Nerd Alert 53: Talk less, code more

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

Adam: Given that homepages are less relevant than ever, why not use your homepage as a place for relatively low-risk experimentation? It’s been fascinating to watch the evolution of the homepage at Quartz over the past few years as they’ve tried different approaches. The latest iteration just launched this week and they shared some of the thinking behind it.

Ben: Styling the number on ordered lists with CSS is, well, a pain. But with a pseudoelement and the counters introduced in CSS 2, you can make the numbers do whatever you want.

Jack: Data journalism is leading to new forms of storytelling, but acquiring the needed technical skills can be challenging. If only there was a really excellent book on the subject to guide the way.

Kaeti: Give native CSS variables a chance.

Ryan: University of Washington's GRAIL (Graphics and Imaging Laboratory) demonstrates their digital puppeteering software, which can construct a controllable model of a person based on a photo collection.

Inndy: Who wants an omelet?

BE OUR GUEST

This week's guest contributor

Our guest this week is Sarah Glen (@saraheglen), a product associate at Chalkbeat.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to incorporate design thinking into the daily decisions we make at Chalkbeat. The caveat here is that I'm not technically a designer, so I sometimes question the extent to which I can shape our strategy in this area. Enter Erika Hall's piece We're all imposters (so be a good one!) and this wonderful reminder:

"An interesting person is interested in things. Being interested in things makes you good at things because you will ask questions rather than hide your ignorance to protect your ego."

YES.

So, consider this a reminder that titles don't matter, and if you're passionate about something you will find a way to do it well. For additional life upgrades, consider reading Erika's book Just Enough Research (which I highly recommend) or diving into her Medium archive.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

Quartz released an epic guide to bad data. Learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before you.

End the elections arms race! If you use data from the AP, check out the collaborative work happening with Elex.

WE MADE A THING

Our projects, manifest

We're working hard on getting the next Largo release ready, including a major revamp of our social sharing tools. Coming soon!