C'mon, Work With Me Here!

I traveled down to Salem County, New Jersey earlier this month to attend the Cowtown Rodeo. The rodeo takes place 10 minutes from where I grew up, and is a perfect slice of Americana tucked away where you'd least expect it.

Lots of personal news this month:

First, we're hiring at 99U! I'm looking for an Associate Editor / Staff Writer, someone to be one of the main voices on the site as we double down on serving the creative community. The position is in NYC, requires at least two years of real editing and writing experience, and will be really, really fun with lots of chances to write and spearhead editorial projects. Know someone that would be a good fit? Maybe it's you? Apply here. Mention this newsletter, and receive half off. 

I've relaunched my personal website. I moved my site from WordPress to Jekyll and learned a ton about the terminal, github, and CSS along the way. But that's another post for another day.

Lastly, I'm speaking at Adobe Max in LA on October 6th. If you're attending, be sure to say hello! Also: currently taking LA recs. 

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Summer is almost over, so let these links be your yellow sun. 

This week, there's one essay that has haunted me (in a good a way): Design Machines by Travis Gertz. Gertz takes a look at the design trajectory of the web and notices that we've A/B tested ourselves into a monolithic and terribly boring design style. We need more revolutionary steps and less evolutionary steps. Some of my favorite site designs of late? Bloomberg, The Great Discontent, and Jason Fried has convinced me of the design virtues of The Drudge Report. Yes, really.

Related: What is up with all the third-party requests on news sites? As a result, Instapaper/Tumblr's Marco Arment wonders about the ethics of blocking ads. Part me of thinks it is deplorable to deny someone their living by using an ad blocker. But the other part of me thinks it's a way of forcing revenue models to innovate. Then again, what is more annoying? Sponsored content or a banner? Is all this even "progress"? What is the meaning of this whole online editorial charade? *Stares off into distance*

Most people I know would agree: the U.S. should raise its minimum wage. But when one company raised its minimum salary to $70,000, things...didn't go so well. Choice quote: "Two of Mr. Price’s most valued employees quit, spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises."

Scandinavian politics corner: There is a right-wing movement sweeping the area. It may be time to update our view of the region as a socialist utopia. The main issue here? Immigration. The migrant crisis is so bad that some people are sneaking in through the Arctic Circle. 

Planning an event is like a good Harry Potter book: They both contain some dark art, an obscene attention to detail, and both are enhanced with a British Accent. A good party planner can pull more than $20,000 an event. A mediocre-but-forced Harry Potter reference call pull no money whatsoever.  

A man's father passes away too soon. The father leaves him a series of letters to read at appropriate moments in his life. This one will make you wonder about your own legacy. 

Argentina lost its middle class in its late-90s crisis. Greece is in the process of losing its middle class. The American middle class is getting squeezed (or it's just election season, I can't tell). On our obsession with the middle class: "When does the overall system that supports middle-class democracy eventually end? Just why is it that only the existence of a large complacent middle class represents both the health and validity of a society? We seem to equate middle-class existence with existence itself."

Programmer Markus "Notch" Persson​ sold Minecraft to Microsoft for $2 billion in 2014. On Twitter, he's being painfully honest about life after a financial windfall. Turns out: Where ever you go, there you are.

Before you freak out how about who is polling high this election season, remember: It's not even election season. Do yourself a favor and turn off the news and don't worry about it until 2016. How do I know? Patrick Ruffini takes a look at who was winning the polls at this point in time in 2004, 2008, and 2012. There's a reason we never had a President Lieberman. 

Related: So next time you see someone posting about politics on Facebook remember. Look at your calendar. Is it 2015? DO NOT ENGAGE. I REPEAT: DO NOT ENGAGE.

Official newsletter flag (for now): Seychelles

Seychelles is a small island east of Africa. It's one of the most instantly recognizable of the world's flags. The green represents the earth, the yellow represents the sun, and the blue, the sky. The two bands in the middle represent the people and the white band represents social justice. When waving in the wind, it looks like the colors are leaping from the pole. And for that, it's among my favorites.

You know that happy feeling when you walk outside on a nice day and you feel compelled to look at the sun and just bask it all in? That's how I feel about you, dear subscriber. I'm glad you made it until the end. Enjoy the final weeks of summer!
— Sean