2022 on 👋 Hi!

The Pirate Life

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 00:00:00 -0600

I’ve been drawing a lot of inspiration from Steve Jobs recently. One quote that’s been bouncing around my head quite a bit is this one from 1983:

“It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy.”

I’m sure there were many meanings tucked away inside that simple phrase, but the story I’ve seen attributed to Andy Hertzfeld (who was at Apple in 1983) centers around resisting the bureaucratic nonsense that was increasing in the Mac group at Apple as they were growing. Don’t give up your scrappy, win-at-all-costs, counter-culture identity just to conform to “the system”.

Meet Dutch

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 00:00:00 -0600

Dutch is a 9-week old Goldendoodle, a frequent member of the “good dog” club, and lover of fetch. He’s named after our favorite coffee chain, Dutch Bros. Coffee¹ and as a nod to Dutch Formula 1 driver (and defending world champion), Max Verstappen.

He’s the newest member of the family, and we love him so much!

Who’s a good boy?

Financial disclosure, I own a [small] number of shares in Dutch Bros ($BROS) ↩︎

Real Artists Ship

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:00:00 -0600

There’s an aphorism that’s attributed to Steve Jobs that I’ve often used to spur on my own artistic endeavors:

“Real artists ship.”

Those three simple words convey a whole host of underlying meaning, and personally I find it incredibly helpful to refocus my own efforts toward the end goal: shipping my art for the world to see.

I’ve had several pet projects I’ve been working on, in some cases for multiple years, that I keep tinkering away on with no end in sight. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that – it’s good to have side projects that sharpen your craft or serve as test beds for learning – but at least one of the projects has been eating away at me, calling out for me to ship it.

Mac Studio – Day One

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0600

The Mac Studio I ordered the day after launch finally arrived, and it’s been so worth it. It’s been an incredibly fast and responsive desktop, and I love that there’s now an Apple desktop that makes sense if the iMac doesn’t suit your needs (like if you own a Pro Display XDR). I decided to set it up from scratch as a new machine and document all of the things I did on day one to get it configured for my daily workflows, and wanted to write it all down.

The 2022 Mac Studio in all it’s glory on my desk

My Home Office

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0700

It’s been almost three years since I last wrote about my remote work setup, and a lot has changed in everyone’s lives since then. It was time for me to post some new photos of my home office, and write about some of the things that help me do my best work. But first, let’s talk a little bit about remote work almost two years into the pandemic.

Wide-angle picture of my office in February, 2022

joemc.xyz

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0700

I wanted to have fun on the internet again. Around a decade ago (wow, time flies!), I remember lots of little landing pages built just for fun. There were no monetization strategies or traffic expectations. These were websites built simply to showcase fun content, play with fun technologies, or a combination of the two.