Shorts
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July 7, 2025 Sticky
Have you noticed how good design solves a problem and is usually quite noticeable? Great design, on the other hand, seamlessly integrates into the user experience, becoming almost invisible. šš¼š
This leads to the paradox of good design, which I contemplated a while ago.
In other words, great design fades into the background, letting the user focus on the purpose or task at hand rather than the design itself.
This could be one of the reasons why there are so many unrecognised good designers.
Agree? Disagree? š¤š
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June 19, 2025 Sticky
After delving into Hans Rosling’s book Factfulness, I can’t help but feel a mix of reluctant optimism and a lingering sense of impending doom. Sure, the book does a great job of showing us that the world isn’t as terrible as we might think, and that there’s data to prove humanity’s progress. But at the same time, it also highlights a rather grim reality: billions of people are striving for a lifestyle that our planet’s limited resources might never be able to sustain.
And let’s not forget our tendency to squabble over ideologies and beliefs that only serve to divide us further. In the end, while Factfulness offers a glimmer of hope, it also serves as a stark reminder of the uphill battle we face.
Still, I’d recommend giving it a readāif only to arm yourself with a bit more knowledge to navigate this complicated world.
š Get the book: Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
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April 1, 2026
A lot of complexity is introduced into systems simply because people are not honest. They say one thing and do another. They claim certain intentions but think something else. There is a constant dissonance between what people say they do, what they actually do, why they really act the way they do, and what they claim motivates them. In many cases, complexity is not the result of technical difficulty but of human inconsistency. Much of it arises from people being dishonest, sometimes even with themselves.
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July 19, 2025
After years of reading Kindle books, I joined my local library and rediscovered the tactile experience of reading paper books.
What can I say! Itās a whole new (old) experience holding a physical book in my hands, flipping through sheets of paper, and being able to jump from section to section, or from the middle of the book to the beginning or end within seconds.
For me, the best thing about reading physical books is the ability to almost simultaneously compare information on pages that are far apart within the book; seeing my underlines, highlights, and notes from a birdās-eye perspective. It is as if everything was at my fingertips all at once. Quite literally.
I believe that this is also the most critical part of reading books for educational, academic, or research purposes. I donāt think electronic books, despite all their other advantages, will ever replace this critical feature of reading paper books. At least not for me.
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July 16, 2025
So here is something to contemplate on. Everybody wants to become rich. But if everybody becomes rich, nobody is going to be actually rich.
The word ārichā is a comparative adjective. It implies that others are poor. When we say Jeff Asshole Bezos or Elon Retard Musk are rich, it means they have more than others. Significantly more!
So if we go by this definition, being rich simply means having more than the others. As a consequence, if everybody has the same amount of stuff, then the very definition of the word ārichā will lose its meaning.
Semantically speaking we canāt be all rich or can we?
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June 22, 2025
As Iām going through my old writings, I rediscovered this short piece that I wrote back in 2017. It was my reaction to some of Elon Muskās claims back then about going to Mars to save humanity. Iām somehow surprised by how little this piece has aged and how relevant it still is today.
Unfortunately, not much has changed since 2017āexcept maybe that Elonās vision of going to Mars, and many other claims, seems somehow more like business-driven market manipulation rather than an actual serious endeavour to go to Mars to save mankind.
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May 29, 2025
Good design is somehow invisible, which is most likely the main reason why it is so often dismissed as unimportant or easy to do. There is a quiet paradox in all this: one of the most valuable qualities of good design, its unobtrusiveness, also makes it harder to notice and appreciate.
Bad design, on the other hand, creates friction and therefore demands attention. We tend to notice what gets in our way far more than what works seamlessly. If you want to become a good designer, it helps to accept a certain level of humility and the likelihood that your best work may go largely unnoticed. Because in many cases, the best design is the one people barely see at all.
š Inspired by The Design of Everyday Things by Don NormanĀ
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May 29, 2025
āIf you base all your design decisions on data only, your designs will be only as good as your data is.ā
When working on design projects, whether itās for my clients or myself, I like to remind myself that:
- Data can be inaccurate and misleading. It is better to assume that not all data you get is always 100% accurate.
- Be aware of biased interpretations of data. Data can often be intentionally skewed by those presenting it to us.
I try to make decisions based on my intuition, experience, knowledge, and other sources of information. I rarely rely on data alone.
So my advice would be: use data to verify your hypotheses or to justify your points when relevant, but be careful to rely on data as your only source of information, as it can backfire on you.Ā Itās healthy to be slightly sceptical of given data, especially when unsure where it came from. And always watch for biased interpretations and question your sources.
š If you want to dig deeper on this topic, here are some articles worth reading:
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May 29, 2025
āPride comes before the fall. Remember, the lack of confidence is your enemy, but so is overconfidence. ā
The best way to design amazing product is to stay curious and keep your ego at bay. Always ask questions when unsure, be inquisitive, and donāt assume that you know everything that needs to be known because most likely you donāt.