Seven mondays at Stanford made me look hard at what smoothing everything costs, and why the friction we keep designing out might be the part that mattered.

On the friction worth keeping, the friction worth losing, and why we've stopped being able to tell them apart.

We automate judgment not just for efficiency — but to escape the discomfort of being the one who decided. On algorithms, oracles, and the oldest human habit.

There are hundreds of photos of skies on my phone. Almost all from the same window.

From the Bauhaus to a Grammy

When signage became architecture

A museum once put beautiful things on display and called them horrors.

The Swiss rationalist who turned grids into art

Olivetti's secret weapon from Zurich

Ettore Sottsass's love letter to 1968