What I'm doing now

I'm currently redesigning this website, and I'm writing about the process as I do so. This may be interesting to no one, but it is interesting to me.

Especially in this age of "AI"—about which I'm organizing my thoughts, em-dash mine—there's a lot of talk about "taste" and "judgement", and how that's where our industry's work is heading. Which is great, if it weren't for the fact that one needs to spend time making things in order to develop that taste. Yes, I could have had Claude generate this site in a matter of hours. But to me, the making is the fun part. If you decide to read my series, you'll start seeing that taste and judgement are a continuous part of the making process. I'm not inclined to give that away, especially not on a personal project.

I stopped the book proposal I was writing back in 2021. I had a well-established agent advising me, and my publisher agreed that I could propose the idea to other publishers (it wasn't tech, so they didn't want it), but I just don't think I believed in the idea enough after all.

I'm speaking at a customer experience conference at the end of November in Amsterdam, about a recent redesign we did at work, and its process and outcomes. When they update the site, I'll post more info.

Speaking has been on the back burner for me since before COVID. Next year, I'm interested in doing it a bit more. I have thoughts on the relationship between design and AI, CSS (of course), and also about the process of making and what that does for the "soul". And some other ideas. If you're looking for a speaker for your event, drop me a line.

• I finished reading Cory Doctorow's The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI. I really enjoyed it. I've grown tired of every topic becoming polarized, so it's nice to read a take that is both critical and nuanced. It was also refreshing to have some clear pushback against the fearmongering coming from the very people who develop these technologies, laying it on the table for what it is: marketing. It also aligns with my thoughts on not letting a machine do the stuff you're good at and enjoy doing.
• Fiction! I'm an avid reader of non-fiction, but I love me some good fiction as well. I'm reading Daniel Suarez's Daemon, as I love a good techno-thriller. And this one is nice so far! Great for my long commute on office days.

I'm teaching myself p5.js, because I dusted off Shiffman's The Nature of Code and it got me excited, but also because I'm long overdue to make some art.