On Email Disclaimers

Posted on October 11, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

On whether to create email disclaimers that have:

no qualms about indulging in the more obnoxious trademarks of legalese, including but not limited to (i) the phrase “including but not limited to”, (ii) the use of “said” as an adjective, (iii) re-naming conventions that have little to no basis in vernacular English and, regardless, never actually recur (hereinafter referred to as “the 1980 Atlanta Falcons”), (iv) redundant, tedious, and superfluous repetition of synonymous terms . . .

The whole thing is hilarious and spot on.  I think I’m going to remove said disclaimer right now.

(Via Ben Brooks)

D. Mark Jackson

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Goodbye Steve

Posted on October 5, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

Apple Home Page, October 5, 2011

I just learned that Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56.  He changed the way we interact with machines — in transformative fashion — making the world a better place.  He’s left a tremendous legacy and inspired a lot of talented people to build great things. And that’s saying a lot in my book. He will be missed.

Update:  Jason Kottke provides us with an excellent sampling for remembering and reflecting on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs.

D. Mark Jackson

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Thoughts On The iPhone 4S Announcement

Posted on October 5, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

The internet has practically shut down with commentary on yesterday’s announcement. So I’ll contribute sparingly.

The keynote can be viewed online. It runs over an hour. One gets some basic sense of what Apple culture might look like post-Steve Jobs. But clearly this was a carefully scripted production.

Apple obviously dominates the tablet market and arguably the smartphone market as well. This single company is now a powerful force in the world.

Here’s a few thoughts on the announcements:

  • iCloud will be great, if it actually works. History suggests it will.
  • The improved camera and video recorder is the main reason I will upgrade from my 3GS. Having a decent camera and recorder in my pocket (especially if you have kids!), is one of the best reasons to own an iPhone.
  • Siri, the new voice recognition and AI application, looks like a great new feature. Essentially, you’ll be able to control many applications with your voice, using natural speech patterns and contextual understanding. People who spend a lot of time in the car will find this very useful. I don’t drive much and am more frequently in situations where I prefer to type in private versus speak out loud. But for routine tasks like looking up facts, getting directions, or adding calendar entries, this will be a time saver. I hope it’ll be available on the iPad.
  • What effect will this “humble personal assistant” have on the marketplace for human assistants, especially when the technology is mature? The automation makes quick work of lots of tasks. And the access to personal information (more than most folks would share with a real assistant) means the application isn’t restricted to work tasks.
  • Apple does a great job taking useful but cumbersome workflows, and making them simple. They transform hacks — which might only be adopted by a handful of amateur geeks — into straightforward routines for average people. For example, I have a system for creating reminders when on the go. It uses Voice Control to call ReQall, which sends a message to an email account, which gets turned into an Omnifocus task, which gets synched via MobileMe to multiple devices. It works, but it’s super hacky. Apple seems to ask: What do average people want to do, and can we find a way to make it easy and maybe even fun? That’s a winning a strategy.
  • Relatedly, I wonder how these recent rollouts will affect small developers. It seems like Remember the Milk, Instapaper, and Nuance (albeit not that small) are all going to take a hit from these latest deployments. Apple controls hardware and integration, allowing them to improve on any existing idea, in theory. Maybe this is a short term view, since Apple seems to foster more development than it quashes. At least that’s my read from the sidelines.

The big question: Do you plan to buy the new iPhone?

D. Mark Jackson

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Does Automation Diminish Our Basic Skills?

Posted on September 21, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

Photo Credit: Rui Caldeira

Pilot Patrick Smith has another interesting article on cockpit automation and flight safety, something this blog has considered before.

Has automation reduced pilots’ basic “stick and rudder” skills?  His answer:  “Probably, yes.”

But the more interesting discussion is how automation has grafted a new technological skill set onto basic flying:

[A]utomation is merely a tool. You still need to tell the airplane what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. There are, for example, no fewer than six different ways that I can program in a simple climb or descent on my 757, depending on preference or circumstances. The automation is not flying the plane. The pilots are flying the plane through this automation.

A fitting metaphor for other knowledge work.  Technology hasn’t changed what we do, as much as changed how we interface with machines to get it done.  The tools have changed.  The work, fundamentally, has not.

Of course, interfaces are complicated and can even add to our overall workload:

If you ask me, the modern cockpit hasn’t sapped away a pilot’s skills so much as overloaded and overburdened them, in rare instances leading to a dangerous loss of situational awareness.

A danger for all of us.  Alarms, notifications, badges, and our ever-expanding landscape of electronic inputs, distract us from real work.  Whether that’s landing a plane, or delivering a project.

This has given birth to a meta-skill: the ability to sift, filter, and organize the elements of our work.  Our first challenge, then, is to maintain situational awareness in a complicated world.

Update:  Interesting post on maintaining situational awareness in e-discovery.

D. Mark Jackson

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Should You Sit Or Stand At Work?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

According to Cornell University ergonomics experts, the key is to “build movement variety into the normal workday.” The bottom line:

Sit to do computer work. Sit using a height-adjustable, downward titling keyboard tray for the best work posture, then every 20 minutes stand for 2 minutes AND MOVE. The absolute time isn’t critical but about every 20-30 minutes take a posture break and move for a couple of minutes.  Simply standing is insufficient. Movement is important to get blood circulation through the muscles. Research shows that you don’t need to do vigorous exercise (e.g. jumping jacks) to get the benefits, just walking around is sufficient. So build in a pattern of creating greater movement variety in the workplace (e.g. walk to a printer, water fountain, stand for a meeting, take the stairs, walk around the floor, park a bit further away from the building each day)

This gels with my own experience. I thought of getting a Geek Desk when I moved offices. But I just don’t write as well when standing, and my knees hurt after awhile. Conversely, I have an easier time talking on the telephone when standing. And I do my best reading when slouched on the couch or leaning back in a chair. The best workday, physically, seems to include a steady variety of these activities and postures.

And walking down to the water cooler might actually help your productivity.

(Via John Gruber and Dan Moren)

D. Mark Jackson

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The Aesthetics Of Order

Posted on September 12, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

Interesting and elegant conceptual photography from Ursus Wehrli:

This video shows how one of the photos sets was made. Watch as the artist organizes a group of sunbathers, and all their gear, into well-ordered groups.

Any lessons here?

Organizing takes work! [Suggestion: the next time you have to organize people and beach equipment on a hot day, don't wear a three piece suit].

Some things are more functional and useful in a disordered state. Think of your desk covered with support materials while engaging in a major project. What’s the point of going to the beach to lie in a line and segregate beach toys into individual piles? Maybe certain aspects of your work would be more productive and fun if you allowed more disorder.

Apparent disorder can actually be the true state of order. Again think about the sunbathers. True order is when each sunbather is gathered alongside his or her own beach toys and umbrellas. Not when all the umbrellas are grouped together. Most of us put our pens into one area of a drawer, in a group. Maybe true order is to scatter the pens around the office. Several on the desk, one in a notebook, one in the briefcase, and so on.

Finally, order can be beautiful. But disorder — even with the same constituents which could be ordered — may be more beautiful.  Such is the night sky.

(via Kottke)

D. Mark Jackson

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Back In The Saddle

Posted on September 9, 2011 by D. Mark Jackson

After a necessary break, I’m back.  Normal posting on this site will resume shortly.  I look forward to sharing some new ideas with you in the coming days.

D. Mark Jackson

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A Little Perspective On Technology

Posted on November 30, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

Credit: Flickr - Eénwielige motorfiets /Nationaal Archief

Forty years ago, the most advanced piece of technology in a law office — or most any office — was an electric typewriter.  That’s a useful anchor when contemplating whether to buy an iPad now or wait for the next generation in — God forbid — April 2011.   Patrick Lindsey provides some useful historical perspective:

• in the mid-1970s, the modern telephonic fax machine goes on the market;

• in the late 1970s, Lexis (now LexisNexis) and Westlaw develop the first electronic research databases;

• in 1980, WordPerfect 1.0 is released; the first IBM PC goes on sale the next year;

• in the mid-1980s, a first-generation cellular telephone network is established in the United States;

• in 1990, an international consortium launches the World Wide Web;

• in 1993, Adobe Systems unveils the Portable Document Format (which you probably know as the PDF). By the early 2000s, many federal district courts allow electronic filing and state courts follow suit.

For many lawyers now, of course, our biggest challenge isn’t implementing new technology. That’s the fun part. Rather it’s dealing with the enormous amount of data these technologies have created.

D. Mark Jackson

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Get Negative, Get Productive?

Posted on August 3, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

In honor of Monday being over, here’s news that might make you happy (but hopefully won’t?):

Melancholy might just help you hit peak performance, reports Joseph Forgas, a professor of psychology at the University of New South Wales, in the journal Australasian Science. Forgas reviewed several of his studies in which researchers induced either a good or bad mood in volunteers. Each study found that people in a bad mood performed tasks better than those in a good mood. Grumpy people paid closer attention to details, showed less gullibility, were less prone to errors of judgment and formed higher-quality, persuasive arguments than their happy counterparts.

Many of us probably can recall instances negative of emotions boosting mental performance. But what about the other factors that allow you to work well, such as motivation and focus. For example, if you’re feeling negative about work, you’re probably not going to be motivated to do it.  And if you’re feeling negative about something other than work, you’re probably going to be distracted. And chronic negative feelings about work are apparently deadly too.

So, on balance, it’s surely better to remain a Jedi and avoid the dark side.

D. Mark Jackson

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Fred Brooks On Failure And Design

Posted on July 30, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

Wired Magazine features an interview with Fred Brooks, author of Mythical Man-Month and The Design of Design.  My two favorite lines:

Brooks: You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you’re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality

….

Wired: You’re a Mac user. What have you learned from the design of Apple products?

Brooks: Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera, once said that his method of design was to start with a vision of what you want and then, one by one, remove the technical obstacles until you have it. I think that’s what Steve Jobs does. He starts with a vision rather than a list of features.

Read the whole thing. I just wish the interview were longer.

(via Kottke)

(photo: Jerry Markatos/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

D. Mark Jackson

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