Hey there 👋

Welcome to this installment of Pixel Perfect Picks. Here I'm sharing something that I heard, read, and saw. You can subscribe to this newsletter here. I'm additionally publishing a more extended essay about software development, design, and freelancing every month.

Yesterday at the London Marathon, Sabastian Sawe became the first human being to run a marathon in under two hours in actual race conditions. 1:59:30. Not a controlled Nike stunt, not a closed circuit in Vienna. A proper competitive race, in London, in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Yomif Kejelcha finished second in 1:59:41, meaning two people went sub-two on the same day. The top three all finished under the previous world record. I watched the BBC Sport highlights and had chills the whole way through. Purely insane what humans can do.

Two reads this week that I can't choose between, so you're getting both.

Habryka's piece on LessWrong argues that all human skills fall into just four categories: design, technical, management and physical. The interesting part is the claim that being good at any task within a category means you can reach expert level in any other task in the same category within about six months. Bold framework, been rattling around in my head since I read it. Four Skills.

Sam Henri Gold wrote a response to Claude Design that I think is one of the best takes on where design tooling is actually heading. The "truth to materials" framing stuck with me: code is the real material of digital products and tools that embrace that rather than abstract it away are the ones that matter. Worth reading the whole thing.

I've had Levin Liam's new album Pech on repeat all weekend. It's German, so if you don't speak the language some of it will wash over you, but honestly that might not matter. There's something about the melancholy and the texture of it that works even without understanding every word. Check it out and make your own call.

One more thing before I sign off: Pixel Perfect Picks is going on a short break for May. I'm heading to Japan for three weeks and with some German public holidays around the edges, it felt like the right moment to step away properly. I'll be back with new issues in June, hopefully with a lot of good stuff from the trip.

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Keep Creating Awesome Stuff ✌️

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-Marvin