Decaf sucks. Today I’m unsucking it. I'm hella stoked to introduce Wimp Decaf wimpdecaf.com. Jump on that waitlist! Most decaf drinkers are tired of sacrificing taste and quality. Most companies use low-quality beans and toxic decaffeination practices, leading to bland results and an unhealthy lack of choice. Delicious coffee should be enjoyed any time of day. It should be as dialed at 8pm as it is at 8am. Where are the great tasting healthy options?? Beer and water industries were facing similar issues. Now look at Athletic Brewing and Liquid Death. Decaf is another underdog and coming out to play with the cool kids. Welcome Wimp. We choose our beans with craft care. Our partners in Guatemala, Colombia, and beyond grow pure, clean, and wildly sophisticated beans. We use safe, flavorful methods like Swiss Water, Ethyl Acetate (a naturally occurring reaction in fermentation processes), and Carbonic Maceration (coming from the wine industry) for decaffeination, ensuring clean and delicious decaf. “IDK what wizardry you are doing but this is definitely better than any other decafs that I’ve had.” Jeff Sheldon (@ugmonk) Wimp is more than just coffee. It’s a posse of people shaking off hustle culture. We’re choosing to enjoy life, work out loud, and have fun. Calm as fuck is a common reply to “how you doin'?” around here. We’re building Wimp in public, embracing every awkward misstep and pro move. It’s like a reality show, but with less drama and more coffee. Why call it Wimp? Someone once said decaf was for the weak. Whatever, dude. We’re owning it, and making decaf the underdog hero. We’re turning what culture says about hustle on it’s head. We're about enjoying great coffee any-freaking-time you want. Join us at wimpdecaf.com and be part of the relax revolution. (too much?🤣) No more chemical-laden, tasteless brews. We’re here for quality, clean beans, and heaps of fun. Stay tuned for more of my personal story over this coming month as we move toward our full launch.

Find what makes you dream.

I don't design pixel perfect in Figma and I'm going to own it. I work out precision in code by myself or with a dev. It's faster for me and the projects I work on. I feel embarrassed by this sometimes, but fuck it, I'm owning it. It's just not how I roll. I want to ship sites.

Also because trauma is not the thing that happened to you, it's how you experienced it.

You're such a champion of humanity. I honestly want me, and my kids to be able to have your level of acceptance and humor. Dammit. I'm still laughing (with you).

It's happening.

I'm not an interior designer, but I'm a designer. I am pretty happy with how this room turned out.

One of my favorite views in the house. Especially in the morning.

Not a bad vacation. Not bad at all.

"This is just fucking beautiful. Thank you." I love making clients happy.

Illustrators and logo designers, what plugins or tools are helping you make complex shapes that feel organic or computational rather than blocky shapes? Perhaps tools or tactics to morph shapes from A to B on a transition of 5 steps for instance...

Hey design friends. Please remember there are real people behind products like @figma and @Adobe. If you have issues with their choices (as I sometimes do), remember that in the mix they are balancing an immense set of priorities and your frustration can be packaged in kindness. Don't be a dick. Choose curiosity. Tools that are supportive in communicating frustration: My observation is ____________. When ______ happened (as a camera sees it), I felt/feel __________. (Anger, sadness, frustrated, annoyance, embarrassed) The story I make up is ____________________. This is your perception. None of us can know reality. That's impossibly complex given every angle/time/priority/need/goal. My request is _________.

I have enough. I am enough. I am satisfied. I don't have to play the game. I am not in a race. I will support others growth. I can accept things I can't change. I can be brave to change the little I can. I can be wise to know the difference.

does anyone else feel like this movement of this tail light indicator is odd because it subtractive rather than additive?

Concepting

🔥 We're on a quest to find our growth CEO or partner for ReallyGoodEmails.com 🔥 ✅ $373k in Rev last year ✅ 1.8mil unique visitors in past 12 mo ✅ 75k+ active subscribers growing exponentially A transparent 🧵 about what we've done, not done, and where we're headed.

I'm sorry. Hoping I can be part of the change here. Thanks for sharing more.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but love after divorce is not only possible, but if you do the work to get healthy, learn from mistakes, and learn to love yourself first, you can to find love that's more compatible and more fulfilling all around. I am grateful.

Just found @ODPomery's art. This stuff is sick. Who else should I be following?

Something I'm hoping to launch in the next month or so. A thing I've thought about for too long. #daretoshare24

ProTip. for @sketchapp users You can paste from your clipboard right into the background panel in the inspector. 🎉

Enjoyed using @pablostanley's OpenPeeps.com work for a new client today. Fun system.

I've got a lot to learn and unlearn. Thanks for taking a minute to explain more and fill it out for me. I understood some before but more now and that's helpful.

I caught my son chewing on electrical cords. So I had to ground him. He's doing better currently. And now conducting himself properly.

Love what I'm working on right now

I prefer an America with this attitude than one where everyone speaks English.

Guerilla art at it's best.

I painted today.

Not upset about my office today

I'm 4 years sober today. Here's a short list of a few things I've learned along the way. Love y'all. link.medium.com/RMiIuTqOr7

Memories. Gowalla came up in a convo about wanting to celebrate neighborhoods and good news again.

So it took me a minute, but I've been trying to come up with a way to create elements that extend in length along with the word in an auto layout element in @figmadesign and I finally figured it out. Feeling smarty pants. Probably I'm the last to figure this out.

My GF told her bosses today she's moving to South Carolina to jump all in with me. We're hoping she can work remotely. This pandemic kind of paved the way for the possibility. One small silver lining in a wild rodeo of a year.

Memories

“We are not working from home, we are living at work.” 🤯

We've been together for three years—with a short metaphysical self discovery gap to prep us for the long haul. I love this woman so much.

These days I'd much rather discuss mental health, recovery journeys, or the role of psychadelics to aid in healing trauma than banter about fonts in a social app. Things change.

Client RFP / Client Budget. /via @TheJustinHall

I think all my talk about recovery has basically reduced my twitter community to about 18 people who've been through enough shit in their lives that they can resonate with the things I care about now. Hi 18 people. I love you.

I wish I knew when I started my career: 1. Until I healed my inner-shit every job would be fundamentally dissatisfying. 2. That almost everyone I know feels at times like they are imposters. You’re not alone. 3. That there’s no work/life balance. It’s not binary. It’s life.

I love using text shortcuts so hard for commonly used text. Anyone else have lists like these?

Today I gave myself another day free from alcohol, but more than that, another day being as alive as possible. June 19, 2016 I quit drinking. 7 years ago today I started inching my way into a fully awake life. Please DM me if I can support your sober curiosity in any way.

Some people say that Americans aren’t pushing into the fold the way we did during the great space race of the 60s. That might be true — but it’s not true for @isaiah_p_taylor at Valar Atomics. This cat is absolutely dialed in on creating a powerhouse company — literally.

I'm grateful for outsideness.

Greybox wires. Always my jam.

I haven't seen my GF in 9 weeks. I am learning to enjoy my own company more. I lost a $240k contract because of COVID-19. New and better opportunities have sprung up instead because I am available. I'm learning more from adversity than I would from the status quo. #grateful

Hey @figma. Love ya. Can you make this select menu wider or wrap text? I can't see what I'm selecting :)

Please laugh and dance with me. I am actually pretty embarrassed about sharing my white boy dance but you all need to join in. I dare you to post yours and try to smile today.

this.

If you think you can't start over, you might be limiting yourself. If my 74 year old mom can do all this, you can change what's not working for you too. My mom is 74. Divorced my dad this last year after 54 years of marriage so she could finally live as her truest self. She facilitates a hispanic women's entrepreneurial training group for illegal immigrant women. She's working with hospice and reading books to several dying people — wrestling with her own aging body. She's started doing readers theater and practicing being dramatic and vocal. She apologized to me for not divorcing my dad when I was a teenager and I needed her protection most. She had previously never apologized to me for anything — literally anything. She moved into a tiny studio apartment where she chooses all her own decor and style, and keeps the heat very low to conserve on power. She manages every dime of her own money and gives away everything she doesn't need. She attends the unitarian church and a buddhist songha weekly (something my dad teased her about previously — so she didn't do it.) She's truly living her best life. Unbelievably inspiring.

Emails are landing pages delivered.

Building things always makes my brain happy and soothes anxiety. once these shelves have plants and books on them it’s really going to frame out this room.

One of the best days I've had in ages. Almost all of it spent solo. Hugs from South Carolina.

Today I'm 41 years closer to needing to use a walker with tennis balls. I finally wrote about the last three years I've been through to celebrate. Thanks for being on the journey with me y'all. medium.com/@whale/41-years-i…

If you want your brands to look like everyone else's search for inspiration on Pinterest, Dribbble, Behance and the like. If you want to create brands that others will eventually copy because your ideas were refreshing. Find your inspiration elsewhere.

Just spent $300 on hiring a limousine and discovered the fee doesn't include a driver. Can't believe I've spent all that money and have nothing to ... chauffer it.

Hi, my name is Matthew, and I wave goodbye at the end of online meetings

Felt strong today. Grateful for time to ride.

I'm so nuts for decaf coffee it's silly. Having a blast over here. @wimpdecaf is coming to life. Sign up at wimpdecaf.com. Who in your circle is a decaf coffee drinker that needs to know about what we're bringin'?

This is why I designed Wimp to be a playful coffee brand. The world does not need another too-cool-for-school coffee brand for elitist coffee snobs. We need welcoming spaces for play to combat boring.

My life fell apart. Marriage ended. Got kicked out of my community. Lost many friendships. Did the work to quit drinking and made serious process with some deep childhood wounds and CPTSD that was crippling my life. That was 1,615 days ago. Still sober. Much happier.

Thank you. You all are always so encouraging. I feel wildly supported in this cuckoo adventure of completely revamping my career path and trying something new with Wimp. 🧡 I remember ages ago being the young guy who'd designed Squared Eye 🐋, and had landed a column in Netmag, and was somehow speaking at SXSW alongside my heroes like @elliotjaystocks @samanthatoy @iancoyle and @clagnut. I remember meeting @FictiveCameron @shiflett and @jontangerine and losing my mind with how stimulating our convos were. I can't think of anyone who was a naysayer. I was always encouraged and co-promoted. We built real community in Greenville and the Southeast with friends like @chrismerritt @blankenship @chandlervdw @jeremyjantz @kvnsmth @wmdmark @jaminjantz and @MarcoSuarez @Paul_Johnson @aerykpayne @robricgon @mattecook @mds @aarron. People came to a tiny city for Greenville Grok to be something — together. Then Zaarly with Marco and Jamin. What a freaking trip with @ianhunter @ShaneMac @bowman @ajsharp @jmj and @EricJorgenson trying to flip commerce like a bunch of bozos. I remember selling the shit outta that booyah boy. Twitter was always supportive of what we were trying to do even when it was hyperbolic in those early startup days. Onto Relay Foods (online grocery before Amazon and Instacart took off). That team designed and built infrastructure and UI that is still used in online grocery today. You were there rooting us on. Who remembers Assembly?? Co-built digital products with co-ownership staked on the Blockchain? Way ahead of the curve. Too far ahead. I remember having a real sense of appreciation from this community of the work I was trying to do. On to Fathom & Draft @reallygoodemail (with @mevlow @mtthlbg and Cook) and and you all always had our backs while we learned and I grew in design and leadership. Even while some of Twitter/X was political or ranty, I honestly have always felt care and camaraderie here. Then building a dream of the most meaningful agency work of my life, @bunsenstudio with @bwkny. Working with @bentenwoodring @DanLordxyz @itsliamtucker @secondeight_ @kiel_m and a serious troop of other talent. We always felt your incredible appreciation and support as we strived to build something truly serving of our science and deep tech allies & friends. Grateful to really dig into agency ownership with @mattvaru and Alexander Diner. Not sure I'd have made it through without them. I'm flying to LA this morning to celebrate my 46th birthday in one of my favorite cities with some of my dearest friends including @notnotcookie and the best woman I know (Ako). I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to give back to this community what I've received? I hope I can. I'll keep trying. Thank you friends. Seriously. It's wild to reflect on all this. XOXO ...and thank you @amyclaire for your support in the insanity of all of this wild path. It was felt, if not always expressed as it could have been. 🙏🏼

.@figma so many agency owners are asking for you to consider new ways of relating to small teams with high variable sharing across clients, writers, commentors, etc. It's really a shame. We want to love and appreciate everything about Figma as a tool and company.

Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize Optimize

This note from my 15 yr old son makes the pain and strain of parenting all worth it. I'm so proud.

Today is one of those days where 5 years ago, I'd be 3 strong beers in at 1:37pm and looking toward whiskey at 5. Instead, Today, I can pause and breathe, give myself some leeway, maybe shed a few tears, accept life as it is, myself as I am, and recognize life is pretty messy.

Danced in the rain today with my bride. Spent some time with my sweet babybird. Had a bout of the sourpuss moods. Building a business. Doing the best freelance design and advising of my life. Trying to do my job quietly resisting the shit of this insane period of history by just being earnestly kind to each person I encounter.

Our little guy is ten years old and going off to his first full time job — is what this feels like. Really Good Emails has been acquired by our very good friends over at @beefreeio. beefree.io/blog/beefree-acqu… I'll do a more full write up soon, but I couldn't be happier about this next leg of the journey. Beefree is a perfect home for our little email inspiration product. I'm proud of our team, and my second business exit.

😭😭😭 We've been watching a lot of Simpsons this year. My kids and my ex made this for me for Father's Day. I have no words. I'm so happy and can't believe how good life is.

Deleting Slack from my phone. Heading home to Colorado for 6 days with Ako and the kiddos. I've lived in SC for 16 years but CO is still home.

Invision is shutting down. That brings SO many memories to the surface. Knowing that many of you have NO idea what I'm talking about I choose to feel old, wise, and cool as hell like this guy, rather than outdated and senile.

Contrary to popular belief, I am human, not a water mammal, and I'm going to Utah for a one week roadtrip. I'm happy to be alive.

From Friday to Monday I drove 2,627 miles from San Francisco to Greenville SC (I'm a machine) so I could double down on this relationship. We've been through a journey learning to be adults in relationship but I've never felt more at rest and grateful.

How it started (below), how it's going: #daretoshare24 (Creative Direction for my part)

My GF told me to take the spider out instead of killing it... So I did. We got some coffee, pretty cool guy, said he works as a web developer.

I'm a design outside in 30° temps listening to deep house techno on the headphones next to a fire kind of guy.

super interesting prototyping for iPhone apps with simple HTML, CSS, and JS maker.github.com/ratchet/

I'm 42 on Wednesday. I have two tat sleeves. I ride a Triumph Scrambler. I've been through hell and back. I'm both a bear and teddy bear of a man. Also I sat on my kitchen floor holding my dog and cried feelings missing my family and my girlfriend.

Can't wait to show these to the client tomorrow. Part of a bigger prototype.

Today is three years sans alcohol. Thank you to all of you who stuck with me through the mess of this work. Thank you to all of you who let me down so that I had to surrender control and all my excuses. I love this new life—mess and all.

I figured out what was hogging all the CPU of my brain space for the last four years.

When I got divorced and kicked out of the church and lost my community six years ago I had to completely redo everything. EVERYTHING. Today I have the best relationship of my life, close friends I can be co-vulnerable and silly with, and I love the shit outta myself. Bonkers.

I'd like to learn how to walk an agency, running it is exhausting.

Goodbye Alcohol – a little bit of honesty about a hard thing in my life. medium.com/character/goodbye…

This is going to be a challenging season friends. Remember: 1. We were never in control to begin with. 2. To listen to each other with kindness and respect. 3. To encourage each other with human positivity. 4. To look out for each other. Help those who need it more than you.

Today is another great day. I'm 43 years old. I've been a dad for almost 17. Today marks 6 years (2191 days) sober. It's not the time that matters but the steady work along the way. I'm grateful for all the hard stuff that pushes me deeper in, and the joy that comes from it.

My pants.

Welcome Sumo to the family.

I got divorced. Now I help divorcing friends, or those w/ relationship trouble. I quit drinking. Now I help other people facing addiction. I quit the church. Now I help other people transition from religion. What tragedy allows you to support others now?

I will be driving across the country on my 44th birthday. Worth it.

Hey senior designers, wanna quit your crappy startup salary and have fun working on new projects with me? Fathom & Draft is exploding with new work and we're having so much fun. DM me.

I've created my own little Japanese LA/CO here in South Carolina. It's taken all of 6 years to get it to this. The longer journey in the link.

Emails are like billboards. They get seen at 75mph. If you can grab them in about 1 second, they'll take the next exit and then you can tell them more. Say less, better.

I've spent the last 20 years designing and building others products and companies. What will I do with my savings today? I could invest in the stock market. I could invest in a startup. I could invest real estate. Instead I'm investing in me. I'm investing in the idea that I can create more joy, more financial margin, more love and life on this planet than any other investment I could make. I'm nervous as fuck about it. Not because I think I can't do it, but because I think I can. Jesus, I'm getting emotional just thinking about how big this is for me. I'm paying for infrastructure, staff, support, and time. Time to create. Time to plan. Time to dream. All so I can put my experience to work building something special. Solving a very quirky problem at a very strange time in human history. Will I fail? I sure hope so. I hope I fail enough every fucking day that I learn every fucking day. I hope every micro failure leads to new understanding. I hope that I can make enough early recoverable failures that I can build something really meaningful and maybe develop enough experience to avoid catastrophic failures. For example: Today we're realizing that one of our beans that I've already purchased about 300 kilos of ($3k worth), just isn't what we'd hoped it would be. Our roaster is a legend on the Loring (roasting machine), but the beans are still coming out drier and more astringent than I am willing to ship to our customers as passing QC for Wimp. There are a bunch of ways we might use these beans or sell them, but passing them off as our best isn't one of them. Oooph. Lessons. Not fun, but necessary. The lesson? Try more coffees. Learn more about tastes that I like that fit our philosophy. Get other's advice sooner. Democratize advice from a broader range of people. Make sure my naive voice doesn't carry too much weight in areas I'm not expert. This is how I'll build a place to work and invest my creativity that provides me and others margin to be fully alive in their work. To make mistakes that build a network of wisdom. It's not: What if I fail? It is: How will I respond to my failures? At 45 years old. I'm a failure engine. I can't drink like other people. Anything that hits the dopamine receptors is off limits to this guy. Every single day I'm thankful for that failure. Is it a failure of character or a failure of my genetics or epigenetics? Does it matter? Today I'm not drinking. Today I'm learning from my mistakes. Today I'm doing the next right thing. I'm having a blast building a company on these principles. Come follow along. Join in with me. 1. Share your failure today. I dare you to be vulnerable. 2. If you're into shit like this, follow me for more, sign up at wimpdecaf.com, and lets be a community of humans building calm and margin in our lives. Margin to make recoverable mistakes. Your friend. Matthew

Be kind. Every one you know is fighting a hard battle. Including your client, colleague, ex husband, that customer service agent, and that person that gets under your skin.

Happy Holidays you filthy animals. I'm so grateful for this design (and science) community. If family is hard for you this time of year, you're in good company. If family is precious to you, you're in good company. Hugs all around.

It probably has something to do with the intensity of the last two years of recovery from alcohol for me. It’s been a brutally humbling experience that has launched me into a waking new life.

And Pattern Tap 2.0 is live and in beta. Enjoy! patterntap.com