Archive of posts from February 2022

Doing great work?

Perhaps it’s a wonderful new product.
Or an innovative new technology.
Or an exquisitely refined service.
Or a breakthrough new idea.

Make sure you bring a good story along for the ride.

“The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” - Richard Powers

Websites aren’t about getting sales. They’re a web1 technological and cultural phenomenon that breeds a sense of understanding.

Social media tools aren’t about getting famous. They’re a web2 technological and cultural phenomenon that breeds a sense of connection.

NFTs aren’t about getting money. They’re a web3 technological and cultural phenomenon that breeds a sense of belonging.

These are revolutions in understanding, connection and belonging.

Understanding this just so happens to often lead to sales, fame, and money.

Misunderstanding this just so happens to often lead to none of those things.

Watching big mistakes unfold on Twitter is different.

For every misstep, there are many who will vocalise the error.

Over, and over again.

It’s as though someone is to have a target on their back every day there, and one’s goal is to simply not be that target.

“There are things in life which are advantageous and disadvantageous—both beyond our control.” — Seneca, Moral Letters

Meeting the misfortune of others with indifference is an unpopular choice; algorithms and peers alike are biased toward the alternative.

But if the happiness of our lives depends on the quality of our thoughts, perhaps fixating on negative matters isn’t the best investment in ourselves.

What do these three statements have in common?

“I tried selling my work but nothing works”
“I’ve got nothing of value to add on Twitter”
“I’ve got no ideas, I can’t make things”

They all misunderstand what “nothing” is.

Nothing is nothing…

Joel Achenbach explains that there’s no such thing as nothing:

“Seems to me that “nothing,” for all its simplicity and symmetry and lack of arbitrariness, is nonetheless an entirely imaginary state, or condition, and we can say with confidence that it has never existed.”

Quantum mechanics suggests that ‘nothing’ is unstable… that ‘nothing’ is guaranteed to eventually form something, spontaneously, given enough time.

Laurence Krauss wrote a whole book on the topic, contending that the multiverse makes even our determined our laws of nature consequently “less significant”.

Nothing is nothing.

If you feel you’ve got nothing to add…
Or nothing is working…

…then remember: this is simply an unstable state, out of which something will form… spontaneously… given enough time.

We’ve all seen the news.

I’ve collected some thoughts that may help.

“The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.” – Seneca

Fear comes from anticipation of what is to come; we’re not afraid of the past or present.

We aren’t sure of what is to come. But we acquaint ourselves with the possibilities, so that our thoughts can be our own, not dictated by another man.

“You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” – Epicurus

Like a muscle that grows from the trials of exercise, so too our courage grows from the trials of the coming days.

Many people need your courage but don’t know how to nurture it in trials. Many people need you to be courageous for them.

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” – Seneca

Putin is behaving like fomo-riddled paper-hands; poor because of his need for something else.

Diamond-hand your mind, your reason, and your temperance.

Let’s support each other through such Winters.

And remember: without fail, Spring follows.

This morning’s coffee chat took a serious turn.

One that my wife and I sometimes take, to measure our days and activities.

It starts with a question:

“Is this better than being retired?”

We’re fortunate enough to have the choice fairly young. But the power in this question is available to every one of us…

The fact is, most of us get to choose how we spend our days, whether we like the options immediately available to us or not.

And our answers can be illuminating:

…We might admit we’d rather not be doing what we’re doing. In which case, we can make choices that change that reality.

…We might admit that we’d much prefer doing what we’re doing to retiring. In which case, we can be thankful to have something we enjoy so much.

Of course, external circumstances shouldn’t govern our happiness…

But asking this question serves as a really simple health-check on our external lives.

And health checks are no bad thing.

“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.” — Epictetus

Here’s a puzzle for you.

What’s one thing that is guaranteed to spoil your day…

…that can also stop you from doing good work…

…that can also be caught by others to spoil their days too?

Nope, it’s not covid (well, I guess covid does all those things too, but that’s not the correct answer).

The answer is: A bad mood!

We don’t usually think of our mood as being all that important, do we?

But we really should.

It’s far more important than we give it credit for.

“The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.” — Voltaire

Everyone’s chasing stuff.

A project launch… a job… a raise… a financial or relational milestone… a piece of property or depreciating asset…

But we rarely pause mid-chase to explore unbiased questions such as,

“Do I even still want this?”

“If I hadn’t started this journey, would I still start today?”

“Is the thing I’m chasing worth chasing?”

We’ve all heard of the term, “Throwing good money after bad”, but the term also applies to the ways we spend our time.

We only see when we look.

“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” — Marcus Aurelius

I got kicked last night.

It was very confusing.

My wife and I were playing Keyforge (a card game we like to play), when suddenly my phone starts buzzing with accusations over Twitter.

Such is the by-product of creating and publishing work on the Internet.

If you do it right, not everyone will like what you make.

If you do it right, you’ll have positive feedback and negative feedback.

If you do it right, you may experience haters as well as advocates.

You might get kicked, too.

If and when you do, remember this:

“The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like that.” — Marcus Aurelius

The definition of “freedom” is “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action”.

That makes choice quite important.

So why do we give it up?

Blindly following the herd takes away freedom.

Allowing others to control how you feel takes away freedom.

FOMO takes away freedom.

These are all decisions made willingly.

But we get to choose the alternative…

To not blindly follow the popular narrative. To engage in an emotional state that suits us, rather than one the media has prepared for you. To be okay with missing out on things we’re unprepared for.

It’s always a choice.

False impressions are messing up our days.

They’re everywhere.

They affect our creativity, trading, and life.

Here’s how to stop that:

#1 Be aware that false impressions are everywhere.
If you don’t engage the idea that they’re all around you, they’ll have first-mover advantage in every game you play.

Keep your eyes open for them. This is step one.

#2 Be aware that your opinion is your choice.
Now for the false impressions you won’t be able to see.

Opinions are vase areas of psychological terrain for false impressions to hide behind.

Keep your eyes open for opinions you hold. This is step two.

#3 Be aware that there is an impression on the other side of that opinion.
Try not having an opinion on the matter at hand, for just a moment.
Really try it on for size.

Boom — false impressions are suddenly exposed. All of the biases and blind spots, temporarily revealed.

We’ll never be infallible to false impressions.

But if we create, if we live in society, if we trade in the market… we should train rigorously against false impressions.

And these three steps will take you further than you think.

We re-solve problems a lot.

And it’s a bad habit.

See, we’ve solved a lot of problems already. Things like what email or creative tool to use, or how to communicate with a team.

These don’t need solving over and over again. Yet new developments often tend to introduce as much re-learning as they do progress.

For fun, I tried to work out when I started using a handful of solutions…

…Here’s what I found:

• Made websites for 24 years.
• Used Photoshop for graphics for 20 years.
• Ran on macOS for 17 years.
• Managed assets with Bridge for 17 years.
• Communicated on Skype for 17 years.
• Edited photos with Lightroom for 16 years
• Drawn digitally with Wacom tablets for 15 years.
• Stored photos with Flickr for 15 years.
• Shot on Canon cameras for 15 years.
• Managed email with Gmail for 14 years.
• Socialised on Twitter for 14 years.
• Browsed with Chrome for 13 years.

There’s absolutely a time and a place for learning and exploring new tools.

I love innovation, and I when real meaningful innovations are discovered.

For the rest, consider not solving things you’ve already solved.

That thing you’re working on?

It could be easier.

Sometimes, we make things harder than they need to be because that’s the point. Exercise doesn’t benefit from looking for ways to make things easier, for instance.

But most of the time our work doesn’t benefit from hardness. Learning a new skill can be hard or easy. Building a new product can be hard or easy. Connecting with your choice of market can be hard or easy.

Usually, there is an opportunity to make it easier… and unlock more of your genius in other areas to make your impact even greater.

In most areas of your pursuit of meaningful work, it’s worth asking yourself: How could I make better by making it easier?

We’ve long celebrated the MVP in startup-land.

And long has it served us well.

But things are changing.

I believe the MVC will displace the MVP as the holy grail of great beginnings.

A MVP — minimum viable product — is still in search of an audience (minimum or otherwise).

But a MVC — minimum viable community — is always a place to call home for a chosen few, for which any product is viable if it genuinely serves them and makes their lives better.

Step 1: Find your family.

Step 2: Build with family.

Competition is a head thing:

If everyone was a coach, it doesn’t mean there’s no clients left for anybody.

Rather, it simply means that there are lots and lots of people in the market who know the value of coaching.

If everyone has a blog, doesn’t mean there’s no readers available because everyone’s writing.

Rather, it means that there are lots of people who love the medium of blogging, and enjoy spending time with words.

Abundance, friends!

Productivity hacks.

Time management.

What if productivity didn’t need hacking, nor time managing?

Enter, effectiveness:

Laziness can hide behind efficiency. When we don’t slow down, measure twice and cut once, we risk becoming highly efficient at the wrong things. This lack of care is laziness, despite looking highly productive.

Effectiveness doesn’t always look effective. The fastest lap times aren’t won by drivers who are allergic to using the brakes. Slowing down — at the right times — puts you much further ahead on the track.

Productivity doesn’t need to be hacked to optimise our performance in business theatre.

Time doesn’t need to be managed like a perpetually wide-open throttle.

Slow down. Measure twice. Win with less moves.

It’s funny when you think about it…

Life change happens in a second.

It just takes us a long time to work up to that second.

The decision to get married to the right person happens in a second… you just need time leading up to that second.

The decision to quit that job, fire that client, hire that employee or change that project happens in a second… we just happen to have some thinking time leading up to that second.

Lots of decisions work this way. Big one and small ones.

We don’t need more time… if we can shorten the gap between transformations.

We can shorten the gaps with a resilient mind and mental bandwidth dedicated to the cause.

How much more transformation could you see in your world if you optimised for these things?

My wife and I play a lot of card games.

One of our favourites is called Keyforge. It’s a game that puts two decks of totally random cards from a huge pool against each other. You never know what’s coming next. That’s one of the reasons it’s fun.

Another of our favourites is called Ashes Reborn. It’s a game that puts two decks of carefully selected cards from a small pool against each other. You’ve planned your moves carefully. That’s one of the reasons it’s fun.

Both card games. Both totally different. Both fun.

The same goes for that project you’re working on right now.

It’s not the same as the others.

It may have few of the traits you admire in the work of your peers.

But that’s what makes your work fun — it’s different. It’s yours.

Build that.

I made and released my first video game online about 22 years ago.

In school, I’d run to the IT rooms at lunch to load up the site before the other kids, so they’d all see my site first.

This is fun for me, but maybe it’s not for you.

And what’s fun for you, may not be fun for me.

That’s the point.

We need you to do fun things.

You’ll show up fully and do a great job of them.

Isn’t that what we all want for ourselves and those we work alongside?

What if rallying to get cancel-culture cancelled doesn’t solve the problem?

Brantly Millegan, operations of the ENS DAO is at the forefront of technical collaborative, inclusive innovation.

And he got dismissed from his role for his religious beliefs.

I’m not religious. I don’t agree with his beliefs at all. But that doesn’t matter:

The ideal of a DAO — to be a decentralised, autonomous organisation — is to enable diverse opinions to find consensus through a democratic voting model.

It’s a model that promotes the flattening of organisational hierarchies and the enabling of diverse voices converging around new ideas.

I wish that de-escalation was a more popular, widely understood concept — and the potential for healing that it brings with it.

One can’t help but think that cancelling someone who cancelled something because they cancelled someone isn’t really addressing the problem.

This week I’m dropping a line of ‘NFT’ artwork as an experiment, and it’s accompanied by an interactive gamified webpage experience.

I hope you’ll give it a peek, it’s a really unique experience, and won’t be online forever.

Written with no frameworks, no complex tech stack, no proprietary plugins.

Just open, public, raw html/css/javascript. Tools that are freely available to us all. Tools that you can run directly on your computer, with nothing extra to install.

This got me thinking:

You’ll amaze yourself with how much you can achieve by simplifying.

When I decided to make the site about a week ago, since I’ve been building these sorts of things for about 20 years, my mind raced to all of the technologies we could use to pull it off.

20 years worth of technologies.

The decision to produce the whole thing with not a single framework was refreshing. Empowering. Liberating. Freeing.

No stabilisers. No helping hands. No standing opinions. Just open, free creative expression.

You don’t need permission to do your work.
You may not need all the tools you think you do.
You may not need all the resources you think you do.

You may just need to start.

Ever have those moments in your day when you think, “I’m not sure what to do next”?

Even though you know you have lots of things to do?

Remember the plan.

If you have a plan, remind yourself of it morning and night, re-committing to it so it can’t fall out of sight. Same applies regardless of how many plans you have. Plans keep you focused. Plans remind you of your rules.

If you don’t have a plan, make one. No plan means no reliable compass or success criteria for what “a good day”, “a good conversation” or “a good trade” even mean.

You’re not “not sure”…

You just need to remember the plan.

Most success stories sound like majestic masteries of fate and fortune…

…where an individual knew where to be, what to do, and how to be brilliant, every step of the way.

But we know this isn’t the case.

We can draw straight lines through trend lines and trailing indicators. They’re neat, tidy, and are great for making stories out of in retrospect.

Those lines don’t capture the flukes.

The lucky guesses.

The “I’ve no idea how that happened but this is awesome” moments.

These things make lousy stories. So they get left out.

But if you’re working on something important, something great, something exciting… and things don’t perpetually go right for you… remember:

Flukes are part of the story, and they don’t happen in neat, straight lines.

The straight lines only emerge afterwards.

We all know that having a greGreat ideas often change your mind about something.

The iPhone changed minds about what a phone is for. Web3 changed minds about who should own what. The printing press changed minds about who should know what.

All great ideas, all changed minds.

One path to great ideas is to just have them, and then your mind is changed.

Another path is to try changing your mind, and let a great idea follow. Just to ‘try on’ other perspectives, perhaps ones less traveled, ones unexplored.

For instance, if you love using phones, put it in a drawer and watch what it does to your time, typing, app choices, workflows… and see what happens. Watch a kids cartoon instead of a movie. Read about gardening even if you hate gardening. Consider correlations between these disparate activities.

Great ideas are everywhere. And there are so many ways to access them.

“It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.” – Epictetus, Discourses

We all know that having a great community or fanbase is really important for a meaningful body of work.

But what makes a community ‘great’?

We often look to the biggest ones as examples of what ‘great’ means.

That may be changing.

‘Great’ and ‘big’ be terms used to describe the same place. But they’re not synonymous.

The more the web matures, the more we’re able to organise ourselves around very narrow interests. Interests like your favourite brand of hot chocolate. Or a particular board game. Or an NFT you really like.

I ended up describing it as “narrow, nurtured, nuanced”:

Narrow: the more specific, the better. Nurtured: the more cared for, the better. Nuanced: the more appreciative of the subtleties of the interest, the better.

If you’re building a community… are you building for ‘bigness’, or for ‘narrow, nurtured, nuanced’?

I’ve been building a little world this week.

Watching words, art and code dance together to make the feeling of being somewhere else is magical.

It got me thinking: everything is programmable.

We program the web with html, css, javascript…

We program our bodies with water, diet, movement…

We program our minds with philosophy, journaling, affirmation…

Where do you want to improve this week? You can likely program that.

If you want to understand how reasoning works at a macro level, study economics.

If you want to learn how to spot patterns and predict the future, study history.

If you want to understand how understanding works, study math.

If you want to understand how humans tick, study psychology.

If you want to learn how to live well, study philosophy.

We can enjoy the mystery by learning its component parts, which are all freely available to us and right before our eyes.

And our work and our lives are so much better for it.

What are you studying at the moment?

We need each other. Even when we think we don’t.

Children born during the pandemic have experienced a shocking drop in cognitive development of 22 IQ points (source).

To quote the source:

“In terms of effect size, he said, “the closest thing we’ve seen in other research… is the studies that were done of orphans in Romania. The effects of institutionalisation and lack of interaction on them were profound, but what we’re seeing here is on par with that.”

Most of these kids will probably never recover their lost development.

We’re social creatures…

The post-pandemic world needs more ways for us to socialise and connect. Perhaps this is part of what made the community-supernova of NFTs so prevalent — we need connection, we need to laugh together, we need to build together, we need shared experiences.

Next time you think of tearing someone down, remember friends:

We need each other.