Learn, Make, Learn

We get the inside scoop on The Brand Studios master’s program at CU Boulder from its co-directors, Parisa Tashakori & Jeff Gillette. Unique in its accelerated 12-month span & remit across both experience design and creative advertising, the program welcomes those with a passion to “put your weird to work.” Is it right for you? INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 00:55 Why is Design So Boring? with Nate Grubbs LAP Coffee The LAP coffee Berlin backlash: when innovation meets resistance Ernest to ...

We're joined by Zoran Svetlicic for this fast follow-up to our previous episode on Starbucks’ struggles. A strategist & builder with deep expertise in brand and food & beverage, Zoran pulls no punches in his diagnosis of Starbucks’ ills. And, along the way, schools us on positioning, brand architecture & natural wine. INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 00:39 Starbucks’ Struggles and Lessons for Product People MEET ZORAN + CONTEXT SETTING – 04:09 Zoran Svetlicic on LinkedIn Third-Wave Coff...

What can product people learn from Starbucks’ recent struggles, and how are these lessons linked to a venerable British book retailer, an upstart French running brand, and a barmy Japanese watchmaker? INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 02:47 Starbucks closing stores SPVs, Credit, and AI Datacenters This is How the AI Bubble Will Pop Neue Klasse – 60 Years of the BMW 1500 World Premiere of the new BMW iX3 BMW Hofmeister Knick—Behind the Lines STARBUCKS’ STRUGGLES – 14:08 No Logo at 20 Globalization an...

Ernest & Joachim go deep on Raymond Loewy’s MAYA Principle: what it is & why it matters, with real world examples of MAYA in action, and what can happen when product teams fail to take the principle to heart. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:00 Toolbox: How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better Fortis Marinemaster A BRIEF INTRO TO RAYMOND LOEWY – 06:04 MoMA on Raymond Loewy 60 Minutes: Raymond Loewy, Father of Industrial Design LOEWY’S MAYA PRINCIPLE – 09:07 The MAYA Principle in Design The i...

E & J return from a spring hiatus to discuss a range of topics, from WWDC 2025 to the Era of the Business Idiot, and more. WATCHES & WONDERS – 04:09 Don DeLillo: Cosmopolis IWC Presents A Plethora Of New Ingenieur Watches How The Pursuit Of Status Shapes Our Aesthetics The Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer NOMOS Lounge, New York City TAG Heuer Formula 1 - They got it wrong! SLATE AUTO – 22:52 Slate Auto Reveal Event Customer service satisfaction of EV owners lower than ICE vehicle...

We return from hibernation to talk AI nonsense, critique the review industrial complex, promote a return to RSS, and share a raft of recommendations! JOACHIM ON AI NONSENSE – 01:52 Previous Discussion of Humane AI (starts at 18:34) Humane Set to Brick $700 ‘AI Pins’ I outsourced my memory to an AI pin and all I got was fanfiction Ben Thompson: DeepSeek FAQ Previous Discussion on LLMs & Constraints (starts at 02:33) “Low-Resource” Text Classification ERNEST ON THE REVIEW INDUSTRIAL COMPL...

Ernest’s experience with a boundary-breaking headphone sparks a discussion on caveat emptor, or buyer beware, and just how much risk we, as product creators, should expect buyers to bear. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15 MKBHD, Panels & Pricing WTF Happened in 2024?! I Love You, Man: The Male Friendship Recession Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble? CAVEAT EMPTOR? – 06:36 Caveat emptor An ode to open-back headphones—and why I’d never go (closed-)back What’s the difference between dynamic and planar magne...

A conversation triggered by MKBHD’s Panels app gets really interesting when we dig into pricing & lessons for people in the business of making products. FOLLOW-UPS – 02:23 Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? How gamification took over the world Can't Play, Won't Play An Interview with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth Meta Connect Keynote 2024 Meta’s big tease MKBHD, PANELS & PRICING – 07:30 Marques Brownlee MKBHD’s first review Marques Brownlee says ‘I hear you’ after fans criticize his...

We dive into our titular question with Nate Grubbs, who, unlike us, is a professional designer with strong views borne of decades of experience across UX, visual & product design. MEET NATE – 01:18 THE AGE OF AVERAGE – 04:19 Alex Murrell: The age of average The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same How Khruangbin’s Sound Became the New Mood Music (paywall) SOUL, FLASH & OLD MAN VIBES – 06:36 A Farewell to Adobe Flash—and the Messy, Glorious Web Donnie Darko...

We go off-the-cuff again, sharing product learnings from Miele vacuums, Snow Peak’s modular IGT system & Ableton’s singular vision for music creation. OFF-THE-CUFF – 00:59 JOACHIM RECOMMENDS: MIELE C3 VACUUM – 01:38 Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine Behind Dyson’s cyclone Dyson Stick Vacuums Lose CR Recommendation We’ve Recommended Miele Canister Vacuums for Almost a Decade My Middle-Aged Miele C2 Canister Vacuum Has a Long Life Ahead of It Ernest’s now discontinued Miele Cat & Dog...

In another short(er) format episode, we examine Apple’s recent “Glowtime” event. Please do let us know what you think of this new format at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or @LearnMakeLearnShow on Threads. OPENING – 00:00 Suttle Lake Suttle Lodge HELP US NAME THIS NEW FORMAT! – 03:12 APPLE’S ‘GLOWTIME’ EVENT – 05:08 Apple Event The Verge: iPhone 16 event in 16 minutes John Gruber describes his feelings after the event on Threads JOACHIM’S TAKE – 05:48 Smartphone innovation is dead, and that’s f...

We introduce a new, shorter, more off-the-cuff format focused on recommendations that we hope you’ll enjoy. Also, our apologies for the audio getting a bit crunchy in spots—we’re working hard to improve our audio quality. Please do let us know what you think of this new format at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or on Threads @LearnMakeLearnShow. ONE MILLION CHECKBOXES – 03:20 Are You a Checker or an Unchecker? (paywall) The Secret Inside One Million Checkboxes Nolan Royalty on X ‘Infinity Blade II:...

Generative AI: step change or snake oil du jour? We enter this mire with Anmol Anubhai as our guide & insight into the future of GenAI x product creation as our destination. Join us for a refreshingly grounded conversation on a topic that’s typically full of hype. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:42 The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Manual Mode Changes Performance EVs Forever WTF is a Product Manager? Dare Obasanjo on Product Management at Figma Config 2024 Dare Obasanjo on Threads Shreyas Doshi on Threads Shreyas o...

The pressure to repeat history, as in the previous year’s sales for a given product, can be pernicious. We share ideas for unshackling yourself from this weight so that you can avoid, as Marshall McLuhan put it, marching backwards into the future. FOLLOW-UPS – 00:43 Humane is looking for a buyer Coffeezilla on the Rabbit R1 NOMOS at Watches & Wonders NOMOS: The icon in 31 color compositions Noel Gallagher on Jimi Hendrix The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn’t Help Teens (paywall) THE WEIGHT...

The concept of fan service, which originated in anime and is now common across media, has pervaded the world of product creation as well. We discuss what it is & why it’s vital to serve your customers without pandering to them. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:11 Progressive Complexity (aka Progressive Disclosure) THE PERILS OF FAN SERVICE – 03:50 Star Wars: Fired Solo Directors Didn't Want Movie To Just Be Fan Service BlackBerry’s Future in Doubt Clicks is a BlackBerry-style iPhone keyboard case Janet ...

When it comes to products and product innovation, in our new era of higher-for-longer interest rates, enough *is* enough. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:23 iOS spacebar meme Windup Watch Fair San Francisco Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war ERA OF EASY MONEY IS OVER – 12:02 The Era of Easy Money Is Over. That’s a Good Thing. The Price of Time CASE STUDIES: BAD & GOOD — 18:34 The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now Killed by Google Rabbit R1: Barely Reviewable Tesla’s Stainless Stee...

Daniel Kahneman, credited as a grandfather of behavioral economics, passed away in March, and we devote this episode to an unfiltered discussion of his legacy through a product lens. KAHNEMAN’S LEGACY: THE BULL CASE – 01:55 NY Times obituary of Daniel Kahneman KAHNEMAN’S LEGACY: THE BEAR CASE – 03:40 The “Nudge” of the Obama Era Was Always Neoliberal Nonsense Nudge economics: has push come to shove for a fashionable theory? JOACHIM’S PERSPECTIVE – 05:27 A Quick Excursion into Behavioral Ec...

A decade ago, design thinking was all the rage across the corporate world. But, today, it's widely derided as a failed experiment. Is there still a place for design thinking or is it an idea whose time has passed? FOLLOW-UPS – 01:56 Time to Learn Hublot at Watches & Wonders 2024 Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind JLC at Watches & Wonders 2024 Should Products be Political? Bobbie Bobbie for Change Byron Sharp: How Brands Grow DESIGN THINKING – 08:37 IDEO Design Thinking Design thinking: Wh...

Apologies for our delay this week! In this episode, with the Watches & Wonders show around the corner, we talk watches & the broader lessons we can draw from a product category rooted entirely in emotion. WRIST CHECK – 02:16 IWC Pilot’s Watch Chrono Top Gun Ming 37.07 Halios Raven In-House vs. Off-the-Shelf Movements Idris Elba Wears a $500 Watch JOACHIM’S 👍 – 11:39 IWC IWC and Carl Jung “The IWC Colors” with Pantone ERNEST’S 👍 – 19:05 Cartier Cartier Watches: A Brief History How ...

This week, we tackle a thorny topic: Should products be political? And to be clear, we don't mean brand messaging. Instead, our focus is products, and whether makers should intentionally imbue their products with their politics. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15 Eno—a groundbreaking generative film by Gary Hustwit Apple Vision Pros & Cons Hugo Barra on Apple Vision Pro SHOULD PRODUCTS BE POLITICAL – 05:34 Herbert Simons–The Sciences of the Artificial Scenius or Genius? Ulm School of Design Bauhaus Bra...

Musician Brian Eno defined a scenius as “the intelligence of a whole operation or group of people,” in contrast to the classic archetype of the lone genius. We debate scenius vs. genius in the context of product—is one more conducive to innovation than the other? FOLLOW-UPS – 01:42 The Mentats in Dune McDonald's ordering system suffers McFlurry of tech troubles How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built • Bloomberg (paywall) • Apple News (iOS-only) How “Jobs To Be Done”...

This week, we talk restomods. It’s a concept born of the automotive world—extending the life of a classic car by modernizing it—but we discuss the potential to apply this idea to categories beyond cars. With sustainability now a must-have in product creation, we believe the restomod concept is ripe for mainstream adoption. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:24 Behind Apple’s Doomed Car Project RIP Apple Car. This Is Why It Died. CAN RESTOMOD CULTURE GO MAINSTREAM? – 08:28 Restomod Culture is Just Getting Star...

This week, we discuss the tension between integrated in-car UX platforms vs Apple’s CarPlay & Android Auto. When, if ever, does it make sense to give up control of your product experience? FOLLOW-UPS – 02:21 Tesler’s Law, aka Conservation of Complexity Theodore Leavitt on Marketing Myopia @geoffbaron: The difference between PMs & developers @tr3v: No one was ever inspired by a KPI CARPLAY OR THE HIGHWAY – 12:20 @kirankripakaran on Threads Everybody hates GM’s decision to kill Apple ...

This week, we dive into Ernest's career as a product manager/product marketer and discuss what a product manager does, how to sift meaningful insights from the noise, how to enter the field & much more. FOLLOW-UPS – 02:25 Surprised by the Hot Hand Fallacy? Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption I placed too much faith in underpowered studies WTF IS A PRODUCT MANAGER? – 07:24 Ernest’s blog post on this topic Why The Hidden Risks Of Specialization Help Explain Crises How “Jobs to...

This week, we dive into Joachim's career as an applied microeconomist. What does an applied microeconomist do, how is it relevant to product innovation, how do you enter the field, and much more! FOLLOW-UPS – 01:43 Margaret Heffernan: A Bigger Prize Ed Catmull on The Hungry Beast and the Ugly Baby WTF IS AN APPLIED MICROECONOMIST? – 08:44 David Hume: “Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions” Ariel Rubinstein: Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist Karl Marx: Theses on Feuerbach M...

In this episode, we challenge tech industry dogma around A/B testing & Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), and propose alternatives better suited to today’s post-low interest rate economy. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:41 Apple Vision Pros & Cons How to book a Vision Pro demo at an Apple Store Apple Vision Pro has finally made virtual reality worth it First insights about Apple Vision Pro optics Steve Jobs on the Post-PC Era Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not Anil Dash on Apple Vision Pro ...

We dig into the perils of crossing over from niche to mainstream. How can a brand built on a niche product or service successfully expand its appeal? Should this even be an aspiration? FOLLOW-UPS – 01:24 “Low-Resource” Text Classification 78% MNIST accuracy using GZIP in under 10 lines of code MNIST by zip Clustering by compression Kolmogorov complexity Normalized compression distance ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web Last week’s cover art Apple’s LaserWriter Changed Everything (paywall) A...

Ernest & Joachim dive into the dilemma faced when a promising business opportunity conflicts with your own or your company's values. The duo offer perspectives on how to navigate this conflict, including tools you can apply to your day-to-day work making products. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15 History of Jobs-to-Be-Done WHEN VALUES & OPPORTUNITY COLLIDE – 02:15 Follow us on Threads Apple’s Privacy Pledge Complicates Its AI Push Google staff criticize leadership over lack of vision What’s Gone ...

Ernest & Joachim share a deep-dive on the jobs to be done approach to customer-centric product & service innovation. They explain what it is & why it matters, share real world examples of jobs-to-be-done in action, and highlight situations where it might not apply. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:11 Apple Vision Pros & Cons Disconnect Blog & Newsletter Tech Won't Save Us: Will AR Glasses Die Like Google Glass? SNL Weekend Update: Randall Meeks JOBS TO BE DONE: CONTEXT – 04:53 Steve Jobs...

Ernest & Joachim debate Apple Vision Pro: Does it represent “the beginning of a new era for computing,” or will it offer more proof that VR is an answer to a question no one’s asking? E & J then highlight lessons that can be applied to anyone in the business of making products, irrespective of category. CONTEXT ON SPATIAL COMPUTING – 00:34 WWDC 2023: Apple Vision Pro Simon Greenwold's paper on Spatial Computing JOACHIM’S CASE – 03:01 Mentour Pilot: The Untold Story of Air France 447...

Get to know Ernest & Joachim, hear their hopes and dreams for Learn, Make, Learn, and get their first-ever weekly recommendations! INTRODUCTIONS Meet Joachim – 01:00 Meet Ernest – 10:21 PRODUCTS WITH A POINT OF VIEW – 18:51 OUR HOPES FOR LEARN, MAKE, LEARN – 23:53 WEEKLY RECOMMENDATIONS – 26:55 Joachim – Telehack Ernest – Lavinia Text of Ursula K Le Guin’s speech in acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.Video of Le Guin’s s...