Aug 3, 2010
Guy Kawasaki, Lifehacker, Chronicle and others like Freedom
Legendary entrepreneur, venture capitalist, former Apple Fellow, and current Alltop founder Guy Kawasaki has written a great article discussing Freedom and Anti-Social. Guy writes:
During the summer, I get even less work done because my kids are at home, and they’re always dropping into my home office. Luckily, I don’t check Facebook on a daily basis, and no one sends me text messages, or things would be worse.
Sure, I’ve read the advice of lifehackers and GTDers who tell you how to do the important things first and to create various systems. But I’m too weak. For a while I thought that I’d never finish my next book.
Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, I recently found two applications that have helped me. First, Freedom by Fred Stuzman. It turns off Internet access for your computer for up to eight hours. There is a way to override it—restarting your computer—but doing this is a total admission of weakness. It sells for $10, Macintosh and Windows.
One of my first visits to Silicon Valley involved attending a conference where Guy was a speaker – It is a great honor to have Guy writing about (and liking) my work.
Other recent press about Freedom includes:
- Gregory M. Lamb of the Christian Science Monitor asks: Are iPads, Smartphones and the Mobile Web Rewiring the Way We Think?
- Lifehacker has featured Freedom in a recent post on How to Deal with Distractions in a Web Worker’s World.
- Prospect Magazine talks about Freedom as a way to solve the problems Nick Carr introduces in his recent book, The Shallows.
- Filmmaker Magazine recommends Freedom: “Freedom, for Mac OS, allows you to get work down by severing your Internet connection for just a few minutes or up to eight hours.”
- Patrick Kingsley of the Guardian talks about Freedom in a provocative piece – The Art of Slow Reading. This one is definitely worth your time.
- Freedom has picked up a mention in James Sturm’s column on Slate – Life Without The Web.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education writes about Freedom and AntiSocial as two of “6 Ways to Avoid Letting Your Computer Distract You.“
I may have to start a new media section! And don’t forget to check out the Tweets about Freedom. Some recent favorites:
- Helping me to finish my thesis on time – http://bit.ly/L3GHW
- Seriously, the Freedom app has changed way I work; allows users to block Internet use temporarily: http://macfreedom.com/
- Shout out to http://www.macfreedom.com. I’ve been more productive in 4 hours than I’ve been in 4 weeks.
Many more like it over on the Twitter stream. So happy to know that people are getting lots done with Freedom!






















