Now, when I say these are three things you have to accept, I mean you have to accept them. Because if you don’t accept them upfront, they’ll happen to you anyway. And then you’ll end up writing one of those documents that says “Oh, we launched this and we tried it, and then the users came along and did all these weird things. And now we’re documenting it so future ages won’t make this mistake.” Even though you didn’t read the thing that was written in 1978.

– Clay Shirky, “A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy“

Visit my city.

“Do we want a finance exec? How about an ops exec? No, we want a flexible exec that understands that business success in an online environment requires doing whatever is necessary to win, not staying within the lines and covering your ass.”

Read full description. Then apply, if you dare.

“Four winters have passed in the Lair of the Minotaur. Mountainous riffs, pounding. Emerging from the caustic burrows of vast caves by the great lake in the mid-western plains. Choosing a path of crushing annihilation, under the sign of the Southern Lord. Ancient war cries spit forth with a sharp tongue. Heralding CARNAGE, and then triumphantly THE ULTIMATE DESTROYER.”

“Now there is no more light. Fate is put in the hands of the fury of men. Murder reigns. Prepare for the age of violence. Behold the WAR METAL BATTLE MASTER.”

I just read Jaron Lanier (father of virtual reality, etc.)’s December blog post, “Long Live Closed-Source Software,” re: the open-source movement’s ability to create faithful copies and complete inability to innovate in the user space.

Although I use some open source software RELIGIOUSLY (Firefox web browser, QuickSilver, some web coding programs), Lanier’s totally fuckin right — NONE of the really interesting software is open-source. Damn. I was totally hoodwinked into thinking open-source was the future for EVERYTHING. (the funny thing is, Chad’s been saying “Fuck open source” like 18 months ago, so what’s up now mister virtual reality?) Open-source is great as a phenomenon and a fun way to waste time or do some busywork, but it simply doesn’t produce exciting things. (the only exception to this i can think of is rasterman’s Enlightenment).

By way of proving the point completely UN-scientificly, here are the ten coolest programs I’ve ever used. Many of these have in-/directly gotten me laid. No open source software can make that claim.

Most Exciting Software (Which Also Happens to be Closed Source)

1. BeOS.
2. LifeBlog.
3. Macromind Director.
4. Lightroom.
5. After Effects.
6. Skitch.
7. Keynote.
8. Kai’s Power Tools.
9. iTunes.
10. Delicious Library.
11. Bits on Wheels.
12. Jitter.

I’ll say one more thing — open source is about potential. The best open source software is all software to make more software: vim, emacs, subversion. Programmers love making tools to make tools. But potential is not delivery. Especially when you’re in a hurry to create something.

LOCK IT DOWN! :-)

Final disclaimer: when I was a coder, I open-sourced my own code (and I would do it again), and I fought to open source my team’s code. Open source is a great learning tool for new programmers. And showing work in progress is a great way to bolster confidence, avoid pitfalls, and find inspiration. It’s just not a process for delivering great experiences.

Followup: I thought of an exception: Adium. Go Adium! You are the only open-source software under active development with an exceptional experience, as we used to say at Organic.

I presented work to 500 people in November at the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco. At Pecha-Kucha, a sort of design meetup / speed-critique presenters have six minutes, 20 images, and just 20 seconds per image to make their mark. I presented my art and design hackshit as a backdrop over tips on surviving and thriving as a hybrid designer / engineer.

My 20 images are posted on Flickr as a slideshow:

New! speaker notes now posted on jm3.net:
http://jm3.net/hybrid

I have no idea what this is trying to say, or whether a survey of 11 people is statistically significant, but it supposedly contains insights about mobile social networking: Euro IA summit : Mobile Social Networking Insights

(affiliated with the punchcut guys and gals in SF)

By the way, Typophile Filmfest 4 sponsored by punchcut was GREAT. highly recommended.

:-)

create your own at aegis.aeracode.org.

so far, so good.

update: 48 hours. spirits high.

update II: 72 hours. hittin’ hard, no obvious signs of fatigue.

update III: 96 hours. feeling small ‘n’ cozy.

final update: one week complete. whatevs. not a big deal.

Crystal’s whiteboard on Flickr.