My little bucket of thought

[mikehickman]

It’s only once we recognize UX as “an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes” (to borrow Wikipedia’s definition of Total Quality Management) that we appreciate it’s truly massive scale, and how limiting it is for UX to be solely associated with specific (and usually screen-based) design practices.

User experience is strategy, not design : peterme.com

[amoregloriousdawn]

There is no beauty without some strangeness.

Edgar Allan Poe  (via sorakeem)

[nevver]

I don’t really know what I’m doing

[mikehickman]

Let’s respect each other, engage and be in the moment. Let us enjoy the presence of each other’s company and use the absence of technology to get into a conversation.

The Pastry Box Project | 23 April 2013, baked by Naz Hamid

[mikehickman]

It’s not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it’s about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then you’ll be a great cook. If it’s only about passion, sometimes you’ll be good and sometimes you won’t. You’ve got to come in every day with a strong desire. With passion, if you see the first asparagus of the springtime and you become passionate about it, so much the better, but three weeks later, when you’ve seen that asparagus every day now, passions have subsided. What’s going to make you treat the asparagus the same? It’s the desire.

Thomas Keller

[thebuddhayouknow]

2013 - A Simple Plan

I plan to be better this year.

I plan to be more compassionate, present, and kind. More patient, understanding, and thoughtful.

I plan to be more mindful that every moment is to be savored. Every friend and loved one is a blessing. Every encouragement and kindness is a gift.

[davidkendall]

Mind if I steal this list?

[mikehickman]

Stealing this one for myself

[pigmenting]

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Neil Gaiman  (via rainydaysandblankets)

[mikehickman]

Wow. It seems that Google might finally be starting to get the whole emotion thing. 

Zeitgeist 2012: Year In Review (by Google)

[dcpierson]

Dear Young Conservative

Dear young conservative,

My name is DC Pierson and I hope you are reading this. My ideal reader for this piece is an actual person under thirty years old who self-identifies as conservative. I would like it very much if this letter found readers beyond my typical (and beloved) echo chamber of liberal comedians and comedy fans. If you’re reading this and you’re not a young conservative, I’ll bet you’re friends with one on Facebook and I would love it if you could pass this along to them.

First off: I in no way mean for this to be patronizing. I’m not mocking you, young conservative. I know what it is to be a young conservative. I was one.

When I was in high school, in the early part of the first George W. Bush presidency, it seemed kind of cool and punk to me to identify as conservative. I didn’t agree with their social policies, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, what if all my liberal high-school-kid friends were wrong? It was a ton of fun to think of myself as the sole voice of reason among a bunch of wrong-headed young people who hadn’t read the same blogs I had, and hadn’t been introduced to Ayn Rand by their girlfriend last summer the way I had. 

Looking back on all that, on the times I argued with my History teacher in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other things, I am deeply ashamed. And this shame comes not from the fact that I now have different political beliefs, different political beliefs shared, in some form, by almost all of my colleagues and friends. I almost always relish having a minority opinion. It’s a stubborn, age-resistant part of my personality. I am still the guy who loves hating the thing everyone else likes, or liking the thing everyone else hates. I didn’t like the movie DRIVE very much. I know. Come at me. So I’d be the first person to want to have a political belief counter to the ones treasured by all my friends. I argue most frequently with people I’m actually in total agreement with. I’m just that asshole. So it’s not that I felt the need to join the herd and now that I have, I’m ashamed to have ever felt differently than I do now.

I am ashamed because I accepted into my heart and head a system of thought I now believe to be, to borrow a term from my old friend Ayn Rand, anti-life: that government should only exist to make it easy for businesses to do business, the idea that it is our civic duty to have no civic duty. I no longer believe that the way to make things better for everyone is to let people with money do whatever they want, whenever they want. I feel I’ve earned the crap out of this belief, given that I used to believe precisely the opposite, and I’ve taken a long journey to the side I stand on now.

And I urge you, before you dismiss me as a long-haired Hollywood goofball liberal, to read on, and to listen to me in every bit the earnest that I am writing to you.  Please don’t pull the dismissive ripcord in your mind, the one labeled “You’re just saying that because you’re biased, etc…” that all of us use every day to reject the idea that someone who disagrees with us may have a point. This ripcord is cynicism, plain and simple, and it mars political discourse and if we continue to pull it every time someone starts to say something that doesn’t jibe with what we already think, life on this planet will soon be quite literally impossible.

So: 

Read More

[bijan]

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them

Ernest Hemingway (via david)

[mikehickman]

Sunrise made it worth being up early enough to see it. – View on Path.

[mikehickman]

Trust, fear, compassion, empathy. It all goes out the window with a screen name. Please, think before you post, especially if you’re a teenager.

Permanent | Will Smidlein

Some very wise words if you do anything on the internet. 

[icanread]

[mikehickman]

Wet Lu is not happy with me tonight. with Betsy at Old Town, Alexandria – View on Path.

[mikehickman]

I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos. That makes me want to grab people on the street and say: ‘Have you HEARD THIS?'

Neil deGrasse Tyson

[youmightfindyourself]

By: Andrew Gall, McSweeney’s

Dear esteemed prospective client:

I can’t wait to get started on this exciting new advertising campaign for your product/service. It is truly a great opportunity.

By entering into this freelance contract with me, I agree to provide you with the following materials for your new advertising campaign:

A mood board session, in which my team will provide you with 2-3 mood boards that, while appearing to be simple pictures clipped from magazines and then pasted onto black foam core, are, in actuality, THE FUTURE FOR YOURBRAND’S DIRECTION. These pictures will be edgy and artsy and will take your brand into a new edgy and artsy direction. There will be at least two photographs of Ashton Kutcher.

A dozen made up words related to your product that will “draw consumers in.” These shall include, but not be limited to, words with the following suffixes: “–tastic,” “-tacular,” and “–riffic.” Also, while you probably already know this, I was the one who came up with the word “crumbelievable” in 2007 to describe the Keebler company’s new line of coffee cake cookies. It goes without saying that following the institution of this new word as a product line tagline, sales proceeded to go through the roof.

A logo exploration that includes at least five unique logo designs. These will consist of differently sized circles and in one case the words will be rotated to a landscape rather than a portrait view. If you want your actual company name below the logo, that will be part of round two and will require additional dollars and conceptual exploration time.

Five conceptual print advertising ideas that don’t actually contain your logo or company name at all.

Three television storyboards for proposed television commercials. The explosions, large groups of people, and time of year you will see depicted in these storyboards will be occurrences that can only be shot in New Zealand, so these three ideas must be shot in New Zealand in order to be an effective advertisement for your product/service. This is non-negotiable.

At least one media-agnostic concept that involves a Rube Goldberg machine.

A direct mail concept that you won’t open or ever see. (It’s actually a piece of my son’s lined notebook paper with sketches of monsters on it, not that it matters.)

A web homepage layout, which will be a rough sketch with black pen on white paper, on which I will have taken the liberty to draw boxes to indicate where you should put your web content. If you’d like to see this concept “come to life,” it will require an additional estimate and 5 more weeks of conceptual exploration time.

A mobile device layout, which is a new offering. This will be a slightly smaller version of the web homepage layout. This, as a “new media” offering, is not part of the standard scope of work and will require additional funds and weeks of conceptual exploration time.

Fourteen unique PR stunts that include ways to build a “buzz” for your brand. Half of these will be ideas for celebrity endorsements or involvements that aren’t possible either because you can’t afford them, the celebrity actually hates your product/service, or because the celebrity is dead or fictional or trademarked (e.g., Aquaman). The remaining seven will all involve putting a large billboard somewhere in Times Square in various locations.

Two-to-Six “viral” ideas that involve a cat.

Please find enclosed my contract, which I request that you sign and return at your earliest convenience.

Again, my sincerest thanks for considering me for this project.

Sincerely, Andrew Gall Freelance Advertising Professional

[mikehickman]

Spring: Sit on the porch with sweet tea.

Summer: Sit on the grass with lemonade.

Autumn: Sit on the porch with apple cider.

Winter: Sit by the fireplace with hot chocolate.