The transition to remote life is upon us. You are probably using Zoom or Google Hangouts or Microsoft teams to get work done, and maybe also connect to your family members. The internet is abuzz with memes which convey these ideas much better than I can express in mere words. Well-edited artwork aside, if you …
Tag: Art
Inventors and Investors
Since the last 5 years, I have been fortunate to rebuild my career as a product designer. During this time, I was also fortunate enough to invest in two startups, both doing fairly well. This led me to quite a few interactions with the 'creative types' and the 'business types'. One being focused on feeling, …
Bullish on crypto
I am positive about cryptocurrencies on a 10+ year horizon. But when I talk about them, my arguments are not solid enough. So here I will try to articulate some reasons for the positive belief. Reason One: Successful Role Models Fred Wilson, Chamath Pahilapithiya, and Peter Thiel, all of whom I look up to for …
Hitting a target you can’t see
Around 40 days ago, I articulated a purpose for writing here - to hit targets I can't see. I have seen some effects, especially in hitting new ideas. But hopefully there is more to come. I find a reinforcement of this idea echoed by an artist/technologist: You can’t keep your gaze tightly fixed on the …
Looking at Users
(Note: If you are reading this in email, I recommend reading it on the site, as this post has informative images) People look at people differently. Thus they come to radically different conclusions, and get different ideas about them. Users as numbers and dots Some (like marketers) see users/people/humans as pure abstractions. Dots, or numbers. …
Mythology and Innovation
Few days back I shared a few posts which mentioned how innovation and growth stagnated starting at around the 1970s. I wonder if it was also co-related with a drop in mythology and superstition. When I read about people during the 60s (especially in California and New York), there are references to mystical books like …
Ways of seeing
Three ways of seeing. First, how developers, especially back-end engineers, look at humans: That cog in the system. The human with a line as an arm and a circle as a face. And we get it. Because most of the time, back-end engineers are looking at the following images to learn and apply their craft: …
Art is not an option
Just yesterday, out of some reflections over a long walk, I wrote that Everyone should make Art, and today I stumbled on this talk by Jordan Peterson. Some of the interesting quotes from the video: "Beauty is unbelievably crucial to economic development." "Buy a damn piece of art, find one that really speaks to you." …
Everyone should make Art
I just did a google search on 'everyone should code'. These are the top 3 results: It's almost a religion, everyone should do it. This worldview is wrong. To be clear, I agree that learning to code will help almost everyone (I worked as a coder for a year), as coding makes you a disciplined …
