ALEX CAMPBELL'S TUMBLELOG

Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction

minimalmac:

I was recently reminded of this gem of an article, written by Cory Doctorow, offering his favorite tips on getting writing done in our ever connected, ADD world. Love this part:

Kill your word-processor
Word, Google Office and OpenOffice all come with a bewildering array of typesetting and automation settings that you can play with forever. Forget it. All that stuff is distraction, and the last thing you want is your tool second-guessing you, “correcting” your spelling, criticizing your sentence structure, and so on. The programmers who wrote your word processor type all day long, every day, and they have the power to buy or acquire any tool they can imagine for entering text into a computer. They don’t write their software with Word. They use a text-editor, like vi, Emacs, TextPad, BBEdit, Gedit, or any of a host of editors.
Cite Arrow reblogged from minimalmac
Tags: writing 4 notes | # | Sep 20, 2009
  1. alexjcampbell liked this
  2. alexjcampbell reblogged this from minimalmac
  3. mightyflynn liked this
  4. minimalmac posted this

 



I'm Alex. I work in advertising in Sydney, Australia.

I post here about new media, old media, what's happening in the business world, advertising, culture, finance, politics, and of course the internets.

Find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook, or email me at alexjcampbell@gmail.com.

Any views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, my clients, or Batman.

Search

More

  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe

Following

  • design & mobile
  • Young and Brilliant
  • curiosity counts
  • elsagold: the WUMBLOG
  • Something Changed.
  • All-Encompassing Trip
  • Pseudolectual
  • Get Beta
  • Erick davidson. It's my first day
  • Everything Random
  • Samuel Rubenfeld's Tumblr
  • Tai Tran's Reading Archive
  • Things I Ate That I Love
  • this might not hurt, but close your eyes anyways
  • The Cool Commentator
  • BlackBook
  • Sarah Wrote That
  • LUKEISCRAZYMAN
  • kate spade new york
  • JAKE CLELAND
  • The Information Paradox
  • Brit
  • Workman Says Things
  • BRITTICISMS
  • Think in Bright Colors
  • the stone wall
  • Creative Photography
  • Melissa Gira Grant
  • A Smarter Planet
  • Smarter Cities
  • obsessivecompulsive
  • Donkey Courtroom
  • Continuations
  • mesmeri found
  • five good things
  • Tom Morris
  • Hello You Creatives
  • Misho Baranovic Photography
  • live or tell
  • There are no girls on the internet.
  • Underpaid Genius
  • Jeni's Ice Creams
  • Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
  • Tim Evans
  • Sophie Estelle
  • Blogelstein!
  • Grand Obsessions
  • Little More Than A Cargo Cult
  • wandrings
  • Suffian +r
  • Endone and Red Wine
  • ideas. thoughts. sharing.
  • The Tumblog of Matthew Delprado
  • psychology notes.
  • Nour has a tumblog – —
  • leo
  • Déguisement
  • Christian Paul Stobbe
  • The Hipster Libertarian
  • it's the music, people!
  • colporteur.
  • We Are The Digital Kids
  • infoneer pulse
  • Drawing a Day
  • rickwebb's tumblrmajig
  • Who needs a unifying theme anyway?
  • BLAH BLAH BLOG
  • Zoë with Two Dots...
  • Clam Bistro
  • Ruby. R. L.
  • cankerbloxxom
  • David's Log
  • stephen falk dot com
  • PlanBig
  • marclafountain.com
  • Ephemera
  • Ella
  • Plan, Construct, Do
  • frames of reading road
  • Vanity Fair
  • Day of the Dreamweavers
  • Taylor Davidson
  • Benjamin & His Blog...
  • And Get Ourselves A Treat
  • Caroline McCarthy
  • bits & pieces
  • Above the fold
  • Blogged By Björn
  • Scott Rafer's Blog
  • Wit's End
  • SG
  • Tiffany the Tumblr
  • Jacob Bijani
  • megan jane
  • meh
  • the impossible cool.
  • Coke Talk
  • The Precise Curiosity Tumblog
  • Constant Wanderlust
  • Marco's stuff
  • adamichael
  • The Creative Bridge
  • Nicholas
  • Dennis Demori
  • VICE
  • The New Yorker
  • Ricky Van Veen's GET EXCITED
  • Wolff Olins Blog
  • slow motion crawl
  • Unhappy Hipsters
  • Life is hard. Here is someone.
  • Welcome to this side of paradise…
  • fuck yeah computer science!
  • James Chutter
  • f*cking polymaths**
  • Sam Keene
  • poortaste
  • Tumblr Staff
  • hey, it's noah
  • Ra Ra Riot
  • hrrrthrrr
  • through the chicane
  • tumble together
  • The Economist
  • The Gong Show
  • dear sir
  • The Meme Generation
  • "Hey, I just found this..."
  • Christopher Butler
  • New Now Know How
  • The Lonesome Eternal Loop
  • In The Trees
  • melitasu
  • oy vey
  • Your Algebra
  • the michael galpert experience
  • My Own Private
  • tumbld stuff and junk
  • Digital Bowerbird
  • david gillespie
  • Mike Hudack
  • hello, shauna
  • Michael Lebowitz
  • Mike Arauz - Tumblr
  • 3charlotte
  • gooey
  • tiphereth
  • Jeff Rock
  • Twitter Status
  • mr. matt spangler
  • BENJAMIN PALMER
  • Adland Upstart
  • mrchapman
  • Fuck Yeah Google Search
  • Christopher Franzese
  • melbgirl
  • Only Dead Fish
  • Little Big Details
  • Jordan Hillier - Ignorance is boring.
  • Catching Zebra
  • ideas are awesome
  • betaworks
  • call me reimer.
  • This never happened to Pablo Picasso.
  • Peardrop
  • FUCK YEAH SHARKS
  • love, em
  • Dave Morin
  • FYEAH, STRANGE FINDS!
  • Shawn Yeager
  • Inventory Design
  • Spinach
  • DTDigital / Tumblr
  • Internet Archaeology Blog
  • Anthony Bourdain
  • Talking to Strangers
  • a heart divided
  • Sawdust
  • Fuck yeah, Advertising!
  • Buy Her Candy
  • Agency Hustle!
  • Flashman Australia
  • Advertumblr
  • tall & ignorant servants
  • Positively Sold
  • Freitag
  • Entrepreneur Wisdom Database
  • Music + Pixels!
  • mattison addi
  • Seth Weisfeld
  • fluffynotes
  • meghan mctavish and things
  • Allons-y, Ellycey!
  • Untitled
  • The to and fro
  • YEAH NAH
  • Kramered.
  • HIPSTER RUNOFF
  • Stuff My Girlfriend Says
  • The Foyer
  • Eagle Shaped Mirror
  • Gleeful Discontent
  • I ♥ wireframes
  • Team Sassypants
  • Everything Is Media
  • emilyeohara.com
  • ML;D
  • Musings from Chris Naylor
  • think differently big
  • frozentrousers
  • Writing a Life
  • The Anti-Social Media
  • (not so pretty) information graphics
  • Buffering
  • Oueb Niouzes
  • Everything I do on the Internet.
  • this does not communicate
  • xkcd
  • Does it have heart?
  • hipster puppies
  • proceed to checkout
  • The Magical Mind of Mr. Macmillan
  • DataViz
  • revising first impressions.
  • thisismybraindump
  • JCND
  • welcome to the (t)revolution
  • redesign:related
  • Melbourne, I love you lo-fi.
  • the himmelsblog
  • Like fer sure, totally
  • ustwo™ apps
  • get big, little kid
  • WonGoBonGo
  • Design Tumble Log
  • mythreads
  • run, don't walk
  • likeomg
  • MaxRad
  • HUFFPOST TECH
  • Valium and Cigarettes
  • Turducken
  • Myer Blog
  • Jungle Jill
  • brianwaka
  • Holler Loudr - The Holler Sydney Blog
  • FLY FROM NEARBY; THREE SIXTY FIVE DAYS
  • sartorial
  • M&C Saatchi Melbourne
  • Best of Wikipedia
  • Joely Righteous
  • That Isn't Art
  • Alissa
  • Tess the traveler.
  • Alex Campbell
  • gentlemen take polaroids
  • Musings of an Anna
  • mADmanRalph
  • Creative Corporate
  • Hayden Hunter
  • Brian Vella on Tumblr
  • athan loves you
  • particular apparatus
  • There Goes Fun!
  • South Pol
  • girl with aspirin.
  • Duane's Brain
  • BBQ for Floods
  • When Julia is being Frank.
  • foursquare
  • THIS IS DAMN BOLIAO
  • A Curious Curation
  • fuckyeahparis
  • wontstopcantstop
  • The Men Guide . Us
  • Radio Is Life
  • bravo hotel.
  • throwglasspeople
  • The Footnotes of Mad Men.
  • Look at this fucking hipster
  • AnDothers
  • the wilhelmine project
  • HTML5 Watch
  • Le Flâneur
  • digitally numb
  • Leith Dock
  • i'm walkin here!
  • rorybaust
  • Anthony Harrison
  • papercloud
  • FYI club
  • reevesy
  • Names that are better than "iSnack 2.0"

MoKoyfman Theme by Bill Israel Tumblr powered CC licensed