Pablo Picasso: The Bull

Come Along My Weblog Design Journey

At my core, I want to do quality work. To me, quality means “useful to someone”.

I think Clayton Chistensen’s ideas are currently one of the best frameworks to help guide designing useful things.

Readers Hire Weblogs for Reasons

Get Smart Quickly

I hire a weblog to rapidly understand something without slogging through books or courses.

Readers want:

  • Condensed mental models (for quick decision making)
  • Clear explanations (for judging when a model applies)
  • Opinionated takes (to challenge their own thinking)
  • Practical insights (more judgement tools)
  • A shortcut to someone else’s hard-earned knowledge (avoid avoidable mistakes)

They want to reduce the time it takes to become competent.

See How an Expert Thinks (Not Just What They Conclude)

I hire a weblog to borrow someone else’s reasoning process.

Readers want:

  • A step-by-step reasoning flow (instructions)
  • Decision criteria (what’s important - and what’s not)
  • How trade-offs are handled (what’s important - and what’s not)
  • How experts notice what others miss (don’t want to be surprised with bad conequences)

People are not just hungry for answers - they’re hungry for thinking patterns. They want to level up their sensemaking skills.

Discoer New Ideas, Tools, and Strategies

I hire a weblog to find new things I wouldn’t have found on my own.

Readers want:

  • Curated links (for more information - context, credibility)
  • Novel concepts (be ahead of the curve)
  • Emerging patterns (be ahead of the pack)
  • Niche insights (don’t be caught off-guard)
  • “Edge of the internet” discoveries (FOMO)

They want to expand their sense of possibilities.

Escape the Noise of Social Media

I hire a weblog because I’m tire dof shallow takes and algorithmic junk.

Readers want:

  • Depth (confident their mental model of the world is accurate)
  • Focus (feeling productive)
  • Slowness (not missing something)
  • Signal over noise (actually making progress in their understanding of the world)

They want to replace dopamine-scrolling with meaningful learning.

Build Trust in a Voice (Not a Brand or Algorithm)

I hire a weblog to consistently hear from a person I trust.

Readers want:

  • An unfiltered voice (something that sounds honest and not bullshit)
  • No algorithmic manipulation (trustworthy)
  • Predictable quality (don’t want to be surprised in a negative way)
  • A relationship with the author (connection to ideas that resonate, validation)

They want to reduce cognitive load by following a trusted mind.

Find Someone Who Articulates What They’re Already Feeling (this one is the most powerful job-to-be-done)

I hire a weblog to put words to the vague intuitions I already have.

Readers want:

  • Vocabulary for their experience (to be able to articulate the idea to someone else in an argument)
  • Concepts that “finally explain it” (I want to be right)
  • Validation that they’re not alone (am I the crazy one?)
  • A sense of intellectional companionship (a comfortable space to come back to when the world is insane)

Humans want to feel understood and gain language to express their own thinking.

Join a Narrative or Journey (be part of a group for safety)

I hire a weblog to follow someone who is going somewhere interesting.

Readers want:

  • Behind-the-scenes progress (live thru vicariously - so they don’t have to risk their current situation)
  • Honest reflections (we’re all alike right?)
  • Experiments and failures (why do we all have to go thru the pain of failure? can’t we learn from other’s sacrifices?)
  • Long-form arcs that unfold over months/years (consistency, comfort, a sense of comradery)

We want to participate in a story that inspires us.

Make Better Decisions

I hire a weblog to make more informed choices with less regret.

Readers want:

  • Frameworks (easy to follow and replicate results)
  • Heuristics (path of least resistance)
  • Contrarian viewpoints (not a leming)
  • Simplifications (easy - or at least the feeling of being easy)
  • “Do this, not that” (help me avoid mistakes)

We want to increase decision quality without increasing effort.

Emotional Jobs for Readers

  • Identity
  • Belonging
  • Reassurance
  • Inspiration

What Readers Do When Weblogs Fail Them

  • They turn to Twitter/X threads
  • They hunt through Reddit
  • They join Discord/Slack groups (and never really engage)
  • They skim YouTube explainers
  • They subscribe to newsletters instead (but do they really read them or just delete them when cleaning up their inbox?)
  • They buy boooks they never finish
  • They search StackOverflow endlessly

Weblog Mission

Become the trusted shortcut to understanding, clarity, and inspiration for ???

TODO: Figure out what I want to be a trusted source of knowledge and expertise for.

Core Jobs People Employ Weblogs To Do

  • Make thinking visible for myself and others

    I employ a weblog so I can externalize my ideas and see my thinking evolve over time (reflect on past opinions).

  • Build compounding credibility

    I employ a weblog so strangers can trust me without me having to pitch them.

  • Create an always-on business development engine

    I employ a weblog to attract customers while I’m busy doing the work.

  • Teach at scale

    I employ a weblog so I can teach once and reuse forever.

  • Think in public to attract collaborators

    I employ a weblog to signal the problems I’m interested in and attract the right people.

  • Document the journey - not just the destination

    I employ a weblog to create a public lab notebook of what I’m building.

  • Transform tacit knowledge into assets

    I employ a weblog to convert my experiences into something that can be bookmarked, linked, or cited.

  • Establish a home on the internet

    I employ a weblog to own a place no algorithm can take away from me.

Related Jobs

Improve writing ability over time (writing is thinking), shape public perception of my career arc, pre-seed my audience for future products, test ideas before investing in them, serve as a sandbox for frameworks, create a body of work for future me, turn conversations into evergreen assets.

Emoitional Jobs

  • Identity / Legacy (whoami?)
  • Confidence / Control (sense of control over my destiny)
  • Belonging (be part of something bigger than me)

Personas

  • CTO with engineering capacity problems. To attract “high-quality” engineers.
  • Consultant to pre-sell expertise so sales calls are warm.
  • Founder looking for their audience.
  • Domain expert solidifying their expertise.
  • Creator to think out louad and attract like-minded collaborators.
  • Professional manifesting their destiny. Opening oppurtinities.
  • Software engineer documenting their rediscoveries.

Iterate Over Every Job-to-be-done (Pick a job, execute a design iteration, pick the next job and repeat)

Next: Translate Jobs into Job Requirements -> Design Criteria -> UI Patterns for the Weblog Design

Get Smart Quickly

Requirements

  • Reduce cognitive load
  • make the core idea obvious within 5 - 15 seconds
  • allow skim-first, read-depper-later
  • visually summarize the post at the start
  • avoid deep scroll walls

Design Criteria

Cognitive Clarity

  • Every page must have a 5-15 second “graspable idea”
  • Key takeaways must be summarized visually
  • Navigation must show where you are and what else is adjacent

Skimmability Without Shallowness

  • Content must be layered: overview -> details -> deep dive.
  • Typography must support scanning: bold anchors, clear hiearchy.

Structural Integrity

  • The mental model of the article must be visible.
  • Readers must sense the shape of the argument.
  • Articles must include structure markers (e.g., TL;DR, path diagram).

Calm, Mission-Control Aesthetic

  • Spacious margins
  • Monochrome + accent color
  • Flight-manual typography
  • Zero popups, autosresponders, or “growth hacks”
  • A visual language of clarity (grids, lines, sharpness)

Jobs-Based Navigation

Not categories. Not tags. Missions, jobs, and concepts.

Navigation must orient the reader by:

  • Problem they’re trying to solve
  • Level of depth
  • Domain (Systems, Leadership, Engineering, Integration)

Trust-Forward Presentation

  • Author bio in sidebar
  • “What I believe about X” pages
  • “My current projects” status board
  • Updates and logs (mission logs)

Turst is built through clarity, not persuasion.

Narrative Continuity

  • Breadcrumbs for story arcs
  • Season-based content groupings
  • Mission log timeline
  • Highlights for recurring themes

UI Patterns & Components

Article Layout

  • Insight Header (5-second punchline)
    • Bold, distilled idea
    • Subtitle that frames context
  • TL;DR Panel: Block at top containing:
    • The problem
    • The insight
    • The outcome
    • (Optional) Diagram miniature
  • Reasoning Pathway: A vetical or horizontal diagram
    • How I got here
    • Key decisions
    • Alternatives rejected
    • What changed my mind
  • Structured Sections: each with:
    • A bold insight header
    • 100-250 word explanation
    • Inline callouts (“Why this matters”, “Trade-off”, “Pattern”)
  • Concept Anchors: Glossary cards embedded inline
  • Mission/Series Navigation
    • “Part of the X Mission” block
    • “Next->” and “Previous <-”
  • Related Missions (Jobs-based)
    • Cards linking to content the reader might hire next.

Reader Navigation Model

Navigation is not chronological. It’s built around Jobs, Missions and Concepts.

Jobs Navigation: Sections like:

  • Learn fast
  • Fix Broken System
  • Scale without the back office
  • Build better integrations
  • Think through complexitt

Each job acts as it’s own “playlist”.

Missions (Narratives/Series): Examples:

  • Mission: Build the Hubot Data Plane
  • Mission: Juphjacs Web Framework
  • Mission: Scaling Field Ops SaaS
  • Mission: Everday Systems Thinking
  • Mission: Kaizen Ops Blueprint

These are story arcs.

Concepts/Field Guides: These are recurring intellectural tools:

  • Leverage
  • Feedback Loops
  • Interfaces
  • Idempotent flows
  • State machines
  • Coordination cost
  • Observability
  • Dynamic models

Each concept page is a mini playbook.

Mission Dashboard (reader home page) - Think: NASA Mission Control meets a modern blog.

  • Start Here: A welcome explaining the blog’s purpose and who it servers.
  • Reader Jobs: Where do you want to go? Cards for each job.
  • Big Ideas: My signature frameworks.
  • Missions in Progress: Projects I’m actively writing about.
  • Mission Log Timeline: A chronological view, but story-first.

Concept Map Sidebar: Optional slide-out panel showing:

  • All major themes
  • How they relate
  • Expanded view of conceptual landscape
  • Navigation through mental models

This helps readers “see the system” at a glance (re: seeing spaces)

System architecture (reader mode) - High-level structure of the weblog system

  • Start Here (Priming layer)
    • Missions (Narrative layer)
      • Mission X
      • Mission Y
      • Mission Z
    • Jobs (Intent layer)
      • Get Smart Quickly
      • Escape the Noise
      • See How Experts Think
    • Concepts (Education layer)
      • Field Guides
      • Frameworks
      • Glossary
    • Articles (Content layer)
    • Mission Log (Chronology layer)

Multi-layer information architecture designed for progress, not posts.

Design principles summary: The reader mode weblog UI must:

  • Make thinking visible
  • Expose reasoning, not just results
  • Enable skim-first reading
  • Highlight big ideas visually
  • Structure everything around user progress
  • Create calm amidst the noise
  • Turn the weblog into a narrative system, not a feed
  • Show your personality and honesty
  • Help readers learn fast
  • Invite them into missions, not posts

Design

  • Rader homepage: Mission Dashboard
  • ARticle page layout with reasoning path
  • Concept/Field guide page