February 2012
6 posts
“It was this question of self-image that was, until now, the reason I could never...”
– - Rory Sutherland
An extract from The Wiki Man. I always like it when someone explains something similar to my thinking, but in a much more expressive and concise way.
The Veblen effect
The entry for The Veblen Effect on Wikipedia sounds like it was written about craft beer. These two bits combined in particular.
- the snob effect: preference for goods because they are different from those commonly preferred; in other words, for consumers who want to use exclusive products, price is quality;
- the bandwagon effect: preference for a good increases as the number of people...
2 tags
“Once the water is deep enough that you must swim to stay afloat, does it really...”
– Seth Godin via Mike Skinner
“Art is not about absolute concrete affirmations. Art has questions and doubts...”
– Gary Hume
“The only real tools for expression these days are YouTube, which turns my...”
– David Karp of Tumblr.
January 2012
5 posts
Segoe vs Frutiger
Interesting section in the Wikipedia entry for the Microsoft typeface Segoe. In 2004 Linotype protested about the similarities between Frutiger and Segoe.
“In deciding such cases, the EU looks at type specimens at 16 point size. At that point size, subtle differences between similar but genuinely different fonts may not be noticeable. On the other hand, this practice prevents font makers...
December 2011
7 posts
“We invented religions to serve two central needs which continue to this day: the...”
– Alain de Botton
13 albums of the year 2011
In no particular order
Kuedo — Severant
PJ Harvey — Let England Shake
Ghostpoet — Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam
Jamie Woon — Mirrorwriting
SBTRKT — SBTRKT
Wild Beasts — Smother
Pinch & Shackleton — Pinch & Shackleton
Radiohead — TKOL (+remixes)
Balam Acab — Balam Acab
Horrors — Skying
Jamie XX & Gil Scott Heron — I’m New Here
Zomby — Dedication & Nothing
...
“I think most creative people want to express appreciation for being able to take...”
– Steve Jobs
The moral importance of money
Mr Sikorski (who studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford) then paid a nice tribute to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who highlighted the moral importance of money. Kant, he noted, had argued that:
“the entire practice of lending money presupposed at least the honest intention to repay. If this condition were universally ignored, the very idea of lending and sharing...
November 2011
15 posts
“Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.”
– Steve Jobs
“The problem is being able to convince the buyer of your solution on the basis...”
– John McConnell — Eye 81
“Our lawsuit is saying, “Google, you fucking ripped off the iPhone, wholesale...”
– Steve Jobs comes across as a nightmare to work for in this article by Malcolm Gladwell.
October 2011
19 posts
“When we look at the pages of a printed newspaper we take in a range of stories...”
– Mark Porter explains the process behind the Guardian iPad app.
“It used to be so common to use a phrase like sell out but now people are like...”
– Long, but great article on UK Hip Hop MC Jehst in which he discusses the ghettoisation of the London suburbs, his motivations and the state of society.
WatchKing Midas Sound — Documentary part 1
Marketing the A Bathing Ape way
One day he drew a triangle on a piece of paper with the x-axis being number of consumers and the y-axis being brand cachet. He explained, “At the top point here are very cool but low-selling brands. At the bottom of the triangle are all the mass market brands with huge sales but no cachet. The secret to A Bathing Ape and the Ura-Harajuku brands is that they keep themselves right in the middle of...
“I sometimes wonder whether some of the wars of old, including the Second World...”
– Extract from Tony Blair — A Journey.
“Recently, when Procter and Gamble cut its Head and Shoulders product line from...”
– Too much choice. Fastcodesign.
