It’s Wednesday, 27 August 2025 in Portland, Oregon and my favorite tv show right now is Alien: Earth, and my favorite little guy in it is Eye Alien. So cute!
\nI am still mad about America By Design1 and the National Design Studio2. But first I will point you at americabydesign.fail, which is very funny (and also appropriately full of painful outrage) and contains this gem:
\n\n\nHow should we pronounce the acronym for National Design Studio (NDS)? Is it nads?3
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I had a chat with a journalist about it today, which means I had the chance to talk and think out loud. It would be better to say that I am not “still mad” but that instead I am at the very least “differently mad” or even “more mad”.
\nYou know what makes filing taxes complicated? The tax code. You can be in charge of whatever design and whatever interface, but ultimately you’re interfacing to the tax code. That tax code is a political, bureaucratic beast. It is the result of not necessarily compromise but outright class warfare and decades of misguided neoliberalism.
\n(I will say again, if you want a simple tax code, you could just... decide to have one. This is important.)
\nI mention this because I pointed out that a designer can only do so much, that they act in the constraints of a business or economy or, you know, the material universe.
\nIn this case, the designer (or Chief Design Officer) acts within the constraints of the policy of the tax code.
\nLike I said, a designer could make the process of filing taxes simpler, easier, faster by... just changing the tax code.
\nThat would normally be hard to do. There are, like, laws? And case law? And rules and stuff about how you might go about changing, well, the entire tax code.
\nOr you could just go do it. You could not care about the consequences and just go do it.
\nSure, courts might have a problem with that, but what can they really do?
\nIn this way, the president might be seen as your best client. Want to throw something away? Sure! There’s no preciousness. All darlings can be killed.
\nBut also your worst client. Unpredictable. Capricious. And, oh right: fascist. An alleged sex offender. Someone with apparently weird hands and apparently lifts in his shoes.
\nMatthew Bernius wrote a piece in response to the takes/responses to the new U.S. Chief Design Officer4 -- the ones that point out the problems that a Chief Design Officer could well deal with.
\nBernius’s point -- I think -- is that “well, yes, a CDO could do those things” but to also point out that there’s absolutely no indication that this administration’s CDO will do any of the things that need to be done from the point of view of public technology and service delivery.
\nThis administration clearly and firmly believes that government should be smaller and crueler. That it should discriminate both in the negative and in the positive.
\nIf this administration wanted to do the good things it would have done them, it’s more than demonstrated its capacity for spending political capital for doing whatever the fuck it wants, laws, courts, public opinion be damned.
\nYou don’t get any more chances. This is a Chief Design Officer who is a force multiplier for this administration’s aims.
\nAnyway in the mean time the NYT put out a story on Gebbia’s appointment:
\n“Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia is Trump’s Chief Design Officer. Some Peers Are Skeptical”5
\nThat’s me, mum! I’m one of the skeptical peers!
\nAlthough I would say it’s more accurate to say that I am incandescent with rage and also exhausted. I also got a good quote in:
\n\n\n“It looks a little bit like a stunt hire,” Mr. Hon said.
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Someone pointed out that “stunt” is remarkably close in rhyming with a word that is very naughty in the U.S. and significantly less naughty but also still crass in the U.K.
\nAny connection between the two words is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
\nAlso the article points out that Cameron Moll, a former head of design at Facebook trotted out the usual “cool! designers at the table now! line and got absolutely ratioed for it on LinkedIn and ended up deleting his post. So that’s nice.
\nYes, you absolutely want designers at the seat of the autocratic fascist government. Totally excited for you, well done!
\nSo Typepad is closing down after 19 years6. After September 30th, it’s pretty much going to be turned off and everything will be “permanently deactivated”.
\nSo what you’re supposed to do, if you were there at The Beginning of Blogging, is “please export your content before September 30, 2025.” at which you can find more information at a link.
\nI will insert a load-bearing just here.
\nLook, your service is shutting down. You know how to email everyone with an account.
\nWhy not... kick off the async export process for everyone account? That way your sunset [sic] communication can be along these lines:
\nI mean yeah that would require, like, engineering? I imagine it’s super complicated? I wouldn’t expect anything like this from... whatever corporate organism owns Typepad7. I mean the owners probably have no idea what Typepad is. So sure, the chances of this happening for Typepad are super minimal.
\nSo let me make this as a suggestion! If you’re ever involved in a sunset, please advocate for making it as easy as possible to respect people’s stuff.
\nIf you were going to let people export, do it for them anyway.
\nIt’s me. I’m the sponsored content. Sorry?
\nHow People Work is my workshop for tech teams. You totally want your team to take it if you want to reduce risk in shipping the software you need to ship. Which you do. Admit it.
\nOK, that’s it from me.
\nHow are you doing? Apart from incandescent with rage, etc.
\nBest,
\nDan
\nReluctantly, America by Design (archive.is) ↩
\nAlso reluctantly, National Design Studio (archive.is) ↩
\nWith sad joy, America by Design Fail (archive.is) ↩
\nMatthew Bernius, LinkedIn (archive.is), 27 August 2025 ↩
\nAirbnb’s Joe Gebbia is Trump’s Chief Design Officer. Some Peers Are Skeptical. - The New York Times (archive.is) ↩
\nPost by @fritinancy.bsky.social — Bluesky (archive.is, Bluesky, 27 August 2025 ↩
\nSome sort of hot potato holding company that went throug hthe digestive system of private equity: Endurance International Group - Wikipedia (archive.is) ↩
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