Archive of posts from April 2023

AI is the hot thing.

And people are worrying about what it’ll do to their jobs.

But we were all playing with it in the 90s.

For instance, Super Mario Kart launched on the SNES 1992–1993, and:

• In 1-player, you weren’t the only kart on the track
• Other racers were entirely computer-controlled
• We could choose how difficult those racers would be

But Mario Kart didn’t make a name for itself because of a great 1-player mode.

It made a name for itself thanks to its great 2-player mode.

And when Mario Kart 64 launched in 1996 with 4-player mode, its reputation exploded further.

The computer was fun to play against… but playing with other humans hits different.

Businesses have been forgetting this for years:

• The last decade saw entrepreneurs trying to automate their work with web apps and foreign labour
• The next decade will see entrepreneurs trying to automate their work with AI
• In both cases, they forget that humans are a feature, not a bug

But.

Only if the human is great.

The best investment in your work may not be to AI-ify everything.

The best investment in your work may be to simply master your craft, respond to emails promptly, smile when you talk, and show that you truly care.

It has yet to go out of style.

I made a hit card game once.

It was about 2001. I was in high school. Collectible card games had just hit our town.

I loved to create…

…And I didn’t have much pocket money to buy cards. So I made cards.

A few months later, the school was into my card game. My friends would help me sell them on the playground for commission. We elected certain kids to be special ‘bosses’ who give you special edition cards… if you can defeat them.

It was awesome.

What did I learn from all this? And how does any of this help creators today?

Well. Consider what the cards really were:

1. An idea
2. Gamification
3. Distribution
4. Cardboard

That’s it.

There was no social media to spread ideas.

• There were no iPhones or Android devices to snap ‘n’ share your gameplay.
• There was no YouTube to post your unboxing.
• There was barely any SaaS (even Salesforce had only just launched)

Now, we have all of those things. So distribution is easier than ever…

…And the cardboard is entirely optional.

That leaves the idea and the gamification.

If creating something that spreads can be done with pieces of cardboard on an offline playground… just think what’s possible for you today.

Launching new things is a bit scary.

Will people like it? Will it work? Will it achieve the goals I hope it will?

These are, of course, completely the wrong questions.

Instead of, ‘Will people like it?’, consider, ‘Am I going to listen?’

Instead of, ‘Will it work?’, consider, ‘Am I going to work it?’

Instead of, ‘Will it achieve its goals?’, consider, ‘Will I uphold my responsibilities?’

It’s not about the product.

It’s about the creator.

Now go get ’em.

New tech trends excite builders.

Super-secret ChatGPT prompt hacks?

Shiny new tech stack?

Delicious.

And bad for you.

There’s a reason that veteran builders - folks who have been building products for decades - tend not to pay attention to these trends.

No, it’s not because they’re old and set in their ways.

It’s because they’ve seen this all before.

New is not new for long. A new new comes along replacing the new. Sooner or later, you’ve learned eighteen different ways to solve the same problem, rather than solving eighteen different problems.

They realised that no one cares about your stack. People simply want their problems to be solved.

That’s it.

Forget new. Focus on things that matter.

When choosing your tools…

You might try searching the web for reviews on which are best.

You might try experimenting with them to see which have the best features.

You might see what your peers think is the best path to take.

But these options all fail to consider a big, undocumented nuance:

Which are best at your scale?

I use Obsidian for knowledge management because the only two people who need to access it are myself and my wife. If it was for a team of 1,000 people, this might not be the best tool for the job.

I’ve developed applications using Rails since 2013 (despite not being as popular now as it once was) because the ‘majestic monolith’ model is very single-dev friendly. If it was for a team of 1,000, this may still be a great route, but many more viable options make their way onto the table.

So forget what the reviews say. Forget what has the best features.

Think about what works for YOU and your circumstances, as others can’t know what it’s like to be in your shoes when they share their opinions.

Do you, friend.

Ideas don’t come from:

• Overworking yourself
• Being more productive
• Forcing yourself to be original

Ideas come from:

• Underworking yourself
• Being more effective
• Playing with (and remixing) thought

They’re not very convenient that way. They don’t show up because you commanded them to, like an AI prompt. They show up precisely because you didn’t.

Take a breather. It might just hit you.

Have fun with your workflow:

Writing? You could just use Word for everything. But instead there’s iA Writer, Obsidian, Final Draft, Tot, VSC… because How you do it is as important as What you do when you love your craft.

Drawing? You could just use Paint for everything. But instead there’s Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Procreate, Pixelmator, Harmony, Storyboard Pro, Zbrush, CSP… because How you do it is as important as What you do when you love your craft.

Planning? You could just use Reminders for everything. But instead there’s Basecamp, Linear, Trello, Omni, Things, Notion… because How you do it is as important as What you do when you love your craft.

Be passionate. Have fun with your quirky nuanced workflows.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun” – Einstein

You know when something bad happens…

…Like a client terminates, or someone says something mean about you…

…And your mind immediately goes to all the reasons it could be your fault?

That’s the time to try what I call the 3 Maybes.

It’s a game.

That you play with yourself.

It makes you feel better.

Here’s how you play:

Step 1: Take the thing that happened to you.

Step 2: Your mind jumps to a reason… but before it can settle into whatever emotions that come with it, go to Step 3.

Step 3: You think of 3 random other reasons why that could have happened, one after the other.

Here’s an example:

• A client terminates your contract
• Before you can think of all the reasons why you may have screwed up, you think:
• “Maybe they’re feeling insecure about their abilities and pumped the brakes”
• “Maybe they’re going through something at home and it’s making them behave rashly”
• “Maybe an alien is experimenting on humans and they chose him today”

By the third one…

…Poof. You’ve intercepted the emotions associated with your knee-jerk response.

You win.

Well done, you winner you.

Knowledge management had always been a bit tricky.

So many tools, each with their own preferences and limitations…

What’s the best way to store it all, AND easily retrieve it all, without limitations?

I’ve found the answer in Obsidian, a markdown-based tool that runs on all the popular platforms.

Home stuff, journals, learning, home projects, CRM, pipelines, business projects, tasks, all in one place.

And everything is interconnected, so you can navigate everything you know and manage like one bit website.

Sort of like your own brain.

I’ve routinely received praise from partners, clients, and even vendors thanks to how organised everything is, and how nothing takes me more than a few seconds to refer to.

Everything’s only a couple of folders deep, too, thanks to strong naming conventions and light plugin use to auto-generate exactly what I need.

It’s free, I’d recommend giving it a shot. It’s been invaluable for me.

Half of the battle comes easy.

For some of us, it’s amazing creations. Courses to die for. Software we look forward to. Production value that turns heads.

…Except heads don’t turn, due to the other half of the battle.

For some of us, it’s authority and awareness building. Marketing campaigns that smash goals. A rolodex everyone envies.

…Except there’s nowhere to direct that attention, due to the other half of the battle.

Most of us find one side easier than the other.

We must commit to both.

Remember that.

What do you need in order to build a great digital product?

Here’s what you might think you need:

• Lots of money
• An amazing idea
• Knowledge of how to code
• Permission to try

And here’s all you actually need:

• Loads of patience
• An amazing attitude
• Knowledge of how to learn
• Permission from yourself

It’s time to build.

This week so far:

• 2 x newsletters
• Published 4 articles
• Copy for 2 campaigns
• Painted new world art
• Convos w/ record label
• Production for 2 shows
• Product dev for 3 teams
• Prepped 2 marketing plans

And it’s only Tuesday.

Make the most of the day, creator friends.

Teams & employees want more fun:

• 75% feel more creative (Officevibe)
• 77% feel greater well-being (SHRM)
• 81% feel more productive (Monster)
• 60% would hold their job longer (Accenture)

Optimise for happiness, not cash.

We only get to do this whole thing once.

Some fun experiments in my tech stack:

Web Browser: Edge. Built in AI tools to summarise materials, super-useful. Vertical tabs let you negotiate flurries of activity faster. Still Chromium based, so everything from Chrome still works great.

Knowledge management: Obsidian. Started using this at the top of the year but it’s still worth mentioning. Nothing has come close to Obsidian for organising thoughts, knowledge, and project data. It has even taken over from iA Writer as my distraction-free editor of choice, thanks to some wonderful themes and plugins from the Obsidian community that make it look delicious. This has stuck and made its way into my main Tools stack.

Media player: VLC. I used this in the past, but settled into Apple Music for the longest time. Since I own downloaded copies of most of the media I enjoy listening to, getting that media to go mobile is fascinatingly difficult in 2023. VLC’s app hooked up to web storage providers, meaning it can be everywhere, regardless of what any one walled garden might advocate.

Terminal: Hyper. I’ve used iTerm 2 for a very long time. I didn’t expect to switch this one up, but Hyper has been a fun experiemnt. It’s simple, and powered by web tech so customisation can be done in web-native languages (which I like, as my development knowledge is purely web-based). Not quite enough to sway me from iTerm 2 and its hotkey profiles, but close!

17 unusual cheatcodes to enjoying your work:

1. Read with a pen
2. Clean desktop (tidy)
3. A Deep Work playlist
4. Think of work like a game
5. Read more (make the time)
6. Mechanical keyboard (asmr)
7. Go walk, ponder possibilities
8. Rewards for doing hard things
9. Take more breaks (just trust me)
10. Use stickies & sharpies (tactility)
11. Desk toys (reminder to be playful)
12. Stop delegating the things you love
13. Automate/eliminate things you hate
14. Eliminate money worries (e.g. simplify)
15. Drink more water (I know you like coffee)
16. Personal monthly challenges (you vs you)
17. Take courses that look fun (prioritise growth)

This isn’t an exhaustive list… but it’s a different kind of list.

Pick one. Just one. And see what happens.

“You are not in the awareness business, you’re in the falling in love business.” — David Horvath, Uglydoll founder

As much as the business gurus and social influencers would like you to believe otherwise…

…Growing fast is not always a good thing.

In fact, it could even be the worst thing to happen to your brand.

Lifestyle brands that explode in one store, region or pop trend become associated explicitly with that thing. And then they die with it when it dies.

Lifestyle brands that endure, must do so by being present alongside the trends, but without being associated with the trends, and without being the trend. This allows them to transcend the trend and become a true lifestyle brand.

Achieving this is as much about what you say “No” to, and deliberately remove your brand from, as it is about developing the right amplificaiton opportunities.

“Explosive growth” suggests an explosion has taken place: something out of control, that can cause damage to those close by. That’s not a good thing, nor something we should necessarily desire.

“Going viral” suggests something that is spreading out of control, that may infect anyone anywhere. This is also not a good thing and makes for a lousy goal.

But “Controlled growth” is much safer, and much fitting for a resilient, sustainable body of work.

As is a healthy referral system, which rewards people inviting right-fit friends, rather than just ‘anybody’.

So pick your own pace.

And own the pace you pick.

1,953 days ago, I thought I couldn’t write well.

So for the last 1,953 days, I published an article daily.

I hoped it would make writing easier. It didn’t. But it made me a writer, and embracing that fact made writing ‘feel’ easier.

I hoped it would help make creating daily disciplines easier. It didn’t. But it did make it easier to maintain this daily discipline, once established.

I hoped it would help me write better. I think it has. But more importantly, it helped me think more clearly, which is even better.

Whatever skill you’re working on…

It may not give you what you’re looking for.

But it may just give you what you need. And that might be even better.

Keep going.

Creators.

Ask yourself this question:

If you weren’t you… and you discovered the products and content that you’ve been putting out into the world…

…Would you be a raving fan of what you foujnd?

If not, think about why that might be.

List out the reasons, then fix them.

The best way to delight an audience is to delight yourself.

Things you might not be saying ‘No’ to, but maybe should:

• Hanging out with people who don’t bring out your best
• Picking up the phone while you’re working
• Treating all emails equally, in the same place
• Buying what you’re told is best vs what is best for you
• Doing things because of FOMO
• Projects that don’t excite you the moment you hear them
• The fear of not starting projects that excite you
• Taking on proects just because ‘the market is bad’
• Working right up until bedtime
• Thinking your health can wait until next week
• Thoughts powered by comparison, jealousy and pride
• Skipping that family thing because you’re busy
• Being so busy that you consider skipping family things
• Wasting time even thinking about the Joneses
• Feeling insecure or ‘less than’ for any reason
• Over-thinking instead of just doing
• Avoiding saying things that need to be said
• Setting yourself as ‘available’ when you’re not
• Treating time as if it is infinite (for you)

Say No more often.

The solo creator timeline looks a bit like this:

• 1970s: You + typewriter + library + outsourcing
• 1990s: You + computer + internet + outsourcing
• 2020s: You + computer + internet + AI

Computers modernised tooling. Internet modernised access. AI is modernising leverage.

Steps to build a product:

Expectation:

1. Build
2. Profit

Reality:

1. Listen
2. Test
3. Build
4. Listen
5. Test
6. Build
7. Listen
8. Test
9. Build
10. Profit

Prepare your work (and your emotions) accordingly.

Dare I launch the product if it might not be #1 on ProductHunt?

Dare I post this Twitter thread if it might only get 1 like today?

Dare I invest the uncomfortable time in making this ‘great’, when doing it ‘quickly’ might be a salve to my insecurities?

Dare I send that direct message to that prominent figure if they might not respond?

Dare I learn that new skill that will make my work better, and risk being a novice for a while?

That’s a lot of dares.

And not daring to might sound safer.

And it is. If you want to safely draw your work to a close.

But if you want to build great work, maybe it’s time to dare.

Creators have an enemy.

And they don’t know where it’s hiding:

When they don’t feel like they’re getting much done, they tweak their productivity system. But one simple to-do list is all you need. The resistance isn’t in your system, it’s in the fear of diving into the thick of the next most important piece of work that will move things forward.

When they don’t feel like they’re getting the marketing results they want, they research. But new information isn’t what you need, it’s the courage to listen to what people are already saying and methodically test your materials, then do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

When they don’t feel like they’re making the progress they want, they change their tooling. But new tools aren’t what you need, it’s the commitment to staying disciplined and focusd on knocking those items off of your simple to-do list.

You have what you need.

Time to go get it.

Businesses like making boring things.

They like to think they’ve being exciting and innovative… but they secretly prefer boring.

Boring means customers recognise what they’re doing, and evaluate their offering like they do everything else.

Boring means advertising can follow the playbook of their closest competitors and earn a workable slice of the pie.

Boring means staff can follow the same playbook as their previous job, and take the same playbook to their next place too.

Don’t make boring things.

The alternative is to show up with a passion for your craft, a desire to do better, and a pride in your work.

The alternative is where customers wouldn’t want to go anywhere else because no one does it quite like you do.

The alternative means the playbooks don’t apply because you elevated the game… but it doesn’t matter as people don’t want to leave.

Be the alternative.

Everyone’s looking for the secret hack in their work.

The shortcut. The trick. The cheatcode.

I get it. They want to win.

But you know what’s even cooler than wanting to win?

Loving the game.

When I play a card game with my wife, we play because we love to play. We don’t play not to win, but we won’t play to win either. We just play because we enjoy it. If we didn’t enjoy it, we’d play something else.

This is also how we became really good at the card games we play.

And how we because really good at copywriting, sales, design, animating, site/app/game development, and a bunch of other things.

Not because we needed to win.

Not because we looked for the cheatcode.

But because we enjoyed playing the game.

Do you love what you’re doing? Then please. Carry on.

But if you’re only doing what you’re doing for the win, and you’re in search for the cheatcodes along the way? Then please. Play something else.

Here’s the real secret: loving what you do IS the shortcut.

Is making products easier to use always better?

Our knee-jerk responds is… yes, of course it is, what a silly question.

But think about it:

Your favourite game isn’t your favourite because you could complete it without losing a single life on the first try. It’s more likely to be your favourite because it threw good challenges your way, and you enjoyed how the act of solving them was designed.

Your preferred creative software isn’t your favourite because it has fewer buttons. It’s more likely to be your favourite because it enables you to create what’s in your mind, now that you’ve learned all the different tools available to you.

Even Fisher-Price products, designed for little tots to use, often incorporate puzzles to work out.

It being easy isn’t always the point.

Sometimes, it being fun to work out is the point.

Sometimes, the journey of discovery and mastery is the point.

Don’t assumed ‘easy’. Discover what the point of your user journey is.

There’s a lot of content on the Internet.

People come and go all the time.

We don’t miss many when they go. At best, we think “Ahh, shame”, then never think of them again.

Anything more than that is a real bonus.

If we’re really lucky, we’ll create something people like, they’ll want more, and they’ll miss us for just a moment when we’re gone.

Education is making people obsolete.

Education systems today prioritise predefined lanes of knowledge and skill.

But the new world prioritises open-ended problem solving and harmonising contrasting nodes of information

We need education systems to adapt and enhance learning for the new world. Roblox is a better educator than schools today. That points to change.

And it’s down to digital product creators to make that happen.

What a time to be alive. What a time to teach.

Following the fun Bomberman-business idea from earlier this week, I thought I’d dig a little deeper into the theme.

Why?

Because it nails the 4 key elements of a successful mindset.

Do them and have (explosive? /wink) growth:

1. Safety first

Over-eager players end up blowing themselves up. A patience player can literally stand still and win vs these.

Same in business:

• Hustle-culture leads to burnout • Losers chase fast money and end up nowhere • Winners win by playing the slow game

Others hustle and get rekt. You’re a survivor.

2. Be strategic

You have unlimited bombs… But it only takes ONE bomb to win in Bomberman.

Same in business:

• You have unlimited opportunities • Winners are in the right place at the right time • When the right moment comes, you must be ready

Others say YES to every opportunity. You say NO to Good so you can say YES to Great

3. Keep calm

Sometimes gameplay is absolute carnage. That’s when winners fall back to reassess their win condition.

Same in business:

• Overwhelmed, emotional creators don’t make it • Retreating creates a moment to plan your next move • A calm, composed mind > a stressed mind

So compose yourself: Most feel a bit lost and stressed. You only go in calm and focused.

4. Invest in yourself

There are power-ups everywhere. Winners collect them because you are never a bad investment.

Same in business:

• Mind power-ups (therapy? meditation?) make you stronger • Skill power-ups (courses? consulting?) make you stronger • Wellbeing power-ups (vacation? days off?) make you stronger

Most skip them if they don’t see a need. You pick them all up because they only lead to good things.

Business can be a bit of a minefield.

That’s why Bomberman knows what to do.

By the way, if you like marketing… but also like fun… you’ll love one of my newsletters: “Marketing But Fun”! It covers:

• Animated studies on how to win more users
• Thorough edutainment & gamification strategies
• Over 20 years XP building digital product brands

Join here: https://marketingbutfun.com/

Pranks aren’t just for April Fools Day…

Look around:

Internet celebrities claiming to sell the secrets to untold wealth for a limited time offer.

The amazing business webinar that just so happens to be starting in 3 minutes time from now.

Ecommerce brands assuring you that Patrick just bought 3 minutes ago and only 4 items remain.

Professional service providers assuring you that their money-back guarantee actually works.

The digital product that has a super-special discount for today only, then it’s gone.

We all fall for these things.

But then we get wise to the nonsense.

People try to make fools of us year-round, not just on April 1st.

Stay alert. Stay safe. We can do better.