XTMP: Archive

11 tags

Jan 21st

3 tags

I’ve been thinking a lot about promises lately. The most important promises are layered, sometimes invisibly. A seemingly complex promise can be filed down to a simple one. An insight. Too often, promises are processed in the reverse - as a spanning web of smaller promises implied and enforced. XTMP began as a simple promise. Each of us made a commitment to independently add content to this...

Jan 19th

1 note

5 tags

Jan 9th

3 notes

Jan 9th

11 notes

8 tags

Jan 8th

5 tags

365 Haikus

I’m embarking on a 365 Project this year. I’m writing a haiku a day for the whole year. Here is today’s : Artist statement Forced way of discussing art I just want to draw

Jan 8th

4 tags

Jan 7th

2 notes

1 tag

While Others Play

It is Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve means something different to someone who works in a restaurant. It is often said of the restaurant industry that “We work while others play.” That statement reveals a lot about the person who makes it, particularly around the holidays. Yes, I work while a majority of people are on vacation, or simply don’t have to work. We serve the many happy gatherings of those...

Jan 6th

8 tags

Jan 6th

6 notes

5 tags

Jan 2nd

1,416 notes

6 tags

Dec 26th

5 tags

Dec 23rd

20 notes

5 tags

Dec 23rd

5 tags

Dec 23rd

6 tags

Dec 22nd

9 tags

Inspiration: Be Steve Jobs

I recently (finally) finished both Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and Aaron Shapiro’s Users Not Customers. The HUGE CEO penned this article following Steve’s step down as CEO of Apple. Like his book’s vividly detailed focus, it boils Jobs as a leadership figure down to his single premise: “Never compromise the user experience.” From UI to industrial design,...

Dec 21st

24 notes

4 tags

Dec 20th

1 note

3 tags

Dec 19th

6 tags

Dec 18th

2 notes

6 tags

Delusion, New York Caliber

I’m consistently impressed with the ability of some (or, as I’ll argue, most) New Yorkers’ abilities to invent completely new realities and live within them. I suppose when a crush of citygoers surround you at all times, each forging their own path through a chaotic metropolis, there’s a certain compulsion to craft a narrative that places you on a different plain from...

Dec 17th

8 notes

9 tags

Dec 16th

9 notes

9 tags

Dec 15th

8 notes

Dec 15th

15 tags

On Gamification →

dotconor: Rediscovering Play First, a little background. I’ve been fortunate enough to know my career path from a very early age. Many years before (or after, depending on your perspective) the glitz and glamour of Mad Men’s Don Draper, the power and mystique of effective advertising was evident to me. I noticed its ability to affect behavior and perspective in me when...

Dec 14th

6 tags

Dec 13th

5 tags

Dec 12th

7 tags

Dec 11th

5 tags

Dec 10th

7 tags

Dec 9th

3 tags

Dec 9th

1 note

6 tags

Dec 8th

6 tags

Dec 8th

3 notes

Dec 7th

1 note

7 tags

Dec 1st

2 tags

Nov 24th

5 tags

Nov 18th

4 notes

Nov 18th

On Refinement

One thing that has always resonated with me in my culinary education was from Harold McGee, in his classic tome “On Food and Cooking,” the great argument-decider in every fine dining kitchen. McGee’s meticulously scientific approach to explaining food is valuable, but “On Food and Cooking” is a work of opinionated passion as well. He begins his chapter on cheese by...

Nov 16th

5 tags