Flex: I took myself to summer camp and learned some colored pencil techniques! I’m proud of what I learned in pencil technique, color theory, and application of those learnings to create new drawings, with fantastic instructor Kelsey Wailes.
What I’ve taken away is a reminder: Learning takes energy. The class was more than 13 hours of instruction. It was delightful and felt easy in the moment! I created nothing of consequence except an improvement in my own understanding.
I hope you get the chance to exhaust yourself with learning new things this season (and every season). Do you have a favorite class or new skill you’re trying? I’d love to hear about it–respond to this email to share!
I want to talk about a big, public fumble that hits hard, for me, even though it wasn’t my personal fumble (I’ll get to that, too). I’m talking about US politics and the presidential debate.
I’m only going to acknowledge briefly, right here, that this event was strategically used to spread lies to a broad bipartisan audience.
The big public fumble I want to talk about is Joe Biden’s debate performance: His face was frozen, his mouth agape. He stumbled and mumbled some of the most important reasons why we need him to be the next president of the US.
Which brings me to the personal fumble I want to talk about: How I haven’t been vocal enough, in my own life as a UXer and small business owner, about how I think Joe Biden has been a good president.
Biden restored the professionalism of roles in the government, which ensures that the government is staffed with qualified professionals rather than people whose qualification is their loyalty to a party or president. These professionals are who make information available to me as a citizen and small business owner, and make the governmental resources I use.
The Biden administration has guided the fastest post-Covid economic recovery of any similar nation, with unemployment at record lows and wages growing faster than inflation. The biggest jumps in wages are going to the lowest earners in society–which doesn’t help me directly, but should help my clients sell more of their technology.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act saved our economy and our roads, bridges, and helps fund broadband access like the internet I use in my home office.
The CHIPS and Science act brings high-tech manufacturing investment to the US, which I expect will help bring down the cost of the computing power my business relies on.
Biden took steps to restore relationships with our international allies, which has been absolutely critical in avoiding global war with Iran and Russia on the two fronts in Ukraine and Gaza. Not being engaged in an active (and possibly nuclear) war is good. (Do I like everything happening there? No.)
Now, I’m no expert in US history, international politics, economics, or any of that–so why bring this up in a newsletter sent around the world? Because I’m a UX expert.
As a UX expert, I’m invested in making the software people use more useful to them, so that they can meet their own purposes better.
It’s ordinary people, at work and at home, who use the experiences I help to create. For ordinary people to be successful, they need a humane government, based in reality. For my company to be successful, I need economic recovery to continue to happen (instead of fail), especially economic recovery that lifts up ordinary people.
Under a humane government, with a good economy, people have the security to choose the best options for themselves, even if it means making changes. And here’s the thing: Companies know that people who have options will avoid bad experiences. Companies only spend money to improve experiences when bad-quality experiences are a disadvantage.
Therefore, for companies to invest in making experiences good, we need a humane government and a good economy. There’s only one viable candidate for the US presidency with that platform.
