While far from a successful case study, I’ll never forget stumbling across multiple copies of Airbnb’s discontinued Pineapple travel magazine in the back corner of Bouwerie Iconic Magazines in New York City. Of course, I recalled the powerful first impression Pineapple’s stories, layouts, and photography made on me—a jog through my inbox lets me know […]
The sun was setting as I wrapped up the workday, taking my final call with a former colleague who had recently raised seed funding and was the CEO of a new startup. We were both based in Toronto, known more for its biting cold winters and less for its booming technology scene. The conversation started […]
I’ve kept my studio Wonder Shuttle mostly dormant for the past four months, as I got into the groove of a full-time editorial director assignment at WorkOS. Some more notable projects include launching a podcast, setting up the editorial calendar and hiring a technical editor, and editing and publishing (and even co-writing some) blog posts. […]
In 2008, designer Paul Armstrong launched web.without.words, a project where he eliminated words and turned popular websites into wireframes. For example, he covered what Apple’s website would look like without words, which frankly doesn’t look all too dissimilar from what one of its product pages looks like today. Armstrong wanted to, “visually represent [his] core […]
One of the most painful things about writing in small amounts of time is the lack of time for re-working. It feels like writing on a scrap of paper that’s way too small. I would wish that I hadn’t spent so much space on that first sentence or doodle. Upon realizing I don’t have enough […]
In the 1980s, educator Jaime Escalante taught calculus at one of the worst schools in East LA, with a dropout rate as high as 55%. Escalante and his calculus class turned the reputation of the school around, with a high percentage of his students passing the AP calculus exam. When a film based on this […]
Practically a decade before I wrote the words you’re reading now, I wrote a series of op-eds for HYPEBEAST. I had pitched a few that didn’t make the cut, my favorite of which was entitled, “God is in the Details.” I wanted to cover how typography could make people think differently. The idea was interesting, […]
Image: Lady Writing a Letter (1887) by Albert Edelfelt/Artvee Every day, you and I write. We write emails, text messages, letters, birthday cards, and search queries. This is a practical guide on how to write faster, because we spend so much time writing. This isn’t about touch-typing faster or handwriting faster, but the process of […]
Sometimes, I’ve found myself writing with very broken chunks of time: at its most aggressive, it’ll be on demand and with probably 20 minutes in between meetings, with hard deadlines. Other times, late at night, not by choice. In these times, there’s every reason not to write—distraction, despair, and time pressure, not exactly Neal Stephenson’s […]
I’ve been writing about productivity for close to a decade now. I learned things, piece by piece, and owe whatever career I have in large part due to my research on psychology, motivation, and getting things done. Putting my learnings into practice has paid off. I’m working on a full-time assignment as the editorial director […]