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“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Does AI mean we are entering an era of raw creativity – an era where the technical barrier for production no longer exists?
Mike Perry, founder of the Tavern Agency, argues that technology is an enabler, not a replacement. Recent job market research suggests the opposite though, with strong evidence suggesting that GenAI is already impacting the labor market when it comes to creative jobs.
It was the last day at home. After spending most of the year away, I often wonder if this will be the last time I see my mother. At the same time, it was painful that Bento refused to give her a goodbye hug.
Since becoming a parent, I really don’t like how little control I have over my time during my visits to Portugal. I constantly have to be available for others and prioritize their needs. Vacations used to be the total opposite.
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The impact of AI in our world should be the opposite of more. People already live busy lives, with little time and little focus. And even without AI, companies are constantly bombarding us with more. Ads. Products. Stuff. I honestly can’t imagine anyone dreaming of a world filled with even more stimuli. Maybe it’s the minimalist in me, but I wish that when companies consider to integrate AI in their processes, would opt for a different approach. Less focused on speed and output. More focused on improving quality. Doing less. But doing it better.
The websites featured on Lowwwcarbon are not of the same creative quality as most of the work found on platforms like Awwwards. But there's huge value in designing something that is both good and has minimal environmental impact, especially if we consider that the carbon footprint of the internet is equivalent to that of all the flights around the world.
The Office of Ordinary Things is the design studio behind the branding for Daylight Computers. They define themselves as a climate, sustainability, and social good-focused design studio who “only work(s) with organizations who seek to benefit the earth or society”. This is a strong, and maybe the best positioning I have come across for a branding agency looking to do good – with work that looks good.
A lot of stuff on Substack Notes reads like: Don’t do it like you do, do it like I think you should do. I hope it doesn’t become some sort of LinkedIn for writers.
I’m spending a few days with my friends Rocha and Lara in the Lourinhã area. Today, we visited the Dinopark, and Bento was beyond excited. I’ve never seen him so happy.
Once in a while, I design something that feels novel, looks good, and employs a process I haven't seen used before. But, as often happens, I tend to quickly move to something else, stopping short of exploring it to its full potential. I hope this time will be different.
I’m really happy with my job. Although I’m working harder than in my previous job, it feels different and more satisfying. My writing has been suffering though. Especially since I now work from home. In the past, I would write during my daily commute.
I bought my mom a new TV to replace her 20 year old Sony Bravia. It's incredible how cheap and feature-packed modern TVs are, though they can't compete with the sound quality of old Sony TVs.
There are many car brands that I would never consider buying. Most of them simply because I don’t have the money. But there is one brand that I wouldn't buy even if I had all the money in the world.
Today we’re flying to Portugal for Christmas. It used to be fun, but now it is just tiring. I’d rather stay home.
In the last couple of months the line dividing work life has been so thin that it doesn’t really feel like today I’m starting vacations.
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Getting Disney+ was a mistake. My evening reading and writing sessions have been replaced by binge-watching Star Wars shows.
Why do we keep listening to eccentric billionaires as if they have our best interests in mind, especially when there is evidence that a significant number of CEOs at the largest companies in the world exhibit psychopathic traits?
There’s a certain tendency to look up, celebrate, and listen to people who run large businesses or manage significant amounts of money, as if those things were even a good measure of a person’s worth.
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Toys 'R Us was planing a rebrand right before filling for bankruptcy. Tupperware rebranded right before filling for bankruptcy. Jaguar has been in trouble for some time and now they rebrand. It this also a last ditch effort?
Jesus, this back pain is killing me.
What the hell is going on with democracy? Biden has pardoned his son, while Trump pardoned himself, family members and gave them government positions. To hell with nepotism.
Once again, it's the weekend, and Bento is facing another virus. This is a real struggle.
For the first time, we went to see a Christmas play at the theater. Unfortunately, on the way home, Bento got sick and threw up on the street. Poor little guy probably caught a bug at kindergarten, again.
First project I had at the new job was to develop this years Black Friday campaign. Today it was the best performing Black Friday campaign in the history of the company. And not only that, but it was the best day in the history of the company.
Without regulation, businesses will just keep optimizing for efficiency. And when it comes to the usage of AI in movies, it probably means a much less human movie making process.
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Travelling to Berlin for a team offsite. When I was about to leave Bento tried to put on his jacket to come with me. He couldn’t, but it broke my heart.
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And now I’m finally 40. Not that it deserves any sort of special celebration, but I really enjoyed toasting with a couple of good friends at the Hofbräuhaus. Bento also had a great time at the kids corner, where he wanted to wrestle me the whole time.
Coca-cola released an AI remake of their classic truck commercial. According to some research, people like it. Probably unrelated, but the stock market seems to think differently though.
So if the US was behind the destabilization that triggered Putin, how come that under Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, Europe (and not the US) has to pay to rebuild and protect Ukraine?
I am so undecided that I tend to distance myself from other undecided people. I like decisiveness.
Can’t believe that Scavengers Reign got cancelled. Especially after winning an Emmy and being nominated for another. It’s such a beautiful show.
A poem that Steve Jobs sent to a friend in 1974: "Listen well everyone. Great is the problem of Life and Death. No forever. Gone, gone. Awake, awake. Each one. Don’t waste your life."
So much talk about building distinctive brand assets, but little talk about throwing away distinctive brand assets. With the recent Galp rebrand, it’s 20 years down the drain.
It’s been a couple of extremely busy weeks at work. I’ve been working overtime almost daily, my weitin is suffering, but I’m enjoying it. It feels good to make a difference.
Sociopaths always seem attracted to power. But it feels worse when they get second chances.
I don’t like slack. It’s schizophrenic how people are supposed to do focused work while at the same time being flooded with channels and messages. I like the idea of relying on email and ignoring slack messages unless you’re tagged.
We started looking for a new flat around April this year. It took a while, but it seems like we finally found our place. Nothing is signed yet and moving in will still take some time, but the first steps are done. Fingers crossed.
You can’t even consider X a proper rebrand. Most people still call it twitter. I’ve been in branding for a while and I’ve never seen such disaster.
Today, after a years long pause, I have started making music again. It takes up a lot of time, but just like when I was 17 years old, I love how meditative it is. This time around, I am experimenting with Drambo and an iPad-only workflow.
We had planned to visit Assaf and his newborn in Berlin, but we had to cancel our plans. It’s a long weekend, at home.
Today was Kathrin's Halloween birthday party. I was looking forward to it, but as it happens lately every time we make plans, Bento developed a fever during the night, so we had to stay home.
I can't believe the news that North Korea is sending troops to Ukraine. Yet another foreign country sending troops into a European nation, and it seems that Europe can do little or is unwilling to do so.
There seems to be someone at Apple who enjoys making fun of us. First, the placement of the infamous charging socket, and now the new Mac Mini power button. But some people would defend Apple even if they placed the power button inside the Mac, next to the HD.
I always shower in the morning. Every single day. And now, whenever I bathe Bento in the evening, he expects me to join him in the bathtub. Every single day.
We went to a dinosaur show. It was very, very low-tech, but still a lot of fun. Bento really thought he was touching real dinosaurs.
I must admit, the websites featured on Lowwwcarbon are not of the same creative quality as most of the work found on platforms like Awwwards. But there's huge value in making something good with minimal environmental impact, especially if we consider that the carbon footprint of the internet is equivalent to that of all the flights around the world.
We visited a cool apartment and I couldn’t be more confused as what to do now.
The Office of Ordinary Things is the design studio behind the branding for Daylight Computers. They define themselves as a climate, sustainability, and social good-focused design studio who “only work(s) with organizations who seek to benefit the earth or society”. This is a strong, and maybe the best, positioning I have come across for a branding agency looking to do good.
I just saw a child wailing in agony after being torn to pieces in footage from Gaza. Jesus. And they double tapped the scene after help arrived… I just want to hug my kid. It’s heartbreaking.
Approaching my fourties is bittersweet. I really enjoy the financial freedom to make my own choices, but I struggle with the fact that some big choices are now life long choices.
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The weather was nicer, so we met Ana for coffee and cake with the kids. Bento offered Vera one of his toys. I feel proud about that. He’s a good kid.
I took Bento to the playground in the morning, but we had to leave abruptly as it started raining when we were playing pretend trains. We stayed home for the rest of the day – ended up buying two new books.
It’s really fascinating how, over the course of 20 years, the internet went from “free information” to “let’s steal information and make money.” Big tech is destroying the internet, or at least changing it for the worse.
I just had a video call to discuss the pricing of a product, but only after the call I realized I had just talked to one of the graphic designers whose work I admire the most. I should have googled a bit.
I wish I knew how to repair my cameras, especially since my go-to camera repair guy vanished without a trace. A couple of years ago the film advance lever broke on two of my film cameras and I haven’t used them ever since.
After the op, Bento breathes better, but sleeps as poorly as before. Can't wait for him to sleep the whole night – or at least a big part of it. It's taking a toll on us.
A former Netflix employee shared that the company intentionally makes it difficult to find the "continue watching" option; people watch more content that way. I guess this is a common problem of products with widespread adoption, where the focus shifts from improving the product to improving business metrics by worsening the product.
According to Google I guess I'm a Polyglot. Eek.
Parks, trains, and buses. In the afternoon, we also went to a book store that has a Brio train set for kids to play with. There was a lovely children's book there about three little animals searching for the source of love, but it's still too soon for Bento. I ended up buying a book about a little ghost who can't sleep.
Previously, I had to dance techno every single day before going to bed. Now I need to fight Judo while watching the Olympics' final between France and Japan.
Having a little kid is an emotional roller-coaster, almost every single day. From the day they are born, there is a constant fear that something could be wrong, or that you might make a mistake. Even the people at the Kindergarten seem to enjoy adding to these worries with every small concern that becomes monumental once it comes out of their mouth.
This environment topic has bothered me for most of my adult life. I want to have a positive impact. But a positive impact that doesn’t end with changing one’s habits, like becoming vegan, buying less, separating trash, or using public transportation. Such choices matter, obviously, but I can’t help but feel a sense of hypocrisy in how I ignore my own work as part of a system that perpetuates the very problems that bother me. What is the role of a designer in all of this?
Tonight was a boys' night. We had fish and chips, danced to funk music, and fought pretend judo. Life is good, and Bento went to bed happy.
Design education encourages new designers to use design as a tool for social change, and sells us on the idea that fancy design methodologies can solve all kinds of problems. But everything always stays the same, because the reality is that the system keeps incentivizing companies chasing infinite growth on the back of a world with finite resources. Unfortunately, we can’t design think our way out of that, as the solution to this problem is a paradoxically simple one that pits the Mies Van der Rohe design philosophy against our very own human psychology: less is more, but people always want more.
New reports predicting a cataclysmic temperature rise not so far into the future have been making the rounds, again. Since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in 2006*,* these warnings have been more or less recurrent. By now, I wonder – are we even capable of preventing it?
Received a notification on Instagram that reads: "You're only 9 likes away from earning your next achievement." It’s so sad what Instagram has become.
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War is not a movie where the good guy wins and the bad guy loses. Good people are also losing. They are being the target of extreme violence without ever deserving that fate. What do we believe the outcome of this will be?
I love being a designer, but I have a love/hate relationship with the constant change in tools, processes, and expectations. It makes it exciting, but also exhausting, especially considering that I still have to work for several decades.
Again on the train. It feels good to start again. A lot of meetings, and a lot of meeting new people. But now my body hurts from sitting for so long.
Took a 6 hour train for my first day at the new job. I’ll be doing this once in a while. It’s a lot of time, but it feels good having some time for myself.
We are back home now, watching Shark Dog and playing with trains and cars all day. He is doing well, and that’s all that matters.
It’s never too late to start something new, but it might be too late to start something old.
Bento had a surgery early this morning. It breaks my heart that he doesn’t understand what’s happening, and the thought of something going wrong scares me. Everything went fine though.
Today was my last day at New Work SE. It was still a busy work week – in a weirdly idealistic sense, I always want to get the job done, even if the job can never truly be be finished. It was the best one I’ve ever had, with some of the most talented colleagues and partners I’ve ever met. But, you only live once, and life is but an adventure. And now it's time for a new one.
"Don’t wait, don’t wait, don’t you dare wait to release your magic into the world because time spent waiting adds ups, and the regret compounds, and most of your belongings will end up in a dumpster a week after you die anyways." This is something I’ve told my mom countless times in the past. Closets filled with stuff she’ll never wear again will face the same fate as the stuff of my late father. Not in a dumpster, but in the hands of someone who finally gives it some use.
People are obsessed with likes, follows, retweets, and views. To some extent, I guess this is due to the very nature of the medium. Why would you share anything in the internet if no one sees it?
In the past I’ve read a couple of books about twitter. The key difference is that those were more founding story kind of books. Character Limit is probably the exact opposite. I love the pun in the title.
It’s my last week at work and I’m getting stressed with all the things I still need, and want to do.
Again, there are reports that Earth's temperature will increase cataclysmically in the next few decades. I think we're doomed. Not because we're incapable of coming up with solutions, but because, by design, we will never be able to implement those solutions.
Terminator Zero is such a good show. The Rings of Power is not, but I’m watching it anyway.
Life can change in a split second. At 2am, a doctor came over and diagnosed Caterina with appendicitis. She went directly to the hospital to undergo surgery in the afternoon. Before the procedure, she sent me a message saying, "If something happens, tell Bento mom loves him." Everything went fine, but for a moment, I imagined a world where it wouldn't.
Tupperware rebranded recently, and now they file for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, I have the impression that this is somewhat common: companies doing rebrands as a last ditch effort.
Sometimes you need to try changing things in order to realize that some things shouldn’t be changed at all.
Apple is becoming boring. With every Apple product event, including the one that happened a couple of weeks ago, I get the feeling that they keep hyping reissues of old devices with minor engineering and software improvements. Year over year, over year. It’s as if, since Steve left the room, industrial design at Apple was stripped out of its soul.
I have always had many side projects and hobbies. Skateboarding, playing the trumpet, running art collectives, doing street photography, or making music. Unfortunately, lately, the only hobby I find the time for is writing while on the train. Writing is also a form of creating, but I miss the other stuff so much.
Steve Jobs said and wrote a lot of thoughtful stuff, but I constantly see quotes being misattributed to him, as is the case of the “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” manifesto at the centre of the iconic "Think Different" campaign developed in the 90’s. Fun fact: he initially hated it. As Laurene Powell Jobs puts it in the introduction of the free (!) online book Make Something Beautiful, "The best way to understand a person is to listen to that person directly. And the best way to understand Steve is to listen to what he said and wrote over the course of his life". And that’s exactly what this book: the definite source for all the things Steve Jobs actually said and wrote.
Being a Designer is a life long struggle with 'imposter syndrome' and 'fear of missing out'. Especially with the internet and the constant exposure to the best of the best, those ones who do the work I wish I had done.
This statement, used by Steve Jobs when introducing the "Think Different" campaign to a small group of employees, really tells a lot about what brand building is all about: "This is a very complicated world. It's a very noisy world, and we're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us."
And when we arrived home... water damage. FML! Why don't people hire professionals to install stuff? I assume that's the problem, but I'm sure it is. Otherwise, why would water be raining down from the apartment upstairs?
I dislike strong works such as hate, but I really hate airlines. I’ve been through cancelled flights so often that it’s not funny anymore. Especially this time. Bento had an appointment at the hospital tomorrow for an important procedure, and he’ll miss it. Fuck!
I love that technology keeps evolving and that our devices can do more stuff with every new app, feature, and generation. The possibilities are endless and that’s addictive, but at the same time, I would love my phone to do much less.
During the holidays, I was going through my old stuff at my parents and found some gems. Now, I wish my walkman was still working.
I think designers act more in the realm of possibilities, with a certain naïveté, imagining what could be, rather than what should.
Just read a good essay on something that Substack reminds me of, but that I was unable to articulate – the small web.
Adding this book to my reading list. It must be inspiring if it inspired one of my favorite designers, Mike Cina.
Everyone I spoke to had good things to say about the Vila Galé Albacora hotel, but my experience was a little bit different. The location is great, but full of mosquitos. Loud music until 11 or 12 pm wouldn’t let us sleep. And, the staff didn’t even know what’s on the menu. It was one of the worse hotels I’ve ever been to.
I have some issues with the Tenrence Conrad quote that says "the designer's job is to imagine the world not how it is, but how it should be." Because it assumes that designers have all the wisdom and confidence needed to provide the right answers, every single time. I don’t think we do. I don’t think we are in the position to dictate how things, much less the world, should be.
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I really like Substack. I love finding unpopular people writing about unpopular stuff. It gives me a nostalgic feeling of the early 2000s internet.
It was great to see many family members at my niece Claudia's birthday party. The funniest moment was when Madalena started crying and shouting "Oh Bento! Oh Bento!" when Bento stopped playing with her.
Today is the last day I will be spending with my brother and his kids until next summer. I am going to miss the fun we had together. By the time we see each other again, one year from now, we will need to reconnect again.
Everything in Lisbon that seems slightly interesting is so damn crowded with tourists during the summer. We went to the Oceanário and it felt like a speed run to get out of there. So, so packed.
Bento loves running. Once we arrive at the beach, he shouts "Dad," makes a running gesture, and I have to spend the next hour running back and forth.
One thing I didn’t like about the visual identity for the Paris Olympics is how they abandoned the traditional pictograms for crest-like symmetrical compositions. They look good, but the sports are very difficult (or nearly impossible) to decipher at a glance. And that’s something good pictograms need to consider.
For the first time in my life I felt an earthquake. I was awake when it happened, but I had no reaction.
I missed my nieces. It was so much fun playing with them on the beach.
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean people need to be confronted with explicit videos of people being murdered, lies passing as facts, or even calls for violence. I hate what has become of Twitter.
Advertising that only looks nice will end up doing none of the things companies expect from advertising.
The current numbering on iPhones doesn't make sense anymore. I wonder why Apple doesn't adopt the numbering system they use for their computers: iPhone 2024 edition.
Damn kindergarten. First day of vacation and Bento has a fever.
The Olympic Yoodles by Anyways Creative are really cool. I honestly didn’t know that YouTube also had some sort of Google Doodles.
Today I was interviewed by Adobe on Generative AI. It is great that they listen to their users. I got the feeling that they empathize with the plight of artists against AI, yet keep pushing forward. Capitalism sucks.
I think all social platforms degrade over time, especially once they are not founder-led anymore. That’s one strength that Substack has over Medium. Medium had a cool vibe when Ev Williams and Biz Stone were still engaging with the community and using the platform themselves.
Some logos are perfectly legible, yet people still misspell the brand name, such as Peugeot. In certain industries, this mistake could be fatal, but in others, where the purchase decision takes some time, it really doesn't matter.
Had a day off and me and Caterina went for lunch. We haven’t done this in a while. It was good.
What happened to the dove from the Olympic Games? It’s such an iconic symbol, but it’s never used.
I am beginning to prepare for the handover of my tasks and projects. While I have some colleagues to handover things to, it also feels like I have no one to handover to. Changing job is also about letting go. It would be easier if it weren't.
Yesterday I read that the first lawsuit from a bunch of artists against Stability AI, Midjourney and such, wasn't dismissed and has advanced into discovery phase. Things can still change. They did for piracy.
Ten years ago, when I moved to Germany, I brought my three cats with me. Unfortunately, today we had to make the difficult decision to put my sleeping buddy to sleep as her health has been deteriorating in the last couple of months due to cancer. I have no cats anymore.
Met Ana for a playdate between the kids. I bought new coffee today because the packaging looked nice. It didn’t disappoint.
People should aim to be good at what they do. If that involves the ability to code, fine. If it involves just an understanding of code, or even no understanding at all, that’s fine too. We all have limited bandwidth and there’s way too many fields of study within design.
A bit disappointed with the whole house search topic.
With each edition of the Olympic games, the hosting city creates an identity package that celebrates the place, but somehow competes with the global Olympic brand. It probably plays a role in its success, but I wonder if the opposite approach wouldn't work. What if the Olympic brand took the center stage instead, immersing the hosting city in the 5 olympic colors for a period of time?
I hate airports and airplanes. I love travelling, but currently everything about commercial flights literally sucks.
What a dystopian society, where once your gadgets run out of battery, there is no point in living anymore.
"It is a deep complex thing, to be subject to both love and Death; especially when neither can prevent the other." What a beautiful thought from Chloe Hope, an end of life Doula and baby bird carer.
Rented a car to meet some former colleagues for a barbecue, but gave up after being stuck in traffic for 30 minutes, barely moving. I really don’t miss owning a car.
In the morning, we went to the city's largest amusement park, only to find out that it was closed. It was hard. Bento wasn’t amused that he couldn't ride the trains, so we had to come back in the afternoon after it open.
Maybe the reason why people find ChatGPT, a bullshitting machine, to be so useful is because bullshitting each other is what people do.
I don’t think I have a physical happy place anymore. Moving countries left me with a weird sense of belonging, especially because the thought of home is always filled with the realization that 'life happened while I wasn’t there'. Right now, being with my son might be my happy place. Anywhere.
Today marks two years since my dad passed. I miss him.
Visiting staged houses with little kids is a complete nightmare. More concerned with Bento not breaking anything than looking at the house itself.
Sony used to have great industrial design. Retro futuristic. Then they did the PS5…
The Matrix is recognizable by its striking green color scheme. 2001: A Space Odyssey uses red for Hal-9000. Terminator goes for a cold silver theme. The color of AI in sci-fi movies is an interesting topic. I might write an article about it.
The Olympic Games of 1972 in Munich were by far the most beautiful in terms of graphic design. It felt so pure and thoughtful, especially when compared to today's standards where everything needs to perform well, in the wrong metrics. I am not surprised to learn that the team led by Otl Aicher was made of 82 graphic designers, illustrators and other technical staff.
The current trend of hardware with AI companions… as if people have all the time in the world for meaningless chats. I can’t even stay in touch with people I care about.
I am not sure if Canva will end up overtaking Figma or even Adobe when it comes to professional designers. Not that it really matters, but just in case it does, I’ve been getting familiar with it.
It always inspires me to find studios and design work that break the norms, especially because design is becoming increasingly more homogeneous and formulaic. Here-Now doesn't have a huge body of work on their website, but their design philosophy is great, and so is the branding for Olink.
Things keep getting more interesting on the AI front. It seems like Runway trained their new AI video model on pirated movies, the work of many famous YouTubers, and… Taylor Swift videoclips!
It’s been nearly a full month since I’ve decided to quit my current job. The three month notice period seemed long, but today I felt it getting closer. It’s exciting, but as many endings in life, it feels bittersweet.
Today was our first pool day of the year – yeah, summers in Hamburg are unbelievably not great. This time, Bento didn’t want to get in the cold water. It really took a while, but I finally managed to convince him to get in by moving him around as if he were a plane flying over the water. Splash.
Most tech scene billionaires seem to be expressing their support for Trump. And like Elon Musk or Bill Ackman, they can’t avoid signalling their virtue with plenty of arguments, as if voting for Trump is some sort of a virtuous decision. It’s not. Billionaires support people who benefit billionaires. It is all about money.
Every company seems to be branding their AI solutions with some sort of colour-gradient à la Instagram. How original.
We focus too much energy on making a lasting impact and leaving some sort of a legacy, without realizing that one generation down the road everyone will have forgotten any impact we might have had.
Apparently Bento isn’t eating anything at the Kindergarten. What?! They only tell me now?
And… I deleted Facebook, again. It didn’t take more than a week. I wanted to stay in touch with extended family and old school friends, but unfortunately Facebook isn’t what it used to be anymore. I had some hope that things had changed, but it’s even worse now. I kept messenger though. Let’s see how long that one lasts.
I’m not much into politics, but it seems like every country’s political scene is full of sociopaths. Really. The kind of people who rejoice in power, are pathological liars, and have little to no remorse over their actions. It is infuriating, but violence doesn’t solve it.
How I wish I could spend the whole Sunday playing video games and watching bad tv. That used to be my cure after such intense weeks.
Germans are famous for rules. On the other hand, a birthday party that feels more like a pop-up-rave-party at the beach, with loud music, bonfires, and plenty of substances is totally acceptable. It was great seeing Stefan; I missed him.
Ah, nowadays Bento loves playing catch. Well, our own special version of catch where he pretends to eat pieces of me and run away while I shout 'Anda cá!'
Summer party at the company! I really enjoyed chatting about life and career with Julia, Joel, and Johannes. I get the impression that nobody ever has everything figured out. And we eventually die of old age still trying to figure things out.
I had a mentoring session with a designer who wanted to know more about the transition from Senior Designer to Principal Designer. There are many resources from different companies, such as Figma and Spotify, but they all differ slightly. Personally, I don't know, besides the fact that a Principal is supposedly an expert in their domain field, drives impact, and doesn’t lead a team.
Now a hear infection. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
After many years of not using Facebook, I decided to give it another try. It is amazing that Facebook still doesn’t offer a timeline option that only shows updates from people you actually know and follow. It feels like there are ads everywhere, along with updates from people who have nothing to do with me or with the people I follow. I thought that feed options like 'Recommended' and 'From people you follow' were standards already. Well, not for Meta.
Finally, the fever broke. We can now restart the weekened routine of: playground in the morning, playground in the afternoon.
I missed Florian’s birthday. It’s not that I forgot about it, but I couldn’t go to the party. Bento is still feverish. Since becoming a father I have had to say no to so many important events that I fear my buddies start thinking I don’t care anymore. I do. I really do.
It's almost the weekend and Bento is already feeling better. He still has a low fever, especially during the night, but I was able to take him to the supermarket – one of his favorite things. He loves pulling the small shopping carts by himself.
Wild day. Bento can check off 'Driving with an ambulance' from his bucket list. He obviously doesn’t have one yet, but if he did, that would probably be at the top.
I don't think the problem is AI or machine learning. The problem is GenAI and the way how companies approach creators (and the web) as 'the' source for free-training data as if they were some kind of university research lab.
After digging through the work of Jan Weissenfeldt I found Janko Nilovic, an 83 years old kick-ass Montenegrin-French pianist. Good stuff. Here with the Soul Surfers.
I’ve never met my grandfather. As the story goes, he passed away while watching soccer on the TV. Maybe it’s a thing: people die while watching soccer. I was just watching Portugal vs Slovenia in the Euro Cup. The game ended at around midnight, and now I can’t sleep. Of course, after a quick search, I found a study that shows a link between cliff-hanging soccer matches and an increase in strokes and heart attacks. My grandfather used to be a player, and likely was a fervent fan. Luckily, I am not.
IID: Involve, Inform or Decide. Which one is it?
I really like all of Julie's life learnings, but I especially like this one. It's a cliché to say that "money doesn't bring happiness," and although the idea that satisfaction comes from impressing yourself might be commonplace for some people, it short-circuited my brain and gave validation to some weird choices. Challenge yourself David.
There’s always a plethora of reasons behind every career decision, but no matter what arguments I try to reach for, leading the corporate design for New Work has been the best job I've ever had. Unfortunately it isn't anymore.
Big, big decisions.
Love this quote from DixonBaxi: “How well a brand is delivered externally depends on how well it is understood internally.”
On one hand, Will.i.am is making statements about the importance of prioritizing human intelligence over the pursuit of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, he is an investor in Udio and runs his own AI ventures like FYI. What a paradox.
People always want to convince others into changing tribes. But that’s not how tribalism works, nor is it how politics work.
Brands die. They die and there’s not much we can do about it. We can save companies and pivot businesses, but we can’t change ideals. Once ideals dry, they’ll likely die away, just like every flower does.
Finally finished writing the article about the toothbrush with AI. It really took me a while. Lately I haven’t had much free time.
Today it was my mom’s birthday. We didn’t get to talk much. But I was happy to see that she had people around.
Its saddening to see how common Bento’s enlarged-tonsils condition is. He sleeps so poorly. We’ve been trying to get an appointment for ages, but it still takes a while.
Ha! I love having face-to-face conversations with people who are as passionate about design as I am. I don't have many designer friends, so to say.
I tried Apple Music for a while but ultimately decided to cancel due to the price. I still found it better than Spotify, particularly the option to browse new releases for any genre. It felt like going to a record shop. On Spotify you can only do it for the most popular genres.
One prevailing argument is that the end goal for AI startups is to be acquired. So they give a shit about breaking the law as soon as it gets them to that end goal. Afterwards, Google, Microsoft or whoever buys them can send their lobbyists and legal teams to sweep the problems under the rug.
Conversations via the chat apps of the past had more intentionality. You'd literally sit at the computer and have long, focused conversations with people. At least more focus than with phones, whatsapp and social media.
This is a funny read: "And then some absolute son of a bitch created ChatGPT, and now look at us. Look at us, resplendent in our pauper's robes, stitched from corpulent greed and breathless credulity, spending half of the planet's engineering efforts to add chatbot support to every application under the sun when half of the industry hasn't worked out how to test database backups regularly. This is why I have to visit untold violence upon the next moron to propose that Al is the future of the business - not because this is impossible in principle, but because they are now indistinguishable from a hundred million willful fucking idiots".
Twitter is so bad at the moment. I guess that’s why you see a ton of alternatives. Most of the changes implemented by Musk, like getting paid for engagement, just led to a feed filled with hot takes and other engagement traps.
It seems like every YouTuber is hooked on Athletic Greens. I would bet none even drinks it.
Ironically the day after Apple announces the AI-fication of its devices, the beautifully designed Light Phone III is announced. I kind of like it more.
AI for the rest of us. And then they proceed to keep it out of every iPhone ever made, besides the latest pro model.
Upcycled some leftovers for lunch. White rice, green beans and tofu.
As someone living and raising a kid abroad, it is deeply disturbing to see the far right growing all over Europe.
Nowadays, as soon as customer growth slows down, most companies start increasing prices and/or messing around with user data. It’s a race to the bottom.
Things are going great. Climate change seems to have lost its sense of urgency. A thing of the past. Maybe we solved it, or was it a big lie after all? It seems like it looking at the way things are going. Bitcoin is consuming the entire annual electricity consumption of the Netherlands, per year! And by 2027, AI servers are predicted to consume the same as Norway. Thank you Effective Accelerationists, full throttle ahead. Things are going great.
Nowadays, as soon as customer growth slows down, most companies start increasing prices and/or messing around with user data. It’s a race to the bottom.
Today it felt good. I made good progress on a project I’ve been working on, played silly with Bento and fine-tuned an AI model with Dreambooth.
Whenever I feel uninspired, trying new tools or learning something new helps me getting back on track.
I finally gave it a go at installing Stable Diffusion and ComfyUI. It took some time and plenty of tutorials, but it was fun – I honestly felt a bit like a hacker.
I wonder if we get this apartment or if we build a new house. Second option is probably cheaper, but at the same time more stressful.
We visited two apartments. The first one was new, but expensive and not very well built. The second one was good. So good that I’d have loved to live there when my social life was a little more fun. A modern flat with a second floor with a gigantic rooftop terrace. Afterwards we visited a graveyard. I know. Not the best program for the children’s day. But graveyards in Hamburg are truly beautiful.
Bento’s new favorite playtime activity is pretending that the floor is water. He runs around screaming 'Water! Water! Water!' while the other kids look not understanding.
Not so long ago it would be extremely rare to see people wearing headphones when out and about. Not anymore. Now some people are really happy to sport their overpriced, bad sounding Apple headphones.
The only good thing about Facebook is when it sends you reminders. Especially birthday reminders. I haven’t used Facebook in ages, so yesterday I ended up forgotting about my best friend’s birthday.
Sharing AI-generated images that misrepresent unfamiliar places to make a point based on hearsay just trivializes brutal conflicts, and makes them look like some sort of a fairy tale.
Nowadays houses are so expensive. We’ve been looking for a while but it’s always either a shithole, or extremely overvalued.
Today I watched a lovely vlog. Just video clips and subtitles. I really liked it’s energy. No voice-over, and barely no faces. Authentic and personal, but not playing into the game of promoting oneselves’s image.
Is a brand all about what makes us different?
I'm back at work today, but I'm still feeling exhausted from yesterday. Our bags didn't make it to Hamburg with us. The worse is that we still waited for them. 2 hours. Until we decided to ask for information.
I was about to preorder the Daylight tablet but cancelled after being confronted with the final price. I was hoping for a replacement to my kindle but a 700€ android tablet with a 1600x1200 LCD screen ain’t it.
People like to complain about the legibility of the KIA logo introduced in 2021. It could definitely be better, but in the end I don't think it impacts the brand in such a negative way – KIA's sales have been growing year over year since 2020.
When did everyone decide that notifications should be used to alert me to the fact that some random person posted something someplace else that I might find interesting?
Today, I visited Rocha and Lara who just had their second child. It's always great spending time with them, and this time the conversation funnily turned to early retirement – I am not even 40.
It's funny to see how Bento behaves in playgrounds, especially with kids he doesn't know. He tends to be more of an observer, often standing in the way and watching them until they push him aside, and he starts crying.
The safety team at OpenAI, responsible for ensuring that AI stays aligned with the goals of its makers, has lost confidence in Sam Altman and many are leaving the organization, including its leadership Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike. I don’t really know what it means but it feels a bit like a sci-fi movie plot.
Back to my mother's place. It felt good to relax for a few days, away from the chaotic day-to-day-vacation chaos of visiting family members every single day – it almost felt like real vacation.
I love going to indoor pools with Bento. Besides the warm water, I really like how he hugs me for such a long time.
Monte Selvagem is such a nice approach to a Zoo. We spend a great afternoon looking at all kinds of animals in some sort of a natural habitat, far from the cement rocks and artificial waterfalls.
Today, we drove south where we will spend a few days at a modern hotel in the middle of nowhere with a good restaurant, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and a gigantic bed.
Stayed home entertaining Bento most of the day. He might be sick so I want to avoid restaurant food for a couple of days.
In the morning, we went to Sobral with Cat's sisters. In the afternoon, we visited more family in Negrais. It was a busy day that ended with Bento throwing up.
"The automobile of the future will really live to the first half of its name; you need merely tell it your destination–by dialling a code, or perhaps even verbally–and it will travel there by the most efficient route, after first checking with the highway information system for blockages and traffic jams." This was written in 1961.
I don’t think you get AGI from a model that’s just pretending to know things – A model that needs to be trained to predict, not taught. But I think LLMs might be used to teach better models on their way to AGI.
If you’d like to leave a lasting impression at an event, make sure to: talk a lot, mostly about yourself and your achievements; pretend you have so much going on with your life that you need to check your phone every 5 minutes; mix up everyone’s names to give the impression that you are really prolific at networking. /s
Neil Degrasse Tyson argues that AI might be the final nail on the coffin of the internet, and in a way I wouldn’t be upset about it. Not because of fake news, but rather because the current state of the internet feels just like a never ending stream of outrage and self promotion.
We flew to Portugal today with a layover in Amsterdam. Bento just couldn't resist exploring all the off-limits areas at the Shiphol airport, and I may have pulled a muscle trying to grab him.
If you have enough money to be able to focus only on doing things you enjoy doing, then yes, money can buy happiness.
Today reminded me of the old weekends after a night out, where I would feel hungover, lacking energy, and simply wanting to relax, eat junk food and watch trash TV. Not possible now.
It was Cat's birthday. Bento and I went to the playground in the morning and bought her flowers and croissants. In the afternoon, we had a picnic with a group of friends. It was fun, the food was delicious, and both Cat and Bento had a great time. But as every gathering with a small kid, I barely spoke with anyone.
When did everyone decide that notifications should be used to alert me to the fact that some random person posted something someplace else that I might find interesting?
What a brilliant marketing stunt Airbnb has pulled. Building real life versions of iconic fantasy landmarks and giving you a lottery-like chance to book them is nothing but social media fuel. My teenager self would have loved to spend a night in the X-Men mansion. But the Up house looks just as cool.
Today the weather was great. Hot, sunny, blue sky, and Bento didn’t want to take his jacket off.
Every day, 720.000 hours of content get uploaded to YouTube? That's more than 80 years of video each and every single day. It's nuts, right? I’m pretty sure that with or without algorithms the largest part of it doesn’t even get a single view.
The best way to make mistakes is to make decisions without having sufficient information.
In every company there’s top-down culture and there’s bottom-up culture. In reality they are different, but ideally they meet someplace in the middle.
I spent most of the last decade rarely getting sick – aside from Covid, of course. But ever since Bento started Kindergarten, it feels like I'm sick every other week.
People always reach out when they are in trouble, both personally and professionally. The problem is the timing. Because by the time people realize they have a problem at hand, I only have little time to help.
I wasn't feeling great today, but I had to have one of those conversations that I never like having.
I don’t think organisations change just for the sake of change. There is typically a plan and a vision. But instead of being swayed by social media and non-representative discussions about personal preferences, those leading change initiatives should rather stay focused on the original vision and why they decided to change things in the first place.
82 years of video content are uploaded to YouTube every day. That's nuts.
Bento skipped kindergarten due to a slight fever, and I realized that many important emails have been ending up in my spam folder. Argh!
I have always been into coffee, but my coffee habits have changed over time. I grew up with an espresso machine always around. Then I went pour-over team with a Chemex in my thirties. And lately, I have been considering a Moka pot.
I found a cool mixtape from Pharrell Williams and Timbaland. Back then, in 1991, Pharrell was still rapping.
Today we visited a house. With old houses renovations are to be expected. But with a kid and no family around, imagining the amount of work needed is a massive turn off.
The tipping point towards the enshittification of products: When the focus on the user shifts to a focus on the user's wallet.
When internet companies start out, they prioritize product improvements and user experience as a way to attract and retain users. But as they mature, the focus typically shifts towards maximizing profits. That’s when things start going sideways for the user, from dark patterns, frequent price hikes without added value, increasing complexity, etc. This video gives a nice overview of what’s been going on over the years.
After seeing so much backlash against brands that use AI generated artwork, my assumption has been that people are negatively biased against AI-created artwork. I was happy to read this paper that makes that assumption less of an assumption, and more of an insight.
The thing – or one of the things – that I dislike the most about capitalism is that, more often than not, rich people get away with illegal or borderline illegal stuff.
I was listening to the latest albums of Bebel Gilberto and Norah Jones. Not amazing amazing, but both have a bunch of great songs.
Fallout is really good. I was never too invested in the games before, but now… I wish I had the time!
I'm feeling sick. My throat is hurting and I have a light cough. Basically, the same symptoms that my son had a week ago. Before becoming a father, I rarely got sick. Things are different now.
I have a problem with unstructured brainstorming sessions, especially because they often lead nowhere. I mean, they do lead somewhere, but it's never anything particularly special. I guess that's because you rarely get to explore the important questions, the 'What ifs?'
A logo main goal is to identify an entity, differentiating it from the competition. So maybe any qualities that help logos be distinctive and stick in the memory are qualities worth being explored. Reduction to the essence helps, but reduction to the essence does not have to mean a lack of personality. That balance is key.
Reductionism and maximalism are perhaps currents and countercurrents that occur cyclically in design.
Found a 1986 video of Steve Ballmer promoting Windows, and... Steve Ballmer is quite something.
Some product companies tend to live by the motto 'Move fast and break things'. I think that's the case with Meta, and maybe this strategy works fine for shipping new product features. But in many others cases, for example hardware or completely new things, the first impression matters, quite a lot, because it often is the only impression you get.
"The potential of our future lies in the human form". What a dystopian statement from Figure AI, an AI robotics company. I understand where they're coming from, but suggesting that our future is more about our form than ourselves gives me some Terminator vibes.
Ah, we’re sick just in time for the weekend, and just when the weather starts getting better!
I really like Reddit, but strangely my usage of Reddit always starts with Google. More often than not I Google something with "Reddit" at the end.
Imagining what the future might look like fascinates me, especially when done with a certain naïveté and a touch of optimism. Maybe because design has a lot to do with that: exploring potentially better futures. And on that note, I’ll leave here a quote from a book I began reading over the weekend, Profiles of the Future, published in the 1962: “Anything that is theoretically possible will be achieved in practice, no matter what the technical difficulties, if it is desired greatly enough”.
It seems like Bento had a tough day at Kindergarten. Apparently he repetitively pushed another kid and wouldn't stop. I am not sure if related, but he was kind of apathetic in the evening.
What can you do with a kid when it's holiday, everything is closed, and it does not stop raining?
Today I visited some close friends that aren’t living as close anymore. I love spending time with my kid, but I notice that I can’t have in-depth conversations when he’s around, at least for now, and I miss that.
I love going to IKEA, but I always end up buying things I don’t need.
Waking up before 6 am is not fun, especially when you have a violent hangover.
Feels strange to see the last day at work for so many people I have been working with for the past 3 years. One moment I am working with them on a daily basis, and the next moment I probably won't see them, ever again (at least some of them). The party was fun, and I made sure to stay until the end.
Pinterest is getting wrecked by synthetic AI crap. Everyday I am getting AI generated pin recommendations.
Once upon a time, with the short lived eWorld, Apple thought that the internet was supposed to be a city for its netizens.
Isn't passion more important than talent? In most fields, becoming good at something comes down to putting in the hours. Passion is what motivates you to keep pushing and not give up.
It took me ages, but I finally finished writing the article on BS in branding and Space10 – it is really a shame they closed shop.
Ah, Bento was feeling better so we spent most of the morning out at the park playing soccer. In the afternoon we went to the supermarket and got him some more Hot Wheels. I honestly have the feeling that our flat has little cars everywhere.
Sometimes when I open LinkedIn and see the same people and the same posts that I see on twitter, for a split second I ask myself: Where am I?
Bento is sick, noooooo!
I would not have a problem with AI in case the genAI models were only trained with licensed or proprietary data. But I guess they are only so good because they stole from everywhere and everyone.
I started on deviantart in 2002. It was a great place for artists and designers to find community. It is depressing to see how they are now turning their backs on artists and promoting AI. But it’s great to see how much backlash they get.
At the moment, the The thing I hear the most is: "Pai, aqui, aqui, aqui” meaning "Daddy, here, here, here!".
Playing soccer in the morning, buying bread at noon, dealing with tantrums during lunch, and going to the park in the afternoon.
Spent most of the day playing with Bento. First we were both a pretend ambulance driving around the flat. Then we went to the park where he pretended to run away from the wolf, me.
Uh, hi there hangover. Yesterday I drank a little too much, and slept a little too little. Thank God there’s coffee. It got me through the day and I still managed to get some work done.
It was an emotional day, the last one for a bunch of awesome people that I have worked with for the past three years. I am feeling a bit numb about it, extremely hurt by the unfairness of it all. At the same time, it was amazing to spend a last evening together. A moment to remember, because in the end memories are everything that stays.
Today, we went to the Kindergarten with Bento for an Easter arts and crafts party. We made some butterflies and a bunny out of paper, and Bento kept showing everything to his carer. It was funny to see how he tried to get her attention. I bet its like that everyday, a bunch of kids fighting for her attention.
People get really agitated by politics without realizing that the sad part of it is that most politicians are the same. I mean, I think deep down everyone knows it, but they tend to forget this when discussing partisan topics. Politicians are driven by one thing only: power, and they’ll say whatever it takes to get it.
I’m sad to learn that Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball passed away this month. Growing up, I could never draw Son Goku as good as André, but I was obsessed with it. I watched it everyday, and learned a lot from it.
I felt down today. Had a runny nose, probably from the immunization therapy shot on Thursday, and Bento kept throwing his tantrums at us.
I don’t think LLM or Large Image Models will lead us to abundance by solving humanity’s biggest problems, like food, housing, climate, energy. But they will disrupt the labor market and replace certain human capabilities. Abundance and solutions is part of the lie we are told in order to normalize stealing data for the profit of corporations. And corporations need consumers.
Even if all along it was all about money, even if all dreams eventually come to an end, isn’t it good dreaming? Dreams move people.
Mira Murati, the CTO from OpenAI, kind of hints at how they trained their text-to-video model, Sora, by basically stealing the whole internet - from YouTube to Instagram and Facebook. The technology is awesome, but I gotta say, stealing for profit is just not cool.
Today it was my brother's birthday. We used to be really close. We still are, but the 6-hour time difference and the kids really make it difficult to talk to each other as often as I would like. I sent him a message though.
Having small kids really improves work-life balance. There’s no way you’re thinking about getting some work done after you get home (or they get home).
I love flying, but I love airlines even more. I love the claustrophobic feeling. I love how everyone gets up once we land. I love how, since the pandemic, every airline feels low-cost with premium prices. I love how all their brand missions seem to be "To empower everyone to have a bad day." I love it when they throw your luggage around, or even better, when they lose it. I love the price volatility. I love the expensive sandwiches they call food. I love finding prehistoric chewing gum on the armrests and trays that haven't been cleaned after the previous flight. There is so much to love about flying.
Caterina wasn’t feeling well so I spend most of the day with Bento – and we had a lot of fun. We went to two parks, played soccer, bought croissants, played more soccer, back home we played with hot wheels, ate pretend food, acted silly, laughed. It was a good day.
“Do work that matters, for people who care”. Seth Godin talks about this idea from a marketing perspective, but personally I find it aligns just as well with my personal values. Work is only enjoyable as far as you’re working with people who enjoy your contribution.
It is frustrating to have a strong belief in brand, work in brand-related roles, and be passionate about branding, especially now. During economic recessions most companies tend to prioritize whatever brings money in tomorrow over the importance of brand.
I just found out that Substack has an option to prevent your published content from being used to train AI models. I love that, especially considering that most platforms are now using, selling or planing to sell user data (Wordpress, Tumblr, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram).
Some logo construction diagrams are really wild, especially those with tons of imaginary circles and lines that make it seem like geometry was really the most important class I ever had. I've found a presentation for a new logo for Pepsi, and in this 15 years old document, the agency shows the original Pepsi logos full of circles and ellipses stating that "The Pepsi DNA finds its origin in the dynamic of perimeter oscillations. This new identity manifests itself in an authentic geometry that is to become proprietary to the Pepsi culture". Authentic Geometry? Perimeter Oscillations? I think it's more a case of finding what you're looking for. And if you're looking for circles, you'll find circles.
It is hard growing a family abroad, especially considering how demanding Bento is. Things would be easier if we had family around.
Bento loves it when I pretend to be hunting him like a shark. He hides from me, and when I find him, he runs around the house screaming frantically.
Finally met some friends. In the afternoon we met with Pedro and Ana at the "Altonaer Museum". They have a nice café and a section with loads of toys for kids to play – win win.
In the morning, we couldn't get Bento to dress up, so we had to skip the swimming course. He's been so stubborn lately. How is it possible that a 2-year-old is so fixed in his ideas? In the afternoon, it was raining, so we took him to a shopping mall where there were some trains he could ride on. He was happy about that.
Today I took Nina to the vet to have a mass removed from behind her armpit. The vet thinks it might be cancerous, and they couldn't get all of it. She's fine now, but unfortunately won't be ok. It will likely come back, and do the shit that cancer usually does. She's sweet and I was really hoping it'd be something else.
I went to the office today, but it didn't do me any good. The deadline for the layoffs is approaching, and I keep hearing about more colleagues who have decided to leave. It's sad to see people go, but I'm also feeling anxious about my own future in the company. With so many structural changes, will I even get interesting projects to work on?
Isn't it crazy that companies are releasing open source projects that were built on an (in my opinion) illegal foundation? The problem is that if the project is later found to be infringing on copyright law, there's no way to take it back. It is all a big mess.
I have been somewhat frustrated lately. I suspect it stems from the fact that the things I am passionate about and have a deep understanding of, are things that others don't really care about, especially in a struggling economy.
I really like what the collective Sagans has been doing with GenAI. They use themselves as protagonists, capture footage, train custom models in Stable Diffusion with DreamBooth, model 3d scenes, Warp Fusion, Deform, etc. They don't use it like a slot machine, and the results are much better.
OpenAI announced an impressive text-to-video AI model, but as always, impressive results require impressive data. Looking back at OpenAI's research, until 2022, they had already trained this model with 70,000 hours of "unlabeled" Minecraft video. 2 years later, I can only imagine where they got all the training data from. Unlabeled they say. Stolen I say.
I wanted to take Bento to the playground but... Hamburg's weather. It's raining so the next plan was to take him to a toy store and buy some Hot Wheels stuff. Cars and trains keep him from asking for the iPad.
Busy day: Started with an early meeting at the Kindergarten to talk about Bento (everything's fine); Lunch break was spent on a frustrating appointment at Nina's vet; and the rest of the day trying to juggle all the work in between.
I'm more and more convinced of the importance of getting your brand strategy right. But I'm also more and more convinced that most people don't know what to do with it. Mostly because we get so focused on the terminology and classical complex cases, that we forget what it's all about – defining the foundation of what you want to stand for. And that takes focus.
I like the idea of micro wearables more than covering your whole face, even if google glass wasn’t it yet.
Is Mark Zuckerberg now a relatable tech influencer who happens to prefer Meta Quest over the more expensive Apple Vision Pro? Or is this a new era in marketing where business owners get much closer to the general public and become more authentic? It seems to play well into repositioning Zuckerberg as a more likable leader. On the other hand, it could be a sign of panic. I like it tho.
It would be great to see the industry rally against take home exercises & tests with the same commitment as everyone rallied against unpaid pitches.
In order to change things, things should feel like they are really changing. Big ideas and bold steps, not baby steps. Otherwise, no one sees you moving.
I started watching the Cocaine Cowboys and damn the 80's were up crazy times in Miami.
It is a gray Hamburg rainy day. And it was finally time to take Nina to the vet. The lump didn’t have blood, so the veterinary decided to send a sample to be checked, and also prescribed some antibiotics. It would be good news if the antibiotics fix it. And… Bento is sick again… argh!
Today I tried to get some clarity, but could only find something else. It’s not what I was looking for. I wanted the solace you get from knowing what to expect.
Besides the classical examples from Coca-Cola and the likes, it is not very common for businesses to share the frameworks behind their brand. But, that information influences everything they do and say. So, I have begun researching and gathering the brand frameworks of the companies shaping the future – from AI to healthy foods. Hopefully, this will be helpful to someone in the future.
It’s been a year since I started this journal. I still don’t know what it is. To be honest the notes are so diverse. Sometimes I feel like writing about work, other times about Bento.
Unfortunately, Nina seems to have some sort of a tumor. She’s an old cat, sweet and Bento likes her. Hope it’s something curable.
I often find myself looking for the right words. Not only because I'm torn between 3 languages, but because the right words can be really powerful. The paradox is that people tend to use many many words, instead of the right ones.
Reviews state that the VisionPro isn't perfect. That it is an expensive toy with some flaws. But, a toy that at the same time has something so novel and sci-fi-magical that people who have tried it can't help but be excited about the possibilities of its future iterations and generations. I haven't tried it myself, but I wonder if we're looking at a future where we stop being glued to our screens and instead become fully immersed in zombieland. Could that be the future of life? Could that also be the future of work?
Believe in something. Stand for something. And make sure you speak and act accordingly.
Bento was still sick but I had to go to the office nonetheless. Now I understand how complicated things become when your kid is sick at home for a bunch of days. The world doesn’t pause, tasks keep piling up, and you end up trying to beat a game of Whac-A-Mole in hardcore difficulty.
When I was around 13, I used to record some fake DJ sets with Cruz, a close friend of mine. In between songs, we would advertise some random stuff or pretend parties. He found some of those tapes, and it made me think about how I wish I had the time and mental availability to work on senseless stuff.
I’ve been quite excited about design lately. I’m reading a lot, checking a bunch of online courses, working on exciting projects at work, but… Bento is sick again and can’t go to the Kindergarten.
Bento has been obsessed with the two Monster Trucks he got for Christmas – MaxD and Son UVA Digger. It got me curious about checking Monster Jam, the live Monster Truck show. It’s actually pretty cool and exactly the kind of thing my dad would have enjoyed watching. I think he never did, and I wish he was still around so we could watch it together. Today would have been his birthday.
Love this thought from Peter Mayle in his essay "The art of thinking by jumping" from 1986: "good design defies simple explanations, because it is often something that hasn't been done before. Trying to explain that is like commenting on a meal that hasn't been cooked."
Over the years, I have made a continuous effort to prevent my mind from wandering too much during work. I have tried a bunch of different methods, such as blocking time on my calendar, drinking tons of coffee, as well as different devices like Timeular or more recently the simpler TimeTimer. In today's work environment, with all its communications, tools and notifications, it is hard to remain focused on a single task at at time. And I'm certainly not alone in this. In 2015, Julie Morgenstern, a productivity expert and author, made a similar observation "We want to think, write, and strategize, but because these functions require deep thinking and uninterrupted time, we stay busy with the tasks, meetings, and messages that pop up all day long rather than tackling really important projects".
I remember that when the first iPad came out, one of the apps people used to show around was Flipboard. It took me 14 years, but I finally looked into it. It seems cool. You can bookmark articles and create your own curated lists in the form of magazines.
I managed to go to the office today. I talked a lot with Matthias and had lunch with Michi. It was cool spending some time with colleagues, but everyone is waiting for a bomb to drop. I hope things stay alright.
I see a lot companies offering hybrid working models, but honestly, unless there are designated office days included in the hybrid policy, there is little difference between hybrid and fully remote work when it comes to collaboration. Personally, I prefer working from the office, but even when I am at the office, I find myself spending the whole day on calls because of the hybrid policy.
Influencer-wannabes publicly stating that they’ve been using an AI product to write their content for months really makes me not want to engage with their content... What a bunch of brainless idiots.
I was planing to go to the office a bunch of times this week, but yet again another strike from the Deutsche Bahn changed my plans. I’ll go tomorrow and work from home the rest of the week.
Lazy Sunday as usual. Spent most of the day playing with cars, trains, but still managed to cook a delicious chickpea curry – Bento loved it.
This time, both of us brought Bento to the pool. His behavior was different from when he's alone with me. I guess he's always fussier when Caterina is around, but we still had a great time. Later in the afternoon, we had some cake, ordered food, and I watched Foundation after everyone went to bed.
We should design considering Homer as the typical user. Homer usually presses the wrong button.
The last couple of weeks have been emotionally turbulent, but today I felt a bit better. It might have been because I met my colleagues at the office or maybe because I just started watching a reality TV show that I kind of enjoy.
New ideas need to nurtured. They need to be handled with care as they are delicate, and early criticism, which usually happens during brainstormings or presentations, can shatter them to pieces instead of allowing them to grow. I like most of Brian Collins' design rules, but as someone whose ideas have many times been on the receiving end of early cristicism, number 95 particularly strikes a chord with me. All of Collins' creative presentations start with a slide displaying this rule. "New ideas can be fragile because they are unfamiliar. You may not like something you see here, but you are not allowed to say that for now. We’ll have to edit and remove some of this work later, but for now, everything will be in play. So find something, anything, you like in every idea. A color. A word. An image. A sentence. Anything. In the end, we find what we look for. And today we are going to look for the new.” It's a bold statement, but judging by the boldness of their work, it seems to work.
Branding is also about the small details and the subtle cues. Cues that often escape our attention but are nonetheless picked up by our subconscious. Apple is a master on those, and regardless of whether I like the Vision Pro or not, the way they have referenced their iconic logo on the shape of the device is beautifully done.
Giving framer another go in trying to migrate my website from Wordpress to Framer. I don’t like it’s subscription model but I like how flexible it is.
Yesterday Bento developed a fever but thankfully today it is gone – maybe it was due to teething. We spend most of the day playing with his new hot wheels' tower of madness.
In the morning I went swimming with Bento. It will be a Saturday morning routine for the next couple of months. He loves water, and I love spending time with him.
I doubt people really know what they say they know. Most don’t even know what they think they know. And I’m just like that.
The world is full of morally bankrupt opportunists looking for their next big payday off the backs of the normal people.
Teenage Engineering might be one of most talented industrial design companies around. But, having a left-handed kid, certain design concerns are a bit more on my mind. So, how do you use the new Rabbit R1 if you’re left-handed? Inclusivity matters.
Went to the office today since the "Kindergarten" was closed, and it’s quite challenging to work from home with a little one running around wanting to play.
How often are we personally detached from the problems we’re trying to solve?Probably a consequence of time pressure. Or maybe due to busy schedules, specialized roles and responsibilities. The reasons are many, but isn’t it is a mistake to base our understanding on synthetised information that others put together? Just as the best way to learn a language is to live in a country where we can experience the language, the best way to understand a problem, or system, is to experience it with our own thoughts, senses, and emotions.
I really enjoyed watching "Carol & the end of the world". Nice animations, story, and endearing characters. And… just started catching up with "For All Mankind".
The technology that will disrupt the labor market is owned by large corporations, which are making massive amounts of money, but as we know, at the same time, evade paying taxes as much as they can. Ironically, such companies argue that the labor market disruption due to AI should be solved through fiscal policy.
Didn’t work today. We’re all sick.
Tense day at work topped by Bento starting to vomit while we were playing in the evening.
I’ve been contemplating the idea of applying to universities as a part time teacher. I always wanted to teach, and I guess it will never happen unless I try.
"Wow, Hollywood is in big trouble..." I have been reading more and more statements like this lately, with people making wild predictions about the disruptive power of AI, and how several industries are about to crumble. But, despite being personally excited about the topic GenAI, the adoption of transformative technologies always takes takes time – can you believe that it took 25 years for the telephone to reach 10% adoption? The "Generative AI’s Act Two" article by Sequoia talks about this, not only providing a nice overview of the current GenAI landscape, but also its terrible user retention and engagement. They make an interesting reference to Amara's Law, which suggests that people often exaggerate the impact of new technologies while underestimating their long-term effects. I believe AI disruption is inevitable but are we there yet or are we still in a phase of hysteria with many many tools but little tools of real value?
This year things will be drastically different. Or maybe they will be just the same. But even if everything stays the same, I'm all right.