Archive of posts from April 2026

Between 2005 and 2019, the number of words we speak out loud to another human reportedly fell by nearly 28 percent.

The pandemic likely made it even worse.

More connected than ever.
Less connected than ever.

We think smartphones keep us connected.
What if they’re keeping us apart?

Why are shiny new-and-improved things exciting?

Whatever the reason, I don’t share it.

We’re told we’re supposed to want new-and-improved.

But there are a few issues with that:

• new-and-improved may not be better than what you do now
• new-and-improved may not be more reliable than what you do now
• new-and-improved may not be more proven than what you do now
• new-and-improved may not justify the switching costs
• new-and-improved may be change for the sake of change
• new-and-improved is just...

When the camera happened, artists were supposed to be doomed.

Yet there are still many artists. More, even.

When the smartphone happened, photographers were supposed to be doomed.

Yet there are still many photographers. More, even.

In the moment, when a new thing happens, things are supposed to be doomed.

Yet they continue, often with expansion.

Remember that when things feel catastrophic.

Some want to pay less, to get less, while demanding more, and leave for a cheaper option when it comes along.

Some want to pay a little more, to get more than they paid for, while demanding less than they got.

We get to choose what type of people we want to surround ourselves with, when we put our work into the market.

Your message isn’t what it says on your website.

Your message is what those who know you, tell the others.

Those are words you may not have chosen. You can’t wordsmith or A/B test that. You can’t un-say what you’ve said. You can’t pretend you’ve done what you haven’t.

And that’s part of why those words are so important.

Maybe we should focus less on the simple prose we can control, and more on words that spread.

Sometimes, you can get more ideas to explore by prompting an LLM for them.

Sometimes, you can get more ideas to explore by sitting with a cup of tea and watching the clouds roll by.

The second is less efficient yet, often, more effective.

If, that is, you’d like ideas different to those everyone else is having.

Is it pointless, or the point?

Some see to street photography as a futile — and often unpredictable — record of banality.

Others see it as capturing life itself, an unfiltered record of existence, a mirror to an imperfect world.

Some see writing emails by hand as a waste of mental energy and time.

Others see it as staying sharp, showing up with care, preferring it over machines talking to other machines all day until we all run out of...

I don’t mind if your email isn’t perfectly formatted. It shows me you cared to write it yourself.

I don’t mind if your website copy has a typo in it. It shows me you cared to keep tweaking it to suit those in your care.

I don’t mind if your newsletter is slightly inconsistent. It shows me it’s a response to your desire to share great things, rather than merely spewing out slop on a schedule.

I don’t mind if...

Moleskine have been a staple of the creative world for decades.

They claim to have been for hundreds of years but, tales aside… decades.

Writers. Artists. People who want to disconnect from tech and explore their ideas themselves.

So it perhaps comes as no surprise when Moleskine announce their latest LOTR collab is, in part, AI generated, that creatives got upset.

And I don’t blame them. I also thought it was a strangely tone-deaf take on what most of their...

For a long time, people pursued convenience.

“1,000 songs in your pocket” was a hugely desireable idea.

More GBs on a smaller SD card. Thinner and thinner laptops, more power. Headphones that don’t even have wires. AI that generates your words. The list goes on.

Everything is so, so convenient, if you want it to be. And yet?

Physical media sales are up. DVDs, vinyl records, physical books, people are returning to the inconvenient.

Because they want to feel something.

If you keep a notebook or pen in your hand, you’ll write or draw.

If you keep a book or magazine in your hand, you’ll read.

If you keep a phone in your hand, you’ll waste time.

The future is in your hands.

My team was celebrated by a client because of the energy it brought to an emergency.

Not the fact that they dived into someone else’s emergency and fixed it for them…

Not the fact that it was done very quickly and economically…

The energy they brought.

Chill, calm, organized, happy, kind.

Sometimes your competitive advantage is simply being a really nice person.

Our gardeners don’t touch the neighbours gardens.

They used to. That’s how we connected with them in the first place.

But they’re good gardeners. They’re in-demand. So when our neighbor wrote scornful emails about their performance, they simply walked away.

When bad gardeners get bad reviews, they have to scrape around looking for work, and will continue working with bad customers.

When good gardeners get bad reviews, they get to walk away. They’re good, and they have plenty of other...

When web authors don’t care enough to put readers above themselves, websites are a chore.

When websites are a chore, people prefer talking to AI and risk the hallucinations.

When people prefer talking to AI, the websites die anyway, because people don’t need to talk to other people.

When people don’t need to talk to other people, the fabric of the Internet as we used to know it, goes away.

It just becomes a bunch of lonely people, interacting with...

When you write good documentation, you’re really writing a book.

Something with chapters. Something that takes people on a journey. Something that leaves people better than it found them. Something worth reading.

It can transform a business.

When you write bad documentation, you’re done none of those things.

You’re simply making things harder. Worse than a 1:1 tutorial. Worse than a disorganized back-n-forth email thread. Worse than no documentation at all.

Write good documentation.

Your brand is a character.

Those it serves are the protaginists in a story.

Your brand’s role in their story is up to them, and how well it elects to show up and help them on their journey.

It’s always been this way.

Most just lack the imagination to see it for what it really is: characters, in a story.

If you try to ‘generate’ a shortcut to creating your magic, you’ll lose the magic.

And probably, create a lot of frustration and wasted time along the way.

If you try to focus your mind on doing your best work, somehow, the magic shows up.

And probably, when you forgot all about shortcuts and just danced with the magic itself.

Don’t try to phone it in. Don’t look for shortcuts. The fastest way to producing great work is to not...

Whenever I go to the park with my son, I’m struck:

Every other parent is on their smartphone, most of the time.

Pushing their kids on a swing, while scrolling.

Walking down the stairs, while scrolling.

Sitting in coffee shops, while scrolling.

Sitting on park benches, while scrolling.

Everyone is so eager to give away their attention, their focus, their mind, their opportunity to build memories.

We don’t have to join them.

As of last year, 51–53% of global internet traffic was bots, surpassing human activity for the first time.

Social media isn’t social anymore. The timeline is just sensational media, the social fell back to DMs.

Google search isn’t for search anymore. The results are modified and/or replaced with AI, so you never really see the real thing.

The web was social, now it’s just trying to be so clever it’s becoming “dumb pipes”, full of the echoes of voices long...

When the Gorillaz team were waiting in LA to hear whether or not their movie would happen,

They could have sat around, waiting, sipping coffee, doomscrolling, stressing.

Instead, they made a song, on an iPad, while waiting.

Released as “Cracker Island”, released February 2023.

Not the first time they did that, either.

“The Fall” was an entire album, created in 32 days, on an iPad, while on tour with “Plastic Beach”.

The takeaway?

You’ve got time.

You just need to...

Everyone’s sending cold emails.

There are unquantifiable numbers of them flying around right now.

And the number seems only to be increasing.

What’s the chance anyone will respond to yours?

Very good, if:

• You commit to understanding them
• You commit to sending them things they want
• You commit to doing so without asking for anything in return
• You commit to making it more fun for them than what they were already doing
• You commit to iterating on that until...

Some people optimize email for speedier replies, hitting more people with less care, shorter ping-pong replies powered by AI.

Other people optimize email for fewer messages in the first place, choosing to be thoughtful with people who will thank them for caring.

Some people optimize their copy or designs for speed, templating and generating quickly to get it done and move on.

Other people optmize their copy or designs for depth, taking the time to do fewer things but better,...