What I'm reading: October-ish Edition

I used to insta-share everything I liked on Instapaper immediately on Twitter/Slack... I'm going to try a different path and accumulate links into posts like this. Just thinking about trying something different. I'm not going to turn into Daring Fireball, I promise.

Here's a sampling of what I've been reading...

Books

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Still working through this on audible. I'll likely post a summary/review when I'm done.

900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison E. Salisbury

I've been meaning to finish this for years. It's a fascinating study of flawed leadership principles and brave souls making the best of the worst situation I've ever read.

You and Me Forever by Francis and Lisa Chan

Almost done with this one. Highly recommended.

Blogs

The Experience Economy

The phrase “The Experience Economy”, like the worst sort of corporate speak, sounds less like a viable business plan than it does a discarded slogan for Las…

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The Source History of Cat

I once had a debate with members of my extended family about whether a computer science degree is a degree worth pursuing. I was in college at the time and trying…

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The American Grandmaster Who Could Become World Champion

If you ask the people who know Fabiano Caruana what Fabiano Caruana is like, they will tell you that Fabiano Caruana is, you know, just a normal guy. He likes movies. He likes music. He likes to eat. He works out. He goes on dates. Just a normal guy. Just a normal guy who is ranked second in the world in chess...

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What’s in My Bag, 2018 Edition

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Deep Work Update

Last week I made the decision to schedule every minute of my day, and wanted to share a quick update. In short, this is working out very well for me so far.

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Writing a Screencast Video Editor in Haskell

For the last six months I’ve been working on a screencast video editor called Komposition, and it’s now released and open source. This is an experience report, based on a talk from Lambda World Cádiz 2018, that’ll give an overview of Komposition’s design, implementation, testing, and planned future work.

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The Psychology of Design

There are a number of debates about which additional skills designers should learn. Should designers code, write, or understand business? These skills are incredibly valuable but perhaps not essential. However, I would argue that every designer should learn the fundamentals of psychology...

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