The journalist Jamelle Bouie (whom I greatly admire for his nuanced perspectives on US politics and culture) posted this on Bluesky: he's talking about empathy Empathy is one of my superpowers By superpower, I don't mean that I'm preternaturally gifted at it (I'm not). But I was born with a pretty high ceiling and since I was young I'v...

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...

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. ...

"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...

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...

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...

“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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

“"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...

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

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...