Link tags: honesty

This page is a truly naked, brutalist html quine.

I think this is quite beautiful—no need to view source; the style sheet is already in the document.

What was it like? (Phil Gyford’s website)

Congratulations and kudos to Phil for twenty years of blogging!

Here he describes what it was like online in the year 2000. Yes, it was very different to today, but…

Anyone who thinks blogging died at some point in the past twenty years presumably just lost interest themselves, because there have always been plenty of blogs to read. Some slow down, some die, new ones appear. It’s as easy as it’s ever been to write and read blogs.

Though Phil does note:

Some of the posts I read were very personal in a way that’s less common now, in general. … Even “personal” websites (like mine) often have an awareness about them, about what’s being shared, the impression it gives to strangers, presenting a public face, maybe a feeling of, “I’m just writing personal nonsense but, why, yes, I am available for hire”.

Maybe that’s why I’m enjoying Robin’s writing so much.

Robin Rendle ･ 2D Websites

When I log onto someone’s website I want them to tell me why they’re weird. Where’s the journal or scrapbook? Where’s your stamp collection? Or the works-in-progress, the failed attempts, the clunky unfinished things?

Reading in the dark

I keep coming back to this remarkable piece of writing by Cassie. Honest, resonant, and open, centred around a perfect analogy.

Nick Cave - The Red Hand Files - Issue #33 - Did you ever want to simply give up and quit, because of your inner voice? : The Red Hand Files

Nick Cave, like Ana, is blogging about the inner critic:

The truth is that virtually anybody who is trying to do anything worthwhile at all, especially creatively, has seated in his or her brain, a horrible homunculus that blows a dreadful little trumpet, and only knows one song – a song that goes, “You are not good enough. Why bother?” This evil little gnome is full of bad jazz, and is, in the words of author Sam Harris, “an asshole.” The enemy of aspiration, this atrocious inner voice demands you turn away from whatever your higher calling may be and become a second-rate, cut-price version of yourself. As your very own personal detractor it is deeply persuasive in its dark business.

Oh Hello Ana - Six talks later

I really admire Ana’s honesty here in confronting her inner critic (who she calls “side B Ana”).

Brutalist Web Design

A website is not a magazine, though it might have magazine-like articles. A website is not an application, although you might use it to purchase products or interact with other people. A website is not a database, although it might be driven by one.

Saving Your Web Workflows with Prototyping · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer

A well-written (and beautifully designed) article on the nature of the web, and what that means for those of us who build upon it. Matthias builds on the idea of material honestly and concludes that designing through prototypes—rather than making pictures of websites—results in a truer product.

A prototyping mindset means cultivating transparency and showing your work early to your team, to users – and to clients as well, which can spark excited conversations. A prototyping mindset also means valuing learning over fast results. And it means involving everyone from the beginning and closely working together as a team to dissolve the separation of linear workflows.

UX secrets revealed - Features - Digital Arts

I was interviewed for this article on psychology in web design. The title is terrible but the article itself turned out quite nicely.

Derek Powazek – The Real Story of JPG Magazine

I just started subscribing to JPG magazine. Now I'm going to cancel my subscription. This is really sad.