kadavy's comments

Warren invests in what he knows. The fact that he doesn't buy technology stocks is more likely due to the fact that he doesn't know much about technology.

At this year's shareholder's meeting, someone asked him and his business partner, Charlie Munger, which industry they wish they knew more about. Charlie said "technology."

I make a couple thousand a month selling affiliate iPod transfer software on a popular post on my blog.

An online dating tips blog that I started over 3 years ago under a pseudonym very recently started bringing in a few thousand a month from affiliates as well. SEOFTW.

There's lots of potential to bump up the revenue on the online dating blog, but I'm finishing up my book on design, so that's more important.

Sometimes, if you've recently met the person, it's just good to send a "nice to meet you" follow-up with no ask at all. You're very likely to get a response, and once the response has been made, you can make the simple ask (once they've responded once, they're probably more likely to respond again).

This is akin to the "one-line hook" in online dating: http://www.onlinedatingmatchmaker.com/match-messages/

Caps happen to be a good form of typographic differentiation in cases where other forms of emphasis (such as bold or italics) are unavailable. But, some people may feel otherwise.

The Romans used caps. In fact, that was all that they used.

I was just writing a bit about realism for my book the other day. Interfaces, such as Mac OS X's Aqua, actually represent a sort of "hyperrealism," with buttons that are impossibly juicy, reflective, and glowing.

It's funny, because interfaces have always represented reality in a metaphorical sense (desktop, window, document, trash), but now we take it up a notch to represent things that couldn't actually exist.

Oops, sorry - I hadn't considered that someone would think that.

True. Bonobos are more closely related to humans. There's some incredibly fascinating information about how humans are related to bonobos in sexual behavior (and overall communal behavior) in the book Sex at Dawn. Highly recommended.

I'm really shocked that it took them that long to hire an assistant. It would be very difficult to think creatively with all of those trivial concerns in one's head.

As someone who is "finally" starting to find success in my early 30's, this is something I think of a lot.

Think of all of the famous people you know of, who are doing great work right now. Now look at how old some of them are.

Steve Carrell is 48 years old. Jon Stewart is 48. Louis C.K. is 44.

All of them are great at what they do, but how old were they when they finally reached the top of their professions? Sure, you can think of small gigs they had in the decades before, but just think of how long they had to work at what they did to get where they are. I always wonder how often they came close to quitting. (I remember hearing an interesting story about this from Louis C.K., but I don't remember the details)

To do great creative work, you not only have to love it enough to work that hard at it, yes, you have to have incredible taste to always be finding that one little thing that you can improve - for decades and decades.

Nice opportunity for Apple to use the iPad as an entry-point for customers. It worked for the iPod, which I think made a lot of people more comfortable with the idea of using Apple products; and probably prompted many people's first MacBook purchases.

I practically have my coffee shop productivity down to a science. I have certain places for brainstorming, certain places for when I want some quiet & solitude, & certain places for when I want to feel relaxed vs. focused. I've written a good deal of my book at a very well-featured Whole Foods in Chicago.

I also meet up with other entrepreneurs at a coffee shop every Wednesday. It's great for exchanging ideas, or just having someone to watch your laptop while you go to the bathroom: http://jellychicago.com

When I lived in SF, I started compiling information on various coffee shops, based upon how good they were to work at. I kept track of if they had open outlets, and how the staff acted towards people on laptops. It might be a bit out of date, but here it is: http://moworking.pbworks.com/w/page/10316102/San-Francisco-B...

Kadavy, Inc., it's just me, and started as a UI consultancy in 2008. Now it's a media company.

I'm writing a book on design http://designforhackers.com

Based on blog posts at http://kadavy.net

I live in Lincoln Park at Clark & Fullerton, which I think is a perfect place for a one man startup. Very walkable.

I meet with other entrepreneurs every wednesday to cowork at a cafe http://jellychicago.com

I moved here from SF, entirely by my own volition. Yes, for real.

I think it's great to encourage designers to be founders. The arguments against commodification of design (i.e. crowdsourcing) usually include that it "devalues design."

I think more designers should take advantage of the incredible value they can create – practically for free – by being entrepreneurs instead; instead of worrying about clients that "don't understand the value of good design."

A Salon des Refusés, if you will? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_des_Refus%C3%A9s

Checking stats on something (how many followers someone has, or how many views a video has) is definitely a useful heuristic for deciding if something is worthy of your ever-more-precious attention. They call this "social proof."

That's a pretty cool little toy!

I think the trailer should be flipped upside down: start with playing it, then explaining how it works. It's cool that there are few controls, but starting off by talking about the battery compartment isn't nearly as impactful as the demo.

Maybe load it up on a Chumby? http://chumby.com

This was really interesting to play with.

I kept getting caught up cognitively on the fact that the thumb corresponded to the 5th box in all of the chord diagrams. I feel like some visual differentiation would have made that easier to grok.

I agree. (thanks :)

I sure hope they don't succeed in making tongue-scraping a requirement. I of course brush my tongue and floss regularly, but I hope it never gets to the point where I have to be ashamed of not having a special device explicitly for scraping my tongue.