Justin Jay Wang

34 notes across all tags.

Favorite books I read in 2016:

  • The Vignelli Canon (Massimo Vignelli, 2010)
  • Hello, I am Erik: Erik Spiekermann Retrospective (Johannes Erler, ed., 2014)
  • Design for People (Scott Stowell et al., 2016)
  • Responsible Responsive Design (Scott Jehl, 2014)
  • Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams (Klaus Klemp, Keiko Ueki-Polet, 1994)
  • The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (Jennifer 8 Lee, 2008)
  • How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World (Michael Bierut, 2015)
  • L.A. Son (Roy Choi, 2013)
  • Regional Cooking of China (Deh-Ta Hsiung, 1979)
  • A Smile in the Mind (Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart, 1996)
  • Hey There, Dumpling (Kenny Lao, 2015)
  • Designing for Emotion (Aarron Walter, 2011)
  • Creativity, Inc. (Ed Catmull, 2014)
  • Chinese Vegetarian Cookbook (Florence Lin, 1976)
  • Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Haruki Murakami, 2013)
  • Interaction of Color (Josef Albers, 1963)
  • The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Marie Kondo, 2010)
Filed under: Lists Media

Rules for living:

  1. Do things the right way.
  2. Do things with style.
  3. Do things you should.
  4. Be honest.
  5. Be deliberate.
  6. Embrace discomfort.
  7. Know what you don’t know.
  8. Keep your composure.
  9. Mostly do things that are sustainable.
  10. Don’t let anyone else slow you down.
  11. Don’t feel sorry for yourself.
  12. Love what you do.
Filed under: Lists

Virtues:

  • Honesty: towards self and others
  • Frugality: want less and lead a simple life
  • Industry: no wasted time
  • Humility: every man is your superior in some way
  • Moderation: do things that are mostly sustainable
  • Tranquility: maintain composure
  • Preparedness: put yourself in the best position to succeed
Filed under: Lists Reflection

Albums that changed my life:

  • OK Computer (1997) by Radiohead
  • If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996) by Belle & Sebastian
  • xx (2009) by the xx
  • The Year of Hibernation (2011) by Youth Lagoon
Filed under: Lists Media

Well-designed products, brands, experiences:

  • Apple
  • Clear
  • Medium
  • Rdio
  • SoundCloud
  • Southwest Airlines
  • Dropbox
  • Zappos
  • Amazon
  • Dyson
  • Jawbone
  • New York Yankees
  • Green Bay Packers
  • Feltron annual reports
  • IKEA
  • American Apparel
  • Uniqlo
  • Target
  • The NBA
  • The New York Times interactive stories
  • Wes Anderson films
  • tennis
  • soccer
Filed under: Lists Design

How do you lead a simple life? By identifying what’s most important to you, and focusing on these priorities. What I value the most:

  • relationships, with family and close friends
  • creating things, be it design, art, music, food
  • taking care of myself—eating well, staying active
Filed under: Reflection

Author Richard Koch of The 80/20 Principle spoke about “Happiness Islands” in an interview:

I encourage people to think about the small chunks of time—this week, this year, the years during their whole lives—that have given them far more happiness than most of the rest of their time. I call these periods “happiness islands”. Try it for yourself. Ask what the happiness islands have in common—why were you unusually happy then. You can do the same for your “achievement islands”—and for the opposites too, the times when you were least effective (“achievement desert islands”) or happy (“happiness desert islands”).

I’ve been thinking about my Happiness Islands lately. What do they all have in common? Friends and family—people who understand me. And a lot of times, food. Playing sports, or getting exercise, too.

Filed under: Reflection Media

I finished reading Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography, using iBooks, on my iPhone. Some thoughts and takeaways:

  1. Importance of intuition, often times over rational thought.
  2. Product, not profit. I remember being surprised at how profit-driven some of the business students were in my collaborative MBA/engineer class last year. Focus on making a great product, instead.
  3. Less is more. Giving the user fewer features and fewer options means a more focused, elegant product and experience. I agree often times users don’t know what they want.
  4. In some cases, Jobs took the approach of prioritizing design, and finding a way to engineer it later. Even better, make great engineering the essence of the design itself, so that a product’s aesthetic elegance is exactly its elegance in engineering or manufacture. It’s hard to decouple design and engineering, so arguably the best of both worlds would be an engineer who understands the importance of design.
  5. The people you work with and quality of work. It’s not hard to differentiate great work from not-so-great work; I’ve been fortunate to have worked with a handful of people who produce great work in my time at school.
  6. Take inspiration from nature. Make products that are harmonious, that take the path of least resistance.
  7. Look at how the tools and products that humans create fit into the big picture. Then make a dent in the universe.
Filed under: Reflection Design Media Technology

Mixtape: Let’s Stay Together

  1. Al Green – “Let’s Stay Together” (Let’s Stay Together, 1972)
  2. Arcade Fire – “The Suburbs” (The Suburbs, 2010)
  3. Sugar & Gold – “Neighborhood” (Crème, 2007)
  4. The Cure – “Boys Don’t Cry” (Boys Don’t Cry, 1980)
  5. Pavement – “Silence Kid” (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, 1994)
  6. Passion Pit – “Little Secrets” (Manners, 2009)
  7. Arcade Fire – “Rebellion (Lies)” (Funeral, 2004)
  8. Simon & Garfunkel – “Mrs. Robinson” (Bookends, 1968)
  9. Kanye West – “Family Business” (The College Dropout, 2004)
  10. Electrelane – “The Greater Times” (No Shouts, No Calls, 2007)
  11. LCD Soundsystem – “I Can Change” (This Is Happening, 2010)
Listen on Spotify
Filed under: Mixtapes

Songs for driving up to and back from Berkeley.

  1. Yo La Tengo – “Little Honda” (I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, 1997)
  2. Arcade Fire – “Keep the Car Running” (Neon Bible, 2007)
  3. Phantom Planet – “California” (The Guest, 2002)
  4. Elliott Smith – “Angeles” (Either/Or, 1997)
  5. Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (I Heard It Through the Grapevine, 1968)
  6. Coconut Records – “West Coast” (Nighttiming, 2007)
  7. M83 – “Highway of Endless Dreams” (Saturdays=Youth, 2008)
  8. Led Zeppelin – “Going to California” (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
  9. Jackson Browne – “Running on Empty” (Running on Empty, 1977)
  10. Bright Eyes – “A Song to Pass the Time” (Fevers and Mirrors, 2000)
  11. Simon and Garfunkel – “Baby Driver” (Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1970)
  12. Belle & Sebastian – “I Love My Car” (I’m Waking Up to Us, 2001)
  13. Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird” (Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, 1973)
Listen on Spotify
Filed under: Mixtapes

Soundtrack to the relationship I wish I had.

  1. The Beatles – “Girl” (Rubber Soul, 1965)
  2. Radiohead – “All I Need” (In Rainbows, 2007)
  3. Bright Eyes – “First Day of My Life” (I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, 2005)
  4. Iron & Wine – “Naked As We Came” (Our Endless Numbered Days, 2004)
  5. Sufjan Stevens – “The Dress Looks Nice on You” (Seven Swans, 2004)
  6. Sufjan Stevens – “To Be Alone With You” (Seven Swans, 2004)
  7. Smashing Pumpkins – “Perfect” (Adore, 1998)
  8. Belle & Sebastian – “If She Wants Me” (Dear Catastrophe Waitress, 2003)
  9. The Velvet Underground – “She’s My Best Friend” (VU, 1985)
  10. Yo La Tengo – “Autumn Sweater” (I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, 1997)
Listen on Spotify
Filed under: Mixtapes

A mix for playing ping pong in the garage.

  1. Stereolab – “Ping Pong” (Mars Audiac Quintet, 1994)
  2. The Lucksmiths – “Little Athletics” (A Good Kind of Nervous, 1998)
  3. Belle & Sebastian – “It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career” (The Boy with the Arab Strap, 1998)
  4. Cat Power –“The Greatest” (The Greatest, 2006)
  5. Weezer – “In the Garage” (Weezer, 1994)
  6. Yo La Tengo – “My Little Corner of the World” (I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, 1997)
Listen on Spotify
Filed under: Mixtapes