I used to feel self conscious about sharing my product development process for the fear of being wrong. There are tons of resources on how to build a product but sometimes following those processes felt forced. As I continue to interact with creators on Twitter and beyond..

A few Germans like Freddy, went to the United States for the World Cup and have been travelling around the country. They ended up going viral because they were genuinely amazed by America and shared their enthusiasm online. As someone who has been to the U.S. around twenty times and even lived there for a year, I can understand their reaction. In my experience, Americans are generally friendlier, more polite, and warmer than Germans, especially in smaller towns. And once you get away from the main tourist routes, there is an incredible amount of beautiful nature, unique experiences, and fascinating places to discover. If you know where to go, even the food can be outstanding. I think the reason their videos went viral is that, for the past decade or so, most of the news coming to Europe about America has been negative. As a result, many people have developed a distorted image of the country. If you follow German news and media, you mostly see stories about school shootings, racism, police brutality, political conflicts, and similar issues. I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a genuinely positive portrayal of America in the German media. So when people actually visit the United States, they are often surprised by how different the reality feels from the image they had in their minds. In a way, I think America could use a rebranding. Growing up, I remember hearing stories about the "American Dream," and many of us in Germany dreamed of visiting or living in America. That sense of optimism and opportunity seems to have faded from the public conversation.

buying plants and planting plants are two different hobbies

Faith in eventually. Making something new takes patience. But it also takes faith. Faith that everything will work out in the end. During the development of most any product, there are always times when things aren’t quite right. Times when you feel like you may be going backwards a bit. Times where it’s almost there, but you can’t yet figure out why it isn’t. Times when you hate the thing today that you loved yesterday. Times when what you had in your head isn’t quite what you’re seeing in front of you. Yet. That’s when you need to have faith. There are designs that are close, but not there yet. There are obvious conflicts that will need to be resolved. There are lingering things that confound you, confuse you, or upset you, but you know that eventually they’ll work themselves out. Eventually you’ll find the right way to do something you’ve been struggling with. It’s hard to live with something that isn’t quite right yet – especially when it’s your job to get it right. It’s important to know when to say “it’s fine for now, but it won’t be fine for later.” Because moving forward is critical to getting somewhere. And, eventually, you’ll figure it all out. It’ll all work out in the end. This is what I’ve always believed, and have always tried to practice. A dedicated faith in the eventual resolution of a problem, the eventual execution of a concept, and the eventual realization of the right design. Even when something’s poking out you don’t like, or something isn’t aligning quite right, or the words aren’t as elegant as you’d hoped, or something just isn’t easy enough yet, you need to have confidence it’ll all come together eventually. Remember that what you’re making is in a perpetual state of almost right up until the end. And it's never right even after. In the meantime, you just press on and keep making things, trying things, and getting closer and closer to the time when you can tie the loose ends into a perfect bow and present it to the world. What fun it is!

I heard an interview today about AI in creative spaces and the man being interviewed said “AI is data, and Data can only look backwards. Creativity looks forwards.” And I need to sit with that in the best possible way.

Love this reminder from @tfadell "Makers often focus on the shiny object—the product they’re building—and forget about the rest of the journey until they’re almost ready to deliver it to the customer. But customers see it all, experience it all. They’re the ones taking the journey, step-by-step."

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newest obsession: the mary magdalene church in poland

Craft > slop I love using AI to generate things too but craft is in that last 10% where you manually apply your taste to make something you can be proud of. Many people never bother.

You cannot think your way to a perfect design. Only building and testing, over many iterations, can reveal the flaws in your mental model and provide the feedback you need to create the best design possible.

Ben Sasse: "What’s really happening is these superdevices in our pockets — the largest tools any median individual’s ever had access to in all of human history — allow our consciousness to leave the time and place where we actually live, the places where we break bread, the people who are living next door to us, the people that you can physically touch and hug, the small platoons of real community, and we allow our consciousness to go really far away"

I quite like Dorothy Sayers' answer from her 1942 essay Why Work?. Quality work inherently honors God and His creation. We spend too much time assigning moral weight and obsessing over moral frameworks for work, when instead we could just do Good Work and that alone is enough.

something that my violin teachers mostly didn’t manage to convey to me is that many things are not achieved through training and “getting stronger” but relaxation and ease, confidence and graceful familiarity, like welcoming a beloved friend

An embarrassingly simple reframe has been pretty profound for me: This is really hard, I must be doing something wrong to This is really hard, I must be doing something hard

I don't know who needs to hear this, but start living. The days are flying by, and all you do is work, pay bills, and stress. Enjoy what you can-walks, sunsets, music, laughter. Joy doesn't have to be expensive. You deserve it.

👇

this is me btw

Every little thing is an opportunity for unlimited artistic expression

Strip away the terminology, and what you’re left with is a call to arms. A call to stop outsourcing your life to external authorities, societal norms, or even the comforting illusions of spirituality. The work is yours and yours alone. It’s not about reaching some distant peak of enlightenment; it’s about the gritty, unglamorous act of showing up for yourself, day after day doing the work of self-creation.

Gives you much more excitement and empathy and hope for everyone on different paths of discovering what God has in store for them, the redemption he will work in them, and how much better the journey can ever be than something you would purely create for yourself