Nice article. It's good to see designers talk about how to run their businesses. That's something that's almost never taught in design school (or generally in school), and when it is, it's not taught well. Generating clients when you're first starting as a freelancer is a real concern. I think most of what this article recommends is good: be active in finding the type of clients you want to work for, don't distract yourself with things that don't matter, focus on the goals at hand (whatever they may be for you.) I didn't find the article to be overly smug (though, I get the impression from the comments that some phrasing may have been changed based on feedback. You live; you learn.) I'm also a big fan of Ramit and can assure everyone that this is not a scam. You should check him out. Also, to everyone's point that maybe $30K in 6 months doesn't seem like much or enough to live on, please remember that the cost of living for those of us in the Bay area is about 3x of that in San Diego, and people pay accordingly.

One real criticism is that it isn't cool to call another designer out by name. Kerem is a good person and a great designer, and I'm certain you would have gotten a lot less backlash if you hadn't. I understand that you were trying to illustrate a point, but it came across like you thought you were better than him (which maybe you are, who knows.) The problem is that he is really well-respected and well-liked, especially by this community, so people took it personally, like you were picking on one of their best friends. Another way to make the point would have been to include successful and respected designer's who also don't have portfolios (there are a fair number.) I think the article and the point you wanted to make could have been just as good had you not included his portfolio (which is objectively well designed.) Ramit would never throw someone under the bus--whenever he talks about "experts" he never names them, but lets you imagine who you want. Sometimes, we subconsciously want to put others down in order to feel better about our own choices. It's important to remember that one person's success is not mutually exclusive with your own. Also that success means different things to different people. I often have to remind myself of both of these.

Anyway. Like I said, we all live and learn. Generally interesting post. Thanks for contributing.

That was my exact point! Thanks for reading.

Hey! Thanks for reading and thanks for the thoughtful critique.

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to start a fistfight. I didn't suspect many people would even read the post. My post was mostly trying to refute the idea that Flat UI would make something LESS usable, not necessarily that it WILL make it more usable. The reason I included that tweet was just because that's what spurred my thoughts on it. (And I admit, I should have included the entire twitter conversation, because it was in a reply that the original tweeter actually says he thought Flat made things less usable.)

My basic point was that skeumorphic, flat, or something in between, if you don't do the work ahead of time to make sure your UX makes sense, your product isn't going to be usable. I wasn't trying to prescribe one over the other. However, upon re-reading, I see how that might not have come through.

I personally don't care. It wont stay up long if it's not good content, so why does it matter?

I think this is a problem that only affects "power users". As you mentioned, the site will grow (hopefully!) and new users wont have seen old content. Does that mean it's not relevant to them? I, personally, don't think so. This is the same as Reddit and any other social sharing site. If something is so ubiquitous that everyone will have already seen it, then less people will post it, or if it is posted, it will leave the front page quickly. But if it's old but still valuable, I don't think it's problematic to have it hit the front page, and stay for awhile. It's new to someone. The point is to provide value, and if you're doing that, then it's fine. If you have personally already seen a link, ignore it. Or better yet, start a discussion around it.

It does do this. Some people choose to ignore it, if they think it's important enough.

I also love Dribbble and never really got into Forrst. I think I posted once or twice and never returned. A couple of new platforms out there to check out:

Hunie.co Haven't done much with it, but it seems to be more like Forrst in that it emphasizes feedback and critique. But it's also a place for startups to find designers.

usechisel.com Also focused more on feedback, with an added focus of discussion. You can start and reply to threads as well as pieces of work. It's like Branch + Forrst for designers (specifically interaction, product, and web designers I believe.)

Zerply.com This one is more of a social network, with an emphasis on discussion. It's also a place to showcase work and can act as a resume + portfolio.

Hope this is helpful!

While her writing style can come off as aggressive, that doesn't mean she's not making valid points. She's not saying that having fun at your job is bad. She's not even saying that these specific perks are bad. She's merely asking you to examine them a little further and not accept these things at face value. One of the biggest take aways is to look at hiring practices. Not hiring people because they don't fit your "culture" can be really toxic. It breeds homogeneity, which tons of research shows is terrible for creating products. Not only that, but it can mask things like subconscious racism, sexism, agism, etc. Another big take away is examining the culture of focusing only on shipping quickly, which has become somewhat of a sacred mantra of silicon valley, but can be bad for your product and company overall. There are many other points in there, but I wont go into them all. Again, the biggest thing she encouraged (in her own, somewhat harsh way) is to examine and question, not just accept because it's "cool" or "fun" to do so. I would highly suggest rereading from a place of wanting to understand her perspective. I know it's hard not to get defensive when reading something with a harsher tone that bashes something you love, but I think there are some great nuggets in there, and it would be a shame to miss them out of anger.

I love that this made it to DN. And I love Shanley. That is all.