Published
Weekend Reading — DoorDash for bears
Bertram The Pomeranian has an Instagram and it's too cute for words
Design Objective
This is the skill most “good” designers are missing TL;DR Product Thinking
Before pushing a single pixel, open up a text editor and start by designing with words. Who is the user? What is their problem? What solutions might solve their problem? What is their journey? What are their emotions along that journey. Tell a story about the user using your product before designing it.
Eric Lawrence “The hardest problems in computer science must be delegated to the user.”
Be an Elegant Simplifier “Elegant simplifiers create designs that are crystal clear.”
If you were a connoisseur of wine, would you choose a clear, crystal goblet to drink from, or a gold, ornate one, studded with jewels? You’d choose the crystal goblet, she answers. Why? Because the design reveals the content. It elegantly and succinctly solves a purpose. It guides the user toward the objective, without distraction. Good design is transparent.
Performance Matters Performance is key to usability:
It wasn’t even that slow. Something like a quarter-second lag when you opened a dropdown or clicked a button. But it made things so unpleasant that nobody wanted to touch it. Paper was slow and annoying and easy to screw up, but at least it wasn’t that.
I think about that a lot.
4 Rules for Intuitive UX I like the squint test, simple and effective:
If you squint your eyes, the Most Important Thing should catch your eye first - and the least important elements should catch your eye last.
Apple says clean Apple Card with a microfiber cloth, avoid contact with leather and denim Only if you want your card to keep looking like new. I keep my cards in a leather wallet in the pocket of my jeans, and sure enough they wear out, and need to be replaced frequently.
But I do think Jessie Char has a great point:
Apple’s biggest strength can be its biggest weakness. Everyone’s so focused on flawless execution that they forget consumers aren’t also going treat the products with white gloves. To them it’s a sculpture, to us it’s a thing we want to use and not worry about.
Tools of the Trade
Sy Brand “I made a GitHub Action which replaces all the files in your repo with a picture of Nicholas Cage.”
Modern software tooling is amazing. I can go from zero to working thing that I don't understand at all and have zero chance of debugging in a timely fashion quicker than you can say "thank god I don't have to support this thing".
Rick Viscomi “How mad at your CSS do you have to be to add 274 zeroes to your z-index?”
Lines of Code
Two paths diverged in an app, and I—
I tested the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Wes Chow Tech parenting be like:
Kid: are we there yet?
Me: noKid: are we there yet?
Me: noKid: are we there yet?
Me: noKid: are we there yet?
Me: let me tell you about exponential backoff
┏┓
┃┃╱╲ in
┃╱╱╲╲ this
╱╱╭╮╲╲House
▔▏┗┛▕▔
╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲
We do our own memory management.
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔▕▔W} +A ┗▕▔┛┛┛r&┛9J┛2Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Architectural
Allen Holub Not everything ages well:
Think of your backlog as a refrigerator. Every so often its worth throwing out those disgusting leftovers that have been growing furry mold in the back of the top shelf. All they do is stink up the place. Don't let anything rot in there—nothing but fresh!
Teamwork
How to manage up effectively Managing up is the most important skill that no one is teaching!
However, most broadly, thinking about these 5 aspects – sharing progress, uncovering work preferences, building both trust and rapport, clarifying expectations, and sharing feedback – are things you can experiment with as you aspire to have a strong working relationship with your boss.
Marco Rogers 👇 A thread with tips on being an effective manager, and making space for yourself:
My final tip. In order to cultivate those wins, you may need change your expectations of how long things take. Changing things for the better takes time. Just like anything worth doing. Good management is more about gardening than firefighting.
Bryan Haggerty True story:
How most modern meetings end now:
“Alright we’re getting kicked out of this room...”
Locked Doors
Being hacked?
Remember tell the hackers that this is out of scope.
None of the Above
I don’t know what’s more upsetting, that my wife uploaded my snoring to spotify, that 44,000 people have listened to it, or that she took the time to release an instrumental version!
doubletexts 110%!!!
During my interview today i poured some water into a cup and it overflowed a little bit
“Nervous?” asked the interviewer
I simply replied, “No I just always give 110%”
Brandy Jensen But without that "science", we'd have to cancel half of TV programs:
it’s weird we don’t talk more about how it turns out a ton of forensic science is bullshit. blood spatter? made up. fiber evidence? nonsense. arson investigation? basically astrology
blaine capatch “this is DoorDash for bears”
Mashable “Why camp by a river when you can camp on one?”
TikTok Is a Wake-Up Call to Silicon Valley Interesting take on how the Great Firewall has mostly limited Chinese tech to the local market. With escalating trade wars and worsening immigration laws, everything is about to change:
The Firewall started very much out of a desire for information control. But it’s almost accidentally had this larger benefit of creating a space in which Chinese companies can grow.
Just got back from the centrist rally. Amazing turnout. Thousands of people holding hands and chanting “Better things aren’t possible”
Mr. Meowgi “What is this witchcraft!?!?”
Move Over, Shareholders: Top CEOs Say Companies Have Obligations to Society File under "things I never expected to read in the Wall Street Journal":
The Business Roundtable on Monday changed its statement of “the purpose of a corporation.” No longer should decisions be based solely on whether they will yield higher profits for shareholders, the group said. Rather, corporate leaders should take into account “all stakeholders”—that is, employees, customers and society writ large.
Rex Sorgatz 👇 At least they tried to do something interesting:
Logging into my bank (Chase) this morning, the background photo caught my eye. It was my neighborhood (eerie!), which caused me to wonder, "Does everyone see this photo?"
This thread is an investigation into that question. Let's call it: BANK STOCK PHOTO REGIONALIZATION. 1/18
eric jaffe 👇 If you want to understand car culture:
1/ Today a special 20-tweet thread all about @greg_shill's fantastic law review article on how the law subsidizes driving. Finally found time to read the whole thing. Highly recommend for all urbanists and policymakers. Here are my favorite moments. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3345366
People snarkily asking why the homeless have mobile phones; it's because phones are really useful and they cost much less than a house.
fearowe ☔️ That move …