KISS

[Matthieu Cormier]

Here's where my brain is at, and why I joined this list.

If you're going to do something it's gotta offer something different. And it's gotta be worth building.  Keeping it simple is a great principle but at the end of the day we need an awesome reason to build this thing, and we definitely need to figure out what that one or two ( and not much more, because, yes, KISS) features are.

I was never a follower of GTD (getting things done), but I remember the hype, and apparently it failed many people.  Why do I mention GTD?  Because email is a big time suck and I think it's important to get out the harpoon gun and kill the bugger, dead.

If we're developers writing a mail application for developers then we can do some more advanced quicksilver style UI.

Recently I've been thinking of a concept framework application called "Distraction".  The idea is that you are either doing one of two things when your at your machine.
a.) Something productive (working on code/researching an idea)
b.) Doing something distractive (checking tweets/RSS/Mail/junk websites)

B is necessary.  You can't continually do A tasks.  Sometimes your brain needs a break and you need to goof off.

However you need to avoid the temptation of B tasks.  For example, I started hiding my dock so that those incessant red badges on apps would stop drawing me in.

So what is "Distraction"?  Distraction would be a backend framework with that would allow programs to run headless (no dock icon/in the background).   And definitely not another stupid thing in the menu bar.

So round up, netnewswire, mail, transmission, etc.  Give them backend processes and get them out of the dock.

For example:
  You would write a plugin for Distraction to check an IMAP account for a mail application. I.E. the mail application we're talking about building.  It could also pre-download all the mail data to your machine for super quick load later. 

Then, like dashboard, you could hit a hot-key and bring up a quick display.  If an application had new items to view it would be displayed with a red badge, maybe even some summary info.  I.E. The subject lines of the emails.

To take it one step further you could have distraction reverse-filters ( announcements?Alerts?)  These would be like Mail rules for managing email except in this case the result would be to actually distract you.

I.E. -- If email from girlfriend arrives bring to my attention.  That way you don't forget the milk.

The point here is that you can basically ignore almost everyone for a time except people who are close/important to you.

So what do I want?  I don't want to see that email icon in the dock any longer.  It's been there forever, it's like the 25 year old college drop out that stays up watching the late late show eating some pizza pocket microwave concoction with no appreciation for the food and shelter his parents have been giving him for a quarter of a century.

Matthieu Cormier
http://www.preenandprune.com