Weekly Data Points, 05-2021
I’ll be honest: This week was tough. It started harmless enough, but on Wednesday I suddenly lost my hearing. Gone. Just like that. As you can imagine, this wasn’t the most pleasant experience. I spend the following days at the doctors office and in bed, hoping that my hearing would get better. And it did - right now only my right ear is still somewhat impacted. And I hope that this will resolve itself with time, too.
I’m not sure what caused this. Maybe the stress of the pandemic finally caught up to me. I don’t know. But this surely feels like a warning shot and I’ll need some time to reflect and adjust, so that something like this doesn’t happen again.
The only good thing about this was that I had some time to check out the Steam Games Festival - a virtual showcase event where you can try out free demos of upcoming video games. I played a bunch of them: Slipways, Potion Craft, Dorfromantik, Rougebook, Sands of Aura. Yeah, I tried really hard to keep my mind from wondering why I didn’t hear properly.
The standout, though, was Loop Hero. I’ll buy it the moment it releases. It’s just such a clever mix of card mechanics, city building, RPG elements… basically all the genres I adore meshed into one. I also really dig its gloomy pixel art.
Give it a try - I promise you won’t regret it.
- Played: Destiny 2
- Played: Lots of Steam Demos (see above)
- Read: Foundryside
- Read: Demon Slayer
- Watched: Wanda Vision
- Watched: The Expanse (S5)
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Do you sometimes feel like you have been tapped in a labyrinth? Revisiting the same rooms every day, looking out of the same windows, meeting the same person again and again? Well, if this sounds like the lockdown we are experiencing at the moment, let me tell you: This is nothing compared to the labyrinth Piranesi – the main character in Susanna Clarke’s book of the same name – has to endure.
As he wanders through an endless row of rooms in a museum-like house (simply called The House) for years he only ever meets one other person (appropriately named The Other). And The House is not the ideal place to shelter: Filled with an uncountable amount of statues, a dangerous ocean that sweeps through the rooms periodically, and its own weather system, it echos the real world – be it in a somewhat abstracted way. No Netflix, video-games or Zoom calls here.
One day, though, The Other warns Piranesi of the arrival of another human, who will bring danger and chaos to The House. This is were the story really kicks into high gear…
I was intrigued by the premise, not only because it resembles our current situation so much. The trope of being trapped in a magical house / location and needing to find a way out has always been fascinating to me. And in that sense I really enjoyed following Piranesi, as he learns more about the labyrinth, about himself and as he discovers the truth about The Other and the new arrival.
Throughout the book there is, however, an underlying thread of anti-progress / anti-innovation – of loosing touch with „the world“ thanks to technology blinding us to its wonders. I won’t go too much into detail here as it would spoil the mystery, but suffice it to say that I do not agree with that premise. As much as the book resembles our current situation, and as much I enjoyed seeing Piranesi figure our the truth behind the labyrinth, this is were it fails for me: There is no clearer sign than the incredible breakthroughs that we are witnessing right now in the fight against the pandemic, that innovation and technology are indeed humanities biggest strength, not blinding weaknesses.
Weekly Data Points, 04-2021
It’s been a while since we had real, proper, build-a-snowman snow here in Berlin. But this week, we got it. A joy for the kids, obviously, but a great joy for me as well: Escaping the city into a winter wonderland, playing with the kids, sleigh ridding…
Apart from that I’m also getting ready for some changes. In March I will pause my freelance work for some months in oder to team up and work on a little project together with a friend. I’m quite excited to tell you more about it, but right now it’s still a little early.
- Played: Destiny 2
- Played: Penko Park
- Read: Piranesi
- Read: Foundryside
- Watched: The Expanse (S5)
Thinking about next-gen
The next generation of consoles is mere days away. The PS5 will release on on November 12th in Japan and the US, and will arrive on November 19th here in Europe. The XBox Series X & S are even earlier with their worldwide release on November 10th.
This feels so unreal.
Looking back at previous console releases and the excitement surrounding them, this year feels distinctly muted. There are certainly many factors contributing to this, but if I had to guess the top three reasons, it would be that we had…
- no proper singular event like E3 to focus all the hype
- reveals that seemingly lasted forever
- a public that certainly had other things on their mind (2020 is a lot, as you might have noticed)
But regardless, I think this coming console generation is going to be quite fascinating. There are two reasons for that: Strategic differences in how the two big players approach their consoles, and the introduction of new technology that has the potential to allow for truly new experiences and not only prettier version of the ones we already had.
First, the strategies of Sony and Microsoft couldn’t be more different. Sony is sticking with their approach that allowed them to “win” the last cycle: A machine that is build around gaming, and nothing else. Machine – singular – is key here, as there are indeed two version of the PS5, but their only difference is the addition or, respectively, the removal of a disc drive. All other internals are the same between the two versions. Having one technical target will allow Sony’s studios to continue to output the highest quality “cinematic” and visually impressive games you can find on the console market. Look no further than “Horizon Forbidden West” for an early example.
This is what made Sony great last-gen, and it’s how they aim to win this generation, too.
Microsoft on the other hand has their focus not on what worked in the past, but on what they see as the future: Game Pass, a Netflix style subscription that lets you access hundreds of games for a monthly fee. “Access” is core to their strategy, as they offer it not only for the new XBox consoles, but also for their last-gen versions, for PC, and even for mobile phones via cloud streaming, too. It’s about serving the most customers – wherever they are: New consoles are just one entry point of many.
For games, though, that means compromises as they need to be build in such a scalable way that they can adjust to many different GPU, CPU and memory demands (to be fair, this is already the case for many cross-platform and cross-generation games from third parties like Ubisoft, EA and Co. But whereas Sony’s studios will have the luxury of focusing only on one configuration, Microsoft’s own studios will always be forced to make these compromises going forward).
Where these compromises will hurt, in my opinion, is the technology that has the potential to truly make this upcoming generation special: Super fast SSDs. Providing expansive worlds with no literally no loading times, switching art-styles and assets on the fly, switching whole games on the fly… will be the killer app of this generation. The convince it brings and the potential it has for new game play ideas is what truly stands out to me as “next-gen” (and yes, ray-tracing is nice and all, but in the end it is just another visual effect).
Again, Sony provides an early impression of how that could affect game-play and look like in the “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart” trailer.
Did you notice how they load in completely different assets as the duo jumps between dimensions? With little to no load time? Jap, this feels like next-gen.
So yes, even though the lead up to this launch feels so different then in previous years, I’m still excited. Excited to see who’s strategy wins in the end, what new ideas we will see as a result of the new tech and what worlds I can escape to, if 2020 decides to last forever.
Weekly Data Points, 37-2020
As an avid „remote worker“ since at least 2015 I still find myself wrapped up in thinking about what the (supposedly) more widespread adoption of the practice will mean for society, cities and ultimately the products and services we use. Personally, working from home (and/or in a seperate remote office super close to home) has been a pure positive: Less time wasted on commutes, more uninterrupted time to actually think, the freedom to design a work environment that really fits my needs, a lot of flexibility that I can use to be present for my family when they need it, et cetera.
Especially the last point has proven to be critical last week, as a cold has taken hold of the family and interrupted both child-care and work (Covid test included). Designing work environments and cities that account for these needs and that take workers times serious is – even without a pandemic – a good thing in my book.
What a way to make a living
The Economist‘s cover story this week on remote work and if it‘s here to stay even after the pandemic is over:
„(…) This [theory] says that home-working is actually more efficient than office-work, and that the glory days of the office are gone. The office, after all, came into being when the world of work involved processing lots of paper. The fact that it remained so dominant for so long may instead reflect a market failure. Before covid-19 the world may have been stuck in a “bad equilibrium” in which home-work was less prevalent than it should have been. The pandemic represents an enormous shock which is putting the world into a new, better equilibrium.“
„The extent to which home-working remains popular long after the pandemic has passed will depend on a bargain between companies and workers. But it will also depend on whether companies embrace or reject the controversial theory that working from an office might actually impede productivity. Since the 1970s researchers who have studied physical proximity (ie, the distance employees need to travel to engage in a face-to-face interaction) have disagreed on the question of whether it facilitates or inhibits collaboration. The argument largely centres on the extent to which the bringing-together of people under one roof promotes behaviour conducive to new ideas, or whether doing so promotes idle chatter.“
Karl Sharro tweets about two narratives: “The future is urban” VS “The death of the City”
What will happen to cities once everyone is “going remote”? Is everyone escaping to the suburbs, away from dense city centers that have proven to be a net negative during the pandemic? Karl Sharro:
„Let’s admit that we have been through over the past six months has had a massive impact on our worldview. Overnight we all had to absorb the message that other people are a danger and they should be avoided. How we build back society and trust is a challenge.“
„Rinsing the same old ‘urban’ thinking won’t cut it. Many of its advocates are clearly flummoxed, everything you have argued for is now seen as a problem: close human interaction, density, public transport. And these can’t just be waived away with platitudes about the city.“
But:
„It’s legitimate to ask questions about the durability of the current model of the city in light of this, but the mistake is not to take history into account, how cities have transformed themselves when they faced crises, and their resilience and adaptability.“
„The most recent example is post-industrialisation in the Western context and the impact it had on cities. Cities had to reinvent themselves and did, and while the trends vary in terms of growth/decline of specific cities the intensity of urban activity zones has increased overall.“
Coffee from ice cream vans, and other remote working perks
And here we have Matt Webb posing the question of how this „reinvention“ could look like and what services may emerge to make working from home even more attractive:
„We’re used to office perks and the benefits of working in a business neighbourhood: free snacks (if you’re lucky), a comfy chair, good lunch spots nearby… what future working-from-home perks can we invent, if we’re in this for the long term?“
„Like, is there remote work facilities management that can come set up my desk and give me a sound baffle/backdrop for my video calls? (Has Ikea launched a Zoom kit yet?) If I were a manager, could I expense desk beers on Fridays for my team, and is there a company that can sort that out?“
„Then there’s good coffee and the social life. It can feel pretty distant sometimes at home. But while it’s nice to have face-to-face banter, does that really need to be with co-workers? I’d just as soon have my water-cooler moments with the people who live on my street.“
„So an ice cream van that pulls up, jingling out the MIDI version of Josh Wink’s Higher State of Consciousness at 11am, everyone on the street downing tools and heading out for a caffeine hit and to catch up with friends?“
- Played: Crusador Kings III (PC)
Weekly Data Points, 35-2020
Hey, did you notice? A new design for these weekly recaps! I wanted to distinguish them from other articles that go into more depth (they will appear here at some point, I hope) and also highlight their anecdotal, tidbit-y character. I think of them as my weekly report card, containing interesting data points that give context to my current thoughts and life. I also hope that you, too, will find something interesting here from time to time.
Anyways, on to this week’s tidbits!
The Thing With Leading in CSS
From Matthias Ott (who is killing it with great articles lately):
Designers insist that what they see in the browser doesn’t look at all like the layout they originally designed. Developers respond that all the margins in the style sheets exactly match the margins in the layout. So who is right? The tricky thing is: In a way, they are both right.
Uff, I cannot wait for leading-trim to arrive in CSS. This will solve much of the mentioned problem and save countless hours of needless discussions. So looking forward!
- Played: Spiritfarer (Switch)
- Played: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
- Watched: Succession (S01E1 - E4)
Weekly Data Points, 33-2020
This edition arrives a little late, my apologies. And devoid of Inputs, too, as this week was mainly focused getting things rolling again after the holidays.
And wow, what a start it was: Two new products in need of a concept! So naturally you could find me much of the week hurdled over my iPad, scribbling away at ideas, writing down thoughts and observations, talking to stakeholders and collaborators. There are no specifics that I can share at this moment, though, as everything is – and will be for a while – under NDA.
The rest was – as is a 2020 tradition by now – spend dealing with the implications and ramifications of Covid-19 in some form or another: Day care started again, but without a proper hygiene plan or communication; family gatherings were proposed even though incidences throughout Germany are on the rise again; C. returned to school which seems not interested (or able) to plan or prepare for a much harder phase of the pandemic this fall (and believe me: It’s not only the fault of a single school – I always wonder what her bosses at the ministry do all day. Most issues are so systemic that it’s hard for a single actor to move the needle in a meaningful way).
- Played: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
- Played: Legends of Runeterra (iOS)
- Read: The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
Weekly Data Points, 32-2020
Summer is here. It’s so hot that the simple act of typing these words feels like a workout. This week was also the last week of school holidays – and that means “normal” life is going to resume on Monday. I guess you can expect to read more work-y stuff here in the future.
Spelunky 2 Release Date Trailer
Spelunky 2 will release in September! For now there will only be a PlayStation version, but I’m still hoping for a Switch port! I played the original on PS Vita – and this game is made to be taken with you. If you haven’t played the first one yet, do it. It’s a masterclass in game design and emergent player stories.
The Unbearable Heaviness of Clutter
From the New York Times:
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that clutter can negatively impact mental well-being, particularly among women. Clutter can also induce a physiological response, including increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
Fascinating. I am also pretty sure that this is true for digital places as well – just think of your computer’s desktop. Is it neatly organized? Or total chaos? Or worse: Everything tacked away into a folder with some obscure name? Does this stress you out?
I’m stressed out just thinking about it.
I Am a Model and I Know That Artificial Intelligence Will Eventually Take My Job
Fashion models made out of beautiful pixels were on the horizon for a long time. Now they are gaining the capabilities to actually pose for the camera thanks to machine learning.
From the Vogue:
I’ll spare you the specifics of the algorithmic details, but in summary, these digital models can offer a vast array of posing options that mimic exactly what we do in e-commerce and commercial modeling. For models like myself, that’s how we make most of our money. The German e-commerce giant, Zalando (for which I have modeled almost a dozen times), has published research papers on this technology. It would seem to be only a matter of time until fashion giants jump on board.
This is almost a bit nostalgic for me: In 2001 Square Pictures released „Final Fantasy: The spirits within“ — the first feature length movie to only star digital, photorealistic avatars. There was talk about how these digital humans could not just perform in this movie, but in any other. Just like real actors they would take on new roles, express their personality and even appear at the Academy Awards.
Nothing like this happened: The movie was a total flop at the box office and Aki, the main protagonist, never appeared in another major film. And still, this prospect fascinated me as a kid to no end. And reading the report above it seems that this story might be different today.
- Played: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
- Played: Legends of Runeterra (iOS)
Weekly Data Points, 31-2020
We’re back home in Berlin — something that I dreaded during our last days in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This is very rare for me: I usually love to dive back into work and regular life after the holidays. But it feels like we just escaped the crowded city, and with it at least some of the troubles and pains of the pandemic (at our time of arriving in MV there were only a handful of active COVID cases), only to return to a reality that is in a considerably worse state than when we left it. Now that schools and day-cares are about to return from holidays our regular life will return with them, but nothing about this feels normal — or right — as cases are already on the rise again throughout Germany.
The egoism and carelessness of some people puts everything that we gained during the first months of lockdown at risk. If I learned one thing about humans during this time it’s that many clearly lack any kind of foresight: It seems unbelievable hard for people to weight the inconveniences of today (i.e. wearing a mask, keeping a distance, not organising a family reunion or going to a party) against the risks that come if you simply carry on as always (risks like loosing loved ones to Covid, loosing your job as the economy fully crashes in the next lockdown, denying your kids from going to school due to quarantine, etc.).
Yes, I know, this shouldn’t come as a surprise: Many psychological experiments show exactly that. But it still baffles me, especially as the risks are not hypothetical: We have already seen all of the effects play out – during our own lockdown and the tragic losses endured elsewhere in the world.
Proposing a new strategy to deal with Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions
Peter Bihr with a proposal for how to continue with stricter, but more targeted enforcement of the COVID-19 rules.
“Stop the blanket lockdowns for sectors (i.e. all schools, all restaurants, etc.), so that those business owners and other orgs that take appropriate precautions can go about their business. Simultaneously, check and enforce compliance with those rules ruthlessly. 3 strikes or 1, if a restaurant allows for large parties without appropriate spacing that’s not an oversight, it’s a conscious decision. If they don’t register their customers as legally required, this isn’t an oversight, it’s by design. In cases of flagrant disregard for the safety of others like this, immediately shut down the restaurant — for 3 months or for good, I’m not sure.”
“We need to align incentives — both positive and negative — so that violators are punished and those who by and large respect the rules do not get punished for the others’ irresponsibility. Equally, it cannot — must not — be that our kid isn’t allowed to learn and play with his peer group in day care because some irresponsible egoists enable crowded, unsafe, illegal parties in and for their business.”
Nintendo, Disney, and Cultural Determinism
Great overview by Matthew Ball of what makes Nintendo as a company so special. Must read for anyone interested in company culture (and video games, obviously).
“Nintendo deeply loves and wants to be a hardware company. The business case for this approach hasn’t really existed for years, but it makes the company happy, it is often great at it, and it hasn’t needed to change. In addition, hardware inspires the company and, in many instances, is why a sequel or title is greenlit in the first place. I’ll get back to this idea in a bit.”
“Not only does Nintendo not believe in #content, it staunchly refuses the idea and even the need. A game won’t release because hardware depends on it, there won’t be a sequel because it has “been three years,” because shareholders require it or even to keep mindshare among players in a fast-moving industry.”
“Nintendo only makes games and sequels when they believe there is a sufficiently new and ambitious idea. This is why most AAA releases are tied to consoles — new hardware that unlocks new functionality — and why franchises like Super Mario will go from water-based play on GameCube to space-based play on Wii to hat-based play on the Switch. Lessons are only applied via remix.”
- Played: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
- Played: Legends of Runeterra (iOS)
Weekly Data Points, 30-2020
We are staying at a farm house in the small village of Neu Heinde, somewhere in rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Absolutely nothing happens here and it’s what I needed most after months of stress: Nature, family and not much more.
One thing that is missing, though, is the internet.
I have surprisingly vivid memories of the many times I had to endure bad internet connections. I still see myself sitting in front of my father’s old Mac, for example, which was connected via some sort of dial-up modem, and while the websites were building up line by line I had enough time to dream up all the exciting things they may reveal. Fun in a way, but also tedious. Or the many times I was trying to talk to my parents from random internet cafés in Honduras (where I stayed a year after school), only to be disappointed by dropped connections again and again.
I am reminded of these times, because trying to access the internet in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2020 feels like being a kid again in 1999 or like the young traveler in Central America in 2006. The pace of how the most crucial infrastructure of the century is set-up here is simply aggravating.
“Children of time” by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
This book presents a fascinating thought experiment: What if evolution made spiders truly intelligent - and not only humans. How would their society work and evolve? What would their cities look like? How would their technology differ from ours?
It‘s amazing how the book made me care for this spider society, even though the story jumps through the ages in order to answer the questions above and does not focus on a single protagonist.
The story on the human side is much more straight forward and functions as the glue that holds everything together. I found this part enjoyable – even if it’s a bit cliché at times – but to be honest, I would have been okay with only seeing the spider side of things. You know, the surprising stuff.
India, Jio and the Four Internets
Another great article by Ben Thompson and a insightful observation of how the internet seems to splinter even more between the US, Europe, China and now India. It shows that a) I know nothing about India, really, but that b) I desperately need to learn more about this fascinating country and market - especially as the conflict between systems and world-views (China VS The West / Authoritarianism VS Liberal Democracy / Free Markets VS Deeply Regulated etc.) heats up. It seems that India has a large role to play and this – so yeah, homework for me.
What stuck with me the most, though, was Thompsons evaluation of the state of the European Internet. Overburdened by good meaning but ultimately misguided regulations (think GDPR, for example, that favors big companies with large legal departments while leaving smaller start-ups with either legal bills or legal risk) it gets harder and harder for innovation to emerge here that truly competes with America’s giants (or, soon, China’s or India’s).
From India, Jio and the Four Internets:
“Europe, through regulations like GDPR and the Copyright Directive, along with last week’s court decision striking down the Privacy Shield framework negotiated by the European Commission and the U.S. International Trade Administration (and a previous decision striking down the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles framework), is splintering off into an Internet of its own. This Internet, though, feels like the worst of all possible outcomes. On one hand, large U.S. tech companies are winners, at least relative to everyone else: yes, all of the regulatory red tape increases costs (and, for targeted advertising, may reduce revenue), but the impact is far greater on would-be competitors. (…)
Any company that wishes to achieve scale needs to do so in its home market first, before going abroad, but it seems far more likely that Europe will make the most sense as a secondary market for companies that have done the messy work of iterating on data and achieving product-market fit in markets that are more open to experimentation and impose less of a regulatory burden. Higher costs mean you need a greater expectation of success, which means a proven model, not a speculative one. (…)”
“What differs Europe’s Internet from the U.S., Chinese, or Indian visions is, well, the lack of vision. Doing nothing more than continually saying “no” leads to a pale imitation of the status quo, where money matters more than innovation.”
- Played: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
- Watched: Parasite
- Read: Children of time