Creative Destruction
The Purpose of Documents, Martin Parr’s Manifesto, Auto Updating Alfred Workflows and Exploring the Possibilities of Clipboard Managers
Hey guys! Here’s some stuff that stood out from my previous week:
On Reading and Readwise
This past week, I read a few articles and listened to some podcast episodes, but not much stood out. The TOP content I consumed perhaps was THIS interview with the creators of Readwise. Even if you don’t use Readwise or know about it, this interview is worth a listen for anyone who enjoys reading and learning. It covers how reading has changed from physical books to digital formats, the concept behind read-it-later apps, and why Readwise exists—what problems it solves for users and its core ideas.
Growing up, I loved fiction but took over a decade off from reading (I got distracted by studies and work). When I finally got interested in self-growth, productivity, and learning again, I knew I had to make an effort to come back to reading—not just for fun but for personal improvement. That’s when Readwise became an INCREDIBLE tool for me. It still is! Especially their first app (Readwise, the highlights manager), which until now has nothing that can compare to it.
Here’s something in the interview that I found particularly insightful. It talks about what are “documents” and their difference with “blocks” of information.
…really what it is, it is the writer transferring knowledge to the reader’s mind. And the medium of transfer is through this abstraction we call a document. If you actually look at the Latin etymology of “document,” it means to show, teach, cause to know. A document is externally focused. A document is written with another person in mind, and it is a coherent object. It’s held together by connectors. And so we started there and we kind of came to this idea that reading and writing are creative destruction. Writing is the creation point. You take blocks and you turn them into documents, and then reading. And reading for betterment is destructive. You are taking this whole object of a document and then decomposing it into blocks that you can then use for some other purpose.
When we talk about creativity we normally talk about “putting together”, but I thought the analogy of “creative destruction” when it comes to reading for the purpose of growing or learning was pretty accurate. I’m trying to think to what else can this apply. Interesting, isn’t it?
On Photography
I was surprised to see a collaboration between Martin Parrand WeTransfer, but here you have it. It’s a manifesto or a list of rules that can serve as a guide to anyone interested in the art of photography. If you can’t read Martin’s handwriting, let me help you:
Look and learn from other photographers.
Identify what makes you like their images.
Find a subject you feel strongly about.
Select the images you like and understand why they are interesting.
Do more like that.
Keep shooting more images.
Acknowledge you will mainly take failures.
Get excited by what you have discovered.
Don’t wish you could be a famous photographer.
If you do, you will fail—wrong priorities.
The list seems simple, but I think it’s spot-on.
By the way. Last week I discovered the work of Julie Hrudová and it has quickly become one of my favorite photography finds of late.
On Updates
Taptix, my Alfred Workflow that produces mechanical keyboard sounds when typing received a small but important update in the middle of last week. I fixed a crashing bug and—something I’m excited about—this version includes an auto-update script. I have no idea why it took me so long to figure this out but I was very happy to find that I can easily incorporate this in my Alfred Workflows! I hope to do some reading and find a way to implement something similar for Shortcuts (I may finally have to go the Routinehub route).
Kiki, my Alfred Workflow to interact with AI models also received an update which allow users to use the ‘chatgpt-4o-latest’ model which came out recently.** I also inserted the autoupdate script there, so users can easily have the latest version of the workflow from now on.
About a week ago, I had to update my Readwise to Bear Shortcut again. Two weeks go I fixed a bug that affected only a few users. For those who didn’t have the bug, however, the update caused other issues with the Shortcut—so I had to implement another fix. If you’re experiencing problems, you might want to check it out. I’ve added a note for more details. If everything is working fine for you, then there’s no need to worry.
Cleanclip, a clipboard manager that I really like—and at the same time find a bit frustrating—, had a big update. I still need to do some more testing, but a lot of bugs seem to have been fixed. Unfortunately I still cannot get it to work with Alfred, which is the main reason I had to put this aside. The developer has mentioned he found fix which will be included with the next release. I have Paste (I’m on their Beta testing), I have Pastepal, and I have other apps which also have clipboard management features (Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, and BetterTouchTool), but Cleanclip has the best Paste Stack of them all. I do consider a clipboard manager an important tool in my workflow, but I haven’t found one that can truly fit all my needs. I recently have been doing some important discoveries in my ‘clipboard management’ journey, though. Let me tell you about it…
On Alfred
Only recently that I’ve been exploring coding possibilities with AI is that I discovered that Alfred has so much to offer for users who want to create their own workflows. I haven’t tried Raycast (though I use Alfred with its theme), but I wonder if it provides the same flexibility as Alfred does with code, scripts, and integrating everything together—in user-made workflows—with Alfred’s own native features. Let me expand on this.
For example, I’ve been trying to explore more about Alfred’s Clipboard Manager. I already knew there’s a handy way to merge clipboard entries by quickly double-copying, and you can integrate the clipboard manager directly with its snippets feature, making it easy to save clipboard items into collections for text expansion presets. It’s pretty great. Even though it doesn’t have the “visual appeal” of other apps like Paste, it’s no less powerful.
Last week, after discovering and testing out the fantastic Sequential Paste Workflow, I got inspired to create my own Paste Stack/Paste Queue workflow. I’ve been working on it for a few days now and can’t wait to share the results when it’s ready! This might help me get closer to my “ideal” version of a clipboard manager.
If you use Keyboard Maestro and Alfred, this past week I discovered the Alfred Maestro workflow. It’s always useful to have more ways to trigger macros.
On Cinema
The Edge of Heaven (2007). I was on Mubi and saw this film had good reviews. I was surprised to find that it was so good! It reminded me a bit of Nuri Ceylan, though with less poetry and metaphors. A bit more tragic , too. I really liked it. Synopsis: The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.
Short Sharp Shock (1998). I accidentally landed on this film and after watching it I realized it was by Fatih Akin, the same director of The Edge of Heaven (the film I mentioned above). I am so happy to make discoveries like this, and happy to know that Mubi seems to have a lot of his films! This one is a bit Scorsese-ish in theme. Synopsis: Gabriel, Bobby and Costa are old friends from Altona, a multicultural hood in Hamburg. Just out of prison, Gabriel wants to turn his back on crime, but the others continue to operate as petty criminals. Friendships are tested as the trio navigate a dark world of mafia bosses and deals gone wrong.
Soul Kitchen (2009). Maybe the lightest film I’ve watched of Fatih Akin. This one is closer to a comedy. Synopsis: In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.
Oddity (2024). I like original horror films. This is not one of them… but it still made me jump out of my seat more than once. I recommend it if you need a bit of excitement in your day-to-day. Synopsis: After the brutal murder of her twin sister, Darcy goes after those responsible by using haunted items as her tools for revenge.
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