April 2012
1 post
“Over time if you have too many people joining a simply team because it is...”
– Be The Worst
January 2012
2 posts
“In schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that...”
– The Case for Working With Your Hands - NYTimes.com
What I read in 2011
In 2011 I got back to reading. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve always been a reader—but in the year past I pursued it with a vigor I haven’t had in years.
I read books about design and business, lots of fiction, and re-read a few classics. I read all the books on my shelf that I’d bought but somehow never got around to reading, and several books that I’d heard were good but...
December 2011
1 post
Super 8
Super 8 is most enjoyable movie I’ve seen in ages. It’s a complete throwback to another era of filmmaking, sharing the spirit of some of my childhood favorites. The Goonies, E.T., Stand by Me, and Radio Flyer come to mind.
What made all of these movies great is that they were movies with kids at the heart of the story but they weren’t just kids movies. They were smart, funny,...
September 2011
1 post
“I look at glowing backlit displays all day, every day. I’ve been obsessed with...”
– Daring Fireball - Gruber is making another point here but I couldn’t help but nod and smile at this sentiment.
August 2011
1 post
1 tag
Scott Adams on the Benefits of Boredom
Scott’s column in The Wall Street Journal is spot-on. The idea is that creativity and boredom are intrinsically linked. Boredom lets our minds rest and work through the backlog of stuff that is sitting in the background processes of our minds. Boredom sets the stage for invention.
I’ve noticed that my best ideas always bubble up when the outside world fails in its primary job of...
July 2011
1 post
Amazon Subscribe & Save
I really love Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program. In a nutshell, you can get a 15% (or sometimes greater) discount on certain items if you agree to have them automatically shipped at regular intervals. If you’re a Amazon Prime customer and they have a good price on something you use often, it’s a no-brainer. Household cleaners, food, etc. are good candidates.
But what really...
June 2011
1 post
May 2011
2 posts
April 2011
2 posts
March 2011
3 posts
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our...”
– Isaac Asimov
February 2011
4 posts
“Have you ever thought… about whatever man builds, that all of man’s...”
– Antoine de Sainte Exupery, WIND, SAND & STARS (via Signal vs. Noise)
“I do think that process matters — not in any professional or even moral sense (I...”
– The Process vs. The End Result | The Ministry of Type - There is something to this point about the lack of joy in digital tools. I still buy more traditional art supplies than time gives me the opportunity to use. There is a joy in the materials that I don’t get on the computer. I covet art...
“I still go to Starbucks every morning. Got a cup with ‘Congratulations’ on it...”
– Head coach Mike McCarthy, on whether he expects his life to change after winning the Super Bowl.
January 2011
2 posts
“Artistically-minded individuals derive personal value from expressing themselves...”
– Chris Zacharias on Hiring Front-End Engineers
“One of my fundamental design rules is to avoid error messages. After all, the...”
– Donald A. Norman, Living with Complexity (2010)
December 2010
6 posts
“The web used to look like a phone book. Now much of it looks like a design...”
– Jeffrey Zeldman, Style versus design (1999)
1 tag
November 2010
3 posts
This year I'm giving my birthday up
I’m turning 36 years old on December 8th, and instead of asking for gifts, I’m asking for $36 or more from everyone I know. It’s not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater wells for people in developing nations.
I was fortunate to see Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water speak earlier this year. It was a powerful message and charity:water is an...
Grow your own vegetables from seed →
Try the garden planner behind the “Get started” link.
“Distraction today is this [points to my iPhone…]. I believe that these...”
– James Victore: Don’t Be A Design Zombie
October 2010
12 posts
“It’s pretty hard to teach a kid who has been raised by the television, when he...”
– Robert Freeman (via AZspot), addressing the biggest problem our modern educational system faces: not bad teachers or bad schools, but the downward spiral of poverty and the decimation of the middle class.
3 tags
2 tags
2 tags
Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator →
September 2010
19 posts
“In recent decades, though, that industry was supplanted by foreign-made cars run...”
– Thomas L. Friedman, Their Moon Shot and Ours
So. Many. Wasted. Hours. →
“You’re going to be distracted by everything until you find something you...”
– Merlin Mann on MacBreak Weekly
“The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do...”
– Ernest Hemingway
2 tags
“To me there’s something very solid about the first time something is...”
– Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit