Author: Joshua

  • Creating a focused Threads feed

    I recently had a friend ask me how I’ve shaped my Threads experience. Over the last year I’ve found it quite delightful to use. Part of the reason is there are a small group of people I’ve followed from Twitter to Mastodon to Threads. These are people who are a mix of tech writers, content…

  • Apple Watch for kids

    Targeting the Apple Watch (or a cheaper version of it) to kids is the smartest thing Apple has done in years.  Last year on ATP, Marco talked about setting up his pre-teen with an Apple Watch. It was the first time I’d heard a parent trying this, so I set on a journey to figure…

  • Life’s hard, and it will bring pain, emotions, challenges, tears and scars. There’s no need to generate more pain, and bring more tears where they aren’t necessary. Love these words from Michal. 

  • So you want to read?

    I’ve talked to a lot of people over the years who don’t enjoy reading. Some of it is personality, some of it is feeling forced to read for school. My premise is that most people can enjoy reading under the right circumstances.  For me it comes down to doing it through audio. I can’t find…

  • Charting data as a designer

    For a while now I’ve wanted to better understand simple data and see it charted out over time. Imagine you are manually writing down your energy levels on a scale of 1-10 over the period of three months. You then want to take all that and quickly chart it out to see how you felt…

  • Dribbble for learning

    Dribbble is a fantastic place. If you’re a designer you’ve probably used it. I setup an account too long ago to remember, and have benefitted greatly from being able to find inspiration for my work.  A few years ago I was inspired by a colleague to find inspiration from a better source. Instead of Dribbble…

  • Your unique you

    I have a unique way of designing. I’ve rarely seen it used by others, and early on my in career I thought it meant I was broken; that I just wasn’t getting it and doing things the professional way. Now I’m so glad for my slightly different process, and I’m incredibly comfortable in it. It’s…

  • Procrastinate, do it now

    You really do have too much to do. Prioritization might be best in theory, but plain, gut-feel procrastination might be the right way to go.  I love this way of thinking. I struggle with this immensely. I’m incredibly productive at times, and also let things drop for months on end. The trick to procrastination is…

  • Zoomed in and out

    “We are still majority-remote, but I think a lot of people forget our many products and solutions that are only designed for in-office work.” What products are they talking about? Have you met anyone who knows a Zoom tool for in-office use? So Saxon and his C-level peers told workers that if they live within…

  • Intuit layoffs

    Today we will be communicating to approximately 1,800 employees, which is 10% of our workforce, that they will be leaving Intuit. Intuit letting 1,800 people go. we will hire approximately 1,800 new people primarily in engineering, product, and customer facing roles such as sales, customer success, and marketing. Intuit firing 1,800 people.  We’ve significantly raised…

  • The Joy of Reading Books You Don’t Entirely Understand

    In recent years, I feel like it has been less common to find books to challenge me, and by me I mean their readers, and by “books” what I really mean is “publishing,” which can feel very focused on the sure thing, the brand name, the splashy debut that somehow speaks to millions and millions…

  • Writing stacks

    Butter for drafting, Linear for managing projects and to-dos, and Readwise for wrangling research material. The glue that holds them together is the universal “command-K” shortcut. I love learning about the other process of writers, how they work through things, and ultimately the tools they use for their craft.  Joan’s process is much more methodical…

  • Sharing without spoiling

    It’s fun to get and receive recommendations from friends, and the highest praise is when someone lets you know they appreciated the thing you recommended.  Inveitably you come across a great movie, show, or book. You want to share with a friend just enough to get them excited, but don’t want to give away the…

  • Debt jubilee

    Debt, not barter, is the true origin of money. Admittedly my understanding of money is limited. But I’d love to learn more. Much of my initial journey into money and its uses came from listening to Dave Ramsey, reading his books and helping facilitate his courses, twice.  I then ignored everything from him for a…

  • Journaling to avoid oversharing

    Journaling helps me resist the dopamine-driven cycle of social media sharing. When I post on social media, I get an immediate hit of validation in the form of likes, comments, and shares. It’s the craving for dopamine and attention that keeps me coming back to social media, constantly checking for updates and looking for my…

  • Anything can be something

    I’m amazed every day by great writers. They take an idea, sometimes rather obscure or plain, and give it an angle or lens that makes me rethink the whole idea.  I’m trying to get better at that myself. Too many times I’ve passed on an article idea because it seemed uninteresting. Now I’m testing, learning,…

  • When you’ve lost your list

    Years ago I kept a list of my todos in a Field Notes notebook. I carried it around in my back pocket and loved having my list available to review and edit.  At the time my oldest was a toddler, and as curious as toddlers are he was fascinated in my notebook. In an instant…

  • False bottoms and false promises

    Next time you buy a single serving of yogurt reach under and feel the false bottom dipping upward into the plastic cup.  That? It reveals a lie, a breaking of promises, a tiny crack in the dam of food inflation that’s pouring out around us.  Once you see it it’s impossible to unsee. Nearly everything…

  • Everyone Into The Grinder

    Rich kids should go to public schools. The mayor should ride the subway to work. When wealthy people get sick, they should be sent to public hospitals. Business executives should have to stand in the same airport security lines as everyone else. The very fact that people want to buy their way out of all…

  • AI and Design

    AI doesn’t need to be as good as the best designer. There are plenty of people in the bottom 50th percentile to snack on. Someone shouldn’t have to be exceptional in their field to have stability; but sadly, I expect the job pool for early-career designers, production designers, and others to continue getting tighter. A…