Matthew Buchanan (Home)

— Woah, Tumblr’s lead developer Marco Arment is leaving a full-time role at the company to pursue his independent career (he’s also the creator of the Instapaper empire). He’ll continue to fulfill an “active consulting” role as the engineering team grows. I’m more than excited for what he’ll create next, but can’t help feeling a bit fearful for this platform given what he’s been instrumental in building at Tumblr. Best wishes!

(Source: marco)

— Tumblr is hiring, and their lunchtimes are delicious and magical.

— Google’s visual design lead, Doug Bowman, is leaving the company after three years in the role. It’s difficult to comprehend that Google existed for its first seven years without a classically-trained designer on its payroll. I like Buzz Andersen’s take, that without a design-led focus, Google products will generally “fall short of achieving the emotional connection that people feel to an iPhone”. I use and enjoy many Google products, but I’ve never loved their aesthetic, no matter what the numbers say.

— Patrick Wang commenting on Yahoo’s decision to lay off key Flickr user experience designer George Oates.

— Fake Empire: If your answer is no, you should consider what you are doing.

— Joe Clark in discussion on the WGA strike.