Steyn Viljoen
@steyn
Designer at CustomerOS. Gardener. Dad. Write at Viljoen Space about product, gardening and parenthood.
Steyn Viljoen
viljoen.space
"Learn to like what doesn't cost much.
Learn to like reading, conversation, music.
Learn to like plain food, plain service, plain cooking.
rowns i in h, trees, brooks, hiking,
Learn to like people, even though some of them may be different... different from Yearn to like to work and enjoy the satisfaction doing your job as well as it can be done.
Learn
... See moreToday we’re building boring products because we struggle to go much deeper than “I’m alright”. Going deeper is the difference between experiencing the Sagrada and The Telephone Building.
Steyn Viljoen • Beautiful, boring, and without soul 🕌
Naval
Startups solve for efficiency. Places solve for thoroughness. Startups solve a specific problem as profitably as possible. Places manage all aspects of being human as thoroughly as possible. Startupping is a finite game. Placemaking is an infinite game. Trying to run the same playbook for both is a mistake.
Venkatesh Rao • Placemaking vs. Mission-Shaping - By Venkatesh Rao
What do I mean by lifestyle? Roughly speaking: a detailed feel for what your day to day existence would be like. Some questions to consider when imagining an ideal lifestyle:How much control do I have over my schedule?What’s the intensity level of my job?What’s the importance of what I do?What’s the prestige level?What type of work?Where do I... See more
Study Hacks • The Most Important Piece of Career Advice You Probably Never Heard - Cal Newport
Perhaps because the life of a garden is also a vivid reminder that anything of beauty and radiance takes time, takes care, takes devotion to seed and sprout and bloom, gardens have long been living cathedrals for the creative spirit.
Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash
Quality software from independent makers is like quality food from the farmer’s market. A jar of handmade organic jam is not the same as mass-produced corn syrup-laden jam from the supermarket.
Industrial fruit jam is filled with cheap... See more
A home is so much more than a structure. It is your life and refuge. Sometimes I go back and forth in my mind, "is design just vanity - or does it matter and what's its proper place?" I know beauty matters. I am an unabashed advocate for that - we don't have nearly enough of it. But home matters a LOT - and good design is just simply making a beautiful functional home. Where is the line between your home and your life? Impossible to define, they are woven together. That's why design matters.
