Every degree course I see feels like it was designed in the early 00s when UX was trending and Web Design was still a thing, while the lecturers seem more interested in pursuing funding and obscure areas of research, than teaching useful, practical skills.
The courses themselves look like they were designed by a marketing team to make the institutions look cool and interesting to prospective students, while having little actual substance.
I still maintain that there is a HUGE opportunity here for a UK based University to genuinely double down on digital education. However this would require hiring practitioners rather than accademic researchers, building strong links with “industry” and making it vocational.
There have been some amazing institutions in other countries. Places like @CIIDnews, @SVA_News and @SCADdotedu so it constantly amazing me how much the UK is lagging behind.
Here’s an old article I wrote on the subject, but as far as I can tell, not much has changed.
There are a few newspapers I’d like to subscribe to but am always surprised by the cost. Partly because I’ve been trained by Spotify and Netflix that ~£10 pm for something I use a lot represents good value for money.
By contrast most newspaper subscriptions are over £30 pm. This seem to be based on the assumption that those taking out a digital subscription buy the physical paper every day, rather than somebody like me who buys one a couple of times a week.
I’d be happy paying £10 pm for a couple of newspaper subs, or £5 a month for a subscription that gave you access to 20 articles, but paying 3-5 times the cost of a Netflix or Spotify sub always feels slightly steep to me considering usage.
At the turn of the 20th century, the UK government decided that they couldn’t see a path forward for fixed wing aircraft and invested their attention into lighter than air vehicles instead.
In this super interesting article, @benedictevans talks about how a lot of early innovations are dismissed as experiments or toys. Something competitors do with much regularity, clouded by their “superior” understanding of the market.
The canonical version of this is Kodak, who helped pioneer the digital camera, but failed to see a world where digital would overtake analog.
I regularly see managers complain about the performance of certain individuals who then go on to be outstanding performers at their next job. I’ve come to the realisations that the problem generally lies with the manager rather than the person being managed.
It’s true that many of these individuals have a tendency to coast. Doing what they’ve been asked to do, and no more. I used to think that the problem was with the individual for being unmotivated, and I think that is part of the story.
However a good manager should provide structure and guidance for these sort of individuals as they often don’t understand what’s expected. To coach, mentor, support and challenge them into doing their best work possible. Instead they often act like absentee landlords.
I’ve been enjoying reading this book about the contemporary art market. As a result, here are my predictions about NFTs.
We’re currently in a super early technology driven gold rush, during which time a lot of mediocre NFT art will be created and sold for sold for seemingly random prices.
Some early NFTs with historic significance will continue to hold their value. Some new NFT artists will appear, but most of the art created during this phase will end up worthless.
The hardest thing in tech isn’t knowing the right thing to do. It’s figuring out how to get people to do it (and follow through with conviction)
Doing the right thing usually means doing something different to what you’re currently doing. This involves both risk and effort on the part of others, for often limited personal reward.
I see so many designers take roles in well established teams, only to leave 18 months later because they were unable to affect any meaningful change.
They were somehow surprised that joining an established product team with established processes and an established backlog of work, somehow took the creativity and joy out of the role.
Designers, if you truly want to make an impact, consider joining a start-up as their Founding Designer, before the processes have ossified. It'll be scrappy, it'll be messy and you'll have plenty of channeling conversations with the founders. But the potential is much larger.