# Dan Counsell > Notes on technology, running an independent business, and making nice things. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### Hey, I'm Dan 👋 URL: https://dancounsell.com/about/ Last updated: 2026-09-30T22:45:43.000Z I'm the founder of an award-winning independent development studio. I’ve been designing, building, and shipping digital products for over 20 years. During the past 20 years my work has been focused on making apps feel simple, useful, and enjoyable to use. I’ve mainly focused on designing and building for Mac and iOS, but have also developed numerous products for the Web. I write about technology, running an independent business, staying healthy, and trying to make nice things. If you've been a Mac user for a while, then the chances are you've used one of my products. ### Get in-touch If you think I could help your company or project, feel free to [get in-touch](mailto: hello@dancounsell.com). ### Made by a human All photos on this website are taken by me, and [available via Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@dancounsell/?ref=dancounsell.com). My photography has received over 50 million views and more than 300,000 downloads on Unsplash. None of them are AI-generated. All articles here are [written by me, a human](https://notbyai.fyi/?ref=dancounsell.com). I have dyslexia, so my posts are often run through an LLM to fix grammar, and readability before going live. All the content here is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en?ref=dancounsell.com); this basically means you can do whatever you want with it. ### Around the Web - [Twitter / X](https://x.com/dpcounsell?ref=dancounsell.com) - [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@dancounsell?ref=dancounsell.com) - [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@dpcounsell?ref=dancounsell.com) - [Last.fm](https://www.last.fm/user/dancounsell?ref=dancounsell.com) ## Posts ### Trying to find the time URL: https://dancounsell.com/trying-to-find-the-time/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T08:44:43.000Z It’s not like I have a lot of free time. I really don’t. Between work, family, exercise, and “life admin”, it feels like I never get a moment to day dream or switch my brain off for a bit. I’m certainly never bored. Not like when I was younger. Running your own business means there’s always something that needs doing. I know what needs attention, so I may as well just get on with it. Why waste time doing anything else. It’s always been this way. I work too much. Evenings, weekends, checking in when on holiday. I do it out of choice, because I enjoy the work, but it’s clear I have issues with letting go. I know I need to do other things. I know I should have more of a “work life balance”. Everyone says this. But it’s hard to not do the thing you enjoy. More often than not, I choose work over relaxing, like watching television in the evening or playing video games. My brain is constantly spinning with ideas and things I should be doing. It’s like I’ve forgotten how to switch off. One thought that keeps coming back is journaling. More specifically, blogging. A place of my own, away from work. I've started and abandoned many blogs over the years, I have a huge archive of posts that I need to get back online, so overtime, they'll be new posts here as well as backfilling the archive. This latest attempt at blogging will hopefully give me a personal, creative outlet that isn’t work. A place to look back on in years to come and try to make sense of it all. I'll mainly be posting about technology, running a business, and anything that I find interesting along the way. If that sounds good to you, subscribe to the [RSS feed](https://dancounsell.com/rss/), or my [email newsletter](https://dancounsell.com/trying-to-find-the-time/#/portal/signup) to get notified about new posts. ### WWDC 2026, and the return of macOS URL: https://dancounsell.com/wwdc-2026-and-the-return-of-macos/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T12:04:00.000Z I first attended WWDC in 2009, the year of Snow Leopard. The last time I went was in 2015, when El Capitan was introduced. I have very fond memories of every WWDC I attended. Meeting developers from all over the world, attending community events and parties, and spending a week immersed in the Apple ecosystem was always a highlight of the year. A lot has changed since then. Watching WWDC in recent years has been fascinating and sad in equal measure. I understand why things evolved the way they did, but I also believe Apple could run the developer conference more like they used to if they wanted to. The highly staged presentations often feel a little too polished and unnatural, and don't get me started on the hand gestures. This year's [WWDC keynote](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o&pp=ygUNV1dEQyAyMDI2IGtleQ%3D%3D&ref=dancounsell.com) was the strangest yet. The wording throughout the presentation felt overly manicured, even more than usual. At points I found myself thinking, "a lot of this is just word soup, I don't even understand it". The overhyped presenters don't sound like people speaking naturally anymore. Every sentence feels rehearsed to death, almost robotic and overly refined. It's all just a bit too much. In a world of impersonal AI-generated content, I think it's going to become more important for companies to communicate like actual human beings. People are craving authenticity (I know I am). Apple still does a lot of great things, but at times the company feels surprisingly tone-deaf when it comes to how it presents itself. Thankfully, it's not all bad news from Apple Park. The changes in [macOS 27 Golden Gate](https://www.apple.com/os/macos/?version=no-hero&ref=dancounsell.com) are very welcome. Apple have walked back many of the decisions introduced in Tahoe. Some of the most noticeable improvements include removing the frankly awful floating sidebar, reducing the corner radius of windows, and dropping the icons from every menu item. Toolbars now have a proper tinted background, which helps the shiny toolbar buttons feel anchored rather than floating above your content. Apple have also brought colour back to the sidebar icons and refined the window outlines, making it much easier to identify the active window at a glance. All of these changes are very welcome. macOS Golden Gate is really starting to feel more like the spiritual successor to the original Aqua UI on Mac OS X. I hope Apple continue with these refinements, and if they do, we might just end up with a system that feels like it's built for professionals. If you skipped Tahoe, and I know a lot of people did, you should find macOS Golden Gate much easier to get along with. Is it perfect? No, but then nothing ever is. ### Every app I have installed on my Mac URL: https://dancounsell.com/every-app-i-have-installed-on-my-mac/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T12:01:37.000Z I've always enjoyed reading lists of what apps people use on their Macs, especially the workflows they've built around them, so I thought it was about time I put together my own list. I've tried to make this a fairly comprehensive run-through of every Mac app I use daily, or at the very least weekly. I have a bad habit of chopping and changing tools, especially to-do apps, note apps, and utilities, more often than I'm comfortable with. So this list is just a snapshot in time, and would probably look pretty different in six months, but right now I'm happy with the setup. I'm sure plenty of these apps will be familiar to you, but I hope there's a few gems in here you haven't come across before. I'll start with the apps that have earned a spot in my Dock, working from left to right. ### Safari / Messages / Mail / FaceTime I still use Safari as my main browser, I've tried others but Safari is just better integrated with the native Password app, auto-fill, and Apple Pay. This makes it hard to move to anything else. My fallback browser is currently [ChatGPT Atlas](https://chatgpt.com/atlas/?ref=dancounsell.com), I find this especially good for replying to long forum threads at work as it can summarise what's gone on so far, but also help me respond faster. There's really not much to say about Messages, Mail or FaceTime. They all work and do what they're supposed to do. I will say that while Mail isn't perfect, I've still not found anything better. ### Swinsian I love music, but I got tired of Apple messing up my library. I'd add an album, then come back to it months or years later only to find it had been split across multiple albums, or that tracks were missing entirely. Over the years Apple Music has slowly de-emphasised the personal library in favour of streaming, and call me old fashioned, but I still like to listen to complete albums that I've chosen and curated myself. [Swinsian](https://swinsian.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) isn't the best looking app, but it's incredibly configurable, and it just works. Thankfully, I ripped all my old CDs ages ago and now keep the MP3s on Dropbox. It's a wonderful way to listen to music, no buffering, no problems when the internet goes down, and best of all I'm 100% in control of my library. These days I buy most of my new music from Bandcamp. I do still have an Apple subscription so get Apple Music included, which I still use for discovering new music and listening on my phone. ### Elements I'm super biased, as we build [Elements](https://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/?ref=dancounsell.com), but if you're looking to own your content and have full control over your website, then you really need to check it out. Over the past five years it's turned into an absolute powerhouse for users that don't want to spend their time wrangling code. ### Things I believe [Things](https://culturedcode.com/things/?ref=dancounsell.com) is the most Mac-like task manager still in development. I've tried all the other apps (and even shipped a rather [popular todo list app](https://dancounsell.com/portfolio/) back in the day), but I just keep coming back to Things. It's the most Mac-like to-do list app, and yes I've tried to use Reminders, but I don't like the UI or how it feels a bit clunky. ### Obsidian I'm terrible at sticking with a single notes app. I've tried just about all of them, but I keep coming back to [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/?ref=dancounsell.com) for both quick notes and long-form articles. The big draw for me is that it runs on plain Markdown files in a folder I control, so there's no hassle about lock-in or having to export my data down the line. I've got a pretty sweet setup going right now. I use a very basic version of the [Johnny.Decimal system](https://johnnydecimal.com/homepage?ref=dancounsell.com) to keep my folder structure in order. I use the [web clipper extension](https://obsidian.md/clipper?ref=dancounsell.com) to file interesting things I come across on the web into a "002 Clippings" folder. I also have a [TypeWhisper](https://www.typewhisper.com/en/?ref=dancounsell.com) workflow (more on that app below) mapped to a global hotkey so I can dictate notes throughout the day and have them merged into a "001 Daily Notes" folder. It's effortless, and kinda magical. ### Claude Over the past few months [Claude](https://claude.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) has quietly overtaken ChatGPT as my go-to AI assistant, not least because of the potential of MCP servers. We recently added one to the Elements CMS (the system this blog runs on), which means I can now ask [Claude Cowork](https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork?ref=dancounsell.com) to grab my latest Markdown article from the "005 Longform" folder on my Mac and push it up to my blog as a draft. That's exactly how this article was published! On top of that, Claude's personality just feels more straightforward and a lot less annoying than ChatGPT's, which makes the back and forth far more pleasant. ### Sketch I mainly use [Sketch](https://www.sketch.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) for UI mockups and designing marketing graphics. It's a good Mac app, but I do worry about its sustainability in the long term, especially with the explosion in popularity of [Figma](https://www.figma.com/?ref=dancounsell.com). ### Nova Probably the most modern looking Mac code editor. However, as far as I can tell, [Nova](https://nova.app/?ref=dancounsell.com) hasn't really kept up with the competition, especially on the AI integration front. That's okay for me, as I generally use Claude Code for AI coding tasks, and then just check the files in Nova. ### GitHub Desktop It hasn't changed in years and is probably one of the most straightforward and easy to use Git clients. There's really not much to say about it. ### Transmit I've used [Transmit](https://www.panic.com/transmit/?ref=dancounsell.com) for years, probably since version 1, before this I think I was using Fetch, and that's a long long time ago. ### Screen Studio For many many years I used [Screenflow](https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm?ref=dancounsell.com), and while it's still a good app, development has stagnated. I'm now increasingly finding myself using the more modern [Screen Studio](https://screen.studio/?ref=dancounsell.com). I use it pretty much every week for recording tutorials and demos of what's new in Elements. You can see plenty of examples of this on the [Realmac Software YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/realmacsoftware?ref=dancounsell.com). ## Apps running in the background These are not in my Dock, but they are running on my Mac in the background, so perhaps these are my most used apps… ### Dropbox I use a mix of [Dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) and iCloud. I mainly started using Dropbox because my accountants use it and it's an easy way to collaborate, but I actually find it to be a fairly decent and reliable service. ### CleanShot Hands-down [CleanShot](https://cleanshot.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) is the best screenshot app for Mac. I use this countless times a day for annotating and sharing screenshots with my team, helping customers with quick demos, and recording bugs for attaching to tickets on GitHub. This is one tool that I really wouldn't want to be without. ### HyperKey This is a recent addition to my app setup, but I can already feel that there's no going back. Basically, [Hyperkey](https://hyperkey.app/?ref=dancounsell.com) gives you the ability to assign a "superkey". What's that? I hear you cry, well… I've assigned mine to the fn-globe key. If I hold down the fn-globe key and then press a single letter, like W, I can trigger a global app shortcut. It makes it easier to use and remember than holding down command-option-shift-W. I've started to map all my global shortcuts to the super-key + a letter. Here's what I currently have set up, but as this is a fairly new addition to my setup, I'm sure I'll be adding many more over time. - CleanShot OCR = Super-T - Claude = Super-D - Gnome = Super-G - TypeWhisper = Super-S - Custom Workflow in TypeWhisper to save Daily Notes to Obsidian = Super-O ### Cotypist Another recent entry to my setup, and one that I think Apple might eventually just integrate into the system. It has the feeling of something that should just be part of the system. [Cotypist](https://cotypist.app/?ref=dancounsell.com) predicts the next word(s) you're going to type, and you just hit tab to auto-complete. I've already found it to be a big time saver, and one that I wouldn't want to be without. Just give it a try for a day or two and you'll be hooked. ### Gnome With a global hotkey (Super-G), I can find and insert an animated gif in seconds. [Gnome](https://lexfriedman.com/gnome/?ref=dancounsell.com) is an essential tool for anyone that "works on a computer". Super handy for posting Gifs to our work [Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/?ref=dancounsell.com). ### TypeWhisper Private speech-to-text for your Mac with system-wide dictation, and custom workflows. I use [TypeWhisper](https://www.typewhisper.com/en/?ref=dancounsell.com) for everything from writing replies, to dictating daily notes that end up in Obsidian. This happens automagically via an integration available on their community marketplace. I'm still in the early stages of getting used to dictation, but it's already proving to be a big time saver. It's sometimes just nice to blabber on about something out loud and have AI shape it into something more coherent. ## Installed on my Mac, but not in my Dock These apps are essential to using my Mac, but they are either a distraction or are used on a more semi-regular basis, so I don't need them cluttering my Dock. - [NetNewsWire](https://netnewswire.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) \+ [Feedbin](https://feedbin.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- This is the perfect RSS setup. - [Ivory](https://tapbots.com/ivory/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Probably the best Mastodon client for the Mac. - [Squash](https://www.realmacsoftware.com/squash/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- A great way to batch compress images. - [Final Cut Pro](https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Pro video editor. - [Numbers](https://www.apple.com/numbers/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- The only spreadsheet app worth using. - [Pixelmator Pro](https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- switched from Photoshop, but it's just not the same. - [Pages](https://www.apple.com/pages/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Before this I used AppleWorks! - [DevAnt](https://realmacsoftware.com/devant/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Internal tool to manage app distribution. - [LM Studio](https://lmstudio.ai/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Run LLMs locally. - [ServBay](https://www.servbay.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Handy for spinning up a local web server. - [SF Symbols](https://developer.apple.com/sf-symbols/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- A must-have app for anyone building Mac apps. - [Vellum](https://vellum.pub/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- One day I'll write a book… - [Codex](https://openai.com/codex/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Similar to Claude Code, but made by OpenAI. - [ChatGPT](https://chatgpt.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Unsure on the future of this app, and currently prefer Claude. - [ChatGPT Atlas](https://chatgpt.com/atlas/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Not sure this is the future of browsers, but it's handy sometimes. - [Boop](https://boop.okat.best/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Really useful tool to format code. - [IINA](https://iina.io/?ref=dancounsell.com) \- Excellent open-source media player. ## What did I miss? Phew, I think this just about covers every app I use on my Mac, and it turned into a much longer article than I was planning. I hope you've found a gem or two that you didn't know about, and if you have any app recommendations, [hit me up on Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@dpcounsell?ref=dancounsell.com) or [X](https://x.com/dpcounsell?ref=dancounsell.com). ### Buying a Commodore Amiga 30 years later URL: https://dancounsell.com/buying-a-commodore-amiga-30-years-later/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T11:57:42.000Z As a kid, we had an Atari ST at home, but I routinely used to go to my friend's house, and we'd play for hours on the latest Amiga games. I'm guessing this was the mid to late 80s. That's around 30 years ago. Yikes! A few months ago I watched From Bedroom to Billions, and last year I watched a whole bunch of [video game documentaries](https://dancounsell.com/the-best-video-game-documentaries/), as you can imagine, this triggered some serious nostalgia and a lot of memories came flooding back. So on a whim, I decided to see if I could pick up an Amiga on eBay to replay some of those old games that I loved as a child. It turns out it's not too hard. There's a thriving community that still uses and loves the Amiga. There's also a fair number of people on eBay who refurbish and upgrade them with a 4GB memory card containing workbench and a bunch of software and games. This is very handy because, even if you did manage to buy the original games, there's no guarantee they will work due to the magnetic platters getting mouldy or damaged over the last 30 years. Yes, that's real-life bit rot in action. ## Buying "Vintage" Amiga Hardware Ah eBay, I'm not sure where else you could easily find vintage and retro tech with such ease. I picked up the following for under £500, it may sound like a fair amount of money for 30-year-old hardware and I suppose it is. However, because it's now "vintage", it'll hold its value (or go up). - Commodore Amiga A1200 (with 4GB memory card) - Commodore 1084s Monitor - 23 pin male to 9 pin female Monitor Cable - Competition Pro Joystick - 8MB Ram Board Upgrade (More on this below) I don't plan on keeping it forever, but it's good to know I'll be able to get my money back once I've enjoyed that sweet hit of nostalgia. ## Amiga Problems I picked up the 1084s monitor, and on first boot it looked good. I was impressed it was still working after all these years. However, a few minutes later I noticed a high-pitched whine. Uh-oh, I knew this was not a good sign. A little bit of Googling and I found out that this is usually a problem with the flyback, and while I'm technical and can build PCs, this is way outside my comfort zone, especially when you consider these old CRTs are known for storing up a lot of electricity inside them. The whine goes away after it's been on for 20 minutes, but the issue does mean the monitor probably has limited life left in it unless it's fixed. I plan to sell the monitor back on eBay at some point, so hopefully, someone that can fix the issue will pick it up. I got the machine up and running, and the first few games I tried looked glorious on the old CRT monitor. I was delighted. However, I then tried to launch Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Monkey Island, and a few others, and each one greeted me with the following error: "Can't Allocate ShadowMem". Urgh. After some more Googling, it turns out that because the games are not running from floppy disks, the machine needs to load them into RAM and run them from there. Along with running Workbench, this can quickly munch through the 2MB of RAM that the A1200 has installed. ![Installing 8MB RAM upgrade in an Amiga A1200](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/extra-ram-amiga.jpg) Again, I turned to eBay and found an 8MB RAM upgrade. I installed this via the trapdoor in the bottom of the Amiga. I was pleasantly surprised to find it took less than 5 minutes to install. I never thought I'd see myself buying RAM and upgrading 30-year-old hardware in 2017, but here we are. If you really want to push the boat out, you can try and get your hands on an accelerator, something like the Blizzard or Apollo — these have up to 128Mb RAM and a 68030 or 68040 Processor and offer a blistering performance enhancement. I decided not to go this route as they can be somewhat pricey. Once the extra RAM was installed, every single game I tried worked like a charm. I had finally reached retro nirvana. I had a perfect Amiga setup, it looked and worked just like it would have all those years ago. ## Personal Top 20 Amiga Games I'd forgotten how many of the best games I'd played as a child were actually on the Amiga. As I dug deeper, I kept finding classics that I'd forgotten about. The vast breadth and depth of the Amiga games library is seriously impressive. While we've come a long way in 30 years, some of the games don't hold up as well as I remember. Thankfully, there are a bunch of games that still look good, sound great, and are fun to play. Some of them could even give modern games a run for their money. In no particular order, here are my personal top 20 favourite Amiga games: - Lemmings - The NewZealand Story - Bomb Jack - Bubble Bobble - Rainbow Island - R-Type - Worms - The Secret of Monkey Island - Rick Dangerous - The Chaos Engine - Dungeon Master - Gods - Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh - Chuck Rock - MouseTrap - Batman The Movie - King's Quest I - IK+ - Goldrunner - Dogs of War The other game I loved from this era was "Solomon's Key". Unfortunately, it was one of the few games that was only on the Atari ST and never made its way to the Amiga. Here's a list of games that didn't make my top 20 but are still worth mentioning: Another World, Xenon, Space Quest, Magic Pockets, Syndicate, Cannon Fodder, Adventure Island Dizzy, Supercars, Pushover, Stuntcar Racer, Populous I & II, Speedball II, Simon the Sorcerer, Fire and Ice, Kid Chaos, Ballistix, Xenon & Xenon 2, Benefactor, Oscar, PP Hammer, Ruff 'n' Tumble, Soccer Kid, Yo! Joe, Traps n Treasure, Mr. Nutz, Jim Power, Turrican 2, Lost Vikings, Superfrog, Putty, Wonder Dog, Walker, Settlers, Kult, Oids, Flood, and Super Methane Bros. ## Vintage Amiga Hardware Photos There seems to be a lack of recent Amiga photos out there (not surprising really), and because I enjoy photography, I thought I'd spend some time taking a few photos. Anyway, here is my Amiga A1200 in all her glory, enjoy: ![Amiga Tank Mouse](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/amiga-tank-mouse-cannon-fodder.jpg) ![Close-up Commodore Amiga keyboard](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/amiga-a1200-keyboard-logo-close-up.jpg) ![Competition Pro Joystick with Amiga](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/competition-pro-joystick.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga a1200](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/amiga-a1200-1084s-monitor-tank-mouse-joystick.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga Logo](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/amiga-commodore-a1200-logo-close-up.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga Tank Mouse and Cannon Fodder on screen](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/amiga-tank-mouse-cannon-fodder.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/commodore-a1200-amiga-side-photo.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga Tank Mouse on Desk](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/amiga-tank-mouse-photo.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga 1084s Monitor](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/commodore-1084s-monitor-close-up.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga Manual and Joystick](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/commodore-amiga-1084s-monitor-workbench-and-joystick.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga a1200 Logo](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/commodore-amiga-a1200-badge-photo.jpg) ![Commodore Amiga user guide](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/amiga/commodore-amiga-a1200-workbench-user-guide-photo.jpg) I tried to give the photos a slight retro/vintage feel to them without going over the top, hopefully they've brought back some good memories. ## Final Thoughts The Amiga still has an active and faithful community, and it's thanks to them that it's possible to pick up an Amiga and get it upgraded and running all these years later. I also think it's a testament to how important the machine was in the UK and around Europe. If you're looking to learn more about the booming home-brew game scene during 80s Britain, I can highly recommend "[From Bedroom to Billions](http://www.frombedroomstobillions.com/?ref=dancounsell.com)". It's a little low-budget but seems to capture the time perfectly. The follow-up documentary, "[From Bedroom to Billions: the Amiga Years](http://www.frombedroomstobillions.com/?ref=dancounsell.com)" is also a must-watch if you have fond memories of the Amiga. There's also "[Viva Amiga](http://amigafilm.com/?ref=dancounsell.com)", but I've not watched that one yet! ## Related Links - [Big Book of Amiga Hardware](http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) - [Amiga Love](https://amigalove.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) - [AmiBay Forum](http://www.amibay.com/forum.php?ref=dancounsell.com) - [Amiga.org Forum](http://www.amiga.org/index.php?ref=dancounsell.com) - [AmigaKit Store](http://amigakit.amiga.store/?ref=dancounsell.com) - [AmigaVideo](http://amigavideo.net/play/?ref=dancounsell.com) - [A for Amiga](https://bleepstreet.bandcamp.com/album/a-for-amiga?ref=dancounsell.com) ### Think before you grow your business URL: https://dancounsell.com/think-before-you-grow-your-business/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T11:50:54.000Z When you say you run your own company, people inevitably end up asking how many staff you have. The higher the number, the more impressed people seem to be. I totally get it. I fell into the trap of thinking this way, bigger must be better. I really thought for [Realmac Software](https://www.realmacsoftware.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) to be classed as a successful company, I needed to keep growing the business. Get a bigger office, and hire more people. The company was doing well, so I just went with it. It’s really hard to grow an independent company, especially a software business. I didn’t go to business school, and didn’t really think about what managers could §bring to a business, so everyone I hired was on the same level: designers, developers, support. We were just one big team. But this is where things started to break down. It was easy when we were a small team of around five, but as we grew past ten full-time staff, along with a raft of freelancers, things began to unravel. The pressure shifted. It was no longer just about building great products, but about making sure we could cover everyone’s salaries. At our peak, our monthly outgoings were over £50,000\. For a small independent company, that was a heavy weight to carry. The more staff you have, the more politics there are, and not everyone is going to get along like they did when the company was small. I remember going to the pub with everyone and we could no longer all fit around the same table. Splinter groups started to emerge. It felt really unsettling. We used to be a close-knit team, all pulling in the same direction. Everyone was essentially reporting to me. We were building a dozen apps and I was responsible for all of them and the teams building them. It was a lot, especially when I wanted our software to be the best in the world. Something had to give. Life has a way of surprising you, and thankfully I didn’t have to force a change. As with all businesses, people decide to leave. In our case, a lot of our staff got pinched by Silicon Valley companies that we just couldn’t ever compete with. So when people left, I just didn’t hire replacements. The company started to organically shrink. We downsized offices, and eventually went fully remote. Today, I work from home with a small remote team of talented developers who I’ve worked with for many years. It’s so much more enjoyable. We’re now optimising for happiness and revenue, not growth for the sake of growth. That experience taught me a lot. I'm not saying don't hire people or don't get an office, just think carefully before you do. Ask yourself the questions I wish I'd asked earlier: can I still manage everyone directly? Will this hire generate enough revenue to cover their cost and then some? Am I hiring because I need to, or because it feels like what a "real" company does? Think about where you actually want to end up, and whether the overheads and everything else that a bigger business brings are really worth it. ### What to do when an employee quits URL: https://dancounsell.com/what-to-do-when-an-employee-quits/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T11:51:20.000Z I was never qualified to interview or hire people. I’m not even sure there is a qualification for it. I never wanted the responsibility of managing people. I never wanted to be a boss. I was in my early 20s and working out of my spare room. Eventually, the company started to make enough revenue to grow the business. It was both scary and exciting. The first few people I hired were in a somewhat haphazard fashion. A very laid back interview, more like a friendly chat. There was no second or third interview. I just went with my gut instinct. Fast-forward a few years, the company had grown to around half-a-dozen full-time employees, along with a big office we could grow into. During those early years, I never once thought anyone might want to leave the company. Things were going well. Everyone was happy, or at least I thought they were. Then out of the blue, one of my staff said to me, “can we have a quick chat?” Not thinking much of it, I said: “Sure, what’s up?” He then told me he was leaving and handed me a resignation letter. I was calm as I listened, but it was painful to hear. I’d built the company, and it felt like we were a bunch of friends making some cool products. Later that evening, I remember feeling very low and thinking, “how am I ever going to replace them? This is really going to mess things up”. It was then followed by asking myself, “why would they want to leave? what if other people leave?” It was a very unsettling and stressful time. Over the following weeks and months, I got over it. The business adapted and changed, I rehired, and things worked out. Long before I started my own company, I remember leaving my first job in London, and my boss at the time said to me, “If I offer you more money, would you stay?”. I said “No” without hesitation. I didn’t even ask how much. In my mind, I’d already moved on. I was halfway out the door. I was looking forward to my next adventure. When someone decides to leave a business, it’s usually a waste of time trying to convince them to stay. You’re often just deferring the problem. They’ve already made up their mind, and mentally they’ve moved on. A natural reaction is to offer them more money to stay, but I don’t think that’s usually the right move. By the time someone resigns, money is rarely the whole story. When someone leaves, it’s an excellent time to re-evaluate where the business is heading. Look at the bigger picture. Don’t rush to hire a replacement. Perhaps the business needs have changed, or you need someone with a different skill-set. My advice would be to make the best out of what can be a stressful time in any small business and use it to your advantage. There’s no shortage of talented people out there, all looking for their next opportunity, and your business could be it. ### The best video game documentaries URL: https://dancounsell.com/the-best-video-game-documentaries/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T10:55:50.000Z Over the last few years I've rediscovered my love of old video games. It all started when I stumbled across people building and playing [MAME arcade cabinets on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/results?search%5Fquery=mame+arcade+cabinet&ref=dancounsell.com). These things are essentially PCs running an emulator inside something that looks and feels like a classic arcade machine. The best thing about a MAME-based setup is that once you're in a game, you forget all about the fact it's running on a PC. It feels just like the real thing. Loading up Street Fighter II on one of these takes me back 20 years, it's insane. I know the graphics in these old games aren't often up to much when compared to today's standards, but they still have a certain charm and style that only old video games can. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I still really love the way they look (and play). Perhaps best of all is the fact that there are no in-app purchases. These games were made to be tough, but enjoyable. Yes, you could argue that arcade games are pay-to-play and similar to mobile games with in-app purchases. However, I think there's one big difference. If you're skilled at an arcade game you could play for hours on one credit, whereas games with IAP often just block your progress unless you're willing to pay more money. It's a subtle difference but it's a big one. Arcade games rewarded those with skill, mobile games reward those with deep pockets. ![Ten of the best video game documentaries](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/video-game-documentaries-69e9490d437b8.jpg) Along with re-playing a lot of these old games from my childhood, I've also been watching some great documentaries on the origins and history of arcade games. I've compiled a list below in release order, with the most recent being at the top. If you're into designing, building, or even just playing games, then all of these documentaries are worth watching. ### 1\. Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler (2015) The inspiring and outrageous true story of one man's quest for the highest video game score ever recorded. Tim McVey sets out to reclaim the Nibbler high score he set as a teenager in the 80s, now 40 years old, he hasn't touched the game since. It covers very similar ground to *The King of Kong* (2007, see below) and, while perhaps not quite as good, it's still a great documentary in its own right. ### 2\. Nintendo Quest (2015) Gaming enthusiast Jay Bartlett hits the open road with best friend Rob McCallum on a mission to track down all 678 officially licensed NES games in just 30 days, with no online purchases allowed. It can drag a little in places, and it's a shame we don't see more of the haggling when Jay closes a deal, but it's still a fun watch. If you're into Nintendo, this one's essential. ### 3\. Atari: Game Over (2015) A crew sets out to dig up the Atari 2600 cartridges of *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* that were supposedly buried in a New Mexico landfill back in the 80s. It's much better than you'd expect from what is essentially a documentary about digging up rubbish, packed with great history on Atari's rise and fall along the way. ### 4\. The King of Arcades (2013) This documentary follows arcade owner Richie Knucklez as he rides a wave of 80s nostalgia and chases his dream against the odds. The story arc feels a little off at times, there's not really much of a "rise and fall" to speak of, and I think it would have been stronger if it had leaned harder into Richie's genuine love and craft for restoring arcade machines. That said, it's still a great watch. ### 5\. Indie Game: The Movie (2012) A documentary following indie game developers as they pour themselves into their work and release the games out into the world. This one isn't strictly about arcade games, but it resonated with me so much I had to include it. If you've ever shipped an app of your own, you'll find plenty here to relate to. Well worth your time. ### 6\. Ecstasy of Order - The Tetris Masters (2011) Super-fan Robin Mihara made it his mission to legitimise Tetris as a competitive sport, summoning the greatest players from across the country to battle it out at the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship in Los Angeles. The dedication on show here is something else, many of these players have been at it for over 20 years. Impressive and crazy in equal measure. After watching, I immediately went and played Tetris myself. ### 7\. Tilt: The Battle To Save Pinball (2009) In 1998, the designers at Williams Electronic Games were faced with a choice: come up with something new, or watch the world's largest pinball manufacturer close its doors forever. It's not the strongest documentary of the bunch, and it hasn't aged especially well and can drag in places, but the people at its heart are so talented and so passionate that it's worth watching for them alone. ### 8\. Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007) 1982's video game world champions share their philosophies on joysticks, groupies, and life in this more personal, in-depth look at arcade history. It shares a lot of DNA with *The King of Kong* and *Man vs Snake*, a lot of the same faces turn up, and some of the same archive footage gets a second outing. Worth watching if you just can't get enough of the 80s. ### 9\. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) Billy Mitchell sets a *Donkey Kong* record score that many believe will never be broken… until 2003, when recently-unemployed Steve Wiebe learns about the record, sets out to beat it, and does. What follows is a cross-country battle between the two men for a place in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records as the undisputed king of the arcade. Even if you're not into gaming, this is a great documentary; if you are into gaming, you're going to love it. After *Indie Game: The Movie*, this is probably my favourite of the bunch. ### 10\. The Wizard (1989) A classic 80s film featuring classic 80s actors and plenty of classic gaming, this one actually inspired real-life Nintendo tournaments after its release. Okay, so it's not strictly a documentary, but it's a film *about*gaming in the late 80s, which is close enough for me. The perfect family-friendly watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon. ### That's it There's a bunch of really good documentaries on this list that are worth watching even of you're not into gaming. If you were going to watch only one or two, I'd highly recommend The King of Kong, closely followed by Indie Game: The Movie. Both are absolutely fantastic. ### Building a Hackintosh Pro URL: https://dancounsell.com/building-a-hackintosh-pro/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T10:47:18.000Z If Apple built a compact, upgradeable tower that could house one or two full-size GPUs, I'd have bought it without hesitation. Sadly, that machine doesn't exist. There's no doubt that Apple has a refresh for the desktop market in the works. I just don't know if it's going to be enough to satisfy the creative market, who seem to be [slowly migrating](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13797042&ref=dancounsell.com) to [Windows](https://petapixel.com/2017/03/15/tray-ratcliff-says-apple-dead-explains-switched?ref=dancounsell.com). Maybe Apple has been waiting for the recently released Ryzen CPUs from AMD? Or maybe they're just waiting for WWDC to announce their new pro desktop machines. Either way, I really hope they get it right this time. A modern cheese grater Mac would make a lot of professionals very, very happy. I've used Macs for the last 20+ years, and in recent years I've also had a gaming PC at home. This is nice, but having to find room for both machines, along with juggling separate monitors, keyboards, and mice is a pain. Especially when you consider they're both running off the same architecture. Wouldn't it be nice to have just one machine that could do everything… So yeah, building a Hackintosh means I'll be able to have just one kick-ass machine that can boot into either macOS or Windows. Perfect. ## Research & Build I spent a week or so researching how to build a Hackintosh. I watched plenty of YouTube videos, read articles, and spent a lot of time on the [tonymacx86](http://tonymacx86.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) website. As many others have pointed out, this is time well spent, and probably the best way to learn how to do it. There are basically three parts to building a Hackintosh: picking the right components, actually building the thing, and finally getting macOS installed and running. As long as you take your time and research each part properly, you'll be fine. I wanted to build a machine that was faster than my current MacBook Pro and would be able to replace my gaming PC. This basically boiled down to picking the fastest CPU and GPU that macOS supports without resorting to any hacks. I used the [tonymacx86 build guides](https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/building-a-customac-hackintosh-the-ultimate-buyers-guide/$0?ref=dancounsell.com) to get started, and if I wanted to stray from the exact items listed there, I checked the forums to make sure the components were suitable. I can't stress enough how useful the [tonymacx86 website](http://tonymacx86.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) is. ![Apple Hackintosh Pro on Desk](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-on-desk.jpg) While picking two of the most important components, the CPU and GPU, I hit a few snags. macOS doesn't yet support Intel's 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors, so I had to go with the previous generation Skylake processor. Not a huge deal, as an i7 4.0 GHz processor is still faster than any MacBook Pro you can buy. The other slight compromise I had to make was on the graphics card. The best "supported" GPU you can get is the GeForce GTX 980 Ti or the GeForce Titan X. macOS and the Mac Nvidia drivers don't yet support Nvidia's more powerful new 10-series range of Pascal-based cards. Still, the GTX 980 Ti will run rings around most PCs, and any Mac you can buy. The best part about this is that you can now get a GTX 980 Ti fairly cheaply as PC users are ditching these in favour of the latest generation cards. The 980 Ti is more than powerful enough to play all the latest games with settings set to "Very High" or "Ultra" depending on your screen resolution. ## Hackintosh Components After plenty of research, here's the final set of components I settled on for the "Hackintosh Pro". - Case: Phanteks Evolv ATX Tempered Glass Edition – £171.15 - Case Lighting: Phanteks LED System Cabinet Lighting – £24.07 - Motherboard: Asus Z170-A – £131.99 - Graphics Card: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti – £275.00 (via eBay) - Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K Processor 4.0 Ghz – £307.99 - Power Supply: EVGA Supernova 850 W Gold G2 Series – £127.92 - Memory: Trident Z RGB Series 32 GB (8 GB x 4) DDR4 3000 MHz – £388.53 - Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i V2 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler – £106.99 - Wi-Fi / Bluetooth: Fenvi FV T919 802.11AC Wifi Card – £45 - Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD – £299.99 (Windows) - Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SSD – £589.99 (macOS) - Storage: 5TB Seagate Internal HD – Already Owned (Mac Backup) **Build Cost: £1,578.64** (£2,468.62 with SSDs) The most expensive items in the build were storage and memory. It turns out 3TB of SSD storage and 32GB of fast memory is still quite pricey. Had I gone for a more modest setup I could have cut this cost in half. If you're price sensitive, you could build a Hackintosh for under £1,000\. You'd just need to go for the basics and not max everything out. Again, [Tonymacx86](https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/building-a-customac-hackintosh-the-ultimate-buyers-guide/?ref=dancounsell.com) has a selection of example builds to get you started. ## Pimp My Hackintosh When I set out to build a Hackintosh, I knew I wanted a stupid amount of LEDs in the case and on the desk. I figured if I'm going to essentially build a PC, I may as well go all in. This is very different from my previous Mac setups, and is definitely a love it or hate it kind of thing. Personally, I really dig it. ![Apple Hackintosh Pro on Desk](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-on-desk.jpg) ![Apple Hackintosh Pro with RGB Lights](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-on-desk-with-rgb.jpg) ![Apple Hackintosh Pro with Keyboard and Mouse](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-blue-and-keyboard.jpg) ![Apple Hackintosh Pro close-up](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-close-up.jpg) ![Apple Hackintosh Pro close-up red RGB](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-close-up-red.jpg) ![Apple Hackintosh Pro with blue RGB lights](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-blue-rgb.jpg) ![Apple Hackintosh Pro Graphics Card](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/apple-hackintosh-pro-close-up-graphics-card.jpg) I stopped short of buying coloured cables and just went with the stock ones supplied. I was honestly tempted, but as this was my first build I decided to play it safe. Now I've built the Hackintosh, I feel confident I could replace the cables with some fancier-looking ones along with adding some RGB fans to really complete the build. ## Hackintosh Benchmarks I did some quick benchmark tests with my MacBook Pro and Hackintosh. I sourced the Mac Pro results from the internet. The Mac Pro only wins in multi-core performance (something you won't notice in day-to-day use). The Hackintosh beats both machines in single-core performance and absolutely destroys them on 3D performance. The price difference is eye-watering. - Hackintosh: i7 @ 4.0 GHz (4-Cores), GeForce GTX 980 Ti, £1,578.64 - MacBook Pro: i7 @ 2.90 GHz (4-Cores), Radeon Pro 455, £2,879.00 - Mac Pro: Xeon @ 2.7 GHz (12-Cores), Dual AMD FirePro D700, £7,139.00 On all the graphs below, longer bars are better. ![Hackintosh Geekbench Benchmark Results](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/hackintosh-geekbench-benchmarks.jpg) ![Hackintosh Unigine Valley Benchmark Results](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/hackintosh-unigine-valley-benchmarks.jpg) Comparing my Hackintosh score on Geekbench confirms that it's faster in single-core performance than any other Mac Apple currently sells. Maybe this will change soon as Apple is due to release updated desktop hardware. The good thing is that as Apple supports newer and better processors the Hackintosh community should be able to take advantage of them (e.g. Ryzen or Kaby Lake). ## Final Thoughts Building a Hackintosh is not for everybody. There's an overwhelming number of parts to choose from, and you need to pick the ones that are compatible. Once you've built the machine, you still need to get macOS running on it. If you want to do it, do your research and take your time. I'd say this build took me around 8 hours from unboxing the components to getting macOS installed, spread over a few days. ![Hackintosh Sticker from Etsy](https://www.dancounsell.com/resources/blog/hackintosh/hackintosh-vs-imac.jpg) I've been running this machine for a couple of weeks now and I couldn't be happier. It's super fast and I can easily switch between macOS and Windows. I've switched off auto-updates in Sierra. While system updates should work just fine, I prefer to hold off until the community over at [tonymacx86](https://www.tonymacx86.com/?ref=dancounsell.com) has confirmed there are no issues. This is probably one of the major drawbacks to running a Hackintosh. If you're into tech and enjoy tinkering and understanding how things work, you'll find building a Hackintosh is hugely rewarding. *P.S. If you like the Hackintosh sticker in the photo above, you can get your own set over on* [*Etsy*](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/105566118/hackintosh-apple-skull-logo-custom-mash?ref=listing-shop-header-1)*.* ### Removing distractions revisited URL: https://dancounsell.com/removing-distractions-revisited/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T10:34:05.000Z Late last year, I was inspired to try and get back some focus and clarity in my life. So I wrote an article called [Removing distractions](https://dancounsell.com/removing-distractions/). It's now six months on, and my life has changed because of it, but I have a confession to make. I fell back into bad habits. After around 4 months, Twitter found its way back onto my iPhone. It stayed on my phone all through May, June, and July. It's crazy how easily I just fell back into it. Once Twitter was back on my phone, the usage started to creep back up. I started checking in more frequently. I got that feeling that I might be missing out if I didn't just check-in. In part, this was what prompted me to write this follow-up article. Use it as something to get me back on track. This week, Twitter is no longer on my phone (again). Hopefully, I can keep it that way. Even though I had a slight relapse with Twitter, the last six months have seen a lot of positive changes. I definitely use my phone less. I'm more present and more productive because of it. I used to think about taking photos just to post on Instagram. It was one more thing to think about, and let's be honest, who really cares about what I'm posting? Who was I doing it for? A few weeks after deleting my Instagram account, I stopped thinking about it. The same goes for status updates. I used to find myself walking around, and if something popped into my head, I'd think, "oh, I should post that to Twitter". I don't feel like this anymore. Not having to worry about posting updates or seeing if people have "liked" my photos has given me more headspace to actually focus on what matters. I've started reading more books, a lot more. When I go to bed, I read a book instead of checking social networks. I know this sounds obvious, but I've learnt so much by just reading more. When we twiddle on our phones, refreshing feeds for countless social networks, we don't learn anything. Instead, all we get is bite-sized snippets of useless information we forget almost immediately. As I read more and thought more about why I felt stressed, I started to look at other areas in my life. I began to make further changes in what now seems to have turned into an ongoing quest to lead a simpler, more focused life. Here are some of the other changes: ## Ignoring the news I stopped reading and watching the news sometime last year. Nothing good ever happens in the news. Reading it just makes me feel incredibly sad and scared. There's nothing I can do about any of it. When was the last time you read a news story and acted upon it? Probably never. ## Unsubscribing from all newsletters If a newsletter comes in from a company that I'm not interested in, I always unsubscribe from it. I don't just trash it. I unsubscribe. Because, unless you make a habit of unsubscribing, they'll just keep coming, and the problem will compound until your inbox is out of control. The same goes for notifications from online services. I unsubscribed from all but the most useful ones. ## Switching off voicemail I did this a while ago, and I've never looked back. My voicemails used to build up, so I had a backlog of messages to listen to and act on. Not anymore. If someone calls, I deal with it there and then. If I don't recognise the number, I usually ignore it. If it's important, they'll call back. ## Disabling app notifications Switch off all non-essential notifications. I only keep Phone, Messages, Passbook, Calendar, Reminders, FaceTime, and Map notifications on. Everything else is switched off. Now I only get pinged for the things that matter most. ## Use Do Not Disturb On my Mac, I often switch on "Do Not Disturb" during the day. I find this invaluable when I need to stay focused. I also have it turned on automatically between 8pm, and 8am on both Mac and iPhone. ## Declutter I've always been tidy. I like everything to be just so, but it can get stressful. It feels like there's always something to tidy or sort out. I read [The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo](http://tidyingup.com/?ref=dancounsell.com), and it suddenly clicked. It all made sense why I'd been feeling like this. It was hard to keep the house tidy because we had too much stuff. Stuff we don't need, stuff that we'll never use. We keep things because we think they might be helpful one day or that we're going to need them at some point. But the truth is we probably won't. Stuff just seems to endlessly accumulate and clutter up the house. I haven't done everything Marie suggests in her book, but I'm making progress. ## iPhone usage rules I decided to write out some guidelines to try and stop myself from falling back into bad habits. They are here for my reference mainly, but you're more than welcome to follow them: - No social network apps - No games or entertainment apps - No news app (including RSS readers) - No devices in bed. The Kindle is okay - No phone in the bedroom - No phone during social situations ## Final thoughts Just to be clear, I'm not anti-iPhone. On the contrary, the think the iPhone is an incredible device. I just fell into the trap of mindlessly checking social networks to fill every spare moment. It's been an interesting six months, and I've learnt a lot about myself. I'm going to try and continue to focus on what matters. Because I know, and deep down, I think we all do, that whenever we're endlessly scrolling through social networks, we're just wasting our time. > *Going nowhere … isn't about turning your back on the world; it's about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply. \~ Pico Iyer* If this article has inspired you, I'd recommend reading [The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer](http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/11/10/pico-iyer-the-art-of-stillness/?ref=dancounsell.com). ### Removing distractions URL: https://dancounsell.com/removing-distractions/ Last updated: 2026-09-27T10:27:46.000Z A while ago I read an article on [living a year with a distraction-free iPhone](https://medium.com/life-hacks/my-year-with-a-distraction-free-iphone-and-how-to-start-your-own-experiment-6ff74a0e7a50?ref=dancounsell.com). I laughed when I read the title. This guy must be crazy, I thought to myself. However, after reading the article, I felt like maybe I was crazy and this guy was actually on to something. It's fair to say I was inspired, but I didn't want to make any changes. I spent a while thinking about precisely why I use social networks, and how much time I spend browsing timelines and clicking on stuff. I found many things I could relate to in that post. Perhaps my iPhone had become a distraction, just noise to fill the in-between time. I'm guilty of reaching for my iPhone too often. With friends, during lunch, waiting for the bus, in a taxi, looking after the kids, brushing my teeth, last thing at night. Then, in any spare moment, I'd pick up my iPhone and refresh Twitter, check for new photos on Instagram, or read articles I'd saved in Pocket. It was an endless stream of things to fill any gap in time. I stumbled across [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8&ref=dancounsell.com). It's a little over the top. Still, it was enough to make me feel uncomfortable. It was enough to make me want to do something about how much I was using my phone. Over time, I started making small changes. I began to try to be a little more mindful about when and why I was using my iPhone. I started reading books before bed instead of browsing Twitter. At home, I instigated a “No Technology Day” on Saturdays, and yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. I started checking in on things a little less, so much so that I actually forgot to take my phone out with me on several occasions. Progress was being made, but I found it too easy to fall back into bad habits because everything was still right there on my phone. So I decided it was time to step things up a notch. I started by deleting my Facebook account, and to be fair, this was easy as I'm not really into Facebook. Next up was Instagram. To begin with, I just deleted the app. For the first week or so, I missed it. I found myself twitching to launch it, scanning the home screen, wondering where it was, then remembering I'd deleted it. Finally, three weeks in, things got easier. I stopped missing it. It was one less thing to worry about, and it felt good. So good, in fact, that I went ahead and deleted that account too. This week I deleted the Twitter app from my iPhone. Twitter was the hard one. I watched the app jiggle and shake like it knew what was about to happen. I tapped the X in the corner, and it was gone. My phone is now free of all social networks: no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no Vine, no Pocket. Everything's gone. Just for the record, I still have a Twitter account and don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon. Instead, I'll probably check it once or twice a day at most when I'm on my Mac, and I'm okay with that. While I was getting rid of all the social network apps, I also took the opportunity to cut down on everything else. As a result, my iPhone is now free of games and other random junk I don't need. Since I started making these changes, I generally feel more relaxed. I no longer get that twitch to take out my phone whenever there's a free moment, and even when do, there's nothing on it. I'm hoping this change will give me more time to think and focus on all the things that really matter.