Giving a presentation tomorrow on narratives. Which companies are best at telling their story? Looking for less marketing copy/brand, and more writing/narrative building, although I recognize they’re linked. Bonus points for links to their best narrative work.

constellate

@hiconstellate

Oct 15

constellate

@hiconstellate

Oct 14

i like to think about these as push vs pull mechanisms Google is good for pulling information I know I want answers to. Other tools like Twitter, Reddit, or Hacknews are great at pushing ideas I don't know I don't know to me.

one hypothesis is that it's more delightful to stumble onto an insight serendipitously or have it show up on your intellectual doorstep during a moment of curiosity rather than going searching for something you want a very specific answer to

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Simon Sarris

@simonsarris

Oct 13

The world of uniquely insightful writing and commentary feels less discoverable and indexable than it was a decade ago. This is partly reflected in the growing uselessness of Google search, though that's probably not the main culprit. In many ways that's disquieting.

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constellate

@hiconstellate

Oct 11

quick reminder from team Constellate...

the magic of any brand identity is finding the ways to make it your own. here's how

@leilaregister

helped us metabolize the inspiration of the Calder mobile + Constellate vision + feelings we aspired to evoke in our audience and turn it into something visual her moodboards👇🏽

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constellate

@hiconstellate

Oct 10

when we teamed up with the illustrious @leilaregister to establish Constellate's look and feel, we briefed her with one word...Calder

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constellate

@hiconstellate

Oct 10

It didn't hurt that they embrace the beautiful balance of art an engineering to creating something so visually striking. And, it's done in a way that makes them as much of a fixture in museum exhibitions as the home offices, bedrooms, and dining rooms of regular people.

The way Calder's famous mobiles delicately tether bold, distinctive shapes to generate their kinetic and wobbly equilibrium felt like the perfect metaphor for an organization.

when we teamed up with the illustrious

@leilaregister

to establish Constellate's look and feel, we briefed her with one word...Calder

we love a 2x2!

I hear Stripe likes the gavel (custom). Company parlance for "make a decision already!"

it's really cool how much texture emojis add to conversations in Slack. what are your org's favorites?

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constellate Retweeted

Kelly Sims

@kellylsims

Sep 27

Having genuine respect (even awe) for the people you work with changes the upper bounds of what you can accomplish. Kick the tires at all levels, not just your boss.

constellate

@hiconstellate

Sep 21

abundance: “If you believe there is plenty in the world for everyone and you are happy to see people who contribute succeed, you become part of "team contribution." You don't worry that someone is getting ahead of you at work [...] you can focus on maximizing your contribution.”

contribution: “If you can align your life with where you have the talent to make a large, meaningful, and real contribution to the world, your circle, or your family, then you can be very happy.”

how can work be a source of self-actualization? from

@bhorowitz

in his interview with

@cybersygh

: “In my experience there are really two things that lead to happiness and everything else is mostly noise. The two things are contribution and abundance.”

sotonye.substack.com

The Architecture of Tomorrow: An Interview With Ben Horowitz

The influence of bits on the world of atoms, identifying people worth trusting, the origin of joy, the decoupling of the American Dream from the university, and more.

💫 north star 💫 Do people want to spend time here?

Gets more beautiful over time. Most centralized hubs at company’s end up descending into a mess that can’t be navigated or relied on. Even w/ a fleet of well-intentioned gardeners, they're overgrown. For us, more contributions = more connections = richer user experience.

Smooth. No drudgery. Non-clunky. Easy to move through. Slick. Flow.

Playfulness. When things are humming at work, it feels more like playing than working. Inspire that feeling.

Soul. All software should have it, but Constellate needs it to survive because it should ultimately reflect an organization’s collective identity. Every organization/team/person has its own way of doing things. Create ways for self-expression to out play out in Constellate.

Visualizing the texture of connection. The more we can show how all the work and the people fit together, the more compelling Constellate will be. An upvote, for example, is a binary stamp of approval. A reactji can reveal a lot more about why someone cares/how they feel.

Scannable. Not everything will pique interest, but it should be quick and easy to find something that does. Imagine a roving spotlight.

Plays nice with other tools. Open-minded/agnostic about what format an organization best expresses themselves in (prose, audio, video, images, emojis). Google has memegen. Stripe has docs. Embeds whenever we can.

Nourishing. It should feel really, really good to spend time here. We do not want to create more anxiety about work. No menacing notifications. Information density.