I wanted to clarify for myself why it is that I don’t use Facebook or (for the most part) Twitter. Brace yourself for self-justification and equivocation.

First caveat: I actually do have a Twitter account (@sgarrity), but I don’t post anything (sort of, more on this later). I use it to follow people.

I don’t dislike Twitter or Facebook.  They are both amazing systems. They both took blogging and messaging and made them way easier on a massive scale. As a professional web designer and developer, I respect the craft with which both Facebook and Twitter have built their platforms. I regularly rely on open-source projects that both companies produce and finance (thanks!).

Messaging and communication are too important to be controlled by a private corporation. For all of their faults, our phone or text messaging services allow portability. If I have a problem with my phone company, I can take my phone number with me to another company. I can talk to someone regardless of what phone company they have chosen. The same is true of the web and of email (as long as you use your own domain name).

I’m not an extremist. I don’t think you’re doing something wrong if you use these services. I would like to see people use more open alternatives, but I understand that for many, the ease and convenience of platforms like Facebook and Twitter are worth the trade-offs.

All of this is to say that you can now follow @aov_blog on Twitter for updates on my Acts of Volition blog posts.

While I’m contradicting myself, I also have a third Twitter account, @steven_reviews, which I created to share reviews for a new site I’m helping to develop and test at work (more on that soon). While I may opt out of these services personally, if there’s a compelling reason for me to use them at work, or my reluctance proves a significant hindrance for those around me, the scales of the trade-offs may tip in a different direction.

Oh, and I also help manage the @silverorangeinc Twitter account as part of my job.

Now, get off my #lawn.

As a general rule: Do not show up late to a meeting with a coffee.

I did this today, but you never should. The message is clear.

Joel Spolsky, of Stack Overflow, Trello, and Fog Creek, did an internal presentation where he just walked through how he uses Microsoft Excel for about an hour.

It’s riveting for two reasons.

First, I learned a bunch of techniques that I didn’t know existed (transpose! named values! oh my!). Unfortunately, many of those don’t apply to Google Spreadsheets, which is worth using due to the simple and powerful collaboration tools. A few of the techniques are universal to spreadsheets, though.

Second, he’s good at it. There is something compelling about watching someone with deep skill and knowledge do their work, regardless of what it is. In the same way, I can enjoy watching a skilled musical perform regardless of my interest and taste in their musical genre.

This style of presentation, featuring a simple tour of the just-beyond-basic features, is a great way to share with co-workers. I’ve learned a ton from watching Stephen use Photoshop, and I got hooked on split-panes in iTerm after watching Malena screen-share in an unrelated presentation.