Richard Gregg: The Value of Voluntary Simiplicity – “The essence of personality does not lie in its isolated individuality, its separateness from other people, its uniqueness, but in its basis of relationships with other personalities.” Hadn’t ever thought of it that way, but he’s right. Our personalities only matter in relationship with others; their relative…more

Richard Gregg: The Value of Voluntary Simiplicity – nice split-screen content + footnotes layout as well.

Richard Gregg: The Value of Voluntary Simiplicity – “It would be consistent with a real awareness of human unity if I should invite into my house for a meal and a night’s lodging a starving man who has knocked at my door. But if my rugs are so fine that I am afraid his dirty…more

“Design is a response to social change” – George Nelson, Herman Miller’s lead designer in the 1940s

“There were three reasons why we survived. We had no money, we had no technology, and we had no plan. Every dollar, we used very carefully.” – Jack Ma

How to design concepts

Ok, one more thing on this [making patterns worth using](http://ryskamp.org/brain/design/make-a-pattern-worth-using) topic. It is of utmost importance that when you design a concept, you design something you actually want. Obvious? You would think so… I think designers underestimate the power of a truly impressive concept. A design that takes risks to express an exciting vision can…more

Inside the billionaire service industry – “‘If the income inequality persists, we could end up with real armed camps, like in South Africa.’ She said she was increasingly aware of the tension between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’ and she described a surge in demand among the ultrarich for real estate in out-of-the-way places such…more

Make a pattern worth using

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about designing patterns, it’s that you need to make a pattern worth using. It seems that every technology company today wants to become a “platform”; to make their device or service the foundation for other people’s work. To that end, many companies are developing hardware specifications and programming interfaces…more

Just throw down the paint

A few gems from John Kilduff, a painter who paints [while walking on a treadmill](http://characters.usanetwork.com/portal/characters/4616.html) (and occasionally does [other](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6hxcr4kB4c) [things](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMJhfqcKawk&feature=user) as well): > There’s no hanging out, thinking about “Oh, maybe I should put some paint on the canvas over in this particular area”. There’s this great urgency in the painting process about the application…more

YouTube – Let’s Paint,Exercise,& Blend Drinks TV! – I still think this is the funniest thing on the internet.