Notes on 'Liftoff' by Eric Berger

June 29, 2023 by Gary Schroeder in Book Review, Technology

Elon Musk “long ago decided that for humanity to have a future, it must expand to other worlds”…a premise which is kind of nuts if one thinks about it for more than a few seconds but there seems to be no doubt that Musk believes it. This belief was his prime motivation for founding a company that could build the hardware to make that wild dream a reality. “Liftoff” is the story of the first few years of his effort to build the company we now know as SpaceX.

We're Children All Our Lives

May 22, 2023 by Gary Schroeder in Misc.

Author Martin Amis died this week and I saw a post by @juderogers recounting some of his views from later in life. This section really resonated with me.

The Fukuda Cube

October 30, 2022 by Gary Schroeder in Art & Design

Fukuda was expert at communicating messages using minimal graphic means. His spare style was universal, his symbolism bridging cultural divides.

What is Real?

June 07, 2022 by Gary Schroeder in Misc., Book Review

In quantum physics, what does it mean for a particle to exist in multiple places at once until you "look" at it? Forgetting the math, what's physically happening? The book does a good job of guiding the reader through the history of those rebels who have questioned the Copenhagen Interpretation and put forth some possible explanations for what's physically happening in the Forbidden Question Zone.

A Trip to the Glass House

May 16, 2022 by Gary Schroeder in Misc.

It’s a beautiful object from the outside; a glass box with a rectangular footprint held together by what seem to be impossibly thin ribbons of black metal. From the outside, you can see a brick silo and a few pieces of furniture. it’s pleasurable to look at. From a distance, I couldn’t wait to get inside, to experience what it was like to be inside.

Carousels are Bad. It's Conclusive.

May 01, 2022 by Gary Schroeder in Content Strategy, User Experience

Carousels are one of the first things that customers ask for on a home page. I resist but often lose the battle. Maybe, just maybe, if I had this kind of cogent, data-driven rebuttal in my arsenal of professional guidance, I might be more successful in prevailing. In the end, the customer would be the winner, not me. This article, lifted from Joni Halibi’s blog, explains the issue.

For the Love of Goodness, Don't Click Here

April 21, 2022 by Gary Schroeder in Misc.

This is a lazy post, but there’s nothing wrong with capturing someone else’s Good Thoughts when you see them. Emily Smith recently posted this concise thread about why you shouldn’t use “click here” as link text. I’ve written about this before as it’s one of my favorite pet peeves, but Emily sums it up even more directly, so here we go…

How an Infographic Comes Together

December 10, 2021 by Gary Schroeder in Misc., Art & Design

I’ve started to build up a significant portfolio of published infographics and I thought this is a good point at which to document how I work. Like any finished project, each graphic looks relatively simple, but the birthing process of any work of this kind is longer than you might think.

There are rules

November 10, 2021 by Gary Schroeder in Misc.

Graphic design has rules. And they work.

The Success of GOV.UK

September 13, 2021 by Gary Schroeder in Information Architecture, Content Strategy

Take a few minutes to peruse GOV.UK. Where the design consistency of most large bureaucratic websites falls apart within a couple of clicks from the homepage, GOV.UK remains remarkably consistent.