Notes

Notes from 2017

311 notes

Dec 2017

Moving paper around is so painful. I don't understand why it is so difficult and time-consuming to roll my retirement funds over to a new account. I feel like I'm trapped in this endless cycle of mailing physical documents.

Someone at the @nfl needs to explain the officiating in this #ATLvsNO game.

This game has some of the worst officiating I've seen. #ATLvsNO

How does that pass interference flag get picked up? #ATLvsNO

The more I think about it, the more I dislike using Toggles/Switches in interfaces. I know it's a standard iOS element, but for other than the most basic enable/disable items checkboxes are more clear.

Too much fiat chasing too few assets—that's at least one explanation for real estate and Bitcoin prices.

I've got wine and chicken nuggets—all the Christmas party essentials.

I hope anti-trust regulators have their eye on this—Walt Disney to buy Fox for $52.4B bbc.com

“When you look at large manufacturing companies, it becomes very clear that the machine that makes the machine is just as important as the machine itself.” ben-evans.com

Fantastic observation on China's advantage in manufacturing.

In the West those who create financial instruments are often the most rewarded. In China is those who create businesses and products.

news.ycombinator.com

Thread · 2 posts

Trying to decide what audiobook is up next. Considering BTC just hit $15,000, I'm thinking The Snowball (Warren Buffett bio) or Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Thoughts?

What are the chances Bitcoin hits $25,000 before the Dow hits $25,000? Right now it doesn't seem likely, but it does seem possible.

Nov 2017

Fun fact: Alabama was 13/13 on 4th downs this season until Auburn's last stop.

This random astronomer on reddit is claiming that the astronomy community has not ruled out that this interstellar rock is an abandoned spaceship. Take that for what you will. reddit.com

By the way, happy Thanksgiving to all you good-looking Twitter folks!

Be skeptical of any law or policy with "Freedom" in it.

What is Uber? An app? A taxi company? Logistics software? @matt_levine thinks most of Uber's value comes from regulatory arbitrage.

I wish there was a way to follow people on @instagram, but hide their stories. There are lot of people with great photos, but too many story posts.

Damn, @Sony's Playmemories isn't supported in High Sierra yet. Every time I connect the camera, my computer freezes.

Oct 2017

It's always interesting going back through old @sketchapp files. For example. I have no idea what this artboard was trying to portray.

I have to admit, @captureonepro has also exceeded my expectations.

Would absolutely recommend to anyone trying to leave Adobe.

Mapping a reply to R isn't a great shortcut @office365. Every time I want to refresh the browser tab (CMD+R), I end up opening a reply.

Trying to think of an application that uses a masonry grid, but doesn't include photos—thoughts?

This article on post-scarcity economic is spectacular. Every paragraph has an astute observation. buff.ly!

Atlanta notched second-highest boom rate among big-city economies—I'm still skeptical about Amazon coming here. buff.ly

I recently discovered that there is a port of Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic to iOS and Android—15 years later the game is still a blast!

Suggestion for @googlefonts—I'd love to filter by number of styles. Often families with just one style aren't terribly useful.

Every time I see a ridiculous password requirement, I wonder if it's just going to be saved in plain text.

Just wanted to point out that there have been some pretty solid gifs from the dropbox redesign.

Kevin McCallister from Home Alone looking at a small framed picture with a stunned expression

Sep 2017

I hate when websites use cursors inappropriately and use too many different cursors on a page. This site does both. colorz.fr

Why Does Sweden Have So Many Start-Ups? Mostly, because it is easier to take risks. buff.ly

The video of the interface in the Model 3 is terrifying. You have to use the screen to turn on windshield wipers? jalopnik.com

I love football, but it's obvious that a lot of things need to change—Aaron Hernandez Found to Have Severe CTE buff.ly

Is it weird that I find watching James May mumble to himself and reassemble appliances strangely therapeutic? youtube.com

A ton of clever inbound ideas here—How Intercom Generates $50 Million Annual Recurring Revenue sumo.com

Haha, I love waving at people who are not my Uber driver.

Perhaps my favorite photo from the entire trip. Two people in red vests paddling out in a yellow canoe. instagram.com

Aug 2017

Just finished watching Icarus. Can't recall another documentary where I was on the edge the entire time. Highly rec
imdb.com

More interesting than the eclipse is people watching the eclipse. Construction workers across the way.

Wow, Salesforce doesn't mess around with their flash notifications.

Just sent my extended family a shared @dropbox link of photos—along with details on how to view them. I'm still anticipating questions.

@Twitter, Is it just me or does the cursor not change to pointer when hovering a button or link anymore?

This game about game theory is incredible and absolutely worth 30 minutes of your time. ncase.me

This is fascinating. A DOTA 2 bot that beats professional players. Now pros want to use it to train. buff.ly

This is such a fantastic question about improving rule builders that require nested rules. buff.ly

It appears that U.S. Global Entry cards use NFC tech. That's a bad idea, right?

Jul 2017

Started using @PhaseOnePhoto's Capture One Pro for editing. Really happy with it so far—my workflow still needs some improvement though.

Recently finished the Fall and Rise of China. It is spectacular. If you're fascinated by history, you'll love it. audible.com

It's silly that I can't get a hamburger cooked medium in Canada—well, Alberta anyways.

The colors of all the lakes in Banff National Park are wild—no editing in this photo.

Just saw someone with a hacky sack for the first time since I was in high school.

@Wally_Hitchcock Awesome area! If you can find something near a MARTA station, the Flatiron is right next to the Peachtree Center Station.

While my commute is about to get longer, I am looking forward to more audiobook time.

Interesting idea—Allow Users to Purchase Temporarily 'Out of Stock' Products by Increasing the Delivery Time baymard.com

If you're going to have the inane password requirements, it makes more sense to email login links to users. github.com

Design without function has a name. It's called art—Fuck function. Lets make design pretty again. buff.ly

I've probably referenced this article a dozen times. It's a fantastic example of advanced filtering. buff.ly

Oh man, this is an incredible idea. I remember spending a ton of time on TacOps clan forums back in the day. guilded.gg

This is a seriously impressive bridge. You can't say that China isn't serious about infrastructure. bbc.com

This has to be the most persuasive landing page I've ever been on. Might be a questionable click, if you're at work. muzzleapp.com

The moving elements are a little distracting, but I love the use of layers for section breaks on this site! qonto.com

I love that @SlackHQ's blog is called Several People are Typing. It's such a recognizable experience within the app.

Jun 2017

Facinating paper on e-commerce sale improvements. Main takeaways: Reduced Stock, Countdowns and Interest are key. coveo.com

@NokiaHealth Please bring back the average trend lines that were in the Withings android application! That was one of my favorite features.

I like the new Twitter icons, but it feels like some of the font weights need to be adjusted. The rounded buttons and form fields are...meh.

Just pulled the trigger on a new iMac. Now, I just need to sell this display.

This makes it look like Skype is trying to compete with SnapChat instead of Slack—this has to be a huge mistake. teams.live.com

May 2017

I'm certain there is a correlation between product/engineering debt and the amount of settings in an application.

I always forget how much closer the gulf is to the sun.

While it's on my desktop, I might as well share my favorite gif.

Platter of chocolate chip cookies surrounding one giant cookie with a blue furry arm reaching in

I love spending 20 minutes yelling numbers at an automated phone only to have it tell me the system is down and I have to send them mail.

Forbes has to be the world's worst online publication. In addition to ads rendering the site unusable, they now have autoplay videos...

I just discovered clothing grids. Now all I want is more grids.

Apr 2017

It's amazing that as large as Uber is, Apple still has significant control over it. buff.ly

How to prevent future business investments in your country—Venezuela officials seize General Motors plant nbcnews.com

Not sure this is a good thing—Walmart is in advanced talks to acquire online men’s retailer Bonobos buff.ly

Captain of my kickball team is putting together walk out tunes for everyone. What should my song be?

What are some sites or products with multi-level navigation that you don't hate?

I just spent an hour talking about everything needed to create and ship podcast. Maybe it's worth a blog post?

Looking back at some of my photography from Italy a few years ago. There's something about doors. solomon.io

If any of you fine folks are looking for a new gig, SalesLoft is hiring Designers, Researchers and Engineers—Ping me salesloft.com

I cannot believe how loud my apartment's fire alarm is.

Today in mundane-but-interesting—Why Japan's Rail Workers Can't Stop Pointing at Things buff.ly

Mar 2017

I doubt there is a link between egg defaults and harassment. It will likely just continue with the new default. buff.ly

On Writing Well is missing from this list. It's a must-read for anyone writing non-fiction. buff.ly

Just finished Abstract on Netflix. I thought the most interesting episodes were on stage and interior design.

You know how I knew this was the place? They have PBR drafts.

Quora if full of the obscure, but interesting—What is the small black triangle on the inside of airplane walls? buff.ly

I could probably limit the number of classes generated, but that may mean undoing some of my existing work. Well, now I know.

Feb 2017

@dfosco Probably needs to tell people that I write and design stuff—but yeah Adelle Sans and Leitura News FTW!

New website concept is coming together. Copy still needs some work.

Since the upgrade to Mac OS Sierra is sass --watch has been killing my CPU. Anyone else experience this issue?

More and more I realize AI will leave no stone unturned. Humans will set Params and ask questions. AI will answer. wired.com

The questions are often more important than the answers—Generative design software will give designers superpowers dezeen.com

In a time of great powers and empires, just one region of the world experienced extraordinary economic growth. How? aeon.co

80s Guy: OK, let's work on your execuspeak.

80s Guy: I'm worried about BLANK.

Fry: Don't you worry about BLANK. Let me worry about BLANK.

I can't belive this Planet of the Apps thing has Apple's branding. It looks terrible on so many levels. youtube.com

Twitter friends: I'm going to be leaving Trustfuel. If you're looking for a product designer, I'm available. Shoot me a DM.

High 72 currently 34. What is the deal with this weather?

If google is going to use panels to display search results, they need a different UI for the search bar. buff.ly

It's too bad Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. It is almost certainly the best day for fried chicken sandwiches.

For a website largely used by designers, the UX of Typekit is horrendous. I want to use the back button to navigate to the previous page.

My father has waited 50 years for the Falcons to win the Super Bowl. I hope he doesn't have to wait another 18 for them to get a third shot.

I usually don't get caught up in sports, but this loss hurts. A win would have been great for the city.

Freeman's missed block and Edelman's catch were the difference makers in the game.

Well, it's satisfying to see how much of my Twitter feed hates the Patriots. That's a surprise.

I hope all the analysts saying the Falcons wouldn't put up 28 points eat their hats. #RiseUp

In case you were looking for some light product reading—why I refuse to use the term "Dashboard. "solomon.io

@smileysteve It's because they suck. My serious answer is that they add clutter and take away from the "chat" experience.

Jan 2017

Need to bring back this guy for the National Anthem in the Super Bowl. There's no such thing as too much saxophone. nfl.com

There is far too much emotion and far too little rationality for this to be an official press release.

Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org)@froomkin

WH statement on firing Yates. I think this was written by Trump himself. It’s that childish.

White House press release from January 30, 2017 saying acting Attorney General Sally Yates betrayed the DOJ

Casually at Moe's and Joe's dressed in a Catdog onesie.

I purchased a TV from @VIZIO six months ago. Why do they keep sending me emails advertising TVs?

Betting odds of winning the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season: New England Patriots 6/1, Atlanta Falcons 80/1.

Packers running their two minute offense with 2 minutes left in the third quarter.

The hatred of the @ParkTavern for hosting the Packers is probably excessive. With that said this is hilarious.

This is generally why we advise against in-app NPS surveys. Just email them to customers.

Going directly to college out of high school is a bad idea. If I were to do it again, I'd do a gap year. buff.ly

SnapChat's Story UI is intentionally (supposedly) difficult to use. I wonder if Instagram's stories causes them to rethink that decision?

Interesting thoughts on company structure. Though I am not sure about separating customer and product. feld.com

I like the @ParkTavern, but it is absolutely embarrassing that they would host the Packers with the Falcons in the playoffs. Poor judgement.

@PatOnPurpose It's not easy. I think the more difficult part is accomplishing things on a plane than writing on a phone.

Flight into Leon was 45 minutes early. Not sure how that happened, but I'm glad.

The only reason people buy Sling is for NFL RedZone. Nobody misses daytime TV. Check their subscribers in a month. buff.ly

The Kardashian business model is a reversal of others: Products are ads for people rather than the other way around. theoutline.com

The more time I spend on @Quora the more I like it. There are some especially good answers in the SaaS community.

It hasn't even started snowing and I can already feel myself going stir-crazy this weekend.

I'm still withholding judgement on Trump as a US President. However, I really dislike his open speculations. Things like this need to stop.

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!

No wonder I'm the only one on our standup. Had no idea today was a holiday.

Older notes from 2016