English – Felipe Cerda

5 Benefits Of Simplicity

I love things that are simple. By “things” I mean almost everything, from processes and tools to machines, rules and businesses.

Simplicity generates a virtuous chain of situations and benefits that I drew here:

Bringing simple solutions and processes that are easy to understand for others and start this virtuous chain is not always easy. It’s actually more complicated than coming up with a complex solution.

Humans tend to add complexity to things, specially in a work environment where it’s frequent to see people thinking that adding complexity will show others that they are actually working. It takes some experience to first be self aware when one is adding unnecessary complexity and then be humble enough to just add what is needed.

Also some people associate simplicity with incompleteness. The simple solutions and things I’m talking about here assume you’re trying to come up with a complete solution, something that includes everything that needs to be included. This is also a place where people tend to add complexity.

I hope this was useful to you. If you think of more benefits of simplicity please leave them in the comments below.

I tried the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and it’s better than I expected

Last week I had the chance to try the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, in 13 and 15 inches, and I got a better experience with it than I was expecting to have. Continue reading “I tried the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and it’s better than I expected”

Kindle Paperwhite: What a Great Invention!

kindle_paperwhite It’s no wonder that the Kindle Paperwhite is one of the best Kindles ever created by Amazon. And you can go to its official page to read all the specifications and features. In this brief post I want to share my experience with it and the reasons why I like it so much over the previous versions.

The Paperwhite is my third Kindle. I previously owned a Kindle Keyboard and a Kindle 4. This one is the best by far. Here’s why:

It has a backlight so you can read at night. With all the previous Kindles you needed a lamp and that was very uncomfortable.
It has no buttons and has a touch screen. This makes it so much easier to use. Turning pages by touching the screen and highlighting text with your finger instead of touching buttons is great. After using the Paperwhite it’s easy to think that it was so tedious to use the buttons with the other Kindles, especially typing or highlighting text.
Because of the 2 reasons above, you can really focus on your reading and not on the device you’re holding. With the other Kindles I was still aware of the device so it distracted me a bit. The Paperwhite makes you forget about the Kindle itself and focus on the content 100%.
It’s light, slim and easy to hold.
The battery runs for weeks! It’s been more than 2 weeks since I bought it and I haven’t charged it yet.

I highly recommend The Kindle Paperwhite to anyone who loves reading. I still like to have physical books on my shelf, but the practicality that the Kindle Paperwhite brings just beats real paper.

Apple Lost its Common Sense

Have you seen the latest product Apple launched? The Smart Battery Case. If not, here it is:

Apple Smart Battery Case

As you can see, it’s very very ugly. If you asked 100 designers to come up with a battery case, I don’t think this design would have been the winner.

Something happened at Apple, and not just with this product, but with the ones released before like the new Magic Mouse 2 and the iPad Pro.

Look at how you have to charge the Magic Mouse 2. You can’t use the mouse while charging it. The previous version used 2 AA batteries that could be replaced in 10 seconds so you can continue using the device.

magic_mouse_2_charging

And look at how you have to charge the new Apple Pencil for the iPad Pro

ipad_pro_apple_pencil_plugged_in-100613525-orig

That looks fragile. The slightest bad move on the pencil and it looks it’s going to break.

Apple lost its common sense. It’s like if Apple decided to fire the guy that made the last check before releasing a product. The guy that said “no we can’t launch that, it’s too ugly” or “that doesn’t make sense” or “the usability of that product does not exist” is not working for Apple anymore. Or maybe… was that guy Steve Jobs?

In his biography written by Walter Isaacson, it is mentioned that he always did that kind of things. Even if a product was ready to be released or in its final stages, he would look at it or use it and he would say it was too ugly, dumb or unusable and the product would be discarded.

If Apple wants us to feel that their products are special and carefully thought out again, they need a guy that makes that final check. They need a guy with a lot of common sense. Releasing a product just because it works good enough is a thing for Samsung or other competitors.

DU-BRO Factory Tour Video (7 minutes)

As some of you already know, I’m a big fan of RC (Radio Controlled) planes and I fly them as a hobby. This is why I want to share this video with you. It’s a quick tour of the DU-BRO factory.

DU-BRO is one of the best companies that makes parts and accessories for the RC world, including fuel tanks, push rods, wheels, and a list of about 1200 more items. They are based in the USA and in the RC world that is a synonym for quality, which is rare to find these days where almost everything is made in China.

Enjoy!

Spitfire Pilot: The Book That Puts You Inside The Cockpit

I don’t know why I didn’t start reading this kind of books earlier. I loved this one.

Spitfire Pilot: A Personal Account of the Battle of Britain is a book written in 1940 by Flight Lieutenant David Crook DFC. It wasn’t written as a book but as his personal diary during the Battle of Britain in World War II and was then published as a book.

Continue reading “Spitfire Pilot: The Book That Puts You Inside The Cockpit”