Trevor McKendrick - The worst person in the world

Good morning fellow humans - here’s to having a fantastic week.

Trevor

Tony Fadell talks about the original iPods (video)

This was super cool - they did x-rays of 3 different iPods, and Tony talks about the design decisions, issues they ran into, etc. with each.

I think a significantly underrated part of product design is the cost of maintenance. You see that many of the iPod design changes over the years were to prevent complexity that increased the chances of the product breaking.

For example, Tony says a big reason why the phone jack was removed from the iPhone was because it was one of the main things that would lead to the product breaking (e.g. stuff gets in super easy).

The best way to prevent things from breaking is to remove the thing in the first place.

The Worst Person in the World (movie)

I watched this totally randomly scrolling through Apple TV on Saturday - didn’t realize it was a Norwegian film w/ English subtitles until it started.

It’s a coming of age story of sorts about a woman who turns 30.

It was… good! Different enough to be unique, not so artsy or abstract so as to frustrated this most basic of viewers.

Sidenote: Norway is beautiful!

Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City (book)

I haven’t read this yet but just flipping through the book is beautiful and extremely visual. I wish more than anything America had a city like Tokyo (which I define as: 1) don’t need a car to live, 2) clean, 3) dense) - building such a city should be one of the great goals of the American 21st century IMO.

What’s it like on the ground in Ukraine right now (article)

Lots of details - I read only the first 2 sections (“Why go to Ukraine” and “What’s it like on the ground”).

Great pictures, good stories about the differences in different parts of the country, etc.

Is the SEC Unconstitutional? (article)

Matt Levine explaining the recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling about the nondelegation doctrine, i.e. that Congress can’t delegate its legislative power.

As happens with headlines, the scope of the actual case was much narrower than “the SEC is unconstitutional.”

I was going to try and summarize but honestly Matt’s writing is very good, and since this case might (might!) be where the US is headed judiciously it’s worth reading the source material directly.

How to Manage Like Anna Wintour (article)

The Editor-in-Chief of Vogue apparently runs a tight ship.

Sentences to ponder:

“Wintour’s work ethic is formidable. She returned to work a few days after having her first child, dressed in a slim-cut dress and high heels (so much for the six months that both new fathers and new mothers now demand). She gets up at 5 a.m. every morning and goes through the same routine: exercise at 5:30 or 6 depending on whether she plays her twice-weekly game of tennis or works out with a trainer; sit for half an hour for professional hair and make-up; take the limo to work so that she arrives before most of her staff (who have to cope with the indignities of public transport).”

And:

“Wintour doesn’t make a distinction between her personal and professional life. Her close friends are always somehow the leaders in their fields, from Harvey Weinstein in films (now dropped) to Roger Federer in sports.”

And:

“Control everything. Wintour micromanages everything that comes into her purview, from the pages of the magazine to the world she inhabits…Employees who fail to live up to her sartorial standards are treated to “the look” which suggests that their time is limited if they don’t change their ways. One new hire from the West Coast found herself whisked off to a hairdresser who waxed the back of her neck to even out her hairline.”

My gut tells me working for her would be totally foreign for the vast majority of people. Then again, the vast majority of people have never worked for great leaders or organizations, either. (To be clear I’m not asserting she is a great leader or that Vogue is a great organization)

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