Keith 12/31/24 Keith 12/31/24

Goodbye 2024

I didn’t do any blogging during 2024. This was mainly because I was head-down-focused on the first draft of my first novel. I made some good progress on that, too. Not so much that I’m going to let anyone read it, but enough that I’m very proud of my work and the things I’ve learned along the way.

2024 was, in most ways, a good year. I traveled a lot—spent some weeks in the spring in Germany and Switzerland, which was beyond incredible, and had a few trips along the way to San Francisco—my old home—and a trip to Iceland for Iceland Airwaves. That was fantastic. SXSW was also great this year and Kerri and I had a lot of fun at Bottlerock Festival in Napa.

Lots of good music this year. If you’re into long, eclectic Spotify playlists, here’s what I have for you:

I also went to Sydney—my favorite city—a whopping four times, which was great. Most of that time down under was for work, but I enjoy connecting with my co-workers in person, and I feel so much better about work in general when I’m face-to-face with people.

I don’t have much to say at the moment. I’m feeling fairly exhausted even though I’ve had a lovely week or so off to celebrate the holidays. 2024 has been great, but it’s taken a lot out of me. I don’t think I’d go as far as to say I’m feeling the dreaded burnout, but this time of year is usually a nice pick-me-up, and in years past, I’ve come into the new year feeling energized. Not so this go ‘round.

Still, I’ve had enough energy to do some blog tinkering and get this thing up and running again. I’m not 100% sure what I plan to do with it, but I need some alternative to social media, which completely drains me to engage with, let alone keep up with, in any tangible way.

More to come, but for now, here are some of the many photos from this year.

Keith 2/17/23 Keith 2/17/23

Off to Canada! And a small reflection.

I’m traveling to Canada today to go snowboarding up in Whistler for a much-needed break.

Hey Journal. I’m traveling to Canada today to go snowboarding up in Whistler for a much-needed break. I think I’ll still try and keep up this daily practice, but if I don’t, I don’t, and I’m going to be alright with that. I need the break and could use some time and space just to let my mind be free and enjoy life, so I make no promises.

Life has seemed especially difficult lately; things seem to have more friction, and it’s been harder and harder since Covid started—to find flow and joy. Work is more challenging than ever, and celebrating wins has not been easy. It turns out that working from home, while it does have its perks, also has many problems. Mostly I miss people, but also, it’s just been higher and higher stress and less certainty. The world seems to shift daily, both in my own life and in the life of those around me. I’ve been working my entire life to achieve stability, and right when I thought I’d got there, everything started to change. Though I’ve done all the right things and set myself up for success, I’m living in a limbo state with a lot of uncertainty. Thankfully, my efforts have placed me on solid footing to deal with that uncertainty, but, damn, I was looking for life to chill a bit. So I’m hoping, for the next week anyway, I can leave my worries behind, shred the mountain, and enjoy some hard-earned rest and relaxation. And, yeah, maybe take some good photos, work on some personal projects, and use that free time and space to move the needle on some things that matter more to me than to someone else.

Keith 1/30/23 Keith 1/30/23

Responding skillfully

The concept of skillful response resonates well with me. It’s often pitched as a benefit to meditation, and I hear it referenced often in guided sessions.

The concept of skillful response resonates well with me. It’s often pitched as a benefit to meditation, and I hear it referenced often in guided sessions. Putting it into practice can be difficult, especially for me, as I’m an impulsive, trust-my-gut type. But as I’ve become more mindful and have put some intention behind the practice, I’ve seen the benefits in all aspects of life.

What does it mean to respond to things skillfully? Essentially, it’s simply being mindful and thoughtful when reacting to things. I can’t help but think about it in a literal way, meaning in terms of responding to communication, news, or another person’s words, but I think it’s much broader than that. It’s about responding to whatever life brings you with thought, mindfulness, and intention.

In practice, this looks like taking a beat before an anger- or frustration-fueled response or taking some time before sending that reactionary Slack message or email. I can’t tell you how often I’ve let myself mindlessly respond to something, only to regret it later. Why bring more chaos into an already chaotic world?

Keith 1/25/23 Keith 1/25/23

On game design

Been thinking about that time in my life when I was a game designer and how it would be different were I to be getting into that now.

Years ago, in 2009 or so, my little design company took a job to build a mobile version of a fairly popular social game called Spymaster. If you were on Twitter back then, you’d likely remember it as it was extremely popular—both to play and to hate on. For me, this was an interesting new area of design as I was getting into mobile design, and while I was a pretty big gamer, I’d never done anything related to a game.

I learned a lot in the years that followed. About game design, viral loops, marketing, mechanics, content creation, art direction, and more. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, as I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to enter that space now. What would that experience have been like with tools like the blockchain and AI?

Before I get too far into it, two things stand out as universal in gaming. Two essential tips:

It has to be fun. Fun is job number one for a successful game. No amount of viral trickery, sideways incentives, or guilt-based engagement practices will get you farther than a simple focus on fun.
It has to be simple, at least at the start. Complexity can and should come only after the core mechanics have been mastered.

Back to the reflection. When I started working on Spymaster, it was a divisive game. Some people LOVED it; many others HATED it. I think there were some valid reasons for that hate, and I also totally get why people loved it. The core mechanics involved were entertaining, at least at first, and it was relatively simple to play, relying on social engagement via Twitter to work.

But it wasn’t a game for me. I worked on that mobile interface, and that went well. Well enough that I left my company—which I’d founded and grown successfully—to join the company that made Spymaster. The big carrot there was that I’d be able to design and pitch a game of my own design. As a designer, who loves to learn and try new things, this was…well, I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity.

I spent quite a while studying game design and thinking about what I liked about games. I concluded that games needed to be, at their core, fun to play. This might seem obvious—but I assure you, it’s not obvious to everyone.

I looked around at the other successful games at the time: Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc., and did not understand them. They weren’t fun. I can’t tell you how many arguments I got into with folks around this over the years. The prevailing attitude was that “gamification” and “viral loops”—and other jargony bullshit—were the things you needed for a successful game.

I went in the opposite direction. I created a game—Shadelight—that was fun first and used some of the social gaming mechanics to enhance that fun instead of trying to paint an unfun experience with pretty colors and characters, which most other games at the time did. I did this largely on my own at first, using stock photos and my meager illustration skills for the assets. I wrote all the content and designed everything from the UI/UX to the mechanics and economics.

Thankfully I was able to convince my small team this was worth working on, and in about three months, we had an alpha and began to add players. They loved it. The game was fun—the core mechanic was a kind of social choose-your-own-adventure with a heavy focus on story and choices. Imagine one of the original Bioware games in a Facebook social game format, and you’ll have an idea. It had factions, classes, skill-based UI games, and lots of small sinks—mini-games, PVP, equipment stores, and the like. There was a lot to do, and we added new modules and adventures, most free but a few pay-to-play, almost every week.

It was popular enough that we were acquired by IGN and were funded to work on Shadelight for about a year or so, unencumbered and, while on a tight budget, pretty much free to do what we wanted. We doubled down on the creative, hiring another writer and some illustrators, and putting a lot of effort into upping the quality of the content and adding mechanisms that supported that content. The game grew and was doing well. However—of course, it couldn’t last—we reached a point where, while we were doing well, were profitable, etc., we couldn’t scale. We kept adding players, but the costs to create new and engaging content became too expensive.

This wasn’t what killed the game, not exactly. We could have kept it going for a while, and it would have continued to grow slowly. No, what killed it was the business, hungry for growth and not seeing the forest for the trees, bringing in people who wanted to take our ideas and spin them off into other ventures. This might sound ok, but the core game mechanics of these other ventures weren’t fun. We tried this, leaned into it, and tried our best to make it work. The whole time I just wanted to work on Shadelight, the game we knew was fun and could keep going, but the suits involved kept pushing us away from quality content and fun towards something they felt was more scalable.

And, not to throw too much shade on them. Quality content is hard to scale. But here’s the lesson: without quality content—without fun—there is nothing to work with. Scaling shit lands you more shit.

Thankfully, this didn’t last long. Seeing the end of fun and that this road we were on was going nowhere, my team began to quit. I was one of the first out the door, but the core team was gone in a couple of months. I went on to do more in the social gaming space, and that was an adventure—though not a very fun one—but my game was dead. The suits tried to keep it going, but not knowing what fun looked like and hell-bent on viral growth, they drove it to the ground.

I look back on this and can’t help but think we were before our time. Had we access to blockchain technology to help with the economics of the game, I think it would have been better for our players and us. We would have been able to monetize in a much more sustainable way and also likely have devised mechanics that would have been able to add fun and revenue into the mix.

As well, with AI tools, we could have likely kept our content creation costs in check. I think I would still like to have the skills of talented artists, but we could have supplemented that to help realize ideas and storylines much more quickly. As well, wow, that first version of the game would have been so much more polished.

I had so much fun working on Shadelight, and I’ve always longed to do something like that again. I’m not sure now is the right time for me, but I’d love to get back into it someday. This time, I’d keep the focus on fun and quality content but lose the investors and need to grow. I think it could be a sustainable lifestyle business with a great relationship between the creator and the players.

Someday.

Keith 1/1/22 Keith 1/1/22

Heavy Covenant: 2021

2021 was a decent year overall, and a year of great change and fluctuation. He’s a little post to reflect and recap the year that was 2021.

The quick personal reflection

From the get-go 2021 was uneven, and it never really seemed to get stable. A lot of this was lingering anxiety, frustration, and mixed signals related to COVID. Sadly, 2022 is off to a similar start. But we can only control what we can control, and just as with 2021, we’ll do our best. For me, I saw a year with great strides at work, a stable personal life, progress towards some small nagging health issues, and quite a bit of creative growth. Yep, you can still grow and learn and improve, even after 50. :)

I had planned on writing a lot more here on this blog, but…yeah, I’m just not all that interested anymore. With anything “online” if I’m being honest. I’ve done a ton of writing, a fair bit of photography, making, etc. but sharing that crafting is just not a priority.

I hardly did anything related to social media this past year, and I think I’m just about done with it aside from the occasional peak and share. I hate to say it, but it’s just all the half-baked opinions I can’t deal with. So much is shared without even a second thought, and even the things I agree with I find annoying. So, yeah, not for me anymore. I do miss friends, and much of 2021 was pretty lonely, but the online interactions I used to get a little thrill from just frustrate me or feel half-hearted and shallow. So, yeah, miss me on all of that and hit me up IRL if you want.

2021 in my ears

The first song to make it to my 2021 rolling playlist on Spotify was “Heavy Covenant” by the ever-prolific The Hold Steady, who put out another terrific album in 2021. My favorite track off of which was probably, “Unpleasant Breakfast”—but the whole thing is great.

One of the best things 2021 had going for it was the return, albeit uneven, of live music. I didn’t see many shows and had more things canceled than I was able to attend, but I did get to revisit the band I saw just before the pandemic wrecked everything—IDLES—and it was amazing. Their new album is solid as well.

Overall 2021 was really great for new music, and I think I’ve got a lot of discoveries to point out. Let’s start with a song and video that brought me a ton of joy this year. “Scratchcard Lanyard” from Dry Cleaning. Their album, Strong Feelings, is stellar, but this video? Just watch. So good.

2021 was terrific for both newer discoveries and some old favorites that put out new stuff. I really loved new music from Quicksilver, AFI (really), Cloud Nothings, Clowns, Frank Carter, Maximo Park and so much more more.

A few new (to me) standouts, listed here in no particular order aside from the general chronologic I found them in.

First up, oh boy, Billy Nomates and Sleaford Mods, both of which were on regular and repeat pretty much all year. I’d never heard of either and spent a fair bit of time acquainting myself with their work.

Next up, the mellow funk of The Goon Sax. They’ve got an oddly compelling groove that strikes me as slightly depressing yet fun to listen to. They’re like random rain on a sunny day. It’s sort of weird, but I love it.

The first show I saw this year—the first one back—was a fabulously eclectic line up of fabulously eclectic bands headlined by The World Is A Terrible Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die who I thoroughly enjoyed and really want to see again. There was a lot to take in with every song, and the whole show was a little overwhelming. In a good way.

Speaking of overwhelming, the opener for that show was Bent Knee, and they were awesome. But also probably the loudest band I’ve seen in many years. You can’t really tell it from “Queer Gods” but, believe me, they almost knocked the house down.

Last I’ll mention two albums I listened to more than most and share cuts from them. First up is I won’t Care How You Remember Me by Tiger’s Jaw, a refined-yet-still-essentially-midwest-emo hit parade. Such a great album. Next was the latest from Delta Sleep, Old Soul, which helped me fill a gap left by Minus The Bear’s retirement.

Want more, check out the whole playlist on Spotify, there is a lot of great music in there, I promise.

2021 in Books

I read quite a few books this year. I think I got over sixty and they were a mix of old classics and new. As usual, most of them fall into the “speculative fiction” genres, but I did pick out a few biographies and read a decent share of books on writing and other non-fiction. Here’s a sampling of my favorites this year.

The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio. I’ve done a longer review of the first book in this epic series, Empire of Silence, but the gist? These are sneaky great and I think they’re classics in the making. They check all the boxes for me and are highly recommended if you’re into science fiction.
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl. What can I say about this book? It’s fun. Dave Grohl is a terrific storyteller and has some terrific stories to tell. I loved it.
Consider This by Chuck Palahnuik. Fun fact: I’ve never read one of his novels. This is kind of hilarious because this might be the best book on writing I’ve ever read. Sort of makes sense in a mad sort of way.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This damn book was so good.
The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft. I’m not sure The Fall of Babel was the best book I’ve read this year, but this series is easily one of the best I’ve EVER read. It’s so unique in a variety of ways and it really stands out as something everyone should try.

2021 in TV, Movies and Games

I’m having a really hard time thinking of other media I enjoyed this year, with the exception of a few standouts. I didn’t watch many movies, didn’t have much time for gaming, and spent most of my TV time watching the Warriors play or picking up older “easy” shows like Lucifer and Doom Patrol. Here are the standouts.

Arcane. For me, this was the best show of the year. I loved the artful animation and the story was fantastic as well. Loki and Wandavision were also favorites, so fun. I enjoyed Wheel of Time. I liked the books and, frankly, thought the changes were more than fine. Ted Lasso was solid, as was Succession and Mare of Easttown. I still need to catch the latest season of The Expanse and would like to check out Foundation.
Dune was great. I’m not sure I saw much else that really stands out.
Returnal (PS5). This game was way, way too hard for me, but I still managed to play the hell out of it. Fantastic concept and execution. I didn’t really get into much else…maybe just some Destiny 2 grind here and there, but just didn’t have much time for gaming this past year. Womp.

That’s all I have for 2021. I think it was a good year overall and I have high hopes for 2022. Let’s get after it!

Keith 2/21/21 Keith 2/21/21

What Does a Lead Designer Even Do?

So, as tricky as I think this is likely to be, I wanted to try to give you an idea of what I believe a "lead" or "staff" designer does and how that might be different to, say, a senior designer. In my mind, it's that Senior -> Lead jump that signals a fairly significant change in one's career. Probably as much, but in a different way, to someone moving from IC into management.

A quick look into the work of a Lead Designer on a digital product.

I've meant to write a bit more about a lead designer's role, and with my Leading Design talk coming up, I think it's time to share a bit of context. This quick post is for the folks who will be watching me deliver said talk and anyone interested in what it's like to be a leader on the individual contributor (IC) track.

So what does the day-to-day of an IC leader look like? What kind of work does a Lead (or Staff) Designer do? How is it different, both in terms of IC and in terms of management? I'll try and give you a quick idea of what my workdays are like, as I think it might be fairly typical.

Well, as you might guess, it's a bit of a messy, mixed bag. Mostly of goodies, though.

How is IC different from management? And what’s the day-to-day?

A lead is usually the one on the hook for outcomes of larger streams of work or focus areas. There are as many ways it can go as there are designers who advance in their careers. One of the things I'll cover in my talk is how we might better accommodate the many varied paths and skillsets that come with growth. In my experience—and my primary focus—most of the day-to-day effort falls in the place where the buck ultimately stops when it comes to user's experience for the streams I'm working on.

In the past, this has been for a specific product. But it could be a specific feature, vertical or focus area, depending on a variety of factors. Currently, my purview is a program of work that runs cross-product and within several different cross-functional groups.

I'm working on metrics, insights, and data visualizations, but I'm not limited to a particular product or stream. I've been in this specific role since before it there was a program of work, and I'm, at the moment, the only designer in a leadership position that works directly for the program. As well, we don't yet have a manager role for the program, so in my leadership capacity, I do a lot of what a manager would do without all of the people management responsibilities. Nobody reports directly to me, but I lead a variety of people across streams of work.

I think this is a pretty common scenario for leads; you might be in a spot where you're a solo designer or working with folks from many teams, doing both the day-to-day design work and all the things a manager might do outside of the "people" aspect. I attend many meetings, do a lot of mentoring, and represent design to cross-functional team members.

So my weeks are often relatively evenly split between "leadership" things like alignment and strategy meetings on one side and tactical product design work on the other. I do anything and everything from design explorations to supporting research to pairing with developers to get things implemented.

The most significant difference between a Lead/Staff and a Senior is the circle of influence. A lead's influence and areas of responsibility are likely to be wider (more people) and deeper (more responsibility). That will also like grow as you get on in your career.

For those looking to take a step, making a move into leadership without going down the management track can be tricky, and it's something we need to work on as an industry. Growing as an IC can be very rewarding; it's just a bit of a tough spot for many in the industry right now. We've got the scale, I think many organizations have the business need, and we've got people wanting to make that leap. What we're missing is the structure and the systems to support everyone and their growth quite yet. It’s a tough problem. But we'll get there.

🗣️A quick shout-out and caveat around growth. Wilson Minor recently shared some brilliant thinking on this and has some terrific insight into the subject, as well as the role of an IC in general. If you've made it this far and are still with me, you should read the interview. One of the things he points out is that it should be ok to "just hold where you are."

I 100% agree with this and can relate. I think we put too much emphasis on constant and unrelenting growth and feel like, especially later in your career, sometimes the best value you can bring to your work is by settling in and just being really fucking good at what you do. We need to normalize and embrace just doing consistently good work.

If this tickled your brain or are interested in learning more about the shift into leadership on the IC track and how we might make that better, please, check out my talk if you can and/or follow this space for more on that subject.

Keith 1/1/21 Keith 1/1/21

Cheap Regrets: 2020

Looking back 2020 doesn’t seem as bad as I’m sure it did while in the moment. The biggest feeling I have towards it and believe me, I feel privileged and very lucky to say this—is that I felt bored and trapped. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. I was able to work and work well. My family and I are healthy. The kids probably had it worse than anyone, but they all seem mostly ok. I’m glad it’s over but grateful to have made it through healthy and mostly happy. A lot of the credit for all of that goes to my partner, Kerri. Our wedding was just before all the shit hit the fan, and while it wasn’t always easy, our first year was reassuring and filled with more love, laughter, and good times than I ever would have expected.

It was a year. It wasn’t all bad. I’m glad it’s over. Here’s a reflection as well as some of the things I enjoyed in 2020.

For my rolling playlist of liked songs that came out in 2020, I just decided to keep the title of the first song I put in there. This year it was “Cheap Regrets” by The Districts and that sort of fits. The other option put in the same day, I think, was “The Alarmist” by Pinegrove. Probably a better choice?

A quick personal reflection

2020 in music

The lack of live music in 2020 really messed with my music discovery plans. I was all fired up and getting ready to build my SXSW plan when things were called off. I think I saw one show in 2020, and while it was awesome—IDLES and Fontaines DC—it was nowhere near enough. No live music might have been my lowlight of 2020. I hope we can get that back soon and that all the venues, the small indie bands, and the hosts of people that support them make it through alright.

Speaking of, take a minute and check our Save Our Stages, and if you’re in a position to, think about helping them out.

I recently went through and listened to the music I’d discovered in 2020. A few old favorites came back around this year. I’ve already mentioned The Districts, they had quite a few tracks make it into my playlist. Hell, “Cheap Regrets” is in there twice with the Porches remix! Gorillas put out a ton of fun stuff. The Cribs latest, Night Network was a nice surprise. Fleet Foxes new one, Joywave had some killer hits, Albert Hammond Jr, HAIM.

And, of course, The New Abnormal from The Strokes is one of my favorites of the year. Have you seen the crazy, cool video for “At The Door”?

While there might not have been as many standouts as a “normal” year but there were a few. My current favorite, Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver, is fantastic. Here are a few more.

The Weeknd brought some serious 80s vibe in 2020. He wasn’t the only one but was probably one my favorites, with some killer singles and a great album.

Not many had a better year than Phoebe Bridgers. Punisher is top-notch. But she really got me with the Copycat Killer versions she released, I love them.

Probably my favorite new to me (thanks to a tip from my brother) artist is the sax-rock-dance-party band Melt Yourself Down. Their 2020 release 100% Yes is awesome. They remind me a whole lot of 90’s Seattle scene darlings Critters Buggin, and their legends on the saxophone, Skerik.

The last show I saw in 2020 was IDLES and Fontaines DC. Both of whom put out killer albums this year. Ultra Mono might have been my most played album of 2020 and if it wasn’t it was top 3.

2020 in Books

While I didn’t reach my reading challenge of 75 books and read less than last year, I still read a lot in 2020, mostly escapist fiction as I found myself really struggling to focus and keep momentum with pretty much everything else, especially earlier in the year. I blame American politics and culture coupled with a lack of imagination on my part leading to a lot of doom-scrolling.

Here are the new books I really loved.

Gideon The Ninth and Harrow The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. These were probably my favorites this year. They’re a nearly perfect mix of an interesting and crazy premise with likable, relatable characters who grow and change in meaningful ways. They’re also just bonkers. Really fun read.
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. A super weird and super entertaining tale about a Cthuluian takeover of New York City.
Foundryside and Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett. Fast-paced, character-driven fantasy set in a steampunk world where magic is sort of like computer programming.
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie. Gritty, violent, and complex fantasy from one of the new masters and an amazingly talented writer.

Most of the books I read this year just sort of seem so-so to me. Hopefully, 2021 is better.

2020 in Television

There’s much less for me to say here. Surprisingly I didn’t watch that much TV this year, and a lot of what I did watch doesn’t really stand out. A few things that do:

Ted Lasso. Perfect.
The Mandalorian. Loved it. I’m not a Star Wars junky, but I was a huge fan when I was a kid (I saw A New Hope in theatres when I was about seven or so) and The Mandalorian comes the closest to how I remember Star Wars as a kid.
The Flight Attendant. Kerri and I binged this one last weekend. It’s a dark humor murder mystery that was pretty much perfect for us at the time and kind of felt like it hit all the right notes at the right times.
Lovecraft Country. I thought this show was so cool and interesting. I really enjoyed how they mixed Lovecraftian horror and sci-fi with day-to-day living and historical events. And, of course, the big old “fuck you” to Lovecraft was fun.
Raised by Wolves. I really enjoyed this, even though the kid, Campion, reminded me of Sally from Mad Men mixed with Atreyu and I couldn't stop thinking about it every time he came on screen.

2020 in Movies

I don’t have much. Does Hamilton count?

2020 in Video Games

I didn’t play a lot of video games this year, but I did spend a fair amount of time with a few that I think will go down as all-time favorites of mine.

🤯The Last of Us Part 2. Mind-blowing. I think I loved just about every moment of this game, with one major exception, which I’ll mention later. The Seattle arc was my most fun playing a video game in ages. I especially loved rolling around the aquarium, as I’ve spent so much time there IRL. Anyway, this is a classic in every way.
⛩️Ghost of Tsushima. I’m not sure if I liked this better than The Last of Us Part 2, but it was damn close. The game is fantastic, the story solid and the…cinematography (?) probably the best I’ve seen to date. I might have spent more time taking photos with Tsushima’s in-game camera than I did outside with my real cameras.
🔱Hades. I’m not really into rogue-likes but I’ve been very much enjoying this one.
⚔️Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I’m playing this one right now and, aside from one thing, enjoying it quite a bit. I spent a lot of time with AC: Odyssey this year as well and enjoyed that too.

So, what did I not enjoy about most of the above games? Killing dogs. They should seriously build options into these games to turn that shit off or make it easier to avoid it.