makes an iPad-only workflow more feasible. I’d like to discuss the apps I use to get the job done, but first it helps to know the ground rules for every T&T post:

• Each post must contain an image, 600px wide being okay but 1200px being better for Retina displays. Either way, the site will display the image in a 600px wide box.
• Image file sizes should be reasonable so as not to delay page-load times. The 150kb–200kb range is fine.
• These images must be hosted on the site’s Amazon S3 account.
• There are three custom fields used within the CMS: the image link, the product link, and the name of the store/website where an item can be bought.
• Stephen Hackett and I each have a particular posting schedule, so we need to be able to schedule final drafts to be automatically published at a later date/time.
• When we link to something on iTunes or Amazon, we must use affiliate links.

Obviously there’s no one app that can do all these things, but I’ve managed to accumulate a variety of apps that have allowed me to do my work on-the-go. So far I’ve managed to get the entire workflow down to a handful of apps.

The first app, Instapaper, comes into play long before I ever write anything. I’ve got a special folder set aside where I like to save ideas for potential products to write about. If I come across something cool out on the web, I save it to this folder and reference it later when it’s time to write a new post.

The next two apps I use are Safari and Mail.app. I use Safari for finding links and images, as well as researching items to make sure I know what I’m talking about when I’m writing about them. When I can’t find a nice, hi-res image of a product anywhere, I use Mail.app to ask the makers of those products if they have any images I can use. Everyone I’ve ever talked to has been super nice and helpful.

Once I’ve got an image, or a set of images, I use an app called Reduce to batch-resize them. I even have a preset stored in the app: 1200px wide, 150kb file size. I run the photos through that preset, and the app saves a copy of each image to a “Reduce Export” album on the iPad for easy management.

The way I currently upload these images to Amazon S3 is with the iFiles app, which presents the most convoluted part of my current workflow. It’s an okay app for uploading, but it seems to have no way of renaming files or copying their public URLs, which is why I’m still on the lookout for something better.

Since I can’t rename from within iFiles, what I’ll typically do is remotely login to my office PC using LogMeIn Ignition¹ and do it there. This step is technically unnecessary, but I prefer having a file name that uses the name of the product rather than something generic like “Photo02272013.jpg” or whatever.

Why is that, exactly? Well for one thing, it makes it easier to locate a particular image in our list of previous uploads if I need to. Secondly, even though I can’t copy the public link, I can simply take the url http://i.toolsandtoys.net.s3.amazonaws.com/img/file-name.jpg and substitute the file-name portion with the easy-to-remember file name I just made. A bit ghetto but it works.

Let’s just say that my life will be a lot easier if I can find a suitable replacement for iFiles.

Now that I’ve dealt with images, I’ve got to manage the text stuff. My absolute favorite app for writing and publishing to WordPress is Poster. It’s beautiful, easy to navigate around, and it features everything I need to publish a post, including those custom fields I mentioned earlier.

Next up comes the links. Regular links are easy to copy and paste, but when it comes to affiliate links I have a couple of tools at my disposal. The first one is Launch Center Pro, in which I’ve set up custom URL schemes for each link-type. They both operate based on whatever’s saved to my clipboard. Since this app was more intended for iPhone than iPad though, I tend to use TextExpander snippets to generate the links instead. Poster includes TextExpander support so these snippets are a breeze to use.

Lastly, we’ve got Dropbox. This is where I store any drafts or images I have yet to put together as final posts. I can access them from anywhere, and Poster can pull text files from Dropbox in order to create new posts. Doesn’t need much more explanation than that.

So there you have it. There are still some kinks to be worked out, and the overall process of putting things together could be a little smoother, but the sheer fact that I can do almost everything straight from my iPad is awesome to me.

Before I end this post (which is incidentally about 20x longer than most T&T things I’ve ever written), I’d like to thank Shawn for giving me the opportunity to write for the site. It’s been a blast so far and I look forward to where the site is headed.

---

1. This app is incredibly expensive these days at $130, but I bought it years ago when it was on sale for $20 and I had an iTunes gift card.  ↩

CriticMarkup

Gabe Weatherhead of Macdrifter and Eric Hess of The Mindful Bit have teamed up to develop a new syntax called CriticMarkup, which is useful for denoting editorial changes in a document and is fully compatible with Markdown, LaTeX, and HTML.

As someone who doesn't do a whole lot of collaborative writing, I honestly don't have much use for this currently, but I think it's a fantastic idea and something I'll be keeping on my radar.

They've come up with lots of other goodies to go along with the syntax, so head over to Gabe's site to read more about the project or visit the CriticMarkup site itself.

Typekit Integrated Into Squarespace 6

Until now, I've been using various Google Fonts throughout this site's existence on Squarespace 6. I have a free Typekit account, but a lot of the typefaces I really want (such as FF Meta Serif Web Pro and Proxima Nova) only exist on the paid plans and I haven't opted to upgrade just yet.

Today though, those fonts and a lot of others have been made available for all Squarespace 6 users, thanks to a deal the two companies have struck together. This makes me pretty happy.

Tips to Overcome Writer's Block

Writer's block is something we all face at some time or another. That frustrating feeling of having this desperate urge to write, but being unable to get the words out. Sometimes it's so bad we can't even think of a topic to write about! After banging our heads against the wall for a while and getting nowhere, we throw in the towel.

Inevitably, we'll wake up in the middle of the night, suddenly struck by an idea that we must get out of our head immediately or else risk losing it. The human mind sometimes works in mysterious and beautiful ways—but this phenomenon is rare. Most of the time writing does not feel magical at all, but rather like pulling teeth.

Sooner or later you're going to hit that wall, just like everyone else does.

So, how can we overcome this wall? After some trial and error, I've found some ideas that have worked for me, and I thought I'd share them with you guys. I don't claim to be an expert, but maybe this stuff will help you too.

Tip #1: Exercise

You might ask yourself, "What the heck is this guy on? Exercise? I'm trying to get some writing done, not break a sweat." But I'm completely serious here.

One reason I end up having writer's block sometimes is that my head is too full of information I've absorbed throughout the day. After skimming hundreds (if not thousands) of RSS posts and tweets, not to mention all the fantastic stuff people have been linking to, I find it difficult to focus on my own task at hand.

Our brains aren't really built to process such a river of information every day, and yet I and many others keep doing it. It's an information addiction I'm working to rid myself of.

When I need to clear my head of all that cruft, I simply step away from my laptop and go for a light jog around the neighborhood. Give it a try, it may work wonders for you. Preferably sans-iPhone, so that you're not tempted to put on music or a podcast or whatever. That would defeat the purpose of what we're trying to accomplish here.

During the jog, try not to think about all the stuff you need to get done, or the deadlines you're facing, or the work you failed to finish previously. None of that matters right now. Instead, focus on your breathing. Enjoy your surroundings. Wave at the neighbors. Smile.

By the time you're done, you might just feel more relaxed and have a clearer mind. And if you do, I bet that the words which seemed so far out of reach earlier will come to you more freely.

If exercise really isn't your thing, give meditation a try. You don't even have to leave the house or office. Shut off all distractions, find a comfortable place to sit up straight, close your eyes, breathe slowly and deeply, and try to empty your thoughts of all worries.

Even if it doesn't solve the writer's block, you'll feel tons better.

Tip #2: Photography

Writers are creative thinkers. Whether we know it or not, this tends to translate to having a natural eye for photography. Maybe not true in all cases, but in my experience, some of the best writers I know can produce some incredible photos. These skills seem intertwined as far as I can tell.

So, when the part of your mind that controls word production gets a little worn out, try getting out a camera and taking some photos for a while. Find something you've seen a million times and find a new way to capture it, perhaps using a different perspective.

Engaging a different portion of your artistic side this way can be the spark that ignites your creativity.

It doesn't have to be a DSLR or anything. If you've got a smartphone, chances are you've got something decent to work with. Or maybe you've got an old disposable camera laying around somewhere. As the saying goes, the best camera is the one that's with you.

Tip #3: Writing Assignments

Rather than doing all the work of coming up with a topic to write about, allow someone else to take care of that part for you. Writing assignments are wonderful exercises that can help jump-start your brain and get the creative juices flowing. They can also be done as a warm-up before you get started on your own topic.

A good resource I've found for writing assignments has been over at First Today, Then Tomorrow. There, playwright and author Randy Murray puts up a new practice writing assignment once a week, and they've never failed to get me thinking. Great stuff.

Tip #4: Look to Other Writers for Inspiration

Most of us have writers that we look up to and respect. Chances are, they've written about something that has interested you, or else you probably wouldn't have become a fan in the first place.

If you're struggling to find a topic, get out a book or browse through some of your favorite blogs until you see something you can add some insight to. There's nothing wrong with expanding on an idea you didn't originally come up with. Writers borrow from one another all the time. It's a natural part of what we do and I daresay that the world would be a dreary place without the sharing and building upon of such ideas.

Tip #5: Write Something. Anything.

Yes, you read that right. Another way to overcome writer's block is...write something. Anything at all. You can write about the coffee you had this morning. You can make up a backstory about that cat you see wandering around the neighborhood every day. Write a letter to your kid that they'll read when they're older. Write about the delicious meal you just had.

Seriously, just write something. It doesn't matter what. There's no need to share it with anyone else, so don't worry too much about content or style.

Sometimes the most difficult thing about writing is simply getting started. We could make every excuse in the book before we've even begun. Don't defeat yourself that way. Once you've started, you've already started winning the battle. You may even notice your hands struggling to keep up with all the words trying to escape your head. It feels completely manic, but in a good way.

Every person, whether they know it or not, is living a life worth writing about. They just have to find those stories, however small, and connect the dots until a story emerges. It's kinda like weaving a tapesty but WAY simpler. Anyone can do it.

* * *

There you have it. Those are the techniques I've used to help me overcome my writer's block. I really do hope you'll find some use for these tips, or be inspired to put together a list of your own.

If you have a great technique not mentioned here, let me know! It's nice to get a peek into the minds of other people struggling with the same things I am.

Renewed Focus

I've been at this writing thing for over two years now. Every so often, I get into a sort of funk and spend weeks relentlessly asking myself questions like this:

"Am I truly proud of the work I've done?"

"Have I published articles of lasting value, or have I simply been spinning my wheels?"

"What am I even trying to accomplish here?"

"Does this site help other people improve their life or even give them some food for thought?"

The list goes on and on and on and...you get the point.

I imagine that lots of writers go through phases like this from time to time, and I acknowledge that it's probably a good thing, although it doesn't feel that way at the time. It feels more like falling into a deep well of negavity that's hard to get out of.

Even so, there's something natural and healthy about doing a little soul-searching so that we can reassess our goals and redefine our purpose for writing in the first place. Doesn't everybody desire a fresh start sometimes?

After taking a good hard look at myself and my writing, I've decided that I want to shift the focus of this site a little. Or rather, I'd like to narrow it down to a smaller list of topics than I have in the past. I sat down and thought long and hard about which topics I care most about and get the most enjoyment out of writing. This is what I came up with:

• Writing/Publishing
• Minimalism/Simplicity
• Inspiration/Motivation
• Technology/Design/Photography
• Tips/How-To's

Items that got cut were things like "Apple's sales" and "Rumors" and "Inter-company politics" and "News" and at least a dozen others. I'm not John Gruber or Jim Dalrymple — I just don't care as much about that stuff. I also feel that writing on a huge number of topics is a good way to "dilute" what I'm doing here.

From here on out, I will be making an effort to stick with the list of topics above. They're more of a guideline than a strict set of policies that I can never deviate from, but keeping my mind focused should help me produce more meaningful work. Narrowing down to this list alone has already felt like lifting a huge burden off my chest. It just feels right.

I want to look back on my articles at the end of 2013 and really, truly say that I'm proud of what I've done. We'll see how that goes, but it should be an exciting year either way.

Unretrofied is Now a Member of the Fusion Ads Network

Starting today, this site will feature a single ad over there on the upper right, provided by the Fusion Ads network. I'm proud to be a member of this network because their ads are tasteful, unobtrusive, and feature the kinds of content I'm actually interested in. I bet you guys will like their offerings too, because they're specifically tailored to tech geeks and writers like us.

If you're an AdBlock user, I would humbly request that you add unretrofied.com to your whitelist, maybe even click an ad every now and then. If you do, thank you so much for your support :)

Special thanks to Wesley Friend for assisting me with the code placement.

Tools and Toys

A couple days ago, Shawn Blanc emailed me out of the blue to ask if I'd like to become the third writer for his other popular site Tools and Toys, alongside himself and Stephen Hackett.

I've been a big fan of both of these guys' work for quite some time now, so needless to say I jumped at the chance to work with them. I'm honestly a little amazed that I would even be given such an opportunity. I mean, they're both extremely nice people and all but I can't help but feel a certain level of anxiety about meeting their standards. Still, I'm really looking forward to the work and I'm already learning a lot about the way I write.

Just to be clear, I don't have a permanent position there just yet. This is simply a trial period, and if a month from now Shawn still thinks I'm a good fit for the site, then I'll get to stick around. My first post went live today, if you want to check it out.

'Designing a Responsive, Retina-Friendly Site'

"If you need to use something like Readability or Safari Reader to read my articles, I've failed as a designer."

Paul Stamatiou details the process that led to his current blog design, explaining the reasons behind every decision and iteration. I love these kinds of behind-the-scenes looks at how a great product comes together.

I'm particularly fond of the post archive page Paul has put together, it's very reminiscent of Facebook's timeline feature.

A Lesser Photographer

I've recently been enthralled by the work of photographer CJ Chilvers, who runs the blog A Lesser Photographer. His minimal approach to photography is one of thoughtfulness and creativity, rather than focusing on expensive gear or "professional" methods.

His blog is full of fantastic posts, but I recommend starting with the A Lesser Photographer Manifesto, which is a free-to-read PDF ebook (look at me staying on-topic today!) that encapsulates his views on photography.

A couple of choice quotes:

"Every new, professional grade camera aims to remove the photographer another step from the mechanical processes of the camera to “focus on the image.”

This has the opposite effect.

Creativity is always enhanced by a constraint. This is true in filmmaking, music, painting, writing and even photography.

How many times has one of your favorite bands, whose best album was produced in days using half-borrowed equipment, gone on to spend a year in the studio on their next album, only to produce a mediocre (at best) result?

How many times has a talented filmmaker been given unlimited funds and technical possibilities only to produce a Jar Jar Binks?

A lesser camera makes you think. Thought is better than automation in art. Automation leads to commoditization. Your art becomes easily replaceable or worse, forgettable."

and

"For years, photographers have been wisely imploring writers to learn to create compelling images to enhance their storytelling. The same argument must be made in reverse. Photographers must learn to write to enhance their storytelling, or find a writer to collaborate with. The two skills are inescapably linked now.

This is why it makes no sense for a photographer, with no professional mandate, to keep a portfolio section on their website. Viewers would be better served, and in turn photographers would be better served, by telling stories. Those stories are better served with great writing. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the worth of a great story is incalculable."

CJ has inspired me to reflect on my own approach to photography and I recommend checking out his work. Be sure to subscribe.

Work Ethic and Inspiration

"A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper." — E.B. White

Imagine a dusty old attic. This attic is full of boxes, old toys, photo albums, and other artifacts of the past, but in the center of the attic sits the most interesting item of all: a canvas covered by smears of different-colored paints. You see, this is no ordinary paint. It moves. The smears constantly shift, the colors seeming to dance as they blend here and separate there, never quite in the same way twice.

Underneath all of this commotion, at all times there is a painting waiting to be revealed. As the colors shift, the painting in turn continually becomes something else, but each reveal turns out to be beautiful. The canvas appears flat, and yet the artist can dip their hand into the pool of colors, grasping around as they attempt to forcefully extract the painting and present it to the world.

Sometimes the painting will patiently wait as the artist struggles, possibly in vain, but there are rare occasions when the painting grows impatient, bursting forth from the canvas and slapping the artist in the face to leave a colorful palm print behind.

This is what inspiration feels like to me.

As a writer, my mind (the attic) is usually filled with disjointed ideas, vague images, incomplete sentences (the canvas). Each time I sit down to write, my goal is to reach into the canvas and pull out something great. To take the mess and mold it into something I can be proud of. To draw out a line of thought I might not have conceived of otherwise, had I not made that first effort to simply start.

It should go without saying that I fail a lot of the time, everyone does, but I keep trying anyway and I encourage you to do so as well. That's part of the fun. It's also a necessary practice for any writer.

Unless your superpower is 'Having An Ah-Ha Moment Every Time You Write', you're going to sometimes struggle with your writing just like everyone else, including me. And that's okay! The most important thing you can do is find a comfortable place and simply start writing. Doesn't matter what you write at first, whether it's a bunch of stream-of-consciousness nonsense or the first chapter of your next great novel, the process is the most important thing.

Don't wait for inspiration to strike. It may never happen, and you'll have produced nothing. But if you force yourself to do the work, to make that struggle against all odds, that's where greatness comes from.

I'll leave you with this fantastic quote by composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky:

"There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination."

End-of-the-year Post Roundup

2012 was an undeniably big year, both for myself and for Unretrofied.

I became a father (technically Brendon was born near the end of 2011, but 2012 was the true journey). I redesigned this site twice. I made efforts to become a part of the same community of independent creators that I've looked up to for years. I started taking my writing more seriously and made a commitment to becoming a full-time writer (friendly reminder to check out the Unretrofied membership if you haven't already; there will be some neat goodies for members coming in 2013).

But this is all stuff I've already covered. So instead of blathering on about my year again, and for your reading pleasure, I've decided to gather up other peoples' articles I've been enjoying today. Some are about the past year, some look ahead to 2013, but all are wonderful.

Without futher ado...

Michael Schechter lists the people who influenced him in 2012 (a list that happens to mostly overlap with my own):

"This year, I didn’t try to learn from afar. I worked hard to get up close. I attempted (often in vain) to play at their level. To be their peer and, in many cases, to be their friend.

This year, I didn’t just spend time on the Internet, I invested in the people who work there and attempted to work along side them."

Jeffrey Inscho lists some ways he'd like to better himself, but not necessarily because it's a new year:

"I struggle to understand the concept of the New Year’s Resolution. Every year, millions of people select an arbitrary date to start obsessively modifying lifelong behaviors and habits. They hedge their bets on a metaphorical flip of a switch and hope the current of willpower remains flowing in the face of temptation, vices and history.

Speaking from experience, it seems the game is rigged and the whole premise is setting us up for failure."

Patrick Rhone learned a lot this year, and also makes a prediction:

"Bonus prediction: That 2013 will be the year of opt-out. That disconnection will become hipster cool. More and more people will be replacing smart phones with dumb ones, digital with analog, social with solitude, sharing with journaling, etc."

J.D. Bentley has a hazy recollection of the past few years, but some events stick out more than others for him:

"Aside from these events, 2012 is the year I started being delighted by the discovery of new words. I especially like coming across a word with such a specific definition that I’m surprised it even exists. Some of my recent favorites are anomie, perspicacity and aesthete. I also started writing whatnot appropriately, as a single word rather than two."

Shawn Blanc recounts the changes and successes in his life this year:

"This year I recorded 156 episodes of Shawn Today. Among my favorites were the week-long coffee-gear video series, the new “Ask Shawn Today” series, and the oodles of shows talking and musing about diligence and focus. Believe it or not, I’ve heard from many who claim they’ve listened to every single episode. Amazing. I haven’t even listened to every episode, and I was there when they were recorded."

Jim Dalrymple discusses how well things have been going for The Loop and makes this promise:

"I have some things planned for 2013 to make The Loop even better for the readers. However, one thing that will not change is the honesty with which we deliver our opinions on the news. I also have no plans to change the main design of the site, unless it is something that enhances the site for readers."

Gabe Weatherhead remembers every single minute of 2012 and how each was spent:

"So let's say I got 162,509 pretty good minutes out of 2012 — 3.71 months of usable, enjoyable, life enriching time in 2012. I spent 3.71 months cuddling, playing, coloring, dancing, tickling, running, hiding, singing, laughing, pretending and generally loving in 2012. I call that a win. Not a wasted minute whatsoever in my book. Life is what we do in the time between and I had a great few minutes in 2012. The best."

Dave Caolo takes you through a photo trip of his year, ending on a sweet note:

"...and lastly thanked my lucky stars for every single moment. On New Year’s Eve it’s appropriate to think about time. We’re all issued a finite amount. As such, it’s the most precious thing we have. Time. May you enjoy yours."

There you have it. I hope everyone has a safe, pleasant New Year's Eve. As for me, I'm going to enjoy a quiet evening at home with the family as usual.

Thanks to all of my readers for making this year so special. See you guys next year! (har har)

'Thirty'

Ben Brooks has turned 30, so he's listed 30 things he thinks he knows.

My favorite:

20. "Don’t give a shit about what people think of your honest opinion. If you think Android is better than iOS, Windows better than Mac, and Nikon better than Canon — so be it. You’d be wrong, but at least you’re standing for what you believe in, and that’s more important."

Tentative Steps

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it." - Leo Rosten

I created this site back in October 2010. It started out as a fun hobby, posting the (very) occasional blurb about stuff I was interested in. In the last two-plus years it has grown from a side hobby to something much more.

Rather than posting once or twice a month, I now write every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. I write during downtime at my day job. In the evenings, after my wife and son have gone to bed, I sit down in a comfy chair with some sort of drink and I write. Even on days when I don't post anything, I'm still writing behind the scenes.

It appears that I've finally stumbled onto my life's passion, and because of this, I've had an idea burning at the back of my mind for a while. Perhaps it's time to think about turning Unretrofied into a full-time job. Or at least taking steps toward it.

The idea of doing such a thing both excites and frightens me.

The Why

I'm at a point in my life where I need a change, career-wise. I've been working at my current job for over four years, and while it's not a bad gig, there's no challenge anymore. I can't remember the last time I learned anything new from this job, and I'm still in the same exact position as when I started. On top of that, the nature of my job keeps me away from my family a lot more than it should.

I've long dreamed of having a career based on my creative work, rather than stepping into an office and performing monotonous duties all day. All of my "real" jobs to date have entailed some sort of customer service. In the last 6 or 7 years, I've spent most of my waking hours trying to make customers/end-users happy, rather than doing what I want and allowing my creative mind to flourish. Not very satisfying.

My most creatively-fulfilling moments are when I'm taking photos and writing articles. I have doubts about going professional with my photography, and therefore it will remain a fun hobby for now, but writing is something I think about all the time. I think about it before going to sleep, when I wake up, and every moment in-between.

Before rediscovering my love for writing, it had been many years since I'd felt compelled to master a new skill or seek a drastic new direction in my life, but now I've got the itch, and I'm determined to make my goal a reality.

Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I'm not the type to leave my stable job and leap into the unknown like this. But I'm tired of letting fear rule my life, and my gut keeps telling me that I'm making the right choice. The only choice.

Luckily, I have a supportive wife who understands how much this dream means to me, and she has urged me to pursue it. You only live once, after all.

The How

This is where you, the reader, come in. If I'm going to do this thing I'm going to need your help, which is why today I'm making membership subscriptions available to anyone interested in supporting the site.

There are two options:

• Monthly — Just $3 a month. As Shawn Blanc puts it, it's "like a good cup of coffee."
• Annual — $30 a year. Same benefits as the monthly subscription, but you save $6.

I'm still working out the details pertaining to members-only perks and such, and I promise that I'll announce something special in due time, but for now the membership is simply a means of directly supporting my writing.

I want to stress right now that this is not some sort of scheme where you have to pay to view my articles or get access to a full-content RSS feed or anything like that. Unretrofied is and will remain a free web site.

My hope is that, if enough of you find it in your hearts to part with a few of your hard-earned dollars each month, I can eventually devote myself to Unretrofied full-time and still support my family. It costs only a small amount to you but helps me so much.

If you read this and choose not to subscribe, that's okay! I'm still glad to have you as a reader. Nobody should feel pressured into this thing, it's simply an option for people who enjoy supporting independent creators. I already do the same for a dozen other writers myself.

All I ask is that you consider it. It would mean the world to me.

Bringing Back the Magic

Anil Dash wrote what is probably today's most poignant piece, regarding the state of today's social web versus that of yesteryear.

"[The tech industry and its press] seldom talk about what we've lost along the way in this transition, and I find that younger folks may not even know how the web used to be."

This is a topic I find myself thinking about more and more as I become more involved with the blogging community. Anil is nicely articulating thoughts that have been bubbling under the surface of my mind for a while.

I sometimes wonder if the social web's golden age peaked during the early- to mid-2000s, a time when Flickr was king and lots of exciting things were being built, including a myriad of blogging platforms. A lot of this stuff happened before I took a serious interest in the web, and in retrospect I feel like I missed out on so much.

This is why I like occasionally poring through the archives of my favorite blogs. It's the next best thing to time-traveling back to when these people were having those thoughts and ideas, whether or not they're still relevant today.

It's also why I relish the fact that Flickr may become popular again. Flickr is one of the few communities from that era still chugging along, and I'm excited to potentially be a part of the same community that loved it originally.

Am I living in the past a bit? Maybe. But the web could use a little more magic again, and if bringing back these older communities is what it takes, then count me in.