The Great Discontent – Merlin Mann

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

The Great Discontent described by its creators:

The Great Discontent is an online magazine featuring interviews on beginnings, creativity, and risk.

This particular interview from October 2013 with Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame, and many a podcast worth listening to, provides a somewhat philosophical, though exquisitely realistic view about why we end up doing what we do. Why we think we should know both what we are doing and where we are headed; generally why we don’t know; why those who do often aren’t happy; and why we end up where we do, even though it is not where we think we should be.

And ultimately, why it probably doesn’t really matter in the first place. We are all who we are, where we are from, and more alike than we generally realise.

I wish I could be more helpful and say, “You should find your dream path and paint a rainbow to your love cloud!” But, most of us are so stuck in this notion of how stuff should go that we want to find one of seven stories that matches our narrative. The fact is that most of us are wandering around, scared shitless, wondering what the —-’s going to happen next. That’s as true when you’re 11 as it is when you’re in your 40s. It’s one reason that people feel very discouraged or disinclined to try new things—they feel like it’s not for them.

As my wife and I have always said, things generally don’t get any easier, they just get different:

How many people out there say, “Gosh, I wish I could own a house”? Everybody I know who owns houses are losing their minds trying to make their mortgage payment or they’re scared to death about having to replace the roof. Anybody who wants more money, a better job, or a bigger house is ultimately just wishing for a new set of anxieties. It can be a great set of anxieties, because that means growth, but there are trade-offs to everything.

And a few other gems that ring decidedly true:

If you want to really help people, then go out and help people. It’s like when people say, “Buy this pink yogurt, and a portion of the proceeds will go to charity!” Well, you know what’s really great? Donating directly to a good cause and having the entire portion go to charity—and you don’t have to act like you’re Gandhi because you bought a snack. Just go spend some money on something you care about, then shut up about it: that’s a dignified way to be an adult who helps people.

I would highly recommend reading the entire article, which is a long one, and typically not done justice by the few quotes above – if you do, grab a coffee and settle in for a decent read. This is not one of those scratch the surface internet snippets we are so used to these days, and what makes The Great Discontent a quality site.

In a world going increasingly digital, TGD thinks contrary, and currently has a Kickstarter project running to produce a high quality print version of the publication. Certainly worth considering if a you are at all interested in more in-depth intervies and profiles such as those found on the site.

More can be found on the Kickstarter project page here.

iTunes Radio – First Impressions

/ Pete Denison / 1 Comment

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Almost a week ago Apple released iTunes Radio in Australia. As someone who listens to a reasonable amount of music, that same morning I began listening on my commute into the Brisbane CBD.

My main use of streaming services, (to date has involving both Pandora and Spotify), is to utilise the discovery type features to hopefully stumble across some new music I like. Given I have a reasonably sized collection of my own music accessed through iTunes Match, I have never seen the need to subscribe to the paid or premium levels of any streaming services.

After hearing about iTunes Radio last year, I was keen to see it released in Australia, knowing that as an iTunes Match subscriber I would avoid advertisements, yet have access to a free, curated streaming service. An added advantage was purported to be that iTunes Radio would learn my tastes, and adjust my stations accordingly.

Other features include the ability to build stations based on the artists or songs you choose; play iTunes Radio through any iOS device, Mac or Apple TV; check play history; immediately buy a track from iTunes (of course); utilise Siri for voice control of most features; and easily share stations.

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All of the PR aside, how good is it? For me – I have found a good mix of songs and artists in both the Apple curated Hot Alternative and my own stations based on the Arctic Monkeys and The National I have listened to so far. Although the lack of ads has been nice, this never really bothered me with Pandora, however became somewhat annoying at times when using Spotify (no great complaint though, as I realise I am accessing this music for free, and artists deserve to be paid). How well iTunes Radio learns my preferences will become more apparent with time.

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Personally I would recommend giving iTunes Radio a run. Others have found some faults with the service (relating to the use of the iTunes desktop interface, curation and lack of easy customisation). These aren’t really a problem given most of my listening takes place on iOS devices, and the other points I wouldn’t necessarily agree with from experience. Whether or not the results played by Apple when creating your own stations are to your taste, is simply a matter of, well…your taste. A comparison of Pandora and iTunes Radio and any conclusions drawn are more a reflection of personal taste rather than any definitive conclusion as to the merits of one over the other. Whether certain songs don’t belong in a playlist generated by a particular song or artist, is for you to decide, which again leads me to my recommendation – give it a try.

Is there really anything to lose apart from your time (which would be minimal if you work with music in the background anyway), and perhaps some data if you are streaming on your iPhone or iPad data plan, which, according to Gizmodo, will chew up around 28MB per hour (840MB over 30 days if used an hour per day) – though of course this is not unique to iTunes Radio, and applies to any music streaming. Probably one thing I would like to see is easier access to song and artist information within iTunes Radio itself, rather than having to follow the link back to the iTunes Store (this would be particularly useful with the “Spin the Globe” and “New Artists” featured stations).

I will certainly be utilising iTunes Radio quite a bit, and for the times I want to listen to an entire album or specific, queued tracks I’ll simply head back to iTunes Match. Whether or not the stations align more with my preferences over time remains to be seen, however my early impressions lead me to think Apple will be quite competitive in the music streaming market.

What’s Brewing – Guatemala Finca la Maravilla CoE

/ Pete Denison / 3 Comments

Although now out of stock at Ministry Grounds, I was pleased to get my hands on one of the last remaining bags of this particular coffee. Although I had sampled similar Cup of Excellence offerings at various brew bars around town, I had yet to roast my own CoE. In retrospect, though not a conscious decision, I suspect the slightly higher green price made me a little hesitant to throw it in my home roaster.

Perhaps this suspicion was warranted, as it was not until the second roast batch a couple of weeks after the first did I feel I did the coffee justice. The evolution of my roasting to a lighter roast with more gentle heat increment seemed to better suit the flavour profile of this bean in the cup. Variations in roast batches aside, in the end things turned out pretty well – let’s see how it tasted.

IMG_1821What
– Guatemala La Maravilla CoE Lot 17 2013
– City / Region: La Libertad, Huehuetenango
– Altitude: 1,650–1,800 metres above sea level
– Variety: Bourbon, Caturra
– Processing: Fully Washed and dried on patio
– Farmer: Mauricio Rosales Vasquez
– Farm size: 24.68 hectares
– Cup of Excellence score: 85.83
– Lot size: 42 cartons

The harvest season at La Maravilla is from January to April. For quality control purposes they monitor traceability from handpicking right through until final delivery, and cup individual day lots. The coffee is processed by traditional wet mill and is sun-dried on patios,and then stored in a wood warehouse.

Information courtesy Ministry Grounds Coffee

How
Latte, V60 Pour over, Aeropress

Assessment
Latte – When combined with milk, the resulting drink was a creamy, buttery, medium bodied, malt apple concoction. Probably not the most refined description, however those were the words jotted down in my Field Notes tasting record at the time. Overall, quite an enjoyable milk based drink first thing in the morning. Due to slight daily variations in my espresso based brewing, some days I end up with all of these flavours standing proudly – other days not so, and therefore was little hit and miss for me (my technique variation the culprit here I’m sure).

V60 – Probably the pick of the bunch as far as the brew methods I experimented with. I note many recent What’s Brewing posts lack an espresso tasting component. As mentioned in another post which seems like an eternity ago, I consume these coffees as espresso somewhat less than I used to, preferring longer form brewing methods a little more these days. Back to the V60 and how this Guatemalan fares through the filter.

There was something about this CoE that became apparent with repeated brews through the V60. To my fairly varied yet still amateur palate, the complexities of the flavour profile took a little while to become apparent to me. To explain a little, from the very first cup this was a very, very enjoyable coffee, however not the instantaneous – oh boy! moment that often occurs with great tasting brews. My initial thoughts were that I was missing something – and couldn’t quite describe to myself what I was really tasting. Until one day sitting drinking yet another cup, it was suddenly – there it is.

A feature of my still developing coffee palate? Just a better day? A better roast? A better brew technique? I certainly have no idea which one is responsible – perhaps all of the above. Whatever the key factor was, it certainly had me thinking – I still have a lot to learn about this coffee roasting and brewing game.

For some reason the subtleties suddenly became more obvious, with a bright citrus acidity, cherry and apple flavours combining to form almost a wine like flavour, with a hint of bergamot as the brew cooled. Similar flavours, though infinitely more refined than the dump and bash of the Aeropress (see below). The flavours just seemed to compliment each other much better, and although more subtle, with a little thought were probably more apparent all along than I had realised (characteristics of a Cup of Excellence perhaps, though more likely related to my position a very small way along a considerable learning curve).

Aeropress – Given this is my mid-afternoon office brew, I prefer not to be fiddling about too much and prefer to get in and out of the communal kitchen as efficiently as possible.

As a result, I had shied away from the inverted brew method (fearing disasters and incurring the wrath of those perhaps annoyed by a coffee snob in their midst), until learning the following method in a Brew Class at the Cup Coffee Roastery in December last year. The entire process is mess free and pretty quick, at 1:15 total time:

  • 12–14g coffee (slightly finer grind than usual); 200g water
  • Aeropress inverted
  • Shot of chilled water, then hot to fill chamber (swirling as fill)^
  • Add rinsed filter paper and cap
  • gently squeeze out air
  • flip Aeropress onto cup
  • 30 second press time
  • enjoy the brew after minimal clean-up

^ As I am limited to the “always boiling” hot water urn rather than a kettle, the shot of chilled, filtered water cools the overall brew a little and avoids dumping boiling water directly onto the ground coffee.

The result is a refreshing bright cup, with a hint of apple, along with a citrus orange acidity, and also seems a little herby. Somewhere in there was also a hint of cherry jam (hey! – that’s what my notes said). A bright clean finish made for a very enjoyable brew.

Conclusion; Know This
Despite my initial roast batch not reaching the heights of the second go around with this coffee, as you may have gathered, this has perhaps been one of my favourite varieties so far. Its one thing to taste a coffee and note down a few flavours and tastes that show through, however entirely another to suddenly sense how they all fit together. Eloquent is not a word I would use in describing how well I have written about this particular coffee above, however have given it my best shot.

In summary, let’s just say it was like one of those albums that upon first listen you think is OK, then by the fourth or fifth run though it becomes one of your all time favourites. Whilst there are many more varieties yet to sample, and this may not end up as one of my all time favourites, it is certainly up there in the mix.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Passion, death or somewhere in between

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

James Rhodes, Concert Pianist, writing in The Guardian (via Stephen Pressfield Online):

I imagine authors have lost count of the number of people who have told them they “always had a book inside them”. We seem to have evolved into a society of mourned and misplaced creativity.

We all know or perhaps even live, similar stories. “If I only had more time, I could have really made a go of writing that book, setting up that online store or actually building that boat”. If we are entirely honest with ourselves, is it ever – no, think about it and be honest, really ever about the time? Or simply a question of priority and choices. I highly recommend reading the full article by Rhodes, for he makes some compelling points, of which many relate to the fact that really no one else is to blame for these aspirations remaining not simply undone, but never attempted.

The approach taken by Rhodes? One of extremes (though I imagine becoming a concert pianist takes extreme commitment), hence the title of the article Find What You Love and Let it Kill You:

… no income for five years, six hours a day of intense practice, monthly four-day long lessons with a brilliant and psychopathic teacher in Verona, a hunger for something that was so necessary it cost me my marriage, nine months in a mental hospital, most of my dignity and about 35lbs in weight.

An extreme case no doubt, and not an approach I would necessarily recommend, however it met with success.

For most of us, the answer more closely resembles something slightly different, perhaps in line with the following from David Ferguson, writing in The Onion :

Just find the thing you enjoy doing more than anything else, your one true passion, and do it for the rest of your life on nights and weekends when you’re exhausted and cranky and just want to go to bed.

and further:

Because when you get right down to it, everyone has dreams, and you deserve the chance—hell, you owe it to yourself—to pursue those dreams when you only have enough energy to change out of your work clothes and make yourself a half-assed dinner before passing out

Despite much of Ferguson’s article being written with tongue firmly in cheek, it is a reality many of us are confronted with. Am I kidding myself if I think the few interests outside my day job will ever amount to anything more than ‘things’ I choose to spend my spare time doing – probably yes. I accept they will not support my family, nor will they afford me an early retirement. Do I expect them to? Not for a second. Will I continue to get up early, stay up late and squeeze them in on weekends? For sure.

Furthermore, were I to pursue these interests with the sole purpose of turning them into my ‘job’ – what would they become? Well, hard work of course. Do I want that? Actually I don’t. I’d then spend all my time working on what were immensely enjoyable activities outside of work, and then – write about my, well…work.

Whilst I understand the merits, I have never truly subscribed to the “find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life” theory. Mine? Thus:

One keeps me sane, the other gives me shelter from the rain

Your choice, though don’t tell me, or more to the point, don’t tell yourself, you don’t have time. It’s decidedly simple, if you really want to do it, you’ll find the time. Actually you won’t find the time. Prioritise and you will create the time. Think you have no time to finish anything like this? I guarantee you have the time to start. Once you start – you have the time to do a little more, and then another little bit, and a bit more again, even after you’ve done nothing on it for a month.

If it takes a little more effort, and perhaps a little less sleep, it won’t really kill you will it. And that’s the point. You don’t need to find what you love and let it kill you. You know what you love. You simply need to find the will to start, and then just…keep…going.

Is it then worth finishing?

That is for you to answer, however as Ferguson so eloquently concludes:

… even if it doesn’t work out, don’t you owe it to yourself to look in the mirror and confidently say, “You know what, I gave it my best half-hearted shot”?

iOS Tips

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

In this dept4 x 4, tips relating to Apple’s mobile operating system, which in all likelihood you already know, though I find occasionally the simple things can be overlooked. I’ve found the following very useful, or at least a more elegant and efficient way of doing certain tasks in iOS.

1. Close all tabs in mobile Safari

When clicking through links from various sources of information I am reading on my iPhone, I invariably end up with numerous tabs open in mobile Safari. Whilst they can simply be brought up in card view through the Tab icon (two overlapping squares in the bottom right corner of the screen) and swiped left to close individually, a more efficient technique is as follows:

  1. Tap on the ‘Tab’ icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen
  2. Tap on ‘Private’
  3. Tap ‘Close All’ when asked in the pop up
  4. Tap on the ‘Tab’ icon and tap ‘Private’ again (to exit Private browsing mode)
  5. Tap on ‘Done’

The above works for any number of open tabs, though I tend to use it most when there at least three or four open. More about Private browsing from Apple Support can be found here.

2. Turn off Flashlight from lock screen

The most common use I have for the flashlight on my phone is when I am delving deeply into an entanglement of cords, for example when switching peripherals on our home computer or television. The flashlight comes in handy in preventing me trying to ram a HDMI cable into a USB port.

After switching on the Flashlight function through Control Center, I lock my screen to avoid accidental taps. One tip I have found quite handy is tapping on the camera icon in the bottom right corner of the lock screen will turn off the flashlight. And yes, whilst I have Control Center access enabled for my lock screen, the above saves me having to swipe up to access Control Center, turn off the Flashlight and swipe down to close Control Center again. One tap is all it takes.

3. Power button phone shortcuts

With a call active on the iPhone, a quick press of the power button at the top of the device will end the call (note this will not work if you are in another App during the call or if an external ear piece/microphone is attached).

Although handy if your screen is unresponsive (ie severely cracked), I like this feature simply because of its ease of use. The power button also comes in handy for incoming calls, with a single press silencing the ringer (also stops vibration if in silent mode), or double press to send a call straight to voice mail.

4. iCloud Photo Sharing

Though probably a little more extensive than the quick use tips above, iCloud photo sharing (not to be confused with My Photostream) is a great way to give family and friends access to an album of photos without needing to message or email them to multiple people, or endlessly post to social media (aside from the fact they may not be photos you wish to share publicly).

Shared iCloud photo streams will support video (My Photostream will not), and the streams you create will be permanently stored (up to 100 streams with a 5000 photo limit per stream), rather than your last 1000 photos only, as is the case with My Photostream. More on this can be found on the Apple support page.

Shared iCloud streams are simple to set up:

  1. Access the “Shared” Tab at the bottom of the Photos app on your iOS device
  2. Tap the ‘+’ button to create a stream
  3. Name the stream
  4. Invite those you wish to share it with (sharing is optional, bypass by going straight to step 5)
  5. Tap on ‘Create’.
  6. Manually select photos to add photos to the stream.

Captions and comments can be added to photos by you or those who share the stream, and other members will be able to upload their own photos for all to see.

Overall, a great way to permanently store (and share) your photos by the power of iCloud.

Hopefully some or all of the four tips above will enhance your iOS experience, and finally, when next in the app switching view (after double clicking the home button), swipe on the row of icons along the bottom rather than the application panes for much faster scrolling.