Kyle's Findings.

"I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair..."

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:32:00 -0600

“I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the ‘Iron Lady’ of the Western world.”

- Margaret Thatcher, delighted by the nickname given to her in 1979 by the Soviet Red Army newspaper Red Star.

"A realistic view of the present and an optimistic perspective on what’s possible is at the heart of..."

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:30:26 -0600

“A realistic view of the present and an optimistic perspective on what’s possible is at the heart of nearly every great company ever built.”

- From the Zaarly Employee Handbook: http://handbook.zaarly.com/

"We just have to face the reality that our educational system in slack economies can’t guarantee all..."

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:38:19 -0700

“We just have to face the reality that our educational system in slack economies can’t guarantee all that hard work you spend getting smarter will actually yield you anything except debt.”

- Too Cool For School?

"Moderate success is a distraction, and it keeps founders from bigger success."

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:49:00 -0700

“Moderate success is a distraction, and it keeps founders from bigger success.”

- From Moderate Success Is the Enemy of Breakout Success, by Jason Calacanis.

workturn: Our talented pal Brandon put together this incredible...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:01:43 -0600

workturn:

Our talented pal Brandon put together this incredible video for Crafting Type, our font-design workshop. The man has a soft-spot for those who create, and describes the theme of the video thusly:

Typography is everywhere: on products, in books, on signs. We live our days in and around type and for the most part it goes unnoticed. Yet there are people that labour over type: the shape, the relationships between letters, the negative space. The work they do is important, and you can learn it too.

Brandon has teamed up with Tim to create Monogram, a brand new service that allows “makers and doers” to easily create online profiles tailored specifically for their craft: videos, photos, and the like.

It’s still under development, but you can sign up at monogr.am for early access. And go share the love by liking this video on Vimeo!

We appreciate the mention! theleagueofmoveabletype: Our pal...

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:21:26 -0600

We appreciate the mention!

theleagueofmoveabletype:

Our pal Kyle Fox helped put together an intriguing-looking conference at the end of August in Edmonton – Crafting Type: An introductory typeface design workshop.. There’s some extra background here, and we’re sure it’ll be a fascinating learning experience. If you’re curious about learning how to get started with type design & have the dough, you should check it out.

We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:00:00 -0600

We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction:

A fascinating interview with Nick Bostrom, a professor at Oxford. Bostrom uses philosophy & math (probability theory) to explore ideas related to human extinction, such as the likelihood of catastrophic events and our chances of surviving them.

Despite the title, the interview doesn’t try to make the case that we humans are doomed. There isn’t as much talk about apocalyptic asteroids as you might expect. Instead, they discuss transhumanism, space colonization, and moral philosophy. And what’s especially intriguing is that Bolstrom’s conclusions are based on trusted statistical models.

A few of the most interesting ideas to me were:

Dedicating resources to saving future generations (ex: space colonization) might be of a higher moral priority than alleviating present suffering (ex: malaria). To paraphrase Bolstrom, “it doesn’t matter whether someone exists at the current time or at some future time, just as many people think that it doesn’t matter where somebody is spatially.”
Short term, probability states that developing technology (artificial intelligence, nanotech, surveillance, synthetic biology, etc) poses a greater risk than natural disaster (asteroids & super-volcanos).
Bolstrom also considers “existential risks,” which involves “permanently destroy our potential for desirable human development,” such as a permanent global totalitarian dystopia. It’s not unthinkable that such a regime could exist if it were based on technological leapfrogs (which is even more probably given that the rate of technological advancement is itself accelerating).
Humans underrate existential risks because of a particular kind of bias called observation selection effect (read Bolstrom’s explanation of selection effects & self-sampling assumptions).
Experts estimate our total existential risk for this century to be somewhere around 10-20%.

It’s a long read, but definitely worth it. Save it to Instapaper or Readability and read it when you can really focus.

Great link for a Monday!

"They [made] the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make: They decided to..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:02:05 -0700

“

They [made] the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make:

They decided to rewrite the code from scratch.

”

- That’s from Joel Spolsky’s classic essay Things You Should Never Do.

If you’re a product developer you’ve probably had the urge to rewrite a working product from scratch. I certainly have.

Us developers get a warm, fuzzy feeling when we imagine the opportunity to start from a clean slate. To re-architect moving parts that don’t make sense. To rewrite aesthetically ugly code in a shiny new language. To eliminate infrastructure choices that are hindering development.

These might seem like rational reasons to rebuild. But Joel makes an important point that most developers overlook in their state of greenfield wanderlust:

It’s important to remember that when you start from scratch there is absolutely no reason to believe that you are going to do a better job than you did the first time. First of all, you probably don’t even have the same programming team that worked on version one, so you don’t actually have “more experience”. You’re just going to make most of the old mistakes again, and introduce some new problems that weren’t in the original version.

Joel outlines many other reasons developers & managers convince themselves a complete rewrite is the best course of action, and more importantly, why it rarely makes sense for a business to totally rebuild their product.

If you’ve ever considered rewriting from scratch, or have actually gone ahead with it, you’ll get a lot of value from reading the full article.

Today Microsoft Announced the new logo for Windows 8. Dropping the iconic rainbow-flag is a bold...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:07:59 -0700

Today Microsoft Announced the new logo for Windows 8. Dropping the iconic rainbow-flag is a bold step for them, and I think it’s an improvement. However, there are a few reasons I think the new logo falls short:

Microsoft should drop the “8” from the logo. Tacking on the version number detracts from the Windows brand itself. I understand it’s there to help consumers identify the product their looking for, but does it need to be part of the actual logo? I doubt it.
Along the same lines, why include the (TM) and (R) symbols? They do nothing but add visual clutter and become unrecognizable blobs at small sizes. Are those marks even necessary? Probably not. I can’t find a single (TM) or (R) on Apple’s website.
Segoe is a bad choice of typeface for this logo. Microsoft wanted the new logo to echo the “Swiss design” philosophy behind Metro itself, as well as feel “fluid.” With it’s varying stroke width and uncomfortably harsh corners, Segoe accomplishes neither of these. Its humanist characteristics also clash with the geometric & fluid feel of the four boxes.

You can read more about the new Window logo on Brand New.

Canada debates bill would allow electronic surveillance without a warrant

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:52:06 -0700

Canada debates bill would allow electronic surveillance without a warrant:

In a dictatorship, freedom is immediately displaced through force. In a democracy, civil liberties are gradually eroded through fear-based legislation.

Saying this bill “targets child porn” is simply a rhetorical attempt to negatively frame & dimiss anyone opposed to unchecked electronic surveillance.

"I WOULD DEARLY LOVE TO BUY SOME SHIT BUT THESE MOTHERFUCKERS WON’T SELL IT … they..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:30:05 -0700

“I WOULD DEARLY LOVE TO BUY SOME SHIT BUT THESE MOTHERFUCKERS WON’T SELL IT … they deserve to loose revenue for the way they AREN’T SELLING their content.”

- Yarrr. A spot-on article about the reasons people pirate TV & movies, and why the content distributors themselves are to blame.

"… creativity is a function of two underlying factors, enthusiasm and experience. Enthusiasm..."

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:30:05 -0700

“… creativity is a function of two underlying factors, enthusiasm and experience. Enthusiasm provides the motivational force behind persistent effort, yet enthusiasm in the absence of the second factor yields just original work. Experience gives the achiever the ability to separate wheat from chaff and to express original ideas in a more intelligible and persistent fashion. Yet experience in the absence of enthusiasm produces merely routine contributions. Genuine creativity requires the balanced cooperation of both enthusiasm and experience.”

- From Marc Andreessen’s Age and the entrepreneur. It’s a great exploration of how age is (and isn’t) correlated to creativity.

Responsive Web Design: Standard or Feature?

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:43:15 -0700

Responsive Web Design: Standard or Feature?:

The folks at Paper Leaf have put together an overview of the things web agencies must consider when determining their approach to responsive web design.

It’s a tough question, and one that agencies need to ask themselves. Are responsively-designed websites a standard feature included in all website projects (which necessitates an increase in price), or are they an add-on that clients can choose to pursue or opt-out of?

"Facebook's "frictionless" sharing doesn't enhance sharing; it makes sharing meaningless."

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:00:06 -0700

The quote above from The end of social totally sums up how I feel about Facebook’s new frictionless sharing: automatically posting read news, watched movies, or listened-to songs.

Facebook’s real value comes from Likes. When a friend shares something, it means they’ve put their seal of approval on it. “This is a good thing.” And, in todays world of information-overload and endless choices, recommendations from friends are increasingly how we decide which things to try.

Frictionless sharing does the exact opposite. Instead of only showing me the good stuff, it shows me everything and doesn’t help me filter the good from the bad. Instead of telling me “these are the things you should try”, frictionless sharing less me “these are all the things you could try.”

It’s not how people work offline, either. When you’re looking for a good movie to watch you don’t ask your friends to list of all the movies they’ve seen. You ask them to name their favourites. When a friend tells you they just tried that new Thai restaurant, you don’t blankly nod in acknowledgement; you ask them if they liked it.

There is utility in Facebook likes. That utility is lost with automatic sharing.

There’s been a lot written on this topic lately, but I this this paragraph is the most concise I’ve read:

Frictionless sharing isn’t better sharing; it’s the absence of sharing. There’s something about the friction, the need to work, the one-on-one contact, that makes the sharing real, not just some cyber phenomenon. If you want to tell me what you listen to, I care. But if it’s just a feed in some social application that’s constantly updated without your volition, why do I care? It’s just another form of spam.

Writing an Interface

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:31:06 -0700

Writing an Interface:

A great checklist of things to consider when writing microcopy — buttons, help text, and success/error messages — for your website or application.

Microcopy is an often neglected aspect of user interface design. It’s tempting to provide generic button text (“Save”, “Cancel”) or form labels (“Blog title”, “Email”) and leave it at that.

But microcopy is a great opportunity to educate users on how a feature benefits them while also reinforcing their mental model of your application. And it adds that important human touch to your interface. For example:

Instead of labeling a button “Save”, use “Save as draft”.
Rather than provide useless help text for a form field (“This is your blog title”), explain the value of filling it out (“A catchy blog title grabs attention and gets you more visitors”).
Use success/error messages to show your app’s personality (“Huzzah, your post has been published on your blog!”). Robotic messages like “Post saved successfully” are boring and uninspiring.

Polishing your microcopy adds clarity, and makes your users feel like they’re accomplishing something tangible rather than just using faceless software.

Bruce is an award winning animation that explores how...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:32:38 -0700

Bruce is an award winning animation that explores how advances in open-source synthetic biology allow a young man to grow his very own action hero from a lump of minced meat.

Just awesome. You can read more about this project and see other spectacular animation work in the Animade portfolio.

Is there glory in startups?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:08:00 -0700

We’re in the middle of a second interweb bubble, where young, green developers are being pie-piped into working insane hours, sleeping under their desks, and living off Ramen noodles. This shitty, unsustainable lifestyle is glorified by much of the VC-funded startup scene. It’s viewed as a badge of honor.

Amy Hoy just posted a great article, Fuck Glory – Startups are One Long Con, where she condemns this type of thinking and those who perpetuate it, and exposes it for what it truly is. Here are a few gems from the highly-quotable piece:

The more kids who buy into the crazy dream, the more racehorses the venture capitalists can bet on, the more little soldiers the VCs can set on the board. The harder those kids work, the more theoretical chances the VC has that of one of his many investments making it big.

Every fucking time you see somebody using glory to hagiographize young men & women who are doing something clearly stupid, you must ask: What is this raft of shit, and why are they trying to get me to paddle it?

… those who sell glory, who sell religion, who sell noble wars, will not be in the trenches with you.

Sobering words. It’s full of great quotes and strong languages, so go read it.

Features & Physics Envy

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:00:05 -0700

Features & Physics Envy:

Customers won’t value all the development you do on a project. Some necessary tasks such back-ups, re-factoring, optimisation, improving infrastructure offer little immediate reward. This doesn’t mean you can ignore those issues. The trick is to plan your roadmap so there’s never long periods where customers feel the application has been abandoned.

Scheduling & releasing features is definitely an art. We’ve been trying hard to avoid the scenario described above at FotoJournal. Over the last few months we’ve made a number of significant backend improvements (like performance boosts) but haven’t made quite as many frontend, customer-facing improvements. It’s easy to forget that, even though you’re working your ass of behind the scenes, your company can sometimes appear dormant from the customer’s perspective.

The Knife Maker is a captivating short film about self-taught...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:00:05 -0700

The Knife Maker is a captivating short film about self-taught knife maker Joel Bukiewicz, of Cut Brooklyn . This is the second video in a series produced by Made by Hand which “celebrates the people who make things by hand — sustainably, locally, and with a love for their craft.” Be sure to check out their first video, The Distiller, which profiles Breuckelen Distilling Company, the first gin distiller in Brooklyn since prohibition.

Google Reader redesign: a step in the right direction

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:00:09 -0600

The former project manager for Google Reader (Brian Shih) posted a harsh critique of the recent design changes to the Google Reader web interface. Judging by the comments and other posts, it seems many people agree with him. But (as often happens on the internet) people are getting overly upset about the negatives and failing to see the improvements the new design offers.

Brian complains that too much of the page’s real estate is dedicated to non-primary functionality, like search. But I welcome Google’s new approach. This interface has room to breathe, something their products typically lack. Interface design isn’t about how densely you’re able to pack controls into a screen. Grouping relating things and distancing them from unrelated things is how you create interfaces that don’t need to be learned — they’re simply used.

A good example of this is the new, brightly coloured “Subscribe” button for adding a feed to your list. It’s very prominent, even though adding a new feed is a relatively infrequent task. This disproportionate prominence is a good thing. It means that on the rare occasion I do add a new feed, doing so is easy. I don’t need to learn a new task and then make a mental note to remember how I did it for next time. This is much better than having to hastily scan a tightly packed screen for a tiny (and poorly labeled) “Manage Subscriptions” link, which how the previous design worked. Don’t make me think!

Aside from some new lipstick and some added/removed controls, I think the new layout is pretty similar to the previous layout. The dimensions are almost identical, so I’m not sure why people are complaining about how little screen area is dedicated to the reading area — hasn’t the reading area always been approximately this size?

Web interfaces are so 2009

Most surprising of all is that people actually use the web interface for Reader. Thanks to third-party apps like Reeder (and previously NetNewsWire), I can read all my feeds, beautifully formatted, without having to login to a silly website.

What do you think, is the new design an improvement or a step backwards?