Happy Sunday, my friends. We’re back from sunnier shores, and it’s great to be home. My first time on a Caribbean resort taught me several things, the most important being the impact of true rest and relaxation. I have never felt so energized coming back to work in my life. It’s freaky, really. I have an entirely new outlook on the tax season ahead; I can’t wait to get started, meet new people, and learn new solutions to new problems. Cliché in a sense, but I truly feel it.
That’s work energy, to be clear. For whatever reason, creative energy seems to be at an all-time low. I’m not sure why. Sitting down to write this Sunday Edition has been perhaps the most difficult sit down since I started in January 2025.
Some Brief Impressions of the Logitech MX Master 4 Mouse
I might throw together a true review of Logitech’s new MX Master 4 in the future, as this mouse is far, far more than I originally imagined. I expected the MX Master 4 to be an evolutionary step forward for the MX Master line. Each iteration prior has been evolutionary — I started with the MX Master 2S, then 3 and 3S, and now 4, and 4 is most certainly the biggest jump forward. Now, after a few days of use, I actually think it’s a worthy upgrade, even potentially for those coming from the MX Master 3S.
My three bullet points:
Haptics and the Action Ring — Initially, this Action Ring felt like such a gimmick. In the past, I used the thumb pad button to click, hold, and move between desktops or to use Exposé on the Mac. Now, the thumb pad defaults to Logi’s Action Ring. The Action Ring pulls up a circular array of icons, enabling you to use your mouse for quick shortcuts (almost like keyboard shortcuts or macros, but for your mouse). I am only just starting to customize this Action Ring. A few of my choices:
- A button to open our a “Clients” folder in Finder.
- A button to initiate Alfred.
- A button to launch Gemini right in the browser.
As you scroll through the options in the Action Ring, the MX Master 4’s built-in haptic feedback provides a new level of interaction with your mouse pointer. There’s so much here to love and feel.
Materials — The MX Master 4’s most notable physical change is the removal of the rubbery (and ultimately oily) material and the inclusion of what seems to be a hard plastic. I can tell almost instantly that this won’t pick up as many oily hand marks in the long run. I’m not sure at this time whether it feels better, but I’d suggest feeling better wasn’t a priority on this material selection. This material still feels great and is likely to ensure the MX Master 4 looks prim and proper on your desk far longer than any of its predecessors.
I’m also noticing a somewhat translucent plastic used at the ends of the actual finger mouse click buttons. It’s a subtle inclusion, but looks quite elegant.
Thumb scroll wheel — I use the thumb scroll wheel a fair bit, specifically inside wide Excel worksheets. I immediately noticed the larger (read as “more surface area”) of the MX Master 4’s thumb scroll wheel, which helps provide that much more control when scrolling left and right. In general, I’ve always felt horizontal scrolling to be a bit finicky in the past. The MX Master 4 seems to have smoothed this out a bit. Even moving left and right in Finder is a bit smoother. Though this could be software improvements, I think it’s at least in part due to a much larger thumb scroll wheel.
Overall, the MX Master 4 has completely surprised me. I was expecting far less — I was expecting more of a makeover and less of a major jump forward. Now, I’m left wondering if I should update my MX Master 3S sitting on my home office desk as well.
One Writing Tool Per Task
This article from Cogmodo caught my attention, if only because it’s something I’ve found to be quite successful for my own work in the past. I have struggled to use only one app for text-based tasks for a long, long time. I have tried to use, say, just Craft for writing here on this site, for keeping track of notes, and even for certain parts of my GTD productivity workflow. But it doesn’t take long for the context to be wrong and the one-size-fits-all app breaks down. I think the average person probably raises an eyebrow when they read about using five different apps for writing.
But there’s something to it, especially in terms of environmental design. I’m reading through James Clear’s Atomic Habits for the first time (I have a vast array of books I need to catch up on from the last 15 years) and I truly value his discussion on environmental cues. If you want to build a habit, you need to develop cues, and those cues can be items, actions, or other trigger mechanisms. So many cues are tied up in an environment — you likely associate sitting on the couch with entertainment, so it’s likely not the place to attempt to get hyper-focused productive work completed.
The same goes for software. If you associate an app with a particular thing over time, it’s very difficult to break that association within your workflow. For my writing workflow, I could not break away from Ulysses’s visual formatting — I appreciate how links are hidden behind the text and how formatting is noticeable inline (and any code fades into the background). I also couldn’t break away from Ulysses’s text check features — I attempted to use AI tools for editing, but it broke my focus just enough to make editing a headache outside Ulysses.
Overall, if you find the way one particular app handles a small portion of your workflow, rest assured you aren’t the only individual out there choosing to use more than three apps for one specific workflow. Cogmodo is using five different apps for writing, so you’re good to go if you want to use two or three.
The Second Cup
Coburn’s Icon Packs for iPhone and iPad
If you’re curious about how to use any of these icons to customize your iPhone, see this YouTube short video.
Mark Jardine’s reMarkable Paper Pro Move Art
This is one way to use your reMarkable Paper Pro Move. Another is how I use it: illegible, gross chicken scratch that diminishes the e-paper tablet’s beauty. Jardine’s use case is far superior to mine.
Rivian R2 wishes as an R1 owner
Christian Selig (creator of the formerly popular Apollo Reddit app) discusses things he hopes to see improved in the upcoming Rivian R2. I saw a few of these beautiful vehicles in Seattle this past summer. One glance at the sticker price and my eyeballs popped out of my head. A beautiful machine, with a beautiful price.
“He’s Captain Canada. He’s Mr. Canada.”
I have been a Sidney Crosby fan since he pulled off a now-coined “Michigan” move when he was 16 years old in the then-QMJHL. He was named the league MVP in the QMJHL that year as a 16-year-old. It’s been over 20 years now of following and watching as many Crosby games as possible. To see Sid’s legacy continue to grow now, long after he was supposed to have slowed down, is surreal.
Somehow, I’m a bigger fan now than I ever was as a kid.
Quote of the Week
“Mental liquidity. It’s the ability to quickly abandon previous beliefs when the world changes or when you come across new information. It shouldn’t be controversial. But mental liquidity is so rare. Changing your mind is hard because it’s easier to fool yourself into believing a falsehood than admit a mistake.”
— Morgan Housel
I might need to cool it on Morgan Housel quotes. It’s been a few already, I know. His writing is just so darn quotable.
Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
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