Sean Voisen
@seanvoisen.com
Trying to make computers better for human thinking and creativity. Currently leading design engineering at Adobe. Opinions own.
Interwebs: seanvoisen.com
Pronouns: he/him
Interwebs: seanvoisen.com
Pronouns: he/him
Adding to the reading queue. I work with a few designers. Do I actually want to know how they think? We shall see ... 😉
November 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Adding to the reading queue. I work with a few designers. Do I actually want to know how they think? We shall see ... 😉
📝 New post: What started as a 60-day life habit experiment learning and writing about philosophy became something else—neither hobby nor work, but "serious leisure."
Also ... polished up my site design, including better typography for long-form reading.
seanvoisen.com/blog/not-a-h...
Also ... polished up my site design, including better typography for long-form reading.
seanvoisen.com/blog/not-a-h...
Not a hobby: Reflections on life habit experiment №2
A visit with an old friend on a bike ride through Central Park leads to a deeper question: what's the difference between a hobby and leisure?
seanvoisen.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:28 PM
📝 New post: What started as a 60-day life habit experiment learning and writing about philosophy became something else—neither hobby nor work, but "serious leisure."
Also ... polished up my site design, including better typography for long-form reading.
seanvoisen.com/blog/not-a-h...
Also ... polished up my site design, including better typography for long-form reading.
seanvoisen.com/blog/not-a-h...
Took the day off. If you need me, I'll be over here at the local coffee shop, polishing up my personal site's design & typography, and (hopefully) finish some neglected drafts of new essays.
November 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Took the day off. If you need me, I'll be over here at the local coffee shop, polishing up my personal site's design & typography, and (hopefully) finish some neglected drafts of new essays.
Excited to dig into my copy of "Context Window" by @scottboms.bsky.social. Awesome little book with thoughts on computing and quotes from Wendell Berry, Lewis Mumford, the Unix philosophy—just my kind of thing. Came with a bunch of cool stickers and riso prints too.
November 7, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Excited to dig into my copy of "Context Window" by @scottboms.bsky.social. Awesome little book with thoughts on computing and quotes from Wendell Berry, Lewis Mumford, the Unix philosophy—just my kind of thing. Came with a bunch of cool stickers and riso prints too.
📝 New in my ongoing "philosophy for designers" series, some design interventions for "lingering" and contemplation, inspired by Byung-Chul Han's "The Scent of Time."
seanvoisen.com/blog/design-...
seanvoisen.com/blog/design-...
Philosophy for Designers 4: Design for lingering
Inspired by Byung-Chul Han’s "The Scent of Time," this is an exploration of design interventions for contemplation and lingering.
seanvoisen.com
October 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
📝 New in my ongoing "philosophy for designers" series, some design interventions for "lingering" and contemplation, inspired by Byung-Chul Han's "The Scent of Time."
seanvoisen.com/blog/design-...
seanvoisen.com/blog/design-...
📝 The third post in my ongoing series on "Philosophy for Designers" is now up. A little bit of a side quest here, looking at what the post impressionist painter Cézanne might have to teach us about philosophy and design.
seanvoisen.com/blog/cezanne...
seanvoisen.com/blog/cezanne...
Philosophy for Designers 3: Cézanne’s doubts
How Paul Cézanne's methodological doubt and embodied approach to painting offers a phenomenological framework for design.
seanvoisen.com
October 3, 2025 at 4:51 PM
📝 The third post in my ongoing series on "Philosophy for Designers" is now up. A little bit of a side quest here, looking at what the post impressionist painter Cézanne might have to teach us about philosophy and design.
seanvoisen.com/blog/cezanne...
seanvoisen.com/blog/cezanne...
📝 Happy Sunday! New post in my Philosophy for Designers series is now up. Continuing down the phenomenology rabbit hole, looking at how the "structural form of parts and wholes" might be useful in UX design.
seanvoisen.com/blog/parts-w...
seanvoisen.com/blog/parts-w...
Philosophy for Designers 2: Parts and wholes and moments, oh my!
In which we explore how the phenomenology of parts and wholes can help us improve design decisions.
seanvoisen.com
September 21, 2025 at 1:50 PM
📝 Happy Sunday! New post in my Philosophy for Designers series is now up. Continuing down the phenomenology rabbit hole, looking at how the "structural form of parts and wholes" might be useful in UX design.
seanvoisen.com/blog/parts-w...
seanvoisen.com/blog/parts-w...
📝 Just posted the first in my series on "Philosophy for Designers," which is my attempt to read, learn and share about philosophy and design in the open.
A quick primer on the school of philosophy called phenomenology, written for anyone who designs digital things.
seanvoisen.com/blog/phenome...
A quick primer on the school of philosophy called phenomenology, written for anyone who designs digital things.
seanvoisen.com/blog/phenome...
Philosophy for Designers 1: Phenomenology and the impossibility of experience design
A brief introduction to phenomenology and its relevance in the practice of user experience design.
seanvoisen.com
September 14, 2025 at 3:39 PM
📝 Just posted the first in my series on "Philosophy for Designers," which is my attempt to read, learn and share about philosophy and design in the open.
A quick primer on the school of philosophy called phenomenology, written for anyone who designs digital things.
seanvoisen.com/blog/phenome...
A quick primer on the school of philosophy called phenomenology, written for anyone who designs digital things.
seanvoisen.com/blog/phenome...
📝 Just published my monthly personal update, with a few recommended reads.
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
Recently №2: End of Summer 2025 edition
Personal updates for August 2025, and a few other things worth your time.
seanvoisen.com
August 31, 2025 at 3:18 PM
📝 Just published my monthly personal update, with a few recommended reads.
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
A former colleague and I have started engaging in a practice he calls "pair reading" and it's been really great. He describes it as "pair programming for intellectual exploration."
Basically, it's a book club of two people. Pick a book, read it together, and talk about it as you go. That's it.
Basically, it's a book club of two people. Pick a book, read it together, and talk about it as you go. That's it.
August 30, 2025 at 4:42 PM
A former colleague and I have started engaging in a practice he calls "pair reading" and it's been really great. He describes it as "pair programming for intellectual exploration."
Basically, it's a book club of two people. Pick a book, read it together, and talk about it as you go. That's it.
Basically, it's a book club of two people. Pick a book, read it together, and talk about it as you go. That's it.
📝 Sharing my current project for after hours self-studies, a little something I'm calling "Philosophy for Designers."
seanvoisen.com/blog/introdu...
seanvoisen.com/blog/introdu...
Introducing “Philosophy for Designers”
A personal experiment in autodidactic learning.
seanvoisen.com
August 30, 2025 at 4:11 PM
📝 Sharing my current project for after hours self-studies, a little something I'm calling "Philosophy for Designers."
seanvoisen.com/blog/introdu...
seanvoisen.com/blog/introdu...
📝 A quick note inspired by Frank Chimero's recent blog post reflecting on his sabbatical.
seanvoisen.com/stream/2025-...
seanvoisen.com/stream/2025-...
Devote your time
A brief reflection inspired by Frank Chimero's return to blogging.
seanvoisen.com
August 28, 2025 at 10:01 PM
📝 A quick note inspired by Frank Chimero's recent blog post reflecting on his sabbatical.
seanvoisen.com/stream/2025-...
seanvoisen.com/stream/2025-...
Pro tip for anyone working in a large organization: Be kind to executive assistants. Use the words please and thank you.
August 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Pro tip for anyone working in a large organization: Be kind to executive assistants. Use the words please and thank you.
Habit experiment №2: Self-directed study
A personal experiment in autodidactic learning.
seanvoisen.com
August 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
📝 Well ... it's been 30 days and life habit experiment №1 "analog evenings" has concluded. I wrote a brief follow-up and reflection on how it went.
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
Follow-up to habit experiment №1: Analog evenings
A follow-up to my first experiment exploring a new habit of eschewing electronics and screens in the evening.
seanvoisen.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:30 AM
📝 Well ... it's been 30 days and life habit experiment №1 "analog evenings" has concluded. I wrote a brief follow-up and reflection on how it went.
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
New (used) book haul. Continuing my autodidactic philosophy of technology studies.
August 6, 2025 at 8:24 PM
New (used) book haul. Continuing my autodidactic philosophy of technology studies.
📝 What do we lose when we try to measure and track everything we do? What do we gain by letting some things go unrecorded?
seanvoisen.com/blog/the-imp...
seanvoisen.com/blog/the-imp...
The imp of optimization
A meditation on what we lose when we excessively measure our lives.
seanvoisen.com
August 1, 2025 at 7:08 PM
📝 What do we lose when we try to measure and track everything we do? What do we gain by letting some things go unrecorded?
seanvoisen.com/blog/the-imp...
seanvoisen.com/blog/the-imp...
Programmer clairvoyants
Thoughts about designing and making software, mostly.
seanvoisen.com
August 1, 2025 at 4:23 PM
📝 Trying to get back into the habit of writing (semi) monthly personal updates. Here's a longish one, including books I've been reading (mostly philosophy), and links to a few other things I've enjoyed recently.
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
Recently №1: Socrates, Stoicism and the joy of lingering
Personal updates for July 2025, books I've been reading, and a few other things worth your time.
seanvoisen.com
July 28, 2025 at 10:04 PM
📝 Trying to get back into the habit of writing (semi) monthly personal updates. Here's a longish one, including books I've been reading (mostly philosophy), and links to a few other things I've enjoyed recently.
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
seanvoisen.com/blog/recentl...
Multitasking as antiprogress
Thoughts about designing and making software, mostly.
seanvoisen.com
July 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Thanks to Byung-Chul Han, now lost in conjecture about what it would mean to live in a slow, leisurely society dominated by scent-based media instead of visual imagery.
July 19, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Thanks to Byung-Chul Han, now lost in conjecture about what it would mean to live in a slow, leisurely society dominated by scent-based media instead of visual imagery.
I've been reading much more since starting my "analog evenings" habit. Added several new books to my bookshelf page. Donald Robertson's "How to Think Like Socrates" was a recent favorite. Great blend of philosophy, practical psychology, and ancient Greek history.
seanvoisen.com/bookshelf/
seanvoisen.com/bookshelf/
Bookshelf
Thoughts about designing and making software, mostly.
seanvoisen.com
July 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
I've been reading much more since starting my "analog evenings" habit. Added several new books to my bookshelf page. Donald Robertson's "How to Think Like Socrates" was a recent favorite. Great blend of philosophy, practical psychology, and ancient Greek history.
seanvoisen.com/bookshelf/
seanvoisen.com/bookshelf/
📝 How might Socrates use ChatGPT? Some brief thoughts inspired by the recent MIT Media Lab paper on AI and cognitive debt.
seanvoisen.com/blog/socrati...
seanvoisen.com/blog/socrati...
Socratic dialectics with AI
What the story of Thamus and Theuth might actually suggest.
seanvoisen.com
July 9, 2025 at 3:58 PM
📝 How might Socrates use ChatGPT? Some brief thoughts inspired by the recent MIT Media Lab paper on AI and cognitive debt.
seanvoisen.com/blog/socrati...
seanvoisen.com/blog/socrati...
📝 I'm trying a thing. Here's personal habit experiment №1: "Analog evenings."
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
Habit experiment №1: Analog evenings
A personal experiment in eschewing digital devices for quieter, more contemplative evenings.
seanvoisen.com
July 6, 2025 at 7:57 PM
📝 I'm trying a thing. Here's personal habit experiment №1: "Analog evenings."
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
seanvoisen.com/blog/habit-e...
Dear AI, help me do less
How can we use AI to actually do less, instead of more?
seanvoisen.com
June 24, 2025 at 9:08 PM