Big Ideas
Resources
I collect ideas that stick around, the kind that refuse to leave your brain even when you’re working on something else. Some are obvious. Others are obscure enough that I’m still not sure who else has noticed them. The bet is that all of them solve a real problem the way I want problems solved: with directness and a little bit of craft.
Abstract: The Art of Design
Your mom still doesn’t understand what you do? This docuseries is the most accessible on-ramp to how great designers think, across disciplines. Good to share with your non-designer friends and partners.
Dive Club
Long, craft-obsessed interviews with the designers behind products you admire. The closest thing to sitting in on their process.
Helvetica: The Film
How one typeface carries ideology, a cult following. A fun way to see that no design decision is ever neutral.
Humans Need Not Apply
The clearest short case for taking automation’s impact on work seriously. Sobering context for AI adoption as an ops problem.
Neural Networks: The Basics
The most intuitive visual explanation of how the models you design for actually work. Know your material.
Neural Networks: Zero to Hero
You too can build a language model from scratch using this handy tutorial series. Overkill, perhaps, but nothing else will demystify AI for a designer this thoroughly.
Objectified
A documentary on industrial design and the intention behind everyday objects. It reconnects you to physical craft and 2009 Jony Ive.
Powers of Ten
Nine minutes on scale and zoom that will change how you think about detail, overview, and the space between them.
Rams
Dieter Rams on less, but better, in his own voice. The quiet-design manifesto in film form.
The Mother of All Demos (1968)
The 1968 demo that introduced the mouse, hypertext, and screen-sharing at once. The original vision of augmenting human intellect. I met Douglas when he was working out of a lab at Logitech. Even then, he was still thinking big.