Issue 95
Bizarro Devs collects the best tools, articles, and resources from around the web to help and entertain you.
🤑 HOW TO NEGOTIATE BETTER DEALS FOR YOURSELF, GET BETTER AT DESIGN WITH BATMAN, & BEST GADGETS.
Heya,
In the final newsletter of the year, I have collected some tech gems for you to check out. I did limit my collection to just three best ofs to more easily fit in a reference to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Although this could describe just the best memes of the 2010s.
I also found a great looking site that extolls the virtues of the three supertrees that help prevent climate catastrophe. If that's a little too sober, then the delivery of weed to the space station should provide you with some relief. I also have some more useful productivity stuff, great tips for people who need help with design, and a fun game.
Enjoy,
Chris.
🕸️ The Cool Side of the Web
The good and the bad gadgets of the decade. 💯
Too continue the lighthearted approach, we have the best memes of the 2010s.
The New York Times also had a, more serious, roundup with the decline technoptimism. Unless you're a founder of a Ponzi scheme called WeWork in which case the system works.
theverge.com
How to pull up trees in a good way. Great presentation about the three trees that prevent total climate collapse.
In other cool ways to remind us that trouble is brewing, these artworks were manipulated to reflect a world ravaged by climate change.
vox.com
David Lynch makes Twin Peaks into a VR game. 🌲
If you're interested, the official trailer is here.
itsnicethat.com
⚒️ Tools and Resources
This is a good case study for anyone looking to get better at design. 🖍️
It's one of the better articles I have read for people without a design organ. It doesn't promise to make you a great designer, but you can learn enough to prevent people from eye puking.
I'd also add this article a11y and design which runs through some of the considerations when designing for accessibility. It also slays a couople of myths about accessibility in the process.
Finally, you can put your new skills to the test and throw some ideas into this project to design a better suit for Batman. Or, just check out the infographic which is brilliant.
swiftjectivec.com
Falco is an Open Source WebPageTest runner that can be deployed to Heoku.
getfal.co
Mental models for designers. 🧠
Mental models are enjoying a period of celebration at the moment; if you have the time to dive deeply into various fields then you can really give your thinking a tremendous boost.
On the other hand, if you're temporally constrained then articles like this one from Dropbox are a great way to dip your toe in and start adding layers to your thinking. The article covers some of the well-known models for problem-solving, like first principles; inversion; abstraction laddering as well as decision-making models, and communication models. Bookmark it twice.
dropbox.design
Cocoon is a social media network for actual friends and family.
It is designed to eventually move to a subscription model, but this private social network is free at the moment. It should keep those madmen out of your news feed, your data, and your life. It is also designed to keep strangers at bay, so no more weird PMs and friend requests.
cocoon.com
🌩️ Eat lightning - Productivity
How to make your workplace a learning place. 📖
Fair warning, you will need to sign up to read the full article which I consider a fair price to pay. The article itself breaks down incremental and transformative learning and how to make space for both of them in your schedule.
mit.edu
You might not break a sweat doing small tasks, but you're not breaking any records either. 🏅
This article looks at recent research that proves avoiding the big tasks is a big part of the missing out equation. Kind of like the dude on the Titanic who saw an iceberg figured it was hard to avoid, and things will be fine anyway, right?
Small tasks are a great to get a dopamine hit but they don't push you to learn anything new or improve your skills. It's better to tackle hard subjects by taking a micro approach. That is, break up each big task into smaller units, get the dopamine, get the skills boost, take all the rewards.
There's a good article for building an alternative to a To Do list which can help you break down the big stuffs into smaller stuffs.
northwestern.edu
How I negotiated a $300,000 job offer in Silicon Valley. 🏦
The title is clickbaity, sure, but the tips are good if you're in a position to pit unicorns against each other. Even if you're not hunting unicorns, the tips are useful for negotiating a higher package. I don't hve a very good poker face, so the tip to handle these things via the phone was golden.
usejournal.com
👩🚀 Space
This is Major Tom to Ground Control, do you know where I can score? SpaceX to deliver weed to the space station.
It's not quite as cool as it sounds since SpaceX is only delivering hemp which, while smelling the goods, only brings the beautiful high of a pounding headache and sore throat. So I've heard.
Maybe all the THC is being used at the observatory where scientists are seeing lots of blinking lights and ALIENS! Maybe..
futurism.com
🎮 Fun & Games
It is centered? 🎯
This one is probably more fun for designers, or less fun I guess since it would be too easy. All you have to do is determine whether the dot on the animal's belly is centered or not. My high score is too embarrassing to mention here. But it was a little bit of simple fun while it lasted.
supremo.co.uk
Outro
That's it for the year, thanks for joining me. I will be back on the 7th January.
If you have any cool links to share, then reply to this email. Alternatively, you can reach me on Twitter.
Sharing, shoutouts, mentions are all a currency I dabble in.
First-time reader? Become a long term subscriber over here.
Have a great break,
Chris