Short Thoughts 2024

Align with customers, not with peers.

In order to see, you must be silent.

Plans, promises, predictions. So often confused.

Are you trying to move people? Or trying to let people move?

Saying "trust me" is a bit suspicious.

Asking for transparency is a statement of distrust.

A good designer understands that a rock can be a hammer.

Are you designing letters or paragraphs? Be mindful of the scope.

Don't be confident, because it makes you look for advice on what to do. You should be looking for advice on what to avoid.

Learning is a living process, and from that point of view, talking is better than writing. You cannot discuss with written words.

Socrates would've preferred Zoom over Slack.

If you pretend to be weird or stupid, no one will suspect you. Because why would anyone want to be precieved as weird or stupid?

The Dao that can be told is not the true Dao.

Thinking is truly hard work. That's why "trust your intuition" is a such a popular advice.

People that don't have the stamina to do the hard work of thinking, often call for urgency, or try to frame the situation as a crisis.

Intelligent people are attracted to universal principles that can be applied to multiple problems. Stupid people are attracted to byzantine rules that don't makes sense and that no one else would bother to understand.

Use languages and protocols to invite. Use frameworks and libraries to exclude.

A good product can be used and understood without reading a manual. Intelligence and intuition is enough.

A good designer takes freedom from herself and gives it to the user.

Is design about adding or removing?

Assessing an individual candidate is different from assessing a group of candidates. You can't use the same criteria.

Spending time on analytical problems will reduce your ability to understand users and customers.

What you consider insightful is often just cleverly worded ideas that you already believe. Perhaps you imagine yourself using those words. Or perhaps you feel validated when a well spoken person express the same ideas as yours.

No one ever thought that Lucifer and Vesper were different wanderers.

You often make up ideas about others to feel good about yourself.