It is 1995. A 13-year old boy in Germany is playing basketball in his room. The walls are plastered with posters. Michael Jordan (life-sized), Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Shaq, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Sean Kemp, David Robinson, and many more are all watching him p...
Ask any business owner or manager what could be improved about the operations of their company and they will very likely tell you that they are working on “improving efficiency”. They are switching from waterfall to agile to improve efficiency. They are tracking tasks and me...
Type specimens are as old as printed typography. They were originally designed by printers and type foundries as documents that would show typefaces in use across different applications and with all available weights and styles, so that potential customers could evaluate a t...
A few weeks ago, my son came up to me and asked if I wanted to guess which song he was about to clap. I agreed, sure that it couldn’t be so hard to guess. But as soon as he started, I didn’t have the slightest idea which song he was clapping. He became a bit frustrated and i...
So, I haven’t written in a while. Or, to be more precise: I haven’t finished a written piece in a while. That is not because I didn’t write at all, but in the current situation, I simply decided to prioritize family and work over writing, which is still kind of a hobby for m...
And then, the display of my MacBook Pro broke. So after five years, it was time to get a new machine, after all. Every time this had happened in the past, I took the opportunity to start from scratch and do a fresh install of all the software I in fact use and need. Conseque...
They say that writers come in two flavors: Diamond polishers and vomit drafters. Let me explain.
Have you ever been sitting at your desk, trying to write one single paragraph, but then found yourself meticulously fiddling with every single shred of a word and each and every ...
Yesterday, Chris Coyier asked a question on Twitter:
“Who’s gonna read your personal blog because it has an RSS feed? I’m gonna read your personal blog because it has an RSS feed.” Chris then attached a screen recording of him scrolling down his massive list of RSS feeds of...
Now that a lot of people are publishing their year in review posts, I decided to write my first one, too, this time. And if only to be able to look back later on what I did and thought about in 2019.
Writing a full “decade in review” post seemed a bit too excessive to me, th...
I don’t know about you but many people seem to think that accomplished writers are able to sit down at their desks and immediately start writing in beautiful, fully formed sentences and paragraphs. In reality, though, nothing could be farther from the truth. As Anne Lamott p...
Since I started writing on this site about three years ago, I have been thinking a lot about writing as a craft. What are the qualities of good writing? Are there any recipes or best practices to become a better writer? What are the tricks and habits of great writers? And so...
In a recent conversation with Tim Ferriss, Ben Horowitz, a co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, shared a line he likes to use in management:
Sharpen the contradictions.”
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For those of us who work on and with the Web, the idea that the Web has its very own inherent qualities is not new. Whether you read John Allsopp’s seminal article “A Dao of Web Design” or watch Frank Chimero’s elaborate talk “The Web’s Grain”, the fundamental concept is the...
How often should you publish work on your site? Once a month? Once a week? Daily even? When you ask other creators or look on the Web for advice, you will get the most diverse answers to this question.
People who post daily will tell you that, of course, you should post dail...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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
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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...
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...
