🫙 Fluffy Advice

Hello friends!

Have you read a LinkedIn post and felt like the person posting it actually knows what they're talking about? You know the ones - the ones that promise to change your life with a few simple tips but end up leaving you feeling more confused than ever. Why do people post them?

Honestly, I think it's easy. It's easy to come up with a catchy title and a few vague tips that sound good but don't really mean anything. I keep thinking that they are just “pretend” experts without the expertise. And it's easy to get clicks and followers when you're promising big results without any real effort.

I guess you could argue that they're better than nothing. If someone is feeling lost or stuck and they stumble upon a fluffy post that makes them feel a little bit better, I guess that's something. And maybe for some people, the fluffy post is just the nudge they need to start taking action and making real changes in their life.

Personally, I think these posts just add up to the information noise. There are more useless posts and trying to find the few useful ones in the sea of white noise is getting harder and harder. Though I am open to the idea that they bring real value to some people (not yet convinced though =)

If you're serious about making real changes in your life, skip the fluff and focus on finding real, actionable advice from people who actually know what they're talking about.

🏴‍☠️ My content

🎙️ New podcast episode

Mistakes We Make, Knowing Yourself, and Ageism with Paul Bryant.

Paul is a senior UX Designer @ Amazon. We talk about:

• His career journey;
• Work culture differences between USA and Europe;
• Teaching empathy;
• Behavioural psychology;
• AI and learning new tools;
• Ageism;
• Understanding your natural talents;

and much more. Enjoy 👍

Listen/watch here: Youtube, Apple, Spotify.

📚 UX Design Resources

Finally, finished moving over my list of resources on UX Design topics (books, newsletters, podcasts, videos, etc.)

🔗 5 Cool Links

• Deep brain stimulation at work. I am fascinated by such examples of how technology can improve lives. We need more of this. If you are interested in the scientific version of this, here is an article on Deep Brain Stimulation from Johns Hopkins.

@etsuvolneed this to hit #viral again! big things are coming! #fupd #TopGunMode #fyp

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• A comprehensive list of customer research questions from Maze. Very thorough and structured. Many of them even have tips on how to use them better. If I were you, I’d copy this list to your personal board, so you don’t lose it. Somehow, I have this very mild fear that whatever I find on Notion can disappear any day =)
• We hear what we want to hear. Another brain trickery example is when it works almost like a confirmation bias, which will sway your brain to decode the sound as the phrase you’ve primed your brain to hear. Reminds me of visual illusions that eyes can be tricked into seeing. An audio expert goes deeper into the sound waves analysis.

• Amsterdam mapped and categorized all trees in the city. Impressive focus on the trees, and I like this kind of mapping initiative. On the other hand, I’d be curious to see how much the cost was, and if there was a more important and impactful initiative to spend that effort on 🤔 It’s all about prioritization.
• Social Credit System in China. A very frightening dystopian future is almost here. Even though I can understand why a government would want a such system and even possibly good intentions, I am certain it has a very dangerous potential. If you combine it with the political regime in China, well… Now, the question is - when will a similar system get implemented in the West 😬

That’s all for the updates this week. Reply if you have any questions or comments.

Till next time! 🤙

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