Author: Ola Olusoga
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Clarifying Design Systems
Design systems are misunderstood. When most folks think of design systems things that come to mind include design principles, component library, accessibility specs, color palettes, or a Figma file that contains all the individual components of a product (UI kit). At times, the debate of which comes first ensues, leaving teams stuck in a state…
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Defining Design
There are a lot of words, artifacts, and talks that aim to articulate what design is, and how to practice it. The profuse amount of words, artifacts, and talks created ends up over-boiling the what and how to a point that it becomes a grey to black box for non practitioners. In reality the essence…
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Prioritizing the Important Stuff
Enjoyed watching this. Helps with contextualizing things in your life and the priority you give it. If you spend too much time on shallow, low value things, you end up wasting a lot of time that could be used for the high value, deep, rewarding things. Stephen Covey was the first to use the rock,…
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Haircut in Asia
We’ve been traveling around Southeast Asia for about 2 weeks now (Malaysia, now Thailand). I’m slowly reaching the “need a haircut phase”, but with the lack of people of African descent in Asia, finding a barbershop that can cut ethnic hair is pretty impossible. Before taking off on this trip, grabbed a travel smart outlet…
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Psychology of Human Misjudgement
Charlie Munger—business partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway— outlines why we make terrible decisions in business, investing, and life. Most decisions are derived from your mind (duhhh), so understanding the fallacies we have, and ways others can manipulate you into decisions is key when aiming for rationality. Psychology Tricks outlined in video above 1.…
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Three Things
All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way. – Marcus Aurelius Three things that help with every day life, and decision making in the moment. Think clearly,…
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January Reading List
All Marketers Tell Stories by Seth Godin Seth Godin is an expert level marketer. I’ve enjoyed some of his other works—Linchpin, and Icarus Deception—so plan on reading all his works, because why not? 🙂 The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday This is an all year book. Ryan Holiday breaks stoic principles, and quotes into a…
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Brand vs Identity System vs Logo
Brand is intangible, and more emotions based. It’s the feelings, emotions, and experiences a person encounters with your company. Example: Think of someone you know. That persons brand is the “gut” feeling, emotions, and thoughts you have when thinking of that individual. Identity system is part of the brand. It’s the look/visual/style of the brand.…
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28 Books Read in 2017
I had an ambitious goal of 50 books for 2017 (based on 2016, -10). On reflection the 60 books read in 2016 were definitely based on book length. In 2017, dove into more dense books that required longer that a week or two (guns, germs, and steel clocked in at around 6-7 wks), which led…
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Cool Designs, and Flow
When I first started in design, I had this morning ritual where I’d go to a few sites that posted “daily design inspirations” (a long scroll of different work) to get into “flow”. What is flow? Flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed…