The Most Powerful Force in the Universe

Don't get in your own way like I did

Anson Cheung

Apr 16, 2023

👇 For all the new subscribers that are here for the industrial design job postings, scroll down to the bottom.

(or keep reading)

Hi friends,

You might have noticed that this newsletter/blog has been a little bit quiet recently.

That’s because I let friction get the better of me.

Friction is the most powerful force in the universe. (That’s not actually true in physics, but it is true for getting things done).

If you want to consistently do something, willpower and motivation is often not enough. Once those short term drivers dry up, it comes down to how little activation energy it takes for you to actually do the damn thing.

For example, if you want to work out in the morning, put your workout clothes out the night before. If you want to eat healthy, make sure your fridge is full of healthy ingredients more often than not.

80% of the effort is in getting going.

Once you’ve started doing the thing, your natural tendency is to continue.

Every obstacle can add a little bit (or a lot) of friction. And every bit of friction you remove will make it exponentially more likely for you to stick to something.

I started this newsletter/blog to develop a habit of writing down and clarifying my thoughts on design, to share what I’ve learned, and to develop a connection with the design community.

At first I started by just writing whatever I wanted. Some weeks I wrote a little, some weeks I wrote a lot. Some of the longer thought pieces started getting more attention. People were reading and engaging with what I had to say about design.

In case you missed them or you’re a new subscriber, here are 5 of the most popular long-form pieces where people really started to take notice:

Eventually, I developed an expectation of myself that every piece would be a well-researched, several thousand word writeup with many editing passes required.

Needless to say that got pretty hard to keep up with.

I originally hosted the newsletter on my personal portfolio website. Then I decided the newsletter needed its own site which I was going to design and brand. I spent hours on fonts, layout, colors (eventually landing on black and white, of course 🙄). Then I decided to add more editorial graphics and experiment with different visual styles.

All of this added a lot of friction to the process. What was originally a 1-2 hour commitment a week became a gargantuan undertaking. So at some point it just stopped happening.

Until now.

I’ve decided to change some things around.

For longtime subscribers, you might have noticed that I’ve gotten rid of the Design Things website and switched over to Substack. Substack is a newsletter writing platform that makes it simple and easy to publish my writing. There is a lack of options by design so there’s a lot less to fiddle with. The designer in me hates that I can’t customize it to my heart’s desire, but the writer in me is massively relieved.

Next, I’ve decided to greatly lower the barrier to what I’ll consider publishing. I’m going to prioritize consistency over depth. I’ll keep writing longer thought pieces on big topics, but they’ll just appear less frequently to preserve their quality. In-between those pieces I’ll publish shorter thoughts and notes on how and why we design the things around us.

As I step into this new phase, I’d love to hear from you, readers old and new, what you’d like to get from this newsletter. Shoot me a reply and let me know.

I hope you’ll be able to learn from my mistake.

If you want to do something consistently (and consistency is the only way I know how to make progress in anything worthwhile), take the friction out of it, and be very cautious about any friction you add to the process.

Keep reading for a few other updates.

See you next week!

My new portfolio website

💼 Anson Cheung Industrial Design

Since last July, I’ve been quietly working as an independent industrial designer for various clients. I didn’t widely publicize it because I wanted a soft start and to preserve time to explore other ventures. I’ve recently decided to go full-bore on my industrial design consulting business, and launched a brand new portfolio website which you can check out.

If you’re a company looking to develop a new innovative hardware product, I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s Talk ID Podcast Interview

🔊 Spotify link

📺 YouTube link

I was recently invited onto Roman Cherfan’s industrial design podcast, Let’s Talk ID.

I share my design journey and some thoughts on the current and future state of industrial design.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we discussed:

My journey to becoming a professional industrial designer
How design education often doesn’t prepare students to enter the profession
Why social media can be a great platform for designers to market themselves
Sustainability, AI, VR, and other huge topics that intersect with industrial design
The ongoing lack of diversity in industrial design
My best advice on how to get your first design job

Check out the links to listen in or watch!

Just the Industrial Design Jobs (30x)

🔥 My viral Linkedin post

🗃️ Last week’s ID jobs post

Last week I made a LinkedIn post expressing my frustration at the process of looking for industrial design jobs. Due to title confusion and the fact that job board websites do not understand the nuances of design disciplines, it’s incredibly annoying for industrial designers to find relevant job postings. It clearly resonated with a lot of industrial designers, as it quickly went viral.

So I’ve decided to do something about it.

“Just the Industrial Design Jobs” is a segment of this newsletter that will list only industrial design jobs that were posted within the last week to various job board websites. I will feature key information including:

The company name
The job title
The location
The product type
The salary range (if disclosed)
The minimum years of experience (if disclosed)
Application link

Please let me know if you find this useful, and if it is please share or forward it onto your industrial design friends and encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter.

Share Design Things by Anson Cheung

Notes:

I’m not currently looking for a job myself, but I do like to keep tabs on the state of the industry. And I’m kind of a data nerd.
In order to keep it manageable, I’m only doing US-based jobs for now.

Here’s this week’s list:

Arthrex

Industrial Designer - Principal

Naples FL

Medical

12 years experience minimum

Design Things by Anson Cheung

The Most Powerful Force in the Universe

Don't get in your own way like I did

My new portfolio website

Let’s Talk ID Podcast Interview

Just the Industrial Design Jobs (30x)

Arthrex

Corradi USA Inc

DePaul University

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Paper Source, Inc.

Karat Home Inc

LUXOTTICA

Bandai Namco Amusement America

NEW VISION INTERNATIONAL INC

Signify

Super Color Digital, LLC

YETI

Array Marketing

Hubbell Incorporated

JONATHAN Y DESIGNS

SharkNinja Operating LLC

GE Appliances

All Tech Engineering - Michigan

GE Appliances

Radio Flyer Inc.

newdealdesign

Kiss Products

LT Technology Services

Olympus Corporation of the Americas

Stanley

The Hillman Group

Apple

FS Studio

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