The Leap
"The Leap presents powerful and personal stories from successful entrepreneurs and innovators -- the victories, obstacles, lessons, and characters behind businesses that impact our lives." A great new project started by my b-school business plan prof, David Belasco.
Jun 6, 2008 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Philippe Starck tells magazine design is dead
"Renowned French designer Philippe Starck says he is fed up with his job and plans to retire in two years... "I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact... Everything I designed was unnecessary."
Via Kottke
Mar 29, 2008 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
19 Best Ads I Have Ever Seen
Great ad design. Also see A Selection of Perfect Ads. Question: does clever actually pay? Or are these ads smart but off-target?
Feb 1, 2008 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Are We Failing Our Geniuses?
"We take for granted that those with IQs at least three standard deviations below the mean (those who score 55 or lower on IQ tests) require "special" education. But students with IQs that are at least three standard deviations above the mean (145 or higher) often have just as much trouble interacting with average kids and learning at an average pace. Shouldn't we do something special for them as well?"
Via WhiteCoat Rants
Sep 5, 2007 in Making Good Stuff | Comment (3)
The United States of Animalia
I love the Humane Society of America's new logo. As a commenter says, it's probably a bit hard to apply in some cases, but it's just right. And that counts for more than a little wasted space here and there.
Jun 16, 2007 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Unclutterer
How to unclutter your life. A highly-focused site with many good tips.
Via bBlog
May 11, 2007 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
How Not to Talk to Your Kids
Kids praised for their effort perform better than kids praised for their intelligence, a study says. Interesting stories, interesting study design (from what they write). Not sure this tracks with my own experience, but not sure it doesn't, either.
Via Daring Fireball
Feb 19, 2007 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
The GTD Mastery 100
Repeat after me: productivity is not a cult. It's not even an end in and of itself! Productivity just enables other, worthwhile things. I can't believe it when I read crap like this, and I'm more than a little embarassed that I score a 68 on this malarkey.
Feb 17, 2007 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
The Big Ideas Behind Nintendo's Wii
Man, they just... made a product for a different market segment! And have been successful! What's the world coming to?
Nov 29, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
GTD Daily Review and Actions
A checklist for every day's productivity. Not sure I like this one, but having a fixed set of things you do at the beginning and end of the day is attractive, both from a comfort and from a productivity perspective. There's also an alternative automated approach.
Via 43 Folders Forum
Nov 2, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Getting Real
"Getting Real is about iterations and lowering the cost of change. Getting Real is all about launching, tweaking, and constantly improving which makes it a perfect approach for web-based software." The prominent manifesto, now available for free.
Via LifeClever
Oct 29, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Top ten geek business myths
"Since I've started my new career as a venture capitalist I have become keenly aware of some of the classic mistakes that geeks make when trying to raise money for a new business. Instead of writing the same comments over and over again I thought I'd try to summarize some of the mistakes that people -- especially smart people -- make when they decide to try to turn their bright ideas into money."
Via Slashdot
Oct 2, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
pantone fashion color report spring 2007
Sep 18, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment (4)
Being Copied
"As a rule, startups shouldn't worry so much about competitors, especially big companies. Competitors are a second-order problem. Startups should worry more about making something worth copying and less about whether someone will."
Apr 29, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Top 10 Best Designed Blogs
"The particular platform (WP, Moveable Type, Typepad, Handcoded) doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with it that counts. This isn’t about prettiest blog, or the best written blog. This is a list of the most groundbreaking, cutting edge blogs out there. You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty." A little over the top but there is some good stuff here for my next redesign.
Apr 22, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Q&A with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak
"Steve Wozniak says he never intended to change the world. That was the other Steve, Steve Jobs. He just wanted to build computers. Oh, and he really — really — wanted to spend his career as a Hewlett-Packard engineer, a position he reluctantly left. Life turned out differently for the self-trained electrical engineer. In 1976, he and Jobs started Apple Computer, which would help launch the personal-computer revolution."
Apr 12, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
25 Best License-Free Quality Fonts
Mar 14, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Entrepreneurial Proverbs
Mar 10, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Why is it so Hard to Make Products that People Love?
A good intro to the business and strategic value of personas!
Mar 10, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling
Mar 10, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Cubicles: The great mistake
"Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called 'monolithic insanity.' Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence."
Mar 9, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign
"The desire to redesign is aesthetic-driven, while the desire to realign is purpose-driven. One approach seeks merely to refresh, the other aims to fully reposition and may or may not include a full refresh. (Note that by 'reposition,' I mean strategy and not physical location or dimensions.)"
Feb 24, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
8 mistakes when creating PowerPoint presentations
Feb 24, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Behind the magic curtain
"In mid-2001 I had been promoted to manage both the DVD products and Apple's professional video-editing software, Final Cut Pro, a new version of which was to be released in early 2002. But Steve never does the demos of the pro software; he always relies on someone on the product team more familiar with its features and operation. The job fell to me. It turned out to be my lowest and highest point at Apple."
Feb 19, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
AskOxford: Collective Terms for Animals
So you can get it correct; also check out the FAQs on questions like Apart from 'angry' and 'hungry', what other common English word ends in '-gry'?.
Jan 31, 2006 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Pause celebre
The semicolon: good or bad? A very English consideration of the topic. The article is eakened, however, by the fact that the writer focuses on the use of that form of punctuation in journalism, a medium in which clarity must be emphasized over art; semicolons are much better-suited to use in literature, wherein a bit of ambiguity can add to the effect of the passage.
Dec 4, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic
"I thought it would be useful to examine briefly the two contrasting visual approaches employed by Gates and Jobs in their presentations while keeping key aesthetic concepts found in Zen in mind. I believe we can use many of the concepts in Zen and Zen aesthetics to help us compare their presentation visuals as well as help us improve our own visuals."
Nov 24, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Time For A Time Audit
"So you’re Getting Things Done, you’ve defined your projects, implemented your productivity processes and are humming right along with the future’s so bright you need sunglasses, right? Are you actually being productive? Or do you think your being productive while all your time is being nibbled away by non-productive activities? Trust yourself – but verify you are Getting Things Done with a Time Audit."
Nov 24, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Exercises in Grammar, Usage and Associated Press Style
"These self-instructional exercises are based on issues of grammar, usage and AP style that arose at a daily newspaper. They are offered here for people who are learning copy editing." Writing well is important; practice with the exercises here!
Nov 22, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Less as a competitive advantage
"It’s a very Cold War mentality — always trying to one-up. When everyone tries to one-up, we all end up with too much. There’s already too much “more” — what we need are simple solutions to simple, common problems, not huger solutions to huger problems."
Oct 16, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Career Advice: Just do it
"I once asked a group of top executives how many of them consider themselves to be serious procrastinators. Just 25% raised a hand. But when I put that question to groups of unemployed job seekers, 80% of the hands went up." Tips to not procrastinate.
Oct 14, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
7 Habits of Highly Horrible Networkers
I've probably done my share of these, and had all of these done to me. And, you know what, they really are horrible and ineffective habits!
Oct 8, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
To Blog or Not to Blog
Good, short white paper providing an intro to blogging for businesses.
Oct 7, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
A Not-To-Do List
"Today is the day you start your project.
Wake up. Make your coffee. Sit down. Get to work.
Now, it should be that simple. Wake up and get to work.
But there are many distractions. Mental and otherwise.
So this is NOT a to-do list. This is a not-to-do list. You don't need to check anything off, because these are things YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO."
Sep 25, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Professional E-mail Tips
"How you handle e-mail says something about how you are professionally. An error-filled message or untimely response can show that you don’t take pride in what you do. Yet I see these things every day." A set of tips all of us can use to learn from.
Sep 17, 2005 in Making Good Stuff | Comment
Pixar tells story behind 'Toy Story'
Unsurprisingly, Disney almost ruined it.
Aug 26, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Tips For Working At MS
While the tips linked from this page are mediocre, the tips on this page look solid for working at any company.
Aug 7, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Logos by the Numbers
"After accessing the records of the USPTO, I assembled a database of over 750,000 trademarks registered in the United States from 1884 to 2003. Using this database, innovations and trends in the design of trademarks can be tracked and dissected." I'd love to see the trends!
Aug 4, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Tips for improving your handwriting
I could use these!
Jul 29, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
How to learn from your mistakes
"You can only learn from a mistake after you admit you’ve made it. As soon as you start blaming other people (or the universe itself) you distance yourself from any possible lesson. But if you courageously stand up and honestly say “This is my mistake and I am responsible” the possibilities for learning will move towards you. Admission of a mistake, even if only privately to yourself, makes learning possible by moving the focus away from blame assignment and towards understanding. Wise people admit their mistakes easily. They know progress accelerates when they do."
Jul 27, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
On Being and Deliciousness, with Wil Shipley
A fascinating, wide-ranging interview with a leading software architect and entrepreneur.
Jul 22, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Alas, Poor Leader... Hamlet Offers Some Lessons On How Not To Lead
"Based on a cursory inspection, Hamlet would seem to hold great promise as a model of leadership. After all, the guy was Prince of Denmark, a job ripe with leadership potential. When you hold a title like king, queen or prince, it's usually a sign that leadership is in the cards for you."
Jul 9, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Post-Project Analysis: A Strategy for Performance Improvement
"Your department has just finished a big project. Your team members did well, but did not perform perfectly. You are tempted to briefly talk to the members who need a little feedback, pull the plug, and call it a day. It's Miller time, right? Not if improvement is your goal and you want your team to do even better on the next project. For that to happen, it's time to gather the troops and analyze what happened."
Jul 9, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Hold or Fold? Sizing Up Business Risk
"Every bet—large or small, corporate or personal—puts you into a game. And whatever the game, at some point your participation ends. Sometimes it ends because the game is over for all the players, sometimes because your participation is terminated by others, and sometimes because you've chosen to exit the game." A model for choosing when you exit.
Jun 26, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
One group of doctors changes its ways
"The rising cost of medical-malpractice insurance has hit many doctors, especially surgeons and obstetricians. But one specialty has largely shielded itself:
Anesthesiologists pay less for malpractice insurance today, in constant dollars, than they did 20 years ago. That's mainly because some anesthesiologists chose a path many doctors in other specialties did not. Rather than pushing for laws that would protect them against patient lawsuits, these anesthesiologists focused on improving patient safety. Their theory: Less harm to patients would mean fewer lawsuits."
Jun 25, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Empty Thoughts, or Do Zen Monk Robes Have Pockets?
How much stuff do you carry in your pockets every day that you don't need?
Jun 25, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Tricks of the Trade
How to do it right, the way the pros do. Includes the handy how to fold a fitted sheet
Jun 17, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Personal Mantras
Little bits of philosophy + inspiration. I particularly like "smaller smaller" and "don't do nothing".
Jun 11, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Logo Trends 2005
"The word 'trend' seems to raise the little hairs on the back of some designers’ necks. Everybody wants to be a you-know-what-setter; no one wants to acknowledge the aftermath. But as we march toward LogoLounge.com’s fifth anniversary, we’ve discovered that trends have become something impossible — and maybe unwise — to ignore."
Jun 10, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Readability Test
How easy-to-read is what you write? According to this test, my Jack Welch entry is about as difficult-to-read as a Readers' Digest -- just slightly less-difficult than most of my entries.
Apr 27, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
COLOURlovers
Oooo color palettes (many that work!).
Apr 11, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
So you want to be a consultant?
Apr 3, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Writing, Briefly
This is why I blog.
Apr 2, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Getting Real: Pick two - scope, timeframe, or budget
Mirrors an old software development saw -- "Fast. Good. Cheap. Pick two." Solid advice!
Apr 2, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
How to Forecast Growth at a Startup
"Forecasting business revenue and expenses during the startup stage is really more art than science." Tips to said art.
Mar 23, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Icons
Evolution of icons in OSes. Are things really better now?
Mar 22, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload
Much of this seems actively awful (ignore e-mail?), but some of the simpler, composing-oriented tips are good.
Mar 11, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
How to Start a Startup
"You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed."
Mar 11, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Is it Time to Start a Business?
From Guy Kawasaki: "This list is for entrepreneurs who want to avoid getting bogged down in theory and unnecessary details. My assumption is that your goal is to change the world--not study it. If your attitude is 'Cut the crap and just tell me what I need to do,' then this checklist is for you." (Also see Geoff's latest post)
Mar 3, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Essential Fonts for Designers
For the Web, and for free!
Mar 3, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Scoring the Super Bowl Ads 2005
Feb 7, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
The First Five Slides: Unlocking the Story Buried in Your Presentation
"If you use bullet points in your PowerPoint presentations, it’s probably because writing bullets helps you to build slides quickly and reminds you to cover all the points you want to make. But although bullet points may help you to do many things, one thing they cannot do is help you to tell a story."
Feb 5, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Apple Voted #1 Brand In World
"Swedish furniture chain Ikea, whose global network now extends to 35 countries, takes third place in the global ranking, while ubiquitous coffee chain Starbucks just shades Al Jazeera in the brand-impact stakes." (Google is #2.)
Jan 30, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
80-Hour Weeks are Bunk
Basic argument: if you're going tocompete by working longer hours, you're playing the other guy's game. Play your own game. Corrollary: if you have a programming background, you know that all real advancement comes from laziness. If you work 80 hours, there's no incentive to be lazy.
Jan 30, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
10 Ways To Use Blogs For Managing Products
"Blogs aren’t just for marketing - there are many areas of the business where they can help improve information flow, reduce clutter and avoid the dreaded “but I didn’t know about that” situation. Here’s ten ways that we’ve used blogs for managing projects - both internally and with our clients."
Jan 12, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Simple Startup Flubs To Avoid
"With novices facing so many challenges, tripping over any of these seven common mistakes can be fatal. Don't let that happen to you." Matches my experiences pretty closely.
Jan 1, 2005 in Making Good Stuff
Cleaning Your Bedroom And Improving the World
"Over the past year, I’ve tried to apply this bedroom cleaning prioritization technique to help improve, in a small way, the open source desktop computing experience."
Dec 29, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Structured Procrastination
"I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things. This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish and the good use they make of time."
Dec 27, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Heineken USA Creates Advertising Panel
"Brewer Heineken USA on Wednesday said it had created an independent panel to review complaints about its advertising amid rising scrutiny over the effects of alcohol marketing... three experts on public policy, advertising and psychiatry had agreed to serve one-year terms on its review panel."
Dec 24, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
The Graphing Calculator Story
"I used to be a contractor for Apple, working on a secret project. Unfortunately, the computer we were building never saw the light of day. The project was so plagued by politics and ego that when the engineers requested technical oversight, our manager hired a psychologist instead. In August 1993, the project was canceled. A year of my work evaporated, my contract ended, and I was unemployed. I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple's doors, so I just kept showing up."
Dec 21, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Idleness Is Good
"His staff choose their own managers, set their own salaries and take breaks in the office hammocks. So how did businessman Ricardo Semler ever become a millionaire?"
Dec 20, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Interview With Thomas Keller
"We don't want to be involved in any trends, we want to be involved in a solid repertoire of great food, great service, great ambience. That's the trend."
Dec 15, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Whatever Happened to SGI?
"In California there's a computer manufacturer that makes powerful machines beloved by a tiny niche of creative users, featuring a media-oriented Unix operating system and stunning industrial design. But it's not Apple Computer."
Dec 14, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Seven Ways a Prospect Will Waste Your Time
"Harsh, maybe, but when I first started consulting, it seemed that just about everyone wanted to meet with me to talk about business -- naturally under the guise of potentially hiring me to help realize those marketing goals and objectives."
Dec 13, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
How to Get More Done in Less Time
Potentially a good idea.
Dec 3, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
TV Chefs That Don't Bite
"The personality-driven recipe files of Emeril Lagasse, Nigella Lawson, Rachael Ray, Jamie Oliver, even Jacques Pepin entertain us, but they don't teach us much cooking... It's the geeky cooking shows we devour in search of explanations, technique, equipment tests and, yes, entertainment..."
Dec 2, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Microsoft's 21 Rules Of Thumb For Shipping Great Software
Sep 13, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Google's Software Principles
An ethical approach to how software should behave.
May 20, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Release 14 of the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
Download an Access or plain text file of all of the USDA's nutritional information on pretty much all the food out there.
Apr 18, 2004 in Making Good Stuff
Bring Back The Manuals
Remember those brilliant, well-written, informative 500-page manuals that used to come with the software you just spent $499 on? So do I, and I miss them! I literally learned how to use Photoshop in 1995 from the manual that came with PS 3. It's time software firms gave us good manuals again!
Apr 15, 2004 in Making Good Stuff