Slow Growth, Dandelion UX, Ambiguity of Time, and Mechanical Keyboards!
Somethings Novel - April 18, 2025
What I’m writing…
A Case for Slow Growth
Lessons on strength from old-growth pines
Design has grown fast. In just a few decades, it’s gone from a niche practice to a boardroom buzzword. Teams have scaled, toolsets have exploded, and expectations have skyrocketed. But has all that growth made us stronger? Or just faster?
In this latest article, I explore the connection between fast-growing pine trees and the design careers we’re building. Pine that grows too quickly ends up full of knots and prone to warping. But the old-growth stuff—the kind with tightly packed rings—has strength that lasts.
Maybe it’s time we stop chasing speed and start investing in depth.
What I’m thinking about…
Spring is in full swing here in the Midwest, US. The grass is waking up. Trees are budding. And of course, the dandelions are rearing their dreaded golden heads in our yard.
Naturally, I don’t want them to spread, so I busted out my weed-pulling tools and got met thinking about the world of UX. It’s easy to pop off the yellow flower and make the lawn look cleaner. But unless you dig deep and get the whole taproot, the problem just grows back.
UX problems are the same way. Some can be surface-level like confusing wording or an awkward layout. Those are quick to fix. But others go deeper. They’re rooted in something more egregious like strategy mismatch or fragile system limitations. You can’t just pull the flower and call it solved.
It’s got me thinking about how design teams can better handle the situations when the budget allows us to pluck the flower off the weed, rather than rooting it out.
What I’m reading…
Why Time Flies by Alan Burdick
I’m halfway through this book, but enjoying the topic. It’s already reshaping how I think about time, measurement, and perception of it.
One reality that stuck with me: even our most precise timekeeping systems (atomic clocks, GPS satellites, etc.) still require a human decision to average and define “the” time. We live in ignorant bliss that it’s objective, but in reality, it requires constant adjustment, adding “leap seconds,” and averaging the output of a variety of clocks that don’t all agree on what time it really is. At the end of the day, a second is what someone somewhere in a laboratory said it is. It’s kinda wild.
What I’m enjoying…
Keychron K2 Mechanical Keyboard
I use this keyboard about half of the time. The other half, I’m on a basic Apple Magic Keyboard. But every time I return to the Keychron, it’s like stepping back in time. It’s nostalgic. Each keystroke is tactile. And incredibly satisfying with each keystroke. Not just functional—fun. It makes typing endless emails less like a chore and more like a satisfying dance of clickery.
🎥 I love it so much, I even made a video about it…
Interested? 🎁 Get one of your own or grab ⌨️ the custom keycaps
👏 Thanks for giving me your time and attention!
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Yeppurs, I do use affiliate links for the products and books I share. Why? Well, it helps support this extra work that I do in my personal time on my personal budget. Thanks for your support.