If you’re a man and you’re interested in dressing like a grown-up (at least some of the time) you really should read these 25 pieces of basic sartorial knowledge so you don’t look dumb by Jesse Thorn of Put This On.
Also, you should check out season one of Jesse’s awesome web series, also called Put This On. Here’s the first episode:
And here are the rest.
If you like what you see, you have three days to help fund Put This On season 2 on Kickstarter. Go!
If you want to learn to code and build stuff and you’re starting by asking someone else what you should do, you’re already thinking about it the wrong way. Immediately, right now, with no preparation, in the blink of an eye, you can take a huge step toward your goal by realizing that you don’t need an answer to your question.
The wrong question: “I want to learn to code, what should I do?”
Or you could just go to Code Academy.
I have a really interesting job and I’m pretty good at it. It doesn’t make me rich but I definitely do alright. It’s fun and also challenging at times. I love my colleagues. But lately going to work hasn’t felt right.
I don’t know if it’s just me or if everyone feels like this but I need to be a little scared once in a while. I need to not know that I can do whatever it is I’m doing. It’s what pushes me to do things that end up making me proud – things that make me look back and think damn, I did that?
I could just keep doing what I’m doing; go to work every morning, come home every night. See the money go into my bank account, begin and end projects that are pretty interesting even though they just don’t get my blood boiling like it used to when I started something new. But I won’t. I’m too young to be complacent, too free from responsibilities to let financial incentives dictate what I do.
So I’ve decided to do something about it. One month from now, October 1st, I’m going freelance. It’s my hope that working with new people in new places on new projects will once again let me feel the rush of uncertainty, inspiring me to work harder and smarter, once again surprising myself by what’s possible.
So what are you going to do, I hear you asking. And for whom?
I’ve made a website where I talk a little bit about the things I do: Social media consulting, user experience design, community management and talks about the forementioned. I’ve talked to some friends and colleagues about going freelance and a few of them might be interested in working with me on some projects. And I’ve made a deal with Wemind that means I’ll continue most of my current projects and that I’ll work with them on future ones as well, probably working there about 20 hours per week. Apart from that, I don’t know.
So I need your help. If you would like to work with me or you know someone who might, I’d love to hear from you. Even if you don’t (think you do), I’d love some help spreading the word about my website by word of mouth or by using the little handy sharing buttons on the bottom right. Thanks!
When you’re on auto-pilot, no problem. You’ve done it before, so you recognize every pattern you’re in and there’s no need to worry.
But this also means you’re going the wrong way. You’re getting no new input, so you’re not recognizing any new patterns. If this is the way your life is going, you are actually actually becoming more useless. In an increasingly chaotic world, the best pattern recognizers win.
So the way to have an amazing life is to be constantly fearing failure, but driving forward anyway. It’s difficult to be doing this all the time. You need to pick your battles. Most things need to be stable and allow for safety, so you can focus on these one or two very difficult things.
— Julien Smith: How to tell if you’re doing your life’s work
This is very meaningful to me right now because I’m (a) generally doing great and (b) about to do something that scares me a lot. Let’s hope that’s a good sign.
Yesterday I tweeted a question about finding a GPS app for iPhone that lets you draw a route to follow because I want to try and ride the route the riders will follow for the 2011 Cycling World Cup in Copenhagen.
Thanks to Søren Johannesen I came across MotionX-GPS, a GPS app that accepts route files in the GPX format. The World Cup website has a link to a Google Map of the route where I downloaded a KML file. I used GPSBabelFE to convert the KML to GPX et voilà! (To save you the trouble I uploaded the converted GPX file here.)
Pretty sweet.
Unfortunately MotionX-GPS does not support turn by turn navigation. Anybody know an app that does that and supports KML or GPX files?
This video is an example of why I’m really excited about where rap is going right now. OFWGKTA mastermind Tyler, The Creator joins one of my favorite rappers of the last couple of years, Pusha T, for an ironic take on the traditional cars-and-women rap video.
It’s just so much fun. Pusha T’s Re-Up Gang are usually unironic unapologetically hardcore gangsta rappers; they incapsulate the genre coke-rap. Now add Tyler’s crazy antics to the mix and the drive-by becomes an egging. And just take a look on Tyler’s face in the traditional gratuitous semi-nude scene. I guess that’s how I would look sitting in that car at 19 (okay, maybe even now).
Tyler’s solo album had some really great songs (and some really forgettable ones, too) and the new Mellowhype album is equally great. And I just saw that Frank Ocean is featured on one of the songs on Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne. I can’t wait to see what comes next for the OFWGKTA boys.
I’m turning 30 tomorrow. 30 is the birthday of bucket lists and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been considering how my life is going. To sum up: Almost perfectly. I just moved in to a great new apartment with the girl of my dreams. I have a fantastic job with inspiring colleagues and interesting assignments (and I’ll have even more great challenges to talk about soon, stay tuned.) Life is good.
The Mark of Cain is a documentary about Russian prison tattoos. Meet the Slaves, the lowest caste of criminals who often have the word Slave tattooed on their face against their will, the Goats, prisoners who work with the guards and often end up spending long periods of time in solitary confinement to avoid physical contact with the other inmates, and the Thieves-in-Law, the highest ranking caste of criminals, whose tattoos tell the stories of their violent lives.
Here’s an interesting page about the symbolism of some of the tattoos.
If you understand Danish and you like music you should check out this new podcast I’m doing with my good friend Robert Nagy. Each day until this year’s Roskilde Festival we’re listening to a track from one of the acts on the poster and discussing whether or not to go listen to them live. Check it out!
noun
- informal derogatory: a term used to describe people who bought a product that competes with the one you bought, which is probably more popular than your choice, for reasons that you wish to discredit or diminish because you’re secretly afraid or upset that you made the wrong choice.
ORIGIN from fan + boy.
(Source: marco)
