Somebody definitely put this week on fast forward. Jeez. One of the most scattered weeks I’ve had in a while. It’s one big blur. My well-timed return to Twitter for all the hot-takes on The Raid and The Gmail Redesign was a reminder of how Twitter can still be fun sometimes. I had a bunch of life and work things going on this week that made my downtime/doomscrolling time pretty sparse, but there were some gems.
💍 Speaking of gems…
Indian Matchmaking is back for season 2! I’m only 2 episodes in, but it’s definitely on the binge list for this weekend. This show is fascinating. After the first season, I found myself pondering if I should consider the whole matchmaker route, but unless it’s culturally engrained, I think it’s likely to be a very different experience. It’s sparked some really interesting conversations with folks at work, especially those who’ve gone through the matchmaking process. I got to to hear the real-time play-by-play from someone going through it and it’s truly amazing how much easier it all seems. Since the first season aired last summer, this person met their now-husband, got engaged, and married. And that includes at least 2 covid delays. And they seem really happy. I don’t love the whole pressure of “omg you’re over 30 you should be married by now!” but when someone is ready, it seems like a really efficient way to make it happen. Maybe we’re doing something wrong? Would you do it?
🟦 The Gmail redesign…
As someone who works on a B2B SaaS product, specifically as someone who’s focused on the UX of that product, I just have to say: my sympathies to the Gmail redesign team. I’ve seen my fair share of organizational dysfunction, siloed processes, and deadline pressures, and holy hell, if that poor UI doesn’t scream “shipped the org chart,” I don’t know what does. I can’t imagine the shortcuts and compromises that team had to make to get this thing out into the world in this state and what organizational pressures were on them to make this an OK thing to ship. And then to think of how many months (years?!) people were working on this to be met with such harsh (yet valid, IMO) criticism sucks so much. On the flip side, it’s kind of comforting and somehow validating that a company the size of Google doesn’t have its act together to catch this sort of chaos, because getting these sorts of redesigns right is hard.
The downside is that because Google did it, now everyone’s going to attempt to copy, and we’re probably about to see a whole wave of companies embrace "dissonant monotone” as design inspiration. Yay.
✨ Rapid-Fire…
I nearly impulse-bought an RV today. My coach says I need to find a new puzzle to work on because my brain is craving something new and shiny and challenging. I guess I proved her point. It was very shiny. How cool would it be to drive around the country working from wherever? Then I remember I actually don’t really like driving, so unless the RV could apparate to wherever I want to go, I don’t know if this is the right shiny. If you have any ideas for good puzzles though, please send them my way and save me from getting an RV.
If you haven’t found the YouTube channel Ghost Town Living, it’s a good’un. At the start of the pandemic, this guy moved to this ghost town that he bought and has lived there by himself ever since. These days he has a lot more guests coming in, but those early days videos are great. I started watching it within the first video or two (YouTube must know I want my own town some day and recommended it) and I’ve been hooked ever since. Not to mention he’s expanded his town’s residents to include alpacas!
Roadtrip shopping has begun, despite not having an itinerary or even dates figured out yet. I’m poking around Hipcamp to see if maybe I can find an alpaca farm/sanctuary along the route. If you have suggestions for where to visit, eat, sleep, see, or photograph anywhere between NJ and Georgia, I could use some inspiration. And no… this isn’t an excuse to get the RV. Or is it?
🤣 Reels I sent and received…
Famous Moms party (the end. so good.)
Comedian steps in it, calling out a deaf person (fair warning: honestly I’m still not sure where this one lands on the scale of offensive - I think she handled it well? I died when I saw it the first time. And then watched it about 10 more times.)
Until next Friday,
Jenn
P.S. don’t forget you can just reply to this email and it’ll come straight to me. I’d love to hear what caught your attention this week!