“For my grandchildren, the idea that reading is something you do by yourself will seem arcane,” he says. “Why would you want to read by yourself if you can have access to the ideas of others you know and trust, or to the insights of people from all over the world?”
Though what's authored in a book might not be from anyone we know and trust (in itself not a "bad" thing) it's quite likely still a body of (possibly collective) insight already—perhaps even from someone(s) in less-local parts of the world.
Maybe I missed the point, but it felt like the quote was missing that a book is already a view into others' ideas and insights.
That said, even if printed books are to fall out of favor with the majority of literate people, it could still be a good idea to maintain physical libraries of works that many would find essential in the (perhaps unlikely) case that digital records fail or become inconvenient to access.
This sounds like something along the lines of Getting Things Done, a to-do system where goals are broken down into actionable tasks that can be re-arranged as needed.
I might have a work commute of one hour to two, and sometimes even four, hours each way on any given weekday. I typically warm up for the work day by either developing personal projects on my laptop or writing my thoughts on what there is to do once I arrive to my office.
If I have no need or desire to do either of those things, I'll prepare for my future career by reading books and articles that relate to it.
This arose out of the boredom that I was experiencing when I first found myself making such a long commute. I seem to be at my most productive, outside of my day job, during these times. I ride public transit, so my morning commute is very quiet and typically free from distraction; it's nice.
I think having a checkbox that toggles between your suggestion and how it currently is would be optimal, but that's just because I prefer to focus on the smaller box.
This. Photoshop has plenty of filters for interesting effects, but layers, in my opinion, are where some of the meat and potatoes sit. A lot of times I find myself going back and forth on style changes, such that I was relieved to find the layer styles feature for myself.
I also make heavy use of solid color layers; the color layer is a layer composed of two things--the layer of color (which extends into, conceptually, infinity) and a mask which helps in managing of the area through which the color shows. The great thing about this is that you can change the color of the layer at any time, over and over. You can do something similar with layer styles, where you choose a color overlay for the layer, as well.