Once a day, he would call a “creative meeting” to discuss whichever project would soon fall due. He would not bring sketches, or notes, or a creative brief to these meetings. Instead, he would “lead a creative brainstorm,” which meant we had to listen to him spout whatever shallow, idiotic idea proposed itself to his limited mind at that moment. We were then supposed to leave the room and execute his so-called “concept.”
It didn’t matter if the idea was derivative of someone else’s widely known better ad, or if it was superficially cute but meaningless, or wrong in tone, or more likely to hurt than help the client’s business. He had spoken, and that was that.
Jeffrey Zeldman, The Whims
Everything is not going to be okay
Dan Zak for the Washington Post: How to live with constant reminders that the Earth is in trouble
Hold the problem in your mind. Freak out, but don’t put it down. Give it a quarter-turn. See it like a scientist, and as a poet. As a descendant. As an ancestor.
“It is an immense privilege to be alive at this time,” Alice Major says from Edmonton. “We owe it to ourselves to try as hard as we can to understand what’s going on. And to give meaning to it. . . . Only by understanding our lives as meaningful can we hope to create meaningful change.”
Here’s to the new decade not ending the way it began.
Nothing is Ever Enough
Derek Webb once wrote a song about breaking up with his former band and it’s been echoing through my mind again and again (for, uh, no reason):
She’s not real, she’s the spokes on a wheel
And the way she moves takes you where you wanna go
And you’re the one that she steals from
But if not you she’s gonna find somebody else
‘cause nothing is ever enough
Nothing is ever enough
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope;
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever,
32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.—Lamentations 3:25-33
New Listen: Machiavelli’s The Prince
It appears this is the how-to guide for navigating 2019.
Journalism Class
New York Times: Russell Baker, Pulitzer-Winning Times Columnist and Humorist, Dies at 93
And he was as devilish in person as in print. A fellow Times columnist, Tom Wicker, recalled that Mr. Baker, talking once to college students, was asked, “What courses should a journalism school teach?”
He replied: “The ideal journalism school needs only one course. Students should be required to stand outside a closed door for six hours. Then the door would open, someone would put his head around the jamb and say, ‘No comment.’ The door would close again, and the students would be required to write 800 words against a deadline.”
Hat tip: MG Siegler
Email Debt
Journalist Kate Aronoff:
Yup.
Developer Marco Arment:
https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/1089552170935029760
Also yup.
Filtering Things by Area
I happened across this twitter thread when I was about to suggest to Cultured Code that they allow filtering by Area in their Things app. As it turns out, there is a way:
Marital Counseling…
…with axes at Bury the Hatchet