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.

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.

WWDC

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Lots of good stuff announced at WWDC earlier this week.

My eyes are on the new M2 MacBook Air. I’m also looking forward to the release of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16.

Not sure about Apple’s thinking behind the updated 13” MacBook Pro. Given that it’s so close in size and pricing to the new MacBook Air, it would make sense for most buyers to pick the latter.

Thing is, for the vast majority of people out there, the MacBook Air is more than enough. And, for those who need something more powerful from the MacBook line-up, there are the 14” and 16” MacBook Pro models from last year. Those contain way more firepower than the 13” MacBook Pro.

So I’m not sure where the 13” MacBook Pro fits these days. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s phased out in the coming years.

My reading list – June 2022

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Here’s my reading list for the month:

  • How money became dangerous, by Christopher Varelas, and Dan Stone;
  • Coleridge, Early visions, by Richard Holmes;
  • A world without email, by Cal Newport; and
  • A royal life, by HRH The Duke of Kent, and Hugo Vickers.