Around the web

October 2020

1. Should You Reverse Any Advice You Hear?

   Every piece of social commentary is most likely to go to the people who need it least. Advice reversal might at least be worth considering.

2. Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses.

   Misperceiving an expanding stupidity or expanding stupidity is real and this explains it.

3. Beware the Casual Polymath

   We live in times of great disaggregation, and yet, seem to learn increasingly from generalists.

4. The Only Way to Grow Huge

   Have people recommend the product or service to other people.

5. Where do marketers turn for advice and inspiration?

   Blogs aren’t dead, but marketers are discovering information in new ways.

6. How to read the news

   The medium is no longer the message. The path it took to find you is the message.

7. From Consumer to Creator

   Why you should start creating something, now.

8. A manifesto for small teams doing important work

   It works because it’s personal.

9. Consumers Book

   A book about the people who put stuff inside their head.

10. A Quarter Century of Hype

    25 Years of the Gartner Hype Cycle.

11. The Death Of Lunch

    We must re-learn the art of the proper lunch.

12. Be a creator, not just a consumer

    Why you should write.

13. How To Be Successful

    13 thoughts by Sam Altman about how to achieve outlier success.

14. The noncentral fallacy - the worst argument in the world?

    You can’t suddenly change the moral value of things by calling them different names.

15. 37 Ways That Words Can Be Wrong

    Whatever the theory you can always be wrong.

16. Reactionary Philosophy In An Enormous, Planet-Sized Nutshell

    A summary of reactionary thought.

17. An Unexpected Ass Kicking

    With a computer you can make things. You can code, you can make things and create things that have never before existed and do things that have never been done before.

18. All In All, Another Brick In The Motte

    The motte and bailey doctrine.

19. Ethnic Tension And Meaningless Arguments

    “I’m pro-[topic]” doesn’t necessarily imply that you believe any empirical truths about [topic], or believe any moral principles about [topic], or even support any [topic] policies. It means you’re waving a little flag and cheering.

20. Thoughts on how i approach filmmaking

    Expressing creativity using the most basic, accessible methods is the hardest thing to do and the purest. The very best steak houses serve their filet on a plate with nothing else. Shi*ty franchises cover theirs in sauce and other stuff to distract you from the fact that you’re eating dog food.

21. Proving Too Much

    Proving Too Much is when you challenge an argument because, while proving its intended conclusion, it also proves obviously false conclusions. Because you don’t need an argument that can’t be disproven, only an argument that can’t be disproven in the amount of time your opponent has available.

22. All Debates Are Bravery Debates

    There are some people who need to hear each side of the issue. And it’s really hard to target advice at exactly the people who need it.

23. On Being Bipolar

    Living with a mental illness means always trying to be one of the “good” sick. When you are the bad sick, you become a cautionary tale.

24. A Few Rules

    20 solid rules.

25. 15 Spiky point of view examples

    Is your point of view spiky enough?

26. Spiky point of view

    A spiky point of view is a perspective others can disagree with. It’s a belief you feel strongly about and are willing to advocate for. It’s your thesis about topics in your realm of expertise.

27. The first 1960 presidential debate

    Kennedy vs. Nixon in the first debate ever to be televised.

28. How to be professionally visible and valued as a remote worker

    Visibility doesn't just refer to things that meet the eye. Discover how to feel seen and valued within your team as a remote worker.

September 2020

1. The Stairstep Approach to Bootstrapping

   Repeat one-time sales until you own your time. Then go after recurring.

2. When feedback works

   In all other situations, attempts at giving feedback end up achieving nothing.

3. Book summary of Zero to One

   Notes on startups, or how to build the future.

4. Free Child

   A Yes Theory Short Film.

5. The moral panic that ensued when bicycles gained popularity

   A wonderous Twitter thread.

6. James Burke – Internet Knowledge

   Is the internet redefining knowledge?

7. The polymath playbook

   A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.

8. The work of a word

   As a word is slapped onto a greater variety of things, it loses power.

9. Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued

   Let’s un-suck your negotiation. Never give a number first, listen and repeat, and more great advice.

10. Just how many people do we need doing that job, anyway?

    Imagine if people were working at doing literally anything else, and preferably something they truly enjoyed at that.

11. Pricing low-touch SaaS

    How to approach pricing and packaging a new SaaS app, by example.

12. Meeting everyone on a new team

    Whenever you have a team of fewer than 150 people, meet with them one-on-one.

13. When can we talk about our systems?

    Changing the system changes everything.

14. Patrick Collison Advice

    The advice he'd give past him.

15. Be a Great Product Leader

    A strong product leader acts as a force multiplier that can help a cross-functional team of great technologies and designers do their best work.

16. Principles for Great Product Managers

    Inspired by Principles by Ray Dalio.

17. Dancing with belief

    Sometimes, it’s easier for people to amend their belief with one more layer of insulation than it is to acknowledge how the world is likely to work.

18. respecting beliefs | why we should do no such thing

    No authority is beyond ridicule.

19. We don’t sell saddles here

    A memo from Stewart Butterfield, The best — maybe the only? — real, direct measure of “innovation” is change in human behavior.

20. Time to get back to magic

    We’d be better off saying, “I need to get back to making magic.”

21. Designing a culture of reinvention

    Culture is the behaviors that get you promoted or get you let go.

22. Logic | Philosophy Tube

    Start with the conclusion, work your way back, separate the inferences from the rhetoric, and figure out the unstated assumptions.

23. Pre-tests of your agency’s positioning

    Tests to apply before you make an initial positioning decision about your agency's work.

24. The lost tools of learning

    The sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.

25. Memo to the modern COO

    Stop seeking deniability before you seek impact.

26. RSA Shorts - The Attention Economy

    The Royal Society of Arts commission, based on a lecture of James Williams.

27. The Attention Economy with James Williams

    Freedom of attention in the times of digital distraction.

28. Kierkegaard's horror of doubt

    A state of doubt – disorienting and horrifying as it could sometimes be – is the cornerstone of a sound philosophical practice.

29. How to make friends as an adult

    Be bold, take the initiative, and you’ll be surprised how many people are pleased to connect.

30. The liking gap in conversations

    People systematically underestimate how much people like them and enjoy their company.

31. The paradox of articulation

    To speak, it is necessary to know one’s thought. But how can we know this thought as a reality made explicit and fixed in concepts except precisely by speaking it?

32. To all the jobs I had before

    What I’ve learned from all those jobs I had before.

33. Tools should not only be for experts – they should turn us into them

    Tools should never make people feel “too stupid” to use them or wonder why some features are even there.

34. Hire slowly, grow slowly

    Slow team growth can be your competitive advantage.

35. In Defence of the Humanities

    Scholars in the humanities are the bearers of the memory of civilisation, and their role in our society is indispensable.

36. Six Ways to Think Long-term

    The tug of war for time.

37. Work on what matters.

    How do you work on what really matters?

38. Are you a marketer?

    Are you hoping to make things better? Then you’re a marketer.

39. The lies our culture tells us about what matters

    David Brooks on a better way to live.

40. Don't Play Yourself

    Selling on value instead of price.

41. The Best Self-Help Books of the 21st Century

    Bold claims, add to reading list.

42. Limitless Is A Bonkers Franchise

    America is obsessed with work.

43. We have the expertise but no clients. How to reach them?

    ASK HN: Hacker news discussion.

44. Positioning Agency Brands

    Position for profit and why a narrow positioning is the most lucrative and by far the easiest to sell.

45. Contagious

    Put dynamics in place that reinforce the ideas you’d like to see spread.

46. It’s not the bottom, it’s the foundation

    People actually want to do a good job.

47. The two sides of stress: distress and eustress

    Stress can be detrimental (distress) or beneficial (eustress).

48. “Because” vs. “and”

    It’s not the line that’s causing the stress. It’s your interpretation of the line.

49. Polls vs the Street

    Why do I never seem to meet these people on the street?

50. Curators Are the New Creators

    The Business Model of Good Taste

51. Why haven't we celebrated any major achievements lately?

    What will happen for future achievements?

52. The Startling Convexity of Expertise

    Strong opinions, weakly held, are a cheap call option on information.

53. The Magic Email

    A simple email template that you can use to raise deals from the dead.

54. Build a portfolio that appeals to employers.

    Josh Comeau’s free book on effective portfolios.

55. Self-directed, project-based learning

    Learning opens the door to the future we’d like to live in.

56. Steve Jobs Lost Interview 1990

    “I should probably get going.”

57. Rick Steves’ The Story of Fascism

    How fascism rose and then fell in Europe.

58. Unlimited information is transforming society

    We’re just starting to understand the implications.

59. The Graphing Calculator story

    The story of a software writer who refuses to go away.

60. Notes on “The Anthropology of Childhood”

    Title says it all.

61. This video will make you angry

    I watched this when it first came out in 2015.

62. Chief Seattle's letter to all

    I came across this through The Power of Myth.

63. Learning gears

    The three gears of learning in public.

64. How to create luck

    Your entire worldview changes when you realize you can create luck.

65. How to negotiate and persuade

    24 pro-tips for negotiating product decisions.

66. Why your present self doesn’t give a damn about your future self

    How to accomplish your long-term goals.

67. Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle

    You can choose to accept the world as it is. But you don't have to.

68. Bayes Theorem: A Framework for Critical Thinking

    Learn why we think the way we do, and how we can do better.

69. Proctoring apps subject students to unnecessary surveillance

    These apps violate student privacy, negatively impact some populations, and will likely never fully stop creative students from outsmarting the system.

70. Soft skills are permanent skills

    These permanent (soft) skills are what separates humans from machines.

71. Expiring vs. Permanent Skills

    Expiring skills tend to get more attention. But permanent skills compound over time, which gives them quiet importance.

72. Bayes Theorem: A Framework for Critical Thinking

    Learn why we think the way we do, and how we can do better.

73. Polluted water popsicles

    Three art students collected polluted water from all over Taiwan and turned them into popsicles.

74. Subscription or no subscription? That is not the question.

    Is there only one business model for software, and, well, for anything now?

August 2020

1. From education to learning

   An institution can educate you. Learning can’t be done to you.

2. Violent communication

   If “violent” means acting in ways that result in hurt or harm, then much of how we communicate could indeed be called “violent communication.”

3. Ma

   The Japanese concept of Ma is something that relates to all aspects of life.

4. On linear commerce

   A great product needs an organic and impassioned audience. Captive audiences will need products and services tailored to their tastes.

5. Situational gravity

   People are very good at stories. That’s our core technology. Everything else in the world, though, has no interest in them.

6. How to on-board yourself when you join a new team

   If you wait to have information handed to you on a silver platter, it won’t happen.

7. Outreach Tips

   Outreach tips (that are better than anything you'll find searching Google).

8. The job struggle answer

   Only you have that data. And, the best thing you can do is believe in yourself to make that call.

9. Show pricing on website

   If you won’t show your pricing, at least do this.

10. A user guide to working with you

    It creates clarity on how you work—what you value, how you look at problems, what your blind spots or areas of growth are, and how to build trust with you.

11. Growth without goals

    Long term “success” probably just comes from an emphasis on process and mindset in the present.

12. Print-on-demand

    Why is it that the average adult doesn’t write more?

13. Why do we interface?

    The past, present, & future of interfaces.

14. How to get freelance clients and keep them

    A thread by Tom Hirst.

15. Things i don’t know as of 2018 — Dan Abramov

    There is often an unrealistic expectation that an experienced engineer knows every technology in their field.

16. The liquid self

    Social media doesn’t need to be what it has come to be.

17. The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom

    Context with Brad Harris

18. Eyes light up (ELU)

    You already know when people are excited to hear a story.

19. Don’t delegate using email

    When it comes to delegation, don’t be seduced by the promise of a temporary fix to the momentary crisis of having something new to wrangle.

20. Ethical marketing

    Ethical marketing in the GDPR, CCPA and no third-party cookies world.

21. Can a utility brand be an emotional brand?

    An emotional tech product is a lifestyle product. It doesn’t necessarily solve a problem. It’s there for entertainment. It’s not a product that people need, it’s a product they choose.

22. Tools for keeping focused

    It's good to be half-baked.

23. Surrendering control

    It's good to be half-baked.

24. Thiel on progress and stagnation

    An organised presentation of Peter Thiel’s views on progress and stagnation

25. The rise of magical thinking

    A video that attempts to explain the rise of QAnon, conspiracy theories, and magical thinking in America.

26. Summarizing books

    How to distill ideas to accelerate your learning.

27. The law of shitty clickthroughs

    First it works, and then it doesn’t.

28. Selling your time

    When you sell your time, you’re giving away your ability to be a thoughtful, productivity-improving professional.

29. Ugly opportunity

    It’s going to happen, and it’s best to expect it optimistically.

30. How to ask good questions

    Some things to help you ask better questions and get the answers you want.

31. 3 career perspectives

    You never know if a good day is a good day in the moment.

32. The full stack startup

    The old approach startups took was to sell or license their new technology to incumbents. The new, “full stack” approach is to build a complete, end-to-end product or service that bypasses incumbents and other competitors.

33. Loneliness is a big problem

    We're alone by default instead of together by default.

34. The endless doomscroller

    A lens on our software-enabled collective descent into despair.

35. Magical thinking vs. evidence seeking

    A video about Trump, QAnon, and the return of magic.

36. Whatever scares you, go do it

    Fear is just a form of excitement, and you know you should do what excites you.

37. Goals shape the present, not the future

    Judge a goal by how well it changes your actions in the present moment.

38. Unlearning

    When the old map is wrong, we can’t just draw a new line on it.

39. How to Read a Book by Charles Van Doren & Mortimer J. Adler

    Actionable book summary by Ivaylo Durmonski.

40. Common hiring manager mistakes

    If you’re just starting to think about hiring, focus on your hiring funnel first, but if you’re finding hiring to be a challenge, think through whether you’re running into one of these problems.

41. It’s not a problem, it’s an experience

    That’s all it is: an experience, a feeling. Nothing to panic about.

42. Physical attractiveness bias in the legal system

    In one study, the effects of physical attractiveness on judges were so influential, they fined unattractive criminals 304.88% higher than attractive criminals.

43. The ux of lego interface panels

    Welcome to the world of LEGO UX design.

44. The value of spare capacity

    The size of a tree depends not only on the seed, but how big is the pot you plant it in. Growth in life requires space, so why do we busy ourselves instead?

45. The worst tool for the job

    Using the best tool for a job may slow things down. It may be “best” in a sense you don't need. The actual best tool might be relatively crude.

46. Introduction to screen readers using voiceover

    Learn how to get started with VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader, to read and navigate web pages in this tutorial by Ethan Marcotte.

47. Reveal culture

    Because you can tell someone to do something, but you can’t reveal someone to do something.

48. Showing up even when you’re not feeling it

    Some days, you’re just not feeling it.

49. Joel Spolsky on Pricing

    The more you learn about pricing, the less you seem to know.

50. Where to find the hours to make it happen

    The hours don’t suddenly appear. You have to steal them from comfort.

51. Thinking for oneself

    Wisdom is earned, not given. When other people give us the answer, it belongs to them and not us. While we might achieve the outcome we desire, it comes from dependence, not insight.

52. Where to find the hours to make it happen

    The hours don’t suddenly appear. You have to steal them from comfort.

53. Pain vs discomfort

    Is this painful, or just loud?

54. Goodbye Serenity by Charles Simic

    I had expected that after everything I had lived through and learned in my life, I would attain a state of Olympian calm and would regard the news of the day with amusement… It hasn’t happened to me yet.

55. Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

    Tim Robinson on Universal Basic Income.

56. Google Earth Timelapse

    A global, zoomable video that lets you see how the Earth has changed over the past 34 years.

57. Akimbo S7 EP10

    Seth Godin live at Catalyst 2010.

58. Some CSS comics

    Learn about CSS features with comics by Julia Evans.

59. Overcoming content budget pushback

    Running into budget pushback for your content marketing strategy? Listen to find out how to get buy-in by addressing ROI.

60. Nudge marketing: from theory to practice

    Nudges are powerful influences in our everyday lives. Here's how to take nudge marketing from theory to practice.

61. How to find those hard-to-reach audiences

    How to use SparkToro.

62. Lessons from Pricing Creativity

    Peter Kang’s Lessons from Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns.

63. Catastrotivity

    exurb1a on being an artist.

64. exurb1a on compassion

    We’re clearly not going to solve the problems in the centuries ahead with compassion alone. But we could sure end the world without it.

65. Scenius, or communal genius

    Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius

July 2020

1. Watch this movie and think only about staging

   Think only about staging, how the shots are built and laid out, what the rules of movement are, what the cutting patterns are.

2. Debiasing

   How to reduce cognitive biases in yourself and in others.

3. Are you present-focused or future-focused?

   Everyone knows about being introverted versus extroverted, but there’s another axis that makes a much bigger difference. It’s present-focused versus future-focused.

4. The non-urgent advance

   Not a retreat, but a chance to advance.

5. The four quadrants of conformism

   The battle between present and future self.

6. Temporal discounting

   The battle between present and future self.

7. Unbundling Excel

   10 years after unbundling Craigslist.

8. Unbundling Craigslist

   Vacation rentals link gave rise to AirBnB and HomeAway, Etsy dominated the arts and crafts for sale.

9. The waves never stop coming

   And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you'll come out.

10. Today you, tomorrow me.

    On being kind to strangers.

11. The story of u/SpontaneousH

    Documented spiral of how little it takes to turn into a heroin addict.

12. The art of pricing freelance projects

    By making pricing a topic of priority, you can use it to help better portray your true value to people.

13. Directives — part 1

    Directives from Derek Sivers.

14. Stripe: building a developer cult

    What makes Stripe a favorite of developers, the advantages of building a cult, and the how the little things add up for developers

15. Why the world needs deep generalists, not specialists

    Anyone with internet access and a sincere desire to learn can access abundant information with the click of a button.

16. The 4 only scalable customer-acquisition channels

    Unscalable channels have their place in customer-acquisition but if you want to build growth loops, you need scale.

17. Entropy theory

    How chaos shapes industries and creates opportunities.

18. Looking for a new law

    Richard Feynman on the process of looking for a new law.

19. Start a blog

    How to start a blog that changes your life by Nat Eliason.

20. The Freud Moment

    There’s a fair amount of insight into our current moment that you can acquire by reading old books. Human psychology hasn’t changed that much.

21. The Wet Codebase

    Sometimes there is some context that is assumed and that context actually changes but you don't realize that. And so the next generation needs to understand what exactly was traded off and why.

22. Commercial vulnerability

    If they can find someone or something cheaper than you, they’re going to work overtime to do so.

23. Diamond Dallas Page

    Inspiring video from 2014.

24. Be your own mentor

    No one is coming to save you.

25. How do you brand yourself as a freelancer?

    7 simple tips on sales.

26. Don't sell the design.

    Don't sell the design. Sell the business impact.

27. Every actionable book is actually two books inside

    Actionable books are books that contain techniques or approaches you may apply to your life. Here's how to read them.

28. Professionals, hacks, and amateurs

    The differences have little to do with skill, and a lot to do with resolve and intent.

29. Louis Rossmann: A message to the kid who called yesterday

    This is why it’s worth it.

30. Thread on why Steve Jobs was successful

    It was because Steve used his own products and constantly—CONSTANTLY—demanded they be better. In every little way.

31. Steve Jobs Masterclass

    A decade ago, Steve Jobs sat down at the D8 conference for an interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. What followed was a masterclass in both company and product management.

32. White space

    We can use it to identify what we value and what we don’t. What we need to use, enjoy to use and look at, and what we don’t.

33. The polymath playbook

    In a world built for specialization, the polymath approach can help us build unique mental models to differentiate ourselves, and the opportunity to discover meaningful work.

34. Theory of change

    The difference between effective and ineffective people is their skill at developing a theory of change. Rest in peace Aaron.

35. Video games are the future of education

    The potential energy of human creativity is vast. We just need to give people tools, and creation will follow.

36. How to understand things

    Read slowly, think slowly, really spend time pondering the thing.

37. Do not remain nameless to yourself

    The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to.

38. A digital garden, not a blog

    The phrase “digital garden” a metaphor for thinking about writing and creating that focuses less on the resulting “showpiece” and more on the process, care, and craft it takes to get there.

39. Writing less damned code

    Code that don't exist is infinitely performant and extremely easy to maintain and document. A talk by Heydon Pickering.

40. Sixty orbits

    What happens if we start celebrating our birthdays differently?

41. Job interviews don’t work

    Better hiring leads to better work environments, less turnover, and more innovation and productivity. When you understand the limitations and pitfalls of the job interview, you improve your chances of hiring the best possible person for your needs.

42. Limiting beliefs

    Your belief system could be the reason why you can't tackle that project or make a big career move. Learn how to overcome common limiting beliefs.

43. Toward a Psychology of Being by Abraham H. Maslow

    Actionable Book Summary by Ivaylo Durmonski.

44. Good intentions make bad roadmaps

    Typical roadmaps are glorified to-do lists. They hide uncertainty and focus on output. Avoid these mistakes and make your roadmaps leaner.

45. Why marketing is eating the world

    If you want to win in the US software market, ironically, the best thing you can for your company is to really ramp up your performance marketing knowledge.

46. Managing Expectation

    Be proactive.

47. Make me think

    We need to know things better if we want to be better.

48. Derek Sivers on The Personal MBA

    Derek Sivers’ notes on The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.

49. It might not be for you

    A meaningful specific can’t possibly please everyone. That’s the deal.

50. Individualism is not independence

    In america, individualism and independence are willfully conflated.

51. Five Ways To Prioritize Better

    Those people you admire, the ones who make you wonder how on earth they accomplish so much? Those people might work more hours than you or be more talented or more passionate. Or they might not.

52. How to improve your abstract thinking

    A short summation on how to improve your abstract thinking abilities by HN users.

53. Solitude and leadership

    A few excerpts that resonated from the speech of the week – “Solitude and Leadership” by William Deresiewicz.

54. Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews

    It sucks for everyone when a candidate is surprised with an unexpected interview.

55. Brand marketing vs. performance marketing

    Most people want the long-term brand equity, but aren’t willing to live with the worse click-throughs or lower revenues.

56. Why we’re blind to probability

    The idea that something can be likely and not happen, or unlikely and still happen, is one of the world’s most important tricks.

57. SEO statistics for 2020

    Ahrefs provides a list of the most up-to-date SEO statistics.

58. Craft is culture

    Two Truths and a Take, Season 2 Episode 23. Craft is culture. If you care about craft, you've done the hard part.

59. Why software is more profitable than content

    Content products talk to humans, while software products talk to computers. That’s why the value of content decays faster than the value of software. And it’s also why software is the better business.

60. How many moons?

    We assume that our neighborhood is like every neighborhood, that our situation and experience is universal.

61. Running like a dog

    Dogs run. But they don't “go for a run.”

62. Lest we forget the horrors

    A catalog of trump’s worst cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes.

63. The cognitive style of powerpoint

    PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector for low-resolution materials. And that's about it.

64. Model, document, and share

    One of the trickiest, and most common, leadership scenarios is leading without authority.

65. From gut to plan: the thoughtful execution framework

    Annina Koskinen presents a framework she's developed to help her teams at Spotify reach their goals and ship with impact.

66. Why do people buy workshop tactics when it’s availible for free?

    What is the reason people buy Workshop Tactics? On the Workshop Tactics website, you’ll find 56 free product team workshop exercises. However, they aren’t unique. You’ll find them scattered around the internet and in various books. So if they are free, why do people buy the £89.99 card deck?

June 2020

1. Successes and failures of startup content marketing

   Content Marketer Dominic Kent runs through some real life examples of what has and hasn’t worked in content marketing - based on his own experience.

2. Growing and learning

   I AM GROWING AND LEARNING

3. The danger of a single story

   Read the full transcript of the speech “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

4. 1968 Demo — The mother of all demos

   Experience the “Mother of All Demos” presented by Doug Engelbart and team at the FJCC December 9th, 1968.

5. Peep Laja’s Advice to his 30-year-old self

   30 bits of advice from Peep Laja, founder of CXL.

6. Why A-players make assertions

   Assertions are the realm of professionals who navigate ambiguity and rigorous thinking.

7. Solving online events

   Every time we get a new tool, we start by forcing it to fit the old way of working, and then one day we realise that it lets us do the work differently, and indeed change what the work is.

8. 2020 Logo Trend Report

   This report is an observation on the logo industry and isn’t meant as a guide for best practices.

9. Starting many things

   By all means, find something that you can dedicate your life to, but make sure that you’re not just falling into place.

10. How to take smart notes

    10 principles to revolutionize your note-taking and writing.

11. The ladders of wealth creation

    A step-by-step roadmap to building wealth.

12. United States v. Forty Barrels & Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola

    A federal suit under which the government unsuccessfully attempted to force The Coca-Cola Company to remove caffeine from its product.

13. Differentiation Strategy

    Marketing is a game of attention. You must differentiate your company to get it, yet hardly anyone does. Here's how to do it.

14. The WorldWideWeb Project

    A historical short presentation by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at CERN February 1991

15. Why everyone always hates redesigns, even when they’re good

    The strange psychology that shapes your reactions.

16. Remembering training wheels

    Risk, doing, falling, learning, progress. They all go together.

17. Consider a gap year

    The discomfort people feel when they consider a gap year is precisely why we ought to spend more time considering it.

18. Naval Ravikant & Shane Parrish notes

    Notes from The Knowledge Project by Danny Miranda.

May 2020

1. Meeting spec (doing the minimum)

   Committed professionals don’t ask, “how little can I get away with?” They view the work as a chance to make a difference instead.

2. The six levels of interaction with a system

   Non-use, Use, Monitor, Maintain, Repair, (Re)build.

3. Idea generation

   Any time you can think of something that is possible this year and wasn’t possible last year, you should pay attention.

4. Humans who are not concentrating are not general intelligences

   Instead of “default to humility” (assume that when you don’t understand a passage, the passage is true and you’re just missing something) the ideal mental action in a world full of bots is “default to null” (if you don’t understand a passage, assume you’re in the same epistemic state as if you’d never read it at all.)

5. Aggregation Theory

   The profound changes caused by the Internet are only just beginning; aggregation theory is the means.

6. Top 10 Articles by David Perell

   David Perell’s top 10 articles.

7. Sell your by-products

   Remember, when you make something you make something else.

8. Productizing A Freelancing / Consulting Business

   How consultancies can get recurring revenue, deepen client relationships, and improve project outcomes by using some tactics from software companies.

9. What the hell is going on

   In the past decade, the information environment has inverted from information scarcity to information abundance, and the effects are evident in every corner of society.

10. The three sides of risk

    Tail-end consequences – the low-probability, high-impact events – are all that matter. Once you experience it, you’ll never think otherwise.

11. Conjuring Scenius

    It’s time to build together. Why now is the time for communal genius, and how to create it.

12. The Medium Post is the Message

    Two Truths and a Take, Season 2 Episode 18

13. Directives

    A brief guide on what to do from the best in the world.

14. A small business isn’t simply a little version of a big business

    Figure out what people need and bring it to them.

15. Tiny websites are great

    Why building your own tiny website is a really great project that you should do.

16. Why bother?

    Why bother building a digital garden?

17. Sell yourself, sell your work

    If you've done great work without telling anyone you may as well not have bothered.

18. How To Write Great Microcopy

    40 pro tips for writing microcopy.

19. Craft Beer, Rebranded

    Evolution, revolution & creating a brand that sells more beer.

20. 2020 Beer Branding Trends

    The most important and staying beer branding and packaging trends from the last decade.

21. Two Words

    The best way to sell to, brand, persuade, or inspire people is to condense your idea down to Two Words.

22. Alexander and the morning dip

    A story from Alexander III’s (“the Great”) childhood.

23. A short history of color theory

    A chapter from Programming Design Systems—a free digital book that teaches a practical introduction to the new foundations of graphic design.

24. Clusters

    We’re all connected, but the future is local.

25. And when does it get boring?

    No one becomes a baseball fan because they read the baseball textbook and did well on the baseball test.

26. You’re at a crossroad. Now what?

    Instead of killing your brain with thoughts – try it. Make it. Create it. Walk it.

27. The Canvas Strategy

    Find canvases for other people to paint on.

28. How to Sell a B2B Product

    Six lessons in selling B2B Products

29. More Information as a Competitive Advantage

    More information is a competitive advantage, but it’s not enough.

30. Two ways to predict the future

    Or, shotcallers versus worldbuilders.

April 2020

1. 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

   Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired, turns 68 and shares 68 bits of unsolicited advice.

2. The Changing World Order

   An online series by Ray Dalio that studies the rise and fall of past leading empires that puts today’s economic, political, and policy situation into perspective of the big picture.

3. How I Built Resilience: Live With Guy and Simon Sinek

   A conversation with Simon Sinek, whose books about business offer guidance to founders that is especially timely right now.

4. Wealth Shown to Scale

   Inequality in the United States is out of control.

5. Minding Our Stories

   Humans love stories, which makes stories a powerful medium of communication, and like all powerful things, they can be used for both good and ill.

6. Dear client: We need to talk

   An open-letter to future clients. Let’s change the way clients see us.

7. It’s Time to Build

   Every step of the way, to everyone around us, we should be asking the question, what are you building?

8. The Risk of Discovery

   Newton made three bets. One of them worked. But they were all risky.

9. Being and Time

   About an interesting book you probably shouldn't read.

10. Integrating Career and Family

    Square’s Restaurant Product Lead on integrating career and family.

11. 100 Things a Designer Should Know

    Some are practical, some are poetic; all pay homage to the wonderful complexity of designing things for our fellow human beings.

12. 250 Things an Architect Should Know

    By Michael Sorkin

13. I Don’t Care What Google or Apple or Whoever Did

    Accessibility or usability issues are often met with “But Google does this,” or “But Apple does this.” They get it wrong just as often as the rest of us.

14. Taste for Makers

    Mathematicians call good work "beautiful," and so, either now or in the past, have scientists, engineers, musicians, architects, designers, writers, and painters. Is it just a coincidence that they used the same word, or is there some overlap in what they meant? If there is an overlap, can we use one field’s discoveries about beauty to help us in another?

15. The History of the URL

    On the 11th of January 1982 twenty-two computer scientists met to discuss an issue with ‘computer mail’ (now known as email).

March 2020

1. The Core Ideas of Self-Improvement

   What are the core concepts you need to understand if you want to improve your life?

2. The conversation

   A short manifesto about the future of online interaction.

3. How to get rich without getting lucky

   Naval How to Create Wealth: https://nav.al/rich

4. 15 Customer Service Skills & How to Improve Each One

   Nobody’s born with good customer service skills. But, anyone can master them. Here are step-by-step instructions to improve you or your team’s support

February 2020

1. How To Digest Books Above Your “Level”

   It’s not enough that you read a lot. To do great things, you have to read to lead.

2. Progress, Postmodernism and the Tech Backlash

   Two Truths and a Take, Season 2 Episode 5.

3. Stop Stealing Dreams

   Dedicated to every teacher who cares enough to change the system, and to every student brave enough to stand up and speak up.

4. The school where children make the rules and learn what they want to learn

   The Summerhill School in England helped to pioneer the ‘free school’ philosophy, in which lessons are never mandatory and nearly every aspect of student life can be put to a vote. Centered on the belief that "if the emotions are free, the intellect looks after itself."

5. Costco Capitalism

   How Costco can sell things for the lowest prices and step on the least amount of toes.

6. A day at the park

   The only way a question can prove itself unworthy is by attracting a better question.

7. You're the only one who has heard all of it

   Tell us what we need to know. Not because you need to hear yourself repeat it, but because you believe we need to hear it.

8. Web Design: The First 100 Years

   However much we insist that it will get swept away by a new generation of better technology, it stubbornly refuses to go. Our industry has deep roots in the past that we should celebrate and acknowledge.

9. You’re probably using the wrong dictionary

   Your destination is the dictionary.

10. Educated Fools

    Why democratic leaders still misunderstand the politics of social class.

11. How important is work?

    How important should work be in your life? What kind of relationship should you have with your career? If you don’t feel like you have that, what should you do about it?

January 2020

1. Inversion

   The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught You.

2. Things I believe

   A collection of things @JanStette believes about software development.

3. Simple Made Easy

   Rich Hickey emphasizes simplicity's virtues over easiness', showing that while many choose easiness they may end up with complexity, and the better way is to choose easiness along the simplicity path.

4. Information Overload is a Fake Problem

   The explosion of stuff to learn hasn't been matched with the explosion of stuff online. The latter has indeed increased exponentially, but useful knowledge hasn't.

5. Words Are Hard

   An Essay on Communicating With Non-Programmers

6. The Internet of Beefs

   We are not beefing endlessly because we do not desire peace or because we do not know how to engineer peace. We are beefing because we no longer know who we are, each of us individually, and collectively as a species.

7. The Risks of Imitating Designs

   Even great companies make mistakes. Don’t risk your UX by assuming it’s safe to follow a design pattern just because it’s used by a successful company.

8. The Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication

   The how, where, why, and when we communicate. It's all in here.

December 2019

1. The Story of Us — Full Series

   A Wait But Why series that covers approximately everything. Turns out “Us” is a big topic.

2. Color Theory and Contrast Ratios

   Color, at its core, is a relative and personal experience.

3. Army leadership and the profession

   Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.

4. Don't Learn to Code

   Avoid thinking of writing code as the goal and learn to solve problems.

5. Mental models for designers

   Curious about product design at Dropbox? Here’s a look at tools they use for solving problems, making decisions, and communicating ideas.

6. Thinking about color

   Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment - Claude Monet

7. Statement of Resistance

   A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow

8. Attachment Science

   Romantic expectations are often ridiculous and unhelpful, enter attachment science.

9. Productivity Shame

   5 strategies to end the cycle of "never enough"

10. Typography Books for Designers

    A Review of the Best Typography Books for Designers.

11. Accessibility drives aesthetics

    You don’t need to sacrifice aesthetics in order to be accessible.

12. No, Absolutely Not

    What you need to build a great website is restraint.

November 2019

1. Söhne design information

   Söhne is the memory of Akzidenz-Grotesk framed through the reality of Helvetica.

2. The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

   Everyone knows that to do great work you need both natural ability and determination. But there's a third ingredient that's not as well understood: an obsessive interest in a particular topic.

3. Stab a Book, the Book Won't Die

   On the resilience of books in the face of apps, attention monsters, and an ad-driven online economy.

4. Earth and Sun

   About space and how our planet moves through it.

5. Examples of Nudge Theory

   Examples of indirect suggestions to influence the behavior and decision making.

6. Three Big Things

   The Most Important Forces Shaping the World.

7. Shape up

   Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters.

8. Cargo Cult Science by Richard Feynman

   Some remarks on science, pseudoscience, and learning how to not fool yourself. Caltech’s 1974 commencement address.

9. A Brief Rant On The Future Of Interaction Design

   Hands do two things. They are two utterly amazing things, and you rely on them every moment of the day, and most Future Interaction Concepts completely ignore both of them.