In January, after Improvised Life had been down for several days, I sent out a message to Friends with Benefits members. The message said, in essence: “The site is down, I hope it will be back and that years of writing and images have not been damaged; please send whatever personal magic you employ my way.” Then it seemed, my only option was to wait and practice Improvised Life’s principles…
Read MoreEco on Why We Make Lists + Some Favorites
Our friend Tim Slavin, of Kids, Code and Computer Science sent us this image, knowing that we write often about lists, a critical tool in managing a creative life. We discovered it was from a 2009 interview with Umberto Eco in Der Spiegel about his exibition at the Louvre on the essential nature of lists. Eco…
Read MoreTo Manage Projects (or Your Life) Do a Quarterly Review
My wife and I had been interested in small, micro-sized startup ideas for over 16 years, at one point pursuing six projects at once. As you can imagine, we were spread so thin, none of the ideas took off. So we began looking for a simple way to manage the chaos of startup ideas and…
Read MoreAnnals of Artificial Intelligence: Siri Talks Back
The other day I bought a new Apple iPhone 6S. Its remarkable camera and interface were an instant joy, making content gathering for Improvised Life easier and more fun. But as long as I’d been using iPhones, I’d never spoken to Siri, Apple’s attempt at Artificial Intelligence. Before I’d fully set up the phone and had lain down for a nap,…
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