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As someone who’s been self-employed pretty much all of his working life, I constantly think about how my skills have to adapt over time. I’m lucky enough to work in a very future-proof industry, but it’s also an industry where skill requirements change faster than anywhere else. The pressure to be on top of The Latest is real and certainly contributes to my screen addiction.
It seems odd to be considered ‘a senior’ as a thirty-seven-year-old, but that is the reality in an industry full of college-dropout founders. Those born in the ’70s and ’80s are beginning to notice some career challenges and biases that their younger counterparts aren’t (yet) worried about.
Age and Agism is yet another dimension of the diversity debate that hasn’t received a lot of attention so far. Now please excuse me while I rest my tired eyes and ponder the fact that I’m officially an ‘industry elder’.
– Kai
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A Better Way to Build
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Buildkite helps you ship your software faster and more reliably, with testing and deployment tools that work for all of your software projects – whether you build mobile apps, backend applications, or custom hardware.
See why Basecamp, Shopify and Digital Ocean have switched to Buildkite: learn more and sign up for free at buildkite.com →
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Apps & Sites
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Free, secure, open-source notes app
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Standard Notes is a beautifully simple, free, open-source and 100% encrypted notes app with support for essentially every platform. For a small monthly fee you can extend the standard version with lots of handy features.
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Principles for healthier design
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“Humane by Design is a resource that provides guidance for designing ethically humane digital products through patterns focused on user well-being.”
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Just this morning I was in the middle of an interview when my Mac went to sleep and so it took me a while to get back to my notes. Theine is a simple menu bar app to stop your Mac from taking a nap.
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I had to feature this little Chrome extension purely because of its name. Once installed, ‘Hello, Goodbye’ blocks annoying chat popup windows such as the ones from Intercom, Zendesk, Help Scout, and many others.
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Idle Knowledge
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Myspace, Muted
Myspace made it back into the news last week, sadly for the wrong reasons: apparently an unsuccessful server migration corrupted millions of files, including 12 years worth of music. Who cares, right? Well, it’s hard to believe but the site still had more than 50 million active users just 4 years ago. At its peak Myspace was valued at $12b, bought by News Corp in 2005 for around $580m, then sold to another company (and Justin Timberlake?) for $35m in 2011. At one point they employed 1600 people and, if their press page is up-to-date, Myspace still has 150 employees today.
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Goods & Accessories
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Perennial wall planner
I’m really enjoying the combination of colours and typography on this giant (76.5 cm x 52.2 cm) yearly planner, printed on eco-friendly paper.
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A ‘whiteboard’ laptop skin
Sketch on the back of your laptop as if it was a whiteboard with this giant sticker. The best thing about it is that you have to keep your laptop closed to do it. Sketching without distractions!
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Overheard on Twitter
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Million dollar idea: A smoke detector that shuts off when you yell “I’m just cooking!”
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Food For Thought
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I always loved the idea of ‘the slow web’. Has the time come to take the ’slow food movement for the internet’ mainstream? “When every aspect of our behaviour online is surveilled and monetised, the prospect of clean living sounds sweet.”
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How a tech reporter for The New York Times managed to cut down on screen time: “For years, I’ve justified my phubbing by treating it as a professional necessity. Isn’t it my job to know when news happens? Won’t I be neglecting my duties if it takes me an extra hour to learn that Jeff Bezos is getting divorced, or another YouTuber did something racist?” (Spoiler: no)
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A good summary of why the myth of self-made rich folks is just that, a myth. This piece also reminded me of the excellent short essay Acknowledging Privilege by Indie VC Bryce Roberts, whom we interviewed in Offscreen Issue 19.
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Serif typeface Kisba combines sharp, triangular serifs and spiky outgoing strokes with round and soft ball terminals.
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Alphaputt is a gorgeous-looking iOS game where ‘typography meets crazy golf’.
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Classifieds
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Want to know if your design works? Maze turns your InVision, Marvel, or Sketch prototype into a full UX report in minutes. Find out more at maze.design.
PDF Cleaner is a no-frills Mac OS app that allows you to wipe metadata from PDFs for security. It also enables you to grab metadata from PDFs to confirm sources. Support indie!
I’m a freelance copywriter and I like working on fun, interesting projects. Do you have one? I’m London-based but can work remotely through a computer. Let’s talk.
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The Week in a GIF
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Email us the URL to your favourite GIF and we might feature it here in a future issue.
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