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There’s a particular scene in an early episode of the Simpsons that I found especially relatable, as a ten-year-old whose main interest was candy. Bart and Lisa wake up the morning after Halloween, so miserable from eating sweets that they can’t even look at their candy pile. When Marge suggests giving the rest of it to needy children, they protest, […]
Last year I bought a strength training program from a Canadian bodybuilder named Jeff, and it kind of made me better at everything. The program was designed for people who don’t have much time to train – busy people cramming 35-minute workouts into lunch breaks. Because you only have time for one or two working sets per exercise, you have […]
I forget who pointed this out, but Netflix has a subtle feature where it periodically tries to inspire you to get off the couch and live the life you really want. Whenever an episode of the show you’re watching ends, and the next is queueing up, there’s a moment in which the screen goes black, allowing you to glimpse your […]
You spend your life doing things. Some of the things you do make themselves happen, and some don’t. Sweeping the floor, even if you don’t love doing it, will eventually make itself happen, because you’ll get annoyed by walking through filth every day. Same with things like getting groceries, sleeping, taking out the garbage, and getting dressed. Whether or not […]
Bananas used to be a lot more difficult to eat than they are now. The seeds were huge and plentiful, and ran throughout the flesh of the fruit, which itself was starchier, stringier, and less sweet. Other foods were similarly obtuse. Watermelons, for example — instead of having contiguous pink flesh throughout, the good part was hiding in small, seed-riddled […]
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When we make something new, people often ask "why don't you just add that to Basecamp?" There are a number of reasons, depending on what it is. But, broadly, making something brand new gives you latitude (and attitude) to explore new tech and design approaches. It's the opposite of grafting something on to a heavier, larger system that already exists. The gravity of existing decisions in current systems requires so much energy to reach escape velocity that you tend to conform rather than explore. Essentially you're bent back to where you started, rather than arcing out towards a new horizon. New can be wrong, but it's always interesting. And that in itself is worth it. Because in the end, even if the whole new thing doesn't work out, individual elements, explorations, and executions discovered along the way can make their way back into other things you're already doing. Or something else new down the road. These bits would have been undiscovered had you never set out for new territory in the first place. Ultimately, a big part of making something new is simply thinking something new. -Jason
"Decrease the time between having an idea and getting it done"
Contributing to a chosen culture via running
