Building California School Trends
We're trying to buy a house in one of the highest cost of living areas of the United States, and the schools aren't even good. One thing we…
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Latest posts
The unreasonable effectiveness of QR Codes for local politics
Many local politicians are elected by razor thin margins of hundreds of votes or less. This means you don't need a huge number of people to…
Our favorite kids books
When we first started reading to our daughter I realized we had no idea what the ‘good’ books were. I asked some friends what their favorite…
How to Not Be Full of it as a Product Manager
So you’ve joined a new team, company, etc and you are experiencing the cold terror that is your new responsibility area as a product manager…
How to Deliver Good Presentations
This is actually pretty simple to do well, but you really have to put in the practice time. Don't kid yourself, it is humiliating to fuck up…
Strategies for dealing with Anxiety and Stress
I have experienced anxiety my whole life, at times to degrees that made it really difficult to just have normal, every day interactions…
Debugging Tartine Bread
Recipe for the uninitiated: Tartine Country Loaf . The book is more detailed. I used to live 2 blocks from Tartine in the Mission of SF…
Being Grateful
I think I've been trying to figure out myself and my relationship to the world since I was about 17. About 20 years of introspection. That's…
Listening to your Inner Voice
Recently I learned about mimetic desire, originated by Rene Girard , but perhaps popularized in tech by Peter Thiel who saw him as his…
How to Not Be Cynical
I was watching YouTube and I ran into this remarkable interview: Ruby is incredible. It's clear that she is just a force of nature. She…
Art Diario - The most complicated thing I've built
TL;DR - You should download my simple little app that I have poured an insane amount of effort into making. Please only tell me that you…
Being Curious
Be curious, not judgmental - Walt Whitman The other day I listened to a podcast between Ezra Klein and Judson Brewer talking about anxiety…
Feedback Loops, Momentum, and Excitement
When building products, there are two things that seem extremely important: scope and speed to feedback. If you can ruthlessly prioritize…
Rationalizing design
One of the things that got design a seat at the table was data-driven decision making that could be defended. I don't have any evidence to…
Design for Repetition
After building multiple applications used by thousands of paying customers I feel like I've converged on a philosophy of design that could…
The Crippling, Imaginary Audience
When I was younger I had multiple websites where I posted often. I didn't care what I wrote because I was just writing for my friends. Doing…