Signal
Our modern society is nothing but a delicate house of cards
If you don’t live in Portugal or Spain, it will be impossible for you to understand the feelings I’m trying to convey below. And I sincerely hope you never have to deal with it.**
Around 11:30 a.m., the external monitor I have hooked to my laptop, went black while I was editing a video. If the room’s light hadn’t been also shut off, I would think it was a simple connection issue. This type of incident is such a rare phenomenon that at first I thought it was related to my apartment or building and decided to go for a walk with my dog.
Heading to the dog park, I grabbed my phone to share the “morning event” with my wife. Yes, we keep in touch all the time using Signal.
This was the moment I sensed something bigger was happening, but I still thought it was a local thing. My phone data connection was down, and as someone who has worked for 10 years in the telecommunications sector, I know that something like that rarely happens. There are so many contingencies and backups. Something else must be going on.
Maybe the entire neighborhood lost power, and, for some reason, the backup generator at the mobile phone tower closest to me didn’t kick off, I thought, trying to rationalize the situation.
I don’t know if it was instinct, but I immediately sent my wife an SMS: “I have no idea what’s happening, but we lost power and I have no data on my phone”. Again, because of many years of experience, I know how SMS works and how it is such a robust feature of the network.
The SMS took longer than expected to be sent, and that was another undesired sign. Perhaps she didn’t get it. My wife is currently on an overseas trip, so I text a friend here in Portugal: “We lost power and I have no data on my phone. What about you?” “We also lost power and I can barely use data. It looks like it’s affecting the entire country.”
This is when I started having very unwanted thoughts. Instant communication is a crucial element that we take for granted. But if you think about it, modern society has been building on top of this core infrastructure since the invention of the telegraph.
Let me provide you with further context of the situation I found myself in at that moment. Every single appliance and equipment in my house is electric, so there’s no way to cook or take a hot shower. The TV cable is an Ethernet connector that plugs to an Internet hub, so there’s no way to watch the news. I also just sold my car, so no analog radio as well.
To make coffee that day, I used my gas-powered camping stove, which I ironically set up on top of its modern induction successor.
Okay, this is a national situation. A big one because the phones went down. If there’s a positive side to this, it’s that there are probably dozens of people working tirelessly to fix it. Again, little did I know.
Here’s when I decided I had to stay calm. I ate the rest of yesterday’s salad, grabbed my iPod, a book (the paper type), and thought to myself: If this is not solved until 4 p.m., I’ll go buy some extra supplies.
I read for two hours, but at some less engaging parts, I couldn’t help but stop and think about this unusual and unexpected situation. Looking around, I began to see all these wonderful sparks of beauty in the midst of the chaos. From my balcony, where I was reading, I could see all the other people on their balconies, kids playing on the street, and neighbors having fun conversations on their doorsteps.
I remember it now. This is how the world used to be when I was a kid, and even a teenager. This is how people used to behave before mobile phones existed.
Back to reality. “It’s 4 p.m. Time to buy some supplies,” I reminded myself.
I decided to bring my dog to a nice place we usually go together to relax, before heading to the supermarket. If there was one happy soul in the house, that was my dog. Ignorance is bliss.
Going to another dog park on the same day must be winning the dog’s lottery, right? It’s a somewhat hidden micro forest on the way to the supermarket. We stayed there, going back and forth from having fun to relaxing for a while. Then we headed to our main mission.
With no shopping carts available and so many people inside, the outcome couldn’t be different. The number of shelves empty was impressive. To give you some context, something like this never happened during COVID-19. Thankfully, I don’t need much, but that’s one more unwelcoming sign to add to my list, I thought to myself.
On the other hand, I kept seeing all these kids playing on the streets and so many adults in front of houses having conversations face to face and laughing without looking at their phones. Those scenes were absolutely beautiful.
As all of this was going on, I still didn’t have any mobile data and, shortly after texting my wife and my friend in the morning, the SMS system stopped working. If you haven’t guessed yet, there was no calling as well.
All the information I had, was collected here and there, talking to others on the street. But because most people didn’t have access to the rest of the world, it was impossible to know what was really happening. Moreover, all the ones I talked to would start the sentence with something like “I heard that…”
Experience, or perhaps hope, was telling me to keep sending journaling messages to my wife, and so I did. At this point, I was already back to using Signal, where I started narrating everything I was doing. That was the only app I kept opened all the time, hooping for momentarily breaths of the network.
If, for some reason, the network comes up for a few seconds or minutes, she’ll get all the updates. I didn’t know it at that moment, but she was doing the same on her side, and at about 7 p.m., a relieving exchange happened. I saw a burst of messages from her, and the read update pop-up on all the messages I had previously sent here. That would never happen again until the power and network came back to life at about 11 p.m. But at least she was now aware of what was happening to me.
I don’t know if this applies to everyone, but as I grew older, I started understanding that many things in life were never supposed to be about me. At some point, I learned that it’s about what I mean to other people, and that’s why I have to take care of myself. That’s for them! And it goes both ways, of course. Anything we do is always affecting the ones who love us, and this perception became so important to me that I’m constantly more worried about the feelings of the others, the loved ones. It’s like going to a funeral. Our main responsibility there is to comfort the ones that are still alive. We are there for them. Loving is seldom about us, and I wish I had learned this early in life.
Anyway, back to my ordeal. You know me, I’ve been detaching my digital life from the cloud for a long time. And I do have equipment to survive in a situation like this for a few days. Of course, I learned some new lessons with this test the world just tossed at me, and I’ll do my homework.
However, as a society, I think we are digging our own grave. Why are we increasingly relying on the cloud for everything? Why do all things have to have an app that has to be connected to the Internet to work? The more I think about it, the more I see unreliable digital conveniences replacing the so-called “outdated” gadgets that are still working so well. This is nothing more than building a gigantic house of cards. And to further add more salt to the injury, it is probably being built on top of a single point of failure.
This digital modern life of ours is so bizarre. Among all the real and relevant concerns I was having yesterday, it also occurred to me that I would lose my 775 streak on Duolingo if I couldn’t do my lesson today. Seriously?! The simple fact that something as futile as that crossed my mind is so absurd!
Today, I woke up feeling slightly stressed from my adventures and I still have a bit of a headache. Nothing terrible or distressing happened yesterday. Thankfully, I was working from home and everything was calm in my neighborhood. But, in retrospect, I think the real burden I felt was the thought of possibly not being able to connect with my loved ones living in different parts of the world. That, and the fact that nobody knew exactly what was happening or how many days would be like that. I didn’t miss anything else related to the Internet, just that connection with others and the real-time information that comes with instant communication.
By the way, I’m old enough to say that most of what we did at the beginning of the web was communicating via email, forums, blog comments, etc. It was a lot of fun!
I’m grateful to have power and communication back, but, when walking with my dog this morning, I saw people quickly resuming their lives just like if nothing had happened, and, in a way, that made me sad. Yesterday’s flourishes of harmony and beauty are now gone, like busted soap bubbles.
The insane society we are building for ourselves is now back on track, and the house of cards is sitting there waiting for the next breeze. Until then, the only sign of the now gone problems was a possible bug that kept the public lighting still on during this morning.
I use Evernote, Obsidian, and others. Why isn't one app good enough?
Not all applications in my Toolbox are incorporated into my personal workflows.
There are two groups of apps in my Toolbox. First, there are the ones I use in my workflows and to help my clients. The second group consists of apps that I don’t use. They are options for my clients that are regularly selected from the numerous tests and experiments I’m constantly doing. Occasionally, they are also featured on my YouTube channel.
The Mighty Trio
For example, Trello, which I don’t personally use, is one of my preferred options when it comes to helping companies build workflows. My clients usually don’t have much time and don’t want to spend it with settings. They appreciate how simple and intuitive it is to understand and use Trello.
In other words, the team doesn’t waste time during the implementation of the new process or, after that, in production. Furthermore, it typically takes me only five online sessions to assist small business in establishing their workflows, acquiring knowledge of Agile and Kanban principles, and applying them to Trello.
The same is true for Evernote. I am constantly approached by CEOs and managers, who are overwhelmed with the amount of time they are wasting with all the possible configurations apps like Notion offer.
The fundamental components of Evernote, namely notes and notebooks, require minimal effort to understand and use. Then there’s the outstanding search. Give busy people a way to quickly find information, even in a messy environment, and they’ll be forever grateful.
Its simplicity is still unmatched today. That’s why I still use Evernote for many things, especially the ones related to the calendar, even though I’ve been using Obsidian a lot. More on that soon.
Its powerful search is also very much appreciated. For instance, if someone contacts me, and I’m not sure if we’ve met before, I’ll search for their email address on Evernote looking for notes related to past interactions. This is something I frequently do and it’s magical.
More recently, I moved my tasks back to Evernote to try two new features. The full-screen view and tasks on the calendar.
Then there’s Google Workspace, which is equally easy to use and intuitive. But that doesn’t make it less powerful. The real-time collaboration it offers is unparalleled and almost unbreakable. When you add in the fact that documents can be linked to Evernote, Trello, and so many other services, it’s a truly unique product. Sometimes it even works as a bridge between apps.
Many of my clients, from different industries, adopt a variation of a workflow that starts with outlines on an Evernote note and resources clipped into a notebook. When the time comes, a Google Doc is created and linked to that note. These two simple steps ensure that the research material, outline, and draft of the final document are all easily accessible.
Eventually, the document reaches a stage where more team members are required to collaborate on it, and it is now shared on a Trello board. Other times, it is shared on Slack, instead of Trello. And that’s fine because the document is always the same. No matter where it is, everyone will be able to work on it while Google’s real-time editing will be doing its magic.
It’s also a matter of taste. Like many of my clients, I simply cannot stand all the buttons and so many settings on Microsoft products. I’ve been a happy Workspace user since 2015 and have no intention of leaving anytime soon.
These apps are formidable, as they are all intuitive and work seamlessly together. I can’t remember how many companies I helped with this trio.
Obsidian
Some of you may recall the series of videos I made about moving the files I had in Evernote to Google Drive. That idea came from Obsidian, which I started using long before Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons.
My written content has many media elements. Sometimes it is a thumbnail like the one you see in this article, other times it’s a clip that I plan to use in a future video. Sure, all these files can be added to Evernote, but there’s no easy way to work on them out of the note.
The thumbnail in this article, for instance, was initially created on Pixelmator before being converted to a JPG. And that is an ideal use case for Obsidian, which keeps notes and all files in our computer files system. We can access and use them from Obsidian or from the computer file system. It doesn’t matter. In other words, I can include the thumbnail in a note, like the one I created for this article, and, at the same time, edit it using whatever app I wish.
While we are discussing this topic, I have always had the desire to post directly from Evernote, but I was never able to find the proper solution. That’s not the case anymore. For a while now, all my articles and short posts start their lives as a note on Obsidian, which brings us to another tool I love.
Micro.blog is now my hub from where I manage all my online presence. It’s a great tool and there are many videos about it on my channel.
Another interesting workflow is the draft of my next book, which I can write on Obsidian and synchronize with Scrivener. Again, that’s only possible because of how Obsidian notes and files are stored on our computers.
I believe you got the point. I’m using Obsidian for all file-related workflows.
Workflow as a Concept
Since English is not my primary language, I frequently require assistance from technology. LanguageTool is my grammar and spelling tool of choice, particularly because it’s a European company with a strong privacy policy. Sadly, there is no Android app available, but that’s okay since most of the time I’m writing on a computer. Which brings us to a workflow I established for my writing.
As you can see in this video, LanguageTool saves temporary or permanent texts. When I have an idea, I create a permanent text, work on it for days, weeks, months or for as long as it takes, then I paste it to Obsidian, format it, and publish it on my blog from there. The last step is adjusting the text saving format to temporary, which will automatically delete it from LanguageTool after a few days.
That’s what I call a Workflow as a Concept. You don’t need to use a Kanban board or an app to plan and keep track of all the stages. If the process is clear to you, a simple temporary-permanent text setting will suffice.
Hardware
I recently started using a Supernote, and similar to what I described above, it is now part of a Workflow as a Concept. I don’t know why it happens, but very time I come back from a run, I have this storm of ideas that I have to write down.
Writing all of that on my computer or phone was never a viable option. There’s too much friction. What I do now is grab the Supernote and take notes with tags that will help me filter that information in the future. Sometimes it’s just an outline, other times it’s a sentence or two.
I’m in love with how simple and efficient this is and will soon talk about it on the Supernote series on my YouTube channel.
And talking about running, my watch of choice is a Garmin Instinct 2. I stand for all the reasons I listed in the 2-year-old video below. The only complaint I have is something I found out much latter. Its battery is not replaceable. And although it’s still averaging 20 days in between charges, a sealed device is something that makes no sense in today’s world.
There are, of course, more software like Firefox, Signal, Final Cut, Apple Motion and others, but this article is already too long, and I’d say the above are the ones that really make my workflow flow.