Issue No. 5! 🕊
This time about:
How doing more is the only thing you can control
A few good design jobs in the region
Some old guy Twitter wisdom
Reading time 5 minutes 36 seconds.
Do you know why good goals are timebound?
I mean truly know. Internal knowledge. Part of you knowledge.
The T of a smart goal.
It’s because when you have a day to do something you’ll find a way to do it in a day. If you have two days, you’ll do it in two. And so on.
You’ll find a way. That’s fixed time, variable scope.
It’s also known as Parkinson’s law. Work expands to fill the time planned for its completion.
We live in this comfortable medium effort medium stress paradigm. We plan just enough time to get things done. Just so we don’t get overwhelmed.
But we’re shit at planning how long stuff takes. So we strive to improve our planning capability. But that we can’t fix. No one can predict the future.
Instead, we should focus on the impact.
Whatever we aim to accomplish we can accomplish in less time than we probably think. It may not be what we originally imagined.
But our imagination is flawed anyway. Accepting we can’t control how long things will take, we can focus on controlling how much stuff we want to accomplish.
Fixed time, variable scope everything.
Some nice product designer jobs (a-z)
Deepnote is hiring product designers
Deepnote is a wonderful group of people building a “Figma for data scientists” backed by some of the big names of Silicon Valley and doing some good progress with the product. You guys with solid background and experience to go big with this one. What a great a opportunity to get involved.
Kiwi is hiring product designers
Kiwi, like Productboard, has one, maybe the most mature design organization in the CEE. I personally know multiple people on the team and I am confident that this team is a good one.
Parrot is hiring a product designer/lead
Parrot is a legal tech startup based out of NYC with people in Prague and Bratislava. Major traction achieved in the past 12 months, they’re on track to build a strong SaaS supergrowth company. Hiring product designer no. 1 at the moment. Wonderful opportunity.
Productboard is hiring multiple product designers
Series D scale-up with one of the most mature design organizations in the CEE. Many great opportunities at Productboard.
Swiss Re is hiring a UX engineer
Takeda is hiring a UX/UI designer
Takeda has announced some significant innovation activity in Bratislava and I’m looking forward to seeing it come to fruition.
Vestberry is hiring a designer
Vestberry is a startup close to my heart, as two of my best friends are the co-founders of this enterprise. I believe it’s a solid SaaS business in a good vertical and I hope they can go to distance.
Wrike is hiring product designers
Wrike, recently acquired by Citrix, has some great design talent on board and I think it’s a great opportunity. They recently posted a job in Bratislava that seems like a great opportunity.
Septuagenarian wisdom
You may not know who Kevin Kelly is but I have learned that I should listen when an old guy speaks. A lot of Parkinson’s law in there.
Some of the beliefs I share:
About 99% of the time, the right time is right now.
Don’t ever work for someone you don’t want to become.
Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.
When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal. Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.
Whenever there is an argument between two sides, find the third side.
Ask funders for money, and they’ll give you advice, but ask for advice and they’ll give you money.
Immediately pay what you owe to vendors, workers, and contractors. They will go out of their way to work with you first next time.
The biggest lie we tell ourselves is “I don’t need to write this down because I will remember it.”
Your growth as a conscious being is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have.
Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong.
The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quantity. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally.
Making art is not selfish; it’s for the rest of us. If you don’t do your thing, you are cheating us.
There is no such thing as being “on time.” You are either late or you are early. Your choice.
Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.
The best way to get a correct answer on the internet is to post an obviously wrong answer and wait for someone to correct you.
You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior, especially in children and animals.
Don’t wait for the storm to pass; dance in the rain.
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.
What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.
You cannot get smart people to work extremely hard just for money.
You will be judged on how well you treat those who can do nothing for you.
You can’t reason someone out of a notion that they didn’t reason themselves into.
Your best job will be one that you were unqualified for because it stretches you. In fact, only apply to jobs you are unqualified for.
Getting cheated occasionally is the small price for trusting the best of everyone because when you trust the best in others, they generally treat you best.
Art is whatever you can get away with.
Actual great opportunities do not have “Great Opportunities” in the subject line.
You are as big as the things that make you angry.
When speaking to an audience it’s better to fix your gaze on a few people than to “spray” your gaze across the room. Your eyes telegraph to others whether you really believe what you are saying.
When negotiating, don’t aim for a bigger piece of the pie; aim to create a bigger pie.
Your time and space are limited. Remove, give away, and throw out things in your life that don’t spark joy any longer in order to make room for those that do.
For a great payoff be especially curious about the things you are not interested in.
If you loan someone $20 and you never see them again because they are avoiding paying you back, that makes it worth $20.
We're remodeling and I kept the signage from the front of the house. Feels nostalgic. The digital version of the font is available here by the powerful Ondrej Job.