Archive of posts from July 2026

I can tell when my focus is way off.

There are certain activities that give you—or your work—life.

(Bonus points if you’ve optimized life to where they’re the same thing!)

…And then there’s everything else.

Here are 3 questions that put my focus back on track:

1: What are those activities, again?

2: Do they make up a good chunk of every day?

3: If not, what am I going to do about it?

I’m doing a painting for my wife’s birthday.

(Hopefully she doesn’t read this before her birthday!)

Why?

Because art requires love, care, commitment, patience, and time.

Those are all more important things than the spending of money.

I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me sooner.

When you truly care, engage in the exchange of love, care, commitment, patience, and time.

When you don’t, well, there’s always money.

I own more art books than I’ve read (time!)

And I keep on buying them.

Silly or smart?

I argue smart. Because spending $10–20 here and there to signal to your subconscious how much you value your craft is smart.

It’s watching, and it influences your behavior based on what it understands about you, so show it what you’re all about.

I give art and design feedback every single day, as part of my work.

And I wondered what it’d be like if I didn’t. Do I actually like it?

So I went to Discord and left feedback in channels designed for artists to request feedback, and left some. Not work-related at all, just unsolicited feedback in places where people were looking for some.

Some were really, really grateful for the input. To be seen. To be invested in.

I love...