Archive

Slow reading

Last month I bought a new e-reader. I've been following the cycle of new devices over the years, and have been particularly interested in small screens. I have a Kindle Paperwhite—and it's fine. But it's not pocketable, at least not if you count

Change is assured

Ask me twenty years ago what I'd be thinking—on almost any given topic, and it's likely that the younger version of me would be surprised by the person who has had 38 cycles around the sun. We shift as we get older, we modify, we

A primer on Claude Code for beginners

Claude Code is an amazing tool. And with each update it gets better. I've been using it since last summer, when a friend strongly encouraged I give it a try. I'd been a fan of Replit before, but they charge a per usage fee, and the

Embrace the seasons

I've been thinking about seasons lately. It might be a result of a recent Cal Newport episode (great podcast by the way), or just the fact that we're shifting from Winter into Spring here in the northern hemisphere. Life can't just be the same

The Joy of Tinkering

I was talking to a friend recently about career progression and the challenges I've faced over the last two decades in navigating work and life. So much of what we talk about as a society is related to the effort we're supposed to put in, and

You can help

Product design, product management, any roles that touch the digital creation space for app development: all of these are shifting and changing so fast. In the last couple of weeks, I've had numerous conversations with people in and around these jobs. I've met a lot of

Following the leader

Leadership is tricky. It's easy to get wrong. It's easy to take the wrong assumptions from finding a willing follower and believing that their adoption of you means anything in particular for your greatness. That's not it at all. We could all do with

Look to help

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” ― Fred Rogers I've been thinking about this quote a lot lately, and it keeps coming

Fun and play

I have an annoying trait that I've come to appreciate. The energy with which you demand I do something creates an equally inverse desire to not do it. Thankfully I'm not the only one. But for some reason it seems to be built in a bit

What comes next

The shift in product design Product design is changing as a profession. I've been writing about this for the last year, but just this month it feels like things are accelerating. I'm not the only one thinking this. It's crazy how some changes take

An app in an hour

There's a lot brewing right now about AI taking over the world. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But stressing out over the future doesn't help. Yes, I want to keep learning all I can and apply the learnings practically; but anxiety isn'

The credit isn't yours

My career started because I got into graphic design as a teenager. That led into me being a product designer today. I got my first internship at a screen printing shop, and things took off from there. I did good work, showed up on time, and used it as a

Collecting versus enjoying

I feel like I've become someone who enjoys the idea of something more than the actual thing itself. I've become a collector of people's thoughts. All without ever having read many of those thoughts. How so? Well, I've been using Reeder as

Love is the greatest

Over the last decade my views on nearly everything have shifted. If I go back further, to my teens, just about every perspective I have on the world is different. We should change. As new information comes in, as we experience life, we have the chance to improve and grow.

Entering Valheim

Defeating the first boss Last night was amazing. My son and I, along with the help of my brother and nephew, took down Eikthyr, an electrified stag. And we lived to tell the tale. Alright, yes, I played a game on my laptop. And yes, I may have let out

Messy over perfect

The thing you're making doesn't have to be perfect. In case you weren't sure, you can use that statement as permission to move forward in life without lining up everything in just the right way. If you have to, choose action over deliberation. Ship

Democratizing product design

Stop the pizza

It was dinner time, and I was starving. We decided to get some pizza. My wife always orders. There's two reasons for this. First, she's better at coordinating groups of people clamoring for that favorite American pastime. She takes the requests, maneuvers the app, and has

You shouldn't read this

Don't make me do it I struggle with being told I must do something. It's part of me, part of who I am, and something I have to constantly fight against. Most people don't love having someone make demands of them, but for some

Doing it for nothing

We've all run across a certain type of person. Someone who wants to connect, become best buddies, and do something with you for an undisclosed reason. It's weird, it doesn't quite make sense in the moment, and you find yourself waiting for the catch.