The Garden
Books, articles, papers, courses, videos, podcasts, and reports I have read, watched or listened to, with a note on each saying why I kept it.
3 items Videos
Video
Rory Sutherland
Sutherland is one of the writers who shaped how I write. In this talk, he shows how changing the way people see a product adds as much value as improving it. For instance, Frederick the Great got Prussians to eat potatoes by making them a royal crop and guarding the field badly enough for people to steal them.
Video
Gary Hustwit
A whole film about one typeface sounds like a stretch, and it kept me watching to the end. Designers disagree about whether Helvetica’s neutrality is its strength or the reason so much of the world looks the same. As someone who designs, I loved hearing them argue. You’ll start spotting it everywhere after.
Video
Johnny Harris for Vox
I’m planning a piece on the history of world maps, and this is the video I’d show anyone first. Johnny Harris cuts open a plastic globe to show why every flat map has to stretch something. Mercator makes Greenland look as big as Africa, and Africa is about 14 times larger.