The podcast Cortex keeps delivering - as I hoped it would - most of the best thoughts around working in Apple's Vision pro headset. Even more so in the very latest episode, the first one since any significant time has passed since the release. Grey has not had the opportunity to really dive in deep, but he still delivers insights I have not heard anywhere else.
Grey uses the headset as a focus device, which is similar to what I imagine I would do a large part of the time. Being Grey, he of course goes a lot further than I would do, to the point of expressing physical discomfort when Myke talks about using the headset for "noodling work" (i.e. jumping around between various quicker activities). Anyway, it struck me that wanting focus and being something of power users puts us at interesting odds with a lot of what Apple is trying to do, or at least is promoting. Apple is promoting connection to the real world, feeling grounded, providing hands and popups over the keyboard and things like that. But for Grey, and me, the disconnect is a major feature. A large part of the point is being able to sit or stand anywhere and turn it into a great workspace, and constantly reminding me where the real world is can only hinder that. Same thing with seeing your hands or keyboard or things like that - being thoughts hovering in space for a while is a feature.
As a side note, Grey also clarified yet one more reason I am … severely frustrated by autocomplete: the fact that it is trying to suggest statistically likely words, when "statistically likely" is pretty much exactly what I do not want to be when I write anything I care about.
And when Grey talked about being a single-monitor person because he does not like looking around for things, it struck me that he has common ground with John Siracusa there. I most definitely find it worth looking around a bit for things, but I would still enjoy the added simplicity and clarity of a single monitor if I had no choice. Not enough to actually remove the secondary perfectly functional monitor though, and not enough to close the lid of the work laptop either. So for work I have three screens, and I make use of all of them, but when I do home stuff on the Mac mini I step down to two screens and do not miss the third one at all.
(But you bet I would use three screens if the Mini supported them and I happened to have them just lying around …)
Very much related to this, I have been actively thinking about my window management for the last week or so, ever since listening to the latest ATP members special where - in video form - John Siracusa finally demonstrates the thoughts and actions of his window management philosophy in depth. I use even more individual windows, fewer tabs, and leave more windows open - especially Finder windows in commonly used folders. John's thinking is basically to put things into rough places, leave them there, and let the placements evolve over time. Actually managing windows and activities, rather than trying to set up some kind of system to try and solve it for you based on rules.
This very much suits my own mindset as well, and I suspect it would suit many other people too, if they thought about it. So why do people not?
I wonder if this could be part of the explanation:
Most people who work with computers are true power users of the tools of their job.
But arriving at a system like John's requires you to be a power user of the operating system. And how many people sit down and dig deep into the shortcuts and hidden features of that when you always have an endless list of exciting or important things to do within your area of expertise?
Perhaps it even requires having grown up alongside the operating system, to a certain extent? To have had the time and interest to dig in as the various interfaces and functions evolved?
Are we a dying breed of window managers?
And: why does Apple not try and support or encourage pro-level window management in one way or the other? The Mac should be about pro usage, right? Doing all the heavy-duty stuff, with the heavy-duty tools there whenever you need them. (Plus a nice and friendly interface which lets beginners in an area find their way around, of course.)
Yes, you got me: I guess I, too, want more spatiality back in my operating system.