I finally did it! 🕺
I started reading The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History back in November and it's been a long and slow plod. It's a dense book that in ~680 pages covers 1,000 years of the Holy Roman Empire covering 4 key areas, Ideal, Belonging, Governance and Society. Not to mention the pages of tables, maps, family trees, tax records and more.
Given the resurgence of nationalism over the last decade, it's well worth a read if you want to under how modern Europe was built and how the very notion of nationalism is antithetical to a strong European state, even while those individual states retain full sovereignty.
I'm now reading John Lewis Gaddis' On Grand Strategy - not sure what to expect but the cover's nice 🤷♂️
I've not talked about it a great deal recently but I'm still plugging away at Inkfolio.
Right now I'm working on a Drupal theme which should go live at around the same time as I'm ready to start hosting the app as an alpha. The aim being to:
- Have a decent landing page that clearly articulates what Inkfolio stands for and why it's worth paying for
- Start to produce content aimed at helping tattoo artists better manage parts of their business
On that note I've recently been looking at B2B brands that do written content really well, I think that might have to be a topic for another post entirely but I particularly enjoyed this article from Baremetrics, particularly when taken as a counterpoint to Profitwell's research into Freemium business models.
I came across Robin Rendle's post on what he calls The Dashboard Problem - that is, how web apps frequently suffer from poor information hierarchy and how users suffer as a result. It's definitely made me reconsider a few things I had planned for Inkfolio.
The Australian bush fires continue to be a worldwide climate emergency, with one woman taking matters into her own hands and raising money for fire relief by sending nudes to people who can prove they donated at least $10 to suggested charities. It's reported she's now raised over $700k, which is damned impressive. Thirsty people will be thirsty, particularly for good causes.
Basecamp recently published their internal communication guidelines, I don't understand why more business don't follow their model, which is all about open, honest and considered communication. Less adhoc meetings where decisions are made off the cuff by a narrow group of people, more carefully considered writing published in an open forum that everyone can access and add to. I'm trying to kick my own bad habits on that front - it's not easy by any means but even writing these posts helps me to more clearly gather my thoughts and consider the things I'm engaging with on a day to day basis.
Die Workwear wrote about menswear in the last decade, the rise of online fashion, both from an ecommerce sense but also looking at online fashion communities.
This past decade will not be remembered for its trends, but rather the new ways in which we engage with clothing. We’ve reached an age where there’s a full kaleidoscope of possibilities in terms of appearance, and the ascendancy of one look doesn’t necessarily displace another. While there are trends, they’re filtered through very dispersed communities. Few things truly dominate.
Wild card, bitches! Yeee-haa! Dominic Cummings, the chief advisor to UK PM BoJo posted a long rant of a job post that's redolent of an Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode.
I've been thinking about changing the format of this post recently, so maybe expect some changes over the coming months.