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My name is Philipp and you are reading Creativerly, the internet corner where I unpack my musings, curate and write about noteworthy apps and software, and explore the latest trends in design and tech.
Hey and welcome to Creativerly 286 👋I recently received a new mechanical keyboard that I ordered already a couple of months ago (other folks who also are part of the mechanical keyboard hobby will understand why that is totally normal), and let me tell you, it led to a writing boost, since I enjoy it so much. It is my first Alice layout (again, keyboard enthusiasts will understand what I am talking about, otherwise, here is a quick intro), and while I thought I would need some time to adapt to the layout, it feels like I am typing and writing and fast as never before. It might sound trivial to you, but a new keyboard actually boosts my writing, as I just want to spend time in front of my computer and type on it. Rather than typing any nonsense, I get back to my writing backlog and suddenly I find myself in a deep writing flow, enjoying the typing feeling and the lovely clicky-clack sounds from my new keyboard. I love my new mechanical keyboard that much that I even brought it with me for my vacation which started last week. I am currently writing those lines from a beautiful valley called Montafon, in Vorarlberg (in the west of Austria), surrounded by astonishing mountains and breathtaking scenery. Anyway, enjoy this week's newsletter.
Intimacy, trust, and friendship - On thriving in smaller community spacesSocial media has always been disrupted. However, since the defragmentation of X (formerly Twitter), loads of people found themselves signing up to different social networks as the people they followed got spread across different platforms. It was hard and almost impossible to keep up with everything. Once Elon Musk took over Twitter and suddenly it became one of the darkest places on the internet, I decided to leave the platform behind. Not a single cell in my body agrees with Musk's political interests, the way he treated employees, or what he did to the platform. I was fascinated, and I still am, when I see how many people (especially in the journalism and design field, since I followed a lot of people there) stayed on the platform, actively supporting Musk and all his actions. It was the easiest decision ever to leave Twitter behind and check out new platforms. I signed up for a Mastodon account already some years ago, but never actively used the platform. As I decided to leave Twitter, it felt like the right time to join a new social community. The ever-growing desire for smaller communitiesBecause of the Twitter defragmentation, Mastodon became increasingly popular and loads of users joined the platform. Since you have to choose a server first in order to register your account (I decided to go for mastodon.design), a lot of people found themselves in small, yet active and vibrant communities focused on specific interests and topics. When I joined mastodon.design, there were just a around 100 users, and an even smaller number of active ones. Browsing the local timeline of that server felt like a small and private community. While mastodon.design grew significantly over the last couple of years, it still feels like such a private community. There is something special about it. I was not the only one realizing that. Based on my experience and research a lot of people had a strong desire for connection and dedicated online communities, after the growing backlash against tradition social media. Users were looking for intimacy, trust, and friendship. Once they found that, users increasingly started to thrive in smaller community spaces. The idea of those smaller community spaces is not new. Since years, people have been creating community spaces on Slack or Discord. Connecting with like-minded community members in small spaces with increased privacy allows for more meaningful conversations. While traditional social media platforms often get flooded with bot accounts which then hijack those conversations, it takes a bit more to join in on such a community, which helps to filter out the bots, and keep the negativity out of the door. Read the full post here:
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Fresh Updates & NewsI started using Eagle one year ago, and I could not be happier with how it gives me all the features I need to create my personal visual library where I gather UI and design inspiration. Recently, the team behind the app announced its new major version, Eagle 4, which introduced a comprehensive overhaul designed to make your daily workflows more flexible and efficient, combined with an entirely new plugin system, a redesigned user interface, AI image enlarger, duplicate image cleaner, and a lot more. This is without a doubt the most comprehensive update Eagle has shipped. To get an overview of all the awesome new features, make sure to head over to the linked blog post, where you will also find a video that guides through the key highlights of Eagle 4.0. The July Raycast update introduces a new feature called Auto Quits, which can be enabled for apps like Slack, which then get terminated after 3 minutes of inactivity. It is a powerful feature that helps you keeping your flow. Besides that, the recently introduced Window Layout feature got further improved, as it now supports multiple monitors, and opening files or links. Two months ago, Craft's CEO and founder, Bálint Orosz, shared an update on how he and the rest of the Craft team imagine Craft's future and how the app will supercharge its users' daily workflows by structuring their thoughts like never before. The most recent update, provided some more insights what the future of Craft will actually be. in a What's new post, Craft shared a first look at Objects, which will let you organize information in Craft with greater flexibility and enable you to build up your workflows. As Objects will provide fields to personalize it, and use them to categorize, create connections, or add context, they allow you to add content inside each object, and as all related objects will be collected in one single view, users of tools like Capacities or Tana will already be very familiar with this concept. Anyway, it will be exciting to see how Craft will incorporated a feature like that into the their current app. Craft has been known for their exceptional design, however, while they introduced popular features like Daily Notes, Bi-directional linking, Tasks, and more, it felt like they never fully delivered when it comes to those features. Objects and working with structured data in a note-taking app does not work with a "good enough" solution, it has to be thought-through and implemented to the full extent. I wrote about beams already a while ago. Back then, it was only available if you signed up to a waitlist. Fast forward to today, and beams launched to the public and the macOS App Store, which means everyone can used it now. The product evolved immensely as it now features prioritizing daily goals, auto-joining video calls, focus mode, journal and calendar insights, and more. Make sure to head over to beams, and give it a try. With their newest update, Anytype shiped a redesigned sidebar, new widgets, inline LaTeX feature, and a number of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes for a smoother experience. The new sidebar should give users a fast and easy way to hop between spaces, and with the new widgets you can now display them in three new layouts - Calendar, Kanban, and Gallery.
Mental Wealth❯ Levels of Thinking: How to Make Better Decisions with Second-Level Thinking – “Skipping meals to save time, but finding yourself exhausted and unproductive by the afternoon. Choosing a cheaper apartment to save money, but the long commute ends up costing you time and energy. You tried to make the most sensible choice, and yet… What went wrong?” ❯ Instrumental interfaces, engaged interfaces – “Maps are my favorite kind of interface, so I want to begin with a brief story about a map I use every day. New York, where I live, is a fast-moving river. Friends and neighbors move in just as quickly as they move out. In my three years living in the city, most of my friends and acquaintances have moved apartments every year. Too many to count have also moved in, and then away again, to some other city.” ❯ Designing Depth – “One of the most challenging fundamental pillars in visual media is composition. How do you distill a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional (still) frame, while conveying story and depth? A favorite technique of mine to do so and also create visual interest is to composite the scene with layered objects.” ❯ How To Be More Resilient – “Sometimes life doesn’t just hand you lemons — it pelts you with them like you’re in a citrus fruit dodgeball game. Yeah, we’re talking about when you have to deal with grief, like the death of a loved one or other serious tragedies. You’re left with this bizarre, jagged-edged picture that sort of resembles your life, but not really. It’s a process that’s as confusing as trying to read a book where every other page is from a different novel. You cry so hard you dehydrate yourself. You feel your own inner light dimming, like a smartphone screen at 5% battery.”
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Appendix❯ ICYMI Elicit is an AI-powered research assistant that can be entitled as the research tool fo a researcher's dreams. However, thanks to an intuitive user interface it allows anyone to become a researcher and summarize papers, extract data, and synthesize their findings. In Creativerly's deep dive you can find out more about Elicit and why it is such a powerful tool. ❯ Quick Bits
Till next time! 👋 Support: Do you have a friend who is looking for inspiration, news about design, and useful tools and apps? Forward this newsletter to a friend or simply share this issue and show some support. You can also show some love by simply clicking the button down below and keep this newsletter a sustainable side-project by buying me a coffee. ☕️ 🥰
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