It’s late on Monday 23rd and I’m typing this weekly recap that I was supposed to write on a Sunday but it’s been a hectic day—today wasn’t much better, autostrade per l’italia loves me—and I was too tired to write it last night so I’m doing it now.
Week three has been interesting. Didn’t go as planned but it’s been a fun learning experience. I did manage to meditate all 7 days but for a few of those days I only meditated once, which is fine. Didn’t listen to podcasts, didn’t watch videos, and made some progress with my third book of the month. I did push live a new version of the blogroll, but didn’t post much on the blog. Screen time was back up again on my phone and that’s because I spent the first 4 days of the week with a terribly annoying seasonal flu. I woke up on Monday with a sore throat and by Monday night I had a headache, then a minor fever and a runny nose. By Friday I was already back on track but one thing I noticed is that when I feel sick my mind becomes VERY distracted and I suspect that’s because I can’t focus on work or on reading a book or on doing basically anything useful with my time and so I found myself staring at that stupid phone way too much.
But I’m glad it happened because it’s a learning experience and I have a plan for the next time I find myself stuck in bed because I’m sick.
Overall, I’m still very happy I’m doing this experiment and I very much look forward to writing the next follow-up at the end of the month because there are some important—for me at least—takeaways.
This weekend I decided to bite the bullet and embrace the “betas” released by Apple at the recent WWDC. I wanted to try out all the new features that Apple had announced and separate the wheat from the chaff.
No, I didn’t download the beta on my main machines. My every day iPhone, iPad, and Mac Studio have been untouched. The only everyday device that I upgraded to beta is the Vision Pro.
Instead, I installed the updates on two loaner devices — an iPad 11 and a MacBook Air — both M4 editions that had been sent for reviews. I don’t have an extra iPhone, so no update on that device just yet. It is too vital for my life to muck about.
It is too early to have any serious impressions about the new operating systems, but so far, I can see the biggest change is on the iPad, as iPadOS 26 feels like a whole new animal. There are just so many changes that I will be spending a lot of time on the “beta” device over next few days.
But already, you can tell that it is as if iPad and Mac finally kissed and made up. In fact, the new OS has me wondering why Apple doesn’t make a larger iPad — you know, like a 15-inch model. I like the ability to arrange multiple apps on the screen. The ability to arrange four apps on a single screen is really a visual delight, and also a sign of how things might work on the rumored foldable iPhone if it ever materializes.
The three key things that are amazing for me:
Ability to resize windows, place them anywhere, and open more at once. This makes me want a bigger iPad.
Super charged Files app. This just makes everything so much better on iPad. I mean seriously, just finding photos across drives is going to be so much better. I am just shocked that they don’t have “Apple Intelligence” here to help make sense of it all. I mean, everyone is launching this search-with-AI feature.
Dedicated Preview app for PDFs and images with Apple Pencil support. Again, a little thing but very useful.
I can use Journal app with Apple Pencil. I can scribble better than typing.
Reed pen for calligraphy. Not giving up my fountain pens, but this is kind of pen-geek cool for me.
Ability to record high-quality audio with voice Isolation and capture local recordings during video calls. I like this because I do a lot of my Zoom calls on my iPad.
Well, those are the things that caught my eye after using iPadOS 26 for a few hours.
Similar to iPadOS 26, VisionOS 26 has quite a few minor improvements. I can tell because I am a near-daily user of the device. There are some under-the-hood changes that point to a better experience in months to come. Games, in particular,could get big boosts, and so will the whole “VR” ecosystem. I have my fingers crossed for now, as I would certainly love to use the device for more things than just watching baseball, movies, and television series.
Here is a summary of some of the top additions and improvements in VisionOS 26 enhancements:
Look to Scroll provides hands-free eye-controlled navigation. One can navigate apps and websites using just your eyes. This is seriously cool.
Spatial Widgets is a way to customize your space’s colors and depth. Think of it as pimp-your-virtual-spaces.
New generative AI transforms regular photos into immersive spatial scenes with multiple perspectives. I am not impressed.
Enhanced Personas feature dramatic realism improvements with full profiles and over 1,000 glasses options. I am so glad I’m not scary even to myself now.
Shared Room Experiences let multiple Vision Pro users collaborate locally. I am looking forward to nerding out on this one. Sadly, most of my friends have returned their VisionPros.
New Content Formats include 180°/360° playback from GoPro and Insta360. Now I need to get a GoPro — finally.
I need time with MacOS 26, but on the surface, I love the updates they have done to the operating system and its user interface. There is a lot to dig into, but for now, I am loving the new “Spotlight” command center. It allows me essentially replicate the functionality of QuickSilver and Raycast in a simpler fashion. That alone is worth the “beta” risk.
Matt Mullenweg is a fan of the new “Spotlight” too. “My favorite thing to play with so far has been the new Spotlight (what pops up when you press Command + Space) and related shortcuts,” he writes in a useful blog post. “I loved Alfred,I tried Raycast, but a general life goal this year is to simplify wherever I can, so I’ve been exploring the enhancements in the new Spotlight.”
My initial impressions are favorable, but again, I am running these on clean, new machines and have not done upgrades on existing machines. My friends tell me they have had problems with the upgrades and have reverted back to the currentversions of the OS.
I will keep you updated on my beta OS journey as it unfolds.
Updated at 7.30 pm: Apple released the latest versions of their beta operating systems (beta #2) today. I updated the machines. The improvements are coming thick and fast.
This is a silly and inconsequential thing to rant about, but… What is the point of crushed ice? It melts too quickly. I understand it for Sonic and Chick-fil-a, but not for a coffee shop. 🤪
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A song I’m loving:
In the middle of it all, 35mm film
Hi, dear reader. There is so little and so much to say. For now, I want to share some reminders I’ve needed lately, some I’ve offered to others, some that may be for you during this swirly, heartbreaking, heart-opening time:
1 — Love, too, is all around us, everywhere. When I remember this, I start seeing it in the smallest and biggest of ways. I see it in the chalk art my spouse and child left on our driveway, in the crowded bird feeder hanging in the yard, in a poem, in righteous rage, in softness, in the breeze pouring through the door, in all the doors being built that might eventually lead to more love, more connection, more understanding, more peace. Love is all around. It is everywhere. It isn’t naive to see it, to let it change you, too.
2 — You can say anything and be critiqued. You can say nothing and be critiqued. You can choose to show up in any way and be criticized, judged, misunderstood, or maybe even seen clearly, others mirroring something beyond your own self-understanding. Are you good with your own heart? Can you stand by your soul’s expression? Do you have your own back? Do you trust your own message, your own integrity, what you know and don’t know, your fullest self? If so, withstanding what comes from staying true to your heart becomes easier and easier. Tolerating being misunderstood hurts less and less. And sharing from your big heart, the one you’ve grown to trust and listen to, becomes the only obvious choice.
3 — Nothing is all yours to do on your own. You can take the weight of the entire world off your shoulders; trying to carry it all isn’t the selfness gift you might think it is. You can turn toward your perhaps quiet yet needed gifts and share them with your family, your neighbors, in the work you do and the art you create and the compassion you practice. You can let your contributions be enough amidst the pressure for them to fix it all. You can
4 — It makes sense to be a home to contradictory & complex feelings, especially during times of chaos and unpredictability. It makes sense to feel one way one moment, and another way the next; it makes sense for your feelings to often seem in opposition to one another, like rivals in one body. We can be a vessel for all of it; you don’t need to fix the contradiction as much as you need to trust it’s there for a reason, hear what it has to tell you, and welcome it home.
A mosaic of growing, 35mm film
5 — Maybe confusion is wisdom embodied; maybe confusion is a sign you aren’t clinging to rightness or premature knowing, but are willing to linger in not knowing a little longer than is comfortable. Let your confusion air out, expand, take the time it needs to form something else. Let your confusion signal your openness. Let your confusion guide you toward learning, toward slow digestion. Let your confusion be.
6 — Enjoy a freaking hot dog. Ride the janky dragon rollercoaster with your daughter at the hometown fair. Plant pansies in the new garden bed outside your bedroom window. Feel the sweetness of your old cat falling asleep in your nook. Delight in the delightful. Let all the delights bolster you as you look out at what unfolds beyond them.
7 — Stay devoted to compassion, even when it isn’t reciprocated. Stay devoted to compassion, even when it is misinterpreted. Stay devoted to compassion, even when it at times feels more like a performance than an embodied felt sense. Stay devoted to compassion, even when you will inevitably forget, only to remember you’re just human, just an animal with impulses and history and patterns and needs and longings like everyone else, just ever-practicing.
8 — You cannot change anyone but yourself. It is a gift to deeply trust this.
9 — You are ever-changing. Let what wants to shift shift. Let what wants to move move. Let what wants to rearrange rearrange. Let yourself be surprised by who you can become, beyond who you thought you were.
10 — There is softness to be found in the toughest of situations. Maybe it’s just in your breath, or the way you speak to yourself, or the outstretched hand you offer someone who needs it. Softness can be a guide amid what’s hard.
Fluffy beauty, 35mm film
11 — When there is nothing to say, rest in listening.
12 — Don’t forget to listen to yourself, too; you are human here, too.
13 — When listening feels hard, when your claws are out and you’re ready to pounce instead of walk beside, ask yourself: what do I need to return to presence? What walls inside need softening? What am I protecting that actually needs loving? How might I let more love in here, in the place I want to enact hurt instead of understanding? See what shifts.
14 — What is one small, simple alteration that can be done in your day that might let more sweetness, more ease, more love, more beauty, more connection in? Is it a moment with your journal? Is it a quick walk instead of scrolling? Is it calling a friend instead of reading more news you are already caught up on? Is it prepping an herbal infusion the night before as an act of care for your future self? Can you let a small alteration be worth doing, even when it won’t change everything immediately? Can you gift yourself that kind of care?
15 — Notice where your attention is going. Your attention is your power. Your attention is your currency. Your attention is your energy. Your attention is your place of control, your place of choice, your place of returning to the here and now, your place of remembering what you need, your place of noticing, your place of savoring, your place of listening and offering, your place of presence. Your attention can be redirected in any moment, over and over. It is never too late to notice where your attention is going, to turn it in another direction if you need to.
flowering everywhere 35mm film
Goodness, it’s a lot out there. Goodness, there’s a lot to take in, digest, in a world that doesn’t always give us the proper room or spaciousness to do so with care, with slowness, with gentleness. I hope you carve out small pockets of spaciousness amid it all. I hope you are held and witnessed in it all. I hope you stay rooted to your courage, to your own offerings of love woven together with those of others. I hope you release yourself from needing to figure it all out right now. I hope those tears asking to be released find themselves dancing down your face when they’re ready to. I hope you show your teeth the next time you smile., that it’s wide enough for that to happen. I hope you rest deeply, even if only momentarily. I hope you let the sun warm what still feels frozen inside. I hope you are tender with what hasn’t yet thawed. I hope some unexpected delight finds you. I hope you’re being gentle with yourself. I’m trying, too, alongside you from here.
Thank you, as always, for being here.
Ps. Sorry if you received this email twice; substack was down for a bit and got wonky!
If you think it has been quiet around these ramparts, then it is intentional. I decided to take a break from everything,including writing and social media. Instead, I picked up my camera, packed my bags, and went on a photo trip to Svalbard.
I have not been on photo adventures for almost a year, mostly because I was losing my ability to imagine the landscapes. I really take photos from my mind’s eye. And unless I am ready mentally, I fail to commune with my camera, just as I dowhen it comes to writing.
The trip has been good from a creative standpoint. I hope to share more about the trip, my photography, and my impressions of Svalbard from the perspective of climate change and how time changes everything.
It’s going to be too easy to hate on Tesla’s robotaxi rollout. I’m a little sympathetic to a single mistake overshadowing all the rides that are fine, but this tech is clearly inferior to Waymo. It’s a very, very small area in Austin that Tesla is operating in. No excuse for being in the wrong lane.
Yesterday my kids asked why I was snapping a photo of a construction site where a restaurant used to be, and I had to think… I like taking pictures of things that will change.
The world is a mess and will only get worse. But that world isn’t our world. That world — the world of wars and strife and empty glittering things — has no place for beauty and no place for us. Instead, all that is possible and all that is powerful are the worlds we create around us, the sanctuaries we build for the distinguished guests who arrive to create with us. Not one sanctuary and not one garden, but many sanctuaries and many gardens. Connected and transversed by the flights of birds and the commutes of hares, not one world, but many, many worlds built by each of us and where we welcome each other also as distinguished guests.
Welcome to the second edition of the newsletter. (That's right, this site's no longer a blog. Alert the presses we've taken our own advice and moved into the 21st Century!)
We're still finding our way, so expect more tweaks in the editions ahead.
Welcome to chaos with a smile!
My good think of the week
The future doesn't just happen.
The future is shaped.
And it's shaped by those who take action.
Take action yourself. And teach your children how to take action as well.
Teach them that they do have influence, they do matter, and they do have the power to affect the world around them.
By doing so, you'll teach them how to lead.
They may not become the biggest influencer that everyone listens to. But they are a part of this big machine we call the World, the rotating World, the functioning World. And our world functions only as well as the people functioning within it.
Too many of our modern problems come back to lack of leadership—a lack of people functioning. A lack of people teaching others how to function.
To butcher a common saying: The best time to have planted a leader was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
Good thinks from other peeps
Adam Tinworth, the man behind One Man & His Blog, digs into the pressure to get on board with AI before we get left behind. I believe most of us can afford to wait and see how AI fills out before we adopt it for our workflows and lifestyles, but Tinworth reminded me why the hype is so pervasive:
The deep and abiding fear of the current generation of managers — that they’ll repeat the failure of their predecessors and not adapt to digital quick enough — is bringing them to a deeper danger.
Many people pushing us to adopt AI ASAP saw their predecessors drop the ball when it came to adopting the internet and social networks/social media. But these same people doing what they can to stay relevant and not be left behind are risking connection and trust with their audiences. Is it worth it?
