Hi there, Matt here.

Writing is magical. But not the part where you put words on the page; at least, not for me. For me, the thing that happens before the words go on the page is the most transformative. Take today’s essay, for example: when I started researching it more than a year ago, I was sure of my thesis, that top-down quality mandates just don’t work. But in the process of reading dozens of books, articles, and papers, and by Doing My Own Research™, I found that reality isn’t quite so clear cut. Writing about quality has changed my mind about quality. So while I’m excited to share the result of this journey I’ve been on, the end result may only reflect a fraction of the joy I experienced in producing it. Put another way: you should try writing.

But first, a song. How should I describe 22º Halo? Extremely nostalgic, sure. But did music ever really sound like this? It’s more of a nostalgic feeling than a nostalgic sound. Melancholy, but warm and sunny. A whole vibe. Listen to Big Fire.

Now, on to the essay. As usual, you can (and should) read it on my website.

Hi there, Matt here.

I’ve looked at a lot of job applications in my life. I’ve also filled out a pretty good number myself. And while there are always ebbs and flows in the market, something feels off right now, especially for the design field.

Based on this hunch, I decided to scrape and analyze as many job listings as I could get my hands on, to see what kinds of insights I could find. I was shocked to see that there are almost no opportunities for designers with fewer than 8 years of experience.

So, here’s an essay on why that might be the case, why it’s a bad sign for the industry, and what we can do to turn the tide. But first, a song. I’ve really been digging this record by a trio of guitarist, bassist, and saxophone; their tones and compositions hit the perfect balance between nostalgia, wanderlust, relaxation, and just a little bit of funk. So here’s Arpy, by Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, and Sam Wilkes.

Hi there, Matt here.

For most of my career I've been designing dashboards. Maybe it's just an inevitability of being in product design. Or maybe I'm drawn like a moth to the flame of complex products laden with impossible-to-meet expectations of insightful data visualizations.

Design trends have changed plenty in the last 20 years, but one thing has stayed the same: dashboards are supposed to be dense. Absolutely chock full of numbers, charts and graphs, all updating in real time. The expectation comes mostly from a belief that the denser the dashboard, the more understanding it will yield.

Whether or not that expectation is reasonable is debatable. But as an interface designer (and manager of designers), it's important for me to understand how to achieve the density my partners, clients, and stakeholders expect. Until recently I've been satisfied to simply pack all the pieces of the interface close together and call it a day. But is that really density?

Hi there, Matt here.

It’s been over a year since I last emailed you, so if you need a refresher: you’re getting this email because you signed up for my newsletter at matthewstrom.com.

I’ve been pretty busy in the interim, writing long-form things that aren’t quite finished yet. But I did manage to finish one of the longest pieces I’ve ever posted, on generating color palettes for design systems. I’m really proud of it and I hope you can take some time to read it — especially if you work on design systems.

But I’m emailing today to share a shorter essay I originally sent to my colleagues at work. It’s about polish, specifically about the design details that are so well-considered that they blend in and are seldom noticed. But first, a song.

Hi there, Matt here.

A few emails ago, I mentioned that I wanted to get published in Harvard Business Review. Today's essay was a continuation of that quest, but unfortunately, it got a rejection slip, too.

This one felt a little less disappointing. So maybe it goes like this: the more you fail at something, the less each failure costs (emotionally). That means that each subsequent attempt is bit easier, in some sort of reverse compound interest of disappointment! I'm going to keep trying.

Here's a song: "The Shrine", from Jaga Jazzist's latest LP Pyramid. Jaga Jazzist has been one of my favorite groups for years; their brand of pop slash ensemble jazz, with prominent bass clarinet, groovy complex time signatures, and crystal-clear production, makes for great listening.

Hi there, Matt here.

There are a lot of hot takes about AI and design. Brad Frost explored how AI could create product experiences from design systems. Mills Baker warns of a coming winter of design discontent. And Budd says it’s the end of design as we know it.

I’m slightly more optimistic, somewhere between a GPT Luddite and an AI Pollyanna: new tools and technology will challenge designers to evolve, but will ultimately result in more efficiency, more impact, and more opportunities for designers to innovate. That’s what today’s essay is all about.

Before we dig in, some tunes. Awesome Tapes from Africa has always been on my radar as a source of great music. But when I heard the few bars of the first song on Hailu Mergia’s “Tezeta,” I immediately bought the record. The loping, pleasant funk, the chorus of horns, and Mergia’s virtuosic (but not alienating) organ playing all come together for a mood-boosting 40 minutes.

Hi there, it’s me, Matt.

I want to get published in Harvard Business Review.

Plenty of MBA-types (strategists, economists, psychologists, consultants, investors, and product managers) write in Harvard Business Review (HBR). But no designers (or design managers) write in HBR. I want to change that.

So I recently sat down and wrote about management. Micromanagement, specifically (And game theory. I wanted to make sure HBR would eat this up). I edited, re-wrote, got feedback, edited, re-wrote again, then bit my lip and submitted the essay.

Hi there, Matt here.

As a manager, I’m expected to maximize the performance of the teams I manage. Conventional wisdom says that the best way to do this is to invest most of my team and resources in “top performers” — the employees who do the best work. That means, in most cases, I should spend my time with the most experienced folks on the team.

But I’m skeptical of conventional wisdom. I think that one of the fastest ways to increase a team’s performance is to invest in the least experienced members of the team.

Why don’t more managers do this? Partly because managing folks with very little experience can be intimidating. Beginning a career is equal parts exciting and terrifying. And managing someone’s expectations through their first years is no different; the highs are really high, and the lows can be really low.

Hi there, Matt here.

Coding can feel like magic. You’re literally conjuring; type the right words in the right order, and you can do all sorts of superhuman things. Of course, getting those words right is no small feat, but that adds to the sense of accomplishment when you get it right.

Recently I went down a deep rabbit hole in pursuit of a silly idea: what if my website could make generative art for every essay I wrote? Then, I wrote an essay about the journey. So that’s what I’m sharing today. It’s definitely going to make more sense if you have some experience writing javascript, or at least have a passing interest in doing so; if you’re not into code, feel free to skip this episode. I have a very non-technical essay coming out in a week or two!

But first, some tunes. Alvvays has been in my frequent rotation since their 2014 self-titled debut. But their new record Blue Rev goes to a decidedly more dream-pop/shoegaze place, and it couldn’t be more to my taste. Buried on the b side is “Pomeranian Spinster,” a solid 3-minutes of bright fuzzy pop. Give it a listen!

Hi there, Matt here.

I have a love-hate relationship with design twitter. On one hand, there's lots of inspiring folks to follow, and I love to see new work published and shared. On the other hand, the platform encourages shallow takes and leaves no room for nuanced discussions.

Occasionally, I see a tweet circulating that perfectly captures this yin and yang: lots of interesting ideas shared, but little depth or follow-up. In the most recent case, instead of my typical response (draft and delete a bunch of tweets) I dove into a research spiral that lead me through the history of modern design. Once I came back up for air, I had a decent essay sculpted; much better than trying to craft a pithy twitter thread 🧵.

Before I share the essay, here's some tunes. Believers is a band/project that started in Columbia, Missouri, a college town that consistently punches above its weight in solid indie music. While their earlier music stayed solidly in the sonic shadow of Animal Collective, their new songs are finding their own tone and voice; slowly building, energetic without being urgent, nostalgic and sleepy but bright and catchy. Check out the track "Midnight Shoppers" here.

Hi there, Matt here,

Have you heard the term “nerd sniping”? The phrase comes from this XKCD comic. It describes a question that can stop a person in their tracks, tricking them into obsessively searching for the answer.

I recently got nerd sniped. The question was: how can I pick the best colors for data visualization? It’s deceptively simple; as I pulled at the thread, I discovered layers and layers of complexity, weaving together physics, philosophy, and math. The following essay is the result of my journey.

Hi there, Matt here,

There's a lot going on right now, so not much from me today; just sending you some empty space to occupy, if you'd like.

(One of my favorite ways to fill the void is with this 10-hour version of Marconi Union's Weightless.)

As for today's essay, it's a short exploration of the counterintuitive nature of exponential (aka "hockey stick") growth. The charts and tables might look a little wonky in email form, so you may want to hop over to my website to read.

Hi friends, it's Matt.

At this point, it's easy to take design systems for granted. For any interface spanning more than a few screens, creating a design system is usually on the checklist along with things like "test for bugs," and "deploy to production." But I think we're coming to a moment where we're going to have to re-think what a design system is and how it works. Some of the assumptions we make about design and the role of the designer just don't work in a world where an app can show up on dozens of different types of devices, from postage-stamp-sized smart watches to the infinite expanse of the metaverse.

Needless to say, today's essay is a long one. But before we get started, let's turn on some tunes.

Skee Mask is the project of Bryan Müller, an electronic music producer from Munic. Müller already has a Best New Music under his belt — in the past 4 years he's touched on a wide array of styles, from straight-laced trance tunes to ambient and atmospheric collages. "Dolan Tours," from his latest release Pool, gives me some really good early 90s electro vibes; think Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, or Squarepusher's "Theme From Ernest Borgnine."

Hi there, Matt here.

I’ve started 2022 by spending a few weeks of time off from work. Not on a real vacation, say — just giving myself lots of time to do nothing. Of course, lots of writing and reading and tinkering fills the space.

One reflection that keeps coming to me is just how much time I usually spend in meetings. And in the absence of those meetings, I’m more productive, but also more fulfilled. In pulling at that thread, I wanted to learn more about one of the most common fixtures of meetings: brainstorming. So today’s essay is all about the history of brainstorming, the research on why it doesn’t work, and what to do (or not do) instead.

A quick song to start: I’m a sucker for dry, skittering drums tightly locked with mellow, funky bass lines. Combine that with a bed of atmospheric synths and guitars, and you’ve got Louis Prince’s “The Number Thirteen.” Also, the music video (dither-heavy hypercard inspired visuals!) is brilliant. Please watch.

Hi team, Matt here.

Surely you've heard about NFTs, whether you vaguely get the gist, or you've got 'wagmi' in your most recent tweet. I haven't minted or bought any myself, but as someone who loves art and technology, I'm following the meta with keen interest. While Robin Sloan's Notes on Web3 sums up most of my thoughts, I wanted to put together a supplementary piece based on some thoughts I had about the past and potential future. You don't need to know much about NFTs to enjoy it - I hope you do, in fact, enjoy it.

But first, some music. It's hard to describe the allure of "24/7 lo-fi hip hop study beats to relax to;" maybe that's a good essay for the future. Regardless, I'm going to keep on using the endless streams of it on YouTube to fill in empty space ( I wonder what Brian Eno would say?). Here's the mix I'm currently listening to.

Now, on to the essay. As always, you can read it on my website if you like.

Hi there, Matt here.

It’s been a few months since my last update, but I promise I have a good reason: I’m writing a book! There, now that I’ve said it, I can’t take it back. It’s a book about copying, using my long-form essay Copying as foundation. I’ve written about 15,000 words so far, which seems like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things is just a start. I’m hoping to share a few chapters along the way, so stay tuned.

Hi there, Matt here.

I draw a lot of pictures. Sometimes they’re for a marketing campaign, for a tv ad, for a packaging idea. Sometimes they’re a little more abstract, like pictures of possible career paths or coaching frameworks. But most of the pictures I’ve drawn are pictures of websites.

It’s easy to forget that UX and product designers are often working a few steps removed from the things they’re designing. We’re drawing pictures of websites, but that’s not what the end user sees; the end user sees the website itself, translated through a few layers of implementation details and business decisions.

Hi there, Matt here.

Just a quick note before we dive into today's essay: I'm writing something bigger, longer, more ambitious, based on my short book Copying. It might be called a proper book, though typing this sentence gives me the heebie jeebies. Based on my current pace, I'd say it'll probably be finished sometime in the middle of 2021. I'll share more as it shapes up; if you're interested, keep an eye on these emails.

For today, a song: Beat Fall, by Lithics. Funky, frenetic, fey (whatever that means). There are so many catchy moments in the tune, but gosh that floor tom is so punctual, so perfectly bouncy, like an overinflated inner tube.

On to the essay. As always, you can read it on my website if you prefer.

Hi there, Matt here.

Today I wanted to share a short meditation on feedback. It’s one of the things I write about most because it’s the engine of the creative process. Good feedback can drive a team to produce work that no individual would have on their own. Poor feedback can sap your energy, deflate your ego, doom your project to failure.

And here’s a quick song to decorate your brain: One of Suzanne Ciani’s Buchla concerts from 1975. It’s a 20-minute-long improvisational synthesizer odyssey, full of twists and turns from immersive melodic soundscapes to warbly noisy chaos.

Hi there, Matt here.

In case you've forgotten (and you'd be forgiven, it's been a while), this is an email newsletter that goes out whenever I publish a new essay on my website, matthewstrom.com. You're receiving it because you signed up at the bottom of one of my other essays.

Now that we're re-acquainted, I'm very excited to share one of the most in-depth things I've ever written. It's a little more than an essay, but not quite a book, so I'm calling it a very short book.

It's about copying.