http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ Practicalist is a blog by Ben Clemens. Its interest in ideas is to treat them as though they are people, with complex emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs. It follows Richard Rorty in avoiding the attempt "to unite 'beauty and justice' in some kind of seamlessly perceived whole ... the consequence of such an attempt is to harden political aspirations into rigid ideologies and to distort reality by ... aestheticizing it." The logo is a stylized number '7' from the 700 year-old Indian Gujarati alphabet, because most people can easily hold about seven things in their mind at once. Separately it's also a beautiful shape. en-us ben.clemens@yahoo.com 2009-04-21T09:38:25-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000519.html Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook have seemingly converged on what has become the major reason to be connected to others on a social network: sharing short updates, links, photos, etc. A concept for mozilla's Firefox also looks similar, and lifts ideas... 519@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ social design 2009-04-21T09:38:25-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000518.html Douglas Bowman had to quit Google, and Valleywag explains it all for you (to hell with Owen!). I had a similar experience at Yahoo, so I'm only surprised Douglas lasted this long. The comments on Valleywag are really sad though;... 518@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ beauty 2009-03-21T20:17:25-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000517.html Our house gets calls at least once a week on behalf of several different charities, each with familiar-sounding names:Breast Cancer SocietyCancer Fund of AmericaChildren's Cancer Fund Of AmericaChildren's Charitable FoundationDetectives Benevolent AssociationDisabled Veterans ServicesFirefighters Assistance FundFoundation For American VeteransLaw Enforcement... 517@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ motives 2009-03-15T18:20:16-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000515.html Google has created a slew of innovative products, born from original thinking and supporting experimentation and new ideas, and Marissa Mayer has been a large part of the company's success. Google's success was not built on design however; it was... 515@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ humility 2009-03-01T19:47:58-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000514.html It seems like there is a fairly straightforward deal possible to save the business of putting out newspapers (the news is fine, doesn't need to change!). Make it a much cheaper version of the cable business, where subscribers buy into... 514@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ hypotheses 2009-02-26T11:52:00-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000513.html Walter Kirn's review of David Denby's book Snark is pretty fun reading: He wants to correct and restrain, using scholarship and logic, perhaps the keenest, most reflexive, prehistoric and anarchic of simple human pleasures, short of eating or achieving orgasm.... 513@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ hypotheses 2009-02-22T11:24:49-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000512.html A schooI's technology plan I read is mostly about computers for students and teachers, other equipment, and goals for integrating equipment use into the classrooms and professional development plans, without describing what students would do with the computers. Some feedback... 512@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ technology 2009-02-18T23:45:32-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000511.html Recently I've found myself having very unpleasant conversations with people about work. Often, both of us are in a bad situation, and there is no easy way to make the project better, only 'least bad' answers. It's a negative... 511@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ humility 2009-02-18T20:19:21-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000510.html I liked this post from Caterina Fake so much that I made myself a small leaflet version with these and other singletasking axioms to post by my desk (download PDF). I am kicking the interrupt-driven lifestyle!... 510@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ humility 2009-02-11T16:57:51-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000509.html Newspapers and magazines are losing money very quickly. News content remains very popular, but most of it is available for free. News aggregator sites serve newspaper content to large audiences for free, and Craigslist has killed the major source of... 509@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ media 2009-02-10T13:20:08-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000508.html The feet of one of three Palestinian siblings from the Al-samoni family, killed by an Israeli tank shell, are seen in the mortuary of Al-Shifa hospital, on January 5, 2009 in Gaza City. Seven members from the Al-samoni family... 508@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ humility 2009-01-25T00:00:20-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000507.html 507@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ beauty 2009-01-21T14:00:59-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000506.html Reading about the epic battle against Google that Microsoft, TimeWarner, and Yahoo continue to lose, I have to wonder if it's really such a world-beating thing to own search. Right now it is, since the search box is the interface... 506@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ technology 2009-01-20T00:28:56-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000505.html I follow a blog called "The Online Photographer" by Mike Johnston, an experienced photographer and writer who was the editor of Photo Techniques magazine for about ten years. It's a good blog, and he knows what he's talking about. I... 505@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ humility 2009-01-12T22:54:35-08:00 http://www.practicalist.com/mt/archives/000504.html I've been taking pictures for a long time (far too long to have learned as little as I have!). When I was a teenager, I developed and printed black and white film, at the Salt Lake Art Center (now... 504@http://www.practicalist.com/mt/ beauty 2009-01-12T01:26:34-08:00