We buy a ton of stuff from Target. But it dawned on me I know more about Walmart and Sam Walton than I do about the history of Target.

Which is funny. Because I can’t stand shopping at Walmart. The experience drives me crazy. The Walmart nearest to me is dirty, the aisles are cramped in a way that shoppers can’t comfortably cross paths, and the lighting feels like I’m in Tom Hank’s office from Joe versus the Volcano. It’s a lot like this

I found some interesting bits.

Target was originally not Target. It was a company called the Dayton Dry Goods Company which had been around since about 1900 and owned a bunch of your typical department stores. It wasn’t until 1962 when Target was conceived by a guy named:

John F. Geisse

John seems like a pretty interesting innovator with these big store concepts. When he created Target he said:

We will offer high-quality merchandise at low...

My wife, Lynette, and I find ourselves with an unusual Easter this year… just hanging out at home by ourselves. So we took a quick peek to see what Google thought we should do today in the neighborhood:

4th link down is Binny’s Beverage depot. Looks like Google wants us to be getting some stuff to make cocktails.

Some nice one liners from The Big Bang Theory last night.

Don Quixote is not a book about a Donkey named Xote.

Sheldon

Stephen Hawking: I know, he’s the wheelchair dude who invented time.

Penny

A few weeks ago I wrote an article: [When does design matter?](n8.tumblr.com/post/18194968750/when-does-design-matter).

I thought I’d write a sequel because of a photo I stumbled on that I took a month ago.

The “too long; didn’t read” of my last post was: I am perplexed as to when something needs to look nice and even operate well to make some kind of difference to a business.

I absolutely love well thought out design. Style and function. What eludes me however is a formulaic confidence to know when and where it matters.

Surely at a department store full of designer clothing at one of the wealthiest malls in Illinois, form and function are going to matter.

Let’s take a look at that photo.

That’s the shoe section of Macy’s at Woodfield Mall of Schaumburg, IL.

This store is a fucking shithole.

I’m not a brilliant photog so this picture doesn’t do it justice. But you might be...

Chicago native or tourist, I highly recommend you take the tour of Wrigley. You’ll find they actually do have electricity, but little else :)

I’m thrilled to join the blogging network Dustin Curtis put together that is
SVBTLE.

I was on a tear blogging in 2009 and 2010. Mostly over at Inkling’s blog, the company I started with Y Combinator in 2006.

However all sorts of stuff has been changing, including another stint with Y Combinator (a bunch more on that later).

With all these changes, my blogging frequency went down the drain. Recently, I’ve slowly started writing again. Now I get to up the commitment to my writing by joining SVBTLE.

I’m very honored to be included in an awesome group of writers. I hope I can share some stuff that inspires, motivates, educates, and delights you.

(I have gone full YouTuber it appears. Natrons like Patrons. Ridiculous. I owe this awesome name idea to Davidd Sargent, the second ever Natron.)

I’ve started a new community around the work I’ve been doing. I think it’ll be a tremendous way to help you get further on your own projects, open up more of the things I work on, and also, importantly, to get to know you much better. I’ve created three tiers to hopefully provide enough value to fit into your budget.a

And so far so good!

Proud to be a Natereons
-Davidd Sargent

Excited to join the new community and say Hi to you and other folks in Slack!
-Jared White

Here’s what you can get

My New Unpublished Ideas
$5 a month
Get early looks at all my upcoming work (articles, videos, products, etc.). This gets you access to a newsletter of raw, unpublished thoughts, ideas, and products I’m chewing on. I think this will be an...