Kan-ban-ban-nanas

I love making lists. Especially to do lists. Of course, often the only thing that got done on my to do list was make to do list, so there’s a problem of efficacy. But that has never stopped me from making lists, usually daily ones.

But a while back, I learned about kanban. I learned about it from Jason Rehmus, while listening to Systematic.

On a very basic level, a kanban is just a to do list mashed up

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Flipping the Model

"He'll flip you. Flip you for real." -- Fenster

Right now, the typical model for book publishing goes like so:

Trade Cloth (aka hardcover) ➸ Trade Paper ➸ Mass Market Paperback ➸ Ebook

Keeping the ebook in last place is deceptive, because the truth is that ebook versions don’t really have a solid place in this hierarchy yet. Sometimes an ebook comes out before the hardcover, or with the hardcover, or with the trade, or later. There’s no rule. Also, unlike

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Avoid the Glow

I'm writing this on a computer. While listening to an astronomy podcast on another tiny pod computer. If I ever get a phone call, my phone-y computer will alert me. And if I get sick of writing this post on this computer, I can always grab my foldy computer and go somewhere else.

This post is about the ubiquity of computers in my life.

I've been troubled by just how much I use computers all day, every day. As a

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Inside the Author's Studio: ​Helpful Hints for Housebreakers

If for any reason you want to break into my house to leave me cookies, or get a first edition of my books (spoiler: they're in the cloud), or just to keep your stalking skills sharp, you will want to know that you're breaking into the right house. Otherwise, it's SO embarrassing, right?

Here's a clue. It's the place with hoodies hung up three deep:

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Book Review: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, by Philip Pullman

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, by Philip Pullman

For fans of fairy tales, the news that Philip Pullman was working on something Grimm-related was pretty exciting. The creator of Lyra Belacqua and Sally Lockhart has shown that he knows a thing or two about spinning new life into seemingly long-gone worlds. And last November, he published Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

In the introduction, Pullman says bluntly "There is no psychology in a fairy tale." What?! Now calm

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killing little birdies: the use and misuse of social media

I have been thinking lately about the virtues of social media. In particular, I refer to Twitter and Facebook. I regard Google+ largely as a willful figment of imagination, or perhaps an ill-advised collective hallucination. App.net exists, I know, but if its raison d’etre has expanded beyond “screw twitter”, no one has let me know. In a similar vein, I am also ignoring Instagram as a social media tool, because, well, hashtaghipsterhamburgerhelper, amirite? As powerful as your gently

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