From Scratch
Reviewing Readwise with Tiago, Sonoma Crashing, The WindowServer Bug, Apps to Monitor your System, and Kaurismaki!
Hey guys, here’s a few things that stood out from my previous week. Mostly some system-related stuff on this one, and a good app recommendation to help you tame some CPU processes.
On Consuming Content
I watched THIS YT VIDEO where Tiago Forte talks about Readwise and Reader and how he uses these apps as essential in his “Second Brain.” A highly recommended watch. I’ve actually been trying to write a script for a Youtube video where I discuss my own workflow, so I’ve been researching how others do something similar. For Tiago, it seems like he relies on the automatic export functions from Readwise. Unfortunately, my favorite note-taking app, Bear, doesn’t support this feature. Although there are workarounds, I’ve had issues with automatic sync in the past, so I prefer to just bring whatever I need into Bear manually. Because I have to manually sync highlights to my note system, I am more selective about what I import. I actually do much more on Readwise and Reader apps themselves. I’m excited to share more about this in the near future. These two apps are amazing and they absolutely changed my approach to knowledge management.
On Sonoma Crashes and Fixes
I had to pause all of my projects for several days because my MacBook Air M1 started having problems, let me give you a summary in case you ever experience something similar. For three consecutive days, my computer MacBook Air M1 wouldn’t respond at all in the mornings. I noticed that some processes were using a lot of resources, and one called “windowserver” kept crashing. Long story short, I decided it would be best to do a clean installation of everything my system. By clean, I mean reinstalling everything manually without transferring apps and their preferences. Oh boy. I thought I was prepared because I took note of everything I needed to set up again, backed up some important files, and more. But I was wrong. Some apps that were supposed to back up settings with iCloud didn’t back up anything. I also accidentally forgot to export custom presets for some of my most-used apps, like photo editors. And to make matters worse, I forgot to take note of some shortcuts I had set up in everyday apps. I basically spent three days doing nothing but setting up a ton of things from scratch. Now, as a preventive measure I’ve taken more detailed notes, exported everything that needs to be exported, and taken many screenshots of settings that can’t be backed up. I think I can go through the whole process faster now. But guess what? I woke up the next morning and my computer was unresponsive again.
It has been half a week since the crashes stopped. Let me share what I did to try and fix the problem. It seems the crashes were not caused by the apps I had installed previously. Even after doing a clean install of my system. After doing a lot of research, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one experiencing this issue. It seems to be a bug that people with external displays encounter. I followed all the steps in this guide, especially the ones related to color profiles, and it seems to have helped. You can find another useful comment here.
I later discovered an unresponsive process called “family” that would appear after restarting. This is another common bug that others have encountered, and it seems to be related to the family sharing feature of Mac. I’m not sure if it made a difference, but based on recommendations I downloaded Xcode just to accept their licensing agreement. Now, I’m tempted to start learning how to develop with Xcode.
On System Stats
In the midst of my computer nightmare, I came across a useful app called App Tamer. Up until now, I have been using iStat Menus, which I find very convenient for monitoring memory and energy usage of apps. The problem is that sometimes I see apps running at high levels, but I can’t do anything about it. For example, Dropbox can sometimes be out of control even without syncing files. Arc takes up a lot of memory, but I need it running in the background so I can quickly use their keyboard shortcut to open a “Little Arc” popup. Even Day One, which I love, sometimes uses a lot of CPU in the background. App Tamer seems to be a great solution because it allows you to set limits for background apps or processes. I am currently on the trial to see if I can replace iStat Menus. So far, it’s working great.
On Cinema
Fallen Leaves (2023). If you don’t know the work of Aki Kaurismaki you are missing out. I am very happy he continues to make films. This one has all his common elements, tragedy, comedy, romance, tango… I loved it. Synopsis: The story of two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honorable goal is clouded by the man’s alcoholism, lost phone numbers, not knowing each other’s names or addresses, and life’s general tendency to place obstacles in the way of those seeking their happiness.
Some Kind of Heaven (2021). A very stylized documentary on what seems to be a Disney kind of retirement home. I loved the intimacy that the director was able to achieve with this. It’s really good. Very personal and very honest work. I did find all the interviews a bit disruptive, I would have preferred a more observational kind of documentary, but still, so good. Synopsis: Behind the gates of a palm-tree-lined fantasyland, three residents and one interloper at America’s largest retirement community strive to find happiness.
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