I have a new site! It’s truly indie now. No more reliance on Tumblr. And I’m pretty happy about that! So, danielpietzsch.com is going to be my virtual home for the foreseeable future.
Feeds from people participating at the IndieWebCamp Düsseldorf, May 2025.
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
The Illusion of Control
What would happen if we really accepted the fact that control is an illusion?
How would this change the way we approach projects?
Making plans would always imply the possibility of failure and the willingness to adapt to new insights and shifting contexts.
Leading a team wou...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
The Decisions Journey
With every project we start and every problem we are trying to solve, we are embarking on a journey. And although we might have a goal, this journey is still a journey into the unknown.
Even with the most proper planning we won’t be able to predict and factor in all the obs...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
The Culture Code
The best books are the ones that change your perspective, your view on the world, in such a profound way that you don’t look at it the same way ever again. To illustrate this fundamental switch, Jeremy Keith likes to give the example of ducks and dog masks. All ducks look pe...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
The Single Best Way to Take Notes
Ernest Hemingway did it. Successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson do it. And I’m quite sure, even most of the former US presidents did it: Taking notes. As I wrote earlier this week, note-taking is not only important because you get stuff out of your head and make sure ...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Write It Down
Whenever you have an idea, write it down. Immediately.
It doesn’t matter how big or small you think the idea is. Just write it down. It doesn’t matter if you have other things to do, like changing diapers, fixing that horrible JengaScript bug, or debating on Twitter whether...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Nownownow
Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts. I enjoy the new perspectives they provide, especially interviews. Debbie Millman’s legendary design matters podcast, for example, is only one of many great shows where the host manages to stimulate a conversation that yields ...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Into the Personal-Website-Verse
Social media in 2019 is a garbage fire.
What started out as the most promising development in the history of the Web – the participation of users in the creation of content and online dialogue at scale – has turned into a swamp of sensation, lies, hate speech, harassment, an...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Repeat After Me
Repetitio est mater studiorum.
Repetition is the mother of learning. You might have heard this old Latin proverb before, and it’s true: Repetition is key to memorizing something because with each ite...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Vulnerability, Creativity, and Prototyping
Vulnerability is still highly stigmatized in our society, particularly in business. If you want to be successful in life you better be brave and don’t show any signs of weakness. And vulnerability is such a weakness. At least that’s what many of us are being taught from a ve...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
#SaveYourInternet
It’s hard to decide what’s right and what’s wrong these days. There are so many people and so many organizations with so many different interests that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and to be fooled into believing the wrong things. And so it seems to be an option to give up an...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Building an Accessible Mega Menu – Part 1: Background
Although some designers dislike them, because, at a first glance, they seem to be too overwhelming and too densely packed with information: If you design them carefully, mega menus work really well for site navigation. They convey site structure, present your users all avail...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Copy That.
When I was in school our art teacher used to say:
Kopieren heißt kapieren.
Which translates to something along the lines of “copying somet...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Clarity and Style
A few days ago, John Maeda, Head of Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic, shared this tweet:
Good design is about clarity over style, and accountability over ego.— John Maeda (@johnmaeda) March 14, 2019
...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Information Management, A Proposal
Yesterday, the Web turned 30.
Thirty years ago, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a document called “Information Management, A Proposal,” his formulation of an information network for sharing and exchanging information at CERN, marking the birth of the World Wide Web. Three decades...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Planning, Goals, and Uncertainty
People like to stick to their habits. Why? Because it is safer where they are now. Following a routine, a trusted pattern, reduces uncertainty about the future and thus alleviates fear. Everything is plannable and manageable. Tomorrow is safe.
The problem is: The future is u...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Convenient or Unique?
If you’re riding through the suburbs in a train, you might recognize that houses usually come in two flavors. For one, there are the townhouses: Tightly packed, not too large, repeatable, convenient. And then there are the individual single-family homes which come in all for...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Considering the Opposite
When you are developing a statement about something, this advice can be useful: If you can turn the statement into the opposite and it sounds like the most ridiculous thing on earth, chances are that your original statement isn’t that distinctive.
For example, if you were t...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Our New Design Overlords and a Remarkable Future
I spent the last days of 2018 listening to an amazing podcast: Stephen Fry’s Great Leap Years brilliantly tells the story of the evolution of information technology throughout human history – from Johannes Gutenberg inventing the printing press to Alexander Graham Bell and h...
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Drives safe!
We all know that we should backup our data regularly and ideally with some sort of backup strategy but let’s be honest: Many of us don’t. Over the years, I got a bit better, but after listening to one of the highly recommended episodes of the (mainly German) Working Draft po...