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A bucket is for carrying things somewhere, not storage

Twitterman Alex Payne wrote a pretty interesting an provocative post the other day, titled “The Case Against Everything Buckets.”

Rather than try to recreate his argument for him, go read it yourself. I’ll wait here.

At least in principle, I agree with Alex’s assertion that it can be immensely better to have your information available in an app that actually can do something with it. Nine times out of ten I prefer not to have information in any app at all, I like most of my stuff in the Finder where it is easily backed up, found, and mashed into other places. Preferably in plain text. Yes, I’m one of those people who buys $2,000 computers and prefers to work in the oldest and simplest data format in existence.

But I digress. I think Al3x is missing an angle in his implied assertion that Everything Buckets don’t do anything particularly well.

I think the value of Everything Bucket software, and in particular of Everything Bucket software that is either cloud-based or syncs nicely between desktop and mobile clients, is that these applications open your mind to the notion of ubiquitous capture.

And after all, you use a bucket for temporary storage, right? It’s a waystation.

I freely shove stuff into Evernote, Instapaper, and Everything Buckets because it’s so easy to do. The secret sauce that keeps it from becoming A Bad Thing is that I’ve built in a routine to go through them regularly, processing them David-Allen-style down to zero. It’s at that point that I’ll move data into another environment if it makes sense.

For example, I’ll see a link in Google Reader, scan it for interest, identify that I might want to use the idea in a story someday, and clip it to Evernote. Then at some regular interval I’ll pull the PDF out of that Evernote inbox and into the Finder as a PDF or webarchive in a directory structure like “Story Ideas/2009/…”

The only stuff I keep in Evernote full-time is stuff I know I’d like to have reference to no matter were I am—be it on my Macbook, on my iPhone, or on my work PC.

Not really rocket science, and YMMV. The point is, as always, pare down the number of places something can be, and put it somewhere where it should be. Those definitions of can and should are yours to make.

Update 2009-02-10: Here’s Buzz Andersen’s take on it.

Three random karaoke songs I’d sing after a little bourbon

The Seed by Cody Chesnutt

Because this is the catchiest, nastiest song from The Headphone Masterpiece. And because I might need a drunken excuse to sing the lyrics: "Push my seed somewhere deep in her chest, I push it naked cuz I've taken the test."

Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones

Because it would give me a chance to unhook my Jagger strut.

Stereo by Pavement

Give me hysteria! Malaria!

Trawlin’ for scrap, suburban-style


Treasure hunter by Les Chatfield (Elsie esq.)

This past year I was given one of the strangest gifts I’ve received in quite some time, and the the more I think about it the more it makes me smile.

My folks gave me a metal detector. You know, the kind you use on the beach to find buried treasure.

Except I don’t live anywhere near a beach, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t any treasure other than very old manure in my cow-pasture-turned-yard.

But here’s the thing: I’m keeping it. And I keep looking for a reason to use it.

Because these are tough times we’re living in, dawg, and you never know when you’re going to want to trawl the neighborhood for scrap.

Make a museum

My daughter claims she wants to be an artist, and decided (all on her own) that she wanted to create a museum featuring her favorite "cruisers" (her word for art projects) that she had made in the past year.

So she went through the archives, selected a bunch of her favorites, and we decided to take the idea seriously. We all dressed for the occasion, hung the art in the living room, invited Grandma and Grandpa Morrow, served appetizers and champagne, etc.

It was a full weekend project, but we all had a blast.

She was so proud of herself.

Not to pat ourselves on the back, but here’s the thing I learned: if you have kids, and they are enthusiastic about something (anything), take the time and effort to really honor it.

It wasn’t convenient, and it wasn’t my first choice of how to spend last weekend, but it made my daughter absolutely shine with pride, and her interest in “being an artist” has grown even brighter.

And if you don’t have kids, what are you enthusiastic about? What can you make the time to honor for yourself? What’s your museum?

PS—I decided to try Animoto to make a quick montage of some of the pictures. It’s too short (you only get 30 seconds for free), but kinda nifty.

When I realized I was a grown-up

I realized I was a grown-up when we brought my daughter home from the hospital. I walked upstairs and found my wife clipping the baby’s fingernails.

I remember thinking, “holy shit, that little thing can’t even clip her own fingernails” and realizing just how responsible we would have to be.

I had a similar realization when having some beers with old friends, having a blast, and realized we were talking about recent appliance purchases.

Why my hip-hop posse would include nothing but badass chefs

For some reason, I like the idea of my hip-hop posse consisting entirely of chefs. Perhaps because I’d like my own hip-hop name to be Foo-Dee.

Anthony Bourdain
because he’s a badass and I’d really like him to guide me around the globe, smoking and drinking along the way.

Mark Bittman
because he’s the one I’d like to actually prepare my food

Tom Colicchio
because he knows Padma.