Intro / Preface / Extra Words
It's time for another edition of my slightly inconsistent weekly newsletter. This one starts off with a ton of words, so I'm keeping it short up here at the top. I hope you all are able to take a long holiday weekend and that if you're still able to find a pool or take the boat out one last time before we all start pretending it's fall (even though it'll still be 90 degrees outside).
Enjoy.
Heavy Rotation
Beatles Radio on Spotify
I legit can't figure out how to link to this, so I'm just going to tell you about it. Lately Amanda has been playing Beatles Radio on Spotify for us around the house, and especially when we're trying to get Avery to take a nap. I dig this very strongly and it makes me super happy to think about Avery hearing all these songs for the first time. Even though she probably just thinks it's weird noise. Many adults may also think of the Beatles as weird noise. Whatever.
Current Things
The Full 10-Page Anti-Diversity Screed Circulating Internally at Google
This commentary (most call it a 'manifesto' at the moment, but I think that word is overused so I'm not using it) has been making the rounds in the corner of the Internet that I hang out in, but as I've been following along it occurred to me that many of you, wonderful subscribers, may not hang out in the same corner of the Internet that I do and you may not know about any of this.
All of that to say, start here. Granted, the title alone of this post (which contains the original commentary from the Google employee) is quite ironic considering a main point of the Googler was that people tend to squash all attempts at non-PC discussions of gender equality by using shame and labels, which the Gizmodo author definitely did with the title. Follow-up links below.
So, about this Googler’s manifesto. – Yonatan Zunger
Now that you've hopefully read the commentary, go here. Zunger is a former senior-ish Googler and offers more insight into a couple of things: 1) why the original author is mistaken in his assessment of skills that would make women less fit to be engineers and 2) what must be going on inside Google in terms of damage control.
The Big Lie of the Google Employee’s Anti-Diversity Manifesto
This is a well-reasoned, well-researched continuation of a point raised in the previous response link (In case you didn't read it, Zonger opted to let someone else fill us in on the original commentator's lack of understanding when it came to gender).
Here's the point of all this for me: I just had a daughter. I'm going to struggle to understand all the emotions, pressures, and perspectives she'll experience because they're different than mine, because we're different. But I'm going to try. Reading articles like this will help. Also, watch the video at the end because I said so and it made me kinda weepy.
Timeless Things
Learning From The Feynman Technique
I'll be honest, I had not heard of Mr. Feynman before but I guarantee you now I'll be learning as much as I can about him after reading this tidy little post about him. Here's a quote I really loved, which is from a biography written about Mr. Feynman by a Mr. James Gleick:
He opened a fresh notebook. On the title page he wrote: NOTEBOOK OF THINGS I DON’T KNOW ABOUT. For the first but not last time he reorganized his knowledge. He worked for weeks at disassembling each branch of physics, oiling the parts, and putting them back together, looking all the while for the raw edges and inconsistencies. He tried to find the essential kernels of each subject.
I'm gonna go buy a fresh notebook right meow.
Random Things
Empty States? More like You-Have-No-Idea-How-Much-Work-Goes-Into-Those States, amirite??
As I may have mentioned before, sometimes folks tell me that I use a word or phrase in conversation that they aren't familiar with because it's an 'industry term' and I forget where I am sometimes. So in the pursuit of sharing more about what I do and the things I think about, here's a frenzied explanation of the massive amount of work Shopify put into creating their empty states. And before you jump in, here's the definition:
Empty states (or zero states) are places in apps that have no content or data (yet). You probably only see them in three situations:
- You just signed up or this is the first time you've gone to this particular place in the app (aka "first use" empty state).
- You caused the screen to be empty, like hitting inbox zero or clearing notifications (aka "user cleared" empty state).
- You broke something or the app broke something or Comcast broke something (aka "errors" empty states).
Also, the illustrations in that article are pretty so just go look at them.
Food
Life in Chains: Finding Home at Taco Bell
While this article opens with this perfect and hilarious description of Taco Bell's offerings:
Taco Bell tacos are crunchy, crispy, meaty sailboats of spicy chemical flavor.
... it's actually a beautiful little piece from a few years ago about comfort food. It'll get you at the end.
Business Time
Look Beyond Existing Customers When Building Your Product
This article covers two of my favorite services that we use to help run our products. I spend part of every single weekday in Intercom and Stripe, so I notice when they make incremental changes or improvements. Using them every day also means I notice when they make the big changes, and it's been really interesting to me to try to guess where they're taking the product next.
Sports (Disc Golf)
What football will look like in the future
This is one of the most entertaining, um, pieces of content I've consumed on the Internet. It takes a long time, but it's hilarious and worth it. My advice would be to read it on a device at least as big as an iPad. Thanks to Brian F. for the great find.
A quick teaser: It's the year 17776, people have stopped dying, satellites we launched years ago became conscious, and most people in the US spend their unlimited time playing football on fields the size of states. Go ahead. Click that link.
I love technology (and science)
“Virtual Autism” May Explain Explosive Rise in ASD Diagnoses
Really, really interesting and really, really terrifying. I'll definitely be doing some more of my own research on this, and might even read one of the books by this author that sounds particularly intriguing: A Disease called Childhood: Why ADHD became an American Epidemic. Thanks to Meagan M. and my wife Amanda for sharing.