123 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2024
    1. Typing Technique and Typewriter Design by [[Will Davis]] and [[Dave Davis]]

      As early as 1932 Royal salesmen would use poor typing technique on purpose to cause skipping and piling and then use proper technique on their own machine to show how much better their typewriters were compared to the others.

      Some repair and service manuals had sections about tuning a typewriter to the level of technique of the user. These may have included 5-6 specific adjustments for allowance to a particular user's technique, as an example indicated in this video.

      "pounded out" - used by a heavy handed typist and now skipping (mentioned possibly in an Ames Repair Manual)

      In the mid-century, the service life of a standard machine was 1-3 years of continual (heavy) use. After this it would have been remanufactured or swapped out.

    1. St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of deaf individuals. He is also the patron of journalists and writers because of his many written religious works. Because of these publications, he is depicted with a book in the left hand and a quill pen in the right. His feast day is January 24th.
    1. by porting ffmpeg to the zig build system, it becomes possible to compile ffmpeg on any supported system for any supported system using only a 50 MiB download of zig. For open source projects, this streamlined ability to build from source - and even cross-compile - can be the difference between gaining or losing valuable contributors.
  2. Sep 2024
    1. reply to u/NoDoctor4602 at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1fjrjns/ive_spent_a_few_days_searching_for_any_concrete/

      In the mid to late-1950's and after several typewriter manufacturers made limited runs of gold plated typewriters for special anniversaries or for bonuses to salespeople. They're uncommon, but not rare. I've seen at least 6 or seven pop up on auction sites in the last 6 months. If you really want one, watch the lower end of Facebook Marketplace, ShopGoodwill, Craigslist, et al. where one will assuredly pop up for a much more reasonable price. I'm not sure if it was this one or another I've seen since April, but one of these went up for sale on ShopGoodwill.com recently and sold for about $600. A week later it was listed on eBay for several thousand just like this one. Given the timeframe, I doubt they spent any time cleaning, oiling, or adjusting it in any fashion—it was a pure flip. I've also seen this recently with Royal typewriters with a less common, but highly collectible Vogue typeface: a Royal P sold for about $900 there and was listed on eBay shortly after for over $1,500 with no indication that it was cleaned or adjusted. (If you watch some of the sites carefully, you can pick up a Vogue machine for under $100 easily enough depending on the type and condition.)

      In my mind, as a collector, I'd try to find one in the wild and clean it up or I'd want it in stunning restored condition for over $2k. You might be just as well off picking up a working model for $100-$150 and gold plating the pieces yourself. It would probably be cheaper in the long run and you'd have a better machine in better condition. Some sucker with money to burn will eventually buy a Gold Olympia SM3 for over $2,000.

      Here's a vew posts/videos as examples of gold plated machines:<br /> - A video of another Gold Olympia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnUHgyABjw0<br /> - Royal QDL https://typespec.com/weve-got-gold-in-them-thar-hills/<br /> - https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kasbah-mod-typewriters_n_1453776

      If you're looking for something great that you'll use, I recommend visiting a repair shop that has some stock to try out some machines to see if you'd like their touch/fee/aesthetics first. Visiting a type-in or two might give you some experience with a wide variety of typewriter models as well. Then try to find a rare or exceptional version that's worth putting some money into. Why put so much into an Olympia if it turns out you're an Olivetti, Royal, or Smith-Corona person? https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-repair.html (I desperately love Royals, but Smith-Coronas and Remingtons are much more forgiving of my mediocre typing technique, a fact which pains me dearly and cost a few hundred dollars and some sweat equity in cleaning and tuning machines to discover). Incidentally, I'll mention that for about $2,000 you could easily purchase a wide variety of about two dozen machines (even with shipping) and be able to get something truly exceptional in terms of condition and function.

      Incidentally, the higher prices of $250-600 for repaired/refurbished/restored machines being sold by repair shops are usually what Harry Beercan is using as a pricing guide when he's selling his grandmother's musty, broken, old typewriter online not knowing that several hundred dollars in labor and parts has been calculated into the selling price.

  3. Aug 2024
    1. Salesman documents the work of a group of door-to-door Bible salesmen in New England and Florida. Deeper down, the film is a dissection of the degenerative and devastating effects of capitalism on small towns and individuals, but more than any political statement the film is about normal people in all their ugliness and truthfulness.

      see also: Barnouw, Erik (1993), Documentary a History of the Non-fiction Film (PDF), New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 241–242, retrieved March 30, 2020

    1. The 1957 Groma Kolibri by [[Typewriter Chicago]]

      Another sexy sales video by Lucas Dul, this time for the Groma Kolibri portable out in the woods and backed by a lovely piece called Ashitaka and San by Joe Hisaishi.

  4. Jul 2024
    1. Royal HHE Typewriter Demo of Features and Functions by [[Cincinnati Typewriter]]

      Orange and black typewriter painted when they thought Bengals were going to Super Bowl.

      Sadly didn't get the purpose of the numbered guides... presupposed they were in millimeters, but knew it wasn't that.

      Very shaky video... nauseating.

      Didn't differentiate between permanent and temporary variable line levels. Didn't get the way these work at all.

      Missed subtleties of Magic Margin, but did well enough.

      "strikers" instead of slugs or hammers

      Painted the colors on the bichrome wrong.

      Only partially understands touch control. Definitely doesn't know how to adjust them.

      Definitely don't use this as an example.

      Seems like an amateur painting and (maybe) cleaning up typewriters from home. I don't think I'd trust him based on this video.

    1. 1954 Royal HH, repainted | Typewriter Tutorial by [[Jot & Tittle Vintage Typewriters]]

      Pseudo-professional explaining the functionality of a Royal HH (sales video)

      took her two tries to get the proper ribbon reversal... <br /> didn't get/understand the touch control function<br /> Not original spools<br /> Doesn't understand card fingers<br /> At least knew "stencil", but didn't explain it beyond "it won't type"<br /> Didn't have a specific size for the large carriage<br /> Had issue with ribbon tension<br /> Couldn't get the hood button several times

      "I wouldn't write a long book on here." What the hell is she talking about? This was the entire purpose of this machine.

  5. Jun 2024
    1. here's a way to do direct to 00:16:46 Consumer sell and can make some money and don't just be like so worried about being on the music platform streaming and now you're diluted because the AI

      for - new music sales model - direct to consumer - helps mitigate AI music

  6. May 2024
    1. What is happening in China with electric vehicles is pretty stunning. China is the world’s largest auto market by far — in 2022 China sold 26.8 million vehicles, the U.S. sold 13.8 million and Japan was third with 4.3 million.

      Holy shit.

      If EVs are making half the cars sold in China, then are more EVs are being sold in China than cars and trucks in the USA ?

    1. I was in a vintage shop about 30 minutes from downtown Los Angeles earlier in the week and the proprietor had a mostly functioning 1950 Smith-Corona Sterling for sale for a roughly equivalent US $150. (One key was disconnected, but fixable, and some keys were sticky, the ribbon was disintegrating, it was incredibly dirty, with a case in very poor condition.) The Sterling was similar to the Silent, but without some of the extra bells and whistles. She wouldn't accept an offer of $40 for it, which I thought was a reach for the dreadful condition it was in. Her reasoning was that she was sure that someone (read: a sucker) would pay the $150 for it. At a yard sale it might be worth $5. Cleaned up a bit maybe $30. In online platforms they're going for a bit more, but you're also saving yourself some level of "shoe leather" in the work of searching for the exact model you want.

      I've been specifically watching this model and a few related ones for a few months, and machines of indeterminate condition (though in my experience they're usually reasonably functionable or easily fixable), like this go for about $50 on ShopGoodWill.com (as auction items). There are usually about 4-5 per week which come up as this was a popular model in the 50s. You can probably find similar prices on eBay, though sellers there usually have a little more information about the working condition. They're definitely common enough that you could easily wait for the exact color options and typeface (pica or elite) that you're looking for, and could also probably purchase two for the price he's asking (including shipping.) I've been watching for a similar mid-50s Smith-Corona Clipper with similar colors and elite type for a while and just bought one online last week for $35. Patience definitely pays off.

      I would only go as high as $150 on that machine if I knew it was well functioning and had a brand new platen in the last several years. You can tell him that most of the expensive machines in the range he's asking for are all fully functioning, have been well maintained and/or recently serviced, and often have new platens, rubber rollers, and feet replaced. He'll know that this isn't the case with his and may come down in price. They're likely pricing it based on other listings they see and not pricing it based on actual sales. If it's their only machine, wait things out until they see that there aren't any takers. If it's a vintage shop, simply move on.

      The Smith-Corona Silents from this time period are really spectacular and solid machines, so good luck in your search for the perfect one.

  7. Apr 2024
    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/375385572993

      Sold, presumably for $600 on 2024-04-20 with free shipping. This had previously been listed and relisted for 1000 reducing 100 every few weeks until now.

      Taylor Swift effect with her new album drop perhaps?

  8. Mar 2024
  9. Feb 2024
    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166584466393

      2024-02-06: 15 drawer (5x3) card catalog offered for starting bid of $200. 3 piece sectional with top, drawers and simple table base with spindle legs. Appears to be in maple with polished steel fittings.

      Manufacturer: none listed<br /> Location: Local pick up from Niagara Falls, NY

      Condition: the finish on this is shot and is either cracked, peeling, or generally non-existent on the outside. Missing two rods. Finish on the wood inside appears solid.

      Cost per drawer: - opening bid of $200: $13.33

      This was later relisted at https://www.ebay.com/itm/166595950156 and ultimately sold for $255.00.

      Cost per drawer: $17.00

    1. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/945071177181845/

      2024-02-01 Listed Shaw-Walker four drawer side table for $95 and it sold within a day for local pick up.

      Cost per drawer: $23.75

      I inquired about this, but missed out on it by just a few hours. I totally want a pair of these as end tables for a couch or a cozy club/reading chair.

    1. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/694743405502203/

      Seller description: 1902 Shaw Walker Card Catalog and File Cabinet 3 piece stackable $765 Listed 19 weeks ago in San Bernardino, CA Details

      Condition
      Used - Good
      Color
      Brown
      Material
      Wood
      

      Super nice old antique card catalog Stackable Oak wood Very few marks for its age 1902 original tags inside it Simply elegant piece No missing pieces no scratches 76 t 16 w 19 d

      Jeanie Lowry listing from October 2023 and sold in late 2023 potentially for $765 or less.

      Sectional Shaw-Walker modular card catalog and filing cabinet. 3 sections of 2x3 drawers for 3x5" cards and one section of 2x1 along with a two 8.5x11" filing drawers and a writing desk pullout section.

      22 total drawers but 20 for index cards

      Cost per drawer: $34.77 (sold)

    1. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1020494389229110/

      Solid Gaylord Bros. 60 drawer card catalog for pick up in San Bernardino, CA by Jeanie Lowry on Facebook. Reasonable shape despite some dings, especially to the wood facia at the bottom. One metal drawer pull shorn off, but looks like it had all it's rods as well as three writing drawers in the middle.

      2023-01 Listed for ??<br /> Sold sometime in early 2024 presumably for $525

      Seller description: Beautiful Vintage 1950’s Bro Dart Card Catalog Vintage 60 Drawer Card Catalog One drawer handle has the hook missing 3 of the slide in bars missing Some wear on the bottom panel Drawers are strong with brass handles and screws 60 inches tall 40 1/2 wide 17 1/2 deep Drawers are 5 1/2 inches wide Very heavy Great piece would look so great in a retail setting

      Cost per drawer: $8.75

    1. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/406045722112862/

      2024-02-01 Originally listed for 1,100 or so and slowly decreased to $990 on 2024-02-17 at which point it was listed as "not in stock", so unsure if actually sold.

      Gaylord Bros. 25 drawer modular card catalog in 4 sections including top and table/legs and two drawer sections of 5x2 and 5x3. in reasonable but somewhat rough condition. for pick up in San Bernardino, CA from Jeanie Lowry

      Offered as part of a Facebook garage sale which included a similar 30 drawer catalog with pull out writing desks and a handful of metal card filing cabinets meant for punch cards.

      1960’s 25 Drawer Card Catalog Hard to find item In great shape 40 1/2 T, 33 W, 17 D

    1. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1511212389452724/

      60 drawer wooden card catalog in a very long 12x5 configuration offered for sale at $800 on Facebook marketplace in September 2023. Sold in the fall for unknown price, though likely close to 800.

      Cost per drawer: $13.33

    1. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/7016702761714807/

      2023-09 36 drawer wooden card catalog (no manufacturer; looks custom) offered for $850 and sold sometime in the fall 2023. Rough, but rustic shape. Possibly a modular unit of two 6x3 sections with a custom top attached.

      Cost per drawer: $23.60

  10. Jan 2024
    1. Wirth himself realized the problems of Pascal and his later languages are basically improved versions of Pascal -- Modula, Modula-2, and Oberon. But these languages didn't even really displace Pascal itself let alone C -- but maybe if he had named them in a way that made it clear to outsiders that these were Pascal improvements they would have had more uptake.

      Modula and Oberon should have been codenames rather than independent projects.

  11. Dec 2023
    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166417242257

      72 drawer library card catalog listed for sale on 2023-11-05 for $850.00 with local pick up only in Asheboro, NC. Mid century modern in Maple with plastic drawers. Heavily used and some damage visible, but functional shape. Two sections separated by 3 writing drawers. Likely from 70s.

      Cost per drawer: $11.80.

      2023-11-29 relisting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126210967207

      2023-12-06 delisted https://www.ebay.com/itm/166481183026 Indicated that it was no longer available, so potentially sold for the $850 (or less)

    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166462302430

      This Yawman & Erbe multi-drawer piece sold for $250 by auction on eBay o/a 2023-12-03. A variety of filing drawers, but doesn't appear to have been specifically for index cards.

      Cost per drawer: $8.93

  12. Oct 2023
    1. Peterson worked on The Message throughout the 1990s, translating the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts and paraphrasing them into contemporary American English slang. The translation was published in 2002 and had sold more than 15 million copies by 2018.
    1. Messages are delineated by newlines. This means, in particular, that the JSON encoding process must not introduce newlines within a message. Note however that newlines are used in this document for readability.

      Better still: separate messages by double linefeed (i.e., a blank line in between each one). It only costs one byte and it means that human-readable JSON is also valid in all readers—not just ones that have been bodged to allow non-conformant payloads under special circumstances (debugging).

  13. Sep 2023
    1. https://offerup.com/item/detail/aa30b5cf-993e-3077-9c86-5b36b7d7fee9?q=library+card+catalog

      Offered circa July 2023 for $200 and sold circa September 2023.

      Gaylord brothers three piece modular library card catalog circa 1950's. Acquired by seller prior to a school demolition. Top cover appears to be homemade and covered with cloth. Other pieces are standard 5x3 grouping of 15 drawers and lower table unit. Missing all the catalog rods.

      cost per drawer: $13.30

    1. Market analysis of library card catalogs in 2023.

      As card catalogs lost their functionality in libraries and were de-acquisitioned there was a wave of nostalgia which caused people to purchase them, often in auctions, at higher than expected prices. Once they had them, most of these purchasers realized that they didn't have functional uses in their homes for them (beyond wine or liquor bottle storage, small crafts, or use as a zettelkasten, which seem to be the only reasonable upcycling use cases I've seen and the last seems to be very rare and niche). They sit and take up space for very little value in return beyond some esthetic beauty and nostalgia. As a result many soured on their ownership. Most owners naturally want to recoup their original purchase price thinking that relative rarity will save them.

      Combined with this there was a resurgence in mid-century design esthetic which had some furniture restorers and designers buying and doing full (and very pretty) expensive restorations of older 20s - 40s versions which sold at auctions for $4,500 and up. Given the rarity of some of these older, fine furniture versions along with the work in restoration and the limited market only those who had a tinge of nostalgia and money to burn made purchases which resulted in a limited number of actual sales.

      These two factors mean that almost all of the listings for library card catalogs are heavily overvalued on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craig's List, Etsy, etc. The fine furniture restorations have set an artificially high price point which some feel theirs must match as well. The difference in quality however is stark. Because of their size and lack of functionality, there is a relative glut of them on the market which all bear inflated prices. Those who originally spent inordinate amounts for them, feel they will still have that same value to others, so they list them online for inflated prices.

      I've been closely watching the online "market" for them for over a year and see the same several dozen or more listed across the country usually in the range of about $30-$60 per drawer. Many are listed as local pick up only, which further hampers the overall market. This also brings up the issue of shipping a 60 drawer card catalog which can easily run in the $800-$1,500+ range which usually requires additional shipping logistics involved with freight. Most catalogs are already overpriced, but adding an additional $1000 tax on top is a bridge too far for all but the highest end of the market. Some platforms like Etsy and eBay which take cuts of the final sale also add to the cost of the sale.

      In the year and a half or more that I've been watching, I've only seen a handful of actual sales, all of which were local, and many of which were in the Los Angeles area. All of these sales have been for listings which eventually were reduced down to the $15 per drawer range. One local sale was in Wisconsin was for $10 per drawer (a 30 drawer file) and another in Los Angeles was for $12.50 per drawer (on a 20 drawer file).

      A note on condition

      Outside of a small handful of fine furniture listings in the $4,000+ range, most ex-Library card catalogs are generally very well worn and not in great condition which makes them less valuable as decoration pieces. In fact, many are often missing their original card catalog rods, have dents, dings, or other cosmetic issues. Some are missing drawers or have replacement drawers which don't match. Some may be slightly mismatched having been purchased in different eras as modular pieces and put together. Frequently they have been modified from their original states to include inserts or other material to fill in the holes which where almost standard in the bottoms of the drawers.

      Advice

      If you're in the market, know that it is tremendously inflated, a fact which most sellers are aware of as they've got them listed, some for many years, not resulting in actual sales. If you really want one and find it in a reasonable condition, I highly recommend making an offer for it at about $10 per drawer and potentially go up to $15. Anything higher than that is overpaying based on actual recent market conditions. If you have the money to burn, feel free, but keep in mind that like many others in the past, once the initial nostalgia has passed, you've probably got a large piece of relatively non-functional furniture in your home.

      It's not common, but some government auction sites will list card catalogs for auction from time to time. Because they actively want to sell them these can be purchased in the $2-10 per drawer range or less. Often they tend toward the larger 60+ drawer range, aren't in good condition, or need to be picked up and shipped to your final destination, usually within a few days of purchase as the original owners don't or explicitly won't handle shipping. These are likely to need some restoration work to be decorative pieces in many homes.

      If you want something brand new, you can check out Brodart, which is the only remaining card catalog manufacturer/sales firm I'm aware of in the United States. Their systems are modular, so you can pick and choose what you'd like to have. The only caveat is that they start at $1,700 for their smallest 9 drawer model and can go up to $11,648 (plus shipping) for a full 60 drawer model. The other potential drawback, for some, is that they are made of a mixture of wood, metal and plastic versus the all wood and metal fittings of older vintage models.

      If you're in the market primarily for nostalgic reasons, then you might also consider looking at some of the older desktop wooden card catalogs which are often much less expensive, take up far less space, and can be wonderfully decorative. Some of the smaller two to six drawer desktop models have the benefit of potentially serving as recipe boxes or paper rolodexes, zettelkasten, or simply small office storage. Here again, the online markets are likely to be heavily overpriced with 2 drawer models being continually listed at $150 and 4 drawer models in the $250-400 range. These sellers know that these prices don't result in actual sales as they've been sitting on them for long periods of time (presumably hoping to get lucky). Here I'd recommend you make offers in the $20-30 per drawer range to see what you can find. Another benefit is that these smaller models are far cheaper to ship across the country. For additional advice on these, see: The Ultimate Guide to Zettelkasten Index Card Storage.

    1. https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Notes-Write-Allosso-ebook/dp/B0B7FSQP35/

      Dan Allosso purchased a 30 drawer card catalog (three sections of 5 x 2 without any base) for $300 in 2022.

      It's pictured on the cover of his book "How to Make Notes and Write".

      Purchased at $10 per drawer.<br /> local sale

      Price mentioned at the end of Dan Allosso Book Club 2023-09-16.

  14. Aug 2023
    1. Another way I get inspiration for research ideas is learning about people's pain points during software development Whenever I hear or read about difficulties and pitfalls people encounter while I programming, I ask myself "What can I do as a programming language researcher to address this?" In my experience, this has also been a good way to find new research problems to work on.
  15. Jul 2023
      • writing that people want an answer to
      • law of inertia/harder to be in motion when inert (my trails as making motion easier, also making it interesting)
      • ghostwriting for free (extracting/repurposing content that a creator is already making)
      • be compensated on outcome, not time/effort (look at upside)
      • Gary Halbert as Hemmingway in advertising
      • Ghostwriting as different from ghostthinking
      • writing as business (not what I want, but what others want)
    1. Also, for those who for some reason prefer curly brackets over Python-style indenting, it is also possible to write:

      Good and sensible.

  16. Jun 2023
  17. May 2023
    1. Thank you for your interest in our Corporate program.  We offer bulk discounts on product for organizations that are looking to incorporate 3x5 Life into their company culture or would like to utilize our product as a way to stay 'top of mind' with their customers.  We offer a co-branded solution to add your personal touch to the cards.

      Much like its predecessors (Park Sherman Co.) 3x5 Life offers co-branded products to corporations.

      Did Memindex do this sort of co-branding? I feel like I've seen something to indicate it.

    1. almost all beginners to RDF go through a sort of "identity crisis" phase, where they confuse people with their names, and documents with their titles. For example, it is common to see statements such as:- <http://example.org/> dc:creator "Bob" . However, Bob is just a literal string, so how can a literal string write a document?

      This could be trivially solved by extending the syntax to include some notation that has the semantics of a well-defined reference but the ergonomics of a quoted string. So if the notation used the sigil ~ (for example), then ~"Bob" could denote an implicitly defined entity that is, through some type-/class-specific mechanism associated with the string "Bob".

  18. Apr 2023
    1. Link to: https://hypothes.is/a/lV19ytGBEe2ynWMu34UKUg

      This depreciation is done at the lowest level of exchange and caused the system to collapse rather quickly. What level is our current exchange done at such that the inequalities are pushed up multiple levels making the system seem more stable? How is instability introduced? How could it be minimized?

      Our current system is valued both by time and skill (using the measure of payment per hour).

      Compare this with salespeople who are paid on commission rather than on an hourly basis. They are then using their skill of sales ability and balancing time (and levels of chance) to create their outcomes, but at the same time, some of their work is built on the platform that sales management or the company provides. Who builds this and how do they get paid for it? Who provides sales leads? How is this calculated into the system costs?

      How do these ideas fit into the Bullshit Jobs thesis?

  19. Feb 2023
    1. If you don't like Zettlekasten (I have my "own" version of Zettlekasten that I use so it's not 100% the original, but it's very heavily based on it - if you hate Zettlekasten this really isn't going to work). 

      https://elizabethfilips.podia.com/validation-cohort-muse

      Elizabeth Filips is running a validation cohort for a course (presumably called MUSE, the marketing name for her "system" as well) on how to take notes and build a zettelkasten (or a second brain—there's evidence that she's taken Tiago Forte's course). She's got some indications that she's using a zettelkasten-like method for creation, but her burgeoning empire also appears to be firmly centered in the productivity porn space. I'm curious how she views her Muse system being different from a zettelkasten?

      She's got an incredibly focused sales funnel web presence here.

    1. Tagging for personal knowledge management is a subject unto itself. Whilenot necessary to get started, I’ve written a free bonus chapter on tags you candownload at Buildingasecondbrain.com/bonuschapter.

      Forte's book is a pathway that acts as just another part of his sophisticated sales funnel.

  20. Jan 2023
    1. Patch based systems are idiotic, that's RCS, that is decades old technology that we know sucks (I've had a cocktail, it's 5pm, so salt away).Do you understand the difference between pass by reference and pass by value?

      Larry makes a similar analogy (pass by value vs pass by reference) to my argument about why patches are actually better at the collaboration phase—pull requests are fragile links. Transmission of patch contents is robust; they're not references to external systems—a soft promise that you will service a request for the content when it comes. A patch is just the proposed change itself.

    1. is zettelkasten gamification of note-taking? .t3_zkguan._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      reply to u/theinvertedform at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/zkguan/is_zettelkasten_gamification_of_notetaking/

      Social media and "influencers" have certainly grabbed onto the idea and squeezed with both hands. Broadly while talking about their own versions of rules, tips, tricks, and tools, they've missed a massive history of the broader techniques which pervade the humanities for over 500 years. When one looks more deeply at the broader cross section of writers, educators, philosophers, and academics who have used variations on the idea of maintaining notebooks or commonplace books, it becomes a relative no-brainer that it is a useful tool. I touch on some of the history as well as some of the recent commercialization here: https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/22/the-two-definitions-of-zettelkasten/.

    1. how important is the concrete syntax of their language in contrast to

      how important is the concrete syntax of their language in contrast to the abstract concepts behind them what I mean they say can someone somewhat awkward concrete syntax be an obstacle when it comes to the acceptance

  21. Dec 2022
    1. “Dr Essai has observed time and again how the finest artists are the ones whose idea of fun is spending hour after hour, day after day doing the same thing over and over and over and over. And then some more. … The essential personality quirk could be described as nothing more than being endlessly fascinated and pleased by the repetitive tasks that make art.”

      This same sort of repetition is seen in the success of salespeople. Can they repetitively make the same (or slowly improving) pitches day after day without getting tired of hearing "no" to eventually the appropriate number of yeses they need to make a living.

  22. Nov 2022
    1. The creators of Scrivener have taken a process that formerly had to be done manually by writers, and built a system of cues that make it easy and natural.
    1. @stephen@social.stephenfry.com

      This is where it starts getting ridiculous.

      First, rather than social.stephenfry.com, stephenfry.com should be sufficient. Look at email. I can set my MX records to point wherever I want. I don't actually have to have a server with A records to field the email traffic.

      Secondly, the @stephen part is superfluous, too! This is something where Mastodon et al had years (decades!) of hindsight to take care of this, and they still messed it up.

    1. For example, I recently read about how Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the same story dozens of times to the same person because he forgets who he already told. Once, when he finished telling his collaborator Tommy Kail a story, Kail said, “That happened to me. I told you that.” They both laughed then Kail added, “That’s why you’re cut out for theater, because you’ll tell it like it’s the first time.” So in the margin I wrote, LIKE IT’S THE FIRST TIME:

      This is interesting for itself.

      (reference: Sicker in the Head)


      It's also interesting because it's an example of regular rehearsal that actors, comedians, storytellers, performers and even salespeople often do to slowly hone and improve their performance or pitch. Each retelling and the response it gives provides subtle hints and clues as to how to improve the story or performance on the next go round, or at least until the thing is both perfected and comes out the same way every time.

  23. Sep 2022
    1. The LISP part, though, is not going well. Porting clever 1970s Stanford AI Lab macros written on the original SAIL machine to modern Common LISP is hard. Anybody with a knowledge of MACLISP want to help?
  24. Aug 2022
    1. Distribution (or place) refers to an organization, or set of organizations, that is involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user
  25. Jul 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s4xx_muNcs

      Don't recommend unless you have 100 hours to follow up on everything here that goes beyond the surface.

      Be aware that this is a gateway for what I'm sure is a relatively sophisticated sales funnel.


      Motivational and a great start, but I wonder how many followed up on these techniques and methods, internalized them and used them every day? I've not read his book, but I suspect it's got the usual mnemonic methods that go back millennia. And yet, these things are still not commonplace. People just don't seem to want to put in the work.

      As a result, they become a sales tool with a get rich quick (get smart quick) hook/scheme. Great for Kwik's pocketbook, but what about actual outcomes for the hundreds who attended or the 34.6k people who've watched this video so far?

      These methods need to be instilled in youth as it's rare for adults to bother.


      Acronyms for remembering things are alright, but not incredibly effective as most people will have issues remembering the acronym itself much less what the letters stand for.


      There seems to be an over-fondness for acronyms for people selling systems like this. (See also Tiago Forte as another example.)

  26. Jun 2022
    1. Want to animate navigations between pages? You can’t (yet). Want to avoid the flash of white? You can’t, until Chrome fixes it (and it’s not perfect yet). Want to avoid re-rendering the whole page, when there’s only a small subset that actually needs to change? You can’t; it’s a “full page refresh.”

      an impedance mismatch, between what the Web is (infrastructure for building information services that follow the reference desk model—request a document, and the librarian will come back with it) versus what many Web developers want to be (traditional app developers—specifically, self-styled product designers with near 100% autonomy and creative control over the "experience")—and therefore what they want the Web browser to be (the vehicle that makes that possible, with as little effort as possible on the end of the designer–developer)

    1. You can download this chapter at Buildingasecondbrain.com/bonuschapter.

      Come be a part of my sales funnel!!!

      ugh... This should generally be sacrilege, but it's even worse when having a solid index (which is roughly the purpose that tags support) is an important part of any commonplace book, especially since John Locke, which a resource Forte has cited elsewhere in his book.

    Tags

    Annotators

  27. May 2022
    1. So many of us share the feeling that we are surrounded byknowledge, yet starving for wisdom. That despite all the mind-expanding ideas we have access to, the quality of our attention isonly getting worse. That we are paralyzed by the conflict betweenour responsibilities and our most heartfelt passions, so that we’renever quite able to focus and also never quite able to rest

      We're 13% into the book already and still being sold on the why we need this... Can we move it along please? Perhaps some will need the "why" story, but in a book about productivity...

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Because we didn’t have real marketing people, we updated the product to became more and more interesting to us, the developers, and less interesting to potential buyers.
    1. an acknowledgement of network effects: LP is unlikely to ever catch on enough to be the majority, so there needs to be a way for a random programmer using their preferred IDE/editor to edit a "literate" program

      This is part of the reason why I advocate for language skins for comparatively esoteric languages like Ada.

  28. Apr 2022
    1. How to Use Real Estate Marketing Automation to Boost Sales in 2022 | Sloboda Studio

      As of 2022, there are more than 2 million realtors in the United States, not all using real estate marketing automation. Craig Eaton, owner of Eaton Realty, believed that real estate companies could keep up with trends without automating real estate marketing. But as the number of competitors increased, Craig had a constant flow of customers. After integrating real estate marketing automation, Eaton Realty processed over 500 leads in the first month. This required full-time work from multiple agents, which may have had a minor impact. This was one of the best examples of how real estate marketing automation can save business costs and have a positive impact on the process.

  29. Jan 2022
    1. Another company, Pietra, connects influencers with manufacturers in order to help them launch their own product lines.

      When manufacturers, like Pietra, help influencers manufacture their own product lines, we've taken another step from big celebrities having their own product lines (think Martha Stewart cookware and other lifestyle plays her company has made).

      This is splitting the difference between the Tupperware parties of old where you're empowering your users to sell your product and having celebrities sell your product.

      What is the next step along this evolutionary path of breaking down the sales funnel? Can it be disintermediated further?

      Another example of this are the thousands of small Etsy shops that are churning out products as intermediaries. An example of this is the proliferation of sticker companies that are selling somewhat custom designs for 2-3x the going rate and adding a rather large mark up for themselves. In this case there are at least some modest creative pieces being added in the value chain, but at what overall cost?

      Will everyone be a manufacturer? When does it all become Amway?

    1. Delightful bread and delighted customers Watch how Father Time Bread is slicing up the competition by delivering fresh bread directly to their customers in custom boxes.

      Bringing a customer experience as a result of a successful sale, attracts new customers and security for the product. Smart strategy.

  30. Aug 2021
    1. "Whether those slashes were forward slashes or back slashes didn't affect how the Web worked," he says, "but it does affect how other developers react to it
  31. Jul 2021
    1. Senior management’s commitment and participation are vital for an organization to become market focused but not sufficient for prolonged success. For maximum results, the market-focused mind-set must invade the entire organization. For example, consider the employees at a Weyerhaeuser sawmill located in the small community of Cottage Grove, Oregon. Far from headquarters in Tacoma, Washington, the general manager of this mill started a program that distinguished his operation from Weyerhaeuser’s other mills in terms of productivity, product profitability, and morale. A cross-section of Cottage Grove employees, from the general manager to forklift drivers, began spending a week at a time as “employees” of their customers. The shipping manager, for instance, ended up working on the receiving dock of a California distribution center. Customer-service representatives worked as a sales assistants in Builders Emporium and Home Depot stores. They were there to look, listen, and learn—not to sell.

      They brought back insights that enabled them to distinguish their mill. They began to wrap their lumber in plastic and paint the ends in a distinctive color. They learned to load the lumber onto railway cars in a way that made it easier to unload. Buyers soon found that they were dealing with field and telephone sales personnel who not only understood their problems but also frequently anticipated them. In customers’ minds, Weyerhaeuser’s lumber became different from any other. It became a branded item in an ocean of undifferentiated offerings.

    2. alco and Betz encouraged managers to spend time investigating customer needs. Over time, both companies concluded that taking over the water-treatment process themselves would result in benefits all around. So they each developed service businesses. For a monthly fee, Nalco and Betz offered to become the industrial facilities’ on-site partners, guaranteeing the best available handling of all water-treatment issues. Customers could focus on their core businesses. Betz and Nalco would provide not only the chemicals but also highly valued technical services. Did customers approach Nalco and Betz management and say, “We wish you would take over our water treatment?” No. It had never occurred to them that a supplier could eliminate their frustrations. Nalco’s and Betz’s managers, by focusing on their customers’ problems, saw the potential benefit themselves. In fact, the idea wasn’t accepted by all customers right away. Both companies spent several years convincing customers to give up their water-treatment functions. But the new businesses they created turned out to be immensely profitable.
    3. Originally, both Nalco and Betz thought of themselves simply as manufacturers and distributors of chemical products that were used in water-treatment processes. Like many such companies, they dropped bags and drums of chemicals at receiving docks and charged by the pound. They competed on the basis of price, service, and quality of products. Fortunately, Nalco and Betz both had cultures that encouraged senior managers and sales representatives to spend a lot of time in the field listening to customers. As a result, top-level executives became more intimately familiar with their customers’ needs. And it became clear that industrial users did not want to deal with water-treatment problems. Maintenance department personnel, for example, wanted to focus on boiler and steam problems, the core of their duties. They did not want to go to water-treatment conferences. Nor did they have time to read the manuals on the subject.
    4. Customers can describe their experiences and define their immediate needs. But only you can interpret their data and help them solve their problems. Being market focused is about your own creativity uncovering and solving your customers’ problems. Creative managers must bring insights and expertise to their customers’ problems.
    5. Without the personal involvement and interest of senior management, it is unlikely that these options would have surfaced. From a practical standpoint, they look like much too big an investment to serve the needs of just one customer. And think of the leverage needed to advocate and nurture such radical options through the existing Chevron structure. Isn’t it the stuff of which career-ending moves are made? But if the benefits for the mining company, the chemical company, and Chevron are large enough, any such investment can justify itself in short order. And that’s just one chain. Chevron is still investigating its options in this area, and its plans currently remain confidential. But imagine the degree of strategic freedom created for the company by these senior level insights. Chevron has moved away from the win-lose game of commodity negotiation and entered the win-win world of differentiation.
    6. Four simple rules can help managers practice market-focused management. 1. Recognize that ‘customer’ means more than the next step in the distribution chain. An important corollary: do not think of your marketplace offering as a commodity. The first step to being market focused: recognize that your customer is more than the next step in the distribution chain.
    7. Wireline’s managers might have spotted the need for segmented services by analyzing the company’s market in a traditional way. But it is very difficult for a large, established corporation, especially one with a fixed culture like Wireline’s, to commit to significant organizational change when that change involves a down-market move. As Wireline’s general manager put it, only the direct experience of spending a day with the San Antonio dentist, from a morning at the office fixing cavities to an afternoon walk in the oil patch, compelled Wireline to redesign its truck and move beyond its elitist mind-set to compete in the smaller property segment

      visit your clients like a human to human connection

    8. When senior managers spend a day in the life of their customers, the rewards are twofold. First, the experience generates new insights into business opportunities, reawakening managers’ instincts and challenging their senses. It also becomes the catalyst for action. Rather than looking at their customers through a one-way mirror, market-focused managers feel their customers’ stresses, joys, disappointments, and rewards. From this personal involvement comes the conviction needed to drive organizational change.
    9. There were to be still other surprises. In the middle of the afternoon, the Chicago printer told the Woodbridge team, “One of the most irritating things for me is the fact that you keep delivering paper in 100-inch rolls. My printing press is 95 inches wide. The first thing I do is chop off 5 inches of product, which creates a lot of scrap and an additional labor operation. I’ve been complaining about this for years.” “That’s news to me,” said Woodbridge’s manufacturing vice president, glaring at the sales rep. It seemed that communication gaps also existed at Woodbridge. “It would be worth studying the engineering to see if we could align the width of our machine with yours,” the Woodbridge engineering services manager said. “Our machine, as far as I know, works only for printing and packaging applications, and most of your colleagues must have similar presses. The only reason we made the paper as wide as we did is that it is generally accepted in the industry that the wider the machine, the cheaper it can make the product.” “If the engineering study works out, we could charge you by the usable square yard rather than by the pound as we do today,” the marketing vice president suggested. “I would like that,” the Chicago printer said, beaming. “I sell square inches of printed stuff, not pounds.” The two sketched out the rough parameters of the engineering, the new economics of the redesigned paper machine, and the associated pricing.
    10. To the surprise of the soup contingent, the first battery of questions didn’t touch on paper or printing. Instead, the Woodbridge delegation asked questions that focused on soup manufacturing and marketing: problems they had, issues they faced, how they could increase their own profit.
    11. Top-level managers need to spend a day in the life of key customers in their distribution chains. There is no substitute for managers’ instincts, imagination, and personal knowledge of the market. It should be the essence of corporate strategy. Only in that context can analytical devices like customer-satisfaction indices, market-share data, and benchmarking results become servants rather than masters. And only with market-focused leadership can companies continuously and quickly reinvent themselves to meet new market needs.
    12. This failure to listen carefully to all customers, to empathize with their needs and desires, results in reduced service levels, streamlined product lines, and uniform product designs. It inadvertently favors cost reduction at the expense of individuality, even when market needs point toward greater customization. What’s more, managers who are not market focused often come to the conclusion that there is really no fundamental difference between their offering and that of their competitors. Commoditization, the natural outgrowth of all competitors fighting with the same weapons, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And commoditization is why so many industrial companies that embraced time-based competition or reengineering may have realized short-term gains but have ended up destroying their industries’ profit margins. If all competitors fight with the same weapons, the natural result is commoditization and declining profit margins.
    13. Finally, unless senior executives make market focus a personal, strategic priority, they will not initiate organizational change, even if all data indicate that such change is warranted. Most top-level managers routinely spend time visiting customers. But all too often, these visits are superficial; the managers don’t invest the effort needed to understand and empathize with the customer. They may have preconceived ideas about a client’s situation and, as a result, may not ask imaginative, probing questions or separate significant kernels of information from the overall picture.
    14. Another danger is that most managers do not understand the distinction between information and knowledge. Even if they include information from all points on the distribution channel, most general market data do not show a manager how each customer relates to the next or how customers view competing products or services. Managers faced with too much general information tend to average results, blur boundaries, and miss distinct, segmented market opportunities
    15. Each link in the chain right down to the end user is as important as the next. Only market data that reflects desires and needs at every step can give senior managers the kind of comprehensive picture they need to make informed, accurate decisions about new services, product positioning, and the like. For consumer goods companies like Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Nike, the chain is short, so even information that doesn’t reflect all steps will probably be on or near target. But for industrial concerns, several steps removed from the end users of a finished product, such an error can result in a grossly inaccurate portrayal of the market.
    16. . Each link in the chain right down to the end user is as important as the next. Only market data that reflects desires and needs at every step can give senior managers the kind of comprehensive picture they need to make informed, accurate decisions about new services, product positioning, and the like.
    17. A senior executive’s instinctive capacity to empathize with and gain insights from customers is the single most important skill he or she can use to direct technologies, product and service offerings, communications programs, indeed, all elements of a company’s strategic posture. Bill Gates, Akio Morita, Sam Walton, and others brought this ability to the enterprises they founded. Without it, their ventures might have been short-lived or at least far less successful.
  32. Apr 2021
    1. We know the audience for such games is limited. In order for us to produce games up to our standards, we rely on a direct sales model. Our games are not designed for traditional distribution or retail channels. The vast majority of all copies produced will be sent to Kickstarter backers or to people who purchase games through our store.  This means we can spend many more resources on the game's physical production without having to worry about retail viability.
    1. While there are people using the app in imaginative, social, and subversive ways, something about its over-all tone seems predetermined—a natural outgrowth of the “creator economy,” the performative intimacy of influencer culture, and the Silicon Valley hype cycle. (Some of the loudest hype men are those best positioned to profit from the hype.) It is hard to shake the feeling that everyone on Clubhouse is selling something: a company, a workshop, a show, a book, a brand.

      So, yes, a ringing endorsement then....

  33. Mar 2021
    1. Colleagues throughout the organization, andespecially those in administrative and leadershiproles, should also practice it so that evidence canguide key decisions. This is also true in the areas ofmarketing and sales, which thrive on the creationand circulation of bullshit.

      Bill Hicks would have approved of this.

  34. Feb 2021
    1. For years, retailers, no matter what time of day or year, have offered sales and advertisements that lure bargain-drooling customers in the doors.
    2. For instance, when faced with a 60% off, 12 hour only coupon that reduces a $1,200 winter coat to $400, you can’t help but rush to the store to buy it, even if it is 95 degrees out. A few things are happening here. For one, the $1200 acts as an anchor price that psychologically forces you to realize you’re getting an enormous deal at the $400 price point. Plus, the promotion limiting the time the offer is available forces you into an impulse.
  35. Oct 2020
    1. The process of onboarding employees often presents unique challenges for sales organizations. Sales reps are often remotely located, so in-person live training for new sales employees can take a heavy toll on already-strained department budgets — particularly if training needs to be delivered small audiences and tailored to specific roles or regions. Video helps to address the specific problems associated with training sales reps by enabling organizations to create a training video library with up-to-date product information, best practices, scenario examples, role-play sales demonstrations, and more for everyone from entry-level sales reps to the most experienced executives. Sales training videos can also improve your new hires’ ability to retain the information that they’ve learned. According to recent research, the retention rate for visual information is about 65%, while the same rate for text-based information is just 10%. Researchers credit interactive video content and the ability to learn at one’s own pace for the increased information retention.

      Training and onboarding new employees in a remote environment is essential. Video training improves retention from 10 to 65%. Improving retention for new employees provides quicker ramp up time and lowers defection rates. Rating 7/10

  36. Sep 2020
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  40. Jul 2019
    1. s such as JavaScript are more difficult to com-pile than statically typed ones. Since no conc

      Test comments

  41. Jun 2019
    1. It has been our nonprofit technology company was started in 2011 the goal, the problem we're trying to solve is is essentially to bring collaboration to the web at scale

      Hey, the point you should have made here.....

  42. Dec 2018
    1. Here’s the simple sales framework I used to answer “sell me this pen”. Memorize it for yourself. Find out how they last used a pen (gather info) Emphasize the importance of the activity they last used a pen (respond to info) Sell something bigger than a pen, like a state of mind (deliver info) Ask for the buy (closing)
  43. Jun 2017
  44. Mar 2017
    1. The therapist-client relationship, I'd suggest, even at its prickliest, is simply not going to produce the stress and pain that can occur when contending narratives meet.

      I'm reading this article very much from the perspective of a former B2B telemarketer, which is the extreme opposite end of the therapist-client relationship. 1) People (especially gatekeepers) hate telemarketers, and 2) people hate spending money, especially when someone else is trying to get them to do it. So much of our strategy was about sidestepping, trying to reframe the situation so it's now outside of their steadfast narratives and making it seem like we're building understanding and mutually helping each other out. Though it's pure deception--my product was terrible and those jackasses with the pocketbook could burn for all I cared.

      I almost want to call up my asshole former boss, a former stockbroker from New Jersey who was all about the hard sell, and chat him up about this.

  45. Jan 2016
    1. Ami Bloomer's new company Clozer provides on-demand sales representatives globally.

      Ami herself currently calls it "the Uber of sales". But that must be a very loose comparison. Anyone who can drive a car could work for Uber, but salesmanship is a talent.

  46. Jun 2015
    1. 8 Profound Marketing Lessons I Learned From Selling at a Food Market

      A great article of basics for any stall-holder, the lessons can easily be applied to non-food...