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RIP Adam Yauch: MCA

This feeling was very similar in October when I heard Steve Jobs had died. Though inspirations in many different (yet similar) ways, Adam Yauch (also known as MCA) of the Beastie Boys was one of my heros. Both died of cancer.

I couldn’t help but be in tears when I heard about Adam’s passing. Like many of my friends, I have been listening to the Beastie Boys every since I was a kid. I’ve never lived in a world without the Beastie Boys. The first song I vividly remember is No Sleep Till Brooklyn, which was the song that inspired me to want to live there someday. I now live in Brooklyn.

There are so many memories of the Beastie Boys, such as getting up at 5am for basketball practice in high school playing my tape of Ill Communication in my mom’s van. I listened to that every day, especially Get it Together. MCA was always my favorite Beastie Boy because I loved his lyrics and unique voice.

Even though I’m not a musician, I always felt the Beastie Boys inspired me so much as an artist and designer, particularly in the idea of mixing and remixing…sampling…the idea of taking something and giving it new content/context. The longevity of their genius is something I will continue to look up to. Some can be great for a short period of time, but these guys have spanned so many decades, continued to do their thing and change their style in success.

You can bet every time I’m designing, I am listening to Paul’s Botique.

Rest in Peace, Adam Nathaniel Yauch. There will always be a castle in Brooklyn, where you dwell. I will miss you so much.

“I think every person has the ability to effect change. I think we’re often led to believe that it’s just celebrities [who] have some ability to effect change, but I think that what’s important for us to realize is that everyone of us affects the world constantly through our actions, through our every smallest action, through our every thought, our every word, the way that we interact with other people… we’re constantly affecting the world.”

—Adam Yauch

+ david
P 05/04/2012
t Blog, Brooklyn, Inspiration
9 No Comments

Dreaming of the bi-coastal life

I have talked to some of my friends about this and they think I am insane for even thinking this. It might make sense to just pick a city to call home and live there. However, I really love Brooklyn, New York and San Francisco, California. I don’t want to choose, I want to live in both.

My dream is to live in San Francisco for a week or two each month and have most of my stuff in New York. When I want to stay longer in San Francisco, I can just bring my cat with me.

Here is how I think I’ll make ends meet:

I do not have a car so I don’t pay for gas, maintenance or car insurance. For what I was paying before is comprable to a plane ticket to NYC to the Bay and BART pass or Uber.
When I am not at the other place I can have a friend help me out with house sitting or using AirBNB to rent it out to absorb some costs.
Go on a spending freeze for new electronics and unnecessary products.
Rent a small one-bedroom or studio in San Francisco.

How it would work:

Saturday night: I spend the day relaxing by having brunch with some friends and doing my thing. It’s a typical weekend like everyone else. The thought of flying five hours to San Francisco is not intimidating because it’s flying to another place, not planning a trip.

Sunday morning: I take an Uber or the A/C subway to JFK airport and jump on Virgin or JetBlue to catch my flight to SFO. Since I already have the other apartment, I do not need to pack any clothes or computers—just one simple small bag or even nothing.

Sunday afternoon: By the time I land it is probably the early afternoon or evening—still plenty of time to get to the apartment, take a nap and relax, or go see friends. I greet my girlfriend who lives in SF or call the one in New York City to see how it’s going. Please note that I mean one or the other (or neither) but not BOTH!

Sunday night: I go have a drink with my SF friends, check work emails or watch some sports. At this point my body is already adjusted to pacific time and I’m ready for the work day tomorrow.

Monday through Friday: Just another day of work. I get on my iMac at the apartment and field our typical Monday meetings. With Dropbox I have everything synced so I just pick up on the latest project seamlessly. Depending on the work load I can work a full 60-70 hours during the week. If it’s slower, I can go network with startups and companies in the Bay Area and find some new leads. I go have drinks with the prospect and really pitch to him and her about presence—the fact that we have a team physically bi-coastal. I can spend a week out of the month working on site.

Saturday and Sunday: I choose which day I want to take the flight back to New York, hop on a red eye flight. By the time I wake up, I have a full weekend or have a full day left to go back to my New York life.

I’d love to hear what you think. Don’t tell me I am crazy because I know I am, but if you have some insights or advice I’d love to hear it.

+ david
P 04/28/2012
t Blog, Personal
Cbi-coastal, Lifestyle, New York, San Francisco
9 1 Comment

ac2_s_074_leap_of_faith_tuscany_sangimignano

Quit your job and take a leap of faith

“Don’t you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?” —Saito (Inception)

It’s been about a year since I left my job without anything lined up. During that time, several off my friends have left their jobs or contemplating it. Since I took the leap of faith into uncharted waters, some friends have asked me for advice and I thought I’d share it.

Quit your job.

Now, if you love your job and like working as you are, that’s totally fine and I really respect that. These thoughts are more about those who have dreams of starting their own business, freelancing, or just trying something new.

Here are some of the concerns about quitting and taking the leap of faith:

I’m worried about not enough money coming in to make ends meet.

That is definitely a huge concern, especially if you have dependents. I can tell you no job is worth getting your soul crushed day in and day out. I would rather have a small income coming in for peace of mind—seriously.

I don’t know if I can find enough clients or make it a full time job.

You can’t have the clarity you need while you’re working a full time job. Imagine if you had 10-12 hours a day to work on your own thing? Now, you can’t be lazy and do nothing, but the quality of hours are more concentrated when your focus is 100% your projects.

Some questions I have for those contemplating:

What do you really have to lose?

What’s the worst case scenario? If it’s “If things don’t work out, I’ll have to look for a job and do something else” then do it, man. My worst case scenario was I would have to find another job, and if I didn’t find one in the field I wanted, I’d eat a huge piece of humble pie and take a job to pay the bills. If that didn’t work out, I’d have to move back with my super loving parents. I was okay with taking that risk.

Don’t tell me about the worst case scenario, what’s the best case scenario?

Ah, the balance. yes, you have to think of what might happen if you fail, but really take a lot of time and think about what could happen if you succeed.

Are you going to regret NOT doing this?

First, that’s what she said. But seriously, are you going to look back later on and wonder what might have happened if you tried? Sure, you could be totally happy with the current life you’ll have, but you’ll always wonder. I don’t remember The Notebook that well but it’s kind of like that chick’s mom who regrets not marrying the dude who’s building a house, or something like that. I’d rather fail and find out.

Are you ready to be accountable for EVERYTHING?

Just remember: when you’re the boss of your own company, it’s not good to complain about your boss. Everything is on you when you work independently. Everything you do will be a reflection of you. There is no more company shield protecting you. Are you ready for that?

Final Thoughts

If your heart is pounding a mile a minute and scared shitless, that’s a good sign. Nervous is good. I’ll tell you right now I think every night and give so much thanks that I jumped ship in the midst of fear and uncertainty. I am writing this post while working from Palm Springs as I prep for Coachella.

Think about what you want to do and ask yourself “Do I want to take a leap of faith?”
Surround yourself around people who inspire you and feed off that energy.

Be a little bat shit crazy and give it a shot!

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for those who splat on their leap of faith. As Omec from Legends of the Hidden Temple said, “The choice is yours and yours alone”

Note: I used to work at ExactTarget and left to pursue independent opportunities. Probably the best way to part ways ever. These thoughts are not necessarily based on my experiences.

+ david
P 04/19/2012
t Blog, Career
CCareer, Freelance
9 3 Comments

Why the Super Bowl needs a Beastie Boys halftime show in 2014

I’ve been talking about this for years but wanted to write down some words expressing my thoughts about why the Super Bowl needs the Beastie Boys to perform for a future halftime show. Every since Janet Jackson popped her 87 year old titty it seems like they have been going for a “safer” performance: Tom Petty, Prince, The Rolling Stones, (oh God) the Black Eye Peas and Madonna. It has gotten so bad that I’d probably enjoy seeing Creed, Nickelback and Pitbull performing together just to see a huge train wreck.

The answer is simple: The Super Bowl needs three MCs and one DJ. The Beastie Boys. Here are some reasons why the B Boys are perfect:

They don’t have titties that can accidentally pop out.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted, they span generations and everyone can enjoy them. Younger people might not be as familiar anymore but I can assure you their parents would love this performance.
The Super Bowl in 2014 is in New York, where they are from.
Their music can easily be mixed and mashed with other artists so you can have a pretty fresh sound—see video above.

What do you think? Would you enjoy a halftime show performance by the Beastie Boys?

Also, the last song needs to be “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” and have Jay-Z come on stage and sing this with them.

+ david
P 04/15/2012
t Blog, Personal
CBrooklyn, Halftime show, NFL, Opinion, Super Bowl
9 No Comments

Kindle Fire GUI Kit

We made a Kindle Fire GUI Kit over at Awesome Giant. Let us know what you think!

+ david
P 03/26/2012
t Blog, Design
9 No Comments

How to connect your Apple Mag Safe adapter the right way

One of my biggest pet peeves is when Mac users put their Mag Safe adapters in backwards. This is the equivalent of clipping your finger nails in public in the tech world. Really, don’t be that person.

I keep seeing people do it though, so it made me wonder if people realize why the adapter is designed that way. See the image above. If you put the adapter backwards it blocks your USB port.

Moral of the story: don’t clip your fingernails in public.

+ david
P 03/26/2012
t Blog, Design
CApple, Mac, Mag Safe, Rant
9 No Comments

Designing for the future: why gambling on the iPad retina display paid off

When Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new iPad, some designers and developers scrambled. The reason for the panic was because the third generation tablet had a beautiful retina display—four times the resolution as its predecessors. That meant apps had to be designed @2x for the retina. We didn’t do anything at Xhatch. Why?

We had our retina display assets ready three months before the announcement.

One night while working with my colleagues we talked about the rumor of the new iPad. There was rumor that it would be a widescreen format and the industrial design would change. We could have listened to the rumors on Tech Crunch or Mashable, but we didn’t? Why? We do not care what they think or report. Our team had to make a decision: should we wait until the announcement to know for sure or take a gamble?

We took a gamble, and it paid off.

We looked at the iPhone retina display and took a guess that the 1024×768 iPads would be upgraded to a 2048×1536 resolution. For those who don’t develop iOS apps, the retina display and non-retina display (such as the iPhone 3G and 3Gs) have different assets, differentiated by “file.png” and file-@2x.png”. That’s how iOS knows which assets to use for which device.

I figured if we were wrong, we would just have some huge ass assets and scale down to the original size. We were hoping and praying that for some reason there wouldn’t be a wider resolution that change the proportions.

In the end, we were so glad that it was right because it saved us so much time since all the graphical assets were ready. Our apps were retina display ready three months before we even knew we had to design for it.

Design what is about to come, not just what is already out there.

Design for the future.

+ david
P 03/24/2012
t Blog, Design
CApple, Design, iOS, iPad, UI, UX
9 No Comments

Building the LEGO Super Star Destroyer Executor

After waiting about two months to find a good block of time to put it together, I finally built the LEGO Super Star Destroyer Executor. I did not realize how massive this thing was. This was probably one of the funnest projects I’ve done in a while.

There were so man pieces—thousands, literally. However, there are some parts in the SSD where you can build pretty quickly based on routine.

If you’re wondering how long it took me, I measured time by watching the original trilogy 1.5 times. I believe it was somewhere in the middle of Empire when the construction was complete.

Next up, LEGO Millenium Falcon.