Things
Products, tools and experiments — including the ones that turned out to be dead ends, kept with their real state attached.
About / Tim LordI GET
I GET
INTERESTED
IN THINGS.
01THEN I DO
THEN I DO
SOMETHING
ABOUT IT.
That curiosity can turn into software, a product, a piece of writing, practical teaching, music, or work made with somebody else.
The different kinds of work belong together, because they are the same habit pointed at different material: get interested, figure it out, make something, then share what was learnt. A song and a database both start with not quite knowing how the thing goes, and both end with something you can hand to someone else.
Some of it is commercial. Some of it exists only because a question would not go away. Both are kept here, with the same amount of honesty about how they went.
I work from Newquay, Cornwall — mostly online — with the place as context rather than a slogan.
Four worlds, one habit
WHAT I MAKE
Everything published here is real work with its actual state attached. Nothing is invented to fill a page.
Writing
Essays and working notes written while the making is still going on, rather than tidied up afterwards.
Learn
Walkthroughs and workshop material taken from work done for real, not from a course outline.
Music
Songs written, recorded and released as Tim Lord — singer, songwriter and producer.
Selected evidence
All thingsTHINGS I HAVE MADE
Why I Built Music Kite Connect
A pass is only useful when it connects identity, place and permission without turning the whole product into a ticketing system.
The Jargon Laundry
Paste your website copy and it marks every phrase you share with ten thousand other websites, then scores how dirty the wash was.
The Gig Is Everywhere and Nowhere
A live event can exist on six platforms and still be hard to find. Music Kite is an attempt to make the scattered fragments agree.
Get interested / Figure it out / Make something / Share it
Read the thinkingHOW I WORK
- Get interested
The interesting bit is before it is clear
Most useful work starts as a question rather than a brief. The early, undefined part is where the actual shape of the problem turns up, so it is worth staying in it a bit longer than feels comfortable.
- Figure it out
Working is not the same as finished
Something can pass, load, build and demo and still be wrong. The proof matters more than the first version, and the last part of any job is the part that decides whether it was worth doing.
- Make something
Make the real thing
A working artefact settles arguments that a document cannot. Building the smallest honest version of a thing is usually faster than describing it, and it tells you what you got wrong.
- Share it
Say what actually happened
Including the parts that did not work. Writing it down is how the next piece of work gets easier, and it is the only version of the story anyone can check.
Singer / Songwriter / ProducerAND THEN
AND THEN
THERE IS
THE MUSIC.
Songs written, recorded and produced under my own name, and released wherever people actually listen. The most recent is Let me be me.
Hear itNewquay, Cornwall / mostly online
ELSEWHERE
The same person in each of these, doing a different part of the same job.