Aug 24
The Difference Between a Prototype and a Demo — A lot has been made about Apple’s hardware product prowess – the click wheel of the iPod, the slimness of the Macbook Air, but just as notable are Apple’s standout software like Safari, Keynote, iOS and many more. In Creative Selection [https://amzn.to/3hxpth3], long-time Apple software engineer
Aug 22
MC#016: Fidelity vs. Functionality — 💼 Midgame → Facebook + 👨🏻‍💻 What Makes for a Great Demo + ✍️ A Venn Diagram of Writing Success Factors
Aug 18
Midgame’s Next Chapter — We’re headed to Facebook! As builders and entrepreneurs, we’ve always been interested in using data and technology to fulfill human needs: in commerce, recruiting, and gaming. Before we founded Midgame, Wayne and Jason first started working together at Etsy, where we built systems and tools that powered millions
Aug 15
MC#015: Brains Are Weird — 🎼 Patterns of Creatives + 👯‍♂️ Sibling Author Rivalry + 💉 Placebos Are Wild
Aug 08
MC#014: Our Spreadsheet Overlords — ⏱ 1. How 60 minutes could change your life + 2. 🧮 Spreadsheets Rule the World + 3. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Feeling Kinship in the Era of Technocapitalism
Aug 01
MC#013: Breaking Rules, Breaking Stereotypes — ♨️ Complexity and Product Lines 🎭 How Stereotype Shape Our Performance 🚫 Who Gets to Break the Rules?
Jul 25
MC#012: The Humor Edition — 🌗 Coping with dark humor + 👨🏾‍🏫 Funny teachers + 🎭 Sarah Cooper's comedic training + 😅 Are YOU funny? (quiz)
Jul 18
MC#011: The Gymnastics Edition — 🐥 Why gymnasts are young + 🎬 Athlete A + 👩🏾‍🏫 Simone's Masterclass
Jul 11
MC#010: Seeking a Benign Violator — 😅The Pleasure of Rule Breaking + 📋 Making it Easier to Send + 🎮 Gaming = Fun Work
Jul 04
MC#009: Decade of Insights — 20 books 📚 that made a difference for me in the last 🔟 years
Jun 29
How Tech Workers are Finding Their Footing in a Pandemic — This piece first appeared in Fast Company [https://www.fastcompany.com/90515519/tech-workers-are-showing-the-effects-of-covid-19-related-burnout] The start of 2020 should have been an energizing time for me, personally and professionally. I had just returned from a long-awaited holiday honeymoon and closed a new round of funding for my startup. But I found
Jun 27
MC#008: Not So Secret Memo — 🧮 Advertising: Profitable (and therefore Taxable?) + 🚜 The Resilience and Fragility of Rubber + 🪐 Ring Strength
Jun 20
MC#007: The Infant Mindset — How Rejection Works + Thinking Like a Baby + Making Mistakes
Jun 20
My Pandemic Burnout Piece in Fast Company — Double header this weekend! Back to your regularly scheduled Making Connections newsletter next Saturday. Have heard from a lot of folks who appreciated my piece in Fast Company on how tech workers are experiencing burnout in the face of the pandemic [https://www.fastcompany.com/90515519/tech-workers-are-showing-the-effects-of-covid-19-related-burnout] . I spoke to
Jun 13
On Protests and Movements — This is an attempt to integrate a series of shorter, related writings that I’ve published in my newsletter [http://jasonshen.substack.com] over the last few weeks. Much of it touches on the Black Lives Matter movement, which I wrote about back in 2016, [https://www.jasonshen.com/2016/
Jun 13
MC#006: The Exponential — Bounded performance vs unbounded success. The Thief of Joy. A Movement's Tipping Point.
Jun 07
MC#005: Protest Edition — The Law of the Instrument. When Aggressive Tactics Backfire. How Much Money is Enough? Who Guards the Guards?
May 30
Making Connections #004 | What opportunity looks like, learning by shipping & the arc of social progress — Hey friends, Welcome back the 4th edition of Making Connections, where we take a random walk down tech, fitness, product thinking, org design, nerd culture, persuasion, and behavior change. Today we’re talking about what opportunity looks like, learning by shipping & the arc of social progress 1. Knowing the
May 23
Making Connections #003 — Biological thinking, no sweat workouts, "talent needs trauma", birthday coaching
May 16
Making Connections #002 (purpose, iteration, social games, + more) — Hey friends, Welcome back the 2nd edition of Making Connections, where we take a random walk down tech, fitness, product thinking, org design, nerd culture, persuasion, and behavior change. 1. Dan Pink's "Small P" and "Big P" Purpose Psychology | Burnout I was talking to