MacSparky Labs members get to participate in member events and receive a number of exclusive videos and podcasts each month. Here’s a summary of offerings this past month: February 2026 2026-02-27 – February in the MacSparky Labs (M,I,P) (Post) 2026-02-27 – The Lab Report…
Continue reading →The Feedback Loop Between Teaching and Learning
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about teaching. I’ve taught the Productivity Field Guide workshop three times now. Each year it gets better. Not because I’m a better teacher, though hopefully I am. The workshop gets better because my students make it better. The…
Continue reading →Drafts Just Got a Lot Smarter (Sponsor)
This post is sponsored by Drafts. Sponsorship doesn’t influence what I write. Here’s my take. I’ve been a Drafts user since its release. It’s the first place text goes on every device I own. Grocery lists, blog post ideas, meeting notes, quick reminders. Anything…
Continue reading →AI Agents Need Guardrails
We are roaring into useful, agentic AI. I’ve been saying for a while now that we’re heading into it faster than the security models can keep up. So I wasn’t surprised to see Tailscale announce Aperture, a governance layer for AI agents. The trouble…
Continue reading →Focused 250: Planning Your Week
On this episode of Focused, Mike and I discuss how to plan your week and share our own weekly planning workflows. This episode of Focused is sponsored by: Gusto: Payroll, HR, Benefits. Simplified. Get 3 months free.
Listen & read notes →On Going Wallet-Free
I left my physical wallet at home last Tuesday. Not on purpose. I was halfway to a doctor appointment when I realized it was sitting on my desk. But I had my iPhone, so I kept driving. I had my California digital ID, my…
Continue reading →The Six Colors 2025 Annual Report Card
Jason Snell published his annual Apple report card today. I always enjoy participating. Notable drops this year were the Mac and Apple OS quality. Both of those are entirely attributable to the new Mac user interface. There were no notable improvements. Certainly worth the…
Continue reading →Mac Power Users 837: Menu Bar Mayhem
Join Stephen and me on this episode of Mac Power Users as we go deep on the Mac menu bar, comparing our contrasting philosophies and walk through our favorites. We also explore how macOS 26’s multiple Control Centers are changing the game. This episode…
Listen & read notes →Misguided Optimization – Seth Godin
In some 30 years of representing businesses, a universal truth that emerged was that every time a company I represented got taken over by one of those sharp-pencil guys, they lost their way. Seth Godin’s recent piece on how short-term optimization leads to enshitification…
Continue reading →Memory is King, Again
I’ve been buying Macs forever. For most of that time, the conventional wisdom was simple: Get as much memory as you can afford. Back then, everyone was doing video editing or photo work. Memory was expensive. So you bought as much as your budget…
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