Ganis Angger Atmawarin

A specimen book of one personYogyakartaSet by hand

Ganis Angger Atmawarin, frowning at the camera over a laptop with a Bowser sticker
Frontispiece. The author, and Bowser.

Angger Atmawarin

Set in Fraunces, Undercase Type, 2020. Press the name to set it in another face. There are 25 more.

See all 25 at once

I was named after a military patrol car. I’ll explain later, or you can skip ahead.

For twelve years I helped build SoftwareSeni, a software company in Yogyakarta, and now I run Synetica, a smaller one that helps people find out whether their product will work before they spend a fortune on it. Before work I run, slowly. After work I’m a father of two, and between six and nine in the evening the phone goes in a drawer.

This is where I write, in English and in Bahasa, about building companies, about books, and about the distance between what I planned and what actually happened, which is the only thing I’m really an expert in. Each essay is set in the manner of a different designer from a different century. I love typography more than is healthy, and this seemed cheaper than therapy.

Start here

No. 24 · after William Caslon, 1734 Twelve Years and a Fancy Pen I joined SoftwareSeni as employee number thirteen and left twelve years later as a director. A thank-you to the company, to the people, and above all to Davo. 9 min · English No. 22 · after Matthew Carter, 1996 Water Station In 2021 there were no races, so I ran a marathon by myself around the Kraton, with my car as the water station. I finished it after dinner. 6 min · English No. 21 · after The wood-type poster printers, 1880 Garnisun Other people are named after saints, grandparents or a feeling their mother had. I’m named after a military patrol car. 6 min · English No. 15 · after A.M. Cassandre, 1927 Why I Keep Coming Back to Yogyakarta On bridges, memory, and a city that refuses to change, which is exactly why it feels like home. 9 min · English

Latest specimensAll 25 essays →

  1. 25 Seventy-One KeyboardsI scored seventy-one keyboards in a database. My favourite came third, from a maker I don’t like. Giovanni Pintori, 19532026 · EN
  2. 23 Silver Is IncompetenceA managing director uninstalls Mobile Legends, again, and meets his inner judge. Johannes Gutenberg, 14552026 · EN
  3. 20 Three Months: A Field Note From a Small CompanyA café table, late follow-ups, and the first signs that a company is real. László Moholy-Nagy, 19252026 · EN
  4. 19 Sales Essentials for DirectorsYang ingin saya dengar tentang jualan, sebelum saya terpaksa belajar sendiri dengan mahal. Indonesia’s gerobak sign painters, 2024ID
  5. 18 We’re Gonna Be Okay, Just Don’t Go Full Mr. Krabs, Kay?Our industry grew too fast and other people paid for it. Me included. Alexander Rodchenko, 19242024 · EN
  6. 17 The 180 hours tether that binds everything so you can ignore that relentless button nudgesOn staying anchored while every button on your phone asks for you. David Carson, 19942023 · EN
  7. 16 Annual Review 2020: 4 Hal Yang Saya PelajariEmpat hal yang saya pelajari di tahun ketika saya hampir tidak keluar rumah. Edward Tufte, 19832021 · ID
  8. 14 The Best of Jim CollinsWhat Drucker told Collins in a parked car, and six books that followed. Aldus Manutius, 15012019 · EN

9 things that are true

  1. I’m a lion at ping-pong and a chicken at parties. I learned ping-pong in a room so narrow you couldn’t step back, only sideways.
  2. I was SoftwareSeni’s thirteenth employee. I left twelve years later, which I’ve decided isn’t a coincidence.
  3. I keep a note on my phone to remember my baristas: Mas Imbu. Buzzcut.
  4. My father’s best joke was a pun about fruit and money. I inherited the joke and, worse, the face that goes with it.
  5. I think Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style is about as close to a bible as I’ve got. My favourite typeface is Chaparral.
  6. I have scored 71 mechanical keyboards in a spreadsheet, some mine, some borrowed from the community. My favourite came third in my own ranking. One of the five I kept has never been scored, so officially it’s a zero.
  7. I’ve uninstalled Mobile Legends more times than I’ve finished a marathon. Considerably more.
  8. If I’m ever in a coma, play me Explosions in the Sky. I’ve put that in writing.
  9. At two I was shipped from Papua to Malang on the KM Rinjani, which was also two. We were both very small for the journey.

Letters

When there’s a new essay I send a short letter. No schedule, no spam, and I write it by hand first.

On the shelfThe whole shelf →

  • Why We Die
  • Secrets of Consulting
  • The Personal MBA
  • New Plant Parent
  • The Three-Body Problem
  • The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to Go from $0 to $100 Million
  • Selling the Invisibles: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

104 books logged since 2018. Some of them twice, on purpose.

NowOctober 2026

Building
Synetica, ten months in. Two weeks to a tested prototype, eight to a real product. Mostly internal tools for companies still running on spreadsheets and WhatsApp.
Theme
Prove: the business, my health and being at home for dinner. All three, at the same time, which is the hard part.
Running
Mornings around UGM. My AI coach sends me red siren emojis when I skip a week. It’s usually right.
Writing
This website, apparently. My 2026 goal was six art-directed essays. I got a little carried away.