The Column
HI JOHANNA!
Apple Slashes Production on the iPhone Air
Articles are out saying Apple is drastically reducing production on their 5.6mm thick iPhone Air due to “low consumer demand”.
Yeah.
Obviously.
Golly gee! My phone is just too thick. If it were 3mm thinner I would happily pay hundreds more and accept worse specs across the board!
- nobody
I understand ambitious requirements force new types of thinking that drive technological enhancements… but whoever thought this phone would be the hot ticket item is out of touch.
Default Meals Follow-Up
One thing I didn’t mention in my previous post about Default Meals - the “Default Meals spreadsheet” is a living document. As I make these meals I’m updating & improving my recipes and ingredients lists. Each time I make the meal I want it to be a little better than the last one. Already I’ve made a major change in nearly every meal by changing my approach to one very common thing:
I’ve been making & tracking the real-world cost and meal results. Today, for example, I made the stir fry.
Amortizing the cost and time, on a per-meal basis, each of these stir fry meals took 7 minutes to create and cost $2.78. For comparison, my lunch today was Jimmy John’s, which took about 20 minutes & $15. So nearly 3x the time and more than 5x the cost.
TLDR
Meal prep was 1/3rd the time, 1/5th of the cost, healthier, and customizable to my exact tastes.
Recipe Repo & Desired Difficulty
It was difficult to create my default meals analysis & spreadsheet… and this difficulty is a huge part of why the recipes valuable to me. They aren’t just “some recipes I tried once”, they are a novel and unique resource I’ve made. I have stake in this resource already, which will cause me to use, maintain, & improve it over time. This is very similar to how building my own Data Journal has resulted in me actually using it for over a decade.
Putting these together is an example of desired difficulty. Because it was effortful to do the analysis and create the recipes, they take on a level of significance and commitment in my mind in a way that cannot be transferred to your minds. This non-transferability is a bit of a bummer… but golly that won’t stop me from sharing.
Pressure Release
I have the next ~2 months off grad school before I start up again and finish my last 3 classes. During the previous 7+ months I’ve had creative ideas and projects queuing up, building up a certain kind of pressure. When that pressure released, I immediately began production on lots of things. See the Top 5 for more.
Top 5: Creative Projects In Work (or Completed) Since Pausing School
5. Learning How to Make Animations
I’ve messed around with flipbooks and stuff before, but I’ve been more seriously trying my hand at animations.
4. New Basement Ceiling
Our new house had a drop tile ceiling basement. I removed those and replaced it with a custom inset wood setup, including cove lighting. The project bought me back 10 inches of headroom in the basement and made it possible to have themed media nights.
3. The Default Meals Project
2. An in-work Data Journal video
I’m aiming to create & release a YouTube video introducing people to the concept of my Data Journal. What it is, what I get out of it, and a sales pitch for people to consider making one their own.
1. My Puzzle Box for this Year: Pandora’s Box & it’s intro video
It’s a work in progress, but it’s coming along!
Quotes:
This may not be a silver bullet, but we may be able to make the vampire killable with this bullet. - Troy H
Come for the buffet. Stay for the leadership message. - Fintel
People talk a lot. I’m talking right now. - My 7 year old
I’m getting back to basics - and those basics are sucking. - Ben