Wayfinding -- finding my way without GPS
This post continues an ongoing series about a journey away from smartphones. In this post and the next several posts, I explore the topic of wayfinding. This topic surfaced as I tried driving without using a digital map on my smartphone.
Systems thinking and developer portals
This post is part of a series that explores tech comm trends that I've either followed or forgotten, and why. In this post, I explore why focusing on the big picture fits into the domain of systems thinking. I also make a case for developer portals as a candidate for study that aligns with a systems thinking approach.
Random notes on recovering the lost art of reading
The single greatest outcome from my basic phone experiment has been to rekindle interest and enjoyment in reading books. Long-form reading is an activity that I'd sort of forgotten, and even though I've reverted to my smartphone, the experiment has taught me to love reading again. In picking up reading books again, I realized that I have many questions about reading, actually. This post is a random list of questions, observations, and other reading-related topics about reading books. I'm sure there's no single way to read, and one strategy might fit another person and scenario more than others.
Blobr API portal (API doc topic)
I added a new article about Blobr to my API course. With Blobr, you can create an API store to launch and grow an API business with different monetization models. In the same Blobr portal, you can also include documentation that describes the precise workflow for each use case, helping API consumers easily onboard with your API.
The impact of technical diversity on documentation -- epiphanies on a trip to IKEA
This post is part of a series that explores tech comm trends that I've either followed or forgotten, and why. The overall goal is to better understand the reasons that drive trend adoption or abandonment in my personal career. This post focuses on the impact of diversity/pluralism/fragmentation on documentation.
Technical diversity/pluralism/fragmentation in tech comm
This post is part of a series that explores tech comm trends that I've either followed or forgotten, and why. The overall goal is to better understand the reasons that drive trend adoption or abandonment in my personal career. This post focuses on technical diversity/pluralism/fragmentation.
Six weeks in -- returning to smartphone (but not as before)
All right, so you knew this post was coming. When would I abandon my basic phone and return, at some level, to a smartphone, and why? That's what this post is about. The TLDR here is that texting became too challenging on a basic phone, and it was creating more stress and disruption with my other family members who were trying to communicate with me. But let me provide more details here, because there was a key turning point.
Review of What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr
In my ongoing series describing my journey away from smartphones, I decided to read one of the seminal works that kicked off the debate about the Internet's influence on our brains: Nicholas Carr's book What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows. In this post, after a careful reading and dissection of Carr's argument, I try to make sense of the book for my own techno-skeptic journey. My conclusion is to find a balance between online and offline modes, using the computer to find info, but then turning away the monitor to read offline.
My Commute Seattle Spotlight
Recently I volunteered to have my multimodal commute spotlighted as part of a Commute Seattle campaign. Here's the video.
One month in without a smartphone -- growing doubts about the value of technology in general
It's been about a month since I moved away from smartphones. In this entry, I explain the distaste I've developed for screens, my rediscovery of photography, and more.
More developments on my journey away from smartphones — a sudden interest in classical music?
It's been 2-3 weeks now without my smartphone, and I wanted to jot down a few notes on how it's going. This entry is more like an informal journal log about what I'm observing.
Review of Peter Norton's Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving
Peter Norton's Autonorama: The Illusion of High-Tech Driving is a must-read for anyone pursuing autonomous vehicles (AVs) as a solution to the problems of transportation mobility. Norton's main argument is that AVs will worsen rather than help transportation issues.
First experiences in moving away from smartphones
In this post, I describe my first two weeks living without a smartphone in my pocket. I got a flip phone and figured out how to get the functionality I needed (e.g., an Audible app, texting), how to use the phone again, and more.
My initial rules and reasons for intentional smartphone use
In my last post, I described my awakening about how my smartphone had fragmented my attention span, and I explained my goal to recapture my long-form concentration. This post builds on the previous to explore more specifics about intentional smartphone use.
My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span
I recently realized that absorbing the constant inflow of information from my smartphone, always readily available in my pocket to capture any free moment of attention, had fragmented my attention span.