Around the web
Links I really don't want to forget.
Wow, that’s a lot! Give me something random!
July 2020
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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.
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Debiasing
How to reduce cognitive biases in yourself and in others.
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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.
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The non-urgent advance
Not a retreat, but a chance to advance.
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The four quadrants of conformism
The battle between present and future self.
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Temporal discounting
The battle between present and future self.
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Unbundling Excel
10 years after unbundling Craigslist.
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Unbundling Craigslist
Vacation rentals link gave rise to AirBnB and HomeAway, Etsy dominated the arts and crafts for sale.
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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.
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Today you, tomorrow me.
On being kind to strangers.
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The story of u/SpontaneousH
Documented spiral of how little it takes to turn into a heroin addict.
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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.
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Directives — part 1
Directives from Derek Sivers.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Entropy theory
How chaos shapes industries and creates opportunities.
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Looking for a new law
Richard Feynman on the process of looking for a new law.
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Start a blog
How to start a blog that changes your life by Nat Eliason.
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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.
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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.
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Commercial vulnerability
If they can find someone or something cheaper than you, they’re going to work overtime to do so.
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Diamond Dallas Page
Inspiring video from 2014.
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Be your own mentor
No one is coming to save you.
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How do you brand yourself as a freelancer?
7 simple tips on sales.
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Don't sell the design.
Don't sell the design. Sell the business impact.
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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.
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Professionals, hacks, and amateurs
The differences have little to do with skill, and a lot to do with resolve and intent.
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Louis Rossmann: A message to the kid who called yesterday
This is why it’s worth it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Theory of change
The difference between effective and ineffective people is their skill at developing a theory of change. Rest in peace Aaron.
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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.
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How to understand things
Read slowly, think slowly, really spend time pondering the thing.
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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.
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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.
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Writing less damned code
Code that don't exist is infinitely performant and extremely easy to maintain and document. A talk by Heydon Pickering.
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Sixty orbits
What happens if we start celebrating our birthdays differently?
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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.
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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.
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Toward a Psychology of Being by Abraham H. Maslow
Actionable Book Summary by Ivaylo Durmonski.
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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.
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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.
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Managing Expectation
Be proactive.
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Make me think
We need to know things better if we want to be better.
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Derek Sivers on The Personal MBA
Derek Sivers’ notes on The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.
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It might not be for you
A meaningful specific can’t possibly please everyone. That’s the deal.
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Individualism is not independence
In america, individualism and independence are willfully conflated.
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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.
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How to improve your abstract thinking
A short summation on how to improve your abstract thinking abilities by HN users.
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Solitude and leadership
A few excerpts that resonated from the speech of the week – “Solitude and Leadership” by William Deresiewicz.
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Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
It sucks for everyone when a candidate is surprised with an unexpected interview.
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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.
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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.
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SEO statistics for 2020
Ahrefs provides a list of the most up-to-date SEO statistics.
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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.
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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.
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How many moons?
We assume that our neighborhood is like every neighborhood, that our situation and experience is universal.
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Running like a dog
Dogs run. But they don't “go for a run.”
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Lest we forget the horrors
A catalog of trump’s worst cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes.
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The cognitive style of powerpoint
PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector for low-resolution materials. And that's about it.
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Model, document, and share
One of the trickiest, and most common, leadership scenarios is leading without authority.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Growing and learning
I AM GROWING AND LEARNING
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The danger of a single story
Read the full transcript of the speech “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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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.
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Peep Laja’s Advice to his 30-year-old self
30 bits of advice from Peep Laja, founder of CXL.
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Why A-players make assertions
Assertions are the realm of professionals who navigate ambiguity and rigorous thinking.
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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.
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2020 Logo Trend Report
This report is an observation on the logo industry and isn’t meant as a guide for best practices.
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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.
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How to take smart notes
10 principles to revolutionize your note-taking and writing.
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The ladders of wealth creation
A step-by-step roadmap to building wealth.
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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.
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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.
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The WorldWideWeb Project
A historical short presentation by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at CERN February 1991
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Why everyone always hates redesigns, even when they’re good
The strange psychology that shapes your reactions.
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Remembering training wheels
Risk, doing, falling, learning, progress. They all go together.
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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.
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Naval Ravikant & Shane Parrish notes
Notes from The Knowledge Project by Danny Miranda.
May 2020
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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.
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The six levels of interaction with a system
Non-use, Use, Monitor, Maintain, Repair, (Re)build.
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Idea generation
Any time you can think of something that is possible this year and wasn’t possible last year, you should pay attention.
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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.)
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Aggregation Theory
The profound changes caused by the Internet are only just beginning; aggregation theory is the means.
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Top 10 Articles by David Perell
David Perell’s top 10 articles.
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Sell your by-products
Remember, when you make something you make something else.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Conjuring Scenius
It’s time to build together. Why now is the time for communal genius, and how to create it.
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The Medium Post is the Message
Two Truths and a Take, Season 2 Episode 18
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Directives
A brief guide on what to do from the best in the world.
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A small business isn’t simply a little version of a big business
Figure out what people need and bring it to them.
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Tiny websites are great
Why building your own tiny website is a really great project that you should do.
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Why bother?
Why bother building a digital garden?
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Sell yourself, sell your work
If you've done great work without telling anyone you may as well not have bothered.
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How To Write Great Microcopy
40 pro tips for writing microcopy.
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Craft Beer, Rebranded
Evolution, revolution & creating a brand that sells more beer.
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2020 Beer Branding Trends
The most important and staying beer branding and packaging trends from the last decade.
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Two Words
The best way to sell to, brand, persuade, or inspire people is to condense your idea down to Two Words.
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Alexander and the morning dip
A story from Alexander III’s (“the Great”) childhood.
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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.
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Clusters
We’re all connected, but the future is local.
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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.
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You’re at a crossroad. Now what?
Instead of killing your brain with thoughts – try it. Make it. Create it. Walk it.
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The Canvas Strategy
Find canvases for other people to paint on.
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How to Sell a B2B Product
Six lessons in selling B2B Products
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More Information as a Competitive Advantage
More information is a competitive advantage, but it’s not enough.
April 2020
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68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired, turns 68 and shares 68 bits of unsolicited advice.
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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.
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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.
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Wealth Shown to Scale
Inequality in the United States is out of control.
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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.
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Dear client: We need to talk
An open-letter to future clients. Let’s change the way clients see us.
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It’s Time to Build
Every step of the way, to everyone around us, we should be asking the question, what are you building?
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The Risk of Discovery
Newton made three bets. One of them worked. But they were all risky.
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Being and Time
About an interesting book you probably shouldn't read.
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Integrating Career and Family
Square’s Restaurant Product Lead on integrating career and family.
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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.
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250 Things an Architect Should Know
By Michael Sorkin
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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.
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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?
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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
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The Core Ideas of Self-Improvement
What are the core concepts you need to understand if you want to improve your life?
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The conversation
A short manifesto about the future of online interaction.
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How to get rich without getting lucky
Naval How to Create Wealth: https://nav.al/rich
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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
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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.
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Progress, Postmodernism and the Tech Backlash
Two Truths and a Take, Season 2 Episode 5.
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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.
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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."
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Costco Capitalism
How Costco can sell things for the lowest prices and step on the least amount of toes.
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A day at the park
The only way a question can prove itself unworthy is by attracting a better question.
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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.
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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.
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You’re probably using the wrong dictionary
Your destination is the dictionary.
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Educated Fools
Why democratic leaders still misunderstand the politics of social class.
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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
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Inversion
The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught You.
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Things I believe
A collection of things @JanStette believes about software development.
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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.
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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.
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Words Are Hard
An Essay on Communicating With Non-Programmers
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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.
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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.
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The Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication
The how, where, why, and when we communicate. It's all in here.
December 2019
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The Story of Us — Full Series
A Wait But Why series that covers approximately everything. Turns out “Us” is a big topic.
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Color Theory and Contrast Ratios
Color, at its core, is a relative and personal experience.
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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.
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Don't Learn to Code
Avoid thinking of writing code as the goal and learn to solve problems.
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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.
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Thinking about color
Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment - Claude Monet
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Statement of Resistance
A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow
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Attachment Science
Romantic expectations are often ridiculous and unhelpful, enter attachment science.
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Productivity Shame
5 strategies to end the cycle of "never enough"
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Typography Books for Designers
A Review of the Best Typography Books for Designers.
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Accessibility drives aesthetics
You don’t need to sacrifice aesthetics in order to be accessible.
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No, Absolutely Not
What you need to build a great website is restraint.
November 2019
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Söhne design information
Söhne is the memory of Akzidenz-Grotesk framed through the reality of Helvetica.
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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.
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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.
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Earth and Sun
About space and how our planet moves through it.
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Examples of Nudge Theory
Examples of indirect suggestions to influence the behavior and decision making.
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Three Big Things
The Most Important Forces Shaping the World.
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Shape up
Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters.
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Cargo Cult Science by Richard Feynman
Some remarks on science, pseudoscience, and learning how to not fool yourself. Caltech’s 1974 commencement address.
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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.