March 2012
48 posts
William Gibson on eBay, watches, and obsessions →
Mechanical watches are so brilliantly unnecessary.
Any Swatch or Casio keeps better time, and high-end contemporary Swiss watches are priced like small cars. But mechanical watches partake of what my friend John Clute calls the Tamagotchi Gesture. They’re pointless in a peculiarly needful way; they’re comforting precisely because they require tending.
And vintage mechanical watches are among the...
Semicolons in JavaScript are optional →
Ruby Styleguide from github →
“A final thought: On average, you have 78 years total to live. The first 18-20...”
– A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness (via heyamberrae)
“Believe in the holy contour of life.”
– Jack Kerouac
How Steve Jobs Got Me to Buy an Android →
“It also struck me that that’s supposed to be part of my job – maybe not my day job, but some bigger social role as someone who understands machines and isn’t afraid to tinker with them. I shouldn’t be just a technology consumer. I should be bushwhacking my way into the future, cobbling together half-working prototypes to see what it’s like to live with them; figuring out how the tech works...
Picture Hanging →
“So now we get into higher-level design issues. Where should the picture go? At what height should it be hung? He has no way of judging any of this, and again, it’s not as obvious as you think.
You know it shouldn’t go over there because the door will cover it when open. And it can’t go there because that’s where your new bookcase will have to go. Maybe you have 14-foot ceilings, and the...
WatchBeach House: Myth
The Enemy of Joy →
by Ingrid Fetell, Aesthetics of Joy
“Where do we find permission to recapture that joy? Because it is a kind of dignity, a much greater dignity than coolness’s hauteur, a dignity born of authenticity rather than condescension. It makes me wonder how design might better support the collective liberation of our playful tendencies. Where are the oases where we let the mask drop, where we risk...
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
– Lao Tzu (via textilebaby)
Your Brain on Fiction →
By Annie Murphy Paul, NY Times
Scientists call this capacity of the brain to construct a map of other people’s intentions “theory of mind.” Narratives offer a unique opportunity to engage this capacity, as we identify with characters’ longings and frustrations, guess at their hidden motives and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lovers.
It is an exercise that hones...
Using event capturing to improve Basecamp page... →
Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs →
Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.”
– Maori proverb
Cayce Pollard Units →
youmightfindyourself:
CPUs for the meeting, reflected in the window of a Soho specialist in mod paraphernalia, are a fresh Fruit T-shirt, her black Buzz Rickson’s MA-1, anonymous black skirt from a Tulsa thrift, the black leggings she’d worn for Pilates, black Harajuku schoolgirl shoes. Her purse-analog is an envelope of black East German laminate, purchased on eBay if not actual Stasi-issue...
“Programming at its best is an act of empathy.”
– Kent Beck
In Iceland, smallest country w/own currency, 7 in... →
How to do what you love →
by Paul Graham
Give It Five Minutes →
russianpencil:
Dismissing an idea is so easy because it doesn’t involve any work. You can scoff at it. You can ignore it. You can puff some smoke at it. That’s easy. The hard thing to do is protect it, think about it, let it marinate, explore it, riff on it, and try it. The right idea could start out life as the wrong idea.
So next time you hear something, or someone, talk about an idea, pitch...
