Dan Shipton.

“

I would argue that one of the most fundamental failings of “design thinking” education is the _lack of craftsmanship_. Students don’t appear to learn a honed, tacit, and careful “innate” sensibility for making, and simultaneously, they don’t appear to have developed an intimate understanding of the medium they are responsible for shaping. Instead, they are equipped with a toolkit of methods.

—

Jon Kolko » Interaction design and design synthesis.

So true.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Charlie’s vocabulary now includes Battlestar Galactica.

Pixar’s Storytelling tips from Andrew Stanton

Empathize with your main character, even if you don’t like all of his/her motivations or qualities. (For example, Woody in Toy Story initially masked his selfish desires as being selfless.)
Unity of opposites. Each character must have clear goals that oppose each other.
You should have something to say. Not a message, per se, but some perspective, some experiential truth.
Have a key image, almost like a visual logline, to encapsulate the essence of the story; that represents the emotional core on which everything hangs. (For example, Marlin in Finding Nemo, looking over the last remaining fish egg in the nest.)
Cast actors with an appealing voice, and whom the microphone loves. Test their voice performance with animation to see if it fits.
Know your world and the rules of it. (Such as in Monsters, Inc.)
The crux of the story should be on inner, not outer, conflicts.
Developing the story is like an archeological dig. Pick a site where you think the story is buried, and keep digging to find it.
Animation should be interpretive, not realistic.
“Just say no” to flashbacks. Only tell what’s vital, and tell it linearly.
Consider music as a character to anchor the film. Music is a keeper of the emotional truth.

Killing your startup while looking smart: Half Measure Syndrome

tutorblog:

HMS allows a founder to continually list things that have not been tried in total, to believe in the savior lodged around the corner which they’ll get to before they run out of time. Paradoxically, that faith means that you will likely never uncover that secret - if it does exist (and very rarely is there a single silver bullet for any company). Committing halfway fundamentally means that you will not fully understand any piece of that halfsies strategy. It means that, should the strategy fail, you will not fully understand the reason for it. While, in some instances, that may mean you avoid a number of bad roads, it will also mean that your ability to identify the right road will be materially decreased.

Reblogged from Tutorspree Blog

“

DO THING YOU LOVE MAKE YOU MORE AWESOME. GIVE THING YOU LOVE TO OTHERS MAKE YOU MORE AWESOME. YOU MORE AWESOME MAKE YOU BETTER AT DO EVERYTHING.

THIS YOUR AWESOME ENGINE. WHEN IT TURN, YOU WIN.

— FAKEGRIMLOCK via CNN Tech Tumblr

“

However, death isn’t an option, it’s an inevitability. And before I die, I want to take as many swings at the fence as I can.

— When Death Feels Like A Good Option | benhuh!com

“

Google knows it. Viacom knows it. The Chamber of Commerce knows it. Internet democracy groups know it. BoingBoing knows it. But, the Internet hasn’t been told yet — we’re going to get blown away by the end of the year. The worst bill in Internet history is about to become law.

— STOP SOPA, SAVE THE INTERNET - Boing Boing (via fred-wilson)

Reblogged from Fred Wilson Dot VC

How Google+ Business Pages Work

To the point write-up on the Change blog of what you need to know to get started with Google+ Business Pages.

"Works Fine"

parislemon:

When discussing whether or not there should be apps built specifically for tablets, Android chief Andy Rubin noted that “the Twitter phone app works fine on a tablet.”

In this case, I can’t determine if “works fine” is code for “looks like shit” or “‘meh’ is good enough”. Either is absolutely the wrong attitude and perhaps speaks a bit to why Android is doing so poorly in the tablet space.

iPhone apps running on the iPad also “work fine” but I think everyone will agree that they look like shit. If the iPad only ran iPhone apps scaled-up, there’s no question in my mind that sales would be a fraction of what they are. It’s the apps that are custom tailored for the new form factor that make it magical.

While the ability of a tablet to run any app is a nice fallback, it’s more of a marketing ploy. It was a genius way to get people buying the iPad originally (“look, I have all these apps that already work!”), but Apple was quick to make sure that developers got on board with building custom iPad apps as well.

Again, those are the key. It sure doesn’t seem like Rubin gets that. Of course, he’s in a tough position since there are so many different form factors for Android. Big tablets, small tablets, mini tablets, big phones, small phones, huge ass phones. How does one custom tailor for all those sizes?

They don’t.

But I’m sorry, “meh” isn’t good enough. “Works fine” isn’t good enough.

Stand out, not still.

Reblogged from parislemon