Novelist (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Sourdough, Moonbound) and co-founder of the olive oil company Fat Gold; writes a long-running email newsletter.
recommended
I am a strong proponent of wanton notetaking - words, names, scraps, passages, whole articles, just dump it all in there - and I’d recommend this setup to anyone.
An interview in "The Setup", the usesthis.com series that asks people what hardware and software they use to get their work done. Answers are in their own words.
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Hardware, services4 years
Software5 years
Podcasts, courses, other8 years
Books25 years
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.