You scratch mine, I'll scratch yours

One of the most active blogs in my feed reader is by Louie Mantia. He has an interesting point of view that sometimes differs from mine (mainly politics) but I like what he creates and find it inspiring. In his recent post titled Learn to Code, Don’t Learn to Code he states this:

Both parties can understand the other’s limitations without learning how to do it themselves. And—in my opinion—you can more easily push the limitations without learning it.

I agree with this and it has been my experience as well. I can code html and css, but the developers I work with on a daily basis are far more skilled than I am. On the occasions where I’ve ceded to their wisdom we’ve ended up with a finished product that’s not quite as good as it could be. In contrast, the time when we’ve worked together to arrive at something closer to my design, we’ve ended up with a finished product that is better than what I created originally. When I’ve pushed them to see how close they can get to something I’ve designed, they’ve discovered that they can do more than they thought and then those new techniques have fed my designs and refined them further.

Giving the tyres a kick on the new Craft. I always liked the first version of the app but it got to business focused and I stopped using it. This new version seems more like the original version, and I like the tasks view.

Best Christmas advert so far. Very wholesome. Well done Apple.

I think I’ve got something in my eye…

Found an old backup hard drive at the weekend with my old iTunes library on it. Copied everything to my NAS and I’m slowly adding things to Plex. Revisiting my favourite Delirious? album this morning as a result.

This is fun from the new Overcast update. Surprised about Appstories being in the top 4.

Considering an early upgrade of my AirPods to version 4 with ANC. Using them at work is useful but annoying when people are chatty chatty around you whilst on a call.

Todoist is introducing deadlines to tasks, this has always been a point of friction for me with their due date implementation. When I’m working on something isn’t necessarily when it’s due. It feels like they’re really upping their game lately.

I’ve recently discovered that the artists behind one of my favourite tracks of all time are still making music. They’ve just released a new album which I’m really enjoying.

Woke up to some unexpected snow this morning. Sadly it’s already melting 🫠 ⛄️

A few fun questions

At work we’re doing a team visibility piece to help others in the business get to know us. We’ve been asked to answer some questions and I thought it would be fun to share them here…

Favourite movie: It would be a three way fight between The Usual Suspects, Shawshank Redemption, and The Dark Knight.

Tea or Coffee: Coffee, but not any coffee… my friends would say it has to be “snobby”!

Biggest fear: Wasps! Evil creatures.

What’s your idea of a perfect day? It’d have to be somewhere warm and starts with coffee looking out over a scenic view (mountains or sea), a long breakfast with friends, then an afternoon spent reading, before dinner out with friends.

How would friends describe you? I hope reliable and kind would be in there somewhere!


I’d love to hear some of your answers. If you want to share, please post them on your blog and link to this post.