Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Complications
when I started here my wife gave me a white gold chronograph from her jewelry store in the mall like all successful salesmen here wear it weighed my left hand down, silver and crystal reflections constantly tugging at my attentions I left it for this softer, flatter one, yes, yes weeks ago the batteries stopped …
Ongoing List of Underused German Words
Verschlimmbesserung: An improvement that makes something worse. Doch: An expression for indicating an outcome occurred that was counter to the supplied evidence. Loosely translates to, “and yet” or “although I thought otherwise.” Even more delightfully – it can be and is used sarcastically.
My All Time Favorite Phones
Motorola X Style Pure Edition Nokia E72 Handspring Treo 600
Missing Connections
sipping rosé beneath my rudderless patio umbrella the recently divorced mother of two is so fucking livid by carpools, elevators, and skinny jeans packed with stage actors longing to buy her rosé.
What Can You Achieve in 30, 60, & 90 Minutes?
When I ask my clients where they found the biggest benefit in my How to Use a Calendar program, they often reply: “Scheduling for 30, 60, or 90 minutes.” It’s tempting to block off a massive chunk of time for a big project. Whether that massive chunk of time is a an afternoon, a day, …
Continue reading “What Can You Achieve in 30, 60, & 90 Minutes?”
You’re Not Going to Need It
Neal Conan: “You had solar panels (on your sailboat) for electricity.” Matt Rutherford: “I did, but they broke.” Neal: “They broke?” Matt: “One by one.” Neal: “I think you had a Kindle for reading books.” Matt: “I did. It broke in a storm.” I like Matt’s story for all that it tells as about our …
Red Flags? What Red Flags?
This was going to be a crappy project. The red flags were there from the very beginning. The first: when my my buyer said, as I was about to sign the contract, “Today is my last day.” I should have set the pen down right there, replied with a ‘Thank you for letting me know’ …
Correction Canary
About fifteen years ago now, I was reorganizing how search results are displayed in a popular travel site (one you’ve probably used). The goal of the project was to to increase readability and scannability. To do this, I needed to move a few bits of information around. In my rush to prepare the prototype for …
Switching Costs
In CBS’s world adventure race program ‘The Amazing Race’ there’s a game element called the ‘Detour’. The ‘Detour’ is a team activity requiring completion before continuing on the race itself. Each ‘Detour’ includes two activities – each team needs to select one from an opaque two- or three-word description of each. The goal is to …