A few cool tools

There seems to be an explosion of great, useful, and beautifully designed tools popping up lately.

Perhaps this is in part down to the new powers we all have thanks to AI coding tools, but not exclusively. When combined with initiative, passion, and taste, the outcome is a wonderful renaissance of indie software development.

Screen Studio is not new but it’s a tool I find myself using more and more to create engaging screen recordings. It’s the optimum balance between Loom and a full-on video editor. You can create slick “produced” screen recordings and have a link on your clipboard ready to share with your team in minutes.

Quiche Browser is delightful Safari replacement for iOS. I have never seen an app balance this level of beauty, craft, and simplicity, while allowing for such extensive customisation. What a delicious treat.

Bevel is an “all in one” health tracking app that gives an unbelievable amount of value for free. If you wear an Apple Watch and want to track your health a little more intensely, this is worth a look. It’s worth it alone if you want to geek out on some cool data visualisation.

MacNotch is essentially the iPhone’s Dynamic Island but for your Mac. It makes great use of your MacBook’s “notch” and offers an extensive array of options and customisations.

Blank Page is a delightfully minimal Notion-like editor you can use without any need to sign up, pay, or install anything. It’s just a beautifully minimal writing experience through and through.

Clearly is a markdown editor for the Mac. It also offers “knowledge base” functionality allowing you to link notes together. It’s beautifully implemented and truly Mac-assed Mac app. And it’s free. If you use Obsidian on a Mac then this is worth a look. Pink Floyd fans might like the icon too.

Sofa has existed for a while but the new version is a big update. It’s a beautiful iOS app to keep track of all the TV shows, movies, podcasts, and books you’re consuming.

Granola is a meeting note-taker I have previously written about, but continues to "just work" for me. It's just so good at staying in the background and being a silent helper to my daily meetings, giving me genuinely helpful notes and nothing I don't want.

Dato is a menubar-based calendar app for the Mac that makes it easy to see your upcoming events and pop new meetings in with a few clicks. It is reminiscent of the original Fantastical — before it offered to replace your whole calendar experience. I use it with the built-in Apple Calendar app to manage my schedule.

Let me know if you've recently discovered a new favourite little app or tool — I'd love to hear about it.

Designing the LoveFrom, Serif typeface

If you're into design, and especially typography, you're going to love this.

With a brief introduction from Sir Jony Ive, this talk dives deep into the design of the LoveFrom, Serif typeface.

I found it fascinating to learn how the team took inspiration from the original works of Baskerville, even finding the original hand-made steel plates that measure just a few millimetres, made hundreds of years ago.

Measurement, goals, and instinct

“Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can be counted.” — Albert Einstein

A friend shared a fantastic podcast episode with me today: Brian Chesky of Airbnb on Steven Bartlett’s show, “Diary of a CEO.”

Brian shares his journey building Airbnb and covers many of the low points and personal challenges of being a founder, grappling with balancing work and friendships, and a lot more. I highly recommend giving the episode a listen.

Something Brian also talked about creativity, instinct, and measuring success.

He highlighted that Airbnb is one of the few companies in the Fortune 500 with a designer and creative talent in the boardroom.

The world of business has come to praise measurement and financials more than creativity. Yet, the world is changing faster than ever, requiring ever more creative thinking to adapt and change.

I’ve always struggled with balancing instinct, creative ideas, and doing bold but immeasurable work against the “proper” way to do things: small, measurable experiments, data-driven decision-making, and focusing on ROI.

It reminded me of a quote I read a while ago from David Ogilvy:

“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.”

Why put craft into anything if you can’t prove it makes a difference?

Why go the extra mile to make things “just right” if no one seems to care?

Brian’s suggestion is to not try to measure it.

As soon as someone passionate about their craft has to justify making their work as good as it can possibly be, they should probably move on.

Craft and creativity must be baked into your company’s culture. As a leader, you are the one that sets and reinforces that culture in every action you take.

The whole conversation inspired me. Speak up for what you believe in a little more.

The British firm perfectly producing hundreds of military uniforms for the Coronation

If you’re interested in tailoring, if you’re interested in British manufacturing, if you’re interested in military uniforms(?!), if you’re interested in the royal family, or if you’re interested in family run businesses, this is something to watch.

Patrick Grant (who owns a tailors on Savile Row, presents the Great British Sewing Bee, and frequently stands up for British manufacturing) presents a one-hour show about the family run business, Kashket & Partners. They’re responsible for producing the hundreds of military uniforms for the Coronation of King Charles.

This program hits a certain sweet spot for me in the Venn diagram of my interests. I am in total awe of the level of detail, care, and craft that goes into something of this scale.

Watch Coronation tailors: fit for a king on BBC iPlayer

BBC Website for the show with clips