Featured / Systems
The small systems that keep a studio moving
The useful operating systems are usually the ones nobody needs a meeting to explain.
Read the noteJD / Systems
Personal log / Taipei / Vol. 01
Johnson Deng
Notes on useful systems, careful making, and the human parts in between.
121.5654 E
Selected writing
Writing
Choose a shelf. The color changes; the questions keep talking to each other.
Featured / Field Notes
Taipei at 7:12 in the morning
A field note on shutters, scooters, breakfast counters, and the city assembling itself.
Read the noteJD / Field Notes
Featured / Culture
A useful definition of taste
Taste is less about preference than the ability to notice which choice changes the whole.
Read the noteJD / Culture
Featured / Making
Building tools that leave room for judgment
Automation is most useful when it carries repetition and keeps consequential choices visible.
Read the noteJD / Making
01Systems
The small systems that keep a studio moving
The useful operating systems are usually the ones nobody needs a meeting to explain.
02Field Notes
Taipei at 7:12 in the morning
A field note on shutters, scooters, breakfast counters, and the city assembling itself.
03Culture
A useful definition of taste
Taste is less about preference than the ability to notice which choice changes the whole.
04Making
Building tools that leave room for judgment
Automation is most useful when it carries repetition and keeps consequential choices visible.
05Systems
The notes I keep before the idea is ready
Fragments are not failed essays. They are the raw format some ideas need at the beginning.
06Culture
What a personal site is for
A personal site can be a home for unfinished thinking, not another feed to keep full.
Small enough to stay alive
Zettels
Fragments, working definitions, and thoughts that do not need an essay yet.
Default to the smaller loop
When a process feels stuck, shrink the distance between action and feedback. A small loop produces evidence while a large plan is still defending its assumptions.
Clarity is a form of speed
Fast work is not always quick work. A precise name, a visible constraint, or one honest sentence can remove days of motion that was never progress.
Keep the door open
An early idea needs enough structure to be testable and enough looseness to surprise you. Close every decision too soon and the work can only confirm its first draft.
Read, reread, reading
Shelf
Books that left a useful mark, arranged with no algorithm in sight.
Things with edges
Projects
Tools, experiments, and small systems made to answer a real question.