Blog - Ben Guttmann

No-code is coming for us all. And that’s a good thing.

We shouldn’t all have to be programmers, but we’re in at least the third decade of pounding on the need to teach programming in schools. I think we might chasing the wrong goal here: the skill we really need to teach isn’t how to code, it’s how to figure out what to make.

April 2, 2022

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A Few Places I’m Bullish On

The pandemic “shook loose” a lot of people – many looked around and suddenly realized that they didn’t need to be exactly where they were, living exactly how they were.. Here are some places in the Northeast that I’d put my chips on in the post-Monday to Friday age.

March 26, 2022

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The two contradictory ways of creating stuff

We all create stuff. Maybe you’re a designer, or a writer, or a programmer, or a teacher, or an entrepreneur. At some point in our professional or personal lives, we all need to make something, sometimes. And we all know that creating great stuff is really damn hard.

February 24, 2022

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Client School: Don’t be so coy about budget

At some point in the back half of our new business introduction call, I would always trot out the most important question for determining if the project was actually feasible: what is your budget and what is your schedule? The answers weren't great.

February 8, 2022

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What happens to gas stations when we no longer need gas?

Leading EVs can sport ranges of 400+ miles on a charge, which represents a full day’s road-tripping – the limiting factor for most drives becomes the human’s bladder long before the car’s battery. So, what do gas stations look like when they don’t need to pump gas?

February 7, 2022

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The music industry is weird

Something doesn't add up in the music industry: nothing has as large of a cultural footprint with as little money. And there’s likely a big opportunity for somebody to figure out how to make the dollars match up.

February 4, 2022

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Please, never include rollover hours in your retainer contract

There is one certainty: the sun will rise tomorrow. Whether or not your contract gets signed, your client gives approval, or your post gets shared, tomorrow is another day — and this one is gone for good. The labor you could have used today was either used or never will be used.

February 1, 2022

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Some Thoughts on TikTok

As a 30ish millennial, I’ve recently experienced something completely new: something on the internet that isn’t built explicitly for me. Every social media platform that has reached some level of success has, at least initially, pretty much been made for millennials. TikTok isn’t though.

January 26, 2022

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Skeuomorphism strikes back

Looking back, iOS 6 was wild. Between 2007 and 2013 we were so collectively enamored by the glossy sheen of high-res touch screens that we went absolutely nuts.The notes app was a yellow legal pad with leather binding.Game Center had a green felt background and wood trim. But everything old is new again...

January 25, 2022

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Where does the internet happen?

We’ve long talked about the internet as a single thing — something that can be “broken” by photos of Kim Kardashian for instance — despite it being this complex billion-starred cosmos of niches small and large. Where does this idea of “the internet” live?

January 22, 2022

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