Archive of posts from August 2022

Do you need a market opportunity?

Where a market is ripe for innovation by many, so that there’s room for you to introduce your work?

Or do you simply need to find an opportunity for you?

A bear market is only a bad time to build something generic. It’s always a good time to build something remarkable.

A shifting market may be full of opportunity for those who need such a shift to succeed. But there’s always room for us to build something remarkable.

You don’t need to find a gaping market-sized hole for you to bring your gifts to the world.

You need only a you-sized hole.

Scared of failing?

Is that making you faired to do what you want and like?

It‘s worth remembering…

…that you can do things you don’t like…and still fail.

Failure isn’t a variable, it’s just a stepping stone along the way of making things.

So why not make things you love?

If you normally win, it could be because you’re stuck playing Level 1 because Level 2 feels scary. It could be time for Level 2.

If you normally know the answer, perhaps you’re stuck answering easy questions rather than nurturing growth.

Sometimes, we need a nudge to explore Level 2, and discover the edges of our understanding and skill level.

It’s the only way to discover that those edges are merely horizons, with a whole world of opportunity beyond the brow.

Some things are really upsetting.

Things like losing a family member.

For most other things: do they have to be upsetting? Or can things be something else?

A team member letting you down can be upsetting. I’ve often found it to be so. But what if we choose not to have an opinion about it, and simply do what we ought to do next? Or what if we chose to view it as a game, which got harder, as games often do (and aren’t upsetting in doing so)?

A project not going the way you wanted can be upsetting. I’ve not found this to be as much of a problem for me, but I have many friends who find this crushing. But what if we chose not to have an opinion about it, and simply do what we ought to do next? Or what if we chose to value the process more than the outcome, enjoying the former regardless of the latter?

Something are really upsetting.

But most things can be something else, if we choose.

Old hard: It used to be very hard to get a book published. If you were lucky enough to be picked up, you’d probably see lots of sales. If you weren’t lucky, you just wouldn’t get published.

New hard: If you want to publish a book, you can. No excuses, no middle-men, just write your book and publish on Amazon. But you must go out and build your own audience by yourself. Now the variable is effort, not luck.

Old hard: It used to be very hard to start a business and bring your work to market. If you were lucky enough to find the funds and the premises, you were assured footfall for your propriety. If you weren’t luck enough to have those things, you wouldn’t get to start a business.

New hard: If you want to start a business, you can. It costs very little in many countries, and the Internet is your oyster. But you must go out and build custom from a customer-base which has the whole world as their oyster, too. Now the variable is effort, not luck.

There is still some luck involved with ‘New hard’… but the gates aren’t protected by a chosen few. Now we can all create and participate.

We need only bring the effort.

The markets are down.

Buyers aren’t buying as much.

We need to keep shipping:

The rules change for everyone: a down market is still full of people with problems that need solving, and desires they’d love to pursue. We can still serve them, if we’re creative and committed.

There’s no going back: a down market may go up soon, or it may stay down for years. As I write this in 2022, there are no signs of substantial market recovery anytime soon. To “wait for better days” is akin to quitting.

**Quitters are quitting: **and that leaves the few creative and committed enough to continue to pursue those they wish to serve, with the same enthusiasm and passion they would have were the markets great.

Take note of who keeps shipping when things get tough.

They’re the ones who build the future.

There are three speeds of creative work:

Fast: We’re fully engaged in executing part of the plan.

Medium: We’ve shipped our work and are shifting into the next part of the plan.

Slow: The plan isn’t going to plan, so we slow to put it right.

All three speeds are a natural part of creating work that matters.

Don’t resent any of them. It’s the process.

What do you do when your plan doesn’t go to plan?

When your happiness is rooted in an outcome that depends on others, you’re vulnerable. Anyone can come along and knock you off your game or steal your joy.

When your happiness is rooted in a reverence for the process and a serenity from living in accordance with your nature, you’re invulnerable. No one can knock you off your game or steal your joy.

Given the choice, which sounds better, to you?

What does Stoicism and Social Media have in common?

The Stoics, alongside talking about the cardinal virtues and the dichotomy of control, also talked about living in accordance with nature.

As social creatures, that means that ‘social’ is part of our nature… and in 2022, that often includes social media.

There’s drama and toxicity on there, which is why some of us avoid it… but those things exist outside of social media too, and we get to model something better, perhaps with our creativity and our work.

There are ‘dark patterns’ on there, which is why some of us get addicted to its shallow nature… but it’s where our people are, and we have the opportunity to go and serve them, offering something deeper.

For those of us drawn to creating things that make people better, who are repelled by social media’s justified reputation…

…Consider what ‘living in accordance with nature’ means to you, and how that might equip you and your work to engage those you wish to serve across all kinds of new channels.

The tech continues to evolve. But the people using it still need your help, friend.

That project you’re working on that stresses you out?

You choose the timing on that. If it’s a gig, you chose to accept the timing. If it’s your project, you literally designed the timing for yourself. You’re in control of your state.

That market fluctuation that has been stressing you out?

You choose the timing on that too. If it’s a long-term investment, let it be long-term and don’t sweat its role in the short-term. If it’s a short-term investment, let it be short-term and don’t sweat its role in the long-term.

Your timing.

Your state.

Failure means learning something new.

Repeated failure means it maybe wasn’t a good time.

Success means you applied what you learned, and it happened to be a good time.

Keep learning and keep going.

Solving hard problems is seen as a good thing.

Culture celebrates individuals who do this.

But what if not solving hard problems is better?

Whenever there’s a hard problem, there’s usually a simple one nearby.

Hard development projects are often caused by too many resources, too many features, or too little planning. Hard creative projects are often caused by too many details, too complex a style, or too little focus. Hard business problems are often caused by too many ideas, too many hands, too many ‘good ideas’.

What if simple, elegant, effective solutions are better?

What if they’re only found when we eschew hard problems in favour of what lies just beneath the surface?

Many folks do less than their bit.

When four people are tasked with doing the work of four people, one or two of them will invariably find themselves doing more than the rest.

There are countless reasons for this, and they’re scarcely worth pondering if your interests are in moving the needle, creating work that matters, and changing the culture.

Indeed, if those are your goals, doing more than your bit is the default setting.

It’s been my default setting for as long as I can remember.

Perhaps it has been yours too.

It’s not an injustice. It’s just how the game works.

Ever been skiing or snowboarding?

I had lessons for both as a child, and I learned an unlikely life lesson:

You always have another run at the slope, thanks to the ski lift.

It’s worth giving this run (or project, or business) your best shot. If it doesn’t turn out the way you hoped, you can just hop on the ski lift and try again.

So long as you don’t have a run so spectacularly bad that you severely hurt yourself (the worst I did was ding my wrist before I knew to wear guards; in metaphoric terms this could mean over-exposing your finances or compromising your integrity) you always have another run at the slope.

It’s time to hit the slopes!

We need to measure “doing work that matters” by a higher standard.

We have a finite amount of time to commit to our craft.

And to our families.

We think the good times will never end.

They will, eventually.

A project or a business needs to be worth of your time… you won’t get the time back… when what you ‘do’ becomes what you ‘did’, we want to be proud that we did.

A parent is glad to raise a life that will outlast them in their days… yet saddened that -one day- they won’t be around to protect them any longer.

Make the time count, friends.

Here’s one for those wrapped up in the web3 energy at the moment. A call to calm, if you will.

In the web3 world, “Grinding for allowlists” (ALs) is the act of throwing large amounts of energy and effort into “being seen” so that you can receive outsized benefits ahead of a public sale.

There are many varieties of it around.

Grinding for ALs is unhealthy.

Here’s a healthy alternative:

1) Let there be a healthy benefit to being early

Unhealthy: Needing to be early mostly for frenetic flipping opportunities.

Healthy: Special ‘extras’ for being early, no freneticism required.

2) Let there be a healthy alternative to being early

Unhealthy: If you’re not ‘on the list’, you panic and grind harder.

Healthy: List or no list, minting & secondary purchases have huge value for you.

3) Let ‘being seen’ mean more than time & noise

Unhealthy: Racing to outwork your peers, regardless of what the reward is.

Healthy: Simply revealing you’re a good fit & will benefit from holding.

There are usually healthy options available.

You simply need to lead with a heart of service and a commitment to do better.

And to follow others who lead that way.

Do you create like a ghost?

Ghost-stories are of an entity that appeared, did something, then vanished… leaving only their work, such as a moved chair or flicked light switch or whatnot.

They don’t wait for applause.

They don’t debate whether or not to do their work again based on whether or not they were thanked for it.

They’re already gone… and if they’re haunting the place, they’ll do it again… soon.

And because they keep doing their thing, again and again… the story gets out:

That place is haunted.

Small steps, frequently taken, undeterred by their reception. or lack thereof.

Create like a ghost.

‘Free’ can be deceptive:

I pay for comics and stories because, as a creator, I enjoy art and creativity, while knowing first-hand just how much work go into these things. I want markets to exist that appreciate creative ideas, and for that to be the case, I support market activity that facilitates that reality.

I pay for my email (both personal and professional) because I want my tools to get better for me, rather than an advertiser’s tools for whom I’m the product. I want the privacy, the quiet, and the comfort of knowing a sustainable business model is powering something I rely on. I want tools that are important to me to experience healthy competition so that innovation thrives.

I would pay for Twitter if I could access such an immensely powerful communication channel without having my timeline manipulated in pursuit of more complicated business models.

The best —and the worst— things in life are all free.

For everything else, there’s the option of simply paying money for things.

On great days, it’s easy to be precisely as you wish to be.

On hard days, we find out who we are under the surface.

Great days facilitate great work, great relationships and great freedom…

Hard days challenge us to continue our great work, to nurture our great relationships, and to defend our great freedom…

Great days are opportunities to take the day off, if we don’t feel like fixing the roof while the sun is shining.

We grow in the hard days.

Which is more important: efficiency or effectiveness?

Efficiency (and productivity) is the poster child of progress in the business world.

But what about effectiveness?

Efficient is elegant, until it isn’t. We see this in code, when developers use short function names that nobody can understand in the spirit of efficient load times (every letter counts!) We see this in companies, when shared calendars sacrifice effective days for efficient ones (when trivial meetings are deemed more important than empty time for strategic thinking).

Effective is elegant, if you plan on having humans be involved. We see this in code, when it’s written for humans to easily understand and enjoy using (so they can continue to understand and use it, which ironically reduces code bloat). We see this in companies, when people who care are given time to be effective (who appear on the surface to be working less, yet get significantly more done).

Efficient is much more popular. It feels like work, even when it’s merely a place for procrastination to hide.

You can choose instead to be effective, if you’re okay with removing all of the hiding places.

If you work within a team, or lead teams, you have probably experienced these:

“Why would someone do that? Why leave it like that?”

*“Why is nobody pushing this forward?”

“Why is this so darn difficult for these people?”*

“Do I have to do everything myself?”

This happens when our high aspirations for ourselves and our work exceeds either our clarity in communication, or the expectations others have of those same things. Were they to have the same aspirations, the same clarity and the same drive as you do, they would already do as you do.

They may not have the same aspirations or expectations, but you can lead them by showing them what success looks like. That is within our control to do. They may not have the same clarity, but you can lead them to that by communicating more. That is within our control to do. And in the meantime, we can do our best regardless of whether or not others decide to meet you in doing so.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, “The more we value things outside of our control, the less control we have.”

The only true let down is focusing on things outside of our control, thus allowing our peace to be sold to the highest bidder.

The solution is found in our focus.

Do you buy or sell work on a platform? Like Facebook, or Fiverr?

There are two kinds of platform to buy and sell things on:

Platform prisons, and platform gardens.

This was drawn to my attention after experiencing both in a 24 hour period:

Platform prisons: These are when the platform makes work, and workers, worse.

For instance, Fiverr’s documentation cites that a seller who enables “out of office” will see the feature, quote: “affect[s] your rankings badly, ultimately demoting your Sellings”. It goes on to say, “elements start working negatively for you, possibly making you start from scratch on the return”.

As a result, if you want to use their platform without penalties, you must be available within 24 hours of anyone who messages you at all times; no weekends, no vacations, no breaks to greave a lost one, or go to the hospital, without penalty.

This is a platform prison. It rewards unhealthy behaviour, only displaying the unhealthiest workers to their buyers and marginalising what’s possible as a result.

Platform gardens: These are when the platform makes work, and workers, better.

For instance, on this week’s AMA, we discussed with hundreds of people how platforms can be designed to give participants the opportunity to make their own contributions, augmenting the core material, to reach more of the edges and go deeper for those eager to grow further.

As a result, things aren’t built around time pressure or penalties, but around equipping those who are growing with the ability to help others grow too. We call it a ‘garden’ because we all get to plant seeds and nurture the fruits of our efforts to healthy ripening.

This is a platform garden. It rewards healthy behaviour, only displaying the healthiest work to users and encouraging what’s possible as a result.

We should nurture Platform gardens.

We should demand better from the Platform prisons.

We vote with our voices, our attention, our time, our return, and our money.

Vote wisely.

You’re a builder.

You’re not just a fan of your favourite neighbourhood coffee shop, you’re a builder: you tell your friends, share your ideas, and make up one of the many regular faces that make that place a second home for many people, many of whom you’ve yet to meet. At least, that is your opportunity, within a coffee shop that deserves you.

You’re not just a blood relative to your close family, you’re a builder: you do things for them when they’re not looking, you’re there before they know they need you, you’ll catch them if they fall. At least, that is your opportunity, to build the family you want to see.

The future is built by people just like us.

Remember that.

There are two ways to have it all as a creator:

The short-term way: Get everything you think you want, and hope your appetite doesn’t grow further. The problem with this option is that those who choose it often find their appetites to be ever-increasing. There’s also the dilemma of rarely creating what you truly wish to create, in favour of that which you perceive to be most lucrative in the moment.

The long-term way: Have an appetite smaller than that which you possess. The benefit of this approach is that you can be happy now, creating from your unique genius, and quite possibly attaining abundantly more, accidentally and tangentially.

It seems you can have it all right now. It jut depends if you can bring yourself to make the choice.

Do you totally respect your clients and peers?

Let’s check to make sure:

Total respect for your clients means you respect their time, the needs of their business, and handle them with good taste and propriety. It also means that you don’t conform to behaviours that differ in return; representing a respect for your own time, the needs of your business, and good stewardship of how you allow yourself to be treated, respectfully dismissing those who refuse such regard. Serfdom doesn’t protect a client relationship, total respect does.

Total respect for your team mates means you respect their desires, the needs that differ from your own, and to help them learn what success looks like. It also means that you don’t permit behaviours that differ in return; recognising your own desires, the needs that differ from theirs, and the help they are to render toward what success looks like executively. More a benevolent-but-firm uncle, than a bar-buddy.

Total respect is often looked at either as a defensive matter (“I deserve more respect”) or a self-sacrificing matter (“Show them some respect”). It’s neither of those things.

It’s what makes a melody where there would otherwise be discord.

It’s what makes long-term working relationships thrive without drama.

It’s a salve for sunk confidences sink or roaring egos.

It helps unlock greatness.

We can’t control much.Society celebrates the huge wins.

The standout, milestone successes.

But misses how what really makes the difference, is each small step.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Do now what nature demands of you. Get right to it if that’s in your power. Don’t look around to see if people will know about it. Don’t await the perfection of Plato’s Republic, but be satisfied with even the smallest step forward and regard the outcome as a small thing.”

Each small step racks up.

Every step of a marathon, every stroke of a brush, every word in a novel.

It’s the little things that count.

We can’t control much.

But statistical inevitability helps in areas we can.

Can’t control how others will receive your work? Committing to lavishing upon one hundred customers with white-glove, high-touch service keeps you close to the feedback and teaches you a lot about how to refine your work. While you can’t control the reception, you can engage feedback and iteration so intently that positive reception becomes a statistical inevitability.

Can’t control how many people will see your work? Committing to twice as many strategic partnerships as you need and lavishing upon those relationships will unlock a lot. While you can’t control how many will see the work, you can over-cook your outreach so that the reach you need becomes a statistical inevitability.

Got something that feels out of control in your work? Committing to going above and beyond in the work that you can control enables you to engineer enough of a ‘land, sea and air’ assault on the problem to make success a statistical inevitability.

Web3 has become a cultural phenomenon on the back of jpegs.

We’ve seen communities come together. Friendships forged. Even orchestrated giving at the forefront of the Ukraine war.

All thanks to these jpegs, their immutable ownership, and the lives they’ve touched.

Season tickets to a sports team have pictures, too. But, we assume that such things, once bought, are just the tip of the iceberg… an access pass to a world of entertainment, or education, or an experience…

…That the proof of ownership unlocks so much more than the picture on the front…that there’s more to some books than the cover.

There’s always room for benevolent acts of service, lavishing upon those you wish to serve, and dutifully protecting those in your care.

You can’t “right-click save” that.

What’s a better platform, an open one or a closed one?

There’s a third (and, I’d propose, better) option:

1) À la carte: Where you can do whatever you like, and so can everyone else. Such extreme divergence prefers a mile in every direction over ten miles in one direction.

2) Prescription: Where you are told what you can have, in what quantity, and that’s the end of the discussion. Progress moves at the pace of the prescriber, in that direction only, and you’re required to either participate in that direction or leave.

3) Omakase: Where chef serves what chef thinks you’ll like best, describes the dishes, answers your questions, and turns their expertise into an act of service. Progress is led by a master, benevolently and in the best interests of those who choose to follow.

“Open or closed” removes the leadership opportunity from a master who cares, abdicating either responsibility or a heart of service.

What if your work were to be Omakase?

Want more skills?

First, find time in your daily schedule for more practice.

If I go a week without writing, I forget how to write. Writer’s block is a byproduct of not writing enough. My daily post helps me think and write faster. Daily practice, more skills.

If I go a week without touching code, I code slower. Good code is clear thought, and a lack of practice makes the functions and frameworks harder to recall. Daily practice, more skills.

If I go a week without drawing, drawings get more rigid. Good illustrations/animations are about movement, and movement comes from confidence and practice. Daily practice, more skills.

If I go a week without studying philosophy, I think less. Stress, anxiety and fear run rampant when you don’t domesticate your mind with philosophical thinking. Daily practice, more skills.

Skills aren’t won or bought.

They’re grown and nurtured like plants, or they wither.

If you want more skills, don’t forget to count the cost of daily practice for as long as you wish to keep them alive.

Is newer better?

Textmate 2 hasn’t been updated in years. Yet I like how it feels: beautiful icon, new file blank state, native markdown shortcut handling, speedy cocoa architecture. Yum. There’s no built-in terminal (you have to use one separately like a grown-up), basic version control support (I prefer using Git from the terminal anyway). It’s not the newest, best IDE. But it’s the best for me and makes building sites, apps and games a joy.

ToonBoom Harmony’s interface feels 20 years old. Yet I like how it feels: its retro input states, reverence for classic animation conventions, and the ever-present “built by animators for animators” design decisions. There’s very little native support for other animation mainstays (doesn’t round-trip with compositing tools or non-TB animatics), and while its UI gets slammed as being difficult to use, I love every minute of it.

Lightroom Classic isn’t the hot photography DAM in town anymore (denoted by the “Classic” moniker). Yet its interface and workflow (which hasn’t changed much since I started using it in 2007) reminds me of my early days of dSLR photography every time I open it. The new version can do most of the things the Classic version can and more, but this is the version that brings me joy, and so I continue to engage the tricker, more advanced features with that same spirit of discovery as I had way back then.

Maybe we don’t need to optimise our tools for newest or most features.

Maybe we need to optimise them for what brings out the best in us.