Pluralistic: Tabs give me superpowers (25 Jan 2024)

doctorow · 2024-01-25T19:36:33.470Z

Originally published at: Pluralistic: Tabs give me superpowers (25 Jan 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Today's links

Tabs give me superpowers: Lifehacks are good, actually.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

A screenshot of Firefox opening several tabs at once.

Tabs give me superpowers (permalink)

"Lifehacking" is in pretty bad odor these days, and with good reasons: a once-useful catch-all for describing how to make things easier has become a pit of productivity porn, grifter hustling, and anodyne advice wreathed in superlatives and transformed into SEO-compliant listicles.

But I was there when lifehacking was born, and I'm here to tell you, it wasn't always thus. Lifehacking attained liftoff exactly 19 years and 348 days ago, on Feb 11, 2004, when Danny O'Brien presented "Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks" at the 0'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (aka ETCON). I was there, and I took notes:

https://craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt

O'Brien's inspiration was his social circle, in which people he knew to be no smarter or better or motivated than anyone else in that group were somehow able to do much more than their peers, in some specific domain. O'Brien delved deeply into these peoples' lives and discovered that each of them had merely ("merely!") gotten very good at using one or two tools to automate things that would otherwise take up a lot of their time.

These "hacks" freed up their practitioners to focus on things that mattered more to them. They accomplished the goal set out in David Allen's Getting Things Done: to make a conscious choice about which things you are going to fail to do today, rather than defaulting to doing the things that are easy and trivial, at the expense of the things that matter, but are more complicated:

https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/

One trait all those lifehacks shared: everyone who created a little hack was faintly embarrassed by it, and assumed that others who learned about their tricks would find them trivial or foolish. O'Brien changed the world by showing that other people were, in fact, delighted and excited to learn about their peers' cool little tricks.

(Unfortunately, this eventually opened the floodgates of overheated posts about some miraculous hack that turned out to indeed be silly and trivial or even actively bad, but that wasn't O'Brien's fault!)

I'm one of those people whom others perceive as very "productive." There are some objective metrics on which this is true: I wrote nine books during lockdown, for example. Like the lifehackers O'Brien documented in 2004, I have lots of little hacks that aren't merely a way of getting more done – they're a way to make sure that I get the stuff that matters to me (taking care of my family and my health, and writing books) done.

A lot of these lifehacks boil down to making your life easier. There's a spot on our kitchen counter where I put e-waste. Whenever I go out to the car, I carry any e-waste out and put it in a bag in the trunk. Any time I'm near our city dump, I stop and throw the bag into their e-waste bin. This is now a habit, and habits are things you get for free: I spend zero time thinking about e-waste, which means I have more time to think about things that matter (and our e-waste still ends up in the right place).

There's other ways I use habits to make my life easier: after many years, I learned how to write every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

For longer-form works like novels, I "leave myself a rough edge," finishing the day's work in the middle of a sentence. That way I get a few words for free the next day, meaning I never start the day's work wondering which words I'll type:

https://locusmag.com/2014/01/cory-doctorow-cheap-writing-tricks/

One of the most powerful habits I've cultivated is to have a group of daily tabs that I open in a new browser every morning. The meat of this tab group is websites I want to check in with every day, either because they don't have RSS feeds, or because I want to make sure I never miss an update.

This tab-group habit started before RSS was widespread, when most of the websites I wanted to check in on every day didn't have feeds yet, and for many years, this group was just a set of daily reads. But over the years, I started throwing things in the tab-group that I needed to stay on top of.

My daily tabs are in a folder called "unfucked rota" (they were originally in a folder called "rota," which got corrupted and had to be reconstructed in a folder I called "fucked rota," until I finally took a couple hours off and got it in good running order, hence "unfucked rota"). As I type this, "unfucked rota" contains more than a hundred websites I visit every morning, but it also contains:

The edit-history pages for four Wikipedia entries I'm watching;
Chronological feeds of my books on Amazon and Audible, to catch counterfeits as they are posted;
The parent notification portal for my kid's school;
The mileage history for the airline I flew on yesterday (I'll delete this once the flight is posted);
The credit card history for a card I reported a fraudulent charge on (I'll delete this once the refund is posted);
The sell-pages for three products that are out of stock (I'll delete these once the products are in stock and ordered);
A bookmarked newest-first Ebay search for a shirt I like that has been discontinued by the manufacturer;
The new-survey-completed pages for my last two Kickstarters;
The courier tracking page for an item being shipped sea-freight to me from Asia.

The tail end of this unfucked rota changes all the time, but as you can tell, it's got a lot of stuff that would be time-consuming to build a whole new system to track, but which has a web-page that can be easily added to a daily, habitual check-in and then removed when it's not relevant anymore.

Some of these things have email notifiers or RSS feeds, but those are too easy to lose in the noise. I generally delete email from ecommerce sites unread, since 99.99% of the messages they send me are unsolicited marketing nonsense, not the "notify me when this is back in stock" message I do want to see (same goes for my kid's school, which sends me fifty unimportant messages for every message that I must reply to).

Most of the internet is still on the web, which means it can be bookmarked, which means that it takes me one second to add it to the group of things I'm staying on top of, and one second to remove from that group. I get up in the morning, middle-click the "unfucked rota" item in my bookmarks pane, make a cup of coffee, and then sit down and race through those tabs, close-close-close.

It takes less than a second to scan a tab to see if it's changed (and if I close a tab too quickly, the ctrl-shift-T "unclose" shortcut is there in muscle-memory, another habit). The whole process takes between one and 15 minutes (depending on whether there's anything useful and new in one of those tabs).

Tabs, like lifehacks, are also in bad odor. Everyone stresses about how many tabs they have open. It's even inspired Rusty Foster's excellent newsletter, Today In Tabs:

https://www.todayintabs.com/

But this is a very different way to think about tabs. Rather than opening a window full of tabs that need your detailed, once-off attention later, this method is about using groups of tabs so that you can pay cursory, frequent attention to them.

In a world full of administrative burdens, where firms and institutions play the "sure, we'll do that, but you're going to have to track our progress" game to get out of living up to their obligations, this method is a powerful countermeasure:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

My little tab habit is so incredibly useful, such a powerful way to seize back time and power from powerful actors who impose burdens on me, that I sometimes forget how, for other people, tabs are a symptom of a life that's spiraling out of control. For me, a couple hundred tabs are a symbol of a couple hundred tasks that I'm totally on top of, a symbol of control wrestled back from others who are hostile to my interests.

This isn't how tabs were "meant" to be used, of course. It's an example of the kind of "innovation" that comes from users repurposing things in ways their designers didn't necessarily anticipate or intend.

This is what Jonathan Zittrain meant by "generative" technology back in 2008, when he published his incredibly prescient *The Future of the Internet: And How To Stop It":

https://memex.craphound.com/2008/07/22/zittrains-the-future-of-the-internet-how-to-save-the-internet-from-the-internet/

For Zittrain, "generativity" was the property of some technologies that let its users generate new, useful tools and solutions for themselves (this is very different from "generative AI!")

Zittrain described how "curated" computing systems, like mobile devices that relied on apps that couldn't be adapted by their users, were dead ends for generativity. 15 years later, the dismal world of apps has proven him right:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited

To the extent that "lifehacking" is about doing more, rather than being more deliberate about what you accomplish, it can be harmful. I am not immune to the failure modes of lifehacking:

https://locusmag.com/2017/11/cory-doctorow-how-to-do-everything-lifehacking-considered-harmful/

But overall, using tabs as something I close, rather than something I open, is a source of comfort and calm for me. For one thing, ripping through a group of tabs every morning means that I don't have to worry about missing something if I go too fast. I'll get another chance tomorrow:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/27/probably/

Decades ago, Dori Smith dubbed her pioneering blog her "#Backup Brain":

https://web.archive.org/web/20020120231027/http://www.backupbrain.com/

At their best, our systems – be they physical, like a spot on the counter where the e-waste goes, or digital, like a tab-group – are "congitive prostheses." They allow us to move important things from the highly contested, busy and precious space between our ears and out there into the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

Like those lifehackers that O'Brien studied for his presentation in 2004, I confess to feeling a little silly about telling you all about this. For me, this habit of decades is so ingrained that it feels trivial and obvious. And yet, when I look at people in my life struggling to stay on top of a million nagging administrative tasks that could be easily watched through a morning's flick through a tab-group, I can't help but think that maybe some of you will find a useful idea or two in my unfucked rota.

Hey look at this (permalink)

Am I My Colleagues’ Keeper When It Comes to Disclosing Connections? https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4700214 (h/t Credit Slips)
Authors Are Fighting Amazon’s Audible https://blog.libro.fm/authors-are-fighting-amazons-audible/
BREAKING: Union Membership Edges Up, Density Down in 2023 https://radishresearch.substack.com/p/breaking-union-membership-edges-up (h/t Hamilton Nolan)

A Wayback Machine banner.

This day in history (permalink)

#20yrsago Towards a non-evil social networking service https://foe.typepad.com/blog/2004/01/my_social_netwo.html

#20yrsago What kind of people are companies? https://kottke.org/04/01/the-corporation

#15yrsago Disagree with a flight attendant? You’re a terrorist https://web.archive.org/web/20090130091134/http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/26/95937/9820/454/689074

#10yrsago Korean plastic surgeon removes towering jars of excised jawbones after fine https://web.archive.org/web/20140123162257/https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/plastic-surgeon-builds-glass-jawbone-tower-filled-with-patients-removed-jaws/story-fneuz9ev-1226809081700

#10yrsago #Euromaidan: Must-see photos and stories from the front lines https://web.archive.org/web/20140131083503/http://zyalt.livejournal.com/984735.html

#10yrsago Why the hyper-rich turn into crybabies when “one percent” is invoked https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-brittle-grip-part-2

#5yrsago Predatory lender found to have swindled veterans’ pensions for eight years, so Trump’s CFPB fined him $1 https://theintercept.com/2019/01/26/cfpb-mulvaney-discount/

#5yrsago Spies tried to infiltrate Citizen Lab and trick them into talking about their research on Israeli spytech company NSO Group https://www.seattletimes.com/business/apnewsbreak-undercover-agents-target-cybersecurity-watchdog-2/

#5yrsago The Curse of Bigness: Tim Wu channels Brandeis on Big Tech (and Big Everything Else) https://memex.craphound.com/2019/01/26/the-curse-of-bigness-tim-wu-channels-brandeis-on-big-tech-and-big-everything-else/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025
The Bezzle, a Martin Hench noir thriller novel about the prison-tech industry. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2024
Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM
Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

Latest podcast: What kind of bubble is AI? https://craphound.com/news/2024/01/21/what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/
Upcoming appearances:

The Lost Cause at Otherland (Berlin), Jan 28
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/zusaetzlicher-autor-innenabend-mit-cory-doctorow.html?day=20240128&times=1706466600,1706466600
Marshall McLuhan Lecture 2024 (Berlin), Jan 29
https://transmediale.de/en/2024/event/mcluhan-2024
The Lost Cause at Otherland (Berlin), Jan 30
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/autor-innenabend-mit-cory-doctorow.html
The Bezzle at Third Place Books (Seattle), Feb 26
https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow
Tuscon Festival of Books, Mar 9/10
https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=676

Recent appearances:

Enshittification: The Rise and Fall of Big Tech (Crash Course Economics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7AxrFQ7jIM
Generation of Lost Causes with Vass Bednar (Toronto Public Library)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rGj5VaJSDQ
Low-Key Clippy (This Week In Tech)
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/963

Latest books:

"The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)
"The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
"Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.
"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
"How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
"Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books:

The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books, February 2024
Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025
Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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magic-trash · 2024-01-27T14:39:42.366Z

Cool tip. But what I want to know is how Cory collects and organizes links, including dates he accessed them. Not the ones that get destroyed in the retention schedule after they’re no longer active business, but the ones that get retained. Does he just post straight to tumblr anything he wants to keep track of and then mines his tumblr for past links?

mindysan33 · 2024-01-28T18:48:26.056Z

Seems like he does curate his link dumps? But I don’t know…

But agreed, it’s nice to see his process here and how it helps him be more productive in doing the things that matter…

doctorow · 2024-01-28T21:09:49.765Z

I have a private Wordpress instance, memex.craphound.com, that has all my Boing Boing posts. Every morning, I open tabs for this day in previous years (for example, tomorrow, I’ll open January 31, 2019 – Cory Doctorow's MEMEX, January 31, 2014 – Cory Doctorow's MEMEX, http://memex.craphound.com/2009/01/31, January 31, 2004 – Cory Doctorow's MEMEX as well as January 31, 2023 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow) and go through all the posts!

waterfoodearthcosmos · 2024-01-30T16:48:03.634Z

In case you did not come cross this between 2021 and now about his blogging style and methods and want to dig deeper:

The Memex Method: When your commonplace book is a public database pluralist

Originally published at: https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method-when-your-commonplace-book-is-a-public-database/ [The complex, hand-wired backplane of an electromechanical supercomputer at the Computer History Museum boneyard; it is an impossible tangle of wires joining various subassemblies.] I’ve been a blogger for a little more than 20 years and in that time I’ve written a little more than 20 books: novels for adults; novels for teens; short story collections; essay …

mindysan33 · 2024-01-31T01:46:30.313Z

No wonder you wrote nine books during lockdown! So organized!

waterfoodearthcosmos:

In case you did not come cross this between 2021 and now about his blogging style and methods and want to dig deeper

thanks!

system · 2024-02-09T19:37:25.771Z

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