Daniël van der Winden • All posts

Current: an RSS reader

2026-03-07T16:08:00Z

Link: https://www.terrygodier.com/current/?ref=daniel.pizza

I linked to Terry Godier’s thoughts on RSS before.

He followed them up by launching his own RSS reader, Current. It has no unread count: new posts arrive, linger for some time, and then quietly fade away.

A lot of deep thought went into its creation and, the occassional UX niggle aside, I find it very pleasing to use.

I’m glad he turned the concept of RSS upside down and gave it a good shake. (I do hope the square-shaped macOS icon will be updated soon!)

H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright Typographic Mystery

2026-03-05T17:03:00Z

Link: https://www.inconspicuous.info/p/h-bomb-a-frank-lloyd-wright-typographic?ref=daniel.pizza

Image from The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives.

A geeky typographic deep-dive into upside-down H’s.

iPad Air with M4

2026-03-05T15:57:00Z

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT5iDm9XRl8

Apple released a few ads this week and, while I haven’t paid very close attention to their advertising output recently, they are... quite great. I liked the one for the Neo, and the ad for the new iPad Air is particularly well executed. It has a lovely light touch, and is somewhat disorienting amd irksome, but in a good way. The horrendous macOS regression aside, it seems they’ve found their mojo on this front.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

2026-02-12T19:25:00Z

Link: https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it/?ref=daniel.pizza

Research by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye shows that AI doesn’t reduce one’s workload, but increases it. The summary:

One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice”, or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding.

Phantom Obligation

2026-02-04T13:44:00Z

Link: https://www.terrygodier.com/phantom-obligation/?ref=daniel.pizza

Terry Godier on why RSS readers (still) look like email clients, and why that means the design has guilt built-in.

He asks Brent Simmons, the designer of the first RSS reader, NetNewsWire, who says:

The part I don’t understand and can’t explain is why RSS readers are still mostly following this UI. But every new RSS reader ought to consider not being yet another three-paned-aggregator. There are surely millions of users who might prefer a river of news or other paradigms. Why not have some fun and do something new, or at least different?

The Winterkeeper

2026-01-19T07:19:35Z

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OwLLNPRbUw

A lifetime spent protecting Yellowstone National Park. Steven Fuller is a winter caretaker of the park, and has lived there for the past fifty years, hunkering down in a remote mountain cabin, and raising his children there, too—a most idyllic upbringing.

Jonny Greenwood On His Score For One Battle After Another

2026-01-18T14:30:35Z

Link: https://audioboom.com/posts/8806348-jonny-greenwood-on-his-score-for-one-battle-after-another/?ref=daniel.pizza

Edith Bowman interviews Jonny Greenwood about his score for One Battle After Another, the latest film by Paul Thomas Anderson that’s just plain fantastic. They have collaborated on many films now (There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza, Inherent Vice, The Master), and hearing Greenwood explain in detail how he went about creating this latest is a treat.

Apparently, prompted by the fact that one of the musical cues needed to go on for 22 minutes, he built and programmed a mechanical ghost drumband; I’d love to see it in action. Greenwood always speaks with such respect about the musicians he’s worked with, and is so humble about his own musical genius. Always a joy to listen to.

Designing TV titles with Matt Willey

2026-01-17T11:01:35Z

Link: https://vimeo.com/1127617042

I’m a fan of Matt Willey’s work. I found him through INQUE, the large-format annual literary publication he designs, and followed his work since. Here he is speaking at Typographics 2025 about designing TV titles for, among other things, Killing Eve. (He also designed the titles for Landscapers, a great show I had entirely forgotten about.)

Cheers to Charlie for sharing.

Ten Writing Prompts

2026-01-17T10:48:00Z

Link: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/01/14/ten-writing-prompts/?ref=daniel.pizza

Three Six Five by Lucy Ives.

Over on The Paris Review, via Iris, ten writing prompts by Lucy Ives, from her forthcoming book Three Six Five. The Distraction Diary is one I will try and implement as of this week.

If you work at a computer, keep a running account of what you are thinking at moments when, instead of continuing a task, you have a tendency to turn to “frivolous” or “unnecessary” pursuits, such as digging through social media, stalking esoteric DJs, or trawling eBay. Note your thoughts and impulses at these moments. Consider allowing the note-taking to replace the activity you had thought to turn toward. Remain aimless, if possible. Observe, describe; write things you didn’t mean to write and think things you didn’t mean to think.

The next chapter of my career: advancing the transition to sustainable energy at Enode

2026-01-05T07:20:02Z

2025 was a transitional year in my career. I left my previous role in June, took two weeks off, then built this website. I made myself available for a new role—contract or permanent—and had conversations with quite a few interesting companies. I was fortunate to find that plenty of people, in-house or at design studios, are looking for experienced Software/Product Designers (I may dedicate a post to my learnings in this regard, as well).

I rolled into contracting for Fictive Kin, where I collaborated with a magnificent team on two different projects; one for a Mexican retailer, another for Ladder, which will hopefully see the light of day soon. It was during this time that I got to talking with Enode about replacing one of its two designers, Jens, during his parental leave. This would be an opportunity for me to work with a dear friend, Kristian—with whom I initially set up the Amsterdam office of Bakken & Bæck in 2015—and alongside a few ex-colleagues from my time there. After a few conversations about the work they required, I decided to take on the opportunity, joining them from October onwards.

Enode creates software that helps build a resilient future for energy systems, and more flexibility for consumers. Energy providers can use their API, and a plethora of connected devices, to create an energy grid that can carry the load that all those energy devices (electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, heating systems) require of it, and optimise and balance its usage.

As they put it:

Through technology that automatically optimises energy usage for millions of consumers around the world, we aim to be at the forefront of the energy transition. Our goal is to enable the next frontier of energy apps and services that will play a crucial role in solving the toughest challenge of our time.

My place was on the Experience team, designing software for the people who use Enode to simulate their use cases, collaborating with a handful of engineers and a PM. The welcome was warm, and I enjoyed the collaboration immediately. I was able to get up to speed quickly and contribute meaningfully within a week or two. It’s a very technical product, but translating something so technical to understandable and usable interfaces can be incredibly satisfying.

Examples of the software I work on at Enode.

That second half of 2025 made me consider continuing contracting as a Senior or Staff Product Designer. And while I appreciate the flexibility it could provide, I learned I’m too anxious for a freelance lifestyle. Getting caught up in the forecasting of work and juggling conversations to line up potential projects is something I’ve done in an agency setting for years, and it doesn’t align with what I want to spend my time on. I prefer the idea of building a long-standing relationship with one team, a deep understanding of the challenges we’re solving for, and focusing on designing software to accommodate for that.

After a few conversations with Enode’s leadership team, I’ve decided to join them as a permanent employee. Starting today, I’m dedicating the next chapter in my career to the energy transition. Together with Kristian and Jens I’ll shape the design direction of our products, the visual language of our brand, and how the design team operates within the company.

I’m looking forward to the collaboration, and to taking on the challenges ahead. And, if the company’s mission sounds like your cup of tea: we’re hiring.

The Hive Architect: Saving Britain’s Wild Bees

2026-01-04T14:58:35Z

Link: https://youtu.be/1h6K_cS0m_w?si=LhjC8w05NrGQ1QEo

Produced by a clothing brand (apologies), this video follows Matt Somerville, a bee conservationist. For the last fourteen years, Matt has created log hives in winter, placing them throughout the landscape in summer to provide shelter for wild honey bees. They’re beautiful structures—sculptures of sorts—and I very much appreciate the work. Judging by this short documentary, creating just a single log hive is no easy feat, and the man has created thousands.

A website to destroy all websites

2026-01-02T18:17:00Z

Link: https://henry.codes/writing/a-website-to-destroy-all-websites/?ref=daniel.pizza

Henry Desroches makes the case for building and maintaining your own, personal website, rather than publishing one a few of the monolithic platforms of the web.

Monolithic platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Medium, and Substack draw a ton of creators and educators because of the promise of monetization and large audiences, but they’ve shown time and time again how the lack of ownership creates a problem. When those platforms fail, when they change their rules, when they demand creators move or create a particular way to maintain their access to those audiences, they pit creators or their audiences against the loss of the other.

I care deeply about (independent) online publishing, though I need to improve my own presence and make proper use of Webmentions and POSSE. However, Henry’s essay resonated, and I think will provide a great place to start, or a great reason why to start, for many.

Whatever you do, don’t use Substack.

2025 in music

2026-01-01T13:22:02Z

I am an album listener. As the millennial I am, I prowl music websites week after week to find the great things everyone is writing about or the stuff nobody is listening to. And yet, there’s plenty I haven’t gotten around to trying this year. I was surprised to find I’ve heard nothing from The Quietus’ top 20, only three albums out of this top 10 on The Conversation, and that most of Paste’s best albums eluded me.

Perhaps more so than in other years, I found myself circling back to the albums I liked the most, revisiting them over and over. In no particular order, then: this is them.

Makaya McCraven: Off The Record

A collection of four EPs, recorded live over the course of a decade, this is a great jazz/hiphop hybrid. Sometimes structured, sometimes freeform (“spontaneous composition”, as McCraven says on the opener), the album as a whole shows the many facets of the drummer, band leader and self-proclaimed “beat scientist” who has been putting out a great body of work almost yearly since 2017 (see also: Universal Beings, We’re New Again, In These Times).

Collaborating with heavyweights like Theon Cross (tuba, electronics), Jeff Parker (guitar), Junius Paul (bass), and Ben LaMar Gay (cornet, voice, percussion, synths, electronics, and a ... diddley bow), McCraven delivers an album that’s equal parts mesmerising and funky, traveling between jazz grooves and boombap with an ease that makes you wish you’d seen any of these shows in person.

Jonny Greenwood: One Battle After Another (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Whenever Jonny Greenwood (the Radiohead and The Smile guitarist) signs on for a score, my ears perk up. His soundtrack to Phantom Thread is one of my most played albums (ever), and I regularly pick out his work on The Power of the Dog, too.

His soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest is tremendous again. It brings together elements from a lot of his previous work, even including a hint of his Octatonic volumes, too. The album, like the film, continuously staggers forward, and bounces from beauty (Guitar for Willa) to jarring undertones (Mean Alley) and percussion (River of Hills), back to beauty again (Trust Device). I highly recommend you catch the film in the cinema to experience it in full ornate.

One Battle After Another (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Jonny Greenwood One Battle After Another (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Jonny Greenwood

Youth Lagoon: Rarely Do I Dream

An album I kept gravitating back to for its nostalgic feel, Youth Lagoon’s Rarely Do I Dream is glued together by home recordings, and explores memory, family, growing up, and loss. It feels folkorish at times, with Trevor Powers painting these little vignettes that you wouldn’t find just anywhere, featuring a variety of characters like the “king of the parking lot”, a detective, a vampire, and Lucy—wherever you grow up, there’s never a dull moment if you’re paying close attention.

Along with the crackle of vinyl and the warm, fuzzy sounds of his family’s home recordings, Youth Lagoon’s drumming takes centre stage. The album is driven by percussion, more so than is usual in his work, and it pays off. It pulls me in, drives me forward, and when the VHS tape stops, I keep rewinding it.

Rarely Do I Dream by Youth Lagoon Rarely Do I Dream by Youth Lagoon

Radiohead: Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009)

Hail to the Thief always flew a bit under the radar for me. Overshadowed by their later albums, I never played it in full all that much. Yet when Radiohead surprise-released these live recordings, I was immediately blown away. This was the live album I didn’t know I needed, and for a while there I couldn’t stop playing it.

Radiohead performing in London in 2025 (photos by Alex Lake).

It sounds fantastic: from the crunchy guitars on Go To Sleep to the gloomy synth on Where I End and You Begin, and from the forlorn piano on Sail To The Moon to the crowd’s most raucous reception on There, There. The album, along with the announcement of their European tour, felt like a victory lap, and I’m gutted to have missed out on seeing them perform live this past year.

Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love

As Earl ages the beats grow weirder, the crackle becomes more pronounced, and the rapping gets better and better. Live Laugh Love, again, is an album dense as treacle, but Earl makes it all sound like it took no effort whatsoever. There’s layers to his lyrics I’m still trying to figure out, and he’s funnier than ever; if you’re missing DOOM, Earl might satisfy your cravings (“Affogato cream and coffee, wally walker out the bottle drinkin’, I never got on LinkedIn”—case in point).

In comparison to the sad Earl we got to know on I Don’t Like Shit I Don’t Go Outside, Live Laugh Love sounds like he’s having the time of his life, with his daughter and his wife.

Geese: Getting Killed

If you want me to pay my taxes
You better come over with a crucifix
You’re gonna have to nail me down

The first time I heard these lines and the joyous guitar that follows it, from Taxes, I laughed out loud in appreciation. What the hell is this?, I thought, before the album—in record time—became a mainstay on my bike rides, drives, and train travels.

Geese has risen to the moniker of the hottest rock band in the world, taking over the baton from Fontaines DC with an album that is chaotic, delirious, hilarious and, honestly, hard to follow. Read up on a few reviews and you’ll start to believe they’re rock & roll’s only hope. I’m seeing them live in 2026, and I have no doubt it’ll be a show to remember.

Getting Killed by Geese Getting Killed by Geese

Cameron Winter: Heavy Metal

Technically released in December of 2024, and thus too late to feature on many end-of-year lists last year, I felt compelled to include it here. Cameron Winter, the Geese frontman, did this before the Geese album came out, earning him immediate comparisons to folks like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

The lyrics on his solo album are sometimes prophetic, often gorgeous, sometimes campy, and, again, hilarious. Love Takes Miles is something of an anthem. Cancer of the Skull is glorious. $0 feels enlightening, yet deeply funny (“God is real, I’m not kidding this time, I think God is actually for real, I wouldn’t joke about this”; still none of us will ever know if he truly is for real). And, Drinking Age pierces the soul, every time.

Cameron Winter performing in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Seeing him perform live—by himself, at a piano, only half facing the audience—was an experience I won’t ever forget, and he just kept repeating that magnificent feat wherever he went (Manchester, London, New York). Wherever he takes things next, I’ll be hanging on his every word.

Heavy Metal by Cameron Winter Heavy Metal by Cameron Winter

Blood Orange: Essex Honey

2018's Negro Swan by Blood Orange is one of my five most-played albums. 2019’s Angel’s Pulse was a mixtape, and I was eager for a new full-length. With Essex Honey, he did not disappoint.

It’s an album about grief, which, admittedly, it took me a while to realise (“Since you died, it hasn’t stopped raining”). The songs are so elegantly and intricately layered, making the heavy underlying material very palatable. Floating string arrangements, fluttery piano chords, a variety of field recordings, and lively drumming—this is an album that sounds like someone taking their time to grieve as much as it does like someone moving forward, making their way through its stages.

The album plays like a beautiful collage that finds its balance between nostalgia and euphoria, interspersed with—or pierced by—those feelings of grief that spurred on the work in the first place.

Saya Gray: SAYA

I wasn’t familiar with Saya Gray’s work until this year, and I don’t remember how this album surfaced on my radar, but I very much enjoyed submerging myself in its lush landscapes. The songs on SAYA—“magpie art pop”, I read somewhere—are densely layered, but never overwhelmingly so. She rewards you for listening to them using a good pair of headphones, to pick out her strong basslines, guitar riffs, contagious percussion, and funny, prickly lyrics sung in her fluttery voice (“If you don’t like me now, you’re gonna hate me later”). This is a break-up album, after all.

SAYA by Saya Gray SAYA by Saya Gray

Oneohtrix Point Never: Tranquilizer

I appreciate Daniel Lopatin’s work. His soundtracks for Uncut Gems and Good Time are a mainstay in my rotation (the former released under his owner name, the latter under his moniker of Oneohtrix Point Never). Most of his work as OPN, though, largely hasn’t stuck for me. I’ll play albums of his, and I appreciate how impressive their production is, but they never really captivate me. I often find them a little too overwhelming and chaotic.

Until the release of Tranquilizer, that is. Apparently an amalgamation of decades-old sample DVDs bought—a premise that sounded like it was going to be equally overwhelming—this album, to me, is his most appealing yet.

It’s experimental, for sure, but not as chaotic as his other work (yet too chaotic to be dubbed ambient music). The opener reminds me of Pink Floyd, while the penultimate song shapeshifts between rhythms that sound at home on Frank Ocean’s Endless and Kanye West’s Yeezus. My favourite, Cherry Blue, feels to me like an ethereal, heavenly soundscape and, as with most of the album, is best played on a nighly walk through the city.

Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never

Djrum: Under Tangled Silence

The piano is the backbone of this album, and around it everything builds, tumbles and crashes in ways most unpredictable and most pleasing. Layer upon layer of (what sounds like) field recordings, elements of techno, complicated drum programming and that recurring piano make this one of the most exhilarating albums I’ve listened to all year. There are elements of house, techno, dubstep, and even gabber, interspersed with jazzy (improvised) piano playing and string arrangements, and if that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, you’re probably right.

Like Tranquilizer above, it pairs especially well with a nightly walk in the city.

Under Tangled Silence by Djrum Under Tangled Silence by Djrum

Mr. Scorsese

2025-12-22T10:42:35Z

Link: https://youtu.be/tWoKsiFr4Q8?si=5ui4RjmErfvqxCqR

I’ve been rewatching Scorsese films these past two weeks (Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed, Casino), so I was excited to learn about the new limited documentary series Rebecca Miller made on the director, called Mr. Scorsese.

I appreciated the documentary, learning more about Scorsese’s older, brilliant work, and getting an inside look at films like Goodfellas, Taxi Driver and Gangs of New York. The man’s a great storyteller, and at five episodes, I think it could’ve been a little longer still!

Fifty Years After History’s Most Brutal Boxing Match

2025-12-15T12:28:00Z

Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/10/ali-frazier-thrilla-in-manila-history/683972/ref=daniel.pizza

Photo by Neil Leifer for Sports Illustrated.

The Thrilla in Manila, the fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier that took place in 1975, nearly killed them both. In this glorious (paywalled) piece of sports writing, Vann R. Newkirk II recounts the event, its lead-up, and its consequences. Incredible writing, putting you right in that scorching arena.

Anne Carson: Life is Not Fair

2025-12-15T09:05:35Z

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksH3FIs0eJs

Your mind wants to move, and the best thing a work of art can do is take your mind with it, moving somewhere you never expected to move.

Anne Carson, interviewed at the Louisiana Literature festival in 2024. I watched it last year, and the conversation keeps resurfacing in my brain. An enigma.

Retirement Plan

2025-12-07T06:04:35Z

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mqa4zfJdx4

A beautiful animated short film by John Kelly. I watched it earlier this week (thank you Simon!), and it just popped up in my head again, as I tried to read a few articles in an attempt to close a few tabs.

“When I retire, I’ll read the 35 years of saved articles on my reading list.”

Bad Dye Job

2025-12-06T07:23:00Z

Link: https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/bad_dye_job?ref=daniel.pizza

Putting Alan Dye in charge of user interface design was the one big mistake Jony Ive made as Apple’s Chief Design Officer. Dye had no background in user interface design — he came from a brand and print advertising background. Before joining Apple, he was design director for the fashion brand Kate Spade, and before that worked on branding for the ad agency Ogilvy.

It’s baffling this man was tasked with leading user interface design at Apple. Reads like a gigantic misstep, over on Daring Fireball.

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life

2025-12-05T21:27:00Z

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/20/us/typewriter-repair-seattle-bremerton.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6E8.MSt7.5tfts44Yebbf&smid=url-share

Bremerton Typewriter Company, photography by Ruth Fremson.

Finding Mr. Montgomery’s shop required determination. No sign marked the building; no indication that inside, five floors up, a master craftsman was keeping alive skills that predated the computer age. You took an elevator that groaned. When the doors opened, you knew immediately you were in the right place: a 1916 Royal Model 10 typewriter stood guard outside an open door, and the air smelled like oil.

I love pieces like these. Showing the craft, the getting up every day and plugging away at something, a thing you so admire. This one in particular reminds me of a time I visited a fella somewhere in Amsterdam, who repaired record players. Thorens, to be specific, and specialised in the type I have at home. Very kind, very skilled.

My thanks to Thomas, for sharing it.

Erykah Badu performing at The New York Times’ office

2025-12-05T20:09:45Z

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQqdN6tjGl4&list=RDdQqdN6tjGl4&start_radio=1&ref=daniel.pizza

I don’t know why this happened at the office of The New York Times, but here we are. Erykah Badu hasn’t released an album in forever, and it doesn’t matter. Look at her aura as she floats into the room; you wouldn’t dare ask her why. The performance is just about flawless.

Currently, she’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of her landmark album Mama’s Gun. Perhaps someday soon, that album she made with The Alchemist will see the light of day.