“The Internet needs more spaces like 750Words and the camera roll on my phone. Spaces where you don’t have to worry about constructing an identity, performing some version of that identity, and constantly checking for a red notification dot. I’m not suggesting that sharing and human connection aren’t immensely valuable; of course they are. But without places where we can be alone with our thoughts, unconcerned with feedback, the Internet starts to feel like a never-ending cocktail party. We need more space to recharge.”

– Really like this thought from  Brief Interruptions: An Internet for Introverts (via entrepreneurdesigners). (I’d throw Day 1 into this mix as well)

“Skeuomorphism is traditionally attached to design decisions. We bring the mechanical camera shutter sound to digital cameras because it feels good. We render paper page flips in our digital reading applications because it’s familiar. But skeuomorphism also cuts into business models. Business skeuomorphism happens when we take business decisions explicitly tied to one medium, and bring them to another medium — no questions asked.”

– Craig Mod quoted in A new model for the musician-to-listener relationship — The future of publishing — Medium

“One enters a Matter Battle when there is an attempt to execute the desires of the mind in any medium of physical matter.”

– The “Oh, Shit…” and the birth of BBC News Online « Magical Nihilism

“…That “project” was called Foursquare. It was about recording where you’ve been, sharing with friends and discovering new places. For someone like me who used to record all the bars I had been to in a word doc, it was perfect. I could tell there was something special about Foursquare from the very beginning. The energy and excitement that Dennis and Naveen exuded was infectious and the product was addictive. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t pay me, I just wanted to be a part of something I believed in….”

–

mari sheibley: Farewell Foursquare 

A big part of my decision to join the Foursquare design team, besides all of the reasons outlined above, was to have a chance to work with some of the best designers in the game, including Mari. I’d admired Mari’s work for years and stayed up extra late in grad school the night before she came in to offer guest critiques on our thesis projects. I’m bummed that I only got to spend <6 months working beside her, but in that short time, she has made me a better designer every day. I’m so stoked to see what she does next.

“If we are going to ask people, in the form of our products, in the form of the things we make, to spend their heartbeats—if we are going to ask them to spend their heartbeats on us, on our ideas, how can we be sure, far more sure than we are now, that they spend those heartbeats wisely?”

– Paul Ford’s keynote speech at our thesis festival was one of the best talks I’ve ever heard. For anybody who considers themselves a maker, please give this a read.

“

For the past decade, we’ve seen the majority of our communication channels and social interactions migrate to the digital world. And while this shift has been instrumental in reconnecting us with friends and family across distant geographies, its often at the expense of face-to-face contact with our neighbors.

These tools for social networking can also be incredibly powerful in getting us offline and back into our communities. Recently, a new form of offline social networks have emerged to bring us together around common hobbies, the desire to share new skills, or even to simply to borrow a ladder from our neighbor. What’s missing, however, is a means to go play.

Recess is a social platform to organize and discover participatory sports and fitness activities in your local community. Recess connects people around the sports that they love to play, and makes it easy to do so. Players can join their friends after work for a soccer game, discover weekend kickball games in the local park, or organize morning runs with their neighbors.

Let’s go play.

”

– If you’d like to hear more about Recess, and 12 other brilliant projects from my classmates, consider joining us on Saturday