Res Extensa

Res Extensa

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Two roads to longevity
Ford, Rolls-Royce, and two different philosophies on building things that last
Feb 14 • Coleman McCormick
The Best Books of 2025
My favorite books I read this past year
Jan 15 • Coleman McCormick
Between the plan and reality
Improvisation, experience, and adapting in motion
Dec 18, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
We're making cities boring
Optimizing for efficiency got us sameness and undifferentiation
Nov 12, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Old roots, new branches
Living between the slow layers of tradition and the fast layers of change
Oct 10, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
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The Best Books of 2024
Dec 19, 2024 • Coleman McCormick
MIT's Building 20: a Masterpiece of Utility
Sep 8, 2023 • Coleman McCormick
Pace Layers
Sep 26, 2024 • Coleman McCormick
When order conceals chaos
Nov 22, 2024 • Coleman McCormick
Designing for intuition unlocks understanding
How abstractions in design speed up first-use, but prevent deeper understanding of systems
May 23, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Culture is invisible infrastructure
Your cultural norms are the foundation, the scaffolding, the hidden protocols
May 15, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Curate your creative diet
An extended note-to-self on consumption and creativity
Apr 26, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Form, context, and fit
Unfolding the forces of design problems with Christopher Alexander's model
Apr 10, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Pace Layers
The hidden architecture of resilient systems
Sep 26, 2024 • Coleman McCormick
Running an ultramarathon
46 miles as an amateur runner
Sep 6, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Gratitude on the 4th of July
A time for optimism (even when it might be hard)
Jul 4, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Exploring the origins of words
Cracking open the etymological notebook
Jun 25, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Lessons from Little League
Baseball as a teacher of resilience, patience, and the value of small wins
Jun 5, 2025 • Coleman McCormick
Res Extensa
Res Extensa
A newsletter on adaptive systems, culture, and how we build things in the face of complexity.
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