Archive of posts from July 2022

Ever had a project you’re really stressed about…

…then something real (like an emergency trip to the hospital) wipe out that stress entirely?

It stops mattering in an instance. The stress vanishes.

I hear often about how ‘difficult’ it is to shift your perspective on something stressful, such as something you’re working on.… and yet people do it so easily once their world is shaken.

The project didn’t change.

Perspective changed.

Calm was restored not from external forces, but internal...

Optimising our work can lead us astray.

We must remember to ask ourselves, who are we optimising for?

The Ruby programming language is optimised for happiness. In Python, you need to type ‘exit()’ to exit an interactive shell because Python prescribes a single correct way to do things. In Ruby, typing ‘quit’ in an interactive shell, exits the shell. Or “exit”, for that matter. It doesn’t mind. It was optimised to understand humans, doing what they mean rather than what...

I’ve had a sticky note in my studio this week.

On it, it simply asks, “Is this essential?”

It’s an innocuous question that can have a profound influence on your work, if you let it.

When we ask the question, inessential things get left behind. Features you don’t need don’t get built. Projects you don’t need don’t get started. Essential things get your focus.

When we don’t ask the question, essential things get left behind. Your journaling habit gets left...

When we give our time, we can never get it back.

We think we know this, but then we do these things:

We take a 30 minute call that we don’t need, because we felt obliged to say yes. Time becomes free and freely given, not for care about a cause or a person, but because of a bad relationship with the word, ‘No’.

When we take on projects we don’t want because we’d feel awkward to decline or terminate....

If you think compound interest is only for money, you’re missing out:

Compound interest on creativity: A curiosity nurtured becomes a skill. A skill nurtured becomes a mastery. Done multiple times creates an intersection that makes you irreplaceable and uniquely equipped to be the best at your chosen ‘thing’.

Compound interest on relationships: A marriage you invested in has more trust and stronger bonds than a more casual relationship ever could. Same goes for being a parent or a child.

As deadly as Bond… but with even more casualties.

More projects could mean more opportunity, but definitely means more problems…unless we have the Creative License To Kill. We need not pursue problems needlessly: this license grants us the opportunity to kill inessential projects and free ourselves of unwanted problems.

Larger networks could mean more opportunity, but definitely mean more problems…unless we have the Creative License To Kill. Seneca wrote, “Many men will meet me who are drunkards, lustful, ungrateful, greedy,...

Do you open this kind of attachment?

It comes attached to emails…

It comes attached to chat messages…

It comes attached on news sites…

It even comes attached to phone calls.

I call it, the .emosh file.

.emosh is the file extension for “emotion”. Inboxes allow anyone in the world to send you their needs, demands, feelings and gripes. Same with chat; third-party emotions designed to be adopted as your own for their benefit. News sites are paid to do...

What’s your relationship with bad news?

What about good news?

When good news goes to your head, it may become your new normal and anything less is a disappointment. It may become the seed of downfall where you’re too afraid to try new things, fear that the good news may end.

When bad news goes to your head, it too may become your new normal and put you in a ‘funk’. It may become the seed of doubt that turns...

Switch it off.

Most of us know that our computers need switching off from time to time.

And we’ve all had that moment when we turned our phone off, then noticed how much faster it feels after you switch it back on.

But for those among us passionate about our work, there’s one device we forget to switch off to reap the rewards.

Our brains.

It’s harder than turning off the computer. It’s harder than turning off the phone (though...

“How are you doing?”Are you likeable?

I find that most folks in the market fall into one of four categories:

#1: They like you, even when it costs them. These folks have your back. They’ll stick with you through tough times. They’re the ones most likely to be taken advantage of, but they consider that an acceptable edge-case in exchange for an abundance of strong relationships.

#2: They don’t like you, no matter the cost. These folks are a bit...

“How are you doing?”

“Good, super-busy with work, how about you?”

We hear this dialog as though it’s a good, normal, acceptable thing.

And if you care about your work, perhaps it’s you making the latter statement.

I know I can be (I’ve not taken a vacation in over fifteen years!)

What struck me today, was when Marcus Aurelius wrote in his third book of meditations, “Be a person of few words and a few projects, not busy and scattered.”

You don’t have to be worthy of big ideas.

Big ideas need to be worthy of you.

You don’t have to be worthy of your clients or contracts.

Clients and contracts need to be worthy of you.

You don’t have to be worthy of the lifestyle or work that you want.

Lifestyles and work needs to be worthy of you.

We ‘spend’ time (‘spend’ like we ‘spend’ money) on things because we choose to.

Make sure what you’re ‘spending’ your...

We know what soft skills are.

But the list we think of is decades old.

Here are some new ones to add to the list of essential soft skills:

Asynchronous communication skills: It’s not enough to be able to attend calls. If you and I must wait for the stars (and our schedules) to align each time things must progress, things don’t progress. Learning to work asynchronously (independently of the other’s availability) is a must-have skill for where we’re all...

We don’t have TV, nor the popular channels and shows that come with it.

We don’t engage the “explore” tab of social tools to discover what’s popular.

We don’t have news apps, nor push notifications about ‘breaking’ matters they come with.

Why?

Because it’s not just songs that get stuck in our heads…

…So too do the ideas and opinions of those we allow into our worlds and minds.

The quality of our work, our focus and our lives depends...

Sustained concePeople like easy things…

That’s why people like to buy things that make their lives easier.

But there’s an opportunity hidden in the sentence. If people are attracted to easy things… they’re repelled by hard things, things they won’t engage, problems they won’t (or can’t) solve.

Creating art that requires tools that aren’t ready for primetime or mass adoption.

Innovating in spaces that have “always done things this way”.

Pioneering a new way of thinking that challenges the status...

Sustained concentration of human brains is one of the most sough-after resources in the world.

It solves hard problems with less effort.

It produces great work in less time.

And it’s sought-after because it’s scarce.

Most don’t manage sustained concentration for very long, very often, on almost anything.

That means if you want to solve hard problems and produce great work with less effort in less time than everyone else… then that’s totally available to you, and sets you apart...

Do you carry your phone everywhere you go?

What if you carried a notebook instead? Would that help you explore ideas rather than consume, in those small moments when you reach for your pocket?

What if it were a book? Would that help you ingest more ideas, making each small moment of consumption more thoughtful and valuable to you?

What if it were an empty pocket? Would that help you engage in the ability to be temporarily bored, letting your...

Maybe you don’t need this reminder.

But in case you do:

The goals that scare you, are self-imposed.

The timelines that stress you, are self-imposed.

The vision that fills you, is self-imposed.

The plans that govern you, are self-imposed.

The problems that haunt you, are self-imposed.

Remember that you’re in control, and the goal posts are standing where you last put them.

You’re not a victim of your own environment.

You’re the designer of it.

If the design suits you,...

Providing divergent streams of thought.

Processing what doesn’t need your attention.

Appropriating feelings to signals.

Guiding your perception.

These are all subconscious activities.

We can learn by studying (conscious), but we can learn so much more if we give our minds ideas to chew on while we do something else (subconscious). Next time we go to study, it comes easier to us because we’ve done the work.

We can write by writing (conscious), but we can write so much more...

Last week, every single tweet we posted got over 1,000 likes.

Not every week is like last week.

And it doesn’t need to be.

Remarkable things are what we deem worthy of making remarks about… but we don’t discover ‘remarkable’ by only showing when we feel sure our work is remarkable.

That’s not how ‘remarkable’ works.

Rather, it comes from showing up often enough to develop good taste, and adapting for the benefit of those we wish to serve.

To...

When we hear ‘mundane’, we think it’s a bad thing.

An adjective meaning ordinary… unimaginative.

But why is that necessarily a bad thing?

When we love a way of working or a way of life, it becomes ordinary…to us. We continue to do things that way, appreciating all of its nuances.

We imagined that way of doing things…once. And then we made it happen. Imagination is past-tense here. We’ve achieved the way of things that we wanted.

Mundane can be...

The first question most people ask when they learn I’ve blogged every day since late 2017 is this:

“How do you still have something to say?”

There’s something fascinating about this question.

Why do we not ask people this when we first pick up the phone?

Or in response to emails we receive?

There’s so much to say, so much to do. The problem isn’t lacking in things to say or do, but lacking in time spend with yourself to...

Many of us don’t press publish because we’re not sure if it’s perfect yet.

We don’t post the tweet we believe in because we might not like the replies.

We don’t launch the project because we don’t know if anyone will care.

The post isn’t perfect, the tweet won’t please everyone, and nor will your project.

We press publish because we’re writers, not because we’re perfect.

We tweet because we’re in community, not because we’re always right.

We create because...

I write every day because it forces clarity of thought.

I draw every day because it forces my drawing skills to grow.

I read every day because it forces me to expand my mind, and remember how to learn.

I journal every day because it forces me to review life as it happens, rather than merely retroactively.

I spend time with my family every day because it forces my relationships to stay strong.

Doing things daily forces things to occur.

In creative projects, you need to be prepared to burn things.

The question, what gets burned?

Perhaps it’s the scope. The vision for the project you have… chopped down in size, so that you can deliver when you said you were going to deliver. Sound too difficult? Then…

Perhaps it’s the date. The date you told everyone you would have the work ready… missed, with everyone involved to manage accordingly. Sound too difficult? Then…

Perhaps it’s a lucky dip. Because you...

The joke in ‘reworking’ is hidden in plain sight.

It implies that you do work…and then you do it again. You’re re-working.

Doesn’t sound particularly useful:

Reworking a functional SSG website in another SSG. When infrastructure works well, technologists like to change it anyway. It’s in the blood to want to solve the problem again using a different set of opinions. But what if we solved new problems, to make things better, rather than just different?

**Reworking an NFT so...

Vulnerability isn’t about weakness.

It’s about connection.

When I announced that our business was making some changes following a situation of loss, people who had also experienced that same type of loss connected, and felt belonging.

When I mentioned that Kezi is working through health challenges, people who had also experienced those same health challenges connected, and felt belonging.

So many are so afraid to risk feeling weak, that they lose the opportunity to connect to something bigger, to find...

There’s a KPI people forgot.

It’s called “Making people feel special”:

Feeling special is when someone busier than you takes the time to respond to you. When I respond to someone’s DM on Twitter, the reactions are telling.

Feeling special is when someone acknowledges you when you shared your opinion, your art, or your energy. People are used to being ignored, and it shows.

Feeling special is when someone recognises the problem in your tribe and decides to fix it…...

Today, I had a hard drive failure.

Bit tedious.

I backup fairly frequently, but there’s always a bit of something that isn’t.

In this particular case, that ‘something’ happened to be 2 days of artwork.

Bit tedious.

Two options:

Option 1: Take the opportunity to recreate what was lost, making it even better than it was the first time around thanks to the lessons learned. The opportunity is a gift, as you would never have given yourself permission to take...

Sometimes we overpay for things. We don’t like how that feels when we realise.

Other times, we buy things we love, things we want, things we have an emotional connection to, things that make us feel like we’ve made the right choice. These things aren’t usually the cheapest option on the market. So why isn’t this “overpaying”, too?

Because “overpaying” has nothing to do with money.

“Overpaying” is the feeling of getting less than we wanted.

Tesla fans don’t “overpay”...

What’s the best process for creating remarkable work?

A boring process:

Exciting process, boring work. It’s fun playing with new tools all the time, discovering various innovations, designs and ideas as they are released in full or in beta. But that puts our creative energy into the tool, and how we might achieve the same results we might have achieved before using them, rather than into pushing our work forward.

Boring process, remarkable work. When the tools are boring — understood,...