Naz on the internet.
Software is hard. I’m getting close to 50. Tech has developed a new religion. The power dynamics have shifted, yet again. I asked myself in the last two years, what does work look like? What does it look like for me? I’d been working as a creative director and product designer at a VC firm, and as a founding designer at a number of startups. Both the VC and the last startup had embraced the two…
Collaborative writing is rewarding. In the past few months, I’ve been writing a lot. Not as much here, but for Aphera . Between our newsletter, blog, direct email feedback, and social media networks, I might spin up a draft and then bounce it off Ryan and Juan , or we volley it back and forth. It’s a remarkable thing: we’re absolutely slower by writing collaboratively, but the end product is so…
Redesigning as a method of interrogation. Okay, okay, okay. I did it again. Sometimes you design a thing, or redesign it, or evolve it, and you think you're there . But this unsettling feeling sinks in, and you think: “I’m not happy with this. What’s the problem?” Friggin' vibes Lo and behold, the structure is fine, but the aesthetic is... bothersome . And why is that? Oh, because my design…
A time, a place, and humans. Let’s take a moment to consider the font, Instrument Serif . Created by the Portland-based design agency Instrument for their own use — along with Instrument Sans — they open-sourced it on GitHub, where it made its way to Google Fonts, in a generous act. And, guess where LLM s love to get fonts? There is something deeply ironic about the sample text on Google Fonts.…
Design tooling, LLMs, and why I still use a pencil. A friend and I were talking about AI and the question of where I lie on the spectrum came up: “I’m now on the handmade, artisanal, craftsperson end of the spectrum.” A client project recently moved into the LLM layer. Some of the team had already been working with an LLM to wireframe and prototype some aspects based on my initial Figma designs.…
AI makes particle board. As a child, woodworking was part of my school’s curriculum. One of our projects was making a simple sailboat, with the kind of shape and blockiness of those wood toys you see for little kids. From a solid block, we chiseled out the center cavity where the hull was, made a hole for an inserted rounded piece to become the mast, and carved off the sides to make the prow.…
What the days look like now. I buzzed my hair down today. I needed to baseline it. I still have a healthy amount of hair, but it’s going. I have a semblance of vanity, but I knew from my father’s own hair loss where mine would eventually head to ( hahahaha ). I’m not vain enough to pursue hair transplants in Turkey or chemical treatments. I was on steroids for a year for my nummular eczema, and…
A new homepage and site improvements. Looking at the Colophon from its last update, I mentioned that a refresh had happened in February 2025. A year later, another refresh has landed. I wouldn’t normally write about a site update like this, but the goal of the new homepage design allows me to do just that. It’s a lovely quirk of us personal site owners: we create a framework for how our websites…
2,545 feet of elevation gain, microspikes, and age. Jen and I are ascending. The hike starts immediately with it. This was tougher than the last time. That last time was seven and a half years ago. I was 40 then. We’re in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado’s front range, and this would be our second time undertaking it. A popular hike, the lot was full. We joined the other hikers who had…
Returning to work on photo tools. Digital photography captured my interest as it started to proliferate into the mainstream around 1999 and 2000. Prices of digital cameras started to come down and you could buy a point and shoot camera for $200-300. I started with a Fuji Finepix 1300 (a single megapixel) in 1999, then quickly onwards to a camera I loved dearly, a Canon Powershot S100 Digital Elph…
Gains without measurement. The weight fell off. Literally and figuratively, the device that now occupies my wrist is simple. It’s much smaller, tells the time, and the date. It requires no battery and is powered by my own kinetic movement, like riding a bicycle. For the past few years, I’ve been wearing a Garmin Epix — rugged, weeks-long battery-life, GPS for running, climbing, hiking. It’s a…
Less was more this year. I listened to less, but found more that I loved. I spent a lot of time revisiting old albums, listening with intent. Drumming also took a lot of my time, and rekindling my study drove me to those older albums. But, these new releases were on heavy rotation. Previously: 2024 , 2020 . Even in Arcadia , Sleep Token Sleep Token are huge. Four albums in, masked, anonymous…
Launching a new company to make a Mac photo editor. Ryan Carver , Juan Pablo Zambrano , and I have formed Latent Co. , a software company. Driven by the creative tooling we’ve cut our teeth on and drawing on our product and imaging experience, we’re making a product for Mac. Ryan and I go back a while: Typekit, Adobe, VSCO, and True Ventures. We have a shared interest in creative tools. In the…
A brief thought on practicing design in 2025. At the end of every year I start to feel it . 2024 ended on a tumultuous note. I dive into introspection, combing over the last year in search of pattern and meaning. I gathered what I found at the bottom of the ocean floor, coming up for air with the knowledge that 2025 would be marked by change. Not just for me, but for friends, family, my community,…
Durability is the ultimate feature. I wrote in October last year that I wouldn’t upgrade my iPhone 14 Pro. That’s also not quite true. I did upgrade my phone — with a new battery and leather case. This isn’t what people typically think of when they say they upgraded their phone. They think of an entirely new phone. New model. Newer, bigger, better, faster. This cycle drives sales across cars,…
Friction and discovery matter more than algorithmic convenience. The rattle of a train moving in the quiet late night wouldn’t be the best sleep one could get but youth and excitement forgive. We had bunks to sleep in, which is far better than what most train infrastructure offered at the time. My travel mates, usually my cousin and friend, would get up periodically to walk, pee, or smoke. I don’t…
141,639 steps, food, and being married for 18 years. We’re walking past Stüssy again on Prince Street. There’s a center funnel between two parts of a roped queue, with hordes of bored-looking, phone-staring, monogamously-dressed androgynous youth. Loafers, white Nike socks, baggy long jorts or wide jeans, cropped boxy tee is the uniform. Previously seen at KITH and Aimé Leon Dore. It’s summer in…
Carve space out for opportunity. After speaking in Kuala Lumpur last week, people stayed to discuss the topics we’d covered, forming a small group. Building community was a weighty topic during the event, with myself, host Shaza Hakim , and many attendees speaking to it. In this post-event semi-circle, Nik had probed me about how I got business. Word of mouth has greatly been the bulk of it,…
An ode to the slow web. During the pandemic, my longtime friend and collaborator Scott Robbin built something special. He invited me and mutual friend Charles Adler to join, and we started writing. We wrote weekly about our current projects through Scott's private group newsletter format. Receiving the digest each week was a delight. It was a balm during the pandemic and allowed us to stay…
Apple's Liquid Glass has betrayed design. It started with a magazine ad . A musician I admired was pictured: Henry Rollins , looking as he does, in black, shorts, tattoos visible and holding a computer. An Apple Powerbook. He appears with Terry Ellis from Imago Records, Rollins Band's label. I had some computer experience then, designing local band flyers and my first band’s demo cassette inlay,…
Reprogramming comparison culture. Today’s culture seems to reward and celebrate the hustle . The neverending idea that one should always be productive, working, producing, shipping. At times, I’ve compared myself to peers, colleagues, and friends. Places like LinkedIn and other social media make me cringe: everyone performing in favor of being seen as someone with their shit together. Impostor…
I'm not sure he meant it that way. We were walking together in the shopping center. The central escalators made you loop around on the floor on the short side to proceed to the next set. As we neared the ground floor, headed to the food court sub-level, my father posited a thought to me that fundamentally changed the way I think. I’ve always considered myself a curious person. I am endlessly…
Our first without Barb. “I don’t want our first camp to be just us.” Jen was referring to our first camping trip without Barb. We’d been camping before prior to life with Barb, but those were occasional things we did with friends or the couple of times I’d gone on an s24o [1] . It wasn’t until we got the rig that camping and overlanding became a thing we did regularly. It coincided with our time…
Growth will kill strong opinions. We recently switched over to Linear to manage our work, after some years getting by with GitHub Issues. The team onboarded and transitioned. Two weeks in, a few questions were discussed about some specific pieces we introduced into our workflow. Later, one of my colleagues asked about this statement in Linear’s Method : “Flexible software lets everyone invent…
Drumming as therapy. When I was 17, I was asked to sing covers for a friend that had a makeshift band put together for their friend’s birthday pool party at a hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur. My connection was a person I’d recently befriended in college [1] and was in a local band. The songs were “Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins, “Creep” by Radiohead, and “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones. Now, I am…
Rest in peace little one. I never would have guessed that a 4-lb Chihuahua would come into our lives, let alone be the animal to steal my heart before Jen’s. Our previous animals — two cats and a Boxer dog — are a stark contrast to a tiny dog that we would carry around in a sling or a backpack and take practically everywhere. That was what was in store for us in May 2019 for Memorial Day weekend,…
Bridging the design-development gap as AI rises. There’s a frustrating gap in how development projects present themselves. What looks straightforward on GitHub — ‘just run this command!’ — quickly spirals into an odyssey of sudo permissions, package managers, and missing dependencies. As someone comfortable with design tools but less versed in development environments, I find myself mashing…
Memories are an interesting beast. I have certain core memories that are embedded deep in my mind. The years I attended SXSW from 2007-2012 encompass some of those. In 2011, I shared a house with longtime partner-in-crime Scott Robbin , Jeff Skinner , and Sam Felder . We were off South Congress up at the top of the hill and tucked away close to Curra's Grill on Oltorf. We were in a neighborhood…
The third culture difference. One of the hardest aspects of being a third culture kid and eventually adult is the difficulty in the journey of your identity. When you're young, the movement and culture- and context-switching are par for the course — it comes with the literal territory. As you get older, things happen: you transform into a chameleon and adaptation is one of your greatest assets. If…
A meditation on entering flow state. A snack beckons. I stand up and head a few feet away to the kitchen area. A hojicha latte is on my mind, and also a bite. My brain is at operational capacity, and I am in a flow state. The metabolic need feels high, and I need to keep my energy up. I make the latte, iced with almond milk. I devour an oat bar. It’s the time of year when projects are in full…
My operating rules and way of living. This is my modus operandi . It lists out the way I approach my life and the rules I apply to it to thrive. This is a living document and will be added to as more comes to mind, or as I develop new ones. Simplicity and defaults keeps things simple: stock apps, stock methods. Only specialize and customize if a need really can't be met. I stay away from almost…
47 guideposts for another year older. A collection of small moments and choices that let me be me. One guidepost for each year I've been alive — some I've practiced for decades, and a few new ones. Feel out the day and go where your energy wants you to. Your energy is precious. Don’t let someone else take it. Show up and do the work. Your partner, friends, family, pets, and loved ones are more…
Writing, giving, and soliciting feedback via your inbox. For over 25 years, I’ve been using email to collaborate and work with people. Before there were any messaging platforms, project management tools, and hybrid tools like Slack and Discord, phone calls, Skype and email were most of what you had. Along the way, and to this day, I’ve developed some simple rules for getting your point across, and…
We are shokunin. Last week I was in Ojai, California, for True ’s Founder Camp. [1] James Freeman, founder of Blue Bottle Coffee was in conversation with Jeff Veen, and one of the attendees asked him: “How do you maintain such high quality?” Freeman answers, “‘Maintaining’ is a trigger word for me. You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. There is no maintaining.” That struck me as he…
Thanks for the memories, but good riddance. I deleted Instagram two days ago . The reasons are as you would expect: doomscrolling, fatigue, vapidness, and of course, all of the horrifying [1] things Meta enables. Concerning Instagram itself, the list is long . The app started innocently enough: a place to visually share what you were doing right now. A successor to Flickr for the smartphone age,…
Personal websites are better than social networks. In meatspace, if you’re fortunate, you likely reside somewhere . How that looks varies from person-to-person. For some, they own. For others, they rent. For those who don’t subscribe to a stationary life, it may be a vehicle, van, or camper. Or hostels, hotels, and short-term accommodations. They come in various forms and shapes. Digital space…
Social media is a trap. Social networking is about reach . It started small: your friends first, then grew outwards towards acquaintances and your professional life. It grew out to people who might follow you because of some shared interest, and then to complete strangers. Social media likes to tell you it’s about the content. People are “content creators” and not artists, filmmakers, comedians,…
My approach for a simpler smartphone. Smartphones are a distraction . Numerous studies and research have proven out various scenarios: from students unable to learn as well , to laws prohibiting hands-on device use while driving, and the various apps and platforms that buzz, ping, and are designed to distract . People are looking at ways to solve this modern problem — from the dumbphone movement…
Answering the blog questions challenge. Tagged by Scott and Luke and in thoughtful return, I’m answering the Blog Questions Challenge here. Some of these answers may overlap with the answers I gave Manu for his People & Blogs series, so I’ll do my best to do something a bit different. Please visit Manu’s P&B site though, and read through many of the excellent interviews there. Much credit to Bear…
Remembering the times I saw Anthony Bourdain and the lessons he left. I’ll never forget the moment. I still walk past the jiujitsu gym, just a block over from our place and the moment comes rushing back. I was walking our dearly departed Boxer dog, Shaun. It was 2017. It was early. The Ralph Gracie Academy occupies a long stretch of Howard Street, with all-glass windows allowing you to see into…
The artists, albums, and songs that were a hell yes this year. The last few years have been great for discovering even more artists, and the revivals and reunions of some of them have produced music that is fresh, with new takes and, even better, genre-bending and blending. Here are the albums and songs that were a definite hell yes for me this year, which I kept on permanent heavy rotation.…
How many more times will you experience this? During our trip this year, looking at my mother, the reality suddenly hit me. She's 75. I visit my family in Malaysia once a year, and if she lives to 90, that means just 15 more visits together. The realization shook me. When my father passed in 2017 , I hadn't considered how many times in the years prior I'd get to visit with him and see him in…
Moments of otherness. A moment when you discover that legacy media is not in your best interest, being fueled by advertising and bureaucratic bullshit. If you've worked anywhere, you should understand that no organization is immune to this. A moment when you might consider stepping out of your shoes and into someone else's—when a brown, black, or queer person has to endure difficult questions and…
Nighttime vigils lead to unexpected moments of grace. She needed attention. Every half hour to an hour just before we'd fall asleep, she'd whine. She'd cry out, and I'd dutifully carry her to the bathroom to do her necessary business, then clean up after. We theorized it was a stomach bug. This went on for three nights, finding me sleeping on the couch in the living room where Barb, our dog, would…
What do you require of your users to use your product? Another Zoom call ended. As is common, a few attendees would unmute themselves to speak temporarily. I noticed when people knew the unmute keyboard shortcut. Despite using the software for years now, it had eluded me (spacebar!). This was partly because I forgot to look it up after calls were over, and partly because it's not an action I do…
Finding youthful hope while waiting for tacos. We get off the bus, our feet landing on Mission Street at the corner of 24th here in San Francisco. Our destination is the famed La Taqueria , and despite its notoriety for the burritos they serve, we're here for tacos — because their tacos are absofuckinglutely delicious. As we approach, there's a tiny line, and the woman in front of us decides to…
The long run: democracy and its constant work. I went for a run. I’ve been running consistently for over a year and a half now. It’s a panacea for me. I run outside. I like to feel the cool wind on my skin, my pores open and sweating, the legs rhythmically turning over in pursuit of flow. In the beginning, I kept my head down, finding it difficult to smile or look at others. I usually like to…
How I earned the right and duty to vote. “Malaysia.” I stood up, and maybe one or two other people did too. It wasn’t like the large groups of newly minted American citizens from other countries announced, such as China, India, or the Philippines. But it was a moment I was proud of, and when my country of origin was called out, I stood, smiling. Later, President Barack Obama welcomed [1] us via a…
How do we develop trust? It’s the basis of relationships. The particular spectrum of any engagement relies on it, and it’s also the hardest thing at times to discern. Time can allay the fear, or reveal its presence. Piper Haywood : The more time passes, the more I think that establishing relationships, or repairing imperfect ones, is mostly about establishing mutual trust. Friends, work…
I didn't upgrade my iPhone last year. And I'm not doing it this year. My iPhone 14 Pro is paid off. I've been on the iPhone Upgrade Program since it debuted but decided to skip last year's 15. This year's 16, while initially tempting in theory, has actively persuaded me to skip it again, likely until I need a new phone. I design mobile apps. It's not the only thing I do, but a lot of my work…