It all goes back to a story from my youth. One day long ago, at the tender age of young whippersnapper, I opened up my bedroom window and heard the strangest sounds coming from a nearby tree. There was a high staccato tweet, then a pause, then another tweet, then another, in increasingly rapid succession, followed immediately by a raspy response from a nearby bird in a much lower tone. This strange trilling and chirping went on, and on, for many days throughout the springtime of my youth.

Years later, when I became a man, I continued to notice that strange bird call, and thus I conducted my online research and discovered that the bird in question was none other than…the California Towhee. (to hear its distinctive sound, listen to “Songs #2” here) Aha! I said to myself. I have discovered the mysterious bird that haunted my youth! I shall name my blog after it!

And then, like a dummy, I completely forgot which bird I had found, somehow ended up with the wrong page open in my web browser, and named my blog Pygmy Nuthatch instead. I have no idea what that bird is.

A metaphor for life perhaps? Or just a funny name for a blog about the latest iOS & Mac devices, living the free agent lifestyle, and talking about our feelings (like a good Millennial should)? You decide!

Unlike some folks out there who simply live on their smartphones, I’m a Mac + iPad guy. I love my MacBook Pro and I truly love my iPad Pro, and I use both for my work, so those devices will be waiting until the fall to get on the bleeding edge. Meanwhile, I really only use my iPhone for messaging and surfing the web 90% of the time, so I’m cool with going out on a limb with it. I don’t really care if some game crashes or I can’t access a photo from 2012.

Assuming all goes well, I’ll post a mini-review of iOS 10 on the blog soon. Top feature I’m looking forward to? Probably the new-and-improved Siri, followed closely by a better Apple Music.

It just occurred to me that we’ve passed the half-way mark in the year, which means the start of 2016 is farther away in the past than 2017 is in the future. OK, fine, whatever…right? Well, not if you’re like me and you plan out goals to accomplish in the year. Now any goals that are currently outstanding have less than a half of a year to get done at the most, otherwise they’ll be bumped to next year.

Maybe it’s time to do a proactive review and bump a couple now as a preventative cure. I’d much rather feel good about accomplishing a very small number of goals I’ve set for myself than be bummed I missed the mark on a bunch of them. I should try the KonMari method on my goals…see which ones “spark joy” the most and keep only those!

I’ll be posting a longer explanation of how this all works soon, but in a nutshell: I moved my Jekyll blog/website powering Pygmy Nuthatch to Netlify today. This provides me with automated build & deployment “in the cloud” of any new content I add to my site’s Git repository. Basically, I can now use two iOS apps, Working Copy and Ulysses, to write new content, commit that to the repository, and in a matter of seconds it’s live on my website.

Oh, and did I mention the site’s crazy fast (served by a CDN) and 1000 times more secure than WordPress? I’m one happy geek. 😄

I hear a lot of talk about millennials’ and their chronic dissatisfaction in the workplace. Well, as a millennial, I’m here to tell you that a big problem seems to be lack of qualified mentorship. It’s really, really difficult to find “old” people who are good business mentors. (At least it has been for me.)

I once talked with an older gentleman at the church I was attending, and shared that I was feeling frustrated with my work and the trajectory of my career at the time. His advice? Basically: “suck it up.” He said he worked at a job he hated for years when he was younger. And…that was the gist of the conversation. Bless his heart, he was only doing his best I’m sure.

I’ve had to go far afield and find “virtual” mentors like Michael Hyatt, James Altucher, Seth Godin, Jason Fried, Gary Vaynerchuk, and many others—through the media of podcasts, books, and YouTube videos. Why is it so hard to find real-life Hyatts or Altuchers? Could be just where I live, I suppose, but then I see article after article in the national news about the difficulties millennials face in finding rewarding career paths, and I realize I’m not alone.

If you are in your late 30’s or older and run a successful business of any kind, I heartily encourage you to find someone a little younger than you and offer to mentor them. I guarantee you they will LOVE the idea and your generosity, and together you will buck this cultural trend.