Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

For whatever reason, the Achilles Heel of my life online has long been my bookmarking system. I read a lot, write a lot, and am constantly looking for “that thing I read that one time that would be totally perfect right now!”

In my search for the perfect system, I’ve learned that many, many people have the same problem: we come across all this cool stuff, and there’s no system in place to put it somewhere we’ll reliably find it, or remember it exists, ever again. I promised that, if I figured out a system, I’d share it.

Well, here goes.

This is a system that works perfectly – for me. That’s not to say it’ll work for you, or be even remotely useful for you, but it’s a hole-free, functional system for me. It’s got four basic components, in three applications:

“Things I Want to Read”

A lot of the things I bookmark are articles, blog posts, or stories that I want to read. Usually, when I’m browsing the Web and find these articles, I don’t have time to read them, so I need a place to put them. That place is Instapaper. I’ve got a folder called “To Read,” and every article I want to read goes in there. Then, I can read it on my Android phone (thanks to an awesome app called InstaFetch), my iPod Touch via the great Instapaper app, and at any computer.

A couple of rules: the only thing that ever goes into Instapaper is reading material. If it’s a video, or pictures, or a song, it belongs elsewhere. Also, when something gets read, it either gets deleted or gets moved to a more appropriate place. That means that Instapaper is only for reading, and that the list is constantly evolving, never giving me things I don’t need to see.

“Do Something With This”

Apps to test, articles to share, sources for a paper I’m writing – all these things are bookmarks I need to do something with. So, accordingly, they go where everything goes that I need to deal with – my Evernote “Inbox” notebook.

Instead of an application like Delicious or Diigo, which don’t handle the content of pages well, Evernote’s Web Clipper actually clips the content of the page I’m on into Evernote. I can go through, glance at every page, and instead of opening a million links to find what I’m looking for, just flip through my notes (or, better yet, search them) to find the right one.

My recommendation for this one is to find a way to work these bookmarks, things you need to do something with, into your regular system. Don’t use a new application, because it’s just one more inbox to check. Even if you send everything to yourself by email, figure out how to bring all these bookmarks into your existing system. For me, since Evernote’s already my inbox for everything, it works great.

“Might Need This One Day”

I think the general problem with bookmarks is that they tend to fall into the category of “ooh, this sounds interesting, maybe I’ll care about it again some day.” We see and save hundreds of those things, and then get hopelessly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

Evernote, though admittedly not a perfect solution for bookmarking, has become my solution – things I might want to use, reference, or look up one day, but don’t want in my face right now. Again, since it stores the full content of the page, it makes searching for the little bits of a quote or product name that I can still remember, rather than hunting through hundreds of links. The search is also more powerful than most bookmarking systems, making things that much easier to track down.

A tip: combine the Evernote clipper with the Readability bookmarklet, as described by 40Tech. It’ll only clip the relevant parts of the page to Evernote, so your search results don’t get cluttered by people’s sidebars, footers, and annoying intro pages.

“I Like This Site”

The last thing I have bookmarks for is just sites I like. If I’ve got a few minutes to kill, these are sites I visit to find something cool, something good to read, or to learn something new and interesting. I don’t want a specific article, I just want to peruse the sites.

Delicious works beautifully. I save links to a number of my favorite sites in my Delicious, and I can get them from any computer, add to them or delete a few, and even share them with others (though that’s basically what I did with Digitizd Library). Since I don’t want a specific article, Instapaper doesn’t make sense, and since I don’t want the page as it was at a given time, neither does Evernote. Delicious works best when it can be nothing but links, and that’s exactly what it is.

This is obviously a fairly complex system, and it’s only for people who really consume and share as much as I do. But whether you fit into one of these categories or all of them, I’m betting the solution will serve you well.

How do you handle bookmarks? Let me know in the comments, I’m always game to tweak the system!

Over the last year, the community around this site (and before, when it was The 2.0 Life) has evolved. The site is now one part techie, and one part technological novice – people coming to learn about and discover new technologies. That balance has been my hope for this site all along, and I’m thrilled that people are getting value from it.

In an effort to make Digitizd an even more useful place, and to connect new people with technology and help techies get more from it, I’m launching not one, not two, but three new arms of this site. (Well, four, but we’ll get there).

You’ll be able to find all the arms of the network in the nav bar of this site, and each one has its own unique brand of awesome. Digitizd Plus, a place for tips, tricks, and other bits of cool technology, has been up for a while, and now we’re adding to the family!

A bit about each of the new branches:

Digitizd Gear

Discovering and reviewing products has been done to death, and done incredibly well – sites like Uncrate, Engadget, Gizmodo, Cool Material and others all do amazing work. All these sites fail in one area for me, however: practicality. They tend to recommend things that are expensive, cool without being useful, or in such diverse categories that finding exactly what you need can be tough.

That’s what Digitizd Gear is for. The site is going to be a place to go for gadgets and gizmos aplenty, whosits and whatsits galore, all with a focus on awesomeness, practicality and, more importantly, your wallet. If you’re looking for a techie birthday present, or something to buy when you sell your kidney on the black market, Gear is going to be an excellent place for that – cool gadgets that make sense for you (and some that are just too awesome not to recommend).

It’s also, honestly, a revenue stream for Digitizd. I hate advertising, and want to do it as little as possible. Thanks to the Amazon Affiliates program, I’m able to recommend some amazing gadgets, and I get a small cut if you buy one of them from my link. It’s a great way for you to support this site, and get some awesome stuff at the same time!

Digitizd Library

I think the question I get most often is “what do you read?” The answer is that I read a lot, in a lot of different places. I’ve listed a lot of them, particularly tech blogs, but there’s still great stuff out there.

That’s why I’m launching Digitizd Library. It’s a collection of feeds that I read and enjoy often, with a particular focus on longer-form writing. I read a lot of blogs, and often miss longer, deeper writing. That’s what the Digitizd Library is – a place to find something great to read, always with some sort of technology spin. That site is super-basic, and will be ever-evolving, but if you’re in the market for some great reading material, it’s a great place to start. I know I use it every day!

Digitizd Discuss

The other thing I get all the time, from friends, family, co-workers and readers, is tech questions. Recommendations, thoughts, people calling me a lunatic for liking Windows 7, all sorts of things. I love getting that, and think it’s a blast, but my hunch is that if one person has these questions, others do too.

With that in mind, I’m launching Digitizd Discuss, which is essentially a modified forum. It’s a place to ask questions, get answers, talk to other people, and learn something (hopefully in a way that’s less complicated than some of the answers you might get on Google). I can’t promise to answer every question, because I just don’t know the answer a lot of the time, but hopefully by publicizing the process we can harness the collective knowledge of Digitizd readers. Which is incredible, by the way. And you’re all very attractive as well.

Digitizd Facebook

This one’s not as new, but I’m still excited about it. Many people, myself included, are getting more and more of their information from Facebook. So, I bit the bullet and launched a Facebook page for Digitizd. Facebook is a great place to read information, have discussions, and connect with some of the other people who are part of this community.

The page is fairly bare-bones, but it will take shape over time, and will hopefully be a resource for readers of this site to access some of the material without having to go so far to find it.

There’s more in the works as Digitizd matures and develops, but I’m excited about these changes. I want this to be a place where you can come and learn something, find other places to learn something, and contribute something yourself. My hope is that all four of these new features bring Digitizd a little bit closer to being just that.

If you run into any problems, annoyances or weirdness as you use the new features, let me know. Thanks a lot!

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

Forgive the rant.

There’s this funny trend happening on the Web the last few months. It started with people like Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Patrick Rhone of Minimal Mac, both of whom have sites I read daily and love. Their basic hypothesis is this: we have too much unnecessary stuff, and it affects our lives negatively. So they preach “minimalism,” the systematic getting rid of the extraneous.

That idea, valiant as it is, has warped. As the trend of minimalism has caught on, the definition has changed, and the mantra has gone from being about getting rid of the unnecessary, to looking around your room and saying “what can I get rid of to show everyone how little I have?” Minimalism has given way to lessism.

That’s how we get bloggers writing about how they have 6 pieces of furniture in their apartment. You know what? If having six pieces of furniture works for you, neat. But why is it somehow a badge of honor, as if furniture is a competition scored like golf, where the fewest pieces wins? If I want a large, ostentatious piece of art in my hallway that serves absolutely no purpose to anyone except to give me enjoyment when I look at it, then screw you – I’m keeping it.

The tech angle here is similar: there’s been a rebellion against “feature-bloat,” which I’m all for. Too many pieces of software do so much to the point where they don’t really do anything, or let you do anything. Once again, though, the rallying cry has been “less!” to the point where we’ve stripped features we need.

One of my favorite examples (sorry Leo) of unnecessary lessism is a Zen Habits offshoot called Mnmlist. I like the site, the content’s great – only problem is, there’s no way to do anything useful on the site. Can’t find other posts, can’t figure out how to subscribe, can’t search, can’t really do much of anything. There’s less on the site, sure, but to what end? It makes the site a less enjoyable experience, all to prove that less is better.

My other favorite example is word processing the hip new thing to do is write in text editors instead of Microsoft Word, because they don’t have all the other features that “just distract us.” As far as I’m concerned, if the debate between making a word bold or italicized is so paralyzing that you can’t get anything done, computers might not be for you. The features exist to make the work we do better, and to help us – if it works for you, use it! There’s almost a stigma that’s developing against Word, the overly-bloated and impossible to use application. That’s ridiculous.  It does everything you need it to – and sure, probably a little more – but it’s much to ignore something you don’t need than to work around the absence of something you do need. Instead of isolating only what we need, we cut out everything, all for a race to the bottom, to see who’s the most minimalist.

The most minimalist. Therein lies the problem, if you ask me. Minimalism is not, and cannot, be a competition; it is totally and utterly different for every single person. Take me: I’ve got 21 items in the Dock on my computer, nine of which are currently open. I’m listening to music, IMing with my girlfriend, texting my friend, and writing this article at the same time. That works for me. Something completely different might work for you, and that’s fine too, but I would argue that what I’m doing right now is as minimalist as sitting in the 4’ x 4’ box that you’ve created, with chalk and a wall (way more minimalist than paper and pen – I mean, the wall’s already there, why not use it?).

Minimalism is about finding exactly what you need, and nothing more. The minimal life has everything you need, optimized to make you the most productive, most efficient, and least stressed as possible. It has nothing extraneous, nothing useless. Minimalism is about identifying and keeping everything you need, and shutting everything else out. It’s not about getting less, wanting less, or needing less – unless that’s what you need. It might, in fact, require you to get more, if you need something that’ll work better for you than what you have now.

Dropping your RSS reader isn’t necessarily minimalist. Neither is getting rid of items in your Dock, or having a black background on your computer. What is minimalist? That’s up to you. Not me, not Leo, not Patrick, and not anyone else. It’s a process, a thoughtful one and a useful one, but one that’s totally and utterly up to you.

And if you want to keep all your furniture, then you keep it, damn it.

Update: Two people I respect and admire, Chris Bowler and Patrick Rhone (who I mention above), have talked about this before, and had some incredibly insightful things to say.

Chris: “I’m fairly sure I could lose 2 days of work looking for ways to configure those tools to be accessed in some other fashion. But why? Just so I can post screenshots that will cause others to say, “This guy is so zen. He’s must be in the zone all. the. time!”

Minimalism in computing is not about how your computer looks. It’s about how you use it — ensuring it has everything you need and nothing you don’t.”

Patrick: “I believe the most minimal computer is the one that is optimized for you. How you work. The menubar items you need. The dock items you need. The applications you need. The system you need. The peripherals you need. The tools you need to get the job done.

I believe most of us do not take the time often enough to evaluate what that need is. The entire mission of this site is to help you ask those questions and find the answer that is right. The only answer that is right. The one that is right for you and only you.”

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

A good bit of my day, every single day, is spent reading on screens. I’ll read news on my computer, and then save some interesting stuff to Instapaper to read while I’m on the subway.  I’ll read RSS feeds when I get to work, read blogs and news throughout the day, catch up on ESPN when I’m bored, and maybe end the day reading a book on my iPod Touch or my laptop while I’m sitting in bed.

All of that would be fine, except that computer reading is a nightmare. There’s the obvious problems, like “you’ll go blind,” as well as a host of other annoyances. Between blinking ads that pop up over the first nine paragraphs of the story, ads about some girl’s nasty yellow teeth I’d really rather not see, and the “hey there, want to subscribe to my newsletter?” notes that seem to be plastered all over most blogs, reading on your computer (or any screen) just sucks.

I can’t fix the problem, but I can offer a few tips and solutions I’ve found that make reading on your computer not only sustainable for your eyes, but also make the experience much more enjoyable in general.

Save Your Eyes

I think the jury’s more or less in agreement on the fact that staring at a bright screen for a long time isn’t the best for your eyes. Since spending less time online is just a terrible idea, we’ll just have to lessen the impact on our eyes. (Note: see update at the bottom)

There are a couple of ways to do this. The first tip is a simple one – anytime you can, use your computer with some other light. It’s much easier on your eyes when you’re not being blasted with the bright lights of only one thing.

Another good way to remove the strain is to invert the screen’s colors (meaning you read white text on a black background instead of the normal, black-on-white way), which is a lot easier on your eyes. Many reading applications for mobile devices (including Instapaper and Read it Later) have a setting for that mode, which both saves power and saves your eyes. For broader uses, there’s a Firefox add-on called Invert Colors that does exactly the same thing, only on every page in your browser.

Get Some Readability

My saving grace for Web reading, and the inspiration for this post, is the Readability bookmarklet for your browser. I’ve written about it before, but it’s worth mentioning again because it’s such a life-saver. When you click the button (on any page, in any browser), Readability extracts the important pictures, text and video from a page, and gets rid of everything else – ads, banners, subscription nags, all of it. Gone. Just read. Want the annoyances? Refresh the page, and it goes back to how it was.

Readability is also fantastic for bookmarking pages (because you’re only bookmarking the good parts, not the nav bar and ads and sidebar and everything else), but it wins my heart for letting you read without any distractions.

Get All Newspaper-y

If you’re reading a lot, checking RSS feeds or just surfing around for reading material, the typical format of most websites – where you read straight down a page in reverse chronological order – doesn’t really work. It’s been shown that things like multiple, short columns work better than long ones – think newspaper layouts versus blog format.

A few cool applications are taking advantage of that, making the reading a lot more pleasant and efficient. If you’re reading the New York Times, for instance, the Times Reader is phenomenal, showing the articles as the dead tree paper might. You’ll pay for the Times Reader, but it’s worth it.

There’s also a similar application that works on Adobe AIR (which means it’ll run on any platform) called Readefine. Readefine takes files from RSS, from your computer, or from webpages, and displays them in a pretty, easy-to-read way. It’s an excellent one-stop shop for reading better, and all for the low, low price of nuffin’.

If you’re reading RSS feeds, check out Feedly – it’s like Google Reader, only with much smarter ways of formatting, sorting, and displaying your content. It’s a Firefox extension and Web site, and works fantastically to give you a better reading experience than Google Reader.

Reading’s moving to screens, there’s just no getting around that. But, with a few useful tools, and a little bit of TLC for your eyes, that may not be such a bad thing.

Do you use anything to make your screen-based reading experience better?

Update: I’ve been doing some more reading on the subject of screens, paper, and the health of your eyes, and there’s some fascinating discussion that is much more controversial than I would have thought. Here’s my current favorite article on the subject, but I’d love to hear your thoughts as well!

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

On Twitter yesterday, I asked my followers for some of their favorite blogs. I got some great answers, which I’ll share, but what was more interesting to me was how many people were in my situation: liking reading blogs, and finding it harder and harder to find new good ones.

I’ve also realized that, for most people, blogs are still a totally foreign concept. We don’t know how to find good ones, how to use those to find others, or how to connect to this whole crazy blogging world. I think that’s why the reactions to my lists of great business blogs and great blogs for foodies were hits.

Let’s be honest: my thing is tech. I read tech, write tech, talk tech, eat, sleep and breathe tech. With that in mind, what better to share than some of my favorite tech blogs? The number could probably be higher, but here’s 53 fantastic tech blogs you really ought to read. Some are super nerdy and for techies only, but many aren’t, and are an awesome way to access the tech world and the blogging world all at the same time.

(A disclaimer: I’ve written, or still write, for a number of these blogs. But I write for them because I love them, so my recommendation shouldn’t be tainted whatsoever. I hope.)

Tech News and Analysis

TechCrunch – LOTS of news. Not always right, but always interesting and frequently first.

VentureBeat – A firehose of news about startups, innovation, and cool products coming in the tech world.

GigaOm – Some news, but mostly really smart analysis of the tech world.

ReadWriteWeb- Ditto above. Some news, lots of smart people talking tech.

Wired – Less about startups and the valley, more about tech and real life.

The Next Web – Funnier, more lighthearted, but still great news.

Webware – News, always with a focus on “what does it mean for users?”

Mashable – Nowhere else to go for social media news, this one’s dominant.

Bits – Not a lot of exclusive content, but brilliant writers and smart commentary.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog – An awesome resource for anything and everything Apple.

Google Blogoscoped – Keeping up with Google is darn near impossible, and Blogoscoped makes it a lot easier to manage.

Silicon Alley Insider – Very business-heavy, but great angles on news stories.

Ars Technica – Heavy on the geekery, but full of interesting thoughts and niche pieces.

Tech and Web Design

Six Revisions – Tips, tools, and great lists of design resources.

Smashing Magazine – Perfect site for the designer newbie, full of great tips and tutorials.

Noupe – I love their roundups (like “50 best free icon sets”), and constantly bookmark this site.

Hongkiat – Basically ditto above, but with a slightly broader focus in design.

I Love Typograhy – Love fonts and typefaces? Can’t beat this site.

Design Observer – More tips, tricks, and tutorials.

Swiss Miss – The musings of a designer, with a heavy focus on the funky and quirky bits of the design world.

Outlaw Design Blog – Lots, and lots, and lots of great free resources.

How-Tos and Reviews

MakeUseOf – Endless resource of Top 10 Lists, and geeky hacks you might want to try.

gHacks – Deeper cuts in tech than MUO, but still great for news, tips, and tutorials.

Lost in Technology – Much more approachable than the above sites, it’s a great blog to wade into without much knowledge required.

Mac AppStorm – The best Mac apps on the planet get showcased here.

Web AppStorm – Ditto above, but with Web apps.

FreelanceSwitch – Tips, tools, tricks and help for anyone living the freelance lifestyle (more and more of us these days).

40Tech – Encountering tech, particularly geared toward those over 40, but really useful for anyone.

Commentators

Daring Fireball – John Gruber is the smartest man on the planet when it comes to Apple.

Pogue’s Posts – David Pogue’s funny, smart, and a great representative of the common man.

Skelliewag – Skellie’s making blogging and the Web her life, chronicling it all the way.

Scripting News – Dave Winer’s as important to the tech landscape as anyone (he’s the godfather of RSS, among other things), and his thoughts on any subject are a must-read.

Search Engine Land – Danny Sullivan knows his stuff when it comes to search—and there’s a lot more to it than you might think.

All Things D – A group of thinkers from the Wall Street Journal, all discussing, analyzing and talking tech. My favorite? Kara Swisher.

Dustin Curtis – I love the way his site looks more than anything, but he’s a great observer of the world of blogging, design, and art.

MinimalMac – Mostly a links roundup, but a phenomenal resource for anyone looking to make their Mac work for them.

Tips, Tricks and Hackery

Lifehacker – The grand poobah of “little things to make your life more productive, more efficient, and more awesome” blogs.

Digital Inspiration – Amit is clever, easy to understand, and full of cool and interesting tips for everyone.

Unclutterer – Much-needed help for getting the crap out of our way so we can get important things done.

HackCollege – Tons of useful tips on hacking college and succeeding in school, but with ideas useful for anyone.

Smarterware – Gina, the founder of Lifehacker, took to Smarterware to share more great tricks, and never disappoints.

Did I Get Things Done? – Mostly lists of links, recently, but Andrew’s got a great grip on what’s interesting in the productivity blogosphere.

Lifehack – Somewhat broader in its thinking than Lifehacker, but a great place to find tips to make every little piece of your life work a little better.

Productivity501 – Short, simple posts with tangible ideas on how to make yourself more productive.

Switched – All things geek, particularly the culture of techies that is forming.

Make Magazine – Do awesome stuff with your stuff. That should totally be their tagline.

Cool Stuff

Gizmodo – Gadgets, gadgets, gadgets!

Engadget – Oh my goodness, more gadgets!

Boy Genius Report – They’re full of rumors and leaks, and are almost always right.

jkOnTheRun – Arguably the most seasoned gadget-heads out there, they’re a smart, thoughtful, and objective resource for all things gadget and mobile.

For Funsies

Xkcd – Want to know how nerds think? Read this comic. That’s exactly it.

Boing Boing – The interesting, quirky, strange, and weird things in the tech world.

Neatorama – Awesome things. I think that’s their only criteria for inclusion, and they stick to it well.

There’s a lot here, many of which may not be for everyone. But there’s an incredible amount of quality in the tech blogosphere, and I’m willing to bet there’s something out there for everyone, no matter who you are or what you know.

What’s on your tech blogroll? Share it in the comments!