Marco Arment:

I don’t think the results of the 2012 election will significantly affect the next term: the modern Republican party controls the country’s policy and all mainstream political discourse extremely effectively, even when they don’t hold the presidency or a congressional majority.

I have no idea what the Democrats are trying to do, generally. The only coherent message they’ve put forth in the last decade is “We’re not the Republicans.” Not only is the accuracy of that sentiment questionable, but it’s not working.

So much for hope.

Paul Carr:

To make money — real money — at this game you have to attract millions, or tens of millions, of users. And when you’re dealing with those kinds of numbers, it’s literally impossible not to treat your users as pieces of data. It’s ironic, but depressingly unsurprising, that web 2.0 is using faux socialization and democratization to create a world where everyone is reduced to a number on a spreadsheet.

I’m having a hard time keeping the quoting-paul-carr to actual content ratio reasonable, but as with so much of his writing, this is spot on.

(tip of the hat to Nik Fletcher for reblogging this first)

The Incredible Hypocrisy of Modern Citizens

One thing I’ve noticed about American culture from living in the USA for over two years now is that there’s a deep kind of hypocrisy running through our morals. We condemn many things for being indecent, while we allow much worse things to go under the guise of free speech. Meanwhile, individuals feel an incredible sense of entitlement when it comes to their perceived rights.

One recent example was when my social network feeds were inundated with calls to sign a petition for Facebook to add transexual options to the gender option. Now, I don’t want to get into gay-rights politics, but I am fervently against the idea that Facebook has any kind of obligation to include a feature because not doing so would offend a minority of its users.

I take issue with the idea that some people think they are entitled to the feature—that it is their fundamental right. They are not, and it is not. Should we start adding “Flying Spaghetti Monster” to the religion drop downs too, because some people want to identify with it? Point is, with any popular product, people will find something to rebel against. If not this, it would be something else. People need to realize that Facebook has a vision for their product, and that they need to be able to follow it unimpeded.

One fundamental aspect of good design is that it has been curated by somebody who knows what they’re doing, and has intimate knowledge of what they’re designing. This is why when users tell you that you should implement a feature, and that it will make your product better (and make you money), they’re most often full of crap. This is why anything on 99designs.com is crap. This is why Apple products are so great, and why Facebook beat MySpace.

Remember Henry Ford? “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

My goal as a developer and designer is to make a product that people will love, and will make the world better. However, the way I’m going to do that is by thinking about what’s best for the majority of my users. The truth is 99.9% of users don’t care for outlying setting such as transgender identity. Transgender identity is much trickier than just adding an “Other” drop down item. If you allow it, how do you then genderize all the pronouns? Do you default to “he,” “she,” or use the combination “he/she?” Or worse, do you turn the user into an object and go with “it?” Bottom line is, it’s just not worth doing for the 0.1% of user’s feelings. They’re convinced with all their might that, surly, they deserve special treatment. But really, they don’t.

Secondly, I’m growing extremely tired of America’s prude culture. People are constantly getting offended at really silly things. Just look at video games, for example. You can’t sell a video game with “sexually suggestive” language to teenagers under 18, if you can put it on the market at all. Yet, there’s no problem with selling games to 10 year olds that vividly depicts ripping people in half.

Meanwhile, in real life, some words are prohibited and frowned upon for the sake of political correctness, while much worse sentiments are perfectly acceptable. It’s perfectly fine to go on Fox News and say “Mexican Immigrants are mostly criminals and should be deported,” or even openly be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, because it’s free speech. On the other hand, though, exclaiming “Holy Shit!” on broadcast television when the Giants score a home run will get you a class action lawsuit.

Personally, I think people should be able to say whatever they want—except for maybe hate speech. As for products, their owner have the right to design them however they want and let the general population vote with their actions. Isn’t that the founding principle of capitalism and the American Dream? Lastly, people really need to get off their high horse, when it comes to accusing everybody of discrimination.

Santiago Lema on the business of selling iPhone apps:

The average iOS user has a very short attention span and there are 200 apps that do exactly the same stuff yours does. You have to win at each step, and the decision will be made in less than 60 seconds. Whether you manage to get your app in the Top 50 rankings or your app shows up through search, the same steps apply. Bringing the user to a download amounts to convincing him to go through a series of gates, always choosing yours.

I’ve watched Santiago grow from toying with iPhone apps to making it his living over the past few years. He’s really going for the mainstream user, and has some great tips in order to reach him and secure the download.

On Battleships

Scott Locklin:

Guns that squirted out bullets as heavy as a Volkswagon; 14″, 16″, 18.1″ in diameter! Armor a foot and a half thick! Giant coal and oil burning steam engines creating 150,000 horsepower and belching out enormous clouds of smoke! 60,000 ton craft at 30 knot speeds! Sweet baby Jesus, that’s damn cool. However, it was never real practical, except for the occasional shore bombardment, and for comparing proverbial dong size with the navies of other nations

Unknown Author on what you choose to drink:

I like to order Martinis. Sometimes I stick with whiskey on ice. My friend likes white wine.

Apparently these drinks say things about us. They say more than “he likes gin.” They’re easy targets. “That’s an alcoholic’s drink,” I’ve heard. “That’s a girl drink.”

I reject that.

[…]

A drink isn’t a girl drink or a tough guy drink. It’s your drink. There’s no point in consuming some shitty-tasting rotgut because you want to keep up appearances. Drink what you want.

I wholeheartedly agree. You have no idea how much shit I get for occasionally liking and drinking Apple Martinis.

So I got a lava lamp. Using the following image as a wallpaper right now:

Great student packaging design work by Spencer Bigum. A solid concept, masterfully executed, if a little nerdy.

Level 2 Finals

I just finished my second year of Graphic Design at the California College of the Arts. What a relief it is to be done with finals… I really enjoyed this semester—and created some work I’m very proud of—but after 8 months of intensive design school, I’m ready for a summer where I can focus on personal projects and the cool stuff we’re building at Chartboost.

A small selection of shots from finals: (view the entire set on flickr)

My Type 2 final: a book on High Speed Rail, how it took over Europe and Asia, and why it didn’t happen in America.

Fellow student Christine Rode presenting her very cool GD2 final.

Kalee practically cut her finger off finishing up her awesome GD2 final book.

Building a house of cards with Man-Ee’s project.

This is yours truly’s version of the GD2 project: recontextualizing a poorly written set text into something completely new.

Fellow student Ben Du presenting his GD2 final.

Anna Chou modeling my new motorcycle helmet. I guess girls like bikes… :).

And last but not least, my very very awesome professor, Christopher Simmons, taking some shots of student work. Christopher is a awesome designer, (he even has his own wikipedia page!) and you should check his work out!