<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Mark Crump]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://gigaom.com/author/markcrump/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[How I manage my creative process on an 11-inch MacBook Air]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Last week, I waxed poetic about the <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/03/01/my-thoughts-on-the-iphone-6-plus-five-months-later/">largest iPhone Apple makes</a>, the iPhone 6 Plus. If I told you a week later that I bought a new MacBook, you’d be forgiven for thinking I would write an article about how much I missed the Texas-sized 17-inch MacBook Pro. Instead I bought the <em>smallest</em> MacBook Apple makes, the 11-inch Air. I&#8217;ve found that managing my creative process has never been easier.</p>
<h3 id="how-i-ended-up-with-an-air" >How I ended up with an Air</h3>
<p>I had mentally pencilled &#8220;new iPad or MacBook&#8221; into the budget for later this year. However, on Friday my live-in mate texted me, “The computer isn’t working. Can you look at it when you get home?” The computer in question was a 2009 MacBook Pro that had developed a nasty habit of going through hard drives. I got home, took a look at it and when it refused to accept a hard drive I knew was in perfect working order, I decided the time had come to get one of us a new computer.</p>
<p>She wanted a larger MacBook and I wanted a small one, so I decided to get an Air for myself and hand down my 15-inch MacBook Pro. Wins all around. Off to the Apple Store we went.</p>
<p>I had pretty much ruled out getting the 11-inch model. I thought going from a 15-inch to a 13-inch screen would be hard enough. Going down to an 11-inch made me feel as if I was going to live in one of those tiny houses that’s all the rage. But it turned out that compared to the 11-inch model, the 13-inch MacBook Air felt almost obese. I wanted a laptop I could toss in any bag and feel productive. So, I walked out the door with an 11-inch Air.</p>
<h3 id="what-i-think-of-the-air" >What I think of the Air</h3>
<p>I’m very happy with it. Because I’m an analyst and critical by nature, I’ll say that I’m not happy with the spring in the keyboard. My 15-inch had some lively bounce to the keys and the Air’s keyboard feels a little denser.</p>
<p>I adjusted to the screen very quickly. I also find the device is a lot speedier than I expected. It actually runs &#8220;World of Warcraft&#8221; better than my old 2011 15-inch that had a dedicated GPU.</p>
<p>The Air is easily as portable as I dreamed. My shoulder bag is a now-discontinued <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/773355/osprey-veer-vertical-shoulder-bag">Osprey Veer</a>. The 11-inch just barely fits in it, so I ordered a <a href="http://www.tombihn.com/PROD/TB0223.html">Tom Bihn Ristretto</a> bag that’s still on its way. I love having a light and portable device that I can get work done on without many compromises.</p>
<h3 id="how-i-manage-my-creative-proce" >How I manage my creative process</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m involved in a number of creative endeavors. There is my band, model-making, writing and whatever else strikes my fancy. A few years ago I watched <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions?language=en">Adam Savage’s TED talk</a> about his obsession with objects and the stories they tell. He mentioned that he uses a &#8220;Creative Projects&#8221; folder as a dumping ground for ideas and material. Since then, I’ve adopted a similar process using a Finder folder and Evernote.</p>
<p>Here’s an example. I’m working on making a replica of the <a href="http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/Trap">trap in <em>Ghostbusters</em></a>. I’m storing all the photos and plans I come across in my Creative Projects folder, as well as PDFs of forum discussions on how people have built them. I use Evernote for storing links and information I come across on my iOS devices. The amount of data that gets sorted over the course of a month will likely exceed my Evernote quotas, so I prefer to store it on my iCloud Drive instead.</p>
<p>While I’ve seen a lot of pictures and some rough plans of the <em>Ghostbusters</em> trap, I don&#8217;t have anything detailed enough to start building from. I could either wing it &#8212; which I could get probably away with given the small size of the prop &#8212; or generate a build document. I went to architecture school a long time ago and miss creating those types of documents. When I create the build documents I’ll use <a href="https://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle">Omnigraffle</a>. It’s perfect for those types of diagrams. I also love that I can set the scale of the drawing so I don’t have to draw it at full scale.</p>
<h3 id="what-does-this-mean-for-my-ios" >What does this mean for my iOS use</h3>
<p>My iPhone usage will continue as normal. After the 2009 MacBook died, I took a long look at whether it was possible to go 100 percent iPad for my mobile needs. If that had been case, I’d have bought an iPad Air 2 and a keyboard case and call it a day. Unfortunately, while I can do more on iOS than I could this time last year, I wasn’t comfortable going all-in on iOS.</p>
<p>The deciding factor was that I didn’t have some sort of file-level access. I didn’t need the depth of an Android device. What I do need is something like an iCloud Drive app where I can choose what app I want to open a file with, and have the app save the file back to iCloud. Right now, not all apps support all third-party cloud storage solutions, and I’ve run into some problems with apps and the iCloud document picker.</p>
<p>Given those problems, it made sense for me to still stick with a MacBook for many of my writing and note-taking needs. I&#8217;ll be interested to see is if this is the last MacBook I buy.</p>
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