The Fundamental Elements of Design

The Fundamental Elements of Design from Erica Gorochow is a quick animated rundown of design fundamentals and how they are used to build an iconic brand.

Eric Ries’s Lean Startup – Tech Talk

I just watched a talk by Eric Ries (IMVU founder and investor) that he gave to Stanford ETL. He goes over stuff that’s mostly taken for granted at startups in the valley, these days. (I picked up most of these lessons from working at Facebook and Quora over the past two summers.)

But, I’ve never heard these startup ideas articulated this clearly before. This is an excellent talk.

Think Different

Steve Jobs narrates the first Think different commercial Here’s to the Crazy Ones. It never aired. Richard Dreyfuss did the voiceover for the actual TV spot that aired.

Also, this is my favorite Steve Jobs quote:

Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Really gets the blood pumping, huh?

2011 .Net Magazine Awards

I’m really elated to find myself nominated for this year’s .Net Magazine Awards.

I’m humbled by the way YouTube Instant took off so quickly after I built it and I’m extremely thankful to the hundreds of thousands of good people who tweeted, liked, stumbled and otherwise shared my little hack and helped turn it into a worldwide sensation for a few weeks.

Thanks to the good people at .Net Magazine for putting on this awesome award series to recognize so many of the creative people who work in web design and development. Here are the nomination categories:

#3 Best API Use: YouTube Instant
#12 Brilliant Newcomer Award: Feross Aboukhadijeh

Visit the .Net Awards site to vote & view all the nominees

Social Media

This video is a bit cliche (with it’s “Right Here, Right Now” background music) but it contains some excellent statistics about the size and rapid growth of social media. It’s worth a watch.