Issue 28: How much time it takes for AI to think clearly?
Review of design trends for 2023; How to generate good ideas; Comparison of human and neural network work on a specific design task and sooo much more!

Hello, dear readers! 👋
This is the last issue in 2022, and it happens it releases right on December 31st. Next one will be released on January 7th. See you in the new year! Wishing you great holidays!🎄
In this issue, among other things:
Review of design trends for 2023
A series of articles about the development of the Latin type
How to generate good ideas
Stable Diffusion plugin for Photoshop
Comparison of human and neural network work on a specific design task
How much time it takes for each stage to design a CJM map
Short and visual tutorials on Blender
New cool Figma plugins
Advanced file manager for Windows
Quotes from "The Art of Thinking Clearly" book by Rolf Dobbelli
Enjoy reading!
📚 Book quotes
The New Year holidays are approaching, and in order to make the most of them, I recommend reading through the quotes from the book by Rolf Dobbelli "The Art of Thinking Clearly"
Whether we like it or not, we are puppets of our emotions. We make complex decisions by consulting our feelings, not our thoughts. Against our best intentions, we substitute the question, “What do I think about this?” with “How do I feel about this?” So, smile! Your future depends on it.
If 50 million people say something foolish, it is still foolish.
How do you curb envy? First, stop comparing yourself to others. Second, find your “circle of competence” and fill it on your own. Create a niche where you are the best. It doesn’t matter how small your area of mastery is. The main thing is that you are king of the castle.
We must learn to close doors. A business strategy is primarily a statement on what not to engage in. Adopt a life strategy similar to a corporate strategy: Write down what not to pursue in your life. In other words, make calculated decisions to disregard certain possibilities and when an option shows up, test it against your not-to-pursue list. It will not only keep you from trouble but also save you lots of thinking time. Think hard once and then just consult your list instead of having to make up your mind whenever a new door cracks open. Most doors are not worth entering, even when the handle seems to turn so effortlessly.
If your only tool is a hammer, all your problems will be nails.
As paradoxical as it sounds: The best way to shield yourself from nasty surprises is to anticipate them.
It’s OK to be envious – but only of the person you aspire to become.
Assume that your worldview is not borne by the public. More than that: Do not assume that those who think differently are idiots. Before you distrust them, question your own assumptions.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored,’ said writer Aldous Huxley.
There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don’t know, and those who don’t know they don’t know
We are drunk on our own ideas. To sober up, take a step back every now and then and examine their quality in hindsight. Which of your ideas from the past ten years were truly outstanding? Exactly.
Certain people make a living from their abilities, such as pilots, plumbers, and lawyers. In other areas, skill is necessary but not critical, as with entrepreneurs and leaders. Finally, chance is the deciding factor in a number of fields, such as in financial markets. Here, the illusion of skill pervades. So, give plumbers due respect and chuckle at successful financial jesters.
Patience is indeed a virtue.
After receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918, Max Planck went on tour across Germany. Wherever he was invited, he delivered the same lecture on new quantum mechanics. Over time, his chauffeur grew to know it by heart: “It has to be boring giving the same speech each time, Professor Planck. How about I do it for you in Munich? You can sit in the front row and wear my chauffeur’s cap. That’d give us both a bit of variety.” Planck liked the idea, so that evening the driver held a long lecture on quantum mechanics in front of a distinguished audience. Later, a physics professor stood up with a question. The driver recoiled: “Never would I have thought that someone from such an advanced city as Munich would ask such a simple question! My chauffeur
While his school was closed due to an outbreak of plague in 1666–67, twenty-five-year-old Isaac Newton showed his professor, Isaac Barrow, what research he was conducting in his spare time. Barrow immediately gave up his job as a professor and became a student of Newton. What a noble gesture. What ethical behavior. When was the last time you heard of a professor vacating his post in favor of a better candidate? And when was the last time you read about a CEO clearing out his desk when he realized that one of his twenty thousand employees could do a better job?
The Art of Thinking Clearly: Dobelli, Rolf: 9780062219695: Books - Amazon.ca
How to have more ideas: The Creative Switch
Ralph Ammer explined how to build a thought process to better generate ideas and what a "crazy" mood is. It is based on the idea that most people drive themselves into the framework and try to think within the framework of "normal", and good ideas are often outside this plane. He suggests conducting basic research on the chosen topic, and then generating as many crazy ideas as possible, from which you can choose the most valuable. For example, you can set yourself a condition — come up with 100 crazy ideas in 10 minutes, and then soberly filter them out. Ralph also explains how to separate good ideas from bad ones and how to find a balance between a sober look and madness.
The Creative Switch - Ralph Ammer
Midjourney vs. human illustrators: has AI already won?
The "Evil Martians" decided to compare how a person and a neural network will cope with the same illustrative task. As a test task, they used 3D illustrations for a blog. Neural networks gave about the same tips as the designer, after which they compared the workflow, cost, quality of the illustration, as well as the time spent on production and art direction.
Midjourney vs. human illustrators: has AI already won?—Martian Chronicles, Evil Martians’ team blog
A fascinating series of Google Fonts articles about the appearance of the first European fonts and the Roman heritage, the impact of the printing revolution on font design, as well as the transition to digital, the popularity of grotesques, the general development of typography and much more.
History of Latin type – Fonts Knowledge - Google Fonts
⚡️ Briefly
2023 visual design trends guide. Diana Malewicz made an overview of visual design trends using the example of real products.
2023 visual design trends guide
NNGroup interviewed 343 respondents and found out how much time it takes for each stage of designing a CJM map. In addition, they compared the time spent by full-time specialists and third-party agencies, as well as small and large companies.
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