Distaste is not a business strategy. And we are not without power.

https://zeldman.com/2026/09/10/ai-disruption-and-standards/

My 9/11. Every New Yorker who was here on that day has their own story.

Mine is small, personal, and unimportant, but I reshare it every year.

https://zeldman.com/glamorous/54.shtml

Wisdom from the creative behind the iPod, iPhone, and Nest.

“Build” (an unorthodox guide to making things worth making) by Tony Fadell and Dina Lovinsky: https://www.buildc.com/the-book

TL;DR “Build” book notes by Dave Martin: https://davemart.in/2022/07/18/build-by-tony-fadell-book-notes/

Whee! I’ve composed, performed, and produced two new songs this weekend. That makes 10 tracks so far that I’ve mixed and sequenced for Side Two—the flip side to Side One, my first album in 40-odd years.

(You can find Side One here: https://jeffreyzeldman.bandcamp.com/album/side-one-2.)

It’s the tenth anniversary of Spinal Cord Injury Day—“a decade of collective global effort to raise awareness, strength prevention, and advance meaningful action for people living with spinal cord injury.”

https://www.iscos.org.uk/page/SciDay

RE: https://front-end.social/@zeldman/117190835659376366

AI versus the open, human web. What’s a humanist—or a humanistic company—to do? Listen in as Patrick Neeman and I try to make sense of things today 2-3PM ET. Free to attend (of course).

Why first impressions are often correct. Today’s jerk is tomorrow’s techno-fascist....

https://zeldman.com/2026/09/01/tales-o-tech-suffering-fools/

An AI conversation you might not hate: 

Live on Friday, Sept. 4, from 2-3PM ET, join Patrick Neeman and me in the Rosenverse as we talk about the need for standards to protect the open web and web content creators in the age of AI. 

https://rosenverse.rosenfeldmedia.com/videos/agent-standards-best-viewed-in-every-assistant

An AI conversation you might not hate:

Live on Friday, Sept. 4, from 2-3PM ET, join Patrick Neeman and me in the Rosenverse as we talk about the need for standards to protect the open web and web content creators in the age of AI.

https://rosenverse.rosenfeldmedia.com/videos/agent-standards-best-viewed-in-every-assistant

Mix

The start of a beautiful weekend....

https://zeldman.com/2026/08/29/mix/

Make Better Mistakes.™

Snow White—17 years old—didn’t come meowing for food when I entered the kitchen at 6 a.m. An hour later I found her lying motionless on the sofa. I stared until she moved, slightly, nestling her face more deeply between her back paws.

We can now explicitly position the text stroke beneath the text fill, preventing it from crowding out the letterforms.

https://tylersticka.com/journal/improved-css-text-stroke/

Improved CSS Text-Stroke: Position the text stroke beneath the text fill, preventing it from crowding out the letterforms. Not a hack or workaround! How #CSS can work now.

Responsive controls, browser-based image processing, the admin bar everywhere, inline Notes, and new blocks headline the second major WordPress release of 2026.

https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-7-1-mary-lou-launches-at-wordcamp-us-with-responsive-styling-improved-media-handling-and-new-blocks#wp--skip-link--target

The Most Important Industrial Designer of All Time

One Frenchman can’t be wrong. Push to the edge of what people will accept. Stop there. Raymond Loewy called it MAYA, and used it to design the modern world. The most important industrial designer you've never heard of....

https://zeldman.com/2026/08/19/the-most-important-industrial-designer-of-all-time/

Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell

The future of web design is nearly 30 years old, and still too little understood.

https://zeldman.com/2026/08/18/ebb-meet-flow-intrinsic-design-in-a-nutshell/

Following a year-long pilot involving 5,000 students across 27 countries, WordPress.com has launched a Student plan with free domains, plugin access, and sites students own forever. — Rae Morey

https://www.therepository.email/automattic-launches-free-wordpress-com-student-plan-for-teachers-and-students

Anthropic’s ‘Watermark’ Text Adulteration in Claude Is a Perversion of Writing — 
by @gruber AKA @daringfireball. ‘Nuff said.

https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/anthropics_watermark_text_adulteration_in_claude_is_a_perversion_of_writing

Missing important titles in your web UX and content design collection since we were forced to shutter A Book Apart? Our authors have your back!

Authors Together: The classic books published by A Book Apart.

https://authors-together.org/