The Platinum Card by American Express

Image courtesy of American Express

Since 2007, I’ve carried my American Express with me everywhere. I’m a true poster boy for the old Amex slogan “Don’t leave home without it.” My Amex portfolio has evolve over the years but the one card that has always been tried and true was my American Express Green card. Most of my life had been expensed through that card at some point up to recently years when I added The Platinum Card to my wallet.

While some days I still miss my old financial partner, the American Express Green Card, this card, with a much more expensive annual fee, has become my daily card for everything. Learn the card’s benefits and it will pay for itself many times over. My first year, I offset the annual fee by nearly $1500.00.

Nothing compares to American Expresses customer service, the support and perks one gets, and the peace of mind knowing that finances and purchases are covered by purchase protection, trip delay insurance, cell phone insurance, return protection, a slew of credits, and great points, especially for travel.

Starting my finance series, The Platinum Card by American Express if my first and foremost recommendation. There are other options from American Express, and other companies, but I truly don’t leave home without it.

Rewards
5x Airfare
5x Hotels
1x Everything Else

reMarkable Tablets — Minimalist E-ink Notetaking

Image courtesy of reMarkable

Of those is in know, reMarkable 2 tablets are shipping. For those who don’t know about reMarkable, they are a Norwegian company that make minimalist, e-ink, notetaking tablets.

It is in the second generation—the thinnest tablet in the world at that. There are many criticisms of the device because it doesn’t do much more than let your write, read, and annotate. While that is the point, being distraction free, one could feel limited by such a device. 

I have picked on up recently but I have not yet posted my review. I need time with it—to understand it, fit it into my workflow, and see if it is worth the price tag of an iPad.

But here are a few thoughts:

1. Is there no room for dedicated devices in our digital world? Or do all digital devices have to be so broadly general computing apparatus like iPad devices?

2. Can having an iPad with Apple Pencil completely remove one’s need for other notetaking forms?

3. Are notebooks (paper) completely gone from our lives? Can we replace them with something dedicated to the same task and with more functions like cloud syncing?

I recently picked up and reviewed an Amazon Kindle during the COVID Lockdown. Never did I think I would want to read on it more rather than my iPad Pro but it has found a unique place in my life and heart. It is a ‘Goldilocks’ device for the purpose it was designed. 

And to consider this further, what about other devices that we have used for, in some cases, decades and don’t scoff at the idea that they still exist today even in the age of computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Analog	"Goldilocks"	Digital
Book	Kindle	iPad
Abacus	Calculator	MacBook Pro
Notebook	reMarkable	iPad Pro

The “Three R’s” in analog through digital forms.

Perhaps we are all so bewildered by dedicated digital notetaking devices because they haven’t really been available to us in the past—that reMarkable tablets (and others like it) are just so new we haven’t accepted them yet.

I recall a friend of mine when I got my first smartphone, a Blackberry 7100t, saying, “I don’t want to be that available all the time.” Yet, today, she and I both have iPhone 11 Pro devices.