A few years back, I had a moment of clarity. One of the things I learned was how to read fast. This was great for a time. I enjoyed the books I read and the time I spent reading. I read 33 books in a year.

About 18 months ago, I ruined it. This was due in part to two things: I read the book “How to Read a Book”, and I heard a quite from a YouTuber.

“How to Read a Book” was supposed to be amazing. It teaches you how to truly get into the thoughts of the author. It has some sage wisdom in it. It emphasizes that you truly haven’t read a book until you’ve tried and tested the physical things the book demands you do.

It’s right. But it isn’t fun. Over night, books that were a joy to read in a week became the unfinished dark clouds hanging over my head.

I want to read The Lean Startup. But I can’t start a startup right now, I have two kids under 4 and I work full time.

I want to read The Food Lab, but I don’t have time to experiment with food, my kids are hungry.

I want to read Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People, but I don’t want to have to talk to people.

At this point, I was reading one book a month.

Dan Martel, an entrepreneur and underrated YouTuber, has a lot of great content in his channel. One of his many videos advocates ”Just In Time Learning.” The concept is pretty simple. Agree to do something, and then figure out how to do it.

My brain has spun this around. Now, my brain believes that anything I’m reading must be related to one of my goals. If it’s not, then that book no longer contains actual valuable (to me) knowledge.

After that, I was reading half a book a month.

Recently, to make things even worse, I’ve discovered Zettelkasten which is also know as “how you’ve been taking notes wrong this whole time.” I hate how much sense it makes.

The concept is pretty simple, and I’ve honestly started systems similar to, but not exactly like it. The Zettelkasten system of extracting atomic Ideas and linking them together is great until you realize that it makes reading a book into work.

But reading is supposed to be fun. Entertaining, even.

Now, I can’t read. I haven’t finished a book in the last six months.

But if I don’t take notes properly, did I even read it?

And if I didn’t act on those concepts, did I actually read it?

And should I even read it if it won’t help me survive being a dad of two young kids during a pandemic?

It’s weird how it all worked out.

Back in 2015, I started seeing a psychologist because I was unhappy with the fact that I wanted to (and walked with the intent to) jump off a bridge.

I was unhappy. I was stressed out by doing a job that made me anxious. I hated it. I spent years struggling through university getting a Computer Science degree just to be wasting it. Well, it turns out the two-hour walk to the bridge helped “clear my mind,” and so I decided to seek help.

I had appointments nearly monthly with my psychologist for two years. The general insight was that I was unhappy about a few things, and I should just fix them. So I found a job I liked, then I found one without a commute. Then I bought a car. I didn’t feel I had much reason to complain. So why am I sad? At this point, it’s depression.

In June of 2018, I started taking antidepressants. This was game-changing for me. The world was now “in colour.” I began reading more than ever. I got an insight into my feelings. I became more self-aware.

Soon my reading became habitual, and I started to learn new things. I learned a few life philosophies from books that I still love and by which I try to live.

Minimalism: I try to make do with as little as possible. Excessivness just causes anxiety. I’ve taken this to heart and try to live only with what is essential and makes me happy.

Stoicism: Recognizing not only that I can be happy, but that I can be satisfied with the world as it is. Amora Fati. If you want to be truly happy, learn to love fate, not just what you want to happen, but what is happening.

Along with these new philosophies, I started to believe that I could do new things, too. Start ventures, get in shape, etc.

Due to side effects, I had to quit the antidepressants. Now, all of the amazing things I wanted to do seemed more difficult. As the king of forgotten projects, I’ve found this excruciatingly hard. In a bid to stay “productive” (read: effective), I started a software development podcast to learn how other developers get things done.

Only the software developers couldn’t give me answers. Each was winging it. I was spending a lot of time trying to force myself to get work done. These people are making lists on napkins.

Not only that, but while I was talking to them, people who were successful in a field I wished to be in, I couldn’t pay attention. This attentiveness was the start of me trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

In my usual distracted fashion, I came across a productivity video on YouTube, but with a twist. It was a How to ADHD video on the shortcomings of people with ADHD and techniques and systems on how to correct these shortcomings.

And I had every shortcoming. And I was implementing every technique. There was a sudden click at this moment.

I have ADHD.

My next task was to confirm this was the case. So I went back to my psychologist. I asked her if she could test me, and she said she could. Twice over a month, we met, and she asked me questions. She had my mother and wife fill out some forms and then reviewed them all.

Many of the questions asked involved my academic performance and how I was growing up. I recalled for my psychologist the time I was in the quiet library with an extra-large coffee, attempting to study for Statistics but being physically pained by doing so. I also told her of how my wife could complete whole conversations without me noticing or send me to the basement to get two things and come back with none, or how I end up with a wall of anxiety between me and doing the dishes.

My psychologist gave me the results.

Inattentive ADHD confirmed.

In fact, it turns out that some antidepressants work to help ADHD. This is why the specific antidepressant made such a big difference.

So what’s next? Well, I plan to spend the next few months trying my hardest to overcome my ADHD without medication. I plan to try none-medications like diet (Keto), exercise (biking and weightlifting), supplements (Creatine) and vitamins (Fish oil, “ZIMB6”). That is if I can do these things without getting distracted or discouraged.

But to be honest, I’ve tried diet, I’ve attempted to exercise regularly. These things worked in the short term. Willing myself to do them is challenging and not sustainable. I’m hoping that, with medication, I can do it.

If you have a hard time learning new things, don’t give up. Learn to learn. Learn to learn better.

A small confession: I was a slow reader until I was 27. This issue was a massive issue for me in high school and just as slow in university. So what changed when I was 27? I realized that I wasn’t bad at reading. I was terrible at reading, on paper. I read an article* citing an exciting study about how people who have Dyslexia may read better while using a backlit screen.

This concept was the most obvious thing in the world once I had read it. I read it on my computer without an issue. I had been reading computer screens for quite a while, and I did not have any problems. I had been missing out on reading books because they were paper. But they have them on devices now.

A straightforward idea changed my world. What could I read that might help me to read even better? To learn better? To be better?

* I lost the article, unfortunately.

Neat link: A web page that simulates Dyslexia

📚Learn to Read Better

One day while browsing Reddit, I came across a comment about game-changing improvements. One of the references he made to was Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program. I’ll admit that all the concepts didn’t sink in at first. How do I remember everything I have read about a program that teaches me to remember everything I read?

After reading this book, my Words Per Minute (WPM) of reading immediately climbed from around 130 WPM to 230 WPM. That’s an increase of 100 WPM, and I was still comprehending the same amount of content. Not bad.

My challenge goal for that year on Goodreads was ten books. I crushed it at 26. But is reading faster really the same as reading better? Well, technically, no.

While listening to The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, guest Kevin Systrom mentions the book How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. Kevin Systrom mentions how reading from the first word to last is not the correct way to read a book.

I wish that book sooner. How to Read a Book breaks down the ability to read into four levels. The first, “Elementary Reading,” most people learn in school. The second, “Inspectional Reading,” what Kevin Systrom mentions on “The Tim Ferriss Show” podcast, is the level with which most university students or researchers are familiar. Steps include inspecting the table of contents and summaries.

This book was my introduction to “Analytical Reading.” The art of not only reading words but in understanding the content and even questioning and critiquing it.

The most important thing to remember about any practical book is that it can never solve the practical problems with which it is concerned. […] a practical problem can only be solved by action itself. […] Nothing short of the doing solves the problem. — Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

One of the lines that stuck out to me is that practical problems require practical solutions. Obvious, right? Except I had spent a lot of time reading technical books and never actually doing the tasks in it. You’re not done reading a book until you’ve done the actions required to finish it.

🎓Learn to Learn Better

Okay. So you can read to read better. What else can you pick up?

For those of you who are Software Developers, you might know and appreciate The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master* I am a big fan of it, and it’s writers.

When I found out Andrew Hunt wrote an entire book on improving your ability to think and learn, I jumped at my chance to read it. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt is a bit out of date. In a good way. The concepts Andy brings forth are ahead of their time.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning was released in 2008, when iPhone was a year old. In it, Andy recommends running a Wiki on your palm pilot. He names this his “Exocortex” (Exo meaning External, and Cotext meaning Brain). Now, there are a plethora of apps to do this for free. Evernote (2008), OneNote (2010**), Bear (2016), and Notion (2017) would all eventually follow.

Andy goes into great detail, explaining not only the R- and L-Modes of the brain but also in how to use them. He introduces you to cognitive biases and helps expose “hardware bugs,” all while using very software-development oriented metaphors.

One thing that you’ll learn quickly from this is that your brain is, unfortunately, a part of your body. If you’re like me, you probably forget this often. Treating your body right is of great importance if you want to continue using what you just learned about learning. I’d recommend checking out The Healthy Programmer for more tips on that.

* Congrats to Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt for their new 20th Anniversary Edition, currently in Beta.

** Technically, OneNote was available on Windows CE devices, but who actually used those? Comment below if you remember those things.

Conclusion

Tool Sharpening is a common idiom. If you want to be a better developer, learn more about architecture and design patterns. If you want to be a better programmer, learn more about the programming language and your IDE. Taking a step back, what tools should you learn to learn better?

Being able to learn better is an important step that I feel a lot of people miss. Learning to read better was a game-changing step in my life that led to even more changes. Reading to learn better has allowed me to learn so much more than I would otherwise be able to.

What books have you read that changed your life, professionally or personally? What critical skills did you improve that you didn’t think could be improved? I want to hear from you.

Using the famous self-help book as a tool to write realistic relationships and persuasion.

Recently, I decided to read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I did this, not out of interest in winning friends or influencing people but specifically because Charles Manson is reported to have read this book and used what he learned to influence people to kill for him while he was in prison. Although I didn’t find the content exactly ground breaking, it was nice to see a set of principles.

The thought occurred to me that the principles in this book are quite universal. You can use the same principles to tell who your friends are and who is just using you. You can also consider this a self-help book as these same principles can be used to tell if you are your own friend, or how to be a better friend to yourself.

The same train of thought also led me to this conclusion: As a writer, you can use the principles in this book to create realistic interactions between characters, or even show how the characters see themselves.

I’m not going to list the principles as I believe the book is worth a read. The book I will use as an example: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. As it’s one of the best selling books, I’m assuming many people reading this have read it. Just in case, I’ll try to avoid spoilers.

Become Genuinely Interested in Other People

I’ve found this one is great when you meet new people. Ask questions, but be genuine. I’ve personally used this one for years at dinners that involve sitting with random people. The cliché question—What do you do?—is the staple. I’ve since moved on to my two favourites: “What are you passionate about?” and “What brings you joy?”. These are very direct and may not be suitable for a book.

From the Harry Potter perspective, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley seem exceptionally interested in each other: Harry has never met a wizard before his eleventh birthday, never even knew that world existed, and now he’s on a train to a wizard school for a year. Ron on the other hand grew up entirely in the wizard world and has heard much about Potter but still finds himself inclined to ask about things such as Harry’s scar and what Muggles are like.

Inversely, when Draco Malfoy first meets Harry, the questions he asks are rhetorical or satirical. He has no genuine interest in Harry or Ron and in fact, claims to already know Ron from what his father has told him about the Weasleys.

It’s no surprise that Albus Dumbledore exemplifies these principles. When he first meets Harry for a one on one conversation, he quickly puts Harry at ease with a simple smile. One of the first words he says to Harry is, in fact, Dale Carnegie’s “sweetest and most important word”: Harry’s name.

The inverse is true as well. Severus Snape for example, never seems to smile around Harry. Coincidentally, in their first interaction, he repeatedly calls Harry “Potter” to avoid his first name. J. K. Rowling uses this in the narration as well. You might have noticed that Draco Malfoy is only referred to as “Draco” once, by Rubeus Hagrid. Throughout the book, he is either “Malfoy” or “Draco Malfoy”. TK Explain why

Then of course there is the entire He-who-must-not-be-named aspect. No one except Dumbledore and Harry seem to use the name Voldemort. The name itself has a special ability to make people quiver and cringe, and so it is redacted from everyday speech.

How to Win People Over

Dumbledore is arguably one of the most influential people in the Philosopher’s Stone, and an analysis of his interactions with Harry reveals many of Carnegie’s principles in action. The first one on one conversation between Harry and Dumbledore occurs when Dumbledore catches Harry out of bed after curfew. While Professor McGonagal or Argus Filch would likely have admonished Harry, Dumbledore, recognizing that Harry knows full well he has done something wrong, sees no point in chastising him.

Dumbledore begins with a friendly smile. He is sympathetic, claiming that “hundreds” of people before him were just as curious. Dumbledore uses questions to lead Harry, asking him in a gentle and sympathetic way. He proceeds to dramatize in the conversation and appeal to nobler motives. He implies that Harry has learned enough by claiming he is prepared, meaning Harry won’t need to investigate further. The famous quote “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live” is used here. It worked. “Dumbledore had convinced Harry[…]”.

One of my favourite examples is actually a counter-example. Hermione Granger, in her first real conversation with Harry and Ron, starts by trying to persuade them to not go out wandering the school at night. She fails from the start: Creeping up on them with an “I can’t believe you’re going to do this” message. She asks no questions that are not satirical or rhetorical. She doesn’t allow Harry or Ron to talk, and never attempts to see things from their perspective. She does, however, try to appeal to nobler causes, but this falls flat when she states that she cares only about winning the House Cup from Slytherin.

Even Draco Malfoy was more effective at influencing when he simply challenges Harry to a duel. Challenges are another way of influencing people according to Carnagie.

Conclusion

As someone who is usually quite oblivious to subtle social queues, I found the book How to Win Friends and Influence People fascinating and wondered whether Carnegie’s principles could be used to create compelling, realistic character interactions in my own writing. An analysis of the character encounters in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone through the lens of those principles suggests that this could be the case.

I recently discovered a love of fountain pens. Soon after that I started a Bullet Journal. Bullet Journaling is using a fairly empty notebook and customizing the layout to fit your needs, while being flexible with the design. I loved Bullet Journaling as an idea but hated it as a thing. A Bullet Journal misses a few features that I really need to streamline my life: the ability to sync with my wife, an easy way to search for content, and a way for it to reach out to me.

My wife and I have busy lives. We both have careers and try to spend as much time as we can with our daughter. Having to do my daily review of the journal was difficult. I’d spend more time organizing than doing and I now had to haul around a book and pen. Finding a place to write was annoying. Copying from texts or emails into the book was frustrating.

I got to thinking, what do I love about the Bullet Journal and how can I apply it to existing systems?

The Bullet Journal’s claim to fame is that it is an analog solution. Why is that beneficial? Because we want fewer distractions so we can focus on work. The Bullet Journal isn’t going to tell me about the new season of that Netflix show I want to watch. It’s not going to tell me that someone liked a photo of that thing I went to the other night. It’s also not going to tell me that I’ve been too busy concentrating on work and I’m going to miss that important meeting. It’s not going to tell me to pick up eggs on my way home because my wife just used the last of them on some peanut butter cookies.

So I’ve now got my distraction free Bullet Journal and I’m ready to review it. Then I get a text from my long time friend saying he found a game he thought was great so I click the link he sent and I end up on Wikipedia looking into other games that that team made and where they left to go work afterward and before I know it I’m on the download page for Terra Battle and wondering how I made it this far.

For me at least, I can remove the organization from the distraction but the distraction still exists. Instead, I’ve started to focus on understanding how my brain works to remove distractions, and use those same ideas to make my distractions work for me.

Eliminate Distractions

The first step is to eliminate unwanted distractions. Push notifications are a great example. There are two parts to the notification: the banner or alert, and the badge icon (the red dot that apears on the app icon). These work well for different things. I turn off the banners for almost everything except Facebook Messager and Messages. This doesn’t mean I receive them (see the Do Not Disturb section below). To modify the notification settings for an app, simply open the Settings app, select the App to update and then either toggle off the “Allow Notifications” switch or customize the other settings.

Additionally, I have left the badge numbers on for any organization or work related apps. In my case this means Calendar, Mail, Things and Streaks. You can read more about each of these apps below. The reason these are left on is that I can see at a glance what I need to check up on. If you’re doing the Pomodoro technique for example, this is a quick checkup on your five minutes off. One exception is that VIP emails will send notifications.

Do Not Disturb

Another important way to avoid distractions is to enable Do Not Disturb. Keep in mind, if anyone calls you twice in three minutes, and that feature is enabled, they can still get through. You can also set specific hours. This is helpful when I’m working, but I have it set to be enabled from the time I go to bed, until after supper. This ensures I get an uninterrupted sleep, morning ritual, work day, and dinner with my family. This doesn’t mean that I don’t communicate with anyone; it means that if I do, it’s my choice to do so.

Set up Control Centre

If you have not discovered Control Centre yet, prepare to fall in love. Well, maybe not. It’s my quick stop. It can be used for access to time critical things such as HomeKit, AppleTV Remote, Camera, Calculator, and the various Clock app functions. If you use Notes, there’s a convenient “New Note” button. I have now hidden the apps these shortcuts reference so I do not have to see (and be distracted by) them on my home screen, but I can still access them easily if I make the conscious decision to do so.

Organize Apps

But why am I hiding apps? One thing I realized quickly is that even opening my phone for a specific reason can trigger a habit of opening apps I don’t need at that time. Then I’d spend a few minutes (if not more) before remembering what I was actually on my phone to do.

To avoid distraction, I put the most valuable apps on my home screen. This is a way I’ve learned to use habits to open apps I value like Books over apps I don’t, like Facebook. I keep a folder for other apps I have decided to keep, and order them alphabetically. I don’t put Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, or other time consuming apps on the first page of that folder. If I need a specific app, I open Spotlight and search for it intentionally.

Restrictions on Apps

Most of the time I spend on my phone is spent on apps. Some apps tend to be more addictive than others. Recently, I set up Screen Time, which can be accessed in the Settings app. After a week I was shown that I was spending hours on Apollo (my preferred Reddit app), and almost as much time on Facebook.

Part of Screen Time is a handy feature to restrict how much time can be spent on specific apps. I have my Reddit app limited to 30 minutes, and have allocated a further 30 minutes to all social media apps combined. There’s still one drawback: most apps have websites that are somewhat mobile friendly.

While I was in the restrictions section, I turned on the Content Restrictions. One drawback (that might apply to you) is that it restricts adult websites. I added all compulsive websites I visit, including: Reddit, Facebook, and even a few news websites I find myself wasting time on.

Once set up, I had my wife create a code to lock it down. I had her write it down and put it in an envelope. I keep the envelope somewhere safe, just in case. If I don’t do this, I’ll soon be in the habit of entering the code to bypass the restriction.

How I Use My Apps

Annie Dillard once said “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” A quick substitution will land you at “How you use your apps, is how you use your phone.” Now that we’ve limited the phone to what we want — a distraction free tool that emphasizes what we value — it’s important to consider the individual apps themselves.

The apps mentioned are what I use. Your results may vary, but I definitely recommend taking the time to think about why you have downloaded or are using each app and how it reflects your values. A quick example: I value knowledge. This is why Books, Medium and Safari Books are at the front of my list. It is better for me to habitually open those than apps like Facebook or Reddit.

I value organization. This is why my dock has Calendar, Streaks, and Things for quick access. These apps tell me what’s going on today or soon.

Calendar has my list of events which is shared through a few separate Calendars with my wife. This helps us keep track of events between us. If I have an event come up, I immediately add it to my calendar and my wife can do the same. This ensures that my wife and I don’t double book each other. I also take advantage of the calendar for calendar blocking.

Things is by far the best app I’ve found for implementing Getting Things Done. The Inbox is great (see Shortcuts below), the deadline and reminders are helpful, but the real power for me comes from the repeating reminders. I get a notification every Tuesday morning to put the garbage out as I’m getting up. I get a notification and task on the last Sunday of the month to do a full tub clean of my washing machine. I get a notification and task in October to call and arrange my winter tire service. If you’ve ever waited until it snows, you know procrastinating on winter tires is dangerous. The best part is that I don’t even need to think about it, meaning I can spend my time actually getting down to work.

One thing I found popular in the Bullet Journal community is habit trackers. I found an app called Streaks which allows me to track habits but also sends notifications when I should be doing specific tasks.

I still have my Email, Messages and Facebook Messenger on my phone. But even inside of those apps, I have further refined. If I haven’t read or gotten any value from the last three newsletters from a subscription, I unsubscribe. I’ve been pulled into group chats for different things and events, all of which are “muted”.

The most important app for me is the Clock app. I have specific alarms set for specific events so I don’t need to worry about time while doing deep work. I use the Apple Watch app for these so I don’t disturb others. Some examples:

• My alarm goes off at 500AM. I get out of bed. Okay, this one is pretty obvious. I go work out.

• My alarm rings at 5:30AM. Time to write.

• My alarm rings at 7:00AM. Time to shower and get ready.

• It rings again at 7:40AM, when I need to leave to beat the traffic.

• My daily scrum is at 9:30AM. I have an alarm for weekdays at 9:27AM. Enough time to grab a coffee and get to the meeting.

• Then it rings again at 4:00PM. time to go home.

• Then again at 8:00PM when it’s time to get ready for bed.

This seems like a lot of alarms, but they only happen on days I need them and this set up prevents me from having to spend half my time watching the clock.

Today Widgets and Siri Shortcuts

I highly recommend setting up your Today screen. I use it for a few different things, such as hiding even more apps (my Podcast and Music widgets are my go to spot when I start the car). The Today screen is also helpful for an at-a-glance view of what to do. It lists my next calendar event (Calendar), my next task to finish today (Things), how much I’ve walked (Pedometer — being active is another value), what the weather is like outside, and a battery status for both me (via AutoSleep) and my devices.

Also on my Today screen, I list a few Siri Shortcuts. These are my secret weapon. Specifically: quick “Add to Inbox” and “Clip Board to Inbox” buttons for Things, an “Add Appointment” button to automatially add an appointment in the calendar I share with my wife, and a “New Entry” button in the Day One journal app for entering daily gratitudes. This means when I do need to add things, I can do it quickly and get back to work. Then, later on when I have free time, I can go and clean up Things, Day One, etc.

A tradition in my family is that I message my mother how many days until we get to see each other. The countdown is currently at 4, down from 120. I have a Shortcut that calculates this and messages it to her. It is really handy and a great way to start a conversation.

In summary, watch how you use your phone or it will end up using you. Finding alternatives to your phone, like a Bullet Journal, is a simple way to avoid existing problems but it may not help much in the long run. Watch how you habitually use your phone and change it so you use it to habitually align to your values.

The Conception

I had decided pretty quickly that I wanted a purple case. Unfortunatly, the options for purple Planck cases were limited. (They just added a Purple Preonic on Massdrop a month after I found one for the Planck.) I ended up ordering the APX case from Woodkeys.click. It was then stated to be shipping around the same time as the Planck Rev 6 PCB in early July. I also noted a ZealPC group buy for Zealios and ordered myself 50 of their 78g switches. For keycaps, I was humming and hawing and never actually settled. What would look good with my purple case?

The Delays

Mid July came and went. Jack from OLKB.com was able to keep us fairly up to date on Reddit with his weekly updates. Him and his “shop” ran into several difficulties that pushed them back by a few months. As frustrating as this was, Jack was very helpful. I often waited up just to hear from him on Monday nights.

Woodkeys, however, only sent an update out at the beginning of August, claiming they would start production around August 20th. Okay. Fair enough, delays happen. August 20th came around and I messaged them for an update. The response was that they hoped to have news in the next week.

Delays happen, I get that. The difference here are how those delays are being handled. The last update I got was on September 28th after messaging them on Discord. Now it’s moved to end of October/early November.

The Plan

While I waited for my keyboard, I had started doing a lot of remapping on my KBD75. Most of the modifications had been around reducing hand movement or increasing functionality. As the Planck was to have so few keys, increasing the functionality per key is quite important. As the theory of not having to move fingers far was part of the Planck’s genetics, I decided to focus on this as well. Behold:

As is common with Plancks, I am using the QWERTY row as numbers and symbols on the raise and lower layers respectively. This works out wonderfully. Several common brackets used in programming have found their home—no pun intended—on the home row, albeit on the lower layer.

Where the arrow keys were, I now have media controls. I moved the arrow keys to the function layer where they are located the same as VIM’s HJKL. I also added in next and previous tab buttons here, and F1 to F10 where 1 to 0 are, but continuing with F11 and wrapping around with F12.

The four main thumb buttons: Lower, Function, Shift and Raise are capable of actions when tapped and activate layers (or shift) when held. In this case, they are delete, space, return and forward delete. This makes it quite easy to correct mistakes or submit commands without doing too much extra work. They are hard to get used to, though.

Additionally, the Caps Lock button and the Control button are both Press for Esc and hold for Control. The default return key has been converted into Press for Enter, hold for Shift.

The Solution

Around the start of September, Massdrop had a sale of B-sides for Planck Rev5 cases. They fit the Rev 6 and were shipping at the beginning of October, so I decided to get a black one while I wait for my APX case. It required a low profile top plate which was not available most places. I found a Carbon Fibre one on KeyCapsss that actually matched my wedding band.

Then, in early October, OLKB.com added a set of keycaps to their site: The Big Bang, an MDA profile set. They were fairly inexpensive and I had a shipment on the way already. I decided to add them to my existing order.

The Delivery

The Zealios actually came in back in June. They were pretty quick. The Top Plate was the next piece to arrive, landing in early October, followed swiftly by the Massdrop case and finally, the Planck Rev 6 PCB and the Big Bang keycap set. Bad knolling photo for emphasis:

As you might have guessed, this did not stay this way for long. I quickly assemebled the keyboard and started typing away. Overall, the assembly was fairly easy. The only real difficulty I faced was that the pins on the Zealios tended to bend when being put into the sockets.

The Result

I like it. The keymap is taking some time to get used to. Things I like: I really don’t ever have to move my hands. I didn’t realize how much I hate the DSA keycaps on my KBD75 until I started using MDA. I expected the ortholinear to take time getting used to but the DSA seemed to be the real downfall of my KBD75.

The things I don’t like: About 10 times writing this article, I made a new line instead of holding my thumb shift button. Additionally, my D key seems to miss every once in a while. I’m still waiting for the damn APX case.

The Update

Another thing I found I wasn’t fond of was the switches. I was in contact with a friend who had some BOX Navy switches that he claimed were too loud for in his office. I knew he liked my much quieter Zealios so I offered him a trade. Having hot swappable switches has paid off. I really like the feel of the BOX Navy switches although I think they might be too stiff. Time will tell!

Being Productive

If you’ve found this interesting
You may also want to check out my tips for being productive with your keyboard.