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5 Years and a Book!

Matt Birchler
Posted by Matt Birchler
— 2 min read

Last month I celebrated 5 years of writing at BirchTree, which is quite the milestone. I am extremely grateful for all the congratulations and positive feedback I got that day; it was more than I ever expected and only solidifies my belief that I have the best readers on the internet.

One of the things I lamented in that post was that most of my previous work had been lost in the many CMS moves I had made over the years. However, I have since dug up about 2 years worth of text files with my old work that basically nobody has seen (readership was pretty low back in 2012!). I’ve taken some of the best articles from that archive as well as the better posts from this year and have created a book out of them called 5 Years of BirchTree.

5 Years of BirchTree is a compilation of 52 pieces I have written between 2012 and today (2010-2011 are still lost to the ages), and I think it represents my best work. The collection includes both technical and non-techy pieces on a whole host of subjects. The marketer in me would say “it has something for everybody!” and he would be right, but the more nerdy you are the more you’ll get out of it (especially the second half which goes full-nerd).

To those who buy the book, thank you so much, you’re truly awesome people!

You can buy the DRM-free .epub edition right now for just $4.99. I am still waiting on the iBooks Store version to be available, but I will update this post as soon as it is.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Anything but Tech

  1. 5 Years of BirchTree
  2. Finish the Job
  3. Memories and the Cost of Compatibility
  4. Get Moving
  5. Wake Up and Do the Work
  6. Are You Church People?
  7. More Than a Book
  8. Who Will Think Highly of You?
  9. Why we May Finally Move Away from Truly Insane Black Friday Hours
  10. It Only Counts if You Actually Do It
  11. Making Myself Run 100 Miles
  12. On Enthusiasm
  13. Finding Your Silence
  14. I Don't Think Your Review is Very Accurate
  15. Take Some ****ing Responsibility
  16. On Target's New CEO
  17. My Last Day at Target

Section 2: All the Nerdy Stuff

  1. Apple Doesn't Operate in a Bubble
  2. What if You Used iOS 9's Low-Power Mode All the Time?
  3. Art vs. Tools
  4. Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days
  5. How People Really Shop for TVs
  6. How We Use iPads at Work
  7. Record, Edit, ShareL How I Produce My Podcast
  8. Free Podcast Apps are Nothing New
  9. PC Status Report
  10. The Official Twitter App is Better Than You Think
  11. Wii: True Disruption of Just a Fad
  12. Disconnect: Gaming and Tech Press on Gaming's Next Gen
  13. Last Impressions of iOS 6
  14. The Current State of Productivity on iOS
  15. Data is Square
  16. Apple Watch Isn't a "Real Watch," It's Something Better
  17. Apple makes Profits, Everyone Else Fights for Scraps
  18. Let's Stop Calling Them "Smartphone Cameras"
  19. Dedicated Gaming Consoles Died Long Ago
  20. Life with a 16GB iPhone (not great, Bob!)
  21. 45 Days with the Apple Watch
  22. My Experience with CurrentC
  23. I Didn't Know I Wanted to Block Ads Until I Saw Your Site
  24. How to Stay Relevant on the App Store
  25. Explaining our tech Obsessions to Non-tech People
  26. Video Game Console Landscape in Mid-2015

Section 3: Reviews

  1. Apple Watch Review
  2. iPhone 6S Plus Review
  3. Game Boy Advance Review
  4. An iPhone Lover's Review of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
  5. Running with Apple Watch
  6. Review: Sony PlayStation Silver Headphones
  7. Grave Suspicion by Aaron Mahnke
  8. MacID Review
  9. Review: Bloodborne