It’s Really Fast…Once You Get Used To It
Productivity is a fleeting thing in this household, but productivity tools, well, these are becoming a vice. My reconversion to the Mac has left me vulnerable to the great sweeping wave of hyper-usable applications that crashes over us all. Mac users, it seems, have taken on a great conquest to out-Apple Apple Corp. by cranking out one clever and ostensibly life-saving application after another, and hell, I’m trying them all. I’m holding out on the Cult of GTD, but I’ve Notational Velocity‘d, NovaMinded, Sciral Consistency‘d, iCal‘d, Quicksilvered, and SubEthaEdited with nobody in particular. Many of these apps are selling for cash and certainly a tidy sum is made on a few of them. The trend has legs, and she knows how to use ‘em.
These applications, curiously Mac-only, are being eked out at rates faster than I can consume. OS X is the great enabler of an impulse within its users to slicken that which is already slick, to reduce two clicks to one click to no clicks at all. Software in all its draggable, scriptable, reorganizable glory; is it any wonder we now need filters, curators, digital Martha Stewarts, to help us sort through it all? The sordid truth is…if Merlin Mann has suggested it, I’ve already got three copies.
Behind every trend lurks a great question: will it last? Despite my efforts, I’m not one iota more productive, to which the frequency of blog posts here can attest. I am merely a deranged hobbyist, tinkering until I get tired. I will go out on a rather uncourageous limb—more of a stump, really—and say that the fad will either die, or the best parts of it will be folded into the OS itself and Steve Jobs will laugh a mean, all-knowing laugh and then buy another turtleneck.
Here’s why: as unctuous as these applications have become, customization is never the province of Joe User. Most people simply don’t stray, and are content to work around inconveniences. An awkward dialog box or an extra click never hurt anybody—you get used to it. Take a walk around your office sometime: rows of default blue XP installs, with the grassy hill background and useless left Explorer panel. Personalized Menus inexplicably stay enabled. ToolTips at every startup. Clippy. How my coworkers tolerate this tangle of insistent “help” I cannot say, but I can safely conclude that users obsessed with their UIs are not a common sort.
However, the spate of productivity apps (and surely a snappier name for this category will arise soon) clearly demonstrates a productivity sweet spot somewhere between the default settings and a set of command-reading electrodes cupped to your nipples. I’m along for the ride, but there comes a point where two clicks ain’t so much better than three. The people who defend a clumsy app like vi (“it’s really fast…once you get used to it“) to the death, well, they wouldn’t want all their apps designed like that, would they?
I must say…it is fun to hold a bit of mystery over the heads of others in your computerly doings. Rattling off Quicksilver commands quick as a snap sometimes elicits a, “Whoa…wh…what did you just do there?” from a befuddled onlooker. And I suppose Mac users have vested interest: dropping so much cash on a computer entitles you to a little cachet. It remains my opinion that these applications are far from essential, and can just as easily distract as assist. I believe productivity comes from a deeper place. A settled soul, contentment, resolve, desire…whatever. Writers used to write longhand by candlelight, and the craft of writing hasn’t gotten any better since those days. At least it’s a hell of a lot prettier.
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