American Nations is about the eleven different nations that comprise the United States. The quote referenced is in the Introduction and is part of building the argument that a relatively small group of people can affect the cultural structure of a place long after they’re gone.

This theory was put forth by Wilbur Zelinsky in his book The Cultural Geography of the United States. He called it the Doctrine of First Effective Settlement. He summarizes it:

Thus, in terms of lasting impact, the activities of a few hundred, or even a few score, initial colonizers can mean much more for the cultural geography of a place than the contributions of tens of thousands of new immigrants a few generations later.

I posted this because it reminded me of a study I came across several months ago about how a few early adopters can dramatically affect the trajectory of a young web community. Of course I can’t find it anywhere now, though I printed it out so I have a copy somewhere. When I find it I’ll update this with the title of the report and hopefully a link to wherever it’s hiding online.

A good reminder from Mr. Franklin that you don’t have to change the world to do something of significance. Human culture is advanced much more through the millions of everday people doing small things than the few doing big things.

Many years ago when I was working at an engineering firm during the day and trying to kickstart a design career at night I opened the firm’s copy of Photoshop on the office manager’s computer to edit a photo. I was overwhelmed by the complexity and foreignness of it. How will I ever learn to use this I despaired.

It’s funny to think back on this now because today when I use Photoshop I don’t even pay attention to it, it’s like breathing. (And compared to Xcode—the current slog—Photoshop is child’s play!) Just a reminder that with patience and hard work today’s nightmare is tomorrow’s afterthought.

Form follows function is a hackneyed phrase thrown around without care. I once tried to be clever and said function follows form. You can make a case for either. One is utilitarian and simple, the other is more nuanced and requires more clarifications.

I would now like to say on record that neither form nor function follow the other, but are complimentary and give and take at different times. More like a dance than a march.

In 2009, at An Event Apart in Chicago, I listened as Nicole Sullivan laid out the most compelling way to write CSS I had ever heard. It was called Object Oriented CSS. That talk alone was worth my AEA ticket, the plane ticket, hotel and everything else. It’s the one thing I would tell any designer or front-end developer that they should change about the way they write CSS. The primary takeaways for me were:

1. never reference elements by ID, leave those for JavaScript;
2. never specify elements; and
3. use multiple classes to style elements.

I wrote off and on at my old site but never with any frequency. For this site—a simple personal blog—the lone goal is a modicum of consistency. I had a very poor writing education and I’ve long suffered for it. Yet that’s no reason for sour grapes, with practice you can improve almost anything. And that’s what this blog will be: practice, practice, practice. Quantity over quality.

But lest I embarrass myself, I should say my goal is not to become a great writer, or even a good one, just a competent one. You may think that’s a low goal but I think even a competent writer will standout in the world. And while practice has its many merits, it’s also important to have appropriate expectations, especially for endeavors secondary to your main set of strengths.

However I should also say that I’m not just writing aimlessly to churn out a word count. I am writing to sharpen my thinking. The act forces me to be precise with my thoughts and in turn communicate them with greater clarity. Something I could be a bit better at. All to say, this blog is for me. But assuming there is overlap in interests I hope that it can also be for you.