There's a lot to learn about design when you know nothing about design 💎 Issue #60
Plus: Why there's productive hassle and things programmers can believe in.
Hello there👋
What’s up? ⚽
A new football season starts, next Monday, here:
I’ll be the first team analyst of the CF Perosinho, a club playing in the first division of the Porto district. You know, just 4 levels to climb and we can be fighting for a Champions League qualification. Exciting times.
And now on to what were the best things I found on the Internet this week.
New to me 💡
The Optimal Amount of Hassle | 3 min read
🚗 In a week where I left my car in the shop, for the second time in two weeks, with a problem that seems to elude all mechanics this article provided the needed perspective.
🥛 “Franklin Roosevelt – the most powerful man in the world whose paralysis meant the aides often had to carry him to the bathroom – once said, “If you can’t use your legs and they bring you milk when you wanted orange juice, you learn to say ‘that’s all right,’ and drink it.” Every industry and career is different, but there’s universal value in that mentality, accepting hassle when reality demands it.”
Things I believe | 9 min read
💾 Here’s a nice example of a list of beliefs and strategies about the craft of building software. One of the things I learned last week from ‘Leadership Step by Step’ is that it pays to distinguish between beliefs and strategies because it’s the former that originates the latter. If your belief contains “should” you’re probably talking about a strategy and what you’ll probably need to dig deeper to analyze what do you believe in that makes that strategy interesting for you.
🔎 Here are two examples from the list: “‘Good enough’ isn’t good enough.” and “Always look for better ways of doing things.” Notice the difference?
Christopher Alexander: A Primer | 93 min watch
🏗️ Christopher Alexander is an “architect and design theorist” and in this talk, we get a taste of his core principles of design, or in more concrete terms, the art of creating things that are a pleasure to use. You’ll get something out of this if you want to build a house, write a book, develop software, compose a song, arrange the books on the shelf, you name it. For example, why balconies should be more than 1.8m deep or otherwise you will not use them? Why should you start designing the garden first and then the house and not the other way around? Why do soviet-style buildings suck even more than you thought? The answers are provided and, pretty much all, the principles mentioned are re-usable in your creative endeavors.
Please help me grow this newsletter! I’d love if you shared it with your more curious friends.
A most incendiary tweet 🧯
This week in a gif ☕
High note ⚡
This issue cover picture comes from here.
Last issue most clicked link was Leaders Never Plead.
I hope you enjoyed these last minutes as much as me putting this together.
You can also show some love by clicking that tiny ❤️ at the top of the email. It would help spread the word. Or you can provide candy bars 🍫.
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Until next week,
Filipe