Learn, Make, Learn

Go “Pro” in Every Product Category or Just “Good Enough”?

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 02:00:00 -0800

A question from a previous guest sparks this episode: Do we go “pro” in every product category or do we eschew the spec arms race & embrace “good enough”? We interrogate our own behaviors & share implications for people in the business of making products.

INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 02:51
Starbucks Follow-Up with Zoran Svetlicic
Generative AI x Product with Anmol Anubhai
What McDonald’s is REALLY Like in Italy
How to Try Int’l McDonald’s Menu Items in the US

JOACHIM’S PROFILE PREFS FOR CLAUDE – 07:40

J’s TAKE: A PORTFOLIO APPROACH – 16:40
Testing the Same Products from 1975 and 2025
SHEIN's plan to take over FASHION

E’s TAKE: SPECIALISTS OVER GENERALISTS – 27:03
Do Pharmacists Buy Bayer? Informed Shoppers and the Brand Premium
Why Doesn't Everybody Buy Cheap, Generic Headache Medicine?
The Secrets of Shopping
The Rise of Indie Running Brands

SPECIALIZATION vs HYPERGROWTH – 34:43
How I Built This: Tim Leatherman
Pelican’s Indestructible Cases
The Furniture Systems Of USM Haller

LESSONS FOR PRODUCT PEOPLE – 42:12
Military can’t repair its own equipment
Bad Dye Job

RECOMMENDATIONS – 48:33
The Enshittifinancial Crisis
Matthew Wilcock: 058 Motorway Cycle XI
FlowingData: Best Data Visualizations of 2025
Notion
Phantom Thread
Dior and I on Apple TV & YouTube
Sentimental Value

CLOSING – 01:00:02

****

Rant, rave or otherwise via email at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or on Threads @LearnMakeLearnShow.

CREDITS
Theme: Vendla / Today Is a Good Day / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Drum hit: PREL / Musical Element 85 / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

Putting Your Weird to Work with the Co-Directors of The Brand Studios Program at CU Boulder

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0800

We get the inside scoop on The Brand Studios master’s program at CU Boulder from its co-directors, Parisa Tashakori & Jeff Gillette. Unique in its accelerated 12-month span & remit across both experience design and creative advertising, the program welcomes those with a passion to “put your weird to work.” Is it right for you?

INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 00:55
Why is Design So Boring? with Nate Grubbs
LAP Coffee
The LAP coffee Berlin backlash: when innovation meets resistance
Ernest to present at Creative Mornings on Dec. 12th

MEET PARISA TASHAKORI & JEFF GILLETTE – 10:07
Parisa’s faculty profile
Jeff’s faculty profile

ON ACADEMIA VS AGENCY LIFE – 13:52
Higher ed must do more to support teaching

THE BRAND STUDIOS: THE WHAT & THE WHY – 19:11
The Brand Studios at CU Boulder
AdAge: New portfolio school aims to fill a widening gap in training junior ad professionals in the wake of AI (paywall)

WHO IS THE PROGRAM FOR? – 36:34
The Students

ON STAYING SMALL & HUMAN – 41:09

GEN AI & BETTING ON CREATIVITY – 49:22
John Maeda on the Design Better podcast
Cory Doctorow: Reverse centaurs are the answer to the AI paradox

WEIRDOS WELCOME & HOW TO APPLY – 56:43
Ready to apply?

RECOMMENDATIONS – 01:01:55
Parisa: The Collaborative Habit
Jeff: The Art of Whittling & Atomic Habits
Joachim: BOSS Katana-AIR EX & Swag Lee’s Habibi Loops
Ernest: Hamnet (the novel), Lavinia & A Larger Reality at Ox

CLOSING – 01:13:26

Starbucks Follow-Up with Zoran Svetlicic

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0800

We're joined by Zoran Svetlicic for this fast follow-up to our previous episode on Starbucks’ struggles. A strategist & builder with deep expertise in brand and food & beverage, Zoran pulls no punches in his diagnosis of Starbucks’ ills. And, along the way, schools us on positioning, brand architecture & natural wine.

INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 00:39
Starbucks’ Struggles and Lessons for Product People

MEET ZORAN + CONTEXT SETTING – 04:09
Zoran Svetlicic on LinkedIn
Third-Wave Coffee
NYT Books review of Seeing Like a State

DIAGNOSING STARBUCKS’ STRUGGLES – 11:56
Mark Ritson: Starbucks needs to cut the crap from its brand positioning
Brand Architecture
Nestlé Takes Majority Stake in Blue Bottle (paywall)

STARBUCKS RESERVE STRATEGY – 25:17
What is the Starbucks Reserve brand — and where is it going?
Traditional vs. Occasion-Based Segmentation

HETEROGENEITY AT SCALE: McDONALD’S – 32:45
McD’s passes Starbucks as world’s most valuable restaurant brand
McD’s Just Dropped a Happy Meal Collab Straight Out of the ’90s
Why The French Love American Fast Food
For Some Travelers, McD’s Is a Destination (paywall)

GLOBAL + LOCAL: COCA-COLA – 42:12
Coca-Cola Visual ID: Before & After
We leverage design to create simplicity: David Butler
Share a Coke campaign learnings

LESSONS FROM NATURAL WINE – 55:31

RECOMMENDATIONS – 01:05:16
Raisin
Piquentum Wines & Label
UNSTUCK newsletter
M5Stack Core2
Yowana & Supwell

CLOSING – 01:17:36

Starbucks’ Struggles & Lessons for Product People

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 15:00:00 -0700

What can product people learn from Starbucks’ recent struggles, and how are these lessons linked to a venerable British book retailer, an upstart French running brand, and a barmy Japanese watchmaker?

INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 02:47
Starbucks closing stores
SPVs, Credit, and AI Datacenters
This is How the AI Bubble Will Pop
Neue Klasse – 60 Years of the BMW 1500
World Premiere of the new BMW iX3
BMW Hofmeister Knick—Behind the Lines

STARBUCKS’ STRUGGLES – 14:08
No Logo at 20
Globalization and Its Discontents
The Walmart Effect
100 Cups of Coffee in a City on Fire

ANTI-HOMOGENEITY FTW – 21:08
Why high street coffee chains may have had their day
Why Are Independent Coffee Shops Succeeding?
Starbucks' Digital Dilemma

LESSONS FOR PRODUCT PEOPLE – 36:00
Seeing Like a State
Metis matters
Lessons learnt from Waterstones’ turnaround
Personality Disorders and Culture
SATISFY
How Satisfy Got the Cool Kids Into Running
Ernest’s G-SHOCK Frogman
Ibe Kikuo and the Development of the G-Shock
G-SHOCK GA-V01

RECOMMENDATIONS – 57:19
Alien: Earth
Alien: Earth soundtrack
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe

CLOSING – 01:11:08

Toolbox: Raymond Loewy & the MAYA Principle

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0700

Ernest & Joachim go deep on Raymond Loewy’s MAYA Principle: what it is & why it matters, with real world examples of MAYA in action, and what can happen when product teams fail to take the principle to heart.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:00
Toolbox: How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better
Fortis Marinemaster

A BRIEF INTRO TO RAYMOND LOEWY – 06:04
MoMA on Raymond Loewy
60 Minutes: Raymond Loewy, Father of Industrial Design

LOEWY’S MAYA PRINCIPLE – 09:07
The MAYA Principle in Design
The iPhone only exists because Steve Jobs ‘hated this guy at Microsoft’
Phil Knight: Shoe Dog
How One Designer Saved Tesla From Bankruptcy TWICE

IS MAYA INHERENTLY CONSERVATIVE? – 19:36
Apple and the MAYA Principle
Remembering Apple’s Newton, 30 years on

MUST BE ROOTED IN EMPATHY & COMPASSION – 24:44
Raymond Loewy and the Skylab Window

APPLICATIONS BEYOND PRODUCT – 28:20
The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (via Wayback Machine)
BMW Is a Surprise Winner in Electric Vehicles (paywall)
Goodbye to the BMW i3—an Icon of the 21st Century (paywall)
The Newton Messagepad was Well Ahead of its Time
General Magic documentary
Intellectual Distance, Novelty, and Resource Allocation in Science

RECOMMENDATIONS – 42:48
Patrick McGee: Apple in China
Hidden Forces podcast: Patrick McGee
EBL rechargeable AA batteries (link to Wirecutter review)

CLOSING – 49:34

Off-the-Cuff Smörgåsbord

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:00:00 -0700

E & J return from a spring hiatus to discuss a range of topics, from WWDC 2025 to the Era of the Business Idiot, and more.

WATCHES & WONDERS – 04:09
Don DeLillo: Cosmopolis
IWC Presents A Plethora Of New Ingenieur Watches
How The Pursuit Of Status Shapes Our Aesthetics
The Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer
NOMOS Lounge, New York City
TAG Heuer Formula 1 - They got it wrong!

SLATE AUTO – 22:52
Slate Auto Reveal Event
Customer service satisfaction of EV owners lower than ICE vehicles
Kia, Build This EV Overland Camper Van!
Top Gear: The Indestructible Toyota Hilux (full episode)

WWDC 2025 – 33:49
From Skeuomorphic to Liquid Glass
How the Graphical User Interface was Invented
WWDC 1997: Steve Jobs Q&A (tense exchange at 50:25)
Bill Gates: “Internet Tidal Wave”
Apple study challenges whether AI models truly “reason”

DISCORD & COMPLEXITY – 54:29
How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages
Ink & Switch
Quiet

RECS – 01:03:28
The Era Of The Business Idiot
Better Offline podcast
‘Andor’ Season 2
UConnPopCast
Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain Things to Me
What Makes Art ‘Left Wing’?
The Rehearsal

CLOSING – 01:22:00

Off-the-Cuff: AI Nonsense & More!

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 23:00:00 -0700

We return from hibernation to talk AI nonsense, critique the review industrial complex, promote a return to RSS, and share a raft of recommendations!

JOACHIM ON AI NONSENSE – 01:52
Previous Discussion of Humane AI (starts at 18:34)
Humane Set to Brick $700 ‘AI Pins’
I outsourced my memory to an AI pin and all I got was fanfiction
Ben Thompson: DeepSeek FAQ
Previous Discussion on LLMs & Constraints (starts at 02:33)
“Low-Resource” Text Classification

ERNEST ON THE REVIEW INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX – 09:41
Motor Trend: 2021 MINI Cooper SE
America’s Commute to Work Is Getting Longer (paywall)
CNET: 2022 Mini Cooper SE
James Hoffmann’s reviews
Sigma BF Review: Beautiful Foolishness
By contrast ... I took 1,000 photos with the Sigma BF
GxAce YouTube channel
Chris Harris on the Mercedes-AMG A45 S
How Ferrari Spins

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRODUCT CREATORS? – 26:07
Americans Are Obsessed With the Wrong Trucks
TELO MT1
Remembering Nike’s Sandy Bodecker

JOACHIM ON RSS & MORE – 31:37
Inoreader
Catherine Shannon: Your phone is why you don’t feel sexy
Tracy Durnell: In praise of the hundred page idea
In Praise of Shadows
Kenya Hara: White
Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny
Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit
Perfect Days
Perfect Day (Komorebi Version)

SHOULD WE START A DISCORD? – 41:22

CLOSING – 42:02

Caveat Emptor?

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 13:00:00 -0800

Ernest’s experience with a boundary-breaking headphone sparks a discussion on caveat emptor, or buyer beware, and just how much risk we, as product creators, should expect buyers to bear.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15
MKBHD, Panels & Pricing
WTF Happened in 2024?!
I Love You, Man: The Male Friendship Recession
Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble?

CAVEAT EMPTOR? – 06:36
Caveat emptor
An ode to open-back headphones—and why I’d never go (closed-)back
What’s the difference between dynamic and planar magnetic drivers?
Audio46 Headphones
Sennheiser HD800S: Revisiting a Legend
Focal Clear MG
Hifiman Arya Stealth & Organic
Hifiman Arya Unveiled Review—The Next Best?
The most expensive headphone in the world is terrifying!
Are Hifiman Unveiled Headphones Safe?
With Just 8 Words, Steve Jobs Explained the Best Decision He Ever Made
Man Tests Tesla Cybertruck Trunk Sensor With His Finger
The Hidden Autopilot Data That Reveals Why Teslas Crash
IIHS tested Tesla Autopilot safeguards: Here’s what they found
Arrival or departure? The rise and fall of Britain’s EV unicorn
Interview with Hifiman CEO Dr. Fang Bian
‘The Beta Test’ Director Jim Cummings Wants to Liberate Indie Filmmaking

RECOMMENDATIONS – 51:07
Derek Guy: Die Workwear!
J’s year-end rec: Outlier Strongworks Pants
E’s year-end rec: OrSlow French Work Pants & Yamatomichi 5-Pocket Pants

CLOSING – 01:07:44

MKBHD, Panels & Pricing

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 02:00:00 -0800

A conversation triggered by MKBHD’s Panels app gets really interesting when we dig into pricing & lessons for people in the business of making products.

FOLLOW-UPS – 02:23
Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive?
How gamification took over the world
Can't Play, Won't Play
An Interview with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth
Meta Connect Keynote 2024
Meta’s big tease

MKBHD, PANELS & PRICING – 07:30
Marques Brownlee
MKBHD’s first review
Marques Brownlee says ‘I hear you’ after fans criticize his new wallpaper app
YouTubers are not your friends
Why Criticism Still Matters

LESSON FOR PRODUCT CREATORS – 20:02
How Nike finally hacked skateboarding

ON PRICING – 23:42
Friedrich Hayek
Oskar R. Lange
Lange model
Kanopy
Taylor Swift–Ticketmaster controversy
The Changing Face Of The Secondary Market: Rolex CPO and more

RECOMMENDATIONS – 43:18
MUBI
The Substance on MUBI
The Fall on MUBI
Goeff McFetridge: Drawing a Life on MUBI
Thatcher had “phenomenal” impact on Britain’s cultural landscape
Bedrock Sandals
Creepers Socks
How Did Hokas Become So Popular? (paywall)

CLOSING – 56:29

Why is Design So Boring? with Nate Grubbs

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:00:00 -0700

We dive into our titular question with Nate Grubbs, who, unlike us, is a professional designer with strong views borne of decades of experience across UX, visual & product design.

MEET NATE – 01:18

THE AGE OF AVERAGE – 04:19
Alex Murrell: The age of average
The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same
How Khruangbin’s Sound Became the New Mood Music (paywall)

SOUL, FLASH & OLD MAN VIBES – 06:36
A Farewell to Adobe Flash—and the Messy, Glorious Web
Donnie Darko website
Félix Lapointe: Remembering Kai Power Tools
Artist at Play: An e-mail exchange with Kai Krause

A PERVASIVE FEAR OF FAILURE – 17:49
Please, Please Don’t A/B Test That
Study finds 268% higher failure rates for Agile software projects

SIGNS OF HOPE & BREAKING THROUGH – 23:27
Massimo Giunco: Nike, An Epic Saga of Value Destruction
The Father of Grunge Typography Calls Out Lazy Design
Paula Scher: Great design is serious (not solemn)
Kintsugi

CONSTRAINTS AS A CATALYST – 34:08
Why Constraints Are Good for Innovation
Daft Social
Start-Ups Surge in the Great Reset
Gnuhr
Physical music sales on course for first increase in 20 years

RECOMMENDATIONS – 45:45
Nate: Yoto
Ernest: A Different Man; related: The rise and rise of A24, a champion of storytelling on screen (paywall)
Joachim: I Saw the TV Glow; What You Are Looking for is in the Library

CLOSING – 56:57
NateGrubbs.com

Off-the-Cuff: Miele, Snow Peak & Ableton Live

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 23:00:00 -0700

We go off-the-cuff again, sharing product learnings from Miele vacuums, Snow Peak’s modular IGT system & Ableton’s singular vision for music creation.

OFF-THE-CUFF – 00:59

JOACHIM RECOMMENDS: MIELE C3 VACUUM – 01:38
Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine
Behind Dyson’s cyclone
Dyson Stick Vacuums Lose CR Recommendation
We’ve Recommended Miele Canister Vacuums for Almost a Decade
My Middle-Aged Miele C2 Canister Vacuum Has a Long Life Ahead of It
Ernest’s now discontinued Miele Cat & Dog Vacuum
James Dyson: From Brexit to Singapore
Yes, Portland’s Stark’s Vacuums is still in business!

ERNEST RECOMMENDS: SNOW PEAK IGT SYSTEM – 13:36
Ali George Hinkins: History of Snow Peak
An Introduction to IGT
Comprehensive “IGT 101” primer
Live the Slow Art of Japanese Camping
Examples of Korean-style Camping
Tom Bihn bags
Eames Storage Unit
The Eames Modular House
Modular Cabins Inspired by Minecraft
Snow Peak’s New Portland Flagship Store
Vitsœ 606 Universal Shelving System
USM Haller System
Legibility
Framework laptop

JOACHIM RECOMMENDS: ABLETON LIVE – 35:39
What is Ableton Live?
The Untold Story of Ableton Live
Reason’s skeuomorphic interface
Eating your own dog food

CLOSING – 44:31

Apple’s iPhone 16 Event: Lessons & Critiques

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 23:00:00 -0700

In another short(er) format episode, we examine Apple’s recent “Glowtime” event. Please do let us know what you think of this new format at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or @LearnMakeLearnShow on Threads.

OPENING – 00:00
Suttle Lake
Suttle Lodge

HELP US NAME THIS NEW FORMAT! – 03:12

APPLE’S ‘GLOWTIME’ EVENT – 05:08
Apple Event
The Verge: iPhone 16 event in 16 minutes
John Gruber describes his feelings after the event on Threads

JOACHIM’S TAKE – 05:48
Smartphone innovation is dead, and that’s fine
Revisiting the iPod
Light Phone

ERNEST’S TAKE – 11:07
Made by Google ’24
Steve Jobs introduces “Think Different” (intro to the campaign at 3:05)
Steve Jobs introduces iPhone in 2007 (b-school 101 chart at 3:55)
The Very First ‘Stevenote’
The Glorious Return of a Humble Car Feature
Boomer Apple

RISKS OF SHIFTING TO SERVICES – 27:31
Hilda
Brainchild
Why the Baby-Sitters Club was Cancelled at Netflix
Alexa Is in Millions of Households—and Amazon Is Losing Billions
Steve Jobs: Get Rid Of The Crappy Stuff
Existential thoughts about Apple’s reliance on Services revenue
Jeff Bezos Explains Why Amazon Makes No Profit (2014)
The Birth of an Icon: Susan Kare
Halt and Catch Fire (TV Series)
Drops of God on Apple TV+
Slow Horses on Apple TV+

CLOSING – 49:00

A New Episode Format!

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 23:00:00 -0700

We introduce a new, shorter, more off-the-cuff format focused on recommendations that we hope you’ll enjoy. Also, our apologies for the audio getting a bit crunchy in spots—we’re working hard to improve our audio quality. Please do let us know what you think of this new format at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or on Threads @LearnMakeLearnShow.

ONE MILLION CHECKBOXES – 03:20
Are You a Checker or an Unchecker? (paywall)
The Secret Inside One Million Checkboxes
Nolan Royalty on X
‘Infinity Blade II: ClashMob’ Uses the Cloud, Crowd-Sourcing for Group-Based Gaming

ON KITCHEN FAUCETS & BRAND VALUES – 12:09
Generative AI x Product with Anmol Anubhai
That Much-Despised Apple Ad (paywall)
Design Thinking: Failure or Fall Guy?
Toolbox: How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better
Touch vs Touchless Faucets
Are touchless faucets for the kitchen worth it?
Hansgrohe Select Technology
Axor Citterio Kitchen Faucet with Select Technology
Why is my LG Washing Machine using 3.6GB of data/day?

STEVE JOBS, CORNING & BEING UNREASONABLE – 29:07
The Science and History of the iPhone Screen
Founder Mode

NEUTRON JACK – 33:45
The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America―and How to Undo His Legacy
How Jack Welch’s Reign at G.E. Gave Us Elon Musk’s Twitter Feed

CLOSING – 39:14

Generative AI x Product with Anmol Anubhai

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 23:00:00 -0700

Generative AI: step change or snake oil du jour? We enter this mire with Anmol Anubhai as our guide & insight into the future of GenAI x product creation as our destination. Join us for a refreshingly grounded conversation on a topic that’s typically full of hype.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:42
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Manual Mode Changes Performance EVs Forever
WTF is a Product Manager?
Dare Obasanjo on Product Management at Figma Config 2024
Dare Obasanjo on Threads
Shreyas Doshi on Threads
Shreyas on why product management is hard

GenAI x PRODUCT WITH ANMOL ANUBHAI – 07:45
Anmol on LinkedIn
Meet Figma AI
Shane Allen on Figma AI
Mira Murati: Conversation with Dartmouth Engineering
Why Apple’s iPad Ad Fell Flat
Figma’s AI app creator accused of ripping off Apple weather app
Adobe’s new terms of service say it won’t use your work to train AI
Instagram is training AI on your data
CHI 2024: Evaluating Human-AI Partnership for LLM-based Code Migration
Why companies are turning to ‘citizen developers’

ANMOL’S ADVICE TO COMPANIES – 32:08

AI INTERFACES BEYOND THE BOT – 34:45
Google: People + AI Guidebook

CULTIVATING MENTAL MODELS – 42:37

WHO’S DOING THIS WELL & WHERE’S IT HEADED? – 48:12
AI brings soaring emissions for Google and Microsoft

WEEKLY RECS – 56:44
Anmol: Andrew Ng’s Machine Learning Collection & Amazon PartyRock
Joachim: BOOX Palma
Ernest: Earthworks Audio ETHOS microphone

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:08:48

The Weight of History

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:00:00 -0700

The pressure to repeat history, as in the previous year’s sales for a given product, can be pernicious. We share ideas for unshackling yourself from this weight so that you can avoid, as Marshall McLuhan put it, marching backwards into the future.

FOLLOW-UPS – 00:43
Humane is looking for a buyer
Coffeezilla on the Rabbit R1
NOMOS at Watches & Wonders
NOMOS: The icon in 31 color compositions
Noel Gallagher on Jimi Hendrix
The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn’t Help Teens (paywall)

THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY – 21:57
Reuters: Retailers slash prices on more Nike sneakers
Porsche 914, 924 & 944
The Failure of ‘New Coke’ Is a Lesson for Engineers
BMW’s EV success: learning from past failures
The Athlete’s Voice
An Interview with Nike’s Phil Knight
Steve Jobs Explained the Best Decision He Ever Made
Prevent Defense
Why Reed Hastings Should be Applauded for Netflix Split
Volvo Spins Off Combustion Engines
BMW 2002
Hoffmeister Kink

WEEKLY RECS – 58:19
Read: Starbucks’ Digital Dilemna
Avoid: Yoto
Pentagram on Yoto
Watch: The First Omen
A Battle With The Devil And An NC-17 Rating

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:15:50

The Perils of Fan Service

Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 -0700

The concept of fan service, which originated in anime and is now common across media, has pervaded the world of product creation as well. We discuss what it is & why it’s vital to serve your customers without pandering to them.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:11
Progressive Complexity (aka Progressive Disclosure)

THE PERILS OF FAN SERVICE – 03:50
Star Wars: Fired Solo Directors Didn't Want Movie To Just Be Fan Service
BlackBerry’s Future in Doubt
Clicks is a BlackBerry-style iPhone keyboard case
Janet Jackson Goes Sneaker Shopping With Complex

THE “YES, AND” APPROACH – 12:57
Why Porsche announced an SUV in 1998
Engineering guru Albert Biermann on making the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N

IT’S ABOUT THE VIBE OF THE THING – 19:01
The Homer Simpson car is a great lesson in building products
What everyone gets wrong about this famous Steve Jobs quote

THE VALUE OF PROTOTYPES – 23:38
IDEO: The Secret Power of Prototyping
On IDEO’s early days and the importance of prototypes

WE’RE NOT SAYING IGNORE YOUR FANS– 25:31
Reddit’s IPO is its own decline
Vollebak: The Dyneema Ultralight Jacket
The End of Social Media: An Interview With Jack Dorsey
Overheard: Steven Soderbergh

KEEP YOUR PROTOTYPES FUZZY – 39:36
UX Prototypes: Lo-Fi vs. Hi-Fi

IT CAN BE GOOD TO BE NICHE – 44:28

WEEKLY RECOMMENDATIONS – 47:15
Secret Galaxy
The efficacy of duct tape vs cryotherapy in the treatment of the common wart
Does One Line Fix Google?
Vivaldi Browser

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:00:59

Enough Is Enough

Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 -0700

When it comes to products and product innovation, in our new era of higher-for-longer interest rates, enough *is* enough.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:23
iOS spacebar meme
Windup Watch Fair San Francisco
Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war

ERA OF EASY MONEY IS OVER – 12:02
The Era of Easy Money Is Over. That’s a Good Thing.
The Price of Time

CASE STUDIES: BAD & GOOD — 18:34
The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now
Killed by Google
Rabbit R1: Barely Reviewable
Tesla’s Stainless Steel Cybertrucks Rusting
For tech giants, AI poses billion-dollar search problem
The Perils of Crossing Over from Niche to Mainstream
Volvo EX30 may be America's next hit EV
Volvo’s low-cost EX30 EV is already delivering profits
Ray-Ban Smart Glasses are a surprise success

THE PARADOX OF ZERO – 33:46
Historic Ad Fraud at Uber with Kevin Frisch

HOW TO NAVIGATE THIS SHIFT – 39:50
Japanese consumer sentiment (slide 29)
Toolbox: How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better
The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial
Six months in, 404 Media is profitable

WEEKLY RECS – 57:29
Stewart Hicks
Birkenstock Birmingham Boot
Are Birkenstock boots bullsh!t?

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:07:55

Daniel Kahneman: Lessons & Critiques

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 23:00:00 -0700

Daniel Kahneman, credited as a grandfather of behavioral economics, passed away in March, and we devote this episode to an unfiltered discussion of his legacy through a product lens.

KAHNEMAN’S LEGACY: THE BULL CASE – 01:55
NY Times obituary of Daniel Kahneman

KAHNEMAN’S LEGACY: THE BEAR CASE – 03:40
The “Nudge” of the Obama Era Was Always Neoliberal Nonsense
Nudge economics: has push come to shove for a fashionable theory?

JOACHIM’S PERSPECTIVE – 05:27
A Quick Excursion into Behavioral Economics

ERNEST’S PERSPECTIVE – 10:56
Netflix to stop reporting subscriber numbers
Pronation in runners. Implications for injuries
There’s a New Way to Choose the Right Running Shoe
Nobel Prize winner admits mistakes

RELEVANCE FOR PRODUCT CREATION – 19:43
Decision Support System

GAMING AS A MODEL – 21:57

INDIE CONTENT CREATORS AS A MODEL – 23:15
Beyond the Trailer
On the Success of Xiaomi

DON’T PATRONIZE YOUR CUSTOMER – 27:11
Edward Tufte
Pop Culture Pulsar
1010music Blackbox
Elektron Octatrack
8-bit processor built in Minecraft

KAHNEMAN ON CHANGING HIS MIND – 39:16
Remembering Daniel Kahneman

WEEKLY RECS – 42:27
If Books Could Kill
Masuda Kiribako Rice Bin
Kiyosi Seike: The Art of Japanese Joinery
The Joinery on X

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 50:43

Design Thinking: Failure or Fall Guy?

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0700

A decade ago, design thinking was all the rage across the corporate world. But, today, it's widely derided as a failed experiment. Is there still a place for design thinking or is it an idea whose time has passed?

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:56
Time to Learn
Hublot at Watches & Wonders 2024
Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind
JLC at Watches & Wonders 2024
Should Products be Political?
Bobbie
Bobbie for Change
Byron Sharp: How Brands Grow

DESIGN THINKING – 08:37
IDEO Design Thinking
Design thinking: Where did it go wrong?
Tim Brown: Change By Design
The ‘Nudge’ of the Obama Era Was Always Neoliberal Nonsense
IDEO: Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
Brian Collins: Resilient Futures
Kevin Slavin: Design as Participation
37signals: Contingency Design
Steve Jobs on consultants
Start-Stop-Continue Exercise
Scenius or Genius
Double Diamond Framework
Amazon’s AI Store Seemed to Magical. And They Were.

WEEKLY RECS – 45:26
“Your Name,” the Most Popular Anime of All Time, Comes to America
The Criterion Channel: Your Name.
Shōgun on Hulu
‘Tokyo Vice’ in a More Expansive Season 2

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 57:33

Time to Learn

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 18:00:00 -0700

Apologies for our delay this week! In this episode, with the Watches & Wonders show around the corner, we talk watches & the broader lessons we can draw from a product category rooted entirely in emotion.

WRIST CHECK – 02:16
IWC Pilot’s Watch Chrono Top Gun
Ming 37.07
Halios
Raven
In-House vs. Off-the-Shelf Movements
Idris Elba Wears a $500 Watch

JOACHIM’S 👍 – 11:39
IWC
IWC and Carl Jung
“The IWC Colors” with Pantone

ERNEST’S 👍 – 19:05
Cartier
Cartier Watches: A Brief History
How Cartier Changed Its Fate

JOACHIM’S 👎 – 26:40
Richard Mille
Michelle Yeoh has a killer watch collection

ERNEST’S 👎 – 30:52
Audemars Piguet
History of the Royal Oak
CODE 11:59: How to Fail at Marketing
AP Surprises Us All With the Newest Marvel Collab

JOACHIM’S 🤡 – 43:10
Hublot

ERNEST’S 🤡 – 46:46
Parmigiani Fleurier Won 2022
OT Podcast: Oris’ Rolf Studer
Oris ProPilot X Kermit
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tadao Ando LE
Understanding the PF Minute Rattrapante

WEEKLY RECS – 55:58
Jenni Elle
Britt Pearce
Dead Simple Sites
Joachim’s new site

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:00:59

Should Products be Political?

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 15:00:00 -0700

This week, we tackle a thorny topic: Should products be political? And to be clear, we don't mean brand messaging. Instead, our focus is products, and whether makers should intentionally imbue their products with their politics.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15
Eno—a groundbreaking generative film by Gary Hustwit
Apple Vision Pros & Cons
Hugo Barra on Apple Vision Pro

SHOULD PRODUCTS BE POLITICAL – 05:34
Herbert Simons–The Sciences of the Artificial
Scenius or Genius?
Ulm School of Design
Bauhaus
Brasilia—Inside Brazil’s ‘cautionary tale’
‘Republicans buy sneakers, too’
The Last Dance
Air Jordan V
Why ‘Do the Right Thing’ Is Still a Great Movie (paywall)
Ursula K. Le Guin—National Book Foundation speech
How Tesla Became the Elon Musk Co.
Yes, Those Viral Patagonia Tags Are Real
SUVs with front ‘blind zones’
Why Constraints Are Good for Innovation
Americans Are Canceling More of Their Streaming Services (paywall)
Sony says independent player status paying off
The Lucas Plan
THE PLAN documentary

WEEKLY RECS – 46:37
NOMOS Club Campus, ref. 715.GB
NOMOS Glashütte and Bauhaus
iFixit
What Is Right To Repair?

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 55:01

Scenius or Genius?

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 22:00:00 -0700

Musician Brian Eno defined a scenius as “the intelligence of a whole operation or group of people,” in contrast to the classic archetype of the lone genius. We debate scenius vs. genius in the context of product—is one more conducive to innovation than the other?

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:42
The Mentats in Dune
McDonald's ordering system suffers McFlurry of tech troubles
How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built
• Bloomberg (paywall)
• Apple News (iOS-only)
How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better
IDEO‘s Three Lenses
Jeff Bezos’ 70% rule (start of page 3)

SCENIUS OR GENIUS? – 15:22
Yanis Varoufakis & Brian Eno
Brian Eno is More Dark Than Shark
The Technium: Scenius
History of Braun Design: Electric Shavers
History of Braun Design: Kitchen Appliances
“Anfangs war ich für Aicher Luft”
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
The Greatest Night in Pop
Double Diamond Framework
The Myth of the Myth of the Lone Genius
No more amateur scientists
The Story Of Miles Davis ‘In A Silent Way’
WL Gore: the company others try and fail to imitate

WEEKLY RECS – 45:40
The Ringer on ‘Halt and Catch Fire’
All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
pandora’s vox: on community in cyberspace, by humbug

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 56:55

Can Restomod Culture Go Mainstream?

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 21:00:00 -0700

This week, we talk restomods. It’s a concept born of the automotive world—extending the life of a classic car by modernizing it—but we discuss the potential to apply this idea to categories beyond cars. With sustainability now a must-have in product creation, we believe the restomod concept is ripe for mainstream adoption.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:24
Behind Apple’s Doomed Car Project
RIP Apple Car. This Is Why It Died.

CAN RESTOMOD CULTURE GO MAINSTREAM? – 08:28
Restomod Culture is Just Getting Started
Charge Cars
Fineeleven
Singer Vehicle Design
Electrogenic Mini Conversion Kit
Totem Automobili
How I Designed the MINI COOPER

RESTOMODS—BEYOND AUTOMOTIVE – 21:39
Desire Path
Twitter features invented by its users
EOE Works
Flop Rock
Pixar Headquarters

APPLICATIONS FOR MAKERS – 35:28
A proven strategy to keep old tractors safely running
Are In-House Watch Movements Overrated?
Vibram: Repair If You Care
Bedrock Re-Soul Program
ThredUp Resale Report
Sashiko
Kintsugi
Recycling Is Beyond Fixing
Rolex’s CPO Program
Dieter Rams: 10 Principles of Good Design

WEEKLY RECS – 57:41
Rhinoshield CrashGuard
Peak Design Mobile Slim Wallet
Brudertoys

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:06:26

CarPlay or the Highway?

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0800

This week, we discuss the tension between integrated in-car UX platforms vs Apple’s CarPlay & Android Auto. When, if ever, does it make sense to give up control of your product experience?

FOLLOW-UPS – 02:21
Tesler’s Law, aka Conservation of Complexity
Theodore Leavitt on Marketing Myopia
@geoffbaron: The difference between PMs & developers
@tr3v: No one was ever inspired by a KPI

CARPLAY OR THE HIGHWAY – 12:20
@kirankripakaran on Threads
Everybody hates GM’s decision to kill Apple CarPlay
We need to talk about digital ownership
BMW re-thinks on-demand services
Car-seat install bricks new Ferrari
Bang & Olufsen designed its new speaker for a long life
Framework modular laptop
Kia Reveals Modular EV Van Lineup
Apple’s next-gen CarPlay
Mini’s new giant circular OLED on the dash
MKBHD: The Kia EV9 is Surprisingly Good!
About those kill-switched Ukrainian tractors

IMPLICATIONS FOR PEOPLE MAKING PRODUCTS – 54:07
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Antifragile
Bezos Wisdom: “Focus on the things that don’t change”

WEEKLY RECS – 01:02:00
Morgan Aeromax
Troubleshooter: Morgan (1990)
Troubleshooter: Morgan (2000)
Perfect Days
How Toilets Got a Starring Role in a Wim Wenders Movie
Komorebi

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:11:13

(Image: Apple)

WTF is a Product Manager?

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0800

This week, we dive into Ernest's career as a product manager/product marketer and discuss what a product manager does, how to sift meaningful insights from the noise, how to enter the field & much more.

FOLLOW-UPS – 02:25
Surprised by the Hot Hand Fallacy?
Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption
I placed too much faith in underpowered studies

WTF IS A PRODUCT MANAGER? – 07:24
Ernest’s blog post on this topic
Why The Hidden Risks Of Specialization Help Explain Crises
How “Jobs to Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER – 12:04

THE PRODUCT BRIEF – 21:34
Give me the freedom of a tight brief

GETTING TO THE WHY – 26:09
Coca-Cola “Polar Bowl”

CHEERLEADING, MOMENTUM, HONESTY & RISK – 33:32
The Greatest Night in Pop

THE DREADED ‘CEO PROJECT’ – 39:43

WHAT PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT – 41:47
Sports Product Management at University of Oregon

HOW TO BECOME A PM – 45:06
Kicksology.net—Don’t Call it a Comeback
Apple Hires Anand Lal Shimpi
Google hires The Verge’s Deiter Bohn
Architecture and design with Dami

ADVICE TO YOUR 16-YEAR-OLD SELF – 53:22
Steve Jobs Secrets of Life

WEEKLY RECS – 55:53
BBC Connections
The Greatest Shot in Television
Steve Jobs, internal “Chalk Talk” for NeXT, 1991
Naim Mu-So 2
Andrew Robinson’s review of the Mu-So 2
NeXT Cube
Steve Jobs intro’s the original iMac

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:07:53

(Image credit: Ernest Kim)

WTF is an Applied Microeconomist?

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0800

This week, we dive into Joachim's career as an applied microeconomist. What does an applied microeconomist do, how is it relevant to product innovation, how do you enter the field, and much more!

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:43
Margaret Heffernan: A Bigger Prize
Ed Catmull on The Hungry Beast and the Ugly Baby

WTF IS AN APPLIED MICROECONOMIST? – 08:44
David Hume: “Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”
Ariel Rubinstein: Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist
Karl Marx: Theses on Feuerbach
Mechanism Design

THE ASSUMPTION OF RATIONAL BEHAVIOR – 16:56
Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction
How “Jobs to Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better

MICRO- VS. MACRO-ECONOMICS – 23:58

APPLIED MICROECONOMICS & PRODUCT INNOVATION – 28:59
Tinker Hatfield, The Georges Pompidou Center & The Air Max 1

TEACHING VS. WORKING IN INDUSTRY – 37:16
The Perils of Crossing Over From Niche to Mainstream

JOACHIM'S PATH TO APPLIED MICROECONOMICS – 42:58
Rage Against the Machine, Che Guevara T-Shirt
Estimation of a Dynamic Auction Game
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed

WHAT PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT ECONOMICS – 47:22
Surprised by the Hot Hand Fallacy?
Uncertainty in the Hot Hand Fallacy
Blaming Analytics for the 49ers Super Bowl Loss
Kevin Slavin: How Algorithms Will Shape Our World

HOW TO BECOME AN APPLIED MICROECONOMIST – 54:48

ADVICE TO YOUR 16-YEAR-OLD SELF – 57:35

WEEKLY RECS – 01:00:45
Tanaka Tatsuya: Miniature & Mitate Artist
Tom Coates: How Threads will integrate with the Fediverse
The fediverse, explained

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:08:48

(Image credit: Guillem Casasus for The Financial Times)

Experimentation in Product Innovation

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0800

In this episode, we challenge tech industry dogma around A/B testing & Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), and propose alternatives better suited to today’s post-low interest rate economy.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:41
Apple Vision Pros & Cons
How to book a Vision Pro demo at an Apple Store
Apple Vision Pro has finally made virtual reality worth it
First insights about Apple Vision Pro optics
Steve Jobs on the Post-PC Era
Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not
Anil Dash on Apple Vision Pro

EXPERIMENTATION IN PRODUCT INNOVATION – 19:43
Building a Culture of Experimentation
The Surprising Power of Online Experiments
Computers suck now. They run on superstition, not science.

CRITIQUE OF THE MVP APPROACH – 25:03
Minimum Viable Product
Cory Doctorow on the enshittification of platforms

PIXAR, BRAINTRUSTS & SAFETY – 33:45
The Marginalian reviews Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc.
Toolbox: How “Jobs to Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better

LIES, DAMN LIES & STATISTICS – 48:24
Science has been in a “replication crisis” for a decade

REAL ARTISTS SHIP – 54:21
Andy Hertzfeld on the origin story behind this Jobs-ism

WEEKLY RECS – 56:52
“Onigiri” Rice Balls: Kings of the Convenience Store
History of Seven & I Holdings
The Greatest Night in Pop
The story behind “One Love” from Nas’ legendary Illmatic album

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 01:07:20

(Image credit: Young Frankenstein / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp)

The Perils of Crossing Over from Niche to Mainstream

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:00:00 -0800

We dig into the perils of crossing over from niche to mainstream. How can a brand built on a niche product or service successfully expand its appeal? Should this even be an aspiration?

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:24
“Low-Resource” Text Classification
78% MNIST accuracy using GZIP in under 10 lines of code
MNIST by zip
Clustering by compression
Kolmogorov complexity
Normalized compression distance
ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web
Last week’s cover art
Apple’s LaserWriter Changed Everything (paywall)
Adobe, Stability AI & Canva are starting to pay artists
On Threads @LearnMakeLearnShow

THE PERILS OF CROSSING OVER – 12:23
American Fiction’s Big Literary Showdown

SCENE FROM AMERICAN FICTION – 14:27

THE CRUX – 16:00
Chris Wilcha Talks Gen X Angst
Hodinkee Cuts a Fifth of Jobs (paywall)
Maciej Ceglowski—Barely succeed! It’s easier!
Pinboard

CROSS-SUBSIDIES – 24:42
The car that saved Porsche (paywall)
Windup Watch Fair
When Movie Stars Become Brands
Adam Curtis Interview

KAIZEN – 29:25
What is Kaizen?
William Gibson interview
Stanley Cup Craze
Nintendo CEO’s refusal to layoff staff goes viral

FOCUS DOESN'T HAVE TO MEAN SMALL – 36:25

WEEKLY RECS – 39:05
On Film Grain Emulation
The “baseline” scene

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 44:50

(Image credit: Clair Folger/Orion Releasing)

When Values & Opportunity Collide

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 01:00:00 -0800

Ernest & Joachim dive into the dilemma faced when a promising business opportunity conflicts with your own or your company's values. The duo offer perspectives on how to navigate this conflict, including tools you can apply to your day-to-day work making products.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15
History of Jobs-to-Be-Done

WHEN VALUES & OPPORTUNITY COLLIDE – 02:15
Follow us on Threads
Apple’s Privacy Pledge Complicates Its AI Push
Google staff criticize leadership over lack of vision
What’s Gone Wrong at Boeing (paywall)
Majority of Gen Zers would quit their jobs over company values

SHOULD COMPANIES EXPRESS VALUES? – 04:52
What Should a Corporation’s Purpose Be?
Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims
“Don’t be evil” isn’t a normal company value.

NO, IT'S ON US TO HOLD & EXPRESS VALUES – 07:36

BUT WHAT IF YOUR & YOUR CO'S VALUES DON'T ALIGN? – 12:13
Stafford Beer
The purpose of a system is what it does

EMBEDDING VALUES THROUGH CORP STRUCTURE – 16:25
Patagonia’s New Ownership Structure
OpenAI’s weird governance structure (paywall)
Is Rolex a Nonprofit?

IMPLICATIONS & TACTICS FOR PEOPLE MAKING PRODUCTS – 20:28
Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See
Train (board game)
Apple best-placed to benefit from AI
Selling Subscriptions

WEEKLY RECS – 31:37
Untrue (album)
American Fiction
‘Watchmen’ Writer Cord Jefferson
Poor Things

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 37:36

(Image generated via Midjourney)

Toolbox: How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0800

Ernest & Joachim share a deep-dive on the jobs to be done approach to customer-centric product & service innovation. They explain what it is & why it matters, share real world examples of jobs-to-be-done in action, and highlight situations where it might not apply.

FOLLOW-UPS – 01:11
Apple Vision Pros & Cons
Disconnect Blog & Newsletter
Tech Won't Save Us: Will AR Glasses Die Like Google Glass?
SNL Weekend Update: Randall Meeks

JOBS TO BE DONE: CONTEXT – 04:53
Steve Jobs on “speeds and feeds” marketing
Theodore Levitt
Samsung Electronics Launches Global Rollout of The Frame TV (2017)
Samsung Frame 4K TV: The Gizmodo Review
It’s hard to believe Samsung’s new, matte The Frame is actually a TV
Samsung Electronics Sold One Million Units of ‘The Frame’ in 2021

JOBS TO BE DONE: DEFINITION – 09:03
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done”
Clayton Christensen: Increasing sales of milkshakes (2013)
Nate Silver: The Signal and the Noise

JOBS TO BE DONE: REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS – 15:39
Coca-Cola “Polar Bowl”
PR/FAQ: the Amazon Working Backwards Framework for Product Innovation

JOBS TO BE DONE: WATCH OUTS & BEST PRACTICES – 26:31

WEEKLY RECS – 30:39
Her Story
The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
Schumpeter: The Prophet of Bust and Boom (paywall)
Cautionary Tales Ep 6 – How Britain Invented, Then Ignored, Blitzkrieg

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 39:07

(Image credit: Samsung)

Apple Vision Pros & Cons

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 01:00:00 -0800

Ernest & Joachim debate Apple Vision Pro: Does it represent “the beginning of a new era for computing,” or will it offer more proof that VR is an answer to a question no one’s asking? E & J then highlight lessons that can be applied to anyone in the business of making products, irrespective of category.

CONTEXT ON SPATIAL COMPUTING – 00:34
WWDC 2023: Apple Vision Pro
Simon Greenwold's paper on Spatial Computing

JOACHIM’S CASE – 03:01
Mentour Pilot: The Untold Story of Air France 447

ERNEST’S CASE – 09:16
Why the Apple Watch is Flopping (2015)
Anticipated 2024 Units Sales for Apple Vision Pro
Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Tech in Human History?
Lessons From the Rise and Quick Decline of the First ‘Killer App’ (paywall)
Apple Continues to Explore Health Capabilities of Vision Pro
We Have Reached Peak Screen (paywall)
Steve Jobs & the ‘Bicycle for the Mind’

KILLER APPS FOR SPATIAL COMPUTING – 23:24
Wolfram Mathematica visualizations for Arrival
William Gibson’s 2020 novel, Agency

ALTS TO FACE COMPUTERS – 28:54
Why The Mandalorian Uses Virtual Sets Over Green Screen
The Rabbit R1 is an AI-powered gadget that can use your apps for you
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses actually make the future look cool
Future Interfaces Group

LESSONS FOR MAKERS – 42:04
Shoe Dog, A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

WEEKLY RECS – 46:48
Freevalve camless engine tech in the Koenigsegg Gemera
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

CLOSING & PREVIEW – 54:04

(Image credits: Left–Apple, Right–Meta)

Hello World

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 23:00:00 -0800

Get to know Ernest & Joachim, hear their hopes and dreams for Learn, Make, Learn, and get their first-ever weekly recommendations!

INTRODUCTIONS
Meet Joachim – 01:00
Meet Ernest – 10:21

PRODUCTS WITH A POINT OF VIEW – 18:51

OUR HOPES FOR LEARN, MAKE, LEARN – 23:53

WEEKLY RECOMMENDATIONS – 26:55
Joachim – Telehack
Ernest – Lavinia

Text of Ursula K Le Guin’s speech in acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Video of Le Guin’s speech, with a wonderful introduction by Neil Gaiman.

CLOSING & PREVIEW OF OUR NEXT EPISODE – 36:21

(Episode artwork image credit: Apple)