Dave Kadavy

I started a new podcast called "Love Your Work." I'm trying to make it free of posturing about "killing it" and such – just people who have defined success for themselves. My first episode was an in-person interview with Jason Fried, and was a real honor. He just spews brilliance – very easy to interview: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jason-fried-basecamp/ Another popular interview is with a neuroscience who studies insightful thinking: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-episode-8-creating-aha-mom…

There are a bunch of distraction-free writing devices, from the BYOK to the Freewrite. They range for $100 - $500. List here: https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/ To me, YAGNI. Let me suggest two cheaper alternatives (battletested by me): 1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) 2. A foldable Bluetooth butterfly keyboard ($43 on Amazon) paired to an old tablet (I have an old iPad Air 2) with Wifi turned off and no apps except a writing app. Google Docs works in offline mode! (this is what I use in cafes when I’m traveling). I recommend a Samsers keyboard. This is what I have: https://a.co/d/3kIJZsv I love good typography and I just can’t with these distraction free devices. The iPad Air 2 has a retina screen that displays beautiful typography. Forget e-ink devices — they might sound like a good idea at first, but their refresh rate is slow enough to be annoying. If you don’t need portability, an old DOS PC running Wordstar or WordPerfect is also distraction free. I used to write long articles for my school newsletter using nothing but Wordstar.

"However, even that gross figure is still well under six figures." This helps, but still doesn't really help the reader know if it's enough to cover individual expenses or family expenses. I assume enough to be self-employed but definitely agree that ballpark numbers would provide the reader much more value like David Kadavy's Income reports: https://kadavy.net/blog/posts/november-2021-income-report/

I prefer IKEA’s Tunhem Bookcase which is unfortunately discontinued. It is deeper and the shelves are thicker which helps prevent bookcase sagging. http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/vinyl-record-shelf/ http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/

I got really excited about something similar, in 2011, when I read this post about the DIY-MBA movement: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/i-started-a-diy-mba-group-youre-not-invit… I haven't done it yet, but I am still contemplating the idea. One of the biggest problems that can arise with not actually attending a university in person is the lack of relationship and teamwork education. That can be partially mitigated via videoconferencing and online team projects, but it's not the same as being in an office and leading a group of individuals in person. One of these years I'm going to actually have time to do this....

Here's an explanation about why it's objectively bad: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/ I think the reason the Internet hates it in general is mostly because of its use in inappropriate places (I even saw a picture of a funeral announcement that used it).

"Design for hackers" also has an interesting section about comic sans that can be found here as a blog post: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/ Especially interesting is the discussion that comic sans is actually a good font when it comes to aliasing. ("Comic Sans isn’t Used as Intended")

Oy. Comic Sans isn't problematic because everyone uses it, it's problematic because it's a bad font. The kerning alone is reason enough not to use it. http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/ By this author's logic we should all stop using Helvetica, too - it's way too common.

Graphically, I think it's good enough overall that you should move on. My concerns are: Dark grey background doesn't really scale over the long term. Very dark red would be better than the black. See: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-color-theory/

The "delineation" is a non-issue to me. I think this short article on the use of whitespace gets to the point: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/whitespace-113/ The discoverability of the interface is always a trade-off. They probably have enough data to assume that users will in fact learn this interface from daily use. I preferred text too.

Don't miss out on the hacker spirit of David getting this book published chronicled in his blog eg http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/ All instructive reading in bending a system to work for you, getting things done, and building a business. PS - Congrats David, I'll take the fact that Amazon went from "19 in stock" to "13 in stock" in the time it took me to order as a good sign :)

Blog post: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-hackers-the-book-is-here/#…

This forthcoming book ("Design for Hackers") might be helpful: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/

I read "I'm starting my own MBA reading club and you're not invited" [ http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/i-started-a-diy-mba-group-youre-not-i… and that's where I got the idea from. Do it locally, face-to-face discussion over a lunch every X weeks. Invite local business owners to come and speak so you're building relationships between the group and the outside business community. I hadn't considered a remote group, meet over Skype, or just via forum. If you're interested, shoot me an email and we'll go from there.

kadavy is writing a book called "Design for Hackers" http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1954724

Here's the link to the Monet article: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-color-theory/

Wasn't this just on HN a few days back? Why you dont use Garamond on the web - http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-hackers-why-you-dont-use-g…

In my humble opinion, a set of people here have this "no focus problem." (depending on my form on the day - me included). One can see it more positively as Too Many Aptitudes problem, which gives it a significantly better viewpoint, as elaborated here [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1486708]. Actually, I think the previous #1 article [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5616786] reflects this by reaching #1 on HN! You all are smart people. Else these essays/articles wouldn't exist! But, as edw519 pointed out: The single most important thing I do to "achieve laser focus and concentration" is to work in such a way that I don't need "laser focus and concentration" to get my work done. This has to be done the night before. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5550366] David Kadavy wrote about his related approach here [http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/mind-management-intro] what was reposted a few days ago, as far as I remember. I really like this viewpoint. Take note of David's words, especially: If you can’t meditate for 2 minutes, you have bigger problems than being “too busy.” There is a significant difference between being dispersed and having a disease. -- edit: format

http://www.kadavy.net/portfolio/ looks like it.

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