Happy New Year, readers and friends! 🎆
As we begin another year, I wanted to take a moment to welcome any new subscribers who are receiving this newsletter for the first time. I'm excited to have you join our community of design and user experience enthusiasts.
Not extremely much has happened since the last newsletter, but there are still some interesting updates.
Appearance in Nick Mann’s The UX Growth Podcast
First, in case you missed it, I was a guest on Nick Mann's The UX Growth Podcast, where I talked about how I transitioned from traditionally trained computer scientist to Design Director and what advice I would give aspiring UX designers.
Again, many thanks to Nick for inviting me. Make sure to also check out some of the other episodes of his wonderful podcast.
☞ The UX Growth Podcast, Season 1, Episode 15
Design Is Still Poetry
Second, my article “Design is Poetry,” which was originally published on DOC has been cross-posted by The UX Collective on Medium. It explains why designs can (or should) be treated as poems and how designers can make use of that to find more meaning in their work. If you haven’t read it yet, I’d be glad if you headed over there and did; and I’d love to hear your feedback.
☞ Beyond form and function: Design is poetry in The UX Collective on Medium
Book Recommendation
Third, something from the category “& Other Stuff.” I’d like to recommend a book I just finished reading: “The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I think my review on Goodreads speaks for itself:
Is the system we currently live in inevitable? Is it the logical culmination of some kind of social evolution of society? And is it really the best possible system there is, as so many believe?
This book conclusively proves that the answer to all of the above questions must be “no.”
In the wake of doing so, it also shows significant scientific inaccuracies in both Harari's “Sapiens” and Pinker’s “Enlightenment Now.” While, before reading “The Dawn of Everything,” I had considered both of those book must-reads for every human being, I now have to retract that assessment. Graeber and Wengrow’s masterpiece replaces the two.
If I could give this book 6 stars, I would.
☞ The Dawn of Everything on Better World Books
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Now for the big surprise: 85% of this newsletter were written by ChatGPT, based on rough bullet points I provided.
Also, a quick note: Please don't be confused. This newsletter has moved to Substack because Revue will be shut down completely as of January 18 (thanks, Elon!).
Enjoy reading and until next time. Also, I'm always glad to get feedback on my articles and this newsletter. So, please, feel free to just reply to this email. 😊
Cheers,
Max
This is an issue of my newsletter Tales of Design & User Experience (& Other Stuff)—abbreviated ToDUX—that has been cross-posted here for archival reasons. If you want to get my latest takes and writing delivered straight to your inbox, you can subscribe at maxspeicher.com/newsletter or simply follow me here on Buy Me A Coffee. 🗞