|
ey day: just one thing. (push, pull) today, from yesterday, into tomorrow. ey day: the daily. |
The reason for saying we need to do ‘an exceptional, near-perfect job of execution’ is this: When you want something really bad, you will put up with a lot of flaws. But if you do not yet know you want something, your tolerance will be much lower. That’s why it is especially important for us to build a beautiful, elegant and considerate piece of software. Every bit of grace, refinement, and thoughtfulness on our part will pull people along. Every petty irritation will stop them and give the impression that it is not worth it.
slack pre-release internal team memo.
The project of self-evolution demands an understanding of humanity’s relationship with tools, which is mysterious and defining. Some scientists, like the archaeologist Timothy Taylor, believe that our biological evolution was shaped by the tools our ancestors chose eons ago. Anecdotally, when people describe what matters to them, second only to human relationships is usually the mastery of some demanding tool. Playing the guitar, fishing, golfing, rock-climbing, sculpting, and painting all demand mastery of stubborn tools that often fail to do what we want. Perhaps the key to these and other demanding technologies is that they constantly require new learning. The brain is stimulated and forced to change. Conversely, when things are too easy, as a species we may become like unchallenged schoolchildren, sullen and perpetually dissatisfied.
the problem with easy technology, the new yorker.
But despite fractal art there is no easy way to transform your knowledge about fractals into money.
Design is a human skill that, for now, even Google can’t automate. Why is that so?
It’s because design addresses both rational and irrational needs that we all have. The rational part is difficult, but doable; it’s the irrational, human part that is hard. The rational part can be engineered and prepared to perfection; the irrational part needs to be engineered with the same kind of precision, but must also be timely and relevant to how the consumer feels.
john maeda at KPCB
there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. and as you evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. it never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it. ..
designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. and every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.
and it’s that process that is the magic.
jobs via porter.
this won't end well ..
One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it. And I’ve made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room. And I got the scar tissue to prove it.
jobs via df.
The internet isn’t an adjunct to real life; it’s not another place. You don’t do things "on the internet," you just do things. The network is interwoven into every moment of our lives, and we should treat it that way.
via the verge.
a little man, that I can teach.
a little sand, but not the beach.
de la soul releases their full back catalogue, for free download.
netflix's internal culture is a roadmap to success.
(wish they'd invested more effort in the design of that deck, however. granted 99.99% of their customer base will never see it, but it implies that design - and by extension user experience / user perception - is not a core value of the company)
push it as far as you can, and then look at it critically and take a few steps back.
well illustrated in (theoretical) practice, here.
into a world of quantum microscopes.
the titanic, 1978.
$42/user is not all that crazy. ($19B/450M)
this seems like a huge win for everyone struggling against the pressure to move quickly to revenue through ads, user tracking/selling analytics, etc.
build it clean, make it fast, make it cheap, let it scale, and sell it within 5 years.
the strategic pyramid.
via.
paul rand was a force. in my eyes: one of the few modernists who really lived what they spoke - who found a way to get to the truth of the issue. not only did he produce phenomenal work, but he spoke about his principles with conviction and insight. his words (and humour) are still as relevant today, even though our technologies and processes have fundamentally evolved - attesting to his connecting more with human behaviour and psychology than with any tropes of design. anyone working on crafting a 'culture of design', creating 'experiences' or 'connecting with your users' has much to learn here.
"I think right now Netflix does have a competitive advantage over HBO because of the analytics," Adgate said.
Networks like HBO still rely, on large part, on Nielsen data. But the information Netflix gets is much more textured, granular... and valuable.
Your body being made out of countless stars of the past.
Proof of an omniscient supreme being.
Making a coil that produces unlimited free energy.
A number grid that shows the underpinning geometry of the universe.
How everything is a torus.
(off the deep end)
because journalism was created and sustained far more by market conditions than by public policy, news organizations always have the option of surviving by becoming purely commercial and dropping the high-minded parts of journalism, which grew and thrived only because they were subsidized by other material.
(via)
A good reputation takes years to build, but just one bad experience can destroy it. So when balancing between tactical easily measurable goals like more clicks, and long term goals like trustworthiness, it’s essential to listen carefully to your instincts.
instinct vs data, via the google ventures library.
egypt hires PR firm, then arrests them.
FADE IN: EXT. OCEAN - CLOSE UP: WATER - MORNING LIGHT We are at the delicate interface between ocean and air...liquid and gas...the event horizon where molecules evaporate. This interchange is ethereal. Then, low frequencies rumble through depths...louder...closer, now... And the ocean surface is torn by a 46-foot catamaran and the ROAR of 2,700 horsepower, rocketing at us at 140 knots... OFFSHORE RACER: "BORN TO WIN" in PROFILE. AERIAL: "BORN TO WIN" ...has a canopy, low like a B-1 bomber and extends a half mile. It launches off two-foot swells, goes airborne, pushes to 150 knots with another 1,100 RPM left... .. A DEEPLY-TANNED PLAYER named NICHOLAS in Vuarnet wraparounds and buzz-cut white hair glides by... NICHOLAS (low) Burnett, what's crackin'? CROCKETT Nothing. TUBBS Maxin' and relaxin'. NICHOLAS (doesn't believe them) Sure. Change your mind; get inclined? Let me know... Whatever Nicholas is soliciting, Crockett and Tubbs don't want. (Nicholas brokers "go-fast" runs, moving loads from offshore into South Florida. Among guys who pilot offshore race boats, there are one or two who've never run a load, but no one's found them yet.) Meanwhile... CUT TO: [etc]
hannah höch. (took a kitchen knife)
FADE IN: We are in the belly of a wave. Light refracts in a constant collision of water. SLOW MOTION, the hallucinatory prisms, like liquid diamonds taking flight, dreamlike... EXT. OCEAN - DUSK Backlit against a flaming sun a solitary SURFER glides across the green glassy peak. TIME IS STRETCHED until his movements gain a grace and fluidity not of this world. Total Zen concentration. Body weight centered, eyes forward and on the next section. EXT. URBAN STREET - DUSK SLOW MOTION ON a black sedan. Creeping along store fronts. Past a Winchell's. PEOPLE splash steps down rain-washed sidewalks in DREAM MOTION. The sedan turns past the FIRST VIRGINIA BANK and into an alley. INT. BLACK SEDAN TWO MEN and ONE WOMAN in SUSPENDED TIME put on overcoats and hats. Under their hats strips of Scotch tape stretch taut from the base of their nose to their forehead, hideously distorting their features. Makes them look like human PIGS. the old | the new
2013 year end recaps:
an interesting confluence.
the west front.
(a million first steps)
The first known calculation of the (inverse) golden ratio as a decimal of "about 0.6180340" was written in 1597 by Maestlin in a letter to Kepler.
Although he primarily taught the traditional geocentric Ptolemaic view of the solar system, Maestlin was also one of the first to accept and teach the heliocentric Copernican view. Maestlin corresponded with Kepler frequently and played a sizable part in his adoption of the Copernican system. Galileo Galilei's adoption of heliocentrism was also attributed to Maestlin.[via]
Geometry has two great treasures: one is the theorem of Pythagoras, the other the division of a line into mean and extreme ratio. The first we may compare to a mass of gold, the second we may call a precious jewel.
_Johannes Kepler
cuban propaganda posters. (via the guardian)
john maeda leaves RISD to become the first design partner at kleiner perkins.
the way we're headed.
why you should move that button 3px to the left: trust increases when we get the details right.
(via)
