Writer Clive Thompson describes his tools and work routine

Our friend Clive Thompson is in the spotlight in this week's "This is How I Work" feature on Lifehacker.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without?

I'm a pack rat when it comes to research. I like to save everything, because you never know when it'll be useful. I write primarily long-form magazine pieces and books, each of which takes months to report and sometimes years to gestate, so I often find myself realizing an interview or study I encountered three years earlier is suddently useful now. So I lean heavily on tools for finding and saving everything.

For face-to-face interviews, I use a Livescribe pen, which is invaluable even though the software is kind of creaky. I use Skype out for most of my phone interviews, and Call Recorder to save those files. I have a Scrivener database for my research—whenever I read anything interesting, I make a note about it and paste in any relevant passages. The note-writing is a crucial part of the task for me, because it requires me to slow down and make sense of what I’m reading, instead of just blindly clipping and saving everything.

I'm Clive Thompson, and This Is How I Work

See also:

I'm Cory Doctorow, and This Is How I Work

I'm Mark Frauenfelder, and This Is How I Work