I would like to learn more about design - or writing, or cooking - and I find nothing quite as frustrating as “Think about X”.

“X” is inevitably some principle. Think about spacing. Think about adjacency. Think about aroma, or presentation.

This is not helpful.

I would like, instead, specific examples. I want good examples and I want bad examples. Evolution has given me a pattern-seeking brain, and so I would like to see the things and find the patterns.

Specificity is difficult. It is the hard problem. When you find specific advice, it is often gold.

Even an enumeration of conventions can be incredibly valuable.

Good Examples

Here is some specific advice I have heard:

• In web design, you should have a “vertical tempo”. The gaps between elements, and the heights of the elements themselves, should be multiples of some “atomic” value. I like to use 1rem.
• Websites put their logos in the top-left corner.
  • I like this “advice” a lot, even though it is no more than an observation of a common trend. “Websites” do this for some reason - and while it is better to understand why, you don’t need to understand at all to take advantage of whatever that reason may be.
  • You do need to understand why in order to hold an argument with a “visionary” middle manager who wants to buck the trend and go with the top-right corner.
• Your food must not taste salty. However, you should add salt until it is almost salty. Maintain a safe distance from the threshold, but do approach it. “Approach the cliff for a better view, but do not step off the edge.”
• A half-cup of rice per person is about right.
• Before staining your woodworking project:
  • Sand to 220 grit, but not higher.
  • Round the corners and edges. They look great now, but are fragile.
• All elements of a bulleted list should agree on whether or not they start with a capital letter, and end with punctuation.
• Add acid at the end to finish a food, as otherwise it cooks off.
• Keep lists to between 5 and 8 things.

Each of these items is specific - they tell you what to do, and when. The “when” is often very constrained - these apply in narrow circumstances - But, with enough of them, you can begin to pull out patterns, and a general sense of the overarching ideas being expressed.

Bad Examples

We don’t always get bad examples.

Sometimes I am lazy and don’t feel like listing them. They are less fun to try and come up with.

Sometimes they are useless. Watching two novices play chess will not help you, if you have already surpassed them.

There are two big ideas here:

• Extracting patterns from many examples is good.
• Specific advice, even in specific contexts, is good.