Time to read: 3 minutes Today I was advertised a lovely-looking wine subscription box. Seems genuinely smart, as it asks you flsvour preference questions, like “the evening is winding down, are you most likely to reach for a platter of cheese, a sponge cake, or macarons?”. But. Like many other services like it, it does not account for managing selections […] continue reading »
When was the last time you asked yourself “why am I here”?
Time to read: 5 minutes When was the last time you asked yourself “why am I here”? And I don’t mean in the context of a three-hour meeting that is not needing your expertise after all… I mean existentially. As in, “Am I going to accomplish anything more in this life than turning food into shit?” (Leonardo Da Vinci thought […] continue reading »
Linear Calendar 2022
Time to read: 2 minutes Happy 2022!! Here is the 2022-2023 edition of the Linear Calendar! Starts from today… because why should we worry about the past :) This year marks the introduction of a 4th edition: the tape. I have been using the linear calendar to plan every single project in the past 7 years, and in the past […] continue reading »
I miss lunches
Time to read: 4 minutes Of all the things that the lockdown has robbed me of, I believe that lunches are the one I miss the most. Going out to get lunch with colleagues was not easy. My colleagues are 85% men, and tend to power-walk everywhere. I am shorter than them, so I never wore heels because heels make […] continue reading »
5 tips for a better UX portfolio
Time to read: 8 minutes Have you ever had to put a UX portfolio together? I have. And I’ve had to go through bunches of them when interviewing people, trying to decide who might be a good future colleague. It’s very difficult. I recently participated in a portfolio feedback session with MA students in User eXperience (UX) in which another […] continue reading »
Best books of 2020
Time to read: 5 minutes What is good How do you decide what makes a book good, or even the best? I use a simple litmus test. If I want to give it as a gift, or recommend it for a read, then it’s worth something. If a few months later I forget, what it was it even said, then […] continue reading »
Linear Calendar 2021
Time to read: 2 minutes Linear Calendar turns 6! I started the Linear Calendar in 2015, so this year it turns 6!! Six is also the number of people who contact me every year asking me if I’m making a new edition… usually around late January, because I have been lazy. Except this year. Somehow, this year, I sat down […] continue reading »
NaNoWriMo learnings 2020 – Part 3 – Writing
Time to read: 6 minutes The tagline of NaNoWriMo is “50’000 words in 30 days”. It’s a quantity over quality challenge, but even if you don’t care how bad what you write is, you still need to have a theme or story you can keep writing about. I’ve tried all sorts of topics In 2010, I “won” NaNo. I finished […] continue reading »
NaNoWriMo learnings 2020 – Part 2 – Efficiency
Time to read: 5 minutes “I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year!” Na-No-Wri-Mo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is a 30-day challenge to write 50’000 words. The premise requires that it be on a new story, not an editing job. The tagline of NaNoWriMo is “50’000 words in 30 days”. And every NaNo-er knows that means writing a daily quota […] continue reading »
NaNoWriMo learnings 2020 – Part 1 – Motivation
Time to read: 4 minutes “I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year!” And I can see the eyes glaze over, the ears perk up in case they could pick up an extra syllable I may have left hanging in the air, that might help them decipher this… sound I just made. Na-No-Wri-Mo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is a 30-day […] continue reading »