Oversimplified: Volume 124

Rules for travel, a deep dive on dashboards, and anti-mimetic tactics

Jan 25, 2022

Hey there 👋

I’ve got a lot to share this time around! Partially from skimping on last week’s issue, but mostly from finally cleaning out my Pocket backlog and the 100+ saved articles in there from the last year. Can you hear the sigh of relief? It’s a big one. Enjoy.

Oversimplified is a digest of the best links I stumble upon each week, and any new posts from me. If this is your first issue, welcome! You can subscribe with the big blue button below:

✍️ Quick Rules for Travel

As I mentioned in my annual review, I recently took the plunge and went full “digital nomad” mode. Since then I’ve been bouncing around from place to place, learning a lot about my preferences for travel. These preferences have started to inform a set of rules. This is the current set of them.

✍️ Towards Modern Data Apps

I’m fascinated by everything going on in the data space right now. Benn Stancil’s latest post on the entity layer got me thinking, so I wrote up some expanded thoughts on the topic. Basically, how will your data stack interact with your work apps in the next 5+ years?

📚 Nintendogs: The Non-game That Barked Like a Game

Take a stroll down memory lane with this design breakdown of the hit game: “The first thing that arises whenever someone talks about Nintendogs is the claim that it is not a game. Such a vehement response is indicative of a larger trend in both the designer and gaming community. Unfortunately, it is a trend that has its roots in a fundamental misunderstanding of game design.”

📚 On Dashboards

I went down a big ol’ rabbit hole on dashboards. What should they really do? What makes a good dashboard? What happens to them over time? Lots of questions and few agreed-upon answers. But plenty of good ideas. Here are some notable reads:

📚 On Solitude

I’d love to try and do something like this more often: Go somewhere by yourself with no phone for several hours, or days if you can swing it. Just chill out, think to yourself, and occasionally journal. Sounds good to me.

📚 Career Advice

I’d like to think that if a college student were to reach out to me for advice today, I would give them some tips largely similar to this post. Excellent stuff and applicable for just about anyone no matter where you are in your career.

📚 Anti-Mimetic Tactics for a Counter-Cultural Life

This is a fun thought exercise: What are some things or ways of doing things that most people follow? What would happen if you did the opposite?

🔗 Scan of the Month: Game Boy Compendium

These breakdowns are straight-up fascinating, and even if you aren’t in the mood to dig deep on architectural design decisions, the visuals are awesome.

🔗 Snow in the Sahara

It snowed in the Sahara Desert last week for one of just a handful of times in recent years. These pictures are beautiful and a little bit eerie.

Food for Thought

“An old friend of mine, a journalist, once said that paradise on earth was to work all day alone in anticipation of an evening in interesting company.” — Ian McEwan

Latest mini-experiment: Sharing a picture from my week instead of the usual abstract art and what-not. Anyways, I’m setting up shop in Miami for a little bit!

Until next time

As always, if you're enjoying Oversimplified, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. If anything stood out, whether good or bad, I would love to hear about it. Reply to this email or tweet at me and let’s chat.

Until next time,

Conor