andrewlb notes

A twice monthly newsletter on technology, strategy, and design. I draw a lot of inspiration from political science and military strategy, research methods, and business theory. I really like making things.

Cover Image for Fog, Friction, and the Dark Forest
Cover Image for No Such Journey

No Such Journey

Self help and consumption communities sell us journeys to become something we aren't. This isn't the way. There are some cleaner ways to realize ambitions, starting with discarding the narrative.

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Mining Towns

Looking at the systems behind community identities, and how those identities are subverted and leveraged for profit. It's not great, folks.

Cover Image for Parasites, Symbionts, and the Scabs

Parasites, Symbionts, and the Scabs

Parasitism, or a way of thinking about products that will hopefully prevent you from unleashing something evil.

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Building within an Ecosystem

A short (and evolving) writeup about building a rehype plugin in typescript

Featured Posts

Cover Image for Avoiding Kits

Avoiding Kits

Reconsidering the language and tools of Getting Started

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Kitbashing Experience

Putting our different experiences together to make something new

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Automating Research Recruiting

How to think about and implementation automation in a user research recruiting process.

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Thinking through Research Automation

Automation and orchestration in research ops

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Designers in the Military

A first-hand account of working with military professionals and design

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Professional Warning People

A quick look at strategic warning intelligence and the professional Cassandra

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Craft, Catalyst, and Expertise

Considering craft-based disciplines and catalyzing expertise

Cover Image for Covid Anxiety: A Foresight Game

Covid Anxiety: A Foresight Game

A serious game about making serious decisions in a crisis

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Reconstructive Design Process

Consciously metabolizing past design work to create something new

Cover Image for The Decay of Digital Things

The Decay of Digital Things

A book chapter I wrote on how internet connected objects decay

Cover Image for Designing Participant Experiences

Designing Participant Experiences

Thinking about research operations from a service design lens

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Sponge Cycles

Identify and define the cycles where you absorb and become