We got you brother. Signed up for a year of the early access labs.
Congratulations MacSparky. You done good, kid.
Congratulations David! This is a very exciting move! I have listened to your podcast for a long time and it is cool to see what you next move might be! I have always appreciated hearing your perspectives and your candor. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing what is next!
You followed your heart, David! That takes guts! We all know you have made the right decision you have been making for quite some time. THE WTG!
Does this mean you will spend more time in this forum now?
Both @ismh and @MacSparky expressed concerns about aging out of the tech/productivity blogger/podcaster/videographer/instructor/mentor game. David because of his grey hair and over-50 age, and Stephen because of his “I don’t get it” reaction to AR/VR.
Addressing David first: One of the things I find valuable about the work you do is that you have actually done things with your life. Worked in a law firm, started and successfully ran a private practice, raised a family, pursued an interest in music. I see gray hair on your head in those videos and I say to myself, “Pay attention — there’s an adult speaking here.” Too many productivity gurus are 20-somethings who have seemingly never done anything other than run productivity businesses. (The situation seems to be worse with PKM gurus. The folks whose PKM systems I really want to hear about are working journalists, historians, and scientists — not people whose sole area of expertise seems to be PKMs.)
Also, there’s a lot of us over-50s who feel the desire or need to keep up with technology. (And over-60s, over-70s, over-80s…. ) Nice to see a peer’s face up there giving guidance.
As for Stephen’s concern: If AR/VR do catch on, it’ll have to win over the Stephens of the world. Moreover, being wrong doesn’t make a person not worth listening to. I was one of those “Macs are toy computers” people into the 2000s. I thought cameraphones were silly when the first ones hit the market. And I was a huge Second LIfe enthusiast well into the 2000s — I thought it would become mainstream and everybody would use it. (Indeed, I now think SL inoculated me against VR hype — but that’s a conversation for another place and time.)
I, too, am skeptical about VR. But I do think AR sounds great — for exactly the situations you, Stephen, now use your iPad mini for: Having manuals in place when working on your truck, or while washing dishes. Anything we now do on our phones might be better done with the display floating virtually in front of our eyes. And also AR might well be useful to replace desktop displays.
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Here, here, we’ll said!
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or write programs. I occasionally have to stop listening to a podcast when the hosts start discussing non-technical subjects about which they obviously have absolutely no knowledge. One reason I started listening to MPU around 11 years ago was because the hosts were business people who used technology. That is still true today.
And I agree that having your hair turn gray isn’t a big deal. But I sometimes wish mine hadn’t turned loose. 
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Yes. Yes. Yes … That seems to be the way these days. A resume of “I worked 2 years in xxxxx business and I’ve just finished reading yyyyy” Seems to be the new norm 
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this may be politically incorrect to suggest but it would be interested to know the spread of age / experience of the regular MPUers here. I myself is 67 and retired but I think I am still young at heart 
. I still like to learn at least one new thing everyday and this is my main reason to be in this forum.
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Consider starting an anonymous poll with age bracket selections. This might give us a sense of the demographics and will probably encourage more people to respond.
I’ll be 73 in 10 days. I also taught (part time) electrical engineering courses for 25 years with grey hair the entire time.
So David’s grey hairs are of no concern to me.
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I turn 65 later this year. I’m still working as a consultant in my own 4 person firm, and am a former software designer (who started out on punch cards). I’m still able to teach my younger colleagues a thing or two about software design. 
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Poll is alive here
First time building a poll on a forum so apology for any mistakes or incorrect formate
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Thanks Gang!
I did get a few emails (just a few) after the announcement something akin to, “You are no longer a lawyer so all your advice will be rubbish.” When I was younger that may have bothered me. I’ve been around long enough to just shrug and delete those notes.
alas … gray hair. 
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LOL, I used to hunt people down and argue until our faces turn blue. With the experience and the enhancement of EQ (together with the improving shades of grey of the hair), I would just take a deep breath and try to look from their perspectives or just laugh that off
I don’t think your advice will be rubbish (it certainly hasn’t been in the past!) but I am concerned that your viewpoint and analysis will change. When you have evaluated and recommended (or not) products in the past it has been based on you attempting to use them for productive, income-producing work. If you use your time to play with new apps I’m afraid you won’t be finding the warts. Please use your added time for quality rather than quantity!
FYI I discovered you through Paperless before even knowing about Mac Power Users. The information in that book certainly was the result of experience with building productive scanning workflows and not just from playing around with evaluation units for a couple weeks.
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I spent around 20 years in management before I started working full time in I.T. And my experience as a production supervisor, distribution center manager, etc. helped me guide my users in selecting the systems they needed to do their job.
David has been running a business to “pay for his shoes” for several years. Nothing is changing except the business and the amount of time he can devote to it. I don’t think we have any reason to worry.
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I’m curious why you don’t think what David will be doing in his MacSparky business isn’t “productive, income-producing work.”
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I’m not answering for @tomalmy , but I find that many sources of information come from within the bubble. What I mean by this, is that the authors are either writers or podcasters by profession, so the content is biased in that direction (Jason Snell talks about this and I believe he is rather good at providing a broader viewpoint, but there’s no getting away from some bias; people do, and should, present what they are interested in). It also seems that just like for most people, these authors’ friends are also predominantly within the bubble.
David’s ‘other life’ brought in some natural variation to that and I reckon this has been one of the things that helps his excellent rhetoric stand apart from the crowd. It’s not just that, obviously! This isn’t going to disappear overnight and maybe it never will; I hope to continue seeing a diverse selection of guests on MPU to help provide the breadth.
Whatever happens with that though, David’s comments and views are always going to be valuable as he both thinks carefully about what to say (the podcasts are well prepped) and he cares about presentation (the podcasts are suitably concise and structured). MPU is my long-form podcast of choice, and if I only listened to one, this would be it.
On a separate note, can I put into words my appreciation for all the people who took the time to congratulate David? My normal position is to say little or nothing as I believe not much needs to be said, and David certainly doesn’t need my endorsement! But, on reflection, I realise that by not saying anything positive I am allowing the few negative comments to seem bigger. One negative comment requires many positive comments to balance it (unless the skin is truly very thick).
So, well done David, I think it’s a great move for you.
I followed my heart (not my bank manager) when I moved from engineering to teaching many years ago and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Follow your heart and don’t overload yourself.
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