Raphael Schaad is the Head of Design, Connected Apps at Notion and the co-founder of Cron, a next-generation calendar backed by Y Combinator and acquired by Notion in 2022. Prior to this, Raphael was a researcher at MIT Media Lab, specializing in user interface design and data visualization. He played a key role in developing Flipboard's award-winning app and the iA Writer text editor in Tokyo.
Quotes by
Raphael Schaad
On why there aren’t more designer founders
“There aren’t that many role models. Obviously we have the Brian Cheskys etc. but hundreds of thousands of young engineering students have very clear role models to go after whereas if you ask a class of design students about potential paths, the option of founder isn’t commonly mentioned, is my guess. Success cases have to trickle all the way down.” (from Twitter)
On fighting entropy
“Building software is a constant fight with entropy. The bigger the surface area, the more things will start to get inconsistent...every time you touch a file, try not to leave any trash by adding things to the environment, and try to take out a little more trash, even if it's as small as fixing a typo in a code comment. It doesn't impact the user experience, but it's like the broken windows theory. If you don't fix a broken window, there's instantly going to be more broken windows.” (from Dive Club)
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Raphael Schaad