△▽ arun.is 046 · It's raining command palettes

I’m Arun Venkatesan, and this is the arun.is newsletter, where I share my current obsessions, inspiration from around the web, behind-the-scenes content, and more.

In this week’s issue:

What’s new
It's raining command palettes
Three recommendations from around the web

What's new

That project I've been mentioning for the last few weeks is in the final stretch! It will be launching on September 29th. Please keep an eye out on Twitter. I will appreciate any help you can provide in amplifying the message!

On the blog front, I'm currently beginning the writing process for my next essay. I tweeted out a hint earlier in the week. Can you guess what it's about?

Lastly, I've wrapped up a month and a half of interviews, and am pretty close to deciding on where I'll be focusing my professional efforts. Thanks again to all of you that reached out with advice and those that went as far as chatting with me. I can't understate how helpful you have been.

It's raining command palettes

In the last issue, I examined the trend of people reimagining the web browser. This time, I have yet another trend to discuss, the command palette.

The recipe is simple, enter a keyboard shortcut and a box pops up with a text field perhaps pre-filled shortcuts. It is, in essence, a command line interface supercharged with instant feedback, multimedia, and more. The most basic palettes offer quick navigation and tiny utilities. The more comprehensive cover all of an app's functionality.

Philip Davis wrote a short piece on the concept some time back, in which he covered a few adjacent UI patterns like Notion's quick actions. His post got me thinking about what makes these interfaces so powerful — they keep my hands on the keyboard.

For design tools, presentation software, etc. perhaps the command palette isn't useful since I'm using the mouse a lot. For to-do lists, email, browsers, and writing apps, command palettes are extremely useful since my hands are rarely not on the keyboard.

They don't come without a cost though. Recently, I've found my hands struggling to activate the correct command palette. I was using Notion within Arc. When I meant to open the Notion palette, I opened Arc's and when I mean to open Arc's, I opened Spotlight.

I wonder if there is ever a future where something like Raycast replaces all of them.

I'm also pretty tempted now to use Paco and Rauno's open-source command palette in a future project.

Recommendations

Before I let you go, I have some recommendations from around the web.

Avi

First up is a YouTuber. Avi's work is unique. He's covering a familiar topic, mechanical keyboards, but his entire approach is fresh, from the filming, editing, music, and even the choice of 4:3 aspect ratio. I'm quite sure that if he keeps up the work, his channel will blow up.

Piranesi

Susanna Clarke, writer of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell released her second novel, Piranesi, just two years ago. After a few friends strongly recommended it to me, I picked it up. Once I got a few pages in, I couldn't stop and finished the book in one sitting. I won't spoil too much but would recommend checking it out, especially if you can borrow a copy from the library or a friend.

Hammers

I first listened to Nils Frahm play Hammers at a small concert he gave alongside Ólafur Arnalds and Haushka (one of the best live performances in my life). Hammers, alongside For – Peter – Toilet Brushes – More, is breathtaking every time I listen. I just came across Remy van Kerteren's performance of Hammers on harp and loved it.

That's it for this issue. As always, this is my personal email, so feel free to respond directly.

Stay curious,
Arun Venkatesan

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