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Scott Berkun
@berkun
, 4 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
16 years ago I quit a perfectly nice tech management career to try and become a writer and speaker.

1000+ blog posts, 100s of talks and 7 books later I'm still here - thanks to all who have followed along, helped me pay the bills and encouraged me along the way. #grateful
This personal essay from 2005, when my first book was published explains how I felt about quitting then:

scottberkun.com/essays/41-why-…
An embarrassing side story: the day of my exit interview for @Microsoft, which I was well prepared for with fdbk, I showed up to the HR building and was told... they'd forgotten about me! The person scheduled to do it quit the prior week and I fell through the cracks :)
@Microsoft One big circle about all these years - the 1st book I tried to get published was about design of the London Tube (subway). Couldn't find a publisher - so switched to a book on projects.

Finally now I'm back to design! designmtw.com
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More from @berkun see all

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Scott Berkun
@berkun
1. The architecture world has this term *starchitecture* - meaning a focus on an individual as a lone genius creator - to the exclusion of reality.

#Design and most fields have the same problem. It's in our romanticized history of what creativity means. And how stories work.
2. Our brains really like stories - and simple stories are easy to learn, remember and share. Hero myths (insert fav. Campbell reference here) work because our brains like them...

...but not necessarily because the (creative) world works the way these stories tell us it does.
3. Shows like Netflix's Abstract (Art of Design) focus on individuals - why? it's a "better" story. We can focus on ONE person and ONE point of view. All of the good things about whatever gets made we can attribute to a singular identity.

This is much simpler than the reality..
Read 10 tweets
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Scott Berkun
@berkun
A *parti* or *parti pris* is the central idea or concept of a design. Often represented by a simple sketch or drawing.

(Source: 101 things I learned in architecture school, Frederick. Image source at link).

#design #designmtw mgerwingarch.com/m-gerwing/2011…
From the architecture books I've been reading, the #ux world is underread: likely because "it's not tech" which dodges fundamental similarities - architects design things that require engineers.

There's a 2000+ year history we can learn from. I'll keep sharing salient gems.
"An architect knows something about everything, an engineer knows everything about one thing." - Frederick (101 things)

Which is reminiscent of all the unicorn / t-shape / specialist vs. generalist discussions that often happen in the #ux world.
Read 6 tweets
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Scott Berkun
@berkun
1. I've been thinking about how food is designed.

In particular, how certain foods have branding *on* the food itself. Exhibit A: the Shula burger in Fort Lauderdale Airport.

It's a strange thing to do, isn't it? I know where it's from: I just ordered it.
2. Of course the first thing I thought of was candy and cookies which often do this. Exhibit B: the Oreo.

It's often done to highly processed things (it's all unnatural, so why not), but I can't recall having seen it done on a bun or on the food itself before (Exhibit A).
3. There's an interesting line these sorts of things cross between a) food as functional sustenance from the natural world, and b) food is a manufactured product like all others that signifies status, image and branding.
Read 8 tweets

Related threads

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Steve Faktor
@ideafaktory
IBM is accused of firing older workers. This is really about money - and doesn't just apply to IBM. Many companies sneakily create practices, communications & policies (like not subsidizing family health coverage)to discourage hiring older workers.


2/7
Age discrimination is especially common in #tech, where appearing "cool" carries a premium for recruiting top grads & younger talent.

In most careers, there comes an inflection point where junior employees can do the same job (or ~80% of it) for way less.

3/7
Sadly, to companies we're no more than "human resources," so employees must make themselves indispensable, esp. as their salaries creep up.

How?

1) Develop a unique expertise: be known for it. Could be anything from a coding language to ideas generation to great #design.

4/7
Read 6 tweets
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T. Greg Doucette
@greg_doucette
Witty!

(Non-consensual hugs typically qualify as assault in most jurisdictions btw)

Are those... tears?

Because they look like tears

I bet they're delicious

He did not know that. Guaranteed.

Read 1674 tweets
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T. Greg Doucette
@greg_doucette
Texas's anti-SLAPP statute requires the judge to enter an order for the loser to pay the winner's attorney fees. It's not optional.

TCPA §27.009(a)

Twitter says you've @'d me 78 times since 6/11, with 20+ of them in just the past few hours

This seems like a pot-kettle moment for you

Definitely a reasonable assumption. Given Screech's perpetual word vomit on YouTube, there are likely some things he'll authenticate that would help on the merits of the TCPA motion too

Read 1582 tweets
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Gretchen McCulloch
@GretchenAMcC
I have cited AO3's taxonomy and archiving systems as models at academic linguistics conferences because they are IMPRESSIVE as usable, durable, well-designed systems, and frankly academia could stand to learn from fandom here
Here's an example: rights transfer and orphaning

Academic archives are patchy when the original depositor of the data dies or doesn't want to be responsible for it anymore. AO3 has a whole system in place to transfer fic to another user or leave it up without your name attached
I was literally at a conference a few years ago when an academic was like "oh yeah we just don't know how to deal with rights transfer at our archive" and I pulled up AO3's orphaning policy as a model
Read 16 tweets
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Joseph Stalin
@StalinIsBack
1/8 My favorite #quote by #JosephStalin, which explains the scientific, #DialecticalMaterialist explanation of true freedom in material reality, not just as an abstract ideal. #StalinIsBack #StalinLives #JVStalin #Stalin #StalinQuote #StalinQuotes #Truth #MELS #MarxismLeninism
2/8 Having an #objective, #rational, #ScientificSocialist, #Dialectical, & #Materialist viewpoint allows us to accurately see & evaluate & analyze #Truth & #Reality as they truly materially exist in this universe.
3/8 An idealistic, dogmatic viewpoint, which capitalists have, however, makes one irrational enough to 'see' freedom where freedom stays trapped on a piece of paper while people are oppressed in their actual lived lives.
Read 520 tweets
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Connor Ratliff
@connorratliff
45 Days Of @ElvisCostello: a twitter megathread in anticipation of the Oct 12 release date of LOOK NOW, the new LP by Elvis Costello & The Imposters

This is either a bright idea or a brilliant mistake, but this is only, this is only, this is only the beginning...
I did something similar to this 5 years ago, in anticipation of EC & @theroots' Wise Up Ghost LP, on tumblr.

(You can still find all those posts if you look, although a lot of the YouTube links etc are now dead ends. It was 40 Days Of EC then, so for 2018 I'm upping it to 45.)
Mostly I will be going chronologically from the early years right up to the present, but it feels right to start out with Costello's 2002 song, "45."

Music Video directed by @jessebdylan


(There's an alternate "diner" version I can't find anywhere online)
Read 2378 tweets

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