I make things that go on the Internet. I live in Brooklyn and design at Vimeo in a cool building. On this blog I write about UX design, NYC, and technology.
I’m adding a lot of new music to my iTunes tonight. Most of it came from Spencer, tracks he played on the boat while we were out last weekend. I’m listening through Phrazes for the Young now. Casablanca’s voice is really compelling for me. I’ve always loved the Strokes and this album is great as well.
One of the albums I just added is Drake’s So Far Gone. I have literally no idea about Drake. I’ve heard his name and know people like him. I saw it and thought I’d give it a try. While I haven’t listened to it yet, the album cover is beautiful, isn’t it? Very nice use of type. It’s good to see a hip-hop/pop artist choosing to go graphic/typographical instead of using a photo. Classy, Drake, very classy. Let’s hope the album is as good.
From the great new iPhone Cinema channel on Vimeo. The iPhone 4’s camera is pretty impressive, I’m excited to see what filmmakers manage to do with it.
I’m restless because I’m doing way too much consuming and not enough creating. Every day I’m on Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, Facebook, Foursquare, and my RSS feeds and all I do is read about all of the awesome stuff going on around me, but I never contribute anything myself. The space that I’m passionate about (technology) is at the most exciting point it has ever been in its history, and here I am sitting around on my chair doing nothing about it.
I’ve had a similar realization lately myself. Except mine came after I realized I’m fostering a growing envy for all the people I see achieving great things around me.
I absolutely believe in the idea that you should constantly surround yourself with people smarter than you, it’s one of the major reasons I decided to work at Vimeo. Observation without contribution turns awe into envy and inspiration into jealousy. It can be a dark road.
First, I want to stop being negative; fight that feeling of “why didn’t I think of that? It should’ve been me!” and instead congratulate my peers for their amazing achievements. Creativity and innovation are not a finite resource. It’s easy to think all the good ideas have already been had but in five years there’ll be a whole new group of people I’m envious of who, right now, are out there creating, not wishing they’d thought of someone else’s idea.
I feel like I too will back away a bit from Twitter, Facebook, etc. At least turn down the info spigot to a trickle. That’s the only way to free up my time enough to start working on the things I want to do. I have great ideas but they’re nothing but brain crack† without action.
So far, so good. Before writing this post—but after reading Joe’s—I took a favor asked of me by a friend and tried out some new CSS techniques with which I’ve been meaning to experiment. Michael wanted a map on his contact page with a pointer to where he lives. I rotated some elements, used some trickery to create the arrowhead, and added text-shadow to imply some depth. I’m quite pleased with the result.
My fingers are crossed and I hope I can go through with this personal renaissance. I hope Joe can too: he gave me a hint at the project he’s been working on and I am selfishly glad he’s finding more time for it because I want to use it. Now.
† This is one of my favorite things ever. I have watched this video countless times when I need to rekindle my creativity. If you only watch one video I share on this blog, make it this.
Having a tough time taking a nap on that island paradise? Not to worry. Just pick a few sounds (I might suggest an ice cream truck and a barking dog for that summer feeling), set the sleep timer, and you’ll be napping in no time. Worried that you’ll be disoriented waking up in the quiet majesty of a country dawn? We’ve got you covered. Just set the alarm and you can be woken gently by an NYC sanitation truck anywhere in the world.
Safari is a great browser. It’s incredible that the default browser that comes built-in to an Operating System is so high caliber. However, there are a few annoyances that have existed in Safari for several years now that keep me from using it as my daily, default browser. Safari 5, which was…
Great points Joe, same problem I have with Safari. Though, if you use Readability, the whole Apple+1 is useful for reading articles (transition to the readability view with just the keyboard).
I make things that go on the Internet. I live in Brooklyn and design at 
