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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

“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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...