Wonders Untold

A blog about life, arts and culture

Of life, arts and culture.

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Three cheers for GoodNotes 5

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I’ve recently resumed reading long-form technical articles on my iPad.

Not quite sure why I had stopped reading this way, but it’s good to be back doing that.

GoodNotes 5 is an amazing app. I simply import my long-form PDFs into the app, and read them from there. It’s great because the app has amazing markup functionality – you can highlight, take handwritten notes (with the Apple Pencil), add links, add images and other elements, convert handwritten notes into text, search handwritten notes, and a whole lot more.

I really love reading this way. Three cheers for GoodNotes 5.

What I’m reading – January 2023

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I’m normally reading more than one book at a time. This is great for variety, but can lead to “mental clutter”, if such a term exists.

So, for January, I’ve decided to experiment by reading just one book at a time, and making sure I’m done with it before starting another. Coupled with breaking my social media habit, this should lead to a more focused approach for my reading.

I’m currently reading The Power Law – Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption, by Sebastian Mallaby. It appears to have been well researched, and it’s quite an easy read. The author has a smooth storytelling style, and handles the subject-matter well. I’m only a few days into it, but I like this book.

Happy New Year

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And, just like that, 2023 is here.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, with every blessing for the year ahead.

(An amazing display of fireworks in my neighbourhood. Always good to see.)

I have good plans for the new year, including that I will spend way less time on social media – Twitter, specifically.

One way to ensure success in this is to make sure I have other activities lined up to take Twitter’s place.

And I have a few. I will read more books and play more piano.

A good first step would be to delete the Twitter app from my phone. I will use it only on my iPad or laptop.

It’s not that Twitter is bad, in itself. For me, it just has to be used right. I get a lot of benefit from it – mainly staying up to date with developments in my field of work. However, it is possible to get sucked into all sorts of irrelevant content that ends up wasting one’s time. So my aim is to use Twitter more strategically – to take the good, and sidestep the bad.

It also helps that I have identified what I will do with the time saved. Reading more books and playing more piano will definitely benefit me. I will create some goals around these, so that I can measure (and be encouraged by) my progress in this way.

I’m rooting for myself big time. Looking forward to the challenge, and to the rewards.

Writing apps – 2022

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I’ve experimented with writing apps for as long as I can remember (e.g. see here). Not all of them stick, though. Many are downright unusable, some do not fit my workflow, and a lot tend to be quite distracting – e.g. cluttered with unnecessary features.

But there are some that I have used consistently, and which continue to serve me well. Here are my best writing apps of 2022:

  • Ulysses
  • RoamResearch
  • Drafts 5 (on which I am typing this post, actually. I can also send my posts to the blog from there.)
  • Notion (this app is all things to all men. I use it for several things, including as a writing app.)
  • Apple Notes
  • GoodNotes 5 (I don’t use this one as much as I did in the past, but it’s still useful for taking handwritten notes while doing research.)

I’ll be carrying on with these apps in 2023. I don’t suppose I’ll be replacing any of them. Taken together, they meet all my writing needs. I’m also not looking to add another app to the list. Unless someone comes up with something truly revolutionary. I can’t imagine what that would be, but let’s wait and see.

Questions at the heart of leadership today

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For my end of year retreat, I’ll be reading Leading in a Non-Linear World, by Jean Gomes.

This book poses some of the questions that will become increasingly important in the years ahead. Here are a few of them:

  • “Can we keep working longer and more continuously?”
  • “How will artificial intelligence (AI) or automation change career paths?”
  • “How will a workforce of four very different generations, skill sets, and values synergise, and what does that mean for the future?”
  • “What if decade-old assumptions about the sustainability of our global economic system no longer hold true?”

There are no easy answers to these questions, and a lot will have to do with how we lead. First, how we lead ourselves – for example, what conscious efforts we make in cultivating a mindset that would be of much benefit to us. Also, how we lead our organisations and our communities.

Looking forward to reading this book.