366 lines
14 KiB
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366 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
#[1]Viget Articles
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IFRAME: [2]https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5V7V
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[3]Skip to Main Content
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[4]Viget
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* [5]Work
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* Practice
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We’re a full-service digital agency that’s been helping clients make
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lasting change since 1999.
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[14]Contact Us
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People
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* [15]Company
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* [17]Code of Ethics
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* [18]Diversity & Inclusion
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More
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* [19]Pointless Corp.
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* [20]Explorations
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* [21]Code at Viget
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Featured
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Read the Article: Revolutionizing the Web
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Newsletter
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Revolutionizing the Web
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Read the Article: The Reflection Before Christmas
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Article
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The Reflection Before Christmas
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The Enduring Point of Pointless Corp.
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[22]Brian Williams
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[23]Brian Williams, Co-Founder & CEO
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Article Categories: [24]#News & Culture, [25]#Employee Engagement
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Posted on March 24, 2023
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* Share
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* Share
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* Post
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Pointless Corp. is the innovation lab at Viget, where we step away from
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client work to make fun and useful things for everyone
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P o i n t l e s s C o r p . i s t h e i n n o v a t i o n l a b a t V i
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g e t , w h e r e w e s t e p a w a y f r o m c l i e n t w o r k t o m
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a k e f u n a n d u s e f u l t h i n g s f o r e v e r y o n e
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“Neither pointless, nor a corporation” is how we describe Pointless
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Corp. here at Viget. We founded Viget – an actual company – in 1999
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during the original dot com bubble to build web products for clients.
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Serving clients has always been our purpose or … point, if you will.
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Over the decades, we’ve done just that, completing thousands of
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projects for hundreds of clients. Never forgetting that we exist to
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serve our clients has been key in our longevity.
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About a decade in, we felt the urge to build and launch our own
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projects. [26]Pointless Corp. became the internal [27]brand we adopted
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to remind ourselves that these projects can be fun and useful but don’t
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replace the primary point of Viget. A line from Harry Nilsson’s The
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Point! referencing the Pointless Man serves as inspiration: “a point in
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every direction is the same as no point at all.” We wanted the freedom
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to experiment in every direction.
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So we did. Ideas and teams formed fairly randomly, and Pointless
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Projects began to fill the gaps between our client work. Projects like
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[28]HeyCraig (2009), which sent you an email alert based on your
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Craigslist search (before Craigslist shut us down and added the
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feature). Or [29]Tincan’d (2011), a simple video call platform before
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Zoom or Google Meet. Or [30]BabyBookie, the baby due date office pool
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app over 500,000 people have used since launch in 2012.
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These projects allow our teams to work without the input (including,
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ahem, revenue) of clients, so we’re more free to experiment, wear
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different hats, and learn … a lot. We apply what we learn back into our
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client work. Along the way, we get to know each other better, scratch
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our entrepreneurial itches, and hopefully put some fun and/or useful
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things out in the world for others to enjoy.
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For many years, we organized an annual optional Pointless Weekend. We’d
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kick off hackathon-style on a Thursday evening and wrap on a Saturday
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evening with a functional product out in the wild, as I described
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[31]back in 2012. It’s [32]always been an intense, enjoyable, but
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rather exhausting 48 hours. Photos from [33]2011, [34]2014, and
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[35]2016 bring back some great memories.
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Pointless Weekend 2014 spanned three Viget offices
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A couple of years ago, we shifted the schedule to start on Wednesday
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and wrap on Friday. This made participation easier, allowing parents
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and others with weekend commitments to join. It also allowed projects
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to wrap up just in time for our Friday staff meeting. We awkwardly
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called it “Pointless Week” even though it was still only two days.
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New for 2023: Pointless Palooza
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Two things I like: alliteration and lollapalooza (specifically circa
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1992, but that’s a story for another day). So Pointless Palooza was an
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obvious choice for what to call our little two day adventure. In
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addition to a new name, we’re trying a few other changes this year:
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Pointless Executives. Nothing injects new energy like new leadership.
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We handed over the Pointless reins to two trusty execs: [36]Andrew (day
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job: developer) is our Pointless CEO and [37]Aimee (day job: project
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manager) is our Pointless COO. They’ve done a phenomenal job setting a
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vision, planning, and leading the activities. Their enthusiasm helped
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inspire more than half the company to participate with a record number
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of projects and great results.
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Pitching & Team Formation. Previously, project ideas were “pitched”
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with a single slide and a tight 1-2 minute segment at a staff meeting.
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These were fun and lighthearted, but didn’t always capture the full
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vision, and teams often formed and morphed during the kickoff night.
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This year, project ideas were shared more gradually via collaboration
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in Slack and Notion. Project teams formed with more structure in
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advance, and team members had some time before the kickoff to marinate
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on the idea and get excited to build.
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Even More Remote Friendly. There’s something magical about
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kickoff-pizza, launch day donuts, and [38]in-person collaboration. But
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there’s something even more magical about collaborating with dozens of
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teammates around the country (especially when it’s supplemented by
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[39]sweet swag boxes and Divvy credits for remote treats). Hybrid teams
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work. We still had fun in-office connections, but most of our Pointless
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Projects this year are being worked on with distributed teams, much
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like our client work.
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Pointless Branded Stuff 2023 including a t-shirt and sticker pack --
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very corporate
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Some things haven’t changed from prior years. Team members are still
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swapping roles – PMs writing code, designers running projects, the list
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goes on – which means steep and rapid [40]learning curves. We’re still
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trying out new technologies and approaches to our work, which means
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unexpected blockers and great insights to share. New connections are
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being formed, especially since more than half of this year’s
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participants are in their first year at Viget and experiencing their
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first Pointless event. Forming authentic co-worker connections isn’t
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easy, and our culture is stronger today than it was at the start of the
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week.
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So what projects will launch? I won’t steal their thunder, but we just
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wrapped the presentation portion of six Pointless Project teams at our
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weekly staff meeting and it was the most we’ve laughed, cheered, and
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been inspired in a long time. I expect articles will be written and
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shared in the days and weeks ahead outlining the thrills (and mishaps)
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of the teams this year.
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Pointless Palooza 2023 was a blast!
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Pointless Corp. is more than an annual palooza. We work on projects
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throughout the year in the gaps between client work, weaving the
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teamwork, learning, and teaching values of Viget into all that we do.
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If this is the kind of work and culture you might enjoy, learn more
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about [41]our culture and job openings – perhaps you’ll be able to join
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next year’s Pointless Palooza. After all, inspiring people to join us
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is unapologetically part of the point.
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[42]Brian Williams
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[43]Brian is Viget's co-founder and CEO. He does everything from
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advising our clients to building our conference tables with his bare
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hands in our Falls Church, VA, HQ.
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[44]More articles by Brian
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Related Articles
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* Article
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Our Pointless Logo
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Brian Williams
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* Article
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Introducing Pointless Corp.
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Brian Williams
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* What’s the Point of Pointless Weekend?
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Article
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What’s the Point of Pointless Weekend?
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Brian Williams
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The Viget Newsletter
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Nobody likes popups, so we waited until now to recommend our
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newsletter, featuring thoughts, opinions, and tools for building a
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better digital world. [45]Read the current issue.
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[46]Subscribe Here (opens in new window)
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Have an unsolvable problem or audacious idea?
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Let’s get to work
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[47]Contact Us [48]hello@viget.com [49]703.891.0670
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* [55]Code of Ethics
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* [56]Diversity & Inclusion
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* More
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* [57]Pointless Corp.
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* [58]Explorations
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* [59]Code at Viget
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Sign Up For Our Newsletter
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A curated periodical featuring thoughts, opinions, and tools for
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building a better digital world.
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[60]Check it out
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Social Links
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[61]Viget
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* [62]Washington DC Metro
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© 1999 – 2024 Viget Labs, LLC. [66]Terms [67]Privacy [68]MRF
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* [69]Home
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* [70]Articles
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* [71]The Enduring Point of Pointless Corp.
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18. https://www.viget.com/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/
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19. https://pointlesscorp.com/
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20. https://explorations.viget.com/
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21. https://code.viget.com/
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22. https://www.viget.com/about/team/bwilliams/
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23. https://www.viget.com/about/team/bwilliams/
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24. https://www.viget.com/articles/category/news-culture/
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25. https://www.viget.com/articles/category/employee-engagement/
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26. https://www.viget.com/articles/the-point-of-pointless-corp/
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27. https://www.viget.com/articles/book-review-giveaway-the-geometry-of-design/
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28. https://www.viget.com/articles/introducing-heycraig/
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29. https://pointlesscorp.com/tincand
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30. https://www.babybookie.com/
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31. https://www.viget.com/articles/a-pointless-weekend-or-so/
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57. https://pointlesscorp.com/
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58. https://explorations.viget.com/
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59. https://code.viget.com/
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