Books and Links: March

Hey friends. This is a strange season of life. I hope you and yours are well. My little family is safe and blessed... and other than our fears for our friends we are quite happy. I happened to have taken a couple trips in February... and as an introvert I'm kind of set for the present. :P

I'm in the middle of a big ol' refactor of my rituals and systems.. and I'm trying to stay off social media to try and remain postive and focused on gratitude.

Books

Foucalt's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

This was a strange read. I wish I had known earlier that the iPhone kindle app has translation services built in, that would have made it easier.

I'm not sure how it makes me feel. It makes me feel uneasy, lost in its mystery, but am I supposed to be? Am I trapped like Jacobo and Causabon, having stared too long into the abyss that I can't escape? It doesn't help that I'm presently worrying about pandemic, sifting through fake news and clues to try and determine the fate of my little world.

It makes me wonder if it's a metaphor for some meme: Conspiracy theories. Violence. Religion. I suppose the ideas of the violent, occult conspiratorial Templars cover all of the above. It's a subtle andd broad enough metaphor to cause allow him to aim his prosaic bullets at everyone.

I confess to having read it because it's one of the most abandoned books on GoodReads.

Stop Using ‘Drop-down’

PREACH.

This so accurately portrays a conflict I have every day. Drop-down is far too vague a phrase… and I love how Adrian goes on to give us alternatives.

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How to Write a Note That You Will Actually Understand • Zettelkasten Method

Don’t just expect that you can understand yourself in a couple of years. At least I had some difficulty to do so. Make it easy for your future self.

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How to Write Usefully

What should an essay be? Many people would say persuasive. That's what a lot of us were taught essays should be. But I think we can aim for something more ambitious: that an essay should be useful.

This is a lovely article about writing. I know that much of what I release doesn't stand up to this standard, but I'd like it to someday.

Many gems like most Paul Graham articles... like this one.

You need humility to measure novelty, because acknowledging the novelty of an idea means acknowledging your previous ignorance of it.

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Seth Godin Hates Being Organized

Organizing is like building a case to hold your tools. You don’t get points for making it fancy, you get points for doing the work.

Very convicting for me. I tend to overorganize and undership. This interview is a good kick in the seat.

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Through a design system, darkly. — ethanmarcotte.com

That said, I think it’s high time organizations start creating their design systems with a more process-led approach. Rather than starting with design patterns, we need to looking at the ways our teams currently work, and then identifying how a design system would function within that broader organizational context.

This aligns with how I've been thinking of a Design System... it's a tool of communication or process, rather than an artifact of prescription.

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Changelog
  • 2022-06-08 11:31:29 -0500
    Rename articles

  • 2020-06-18 14:26:02 -0500
    Move everything to CST

    Don't know why I didn't do that before. It caused _no_ end of
    problems.

  • 2020-03-31 21:45:09 -0500
    Post: Books and Links for March