Scott Berkun

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

–Wendell Berry

“People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think”

― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985)

There are activities in life where the goal is to be perfect. And there are activities where the goal is to express who you are and your personal experience in being you. These are rarely the same activities.

Denver had 22 turnovers (on 16 steals) to OKC's 9. Stat of the game IMO.

The greatness test: what is your best design work? How do you assess your life's work so far

What is the best creative work you have done in your career?

Here is a test you can take about great work and what it really means.

whydesignishard.substack.com/p/the-greatn...

Incredible productivity hack that will save you way more time than integrating AI into your workflow

The 7 Questions For Any Technological Idea From Neil Postman’s lecture On Culture’s Surrender to Technology: What is the problem that this new technology solves? Whose problem is it? What new problems do we create by solving thi…

Here @berkun.bsky.social does a great job of collecting thoughtful questions proposed by Neil Postman that every designer needs to consider before launching a new project: https://scottberkun.com/2016/the-7-questions-for-any-technological-idea/

For those in the South Seattle area I'm coming your way tomorrow.

It is never too late to dream

Why Shopping Local This Indie Bookstore Day Is More Important Than Ever Several independent book store owners are encouraging people to go out to their local independent bookstores to buy some novels to help celebrate Independent Bookstore Day and keep independent busines...

Need an excuse to buy more books? Now you have one! Saturday is Indie Bookstore Day! Show your favorite indie some love.

Scott Berkun's book list Checkout out this list on Bookshop

Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore day. I love locally owned bookstores and try to support them whenever I can.

Most of my books are available through @bookshop.org, which is a great way to get books and support independent stores.

bookshop.org/lists/scott-...

Ha! Some older homes here in the U.S. have the same design. It's kinda fun in a twisted? It's like "do a science experiment in thermodynamics while trying to wash your hands"

Ten Inventions I Want To See I’m a reluctant technologist. I have a latent love for technology, but 90% of what gets bandied about as “the wave of the future” is about productivity, which I find funny, since …

Here's my list of inventions I wish existed.

scottberkun.com/2008/ten-inv...

Yes. It would need an infinite life battery too.

My dream invention is a hypocrisy detection machine that continually informed people of their double-standards. Whenever we start saying something that conveniently contradicts a stated belief, it would start beeping and get louder and louder until we stop.

"All of life’s problems arise from trying to do other people’s tasks for them, or trying to get them to do yours." - Oliver Burkeman

Rethinking bad design (Fast Company) Use history to understand why design quality is ignored

The quality of cockpit design has more to do with crashes than pilots' skills.

whydesignishard.substack.com/p/rethinking... by @berkun.bsky.social

I'd add the detrimental effect of detailed up-front specifications on design as a major root cause (exemplified by the F-35 story).

Is Design Dead? How to reframe your existential fears My response to the latest fears that the sky is falling

whydesignishard.substack.com/p/is-design-...

Thanks for giving it a spin. Let me know what you think.

My dad had a similiar voice. But I primarily imagine him, standing there, these immaculate trains running on time, the speed, the overall engineering/system achievement, and being like "oh - this *can* be done by a government." He'd have to see it but he'd believe it.

So few Americans travel that it's hard to imagine things like this actually exist.

Is there any tech bro out there who has not wildly misunderstood every Philip K Dick book they read when they were 15?

It just arrived. Apparently designing sewers involves a LOT of math.

You have GOT to be kidding.

”[it’s] the insecure client who depends on informal office surveys and pseudo-scientific research to deal with questions that are unanswerable and answers that are questionable.” - Paul Rand

I just ordered a copy. Stay tuned.

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people:
18f.org

All of the clocks have changed, but my microwave still knows the truth.

"Relationship with reality From a scientific viewpoint, elves are not considered objectively real. However,"

When the data says no, but the people paying for the report say yes