W is for

∞

5.17

I’m thrilled that the new Google Maps is finally here. It is a beautiful re-imagining of an already great product and sets the bar even higher for would-be competitors.

Knowing the team, this is something that was created with a genuine passion for the product and a desire to dramatically improve the experience for their end users. I was lucky enough to work on many aspects of this while at Google and am blown away by the work Berni, Jonah, and the rest of the talented team have done.

I can’t wait to see where they go next. Request your invite here.

∞

5.7

“Now that I have a watch, I notice other people’s watches. This leads to more conversations about watches and more time spent thinking about watches. This is a slippery slope: You start as an earnest young man who’s trying to keep track of the precious minutes of life and suddenly you’re a potbellied old bore trapped in endless conversations about Panerais, waiting for death.”

—
Ezra Koenig on watches.

∞

5.3

Hope the film lives up to the soundtrack.

(Source: gatsbymovie)

∞

4.30

Miami Beach

∞

4.15

I can’t get over the fact that these Facebook is celebrating one of the worst things about mobile devices: using your phone when you shouldn’t and never being “fully there.”

In this spot we have Zuckerburg delivering what is (supposed to be) an inspiring speech about the product launch, but the designer is too preoccupied with his own cover feed to give him his full attention… yuck.

∞

4.12

Empty America - New York City

∞

3.22

I love that Providence is featured on this poster as if it were a major city (yeah, right) and that the East Coast is best personified as a ship modelmaker.

(Source: cavalier)

∞

3.19

Seriously one of the best Tumblrs right now.

∞

1.19

Beautiful sketches, illustrations, notes, and photos from the complete Moonrise Kingdom script.

∞

1.2

My Year in Cities, 2012

San Francisco, CA

New York, NY

Middletown, RI
Zurich, Switzerland

Montreal, QC, Canada

Seattle, WA

Providence, RI

Las Vegas, NV

Los Angeles, CA

46 days away from home (San Francisco & New York).

One or more night was spent in each city. Last year’s list is here.

∞

12.13

So happy to see this go live! Google Maps for iPhone was one of the last projects I worked on while at Google and the team has done a phenomenal job delivering the best maps experience on mobile. Congrats to everyone and go download it here!

∞

12.11

Endless Iteration

Instagram and Foursquare both recently updated a core piece of their products in a pretty dramatic way (the camera and check-in respectively). And while it’s debatable that either is really an “improvement” over their previous versions, the update strikes me as two instances in a growing trend of over-iteration in mobile apps.

As these successful products evolve (long after they saw their initial breakout growth) the talented teams behind them seem to be left with less and less to do— the primary “magic” is done and now the vision shifts to building a mature product. And because simply adding features is often regarded with such disdain (with good reason), the product teams must refine, refine, refine.

So these intelligent, ambitious designers and engineers double down on perfecting every detail, trying to find some promised land of perfect product, always just slightly out of reach. And oftentimes this is a product that may have existed a few versions before.

I’m afraid we are getting close to a breaking point with a lot of the most successful mobile apps (that continue to have active development) where their further iterations and improvements risk ruining what made them great in the first place.

∞

11.28

“Those five “instruments” are $50. Fifty dollars for a single fork, knife, and spoon (the smaller items are a salad fork and tea spoon — and I’m sure it would be strictly bush league to use them for any other purpose). Is the kitchen drawer that Dustin keeps these vessels in also the very best of its kind? We’re left to wonder, but presumably so.

Boasting expensive material possessions isn’t really anything new, but Dustin Curtis does it while framing his pursuit of these things as some admirable combination of special skill and uncompromising hardship. Stranger still, his thesis is that this is somehow the path to a liberated life. That being able to trust in the “goodness” of your material possessions will free you. Heaven forbid having to suffer the uncertainty that a dinner fork could… malfunction, when going for a bite?

But what absolutely blew me away was that the Hacker News readership seemed to agree. Or at least agree enough to not find it laughable, because it was the number one story on Hacker News for a fair amount of time.”

—

Moxie Marlinspike responds to Dustin Curtis’ insufferable blog post “The Best” and the response on Hacker News.

(source: dbreunig)

∞

11.15

The American Radiator Building. One of my favorite buildings in New York. The black brick symbolizes coal and the gold crown, fire. The building is a literal symbol of the business, how cool is that?

If you’re in NYC, go to the middle of Bryant Park, just near the steps of the NYPL and catch a great view of its facade.

∞

11.6

New York City— October 31, 2012