Howard's Riffs
Tight But Polite
There are two people on a nightclub door and neither is on your side. Which is why the guy on the gate in Brooklyn threw me completely.
📝 Writing
This is where most of the writing lives. 650+ posts since 2016 - some about learning and creative work, some about whatever I couldn't let go of that week. A restaurant that changed fine dining, a Nintendo executive who saved the company, a Gmail interface for leaked documents...
Learning Innovation
The Fortune Cookie Test
If your feedback would fit anyone, it's a fortune cookie. Six rules from a few weeks inside the research on feedback.
Creative Business
When everyone hates your best work
The people who made Walk This Way thought it was rubbish. Somebody had to be certain anyway - and outside music, that job has no name.
Groove Theory
Groove Theory #32 - The Hum They Took Out
She played every character on Argentina's Friday night comedy show. Then she left to make a record, and a very good producer took the strangest thing out of it.
Mindsets & Growth
Why Me?
When someone introduces me to a new contact, I ask them why they thought of me. The answers are rarely what I'd have guessed.
Learning Innovation
Cereal Is a Soup
A professor told me her students weren't checking whether their evidence held up. So we turned a librarian's checklist into a game, and gave it a research intern who can't tell gold from junk.
AI
120 Questions With Correct Answers
Mexico's most prestigious university has cancelled around 3,000 entrance exams over suspected AI cheating. Everyone's arguing about the detection. I'd look at the exam.
Creative Business
Utah to Vegas, via Norway
How one of the world's biggest bands got their first international gig: a tourist, a CD, and a festival in Norway.
Creative Business
Thirty Years of Hating Television
David Chase spent almost thirty years in network television wanting to be somewhere else. Then, at 53, he made The Sopranos.
Groove Theory
Groove Theory #31 - Joker Poker
Five million copies. Nominated for Game of the Year. Built by refusing to look at anyone else.
Learning Innovation
Just in Time Experience Design
The seven months weren't wasted. Leaving it seven months before showing anyone was.
Learning Innovation
The Game
You can't tell people to pretend something is real. Something in the design has to make them forget to ask.
Groove Theory
Groove Theory #30: Barrilete Cósmico
The World Cup is full of composed commentary. The moments we remember are when someone forgets to be.
Creative Business
Forget Quiet Quitting. We're Now in the Era of Quiet Compromising
Nobody planned their current setup. Most people have quietly made peace with it anyway.
Learning Innovation
Who explains the thing?
Companies have never had more to explain, and there's no job title for the person who does it.
Groove Theory
Groove Theory #29: Minimum Viable Bedroom
How a 1940s design principle explains a 6 square metre hotel room in Copenhagen
Howard's Riffs
The Feral Hope
The Knicks just ended 53 years of hurt. England's at 60 and counting. Two fanbases, same affliction.
Howard's Riffs
1,500 greatest song intros
An algorithm can tell you what's popular. It can't tell you what's great.