Feb 7The Kickstarter for my book about keyboards is live!It all started here, in a way. I wrote about the Turkish typewriter in 2015, and people seemed to like it. I wrote about how typewriters (sort of, not really) ruined typography and it was a staple of my public talks that year. For years, the book announcement page —…Keyboard2 min readKeyboard2 min read
Published inThe rectangle behind you·May 29, 2021The making of Four LapsOn May 27, 2021, during an internal lightning talk session at Figma, I gave a remote “Ignite” 5-minute talk. (This is a live recording; there was no video editing after the talk.) I love Ignite talks and occassionally experiment with them, but this was the first one I’ve…The Rectangle Behind You25 min readThe Rectangle Behind You25 min read
Published inThe rectangle behind you·May 29, 2021The Ignite talk that changed room coloursThis is a five-minute Ignite talk I gave at ORD Camp 2019: I got excited about the idea of using the room’s ambient lights after seeing a demo of the light setup and console in the conference room at Google in 2018, and witnessing that room change colours:Presentations2 min readPresentations2 min read
Dec 31, 2018The ghosts of technology in today’s languageYesterday, on Twitter, I asked: I wonder sometimes what would be the oldest extant word based on technology no longer in use. Taping an interview? Dialing someone? I received many more answers than I expected, although it soon became obvious how my rules were impossible to follow, even by me…Language10 min readLanguage10 min read
Dec 12, 2018The best laid tracksStories of San Francisco’s ghost stationsSan Francisco27 min readSan Francisco27 min read
Nov 20, 2018Follow along and upI crave follow-ups. When I was little, I loved opening the encyclopedia to learn more about something I just heard — particularly when it felt the volumes were roughly as big as I was. Later on, I cherished coming back from the movie just to read Roger Ebert’s review…The Rectangle Behind You7 min readThe Rectangle Behind You7 min read
Nov 20, 2018Choose your own (secret) adventureAs a grandson of someone who worked on the railways I might be predisposed to extreme punctuality, but as a speaker it’d my job to be timely either way. Going over your time limit in a talk is unprofessional and disrespectful towards the organizers and — more importantly —…The Rectangle Behind You3 min readThe Rectangle Behind You3 min read
Published inFigma Design·Oct 10, 2018Figma’s new finger tipsHow Doug Engelbart’s famous demo inspired a designer’s lifelong obsession with keyboard shortcuts — Today we introduced a new way to master keyboard shortcuts: a redesigned panel that shows up at the bottom of your Figma screen. It will respond to your behavior by highlighting patterns in your keyboard use and help you discover new key combinations in a fun way. We’ve taken our…Design6 min readDesign6 min read
Oct 10, 2018#10: A time machine behind the cypress treesThis is a newsletter for Shift happens, an upcoming book about keyboards. I’ve had, so far, a lot of luck with keyboard-related adventures. Two years ago I stumbled upon a magical typewriter museum in Spain, just a week later I visited what felt like its equally astonishing computer counterpart, and…Shift Happens Book8 min readShift Happens Book8 min read
Jul 2, 2018#8: Four hands on one keyboardThis is a newsletter for Shift happens, an upcoming book about keyboards. It was four of us, four teenage boys sitting down to a computer to spend hours playing a videogame known to no one else. It was four of us because the little corner of a room in a…Shift Happens Book8 min readShift Happens Book8 min read
