Tech Productivity Issue #132 (Create a Culture With Fewer Meetings)

Issue #132 (Create a Culture With Fewer Meetings) 08/23/21

A recent Hacker News thread discussed an article covering (in part) the scam that is the printer ink industry. The article points out that buying a cheap printer is secretly an ink subscription service (is it really a secret though?). This is also true of other purchases but, regarding printer ink, some of the HN readers chimed in on the subject.

If you have the urge to get out from under the blight of this never-ending monopoly, here's what some suggest:

Buy a monochrome laser printer and do your color printing at a printing company
Brother seems to be the brand name of choice for laser printers
If your printer says it can't print anymore, you can sometimes look up online how to reset the cartridge to allow further uninterrupted printing
Buy knock-off inks from Amazon instead of brand name stuff

Finally, if you want a heavy read on the business practices of printer ink companies, check out this document, linked by one user later in the thread.

Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!

Tools & Apps

Alfred - An award-winning app for macOS that boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion, and more.

Planner - Productivity app for Linux that keeps track of all your tasks, projects, and goals in one beautiful and simple place.

WisdomTree - Not taking app that helps you remember the things you take notes on using knowledge management, memory, and game-based learning.

SmartWindows - A window manager for Windows 10 to configure your windows in just the right places, and just the right sizes, then restore them with click.

Detail - Turns your iPhone or iPad into an interactive camera for live video on your Mac, essentially upgrading your camera in Zoom, Meet, Twitch, YouTube Live, and more.

Web Scraping API - Extract the data you need with scrapestack’s powerful web scraping API. Get Your Free API Key! sponsored

Articles & Resources

Our Brains Make Us Way Too Optimistic About Deadlines. Here’s How to Work Around That - Based on "the planning fallacy", a tendency to assume a more optimistic timetable than is practical or realistic.

This Simple Word Test Reveals How Creative You Are, Scientists Say - I tried this and scored pretty well, but I also used to play Scrabble against world-class Scrabble "pros", so...

Efficiency is the Highest Form of Beauty - 2016 article from a personal finance blogger I'd never heard of until now.

How to Create a Culture with Fewer Meetings and More Time for Deep Work - Of course, this is assuming you want this kind of culture at your workplace – which you should – and these suggestions might help.

U.S. Workers are Among the Most Stressed in the World, New Gallup Report Finds - In this context, "U.S." also includes Canada and is based on Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report.

The Reshape - Stay up to date with AI 🤖 & Data Science 📊 by reading top-notch articles. We are the first to spot hot news (data proven!). At the same time, we scour the Internet to find the most overlooked publications. Get a package of both in a concise form delivered straight to your inbox for free 📬. sponsored

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X (@LouisLazaris) and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
techproductivity.co
@LouisLazaris

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