Carl Barenbrug

Research + product design

lab

A random list of silly things I hate

A blogger challenge. Thanks, Manu. And being British, there’s simply no chance I can pass up the opportunity to complain about things I dislike. Hate is a strong word, though. My feelings aren’t that strong. When I was thinking about this topic, there’s probably hundreds of mildly annoying things that I’ll find myself complaining about day-to-day. Actually, Buzzfeed has a pretty good list that any sane person would agree with. And I feel like I’m a fairly tolerable guy. But I’m trying to think of a handful of other things I dislike in this otherwise wonderful life.

  • maximalism
  • bad kerning
  • virtue signalling
  • unjustified entitlement
  • social media influencers
  • no free wifi in coffee shops
  • newsletters without an unsubscribe link
  • the inevitability of injuries that come with age
  • how phone batteries still only last about 24 hours
  • parallax and scroll effects that slow everything down
  • subscriptions for things that used to be one-time purchases
  • greetings and sign-offs in every email of a chain (emails should be written like messages)
  • further to the above, images in email signatures
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