John Stokvis

November 13, 2024

Just write!

This is a blog post mostly to my past self. If any part of of it resonates, take it. If not feel free to ignore. Is there something you want to say? Do you want to write more? Want to be a "thought leader" or "build a brand" or whatever. Great. Then do it. There's literally nothing standing in your way. Nothing outside yourself at leas...
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October 31, 2024

October 2024: 4 Things I Learned (⚖️, 🤖, 🐋, 🛬)

An all video version of 4 things this month! Happy 🎃! 1. The Richter scale (now known as the "moment magnitude" scale goes negative. Tapping on a key on a lightweight keyboard is approximately a -6 earthquake. 2. In the spanish version of The Terminator 2, Arnold says "Sayonara, baby." instead of the classic "Hasta la vista, baby." 3. ...
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October 28, 2024

When "The Customer is Always Right" Goes Wrong

"The customer is always right." It's a phrase with a kernel of truth but which is so over-compressed that most of the meaning has been squeezed out of it. It's also been over-used to the point where people don't even hear it anymore. It's become a shibboleth, taken as gospel. It's background noise, the water the business world swims in...
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October 1, 2024

September 2024: 4 things I learned (🤬, 😭, 🤺, ⌨️)

Goodbye September! Thanks for reminding me that summer doesn't last forever. At least I learned a few things... 1. Context collapse is a phenomenon enabled by the fact that broadcast media can speak to multiple different audiences who are invisible to each other. This phenomenon is turbo charged by social media. But there are two diffe...
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September 29, 2024

On secret knowledge

A thought provoking post on Bluesky: One sign of maturity is in how we interpret the experience of “I didn’t know that.” Other people, art, the universe are constantly telling us things, in a myriad of different ways. There’s deep truth in the aphorism “the universe will keep repeating the lesson until it is finally learned.” Things ar...
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August 28, 2024

There's no "one weird trick" to getting into product

“How can I become a product manager if I don’t have any experience in product?” When talking with people about what I do, this question probably comes up the most. It feels like a catch-22. Having product experience makes you more attractive to someone looking for a product manager. But you can’t get product experience if you’ve never ...
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August 26, 2024

August 2024: 4 things I learned (🌧️, 🇷🇺, 🍌, 💸)

At the end of every year, some writers I like (such as Jason Kottke and Tom Whitwell) do a "52 interesting things I learned this year post." I love the way it feels like turning over intellectual rocks and marveling at the whole hidden world underneath. Look how interesting the world is, how full of wonder! But also find them a bit ove...
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August 22, 2024

Lessons from Super Mario Bros.

I've loved video games for almost my whole life, so it's very gratifying to learn about ways video games can teach me some really important lessons (while also being incredibly fun). Here's a fantastic breakdown of the masterful design of Super Mario Bros. level 1-1 (thanks Internet Archive). It walks through how the level is designed ...
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August 15, 2024

Recursive recipes

A deceptively simple website: Recursive recipes. What's a recipe? It tells you how to make something. A list of ingredients, instructions, and approximately how long it will take. They even add a nice little flow chart: But if you stop and think about it, all the ingredients don't pop into existence. They have to get made too. And what...
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August 9, 2024

TIL House music got its name from an actual place : The Warehouse

Thanks to the excellent history podcast, Throughline, I learned that House music got its start in Chicago. I haven't listened to much House music, but they made a nice little Spotify playlist to get started. I especially liked this quote from M “It has to start with the persistence, resistance and ingenuity of both Black and brown quee...
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August 8, 2024

Refugees (read it twice)

This poem by Brian Bilston is beautiful: “REFUGEES They have no need of our help So do not tell me These haggard faces could belong to you or me Should life have dealt a different hand We need to see them for who they really are Chancers and scroungers Layabouts and loungers With bombs up their sleeves Cut-throats and thieves They are ...
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May 29, 2024

Shreyas' Improving Product Sense course: A week well spent

Last week, I took Shreyas Doshi's week-long Improving your Product Sense course. I could go on and on, but I'll just give you a tl;dr: Check out the link. If you do product and it sounds even remotely interesting, apply. It will be the best bang for your buck and time (thwap for your time?) of anything that you do this year. Shreyas br...
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May 17, 2024

Appreciating trees just the way they are 🌳

“"When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough...
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May 10, 2024

This is our story, simplified: Life. Loss. Transformation. Love. Death. Iteration.

We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read on Lightspeed Magazine. Take 10 min and read the whole thing. An incredible poem? Short story? Happy Friday. via kottke.org
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March 21, 2024

Lists and awards are about the judges, not the recipients

The (very excellent website) The Pudding recently did an analysis of Rolling Stone's top albums of all time and it's a great reminder of what you can learn from "top x lists" or "best y" awards. Hint: it's not "what's the best" Definitely check out the whole article, but below is a pretty revealing comparison. On top are the albums sor...
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March 7, 2024

This week in the Streisand Effect: Kate Wagner and Road & Track Magazine

Kate Wagner (most well known for McMansion Hell) is assigned to attend and write about an F1 Grand Prix race: She writes ~5,500 words and they're wonderful. Evocative, funny, insightful. She manages to capture something true (sometimes flattering, sometimes not) about Formula 1. Some samples: “I think if you wanted to turn someone into...
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February 20, 2024

Cirque before Cirque

Cirque du Soleil has become a whole thing at this point, but back in the day (1999), it was just a Canadian circus that was doing things a little differently. It was still in a ring, featured well paced aerial and acrobatic acts, but it was intercut with some weird characters in interesting costumes. Denis Lacombe performs an absolute ...
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February 14, 2024

Unique problems and generic solutions

The tweet below from Shreyas struck a chord with me, because it's so true. It took me a while to figure this out (even though I was never able to articulate it this succinctly, even to myself). We tend to think that our problems are special but look for generic solutions. We say "well we tried this before, you haven't considered this q...
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November 24, 2023

Nature 🤝 Nurture

It strikes me that “nature vs. nurture” is a silly distinction that mostly sticks around because it sounds catchy. (Or because people have some deeper agenda or justification they’re going for) Of course It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. Nature is the hand that parents deal their children. Nurture is how the people raising the child t...
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October 12, 2023

The real underlying "problems" with AI

The concept of AI (or machine learning or algorithms or whatever you feel like calling them) have become a catchall for all sorts of problems and fears. Many of them aren't really problems with AI at all, but issues with capitalism or the internet generally, or just...you know...people. That being said, Ben Evans does an admirable job ...
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September 22, 2023

Everyone should be talking about "No One Is Talking About This"

Sometimes I have trouble putting into words how much I loved No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. It's as if she can read the zeitgeist and is just writing it down. The best I can do is share a few quotes from the book. Here's 40. Hopefully by the time you get to the end, you've concluded that you should read it too. “Why...
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September 18, 2023

Don't be ruthless

I never liked the phrase "ruthlessly prioritize" when it comes to scoping a product's features (or anything prioritization-related for that matter). It's too violent. It implies that you should be unfeeling and cruel when in fact that opposite is true. The best approach involves deepening your empathy to understand the problem. Then st...
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September 15, 2023

Maps, territory, and money

It could be that we keep mistaking the map for the territory because maps are where the money is. The experience of being alive isn’t really monetizable. It’s literally “invaluable.” So if people (or capitalists) are going to make any money off of something so universal and important as being alive, they need to focus others (their cus...
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July 7, 2023

Jelly Wobbler

faith in humanity: RESTORED I'm only half joking, but if humanity can produce something as majesitc as a machine specifically for wobbling jelly, then surely we can solve climate change and poverty.
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June 8, 2023

iPhone vs. Vision Pro pricing

One way of thinking about the "$3500 for this thing is way too much no matter what it does" is comparing it to the cost of the original iPhone. This is not to say the Vision Pro will have the same world changing effect as the iPhone, but the price thing becomes less of an issue when you do the math. In 2007 when the iPhone was launched...
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June 7, 2023

Attack on Titan is quite the vibe

Come for the Spiderman-style webslinging, Battlestar Galactica-style secret plots, and Godzilla-style kaiju battles. Stay for the meditations on intergenerational trauma, the cycle of violence, and free will. In Japanese, the title of the manga (and later the anime) is 進撃の巨人 or Shingeki no Kyojin. This translates literally to "The Adva...
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June 5, 2023

Priority vs. Sequence

Priority (what is important) and sequence (what should get done first) are two different (albeit related) concepts that are often conflated with each other. Distinguishing which one you're talking about helps immensely. It helps when collaborating with others, obviously. But it even clarifies my own thinking. X might be the most import...
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April 14, 2023

Combining Time Boxing with the Pareto Principle to Get Shit Done

Software development is fun when your team can go fast. You see ideas turn into reality, you watch as customers like (or don't care about) stuff you put in their hands, you iterate based on customer feedback, and it just plain feels good. So increasing the autonomy, efficiency and velocity of your team is crucial. But it's hard. You ca...
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March 14, 2023

Accessibility on the internet

Curb cuts are the canonical example of how building products with accessibility in mind ultimately makes life better for everyone. It's not just about making a special accommodation for people with permanent disabilities. There are also knock on effects for people with: • "temporary" disabilities (like being on crutches) • situational ...
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January 19, 2023

The Chinese finger trap model of life

The more you want to get something out of life, the less likely you are to get it. Just like a Chinese finger trap. The harder you pull your fingers to get them out, the more stuck they get.
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