Share What You Know: The Motivation behind Caliper

Today, we stand in front of an enormous pool of knowledge, generously shared by countless thinkers, creators, and doers. The digital era has empowered us, making knowledge not just accessible, but also easy to use through an array of tech tools and platforms. Amid this informational whirlwind, however, it's easy to lose focus. If everyone has access to everything, how do we make our contribution unique? The answer lies not in knowing everything, but in curating and sharing the right resources - a philosophy brought to life through Caliper.

Caliper is a simple tool, not intended to dazzle with uniqueness but to serve a clear purpose: a personal catalog of design and tech tools that I've discovered on the web. It's a project born out of a sincere desire to share what I've found, believing that everyone should have their own 'Caliper' - a treasure trove of useful resources that aid their creative or professional journey.

What makes Caliper a helpful companion isn't its novelty but its approach. The tool is curated by me and updated monthly, ensuring that you have fresh resources at your disposal. However, its true essence is not about the tool itself, but about the idea it embodies: the idea of sharing knowledge.

The digital world can feel overwhelming, like standing before an infinite library with no guide. Caliper seeks to be that guide, a beacon of light helping you navigate the labyrinth of information. Yet, it’s just my take on it, a reflection of my knowledge and interests. And this is precisely why you should create your own Caliper.

Creating your own Caliper means building a reservoir of knowledge, tailored to your interests and needs. It means recognizing that it's not about knowing everything; it's about knowing what's right for you and sharing it with the world. It's about making sense of the clutter, discerning what matters, and using it to cultivate your unique path.

In the end, the tools you select, the resources you curate, reflect your journey, your discoveries. Sharing them can help others just as it can help you, sparking new ideas, fostering connections, and even opening up new avenues of knowledge.

This ethos is what Caliper is all about - a testament to the power of sharing what you find. It's not special because of its mechanism, but because of its intent: to encourage a culture of shared knowledge and discovery. After all, we are all learners in this vast digital landscape, and the knowledge we gain becomes even more meaningful when we pass it on.

So, start today. Create your own Caliper, share your findings, and become a part of the vast tapestry of shared digital knowledge. You never know how your unique perspective might light the way for someone else.

Have you heard of NoCode?

There's a new computing movement that represents the next wave of humanity's relationship with machines, and it's called NoCode. If you've never heard of NoCode, in short, it's a process and a collection of tools that allow people to use the power of computation to create tools, products, services without writing lines of code.

There are a couple of common elements in every NoCode platform. Usually, the 'coding' part is abstracted to a number of clever and sleek UI elements. Rarely is there a text editor, lest a designer freak out at the sight of "real code". Lastly, 'What You See is What You Get' (WYSIWYG) as far as the output is concerned, so the results of your logic are immediately apparent to you. These features do a pretty good job of encouraging 'non-coders' to dive into the platform to try and prototype their dream.

Right now, prototyping is as far as NoCode will usually take you. There are some services that will allow you to NoCode your way into a fully functioning product, if you count SquareSpace as a NoCode tool. But the movement has some serious momentum. It's proving itself as a learning tool, and the Web Services sector has a tremendous incentive to turn your average Jane into a developer. So expect the sector to keep growing, and expect more and more services to support deploying NoCode tools as full-fledged products and applications without all of the drawbacks that you see now.

If the above mini-explainer has you interested, check out the Demo Day my friend John Scrugham put together recently (a recording of it is on YouTube) In it, a couple of us designers show off some of our NoCode tools that we developed using platforms like Bubble, Notion, Airtable, Glideapps, Zapier, Coda and Webflow.

If Steve Jobs envisioned the personal computer as a bicycle for the mind, NoCode may be the paved road or the motorcycle; just another developmental step in this iconic metaphor. No longer must we resign ourselves to using our laptops as glorified typewriters. Finally, we may be liberated to teach ourselves how to fish in this digital sea of the internet.

NoCode Demo Day brought to you by some of the awesome folks at Coda

Introduction

Welcome to the personal blog of Nick Cassab. My full name is Nicholas Cassab-Gheta which can be quite the mouthful. Luckily, it’s an extremely unique name, so if you google it you’ll either find some of my published work, or you’ll end up here. Feel free to navigate over to the contact page to find out how to get in touch. Thanks for dropping by.