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Hacker News Book Map The 1000 most popular books on Hacker News visualized on an interactive map.

If you look for what's next to read, look no further:
hnbooks.pieterma.es

Transitioning from 2025 to 2026: Building Hypercerts on the Open Internet In 2025, hypercerts shifted toward an open, networked architecture built on ATProto, enabling shared records of action, evaluation, and value. In 2026, we are putting this infrastructure to work—connecting action, evaluation, and funding through real-world use cases.

As we transition into 2026, here’s a reflection on how hypercerts is evolving — and where we’re heading next.

Grateful to all the collaborators and contributors who helped shape this work.

Books as swag EV #34 ⋅ 2 min

Yes, we all love t-shirts with cool prints, good quality mugs and compact travel gadgets. But most of all, we love books!

Here is a reminder of the best possible swag you can give away: www.embracevariety.com/books-as-swag/

#techconference #web3summit #hackathon #techevent #swag #marketing

[ 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 ]

A curated list of the most beautiful podcast covers: www.embracevariety.com/most-beautif...

This 1/4 issue was inspired by @lucastauil.bsky.social, who launched @entangledfutures.bsky.social last week ✨

#podcast #podcasttips #designinspiration #aethetics

Looks beautiful and alive!

White text on black background reads: "The State of the DWeb: P2P, Local-First, and Where to go from here". Top left there is the DWeb logo, white multicolored dots that form a D and a little box what says "web". On the right are more multicolored dots arranged on blobs that look like topological map lines.

DWeb Virtual Meetup—The State of the DWeb: P2P, Local-First, & Where to go from here

WHEN: Wed Aug 27 10am PT

What are the benefits and challenges of local-first, permission-less, trustworthy p2p networks? Feat. @expede.wtf & Andreas Dzialocha of p2panda

RSVP:
www.eventbrite.com/e/dweb-meetu...

Our first guest is Paul Krafel, author of Shifting, Nature's Way of Change.
Krafel's careful observation reveal deep natural patterns that can help us navigate the fog of present times.
Check the full interview: entangledfutures.fm/episodes/tow...

3-step secret of presenting lists ⋅ EV #021 Your website is mainly made up of lists. Not always bullet-point lists. Just sequences of items from the same category: benefits, features, clients so far, integrations available within your product, ...

Your website is mainly made up of lists. Not always bullet-point lists. Just sequences of items from the same category: benefits, features, etc.
Here is a tiny but spicy 3-step secret of presenting lists:
www.embracevariety.com/presenting-lists/

It has served me & my clients well for 15 years.

Take me back in time, and I'd tell my junior self: “To make #brand pop, consider context. If everyone is bold & loud, break the noise with ONE BIG white space. If everyone is colorful, go black & white. Then, because all-things-color are lost in darkness, make it glow."
Recent work for @getdweb.net

On the photos: Open-space invitation, which is also a session card to fill out, for Tomorrow by DWeb at Funding the Commons.

3 ― Get your hands dirty, get backstage. Try to co-organize or volunteer. Offer your help. Contribute in a way people find helpful. I have practiced it since I moved to work abroad, and that's where my friends and networks come from.

2 ― Choose reconnecting with people you already know and admire over making as many new "connections" during the side event roller coaster. Gathering with @protocollabs.bsky.social peers organised by @wills.co.tt and @mosh.bsky.social was the highlight for me

🖤 As an attendee 🖤

1 ― Come to the event earlier to check the crowd. If you, like me, are leaning towards privacy, p2p and public goods folks, have a few conversations before the event starts, so you are not trapped in "DeFi-will-make-us-rich-fast" space.

3 ― Builders want to know more about marketing, and — is it really happening? — about branding. People were bringing extra chairs to my Brand Lab at @fundingthecommons.bsky.social, and the "How to turn strangers into early adopters" at #ProtocolBergv2 had 3 times more attendees than I expected.

11 books on design-it-yourself and marketing for first-time founders ⋅ EV #012 This week I'm at Berlin Blockchain Week, and I brought a giveaway for developers. It's a list of 11 books on DIY (design-it-yourself) and marketing for first-time founders who want to turn their idea ...

2 ― Prepare useful left-behinds for your workshop attendees. My list of 11 books on design-it-yourself and marketing for first-time founders was a huge hit: www.embracevariety.com/11-books/

3 ― Make event collateral as reusable as possible. Try to avoid dates if you know you'll repeat an event elsewhere.

⭐ As a speaker ⭐

1 ― (a special one for me) Don't even board the plane if your slides are not ready! I'm slowly improving. The goal: to nail it for #Devconnect2025.

2 ― Host your event earlier rather than later in the calendar — everyone's battery gets emptier toward the end of the satellite events thread. But also, birds of a feather flock together: collaborate with like-minded orgs if you both serve the same people.

#BerlinBlockchainWeek is over. My top 3 takeaways as an event organizer, speaker and attendee 👇
🌱 As an event organizer 🌿

1 ― People are tired of talks and panels. If you want your space to buzz, host an unconference or a pre-scheduled workshops track.
...

Defend the Internet Archive. Protect the Wayback Machine. Tell the music labels: Drop the 78s lawsuit. Sign our open letter on change.org

📢 The Internet Archive needs your help.

At a time when information is being rewritten or erased online, a $700 million lawsuit from major record labels threatens to destroy the Wayback Machine.

Tell the labels to drop the 78s lawsuit.

👉 Sign our open letter: www.change.org/p/defend-the...

🧵⬇️

DWeb Camp 2024 visual identity An illustrative story about how the new look of DWeb Camp brought energy and optimistic vibe to discussions around such a heavy theme as Migration.

“Instead of focusing on the painful reasons people migrate — wars, environmental degradation, and political forces — we needed a visual language that spoke of empowerment and possibility.”
nezhynska.com/work/dweb-ca...
This story of #DWebCamp visual identity tells about the true power of aesthetics:

What an honour! Embrace Variety zine is showcased on
@fontsinuse.com — the biggest & the most-loved-by-designers archive of typography:
fontsinuse.com/uses/64928/e...
Get your copy on @metalabel.bsky.social: embracevariety.metalabel.com/vol01
It's free. It will change the way you design brands.

Slack is wiping out YEARS of the team history to push small groups to pay..

Slack is wiping out YEARS of the team history to push small groups to pay... If you are affected, know that a land where the soil is more fertile exists!

It's in pre-alpha. If your group is ready to try it already, DM me - I'm looking for First Movers to launch it together in spring #p2p #dweb

Embrace Variety Vol.01 Embrace Variety Vol.01 contains three guides about the core and often overlooked aspects of visual branding: personality, design taboos, and the North Star. It is for everyone who wants to give their ...

And it is live! 🔴
Spend this weekend reading a zine that will make your brand work last longer and resonate deeper: embracevariety.metalabel.com/vol01
Read it offline. Read it in nature. And yes, give it to someone for holidays!

Last year at #DWebCamp, I almost distributed my zine for beta reading without crediting myself! No names, no URLs, nothing :) 👻

So I printed this inlay right in Redwoods. People's feedback - sweet and on-point - shaped the revised edition which is coming tomorrow on @metalabel.bsky.social

A poem for my last day working at the writing center for the semester (by Joseph Fasano)

Inspired by many gorgeous zines in #decentralizedweb space,
and with a belief that what lives on chain will stand the time 🥁
"Embrace Variety. Vol.01" is coming on @metalabel.bsky.social next week 👁️👁️

The thread landed under this post ;) bsky.app/profile/zkav...

5/ The more people involved in the vibe creation, the richer the results are. And have one visual mastermind who can combine sourced images in a well-balanced moodboard and explain the aspirations behind every visual. Such coordination is a bit of work, but you'll be glad you did it.

4/ Ryan asked how much time should one spend on designing a moodboard? Ideally, take 3 days for active visual exploration, 2-3 hours/day, then revisit it in 2 days again and make small adjustments. Don't overthink the 1st version — people will always ask to iterate it a bit.

How to design a North Star by Ira Nezhynska The most complete guide to creating brand moodboards: from sourcing the right images and presenting to stakeholders like a pro to putting in practical use and the design handoff.

3/ Where you would like to start is the VIBE, the MOOD of the brand visual universe. It is a North Star that will guide you from the first concepts to the final pixels of delivery. I have a 33-min-read 101 guide for you:
nezhynska.com/brand-moodbo...