January 2012
7 posts
“The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, and man is tested by the...”
– Proverbs 27:21, and one of my favorite quotes ever.
The 3 Classes of Hacker-Designers
You hear an awful lot of praise for designers who code these days. But you don’t hear much about why it’s good for a designer to be able to code. In my mind, there are a few separate levels of hacker-designers. Each has it’s own unique benefits. So I thought it would be a good idea to separate out what I think are the three classes of hacker-designers:
1. Designers that can code...
“It’s what comes next that is so much more interesting - the point between taking...”
– Andy Weissman
Between Thought and Expression Lies A Lifetime
(via fred-wilson)
An Analogy To Explain Why Ideas Are Worthless
Ideas for web/mobile apps are like ideas for paintings.
I could pitch the idea of painting a woman with a half smile and no one would care. At best they’d be interested to see how it turned out. But no one would decide whether or not the painting was good or bad before it was actually done.
The hard part about building a good app lies in the brush work, the emotion, the proportions, the...
Hackers & Hustlers: 1 Year Later
About a year and a half ago I got invited to an event in Ann Arbor called the “A2 New Tech Meetup”, and I was really nervous. I drove from MSU to Ann Arbor by myself, walked into a room full of smart, unfamiliar faces, and sat down in the front row next to a guy who introduced himself as Jeff Epstein. He was there to pitch his startup, Zferral. The lights dimmed and a guy with a...
December 2011
11 posts
William Shockley: The Steve Jobs Counter-Example
We all subconsciously emulate our heroes, even if we can’t draw any logical connection between their behaviors and their outcomes. After reading Steve Jobs’s biography, I think a lot of us are wondering whether his maniacal management style had anything to do with his success. Some might even experiment with developing our own reality distortion fields.
I think in these situations...
The Evolution of the U.S. Automobile Industry and... →
Anyone who’s interested in how industries emerge and evolve (cough, tech startups, cough) should give this a read.
In its first fifteen years the U.S. automobile industry was characterized by a great deal of entry and the number of firms exceeded 200. Despite robust growth in the market for automobiles, the industry subsequently sustained a prolonged shakeout in the number of producers...
Louis CK's Shameful Dirty Comedy
viafrank:
I’ve been thinking about Louis CK lately. I’m a fan of his show on FX, and I’m so happy his recent adventure in distributing his newest comedy special himself has been a rousing success. But my thoughts are going elsewhere to wonder why he has blown up in popularity in the past couple years, and why his comedy seems to resonate with these times. It always feels like there’s a...
“What may be primarily response to fashion is seen and interpreted in other ways-...”
– Herbert Blumer, on Fashion
How Brick-and-Mortars Compete
Any brick-and-mortar that’s trying to compete with Amazon’s prices is clueless. No need to get all fired up with righteous indignation about Amazon’s latest play. If you have people in your store, and they’re leaving without buying a product thats in their hands because they can order it on Amazon for $4 cheaper and get it in a week, then you’re seriously doing it...
http://musicsnob.me/ →
I love this so much
“The mind of man at one and the same time is both the glory and the shame of the...”
– Pascal
Learning To Drum
Last fall I read a book called Talent is Overrated and got really excited about the idea of deliberate practice. I dreamed of becoming a world-class product creator, and pictured myself staying up night after night, slowly inching my way towards 10,000 hours. I’d dutifully work on the fundamentals, each design better than the last.
A year later, I’m realizing that I never really...
November 2011
9 posts
Easy is Everything
We’ve all seen the situation:
Person 1 has an idea for a new feature, and Person 2 points out that technically it’s already possible.
Pretty much anything we imagine is possible. It’s possible to go to the moon, split an atom, and run a marathon. The question isn’t whether or not it’s possible to do something. It’s how easy it is to do.
Before Craigslist, it...
Apple's Aesthetic Dichotomy →
I'm on Dribbble now →
Took me long enough :)
“Skeuomorphism, in Apple’s case, is not a cute style or an attempt to make their...”
– http://www.andymangold.com/skeuomorphism-the-opiate-of-the-people/
October 2011
15 posts
Watchmountainstandard:
“The Pleasure of Finding Things Out”
-Richard Feynman
Writing The Interface
Language evolved to let us communicate more efficiently than with the simple gestures and grunts pre-humans were confined to. It’s difficult to learn an entirely new language at an old age, but it comes naturally to children as they develop. Over time, language evolves as we need new ways to communicate.
Up until recently, the written word was the best way we had to communicate with each...
“Darwin writes in his autobiography that he found it necessary to write down...”
– Richard Hamming: You and Your Research
“A big piece of the story we tell ourselves about who we are is that we are...”
– The Great Tech War Of 2012 | Fast Company
Describing Products That Don't Exist
The best way to communicate is to first have some direct experience with an object, then carefully choose the best way to re-create the experience for your audience, using whatever means you have at your disposal. The most flexible tools we use for this purpose in everyday life are words. We also have pictures, sounds, smells, tastes, and a whole other range of vessels for carrying meaning.
But...
Anonymous asked: What is the meaning of life?
WatchI love Wilco so very much.
On Political Belief
When political events occur, our first impulse is to try to fit it in a box. We hear that something has happened, and we efficiently make up our mind about what it means and whether or not we agree.
In fact, neuroscientists have recently discovered that the part of our brains we use when making decisions about politics is totally different from the part we use when trying to solve reasoning...
“In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is surrender to them. When you...”
– George Orwell
How I Blog Now
I haven’t always done it this way, but this is how I do it now. I write as soon as I’m inspired. I crank it out quickly, do one quick edit, then hit publish.
That’s it.
I used to overthink it, laboriously constructing masterpieces over the course of weeks, with several rounds of edits and feedback from close advisors. Maybe that works for some people, but it doesn’t work...
Your Audience Is Human
Why do many new projects try to sound like established businesses? Why not be honest and just say:
Hi there, if you’re here it’s probably because you’re a friend or family member of mine! Thanks for trying out my web-app. I’d love to talk to you about your experience using it - just call me anytime (you probably already know my number).
I’m a big believer in being...
Time To Explore
It’s been awhile since I’ve written here. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, although my first inclination is to feel guilty for it.
I’ve grown a lot in the past months - graduating from college, moving to California, working at Olark. I’ve also gone through a couple girlfriends. It’s funny how much just living life can change you. It’s...
August 2011
2 posts
WatchHa, I love Otis Redding. This is great.
July 2011
1 post
May 2011
8 posts
“I don’t think that customers necessarily want to find new friends through the...”
– Matt Inouye
4 tags
Startups Are Hard →