iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 14/04/2025

I had to install Adobe Illustrator to export something for work. Haven't used a Creative Cloud app on purpose in 10 years. This is the industry standard? Are we sure?

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/03/2025

Refining some macrodata (collecting paperwork for taxes)

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/03/2025

Getting organized can be a form of procrastination.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/03/2025

I consume so much more coffee on days that are gloomy.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/03/2025

My task for the week is to get my *systems* in order. Note-taking, task management, file management... anything that I've been neglecting that I can make run on autopilot.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/03/2025

Last week of funemployment begins today!

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Reposted by Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV

Eric Dalio @ericdalio.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Another great 'AI In Practice' series last night in the Hudson Valley. Discussions on building a chatbot, hosting your own local models, vectors, ethics and the future. Thanks to Mike Thicke for organizing, @barnfox.bsky.social for the space, and @connecthv.com for bringing us all together.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 13/03/2025

I could only hear the bassline of the music playing in this coffee shop and I was pretty sure it was Biggie Smalls. But now I'm listening and I think it's a techno remix of Neil Young?

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 12/03/2025

I like Feedbin as my RSS reader, for a few reasons: 🔠 Good typography 🎨 Good design in general 🎚️ Has filters, so I can knock out stuff I'm not interested in seeing ▶️ Supports YouTube & Reddit feeds too ☁️ Connects with Raindrop, my preferred bookmarking service

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 12/03/2025

I cleared out my RSS reader and am trying a new approach... 👇

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 12/03/2025

It doesn't hurt to just ask for what you want. Be direct. Directness is underrated.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 11/03/2025

I've been thinking a lot about how to stop letting algorithms (and, by extension, corporations and other "non-me" entities) dictating what I spend time thinking about.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 11/03/2025

I want to get better at rigorous note-taking, for a few reasons: 👇

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 03/03/2025

One underrated part of funemployment is that I can do everything on one computer, using the tools I prefer. No more using Jira for work tasks and Linear for ConnectHV, or Google Docs for work notes and Obsidian for personal.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 03/03/2025

There's a real lack of quality writing aimed at staff/principal/lead-level design ICs and "player-coach" design leaders. So here we go — a newsletter aimed at mature product designers who don't need more Figma tutorials. Check it out and subscribe for free! digitalterroir.org

digitalterroir.org

Digital Terroir

Reflections on high-impact product design, decision-making, and the intersection of software and society.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 19/02/2025

I propose renaming “elevator pitch” to “waiting for the last person to arrive in a Zoom meeting pitch”

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 19/02/2025

Some decisions are easily reversible. Others? They're one-way doors. 🚪🔒 I prefer reversible ones. There’s comfort in knowing you can pivot if things don’t go as planned. But sometimes, one-way doors are necessary. No risk, no reward! So when is a decision a one-way door? 👇

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Reposted by Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV

Eric Dalio @ericdalio.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Fantastic meetup last night in Kingston for tech and other creatives in the Hudson Valley. So many great conversations including climate tech, AI, family estate planning, science fiction, and urban planning. Thanks to Jordan Koschei @connecthv.com for bringing us all together.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 18/02/2025

The blank screen is intimidating. Without the constraints of the physical world, we’re limited only by what the browser or OS can render. This is exhilarating—but also overwhelming. With infinite possible solutions to any problem, how do we choose the right one? 👇

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 18/02/2025

There’s too much work to do, and too little time. Too few designers. Too little energy. You can’t singlehandedly design every interface, landing page, icon, and social post. No matter how large your team, some things will always take priority over others. 👇

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 18/02/2025

The bigger the company, the harder it is to change. So, is a design system really worth it for large enterprises with legacy products and deeply ingrained processes? Absolutely. Here’s why: 👇

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/02/2025

Design systems are ultimately a political challenge, not a design/engineering challenge. Building the system isn't the hard part; it's persuading teams to adopt it. It's about the people, not the artifact.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/02/2025

The best Product Designers have some Product Manager DNA.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 17/02/2025

A design system should empower, not constrain, a team.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 16/02/2025

I'm a software designer & engineer with 15+ years of experience at big companies, startups, and more. I post about design strategy, design engineering, and how software interacts with place ("digital terroir"). I also build ConnectHV, the creative community for the Hudson Valley. Follow along!

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 16/02/2025

There's a real lack of quality writing for late-career IC product designers.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 05/02/2025

I miss the days when "online" was somewhere you went, not someone you were.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 05/02/2025

"Hudson Valley" is the adjective; "The Hudson Valley" is the noun.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 05/02/2025

I've been really digging this album for work lately: music.apple.com/us/album/du... In the words of Pitchfork: "the dreamiest ambient music, given the massive scale and physical presence of an earthshaking club soundsystem."

music.apple.com

Due in Color by Andrea on Apple Music

Album · 2023 · 12 Songs

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 05/02/2025

I added a ton of drone footage I've taken to AWS S3 and made it available to anyone via an Unsplash-like UI on the ConnectHV website. Doing this has nearly 4X'd my monthly AWS bill ⚠️ (But it's worth it, because it was $0.07/mo and now it's like $0.30/mo.)

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 04/02/2025

Read more. Do things that increase your ability to focus. Get involved in your local community. Know your neighbors. Care for the people and things around you. The greatest act of resistance is to be more human.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 04/02/2025

Is there a term for the hesitation before interacting on IG/Threads, fearing it might ruin your algorithm?

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 04/02/2025

Can software have a "sense of place?" Can code have terroir, like food and wine do? I genuinely want to hear your opinions on this; it's a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about but don't have settled thoughts about.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 03/02/2025

The higher up the Product Design career ladder I go, the less (visual) designing I do. Being a Principal Product Designer is so much more writing and thinking than moving pixels around. (In the most satisfying way!)

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 03/02/2025

Creative hubs tend to develop in cities because cities have density. If you're a designer looking for a programmer, you can walk into any coffee shop in San Francisco, throw a rock, and hit your future cofounder.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 31/01/2025

The Hudson Valley is big — 150 miles end-to-end, with 2.5 million residents. A distributed geography needs distributed infrastructure for connecting people.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 31/01/2025

Someone at a ConnectHV meetup handed me a business card; he'd founded a startup with some other folks after they were inspired at the previous meetup. The previous meetup was only 3 weeks earlier. Three weeks from attending an event to being inspired to forming a new company. 🤩

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 31/01/2025

When I started making websites and apps, I didn't realize that design and development were treated as two separate disciplines. Why design a picture of a thing if you could also go build it? And why build something if it isn't made to be intuitively usable to humans?

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 30/01/2025

I've been tinkering on the idea of a hyperlocal online directory for the Hudson Valley for at least 8 years. The first version was Hudson Valley Talentbase, which allowed people to showcase their work a la Dribbble or Behance. It... didn't quite work.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 30/01/2025

When I started working on ConnectHV, it was just a little web app I was building solo. My role has changed to now focus more on managing a Slack community and hosting live events, which are *very* extrovert-coded compared to tinkering on code.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 30/01/2025

I love Michael Pollan's formulation: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." What's a similar idea for media consumption? My first draft, which I don't like very much: "Consume media intentionally. Favor text. Mostly long-form."

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 30/01/2025

Tonight is email night — I'm working on improving ConnectHV's email marketing. Lots of low-hanging fruit here.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 29/01/2025

My goal this year is to become literate again. Weird phrase, I know. I wrote a blog post about it here: jordankoschei.com/becoming-li...

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 29/01/2025

Sometimes I feel guilty that my hobby involves most of the same things as my day job — design, code, staring at a glowing rectangle, etc. Though as a friend said: "Why not just feel good that you like your job enough that you do it for fun too?"

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 29/01/2025

I really like the dichotomy between working on something global for my day job and something hyperlocal for my side project.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 28/01/2025

Working in Laravel is such a pleasure. Laravel + Tailwind + AlpineJS makes it very easy to stand up a good-looking site in, like, a couple of hours.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 28/01/2025

Does anyone here have any experience with metadata-driven UI?

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 28/01/2025

The Hudson Valley is big — 150mi end-to-end, with 2.5m residents. A distributed geo needs distributed infrastructure for connecting people. Let's make it easier for a person in Beacon to meet a collaborator in Kingston, or a small business in Hudson to find the perfect freelancer in Newburgh.

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Jordan Koschei | ConnectHV @connecthv.com · 27/01/2025

I was in San Francisco for a team onsite last week, and my SF-based coworkers warned me that Northern CA was experiencing a cold snap. It was -3 when I left my house in New York. It was in the 50s when I landed. That was the cold snap.

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