The Dice — 024

Welp, here we are, one day away from go-time. I honestly don't know how anyone is going to get anything done between now and Wednesday. Anxiety is on over time. As a sign of the times, our local grocery store is running a special for 10% off all alcohol on the 5th. We voted weeks ago so the only decision I have left to make is what flavor or brown water to buy. If you have any recommendations please make them in the comments. Good luck y'all, I'll catch you on the flip side.

Until then, cheers! Let's move to this week's roll.

I love it when I get the same great advice—and inspiration—from two completely different sources. That was the case this week with financial advice from Steal Like an Artist author Austin Kleon and retired professional wrestler and actor Dave Bautista who played Drax the Destroyer in several Marvel movies. Yeah, you read that right. On episode nine of the Art of the Possible podcast, Austin shares how he is able to create the life and work that he wants through advice he learned from his father: “Live below your means, drive old cars.” This is the same advice given to Bautista from fellow professional wrestler, the Undertaker: “Live beneath your means.”

There are several interesting insights in Smashing Magazine’s Designing For Gen Z. “[They] have very diverse perspectives and opinions, and they possess a discerning ability to detect disingenuous content. That’s also where mistrust towards AI comes into play, along with AI fatigue. As Nilay Patel mentioned on Ezra Klein Show, today when somebody says that something is “AI-generated”, usually it’s not a praise, but rather a testament how poor and untrustworthy it actually is.” Another insight worth noting: “Mobile-only, not mobile first.” Gen Z “will use almost exclusively mobile devices to access your products and services.” Interesting, I think to myself, as I write this using an Apple Studio Display with Nano-texture glass.

Design for your audience is important, but it’s vital that you speak their language. So you’re not in the dark, here are the top ten most searched slang terms in 2024. 

Jason Koebler’s The Billionaire Is the Threat, Not the Solution is your must-read article for the week. Jason, a former journalist for the Washington Post tears into Jeff Bezos’s decision to stop the newspaper from endorsing Kamala Harris. “The current owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men and the current ‘Adult in the Room’ recently made what he described as a brave and shrewd business decision to win back reader trust. This calculated business decision has, famously, made 10 percent of the Washington Post’s annual revenue evaporate overnight and has led 250,000 people and counting to trust The Washington Post so much that they canceled their subscriptions.” Not that it matters, as Jason points out further in his article. Bezos has so much money that he can keep the Post running forever without a cent of revenue. The more difficult problem will be finding good newspaper-loving people who are willing to work there.

I’d love to see more distruption in this industry. I know it’s not easy, but when you read Jason’s passion for the news in his article and Molly White’s look at the reality of being an indepedent journalist and publisher, it seems very rewarding.

I think by now we’ve all seen the footage of the weather forecaster reporting on the storm surge of a hurricane. While this method of storytelling does a great job of conveying the incredible and fascinating dangers of these storms, nothing beats the real thing. You have to watch this video of Hurricane Ian washing away Ft. Meyers Beach, Florida in 2022. “The video begins just before 10am and ends at 7:40pm on September 28, 2022. The camera probe is placed 15 feet up on a concrete pole at Estero Blvd and Ave C, facing northwest.” Watching the water roll over the camera at the 4:15 mark is incredibly terrifying and puts these events into greater perspective. I’m in awe and very thankful I don’t live near the path of hurricanes.

Though I don’t have the data to prove it, I know that a good portion of subscribers are Swifties. Even if you’re not, I bet all of you will appreciate the design and details in Delayed Gratification’s “minute-by-minute breakdown of the first Wembley show by Taylor Swift in June 2024.” The infographic charts the epic 40-song, three-and-a-half-hour show complete with wardrobe changes and audience reactions that included an audience-generated .08 magnitude earthquake. You can find this lovely chart in issue #55 on sale now.

Delayed Gratifications is one of my favorite publications and I highly recommend subscribing.

A staggering statement from the Monocle Design newsletter this week, “Sixty percent of buildings that will exist by 2050 haven’t been built yet.” That seems insane, but by that time roughly 70% of the global population will live in urban areas, a significant increase from 55% in 2018. “By 2030, the world is projected to have 43 megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants, most of them in developing regions.” Oxford Economics predicts that global construction will grow to $14T by the year 2037, driven by development in China, India, and the US while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia will see the most growth.

Maybe it's time to do something new. I'll just have to learn Mandarin.

Published in Tacoma, Washington while listening to Underworld's new album Strawberry Hotel.