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The Newsletter | Edition 093
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Progress Report is dedicated to providing inspiration for action. In this special takeover newsletter series, we highlight our team members and the ways in which they achieve progress in the day-to-day.
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ROLEJunior Designer
CURRENT LOCATIONNew York, NY
HOMETOWNLos Angeles, CA
I’m Matthew! I usually spend my free time desperately trying to keep my Immortal rank in VALORANT, sleeping, or watching videos of people cooking things I will never be able to make myself. Though I do try pretty often.
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What "progress" means to me: Progress is a constant.
I don’t think I’ll ever finish learning new things, improving myself, or hoping for a kinder world, and I believe all of this counts as progress in one way or another. “Progress” means putting work towards a goal, no matter what it is. |
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Recent article that expanded my worldview: "Truth About the War"
This piece, by Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, finds a completely unique way to break through a worrying trend of misinformation and disinterest in reading beyond headlines and Twitter threads. The piece utilizes a Counter-Strike map (created by the newspaper) to clandestinely distribute banned information on the war in Ukraine to Russians who would otherwise be unable to reach beyond their country’s propaganda. It creates an interesting discussion about our access to information and reliance on convenient ways of accessing it. I wouldn’t know where to turn if I couldn’t get accurate information quickly, but now it seems I can just open up Counter-Strike. |
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Cool fact I learned in the past week: Greek philosopher Chrysippus reportedly died of laughter after watching a donkey eat figs.
No context necessary. Seems like a cool guy. |
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Tactic I use to make progress: Numerical chunking
I like to separate both work and personal tasks into numerical chunks rather than creating an open-ended list so that I have concrete goals. Do five of these, two of those, and so on. I also like to bait myself to that goal by, for example, stopping a manga at a cliffhanger and then forcing myself to wait to read the next chapter. Very effective.
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Quote I live by: “If you want to play, you first need a playground.” (Haikyu!!, Vol. 13)
This quote echoes what professors will often tell you in design school. To break the rules, you have to learn them first. You need a strong foundation to jump from! I apply this way of thinking in my design work, my hobbies—everything, really. It’s an all-purpose way to approach new things. Haikyu might be an odd place to find a quote like this, but hey, it’s worked for me. |
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Current favorite music artist: Jai Paul, hands down.
Legend. Mysterious. Genre-defining. He made a massive impact on the music world with one single demo (immediately sampled by Drake and Beyonce) and an equally massive impact with a second demo, then dropped off the map. Yet, he subsequently became a favorite artist of names like Lorde, Ed Sheeran, Kaytranada, Caribou, Anderson Paak, Flume, and more. His 2013 leaked album (recently “officially released” in its original unfinished form) completely changed my life. Pitchfork calls his music a “miracle of cultural synthesis,” and something about it tends to give me hope that “better” is possible for all of us.
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Current favorite book: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Such an incredible experience to read. I’ve met more than a few book lovers who call me basic for this take, but it's so much fun. I love the random esoteric bits that don’t reveal too much about the key mysteries of the story, the concrete-poetry-like way of organizing text, and the story within a story treatment. |
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Current favorite game: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Honkai: Star Rail
Recently, these two have been huge time sinks for me. Massive games with big worlds, but at least that means I’ll always have something to do every day for the next 50 years!
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