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I have always loved RSS because it gave me just the slightest bit of control and measure of accountability for the sites and blogs I read. I was able to sit back and opt out of most of the chatter, receiving only the important stuff without the risk of falling for false controversies and inaccurate news. I could spot editorial trends, identify site-biases, develop affinities for particular writers or aversions to others, and generally get the news on my terms. When a site stopped delivering a quality product, I had the satisfying ability to withdraw my subscription.
Apparently that power was threatening.
Our Regressive Web. Full-content feeds are like instant Instapaper. -
Read more: “Stretching the numbers with new success metrics” on Kickstarter
Quantify your creative output (reblogging doesn’t count). Note: the metal ruler itself does not stretch.
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To an outside observer, it looks like we’re, like, the least disciplined people in the world (and, you know, in a way we are), but it’s the unpredictability that keeps everything fun. When the guys decide it’s too dang sunny to work and pile into a car and go to the mountains, nobody says, “Hey, we’ve got to work.” Because we do work, all the freaking time. What we have to do is play.
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Humans are incredibly good at trying new and random things when they get instant feedback.
Wil Shipley. That’s the great thing about the physical world. -
Final Twine hardware
We tend to elevate artisanal, individually made objects for the exceptional care put into their creation. But as much human effort goes into making a great machine-made object. Mass production is itself an artform, and a modern miracle.
Friends, I can attest to this. We see the light at the end of the tunnel for Twine (which of course then leads to a narrow bridge over a canyon), and now I hope to find a bit more time to share this and other miracles I’ve experienced in the last several months.
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Given everything a phone can do, suggesting that the screen is the most important thing about it seems like a misunderstanding of what’s powerful in there. For me, the single most powerful aspect of the mobile phone is that it’s connected to other people and other things.
A conversation between Rob Walker and co-founder of Area/Code, Kevin Slavin : Observatory: Design Observer. Questioning the faith placed in AR (like QR, right?), but there’s a bigger philosophy here. My perfect phone is forgettable, saving my gaze for my environment. I don’t want to connect, I want to be connected. -
Your phone should know when you have a meeting across town and tell you to leave early because it’s going to start raining. It should wake you up at 5AM because there’s a fresh bed of snow on the hill and your better grab your sled before everyone else. It should tell you exactly when to leave the restaurant on your first date, timing it just perfectly so you both get stuck in a downpour trapped under that awning where you’ve planned the perfect first kiss.
Kickstarter blog, Featured Creator: Adam Grossman of Dark Sky. This is what even more data and context gets you. No comprehension, just the Right Thing happening. (But leave room for happenstance.) We backed Dark Sky.Posted on December 1, 2011 with 11 notes
Source: kickstarter.com
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Remember when everyone was sure that Apple’s tablet was going to cost around $1,000? That was 18 months ago. We’re spoiled.
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We outsourced the future.
When we crystallize our manufacturing processes and ship them to the factory Over There, we lose the ability to improve them ourselves. This isn’t felt immediately, but outsourcing means you’re paying someone else to get better at it, and then they can use that expertise for their own benefit when new opportunities come along.
But you’ll just move on to the Next Big Thing, right? Unfortunately, you’re at a disadvantage there, because even new product categories are built on expertise in existing ones. Pisano and Shih offer the example of the rechargeable battery market, which is swelling to supply the most expensive component to tomorrow’s electric cars. U.S. companies can’t compete here because battery technology has grown by leaps and bounds in Asia, ever since we farmed it out along with the rest of our consumer electronics in previous decades.
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We spent our weekend like Superman, bending steel. How was yours? What, it’s Thursday? Guess we took a long weekend.
MIT Media Lab, physical/digital designer. I hate computers.
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