Joshua Wold

Why I love podcasting

I’ve been podcasting for 8 years on and off. Not as long as some of my heroes in the space, but long enough to have gotten the feel for it. The taste gap is still there. But I know when I’m happy with the output and contents of

On chronic pain

Six years ago I took a nasty tumble on a bicycle. Thankfully I only had a mild concussion. So my brain is mostly, probably, ok. But another issue I’ve dealt with since is chronic neck pain. I work at a computer all day, so I’m not doing my

Being seen versus seeing

Recently I listened to a podcast interview of a startup founder. It’s a great listen. Avery tinkered with technology, went to school to learn, and stumbled through ideas for the early part of his career. He loved to build things and see how they fit together. He also had

Filling up and emptying out

Robin’s recent post on feeling nothing captures the emptiness I’ve felt at times in my career. As a designer I create because I love to see things come to life. Creativity fuels me. I see things all around me, bask in their beauty and magnificence, and feel the

Work is just work

I love work. It drives me. It’s exciting. Everything about building things with folks is a pure thrill. Like when I crack open a hard design problem and learn something! This post resonates deeply with my own journey. Anyway! I worry that I enjoy work way too much. I

Tech lost its magic

Turns out it’s just easier to let Spotify or Netflix or Instagram feed us media that, while perhaps not our first choice, seems consistent with things we’d likely choose if we actually decided to make a choice in the first place. The magic that we felt when tech

Adding wonder into our world

This piece by Liz Gumbinner is beautiful. So we’ve been working on the habit of putting down the Google machines welded to our hands and just discussing an idea instead of immediately looking up answers. At first I thought I’d disagree with the premise. I actually enjoy being

Shirt logos

My first job out of high school was working in a screen printing shop. I was in charge of taking customer ideas and logos and designing them out on Adobe Illustrator. I learned to vectorize objects, prep them for print, and became blazenly fast with the pen tool. A customer

Getting in your head

Writing is a strange creative act. When you put words to the page you’re taking ideas from your head and translating them to written language. The original ideas feel perfect. They’re shapeless. They lack definition, but hold unlimited promise. On the page they come off stilted and imperfect.

Scale then bloat

Businesses need to grow. Apps need to scale. Consumer products have to get more consumers then maximize revenue. It’s a law of business. Grow value for shareholders. There’s value in this. Requiring growth pushes technological development forward. Things get created that wouldn’t have otherwise. Non-profits exist

Disabling tap to wake

For the last few years I’ve turned off raise to wake and tap to wake on my iPhone. The only way to light up the screen is by pressing the power button on the side. I’ve got an iPhone 16 Pro Max, so I’m not doing this

Over promise and under deliver

I’ve heard that you should under promise and over deliver my whole life. It’s a feel good thing that we throw out in conversation, then nod sagely like we get it. Like we have it figured out. Well, I didn’t figure this out until a few years