1: Would my 6 year old self be proud of this, if he were here to see it?

He didn’t have the weight of the world, nor the complex social structures it impose on us, imposed upon him. He just wanted to make cool stuff and share it with others. Would he be proud of whatever I’m building right now, or would he be disappointed that this is what lies ahead?

2: Would Mum be proud of this, if she were here to see it?

She wasn’t influenced by any of those social structures or weights either, because the downstream effects of my actions didn’t affect her. She just wanted to know I was happy, safe, and fulfilled. Would she be proud of whatever I’m building right now, if she was still here to see it?

There are lots of other voices that matter a great deal. Voices of people alive and with me today, whom I love dearly. But that’s not what this post is about: this is about making sure I’m also being true to myself when I create.

Because I’ve lost myself before, and it’s hard to see while it’s happening.

Maybe the voices in your world are different to mine.

But find some, and confer with them in your mind, as I do with my 6 year old self and my Mum.

Even though they’re gone, it doensn’t mean they’ve left you.

The areas they harmonize, the areas they disagree.

The outfits they won’t need until future seasons, but are worth knowing in advance for continuity of design language in other objeccts.

In the culture of their world, what came before that will never be seen, to make a coherent world-view that influences how they walk, what they reminisce, and what they hope for.

Why?

Can’t you just draw a cool-looking character and call it good?

You can…

But any old machine can do that.

People don’t connect with cool pictures and novel stories.

They connect with something deeper than that.

The human work of caring more deeply than that.

The feeling that someone wrestled with the nuances for a long time, pulling together worlds worth getting lost in.

Many won’t even notice it, consciously. But they’ll feel it, unconsciously.

This is the human work of making things that matter for people who care.

It’s worth every struggle, especially when nobody’s watching.

About what made you decide it was worth pursuing in the first place.

Isn’t that enough?

And part of why we love them is the humanity, the connection, the effort, the heart, the care that went into them…

And as human beings we love to see such things unfold in order to build connection and care for those things being built…

Then maybe part of what makes it resonate with people isn’t the finished piece, perfect, manicured, and ready for the world to see.

Maybe part of what makes it resonate is being invited to follow along in the journey, witnessing the ideas, the struggles, the doubt, the ideas that didn’t work.

Maybe we want to see all the bad stuff, so we can celebrate in the good stuff, too.

Perhaps that journey is precisely the thing we need in order to truly appreciate what you’re doing.

Perhaps the bad stuff is part of the good stuff.

Perhaps it’s time to be vulerable, not perfect.

And lots of team members who need your feedback…

And lots of reports you need to speak to…

And lots of decisions you need to make…

And lots and lots and lots and lots…

The best way I’ve found to deal with them all, is to slow down your inner voice.

T o   s p e a k   a   l i t t l e   b i t   s l o w e r   i n s i d e .

My inner-voice can be mile-a-minute, if I let it. Flitting from concern to concern, thought to thought, thing to thing, barely finishing one thought before another starts up. Faster, faster, faster.

I’m convinced it’s one of the places that anxiety and stress come from.

But when you slow it down… and give each thought… space… to be…

One word… at a time…

Suddenly…

Things feel calmer. Much, calmer.

As though, there’s space… and time… for all of the things… to take, their turn…

And somehow… it all… gets done.

Try it sometime.

Machines will always win those metrics.

So don’t compete on those metrics.

And don’t seek customers who shop based on those metrics.

Every one comes with a huge list of to-dos, best practices, and gurus who reportedly know best.

But what’s it all for?

Likeability and trust.

It’s for likeability and trust.

Why not just focus on that, instead, and let the rest come along for the ride?

We might hear it and think, “we have some, others have more, so therefore they’re better than I am”.

But if you’re a video game character, ‘Talent’ isn’t a stat. ‘Skill’ is a stat.

‘Talent’ is the starting balance of ‘Skill’ that your character comes with.

Characters starting without a starting balance, can outpace those who did, by training their ‘Skill’ stat.

Outside of sport, this is true for most people, at most levels of play.

You are entirely, fully, completely capable.

You always have been.

But I maintain it’s worth being a “hopeless optimist”.

“Hopeless”: You don’t hold out hope that the optimistic point of view will necessarily be correct, or that things will somehow turn out better because you thought that way.

“Optimist”: You try to see the good in the things around you, even if there is also bad, and try to show support towards the good parts in case it helps them overcome the bad.

For example. The current UK government is busy trying to chip away at any good person’s relative use case for freedom of speech. But the hopeless optimistic view is, the current government is doing that, but that’s not to say the next will.

Another example. I supported a whole bunch of artists who sold NFTs around 2020–2021. Not because I thought it was going to be a “big money play”, but because I believe in artists. Some were grifters, others were trying to make art and got labeled as grifters by grifters. The hopeless optimistic view is, supporting artists, if you can, is a good idea anyway.

Know what you believe, know what you value, then try the “hopeless optimist” hat on.

If nothing else, it’s better for your blood pressure.

No good person would expect that of you.

But a good person might expect you to:

1: Stand by your work. If you release something into the world, let it be something you’re proud of. I try not to ship anything I’m not truly happy with, even if it means a few uncomfortable conversations with other contributors. Those contributors, the recipients, and myself, all deserve the opportunity to fill their days experiencing great works.

2: Do right by those who trust you. I’ve had projects fail before, and the first thing I try to do is do right by those who trusted me, as best as I’m able. To a good person, that’s just as valuable as if the project was a success, and builds their trust in you even more.

3: Do 1 and 2 without waivering. We can waiver on a great many things. Confidence. Energy. Skill. Mood. Hope. I’ve waivered on them all and more, too. But so long as we still stand by our work and do right by those who trust us, we can go again tomorrow.

It’s something that has been on my mind lately. A lot.

Money? Nah. We won’t be remembered for now much cash we made.

Time spent working? Nope. That time was lost to those we love.

Home? A bit. But the memories we made together, not market price.

Accolades? Not really. Loved ones won’t care what the others thought.

Writing? Totally. It captures our minds, so loved ones can still experience us.

Creations we’re proud of? Totally. It’s something loved ones can enjoy when we’re gone.

Phone-free fully-focused family time? Totally. This is what they’ll remember most of all.

Puts things into perspective.

Worth building your priority list around.

This is an email template.

Try making a version similar to this, but in your own voice. No + gratitude + explanation + invitation.

With that stored for easy use, you’ll be better equipped to focus on the things that matter most for you, without slipping into polite “Yesses” that you didn’t really mean.

Time’s finite, protect that focus.

Some storyboarders are practicing their craft specifically to come up with more ideas, faster.

They’re both faster.

One of them is smarter, more skilled, more committed to their craft, and more likely to create stories no one has seen before.

The other is de-skilling, more committed to ease than quality, and more likely to rehash the median of what came before.

The same is true in so many industries at the moment.

Fascinating to watch!

But they taught me something when I last visited their homepage.

When listing their verticals, they detailed “Creativity and design” as their first one.

Makes sense.

Followed by “Content creation”.

Huh. (Then PDFs and all that other stuff they do.)

Creativity and design. Totally different to — and not to be confused with — content creation.

For “Creativity and design”, they describe industry-leading apps for design, photo, video, and… “creative AI” (whatever that means).

Then, for “Content creation”, they describe how you can “quickly” create and edit images with “creative AI”, “easily”.

The former is focused on using top tools to do great work (with occasional slop).

The latter is focused on prioritizing fast, easy slop (without a creative bone in your body required).

The lesson I learned: Don’t think of “content” as “creativity”. Don’t think of “content” as the discipline of creating things that matter for people who care. Think of it as empty banalities offered at the altar of algorithms, designed to direct your attention toward those who didn’t earn it.

Duly noted, Adobe.

They snag our emails and phone numbers, harassing us with their “earned attention” like we owe them something. They make you comfortable then jack up the prices because, well, you’re “captured”.

Other brands use marketing to “contribute” to us.

They send goodies to our emails if we want them, and create experiences so valuable we spread the word like we owe them something. They make you feel comfortable and don’t break their promises.

There’s usually a choice, in most markets.

Vote with your wallet.

There are channels dedicated to folks posting their creations, often nervously so, in hope that someone likes them.

They’re often from junior or young talent, working on their craft, hoping someone cares.

They’re often missing one or two key lessons that will unlock a whole new level of skill.

It’s a joy to leave encouraging words. To let folks feel seen. And to message some of them if I think they’re close enough to take on a project for me, with a little training.

If you see someone trying…

Whether it’s an artist in a café or online… a musician on the street or on YouTube… whatever they’re doing… compliment them. Ask to see or hear more. Ask where you can follow along online. Show care. Show them they’re not invisible.

It means more to almost every single one I’ve spoken to than you’d ever think.

Try it. It’s as good for your soul as it is for theirs.

Internet celebrities, hustlers and tech-bros? Many of them follow the money, making and saying whatever must be made or said to increase their share.

Artists, writers, and other creatives? Many of them also follow the money. But others follow their love of their craft, making and saying whatever must be made or said to increase their love for their craft, and the contribution they can make with it.

It’s not usually hard to tell what a person follows. Spend a few moments talking with them and your gut will probably know.

We can’t really fully avoid the former. There are too many of them, powering too much of our infrastructure, to avoid them.

But we can certainly seek out the latter. And support them with our attention, our support, and our dollars. Because with enough support, they’ll be unavoidable, too.

In rooms full of artists and writers, they tend to compare based on tenure and experience in their craft. Time spent with the craft.

If you don’t enjoy the conversations or comparisons, it could be the green eyed monster… Or it could simply be that you’re in the wrong room.

Storytellers tell stories others remember so they’ll repeat it to others.

There’s room for both in this world.

But if you have the opportunity, try to be the latter.

If you stand out and look very different, you might also lose… or you might win.

Which is it to be, friends?

The “passionate artist” tries to contribute more.

I know which I’d rather be, and work with.

1: Find a problem
2: Make a promise
3: Keep the promise

It’s only three steps. Try not to skip them.

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?

(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.

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.

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 how it feels to help others, in areas related to my craft.

That right there is the litmus test: is it still enjoyable when you do it for nothing?

Not to be a jerk, or to wring them for more cash.

But to protect them from themselves.

A wonderful service that does one thing really well, bent out of shape to satiate an individual’s needs, is no longer a wonderful service. All the magic and promise was removed.

And for what, to avoid a difficult conversation that could guide them to a greater impact? Or to make sure you don’t miss out on an extra suboptimal buck that leads them nowhere?

Doesn’t sound like great client services to me.

It’s a war on customer happiness.

They invariably saw the outcries when Microsoft made the same decision, and followed anyway.

I’m sure there’s a financial motivation behind the decision, and I don’t fault businesses for wanting to be profitable.

I’m just not sure that going to war with customer happiness is the best path to achieve that goal.

Is the “it” never truly happens because you’re so distracted.

Convincingly pretending to lead a successful project takes as much time as leading a real one.

Convincingly pretending to have skills you don’t takes as much time as building the real skills.

Convincingly pretending to have domain authority takes as much time as actually knowing your stuff.

So why mess around faking anything?

Why not just do the thing?

The blank canvas you’re writing your script in? Figuring out how to assemble those ideas? That’s supposed to be hard.

The storyboard you’re working on, where you could take a hundred different directions? That’s supposed to be hard.

The song you’re working on, where you could go many different ways with it? That’s supposed to be hard.

Yes, AI can “help” with those things. It can make art easy, removing the tension and friction you feel with the world around you, from the intuition you bring to the creative process, and from the journey from here to having work worth talking about.

And that’s what people want to see: work worth talking about.

But is it still worth talking about? “The computer did it”?

Is that the story you wanted to share? Or is it just a story a little bit like the remarkable, touching, inspiring, conversational piece you might have shared if you’d done the hard work?

The shift to “zero click search” means many formerly-popular indie sites are losing up to 58% of their traffic since early 2024.

That’s over half in less than two years.

That stinks. The web thrives on open, decentralized effort from enthusiasts. It decays in closed, walled-gardens from corporations.

The only lesson to be learned here is, don’t trust the corporation to do the work of enthusiasts, and don’t expect the enthusiast’s work to look like the corporation’s.

Support your enthusiasts. Remember how your browser bookmarks work. Show ‘em some love. They won’t know you’re there rooting for them unless you show them.

Their latest contracts require child voice actors to sign away rights for the company to use their recordings and likeness to train AI for the purpose of voice reproduction.

Which not only threatens their gig with Hasbro, but threatens their future career as voice actors, while asking them to agree to things they can’t possibly understand at that age.

I get it. Voice actors aren’t cheap. I pay voice actors all the time.

But here’s the thing.

I love paying voice actors. Whenever I send payment, I feel good. They’re making something awesome with me, and they’re getting to do that for a living. We get to do this again, as soon as possible.

When there’s an actor I really like, and I don’t have lines for them for a while, I feel bad — I want to give them more, so we can make more cool things together.

Paying nice people to do what they love and create awesome things together is a privilege. Not a burden.

If it’s a burden to you, the answer isn’t to try and AI-slop your way to a cheaper alternative. It’s to get into a different profession, and make room for those for whom this would be their dream, too.

Support those who collaborate gladly.

Withdraw support from those who try to short-change hard-working talent.

They may listen if the message is received in dollar form.

Will your art improve with better graphics software?

Will your ideas improve with a fancier notebook?

A little, actually.

Honoring your craft with tools you enjoy is no bad thing.

It may help you lock in and go deeper.

But only a little.

The rest comes from sticking to what you’ve got, sticking to tools you know, and going deeper on the discipline of doing your thing.

Which amuses me, as I use wired earbuds.

Not because I’m “back”. Because they never left.

While keeping my head down doing my thing, studying and diving deeper into my chosen topics, parts of the world moved on, then came right back again.

A lesson to us all, perhaps: focus on your thing. Trade the cyclical new hotness being marketing to you for a deeper understanding and mastery of your choice of craft. One pays dividends for you and those you serve. The other puts you right back where you started.

It’s a delight and a privilege.

But it’s also fascinating to watch HOW he learns and grows.

Despite studying edutainment as an artform for ~20 years now, most of that study has been on adults, and young adults. Because, lets face it, most education for adults is boring, not very memorable, and uncomfortable when done right.

But it’s true for kids too. Most of it is low-effort and void of results.

In my home, my wife and I watch what engages my son, and lean into what works in a big way.

A show doesn’t engage him? Gone. A show really engages him? We go get every season of it and give it to him, while watching closely for what it is about each episode that grips him or teaches him most.

A toy doesn’t help him learn or grow? We stop buying toys like that. A toy really brings him along? We get lots of it, and construct games that unlock more toys for progression and further incentive.

We do it because we love him, of course.

But its fascinating to see how much I’m learning in the process, about using fun for growth in young minds.

It’s really not that different to adults. I assumed it would be very different, and very saturated, but it’s really not.

I love that, 20 years in, I’m still having huge revelations on the topic.

The more you know, the more you don’t know.

She’d read old childrens books, entranced by the artwork and the stories.

When I got her another for her birthday, she enjoyed reading it, saying it was a lovely addition to her “fantasy world”.

A place she could go, even when she couldn’t go anywhere.

I’ve long enjoyed an inner “fantasy world” too, and never knew we had this in common until the very end.

If you have one, talk about it. Share it.

If you don’t have one, I can’t recommend it enough.

Because you’re always free in your fantasy world, even when your body starts to fail you.

Every day.

Until your very last day.

Like to sketch? Play with pens. Different nibs, different inks, feeling how they behave on paper, to see how they influence your sketches and my ideas. A mechanical HB pencil and a wooden 2B make you sketch differently. A fine nib and a brush nib make you ink differently. Different inks make you layer differently. Try and see what happens for you.

Like to write? Play with keyes. Different boards, different switches, different arrangements, to see how they influence your writing. A raised mechanical board with wrist rests may make you not want to move, and commit to longer writing sessions. An easy low profile chiclet keyboard may make you feel like jotting down notes more quickly. Try and see what happens for you.

Nothing beats committing to the work itself — actually making. But playing with your tools a little along the way to see how it influences your output? That’s what fans do, and its an investment in your craft to be a fan of it.

I used to.

I’d hear a voice in my head saying, “It’s done, the customer will be happy with that, you need to move on to the next item on your list or you’re only going to slow you and your team down, it’s done, what are you doing, get on with it already.”

Listening to that voice is likely no bad thing.

But choosing not to listening to it is also no bad thing. If you want to be known for going that extra-extra mile. If you want to attract more customers like them, as a result of your care, your generosity, and their advocacy. If you want to show yourelf — and the world — that this is more than a job, this is a craft, and one you take very seriously.

Promotion is important…

But why must we assume it must be you doing all the promotion?

Path 1: Make something good, then promote it forever.

Path 2: Make something great, designed to be spread, and let those you made it for promote it for you forever.

Its a choice.

Humans are very good at spotting both in each other.

Humans are very bad at realizing how little all this matters, until they witness the end of someone’s live — be it theirs, or someone very close to them.

Then, they sometimes notice the futility, and turn to the things that matter. Their craft, contribution, courage, wisdom, and temperance.

Then, in time, they forget again, reverting back to status and affiliation.

You can break the cycle if you notice the nonsense.

You’ll never really learn where anything is, but it’ll always take you “there”.

You’ll not notice the details on the road, the trees, the signs, the changes, but it’ll always take you “there”.

You’ll not discover the side roads and country paths that give you ideas for other journeys, but it’ll always take you “there”.

You’ll not encounter the opportunity to get lost, pay closer attention, correct your course, and learn so much more about your environment, but it’ll always take you “there”.

Where is “there”, again?

A linear, efficient path to your destination?

Or a meandering, exciting adventure that may eventually lead to your destination?

What if the latter is the “there” we’re really looking for?

We forgot how to get lost, and lost some magic along the way.

That’s been on my mind lately.

When you’re wrestling with your art, the pain is the point, for the same reasons. It shows just how very much you care.

Maybe we don’t want these things to be easier, more efficient, more productive.

Maybe the pain is the point.

Because the objective of these words isn’t to get likes or attention.

The objective of these words is to help me discover what I think, and to share the journey of those thoughts with those who care in the future.

Perhaps future-me, looking back on past ideas. Perhaps my son, getting to know what I was thinking about when he was too young to ask. Perhaps you, looking for other perspectives on topics you hold dear.

You don’t need a good reason to start journaling and publishing.

You’re more likely to need a good reason not to.

We’re planning to build a small library into our home once we clear the room out planned for it, and carve some time to carve some wood to make it how we envision it.

But it’s not just books (though there are a lot of books).

There is also comics. Videos. Little toys that remind us of lessons learned. Pictures we’ve drawn. Photos we’ve taken.

Learning is a vibrant, exciting, fulfilling-for-its-own-sake passtime. Something to pursue before we even know we might need to know the things we’ll learn, because who knows what we may discover along the way.

Didn’t always feel this way. I had to learn to learn by practicing, finding my tastes, and leaning into them with curiosity.

Learning to learn — your way — will be an intensely rewarding, never-ending gift to your future self, if you make the time for it.

They’ll tell you about the difference between the opportunity, and what shipped.

A wonderful, vibrant, exciting possibility, and what shipped.

A novel new approach that customer interviews revered, and what shipped.

A huge part of making great work is having CEOs that don’t ruin it.

“The reason RAM prices went up 4x is that a massive amount of not-yet-manufactured memoryh was bought with money that doesn’t really exist to be put into GPUs that haven’t been made yet, to be installed in data centers that haven’t been built, powered by infrasttructure that may never exist, to satisfy demand that isn’t actually there, in order to generate profies that are mathematically impossible.”

Fascinating. A fun reminder to not believe everything you read in the news, folks.

Artists want to work together to push art forward. We do it all on our own, and we enjoy it intensely.

Same for writers. We do it all on our own, and we enjoy it intensely.

Same for musicians. I’m not a musician, but I adore watching musicians collaborate and advance their genres.

In some ways, AI is a scapegoat — it’s not just AI that bothers creatives. It’s that an outsider came in and decided to tell the doers how to do.

No wonder they’re getting booed during commencement speeches.

Our marketing uses Brevo because all of the email and customer data is in one place.

Our animation pipeline uses Toon Boom products because everything from storyboard through to compositing is ine one place.

Our codebases use standard syntax and structure because every developer who touches it finds it easy and familiar.

Our scripts are written in .fdx files because every scriptwriter knows what to do with .fdx files.

“Simple and accessible” are key ingredients in our decision-making process, because it frees us up from thinking about the things that don’t matter.

So that we can focus our attention on the very few number of things that do.

Is if you were to write them all down…

And cross out the ones that don’t directly impact the heart of your work or those you love…

You may just find that the list reduces by 90%.

Just from asking one question.

Isn’t it better to focus on just those things, then?

What they overlook is, we should all remain that way anyway. What use is your contribution if you’re happy to be neutered by every negative experience along the way.

If you can, try to be like a junior with experience, not like a war veteran afraid of loud noises.

Your work will thank you for it.

They draw a lot. When they’re tired of that, they read about drawing. When they’re tired about that, they think about drawing. When they’re tired of that, they do something else.

All in service of their craft, for its own sake, and for those they toil for.

It’s okay to put the pencil down so long as the fire keeps burning.

This can feel disheartening at first. Lonely, even.

Then you realize it’s your voice taking form. Your point of view. An expression perhaps worth sharing, a by-product of your tenure in the space.

Lean into it — it makes you our brethren, instead of merely our fans.

Reading reviews about online…

Umming and arring about…

Do they make your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?

If not, why not ditch the evaluation and just focus on making your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?

Or does it steal a gift from that child away from you.

Or rewrite history as we lose evidence of their growth, perspective, and effort.

Or remove the desire to improve in a skill that computers “will just do better anyway”.

What if the generated lifelike version of the drawing removed the art, by removing the artist.

What if their imperfect hand-drawn art is more “real” art, a communication between artist and viewer, a relationship shared through images, than the machine-made alternative could ever be.

What if that’s true whether it’s hand-drawn on paper or in Photoshop - the hands of the artist are on each brushstroke, like words in a poem.

Worth thinking about.

The best thing I’ve found is to… just not care about the size of the response. Most of the things I’ve made that did well took a minute for others to understand. They were novel… different… and that means less competition (good) but also slower time to “get it” (bad).

So we have to either make peace with periods of zero feedback, or make peace with grueling, never-ending, fierce competition.

No right or wrong answers I suppose. But I know which I prefer!

Much too short.

Forget the rules. Forget the status games. Forget the comparisons and trinkets and nonsense.

Make your thing, love your people, and forget those still caught up in the nonsense.

Life is simply way, way, way too short.

A premium notebook that’s so pretty you daren’t write in it… or a cheap notebook so quick to scuff that you enjoy using it and throwing it around?

Software that’s slick and minimal, but does half the things you need with bugs to fix… or software that’s old and clunky-looking, but does everything you need with bugs long fixed?

An e-reader that holds thousands of books but needs replacing as the tech ages… or a handful of dog-eared physical books you’ve felt, re-read, and deeply internalized?

The latest smartphone with the latest distracting features… or an old basic phone that never pulls you away from your focused, meaningful work?

No right or wrong answers. There’s something for everyone. But it’s worth asking yourself what makes a great tool, then shopping for that, instead of just buying what the marketing says.

When videogames get ridiculous prices and bloated with in-app purchases, enthusiasts produce gems like “Goldeneye X” to add their favorite improvements to their favorite old games.

When car manufacturers pepper their new offerings with subscription extras and annoying beeping features, enthusiasts turn to renovating their old rides and sharing an appreciation for vintage.

When big tech offerings become ad-laden, ai-stuffed and pricier without any improvements actual customers want, enthusiasts turn to linux distros and build on-ramps to open alternatives.

“New and improved” isn’t a given.

If you stop listening to customers, some will shift to “old and improved” instead.

It meant I learned to do my thing (back then it was making comics, videogames, animations, and card games) and putting some of them on my website for free, and others in my backpack to sell on the schoolyard.

Some laughed, said they were lame, thought it was silly, and questioned why they’d buy things from me when they could go and buy “real” ones from the store.

Others thought it was cool. They bought my games on floppy disk. They bought my card games and the expansion packs I’d have printed and cut out the night before. They’d go to my site and read — and play — my work. We even had a tournament set up in school for the card game.

Thank goodness some laughed. It gave me the strength to learn how to do novel things anyway, despite what others thought.

It’s worked out well for me so far. I have no plan on stopping. I hope you’ll join me.

The moment someone else is cheaper, they’re gone. Because they bought you on price.

Do you want to be bought for price?

Or do you want to be bought for value, novelty, relational equity, contribution, status, or any number of other reasons?

Most of them are a race upwards, to provide more value, more novelty, more contribution, etc.

Only price is a race downwards, to zero.

Are we really going to choose that one?

Before generative tools existed, we just thought of art as the whole thing - the process, the product, the person, all kind of mixed together. We never questions the component parts, or their relation to one another. Why would we?

But now generative tools exist, widely rejected as artists in favor of “making our own art”, we get to question what exactly it is that we’re rejecting.

When generative tools can produce finished pieces, flawed as they are, we say “that’s not art”. And we don’t say that because it puts six fingers on a hand. That’s not why it’s not art. I’ve drawn most of my characters with four fingers for decades, as a style choice. That doesn’t make my art “not art”.

So it’s not “not art” on technicalities. It’s “not art” for deeper reasons that, prior to generative tools, we may have missed entirely.

Why do we connect with “real” art, and feel so empty when looking at generated images?

Lots of reasons. The knowing that someone toiled at it. The knowing that someone had a lived experience that brought them to a moment where that art needed to be made, by them, at that time. The knowing that someone’s process is developing, and this is part of their journey that we got to share with them. The knowing we can go and look up that artist and learn more about their journey.

Art is a conversation without words, a bonding, a relationship. Generated images is an output, a decoy, with no relationship possible.

Even when brands deploy art in their marketing materials, the same is true there. Real art lets us converse with the brand — and the artist who represented it — without words, letting us bond and relate with both identities. It’s communal. When brands generate images instead, all that disappears.

We used to try to grow as artists by merely improving our output. Thanks to AI, we can now see that growth as artists is about having better conversations through our work.

I’m thankful for that realization.

Not because it’s for a project. Just “because”. For the hell of it.

Because when we’re gone, it’s all that remains.

And those who love us might really thank us for leaving more of ourselves behind for them to cherish.

Live today like it’s the last one, don’t sweat the things others sweat. This is all thats guaranteed, so enjoy it and be happy.

And

Fight today like you’re going to fight and fight and fight for many many years to come. As more problems come, fight those too. You’ll know when it’s time to stop.

I don’t know if she knows she’s teaching me that lesson.

But she’s still teaching me that lesson.

And she’ll keep teaching me that lesson when she’s gone.

And I’ll continue trying to be a good student, and let the lesson live on through me, to teach to my son, too.

For every craft you pursue, remember to enjoy it for what it is today.

For every project you work on, remember to enjoy what it looks like today.

For every client you work with, remember to enjoy the work as it is today.

For every recruit you hire, remember to enjoy them as they are today.

If you can’t do that, maybe they’re not for you.

Because life’s long until it isn’t.

Duolingo’s participatory, contextual expressions that transcend the app to the icon itself.

Pepsi bringing back Coke’s polar bear to anthropomorphise rivalry.

Apple’s ‘Little Finder’ to promote the Neo to Gen Z.

They’re back. Because they’re full of personality, let people direct relational equity to that personality, form bonds and feel like they’re entering a world, not just buying a product.

I’ve been advocating for mascots since forever.

This isn’t an “I told you so”, but it’s absolutely a “don’t be afraid to bring your work to life with personality because you think it might make you look silly”.

Multi-trillion dollar companies seem to get on just fine with it.

“I can design sites without a designer!” says the developer.

“I can write site copy without a copywriter!” says both of them.

“I can generate the whole thing without any of you!” says the site owner.

All of them are both right and wrong.

They’re right, in that it’s possible to marginalize every area they lack in taste or mastery, with slop.

They’re wrong, in that it’s impossible to know every mastery like the masters do, so they’ve no idea what magic they’re passing up by dismissing the masters.

It’s never been easier to be amateur… and, apparently, never been harder to be a master.

If you need the perfect notebook, you’ll never start sketching.

If you need the perfect writing app, you’ll never start writing.

If you need the perfect script, you’ll never start acting.

If you need the perfect anything, you might be focused on the wrong thing.

Maybe “slightly better than today” is actually the better path.

Maybe “slightly better than today” compounds over time.

Maybe that compounding effect is the closest thing to perfect we’ve got.

But I love when the opposite is true.

When the tools grow old, and the skills stay new.

In art, you get used to a certain pencil from a certain store… a certain notebook in a certain size, certain paper, certain cover… yet the act of creating art is forever new. There’s always more to learn, more to practice, more to master.

In writing, you get used to a certain keyboard from a certain manufacturer… a certain writing application, certain ritual, certain process… yet the act of writing is forever new. There are always more styles, topics, and mediums to explore and master.

Messing with your tools is a distraction, unless its to benefit the skill. Watercolor needing thicker gsm paper, for instance. But new apps for the sake of new apps, new tools just because they’re trendy, that’s all a distraction from what matters: letting the skills stay new.

That is, if your goal is to continue to grow in the things that matter most in your craft.

It was my dream watch when I was in my early twenties.

You can pick them up for about £25 on eBay (depending on condition). It’s priceless to me.
Not just because it was my dream watch. But specifically because of who got it for me.

Other people have different dream watches. Most of them won’t share my dream.

They’ll all tell the time “the right way” for them. Yet “the right way” is completely different to them all.

When you try to create something for ‘everyone’, and they all have differing ideas of what they want…

How can you create for ‘everyone’, really?

Maybe there is no ‘everyone’.

Maybe there’s a much larger number of people in the niche of “someone” you choose, than in the pool of “everyone”.

Better just choose your “someone”, then.

The first is the story you tell others. Every product, service and project is a story. The way we express it and connect with it is a story. If something isn’t working, consider looking at the story, and see what might want to change there.

The second is the story you tell yourself. Every creator tells themselves a story. The way we relate to the work we put into the world is a story. If something isn’t working, consider looking at your story, and see if you’re being too hard on yourself, expecting results too early, or any number of other inner-dialog issues that could be holding you back.

When in doubt, look at the stories.

Sony’s Xperia 1VIII launched with an “AI Camera Assistant” that suggests entirely new, generated compositions of your pictures.

That way, you don’t take photos. You take prompts. Prompts that generate images that may be a bit like what you saw, but not really. A library of images similar to the memories you could have captured, if you where to have taken photos instead.

That feeling of “wait, that misses the point of taking photos” is indicative of so much art today.

Sony did a wonderful job of helping us understand what we don’t really like about AI generated images.

Normally, the canvas has certain expectations before the first brush stroke is made. And those expectations can be wonderful for creativity.

I thought of this while perusing a gardening magazine this morning.

The rising temperatures in the UK, mixed with pricing challenges and wild weather, is causing huge disruption across gardens across the country. Some are electing not to bother with their gardens anymore, astroturfing the problems away.

Others are seeing opportunity for creativity. Swapping annuals for perrenials. Growing shorter more resilient plants that need less water and soil disturbance. Little changes to their rituals that can produce a slightly different type of garden, but one no less beautiful.

And so it is with economic crises, turbulent markets, rising competition, or any other constraint that may come one’s way.

Better to see constraints as a playful companion, nudging you toward a creative solution, than an enemy trying to ruin your day.

Our work is so much better for it when we befriend constraints.

Breaking into fashion amidst increasing distrust of tech companies and the cost of living crisis.

Let’s keep in mind:

Wired EarPods cost $19. Wireless AirPods (the wire killer) is closer to $250, but we don’t have headphone jacks anymore.

A DVD costs $5 one-time. Netflix (the DVD collection killer) is closer to $20/month, but we don’t have DVD players anymore.

A CD costs $10 one-time. Spotify (the music collection killer) is closer to $13/month, but we don’t have CD players anymore.

But some people are going back to wires, buying adapters to get their headphone jacks back.

And they’re ripping physical media again, so they can use DVDs and CDs with the tech they have.

Perhaps the old pattern of “create new technology, strangle the old way, creep up the price” isn’t working out so well anymore for the Silicon Valley elite.

Perhaps there’s a limit to how far the public can be pushed, before they push back.

Perhaps listening to what customers want, and making that for them, could be a better model than playing games with them until they revolt.

Perhaps thats what companies should have been doing all along.

Perhaps thats what consumers should have voted for with their dollars all along.

Perhaps there’s still time.

It could be because people didn’t want to be legless avatars in a metaverse.

It could be because people didn’t want an AI model nobody asked for pushed on them.

It could be because people didn’t want to see back-to-back ads instead of organic posts.

It could be because people didn’t want creepy smart glasses nobody asked for pushed on them.

It could be because listening to customers, and making things they want, is a lost art among the tech elite.

Yeah, it’s probably that.

If your marketing team increases MQLs, but close rates decline because lead quality is down… is your marketing working?

If your post-sale team’s new referral system creates new MQLs, but SDRs take the credit despite flat reception… is your marketing working?

When things are so complex that everyone focuses on their own little piece of the puzzle just to make sense of what they do… is your marketing working?

It’s tough to answer. Everyone defines success differently, and none of the definitions can truly answer whether or not marketing — all of it — is working.

It’s easier when everyone defines success the same way. For things to be simple enough that everyone can easily remember the entire plan regardless of their role, and how their actions contribute to the common goal.

No more places to hide. Everyone measured on their ability to execute the same plan. No blame games, no “that’s not my job” just one team, with one plan, and one goal.

Simplicity removes hiding places.

Compare that to a brand new, year-model car. Freshly gassed AC. Chilled waterbottles in seatback nets. Your favorite jazz band on the radio. Friendly driver, who makes his way around with his smartphone’s maps app, joining the same congested route as everyone else because he doesn’t know the local secrets.

Which ride do you choose?

The answer tells us a lot about how much we understand about focusing on what matters.

After all, it only costs $800-1,400 to produce. It’s a $1k bag with a $199k story attached to it.

What’s the story? For its target market, it’s the feeling of being a better, more important, higher status individual than everybody else around them.

A Rolls-Royce Phantom sells the same story for $500,000. A whopping $301k more expensive story than the Birkin, yet designed to achieve the same feeling.

For the target market, the Birkin bag is a steal.

But facts about the bag don’t make it a steal.
Nor do “offer stacks” or “limited time offers”.
The story makes it a steal.

If we held onto every piece of information, our minds would explode. Our brains are excellent at “thoughtfully forgetting” information, holding on to only that which is most obviously pertinent to our wellbeing.

Good stories are the exception.

We remember our spouse’s birthday because it has a story associated with it. It could be, “I love buying them a gift, I love the way they light up when they open it” because its part of our own story of “being a good spouse”. Alternatively, it could be “I must not forget to get them a card or they’ll rip me a new one” because its part of our own story of “preferring not to sleep on the couch”.

Two different stories. One outcome: remembering a date.

Facts may help people intellectually understand, but brains treat stories just like lived experiences. There is movement, tension, consequence, meaning, emotion, and self-preservation all at play when a story shows up.

That makes our brains deem them far more likely to be worth remembering.

People edit their photographs because the story they tell themselves about their lives matters more than an accurate representation of what happened.

People universally hate movies where “the dog dies” because the feeling spoils the rest of the movie. They can’t get into the movie anymore, therefore it was bad.

People gladly pay $9.99 + free shipping, but almost never pay $5 + $5 shipping.

People can’t remember a series of random numbers they heard ten seconds ago, yet can recite the lyrics to their favorite childhood cartoon theme song that they’ve not heard in thirty years.

Discretionary effort counts double because, while functionally redundant, it makes people feel vastly more cared for.

Stories don’t just pass through the language centers of the brain. They activate emotional and sensory regions too. The brain treats stories more like lived experiences than abstract information.

We don’t feel facts.

We feel stories.

Perhaps part of our continued education should focus less on gathering more facts… and a little more on feeling stories.

This is news to brands. While they articulate features, stats, charts and frameworks, “but wait, there’s more”-ing themselves into marginalized obscurity, people don’t give them a second look.

Not because the brand didn’t have a good offer.

But because the brand didn’t have a good story.

They didn’t “create content” to lure you into a “funnel” to pitch products at you.

They didn’t chat with you purely to evaluate whether or not you’re a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL).

They didn’t contribute to things only because there’s an invoice at the end.

We used to create together for the joy of making a “web” worth visiting. We all made it better, together.

We used to chat together for the joy of sharing common interests, and mobilising around ideas because of it.

We used to contribute to projects we liked because thats how things got made. A bit of all our time, together.

I miss that Internet.

For instance. I think of myself as an artist.

So when I’m leading my team, I see it as an artist, leading a team. I show up differently because of it. I draw my ideas, treat conversations like a canvas everyone can make a mark on, and look for opportunities for art to lead in the work we make.

Or when I’m writing code, I write code as an artist, too. Even when I’m in Vim — a keyboard-only text editor with no mouse input — I use it on a Cintiq with a Wacom pen between my fingers — all artist tools specifically optimized for non-keyboard inputs. Partly because it’s a twenty-year habit of nearly always having a pen in my hand… and partly because it reminds me to think through code challenges visually on a canvas. I don’t need AI to show me how to solve a problem, I just need a white page to sketch on.

Or when I’m leading a Zoom call, I use Zoom as an artist — a screenshare of a blank white canvas comes up immediately, and what we discuss becomes a sketch of notes and thoughts connected with bubbles and lines. I don’t need a summarization tool to write transcriptions nobody will ever read, we have a sketch instead.

How you see yourself will affect your work, too. Worth think about.

We’re both fairly tech-savvy, using technology extensively in our projects.

And it reminded me that there are always more than one way to go about things, even when you think the path is obvious.

His tech-savvy led him to automating his entire home. Everything, controllable from his phone. It’s very cool.

My tech-savvy led me to minimizing tech as much as possible. From having being so exposed to it, I love the low-tech, tactile alternatives to tech-everything. Physical notebooks and calendars. Drawing on paper. Light switches that are on or off, no UI. A local, owned music collection. Card games over TV. Gardening by hand rather than with those little robot things that tootle around yards.

Both are responses to tech-savvy.

It’s a reminder, to me anyway, that opposite of a good idea may also be another good idea.

Such as this daily journal, for instance. It doesn’t take long, but it gives myself — and others — a glimpse into what goes on in my mind.

Here’s another daily ritual worth thinking about:

A daily thank-you note.

To colleagues, employees, customers, relatives… and if you’ve exhausted all those, strangers.

It’ll make us more thankful people, while making someone else’s day.

Like any daily ritual, I like to commit to doing it once. Then to doing it again the next day. And the next day. Then to a week. Then a month. Then 100 days. Then see how long it goes for.

This daily journal is a 3,058 day streak so far. The ritual works, and the benefit is win-win.

Worth considering.

In case you enjoy free comics and insightful takeaways from great books, you might enjoy taking a peek at the latest changes to m newsletter: https://mredutainment.com/growthcandy

Each issue includes a comic skit to remember the lesson, coupled with an illustrated breakdown of a topic, complete with illustrations of the book author being covered.

Take a peek. It’s enjoyed by thousands, and I’d love for you to join them if you haven’t already.

If you had to kill one of them, which would it be? Why did you choose that one?

Okay. Now do it again, out of those that remain. Which would it be? Why did you choose it?

Do it again.

Hmm. Three projects — important projects — just got axed. With justification.

Why are you doing those projects, again?

Would it be better to focus on those that remain, instead?

We have two choices.

I use the computer I use because of what I want to make with it, not because of what I believe.
Same is true of my notebooks, pens, books, all of it.
Because I value my ability to create over my ability to agree with everything who make those tools.

The alternative would be to look for another provider each time they make a public misstep.
Trading mastery and familiarity for tangential philosophical alignment with those who manufacture my machines and bind my notebooks.

There are many who believe jumping ship regularly in this way is a great idea.

But I’m not sure making the velocity of my creativity the casualty of their missteps is a success to me.

…And that’s what AI is trained on currently…

What should you expect to receive if you ask it for ideas or production support?

Worth thinking about.

Perfectionism: Make, see how it could have been better based on your thoughts, scrap what you did to make that instead, repeat.

Growth: Make, ship, see how it could have been better based on feedback, make that next, repeat.

Which are you doing?

One: Photoshop the packaging to make it look more desireable than it actually is.

Two: Improve the product so you need not photoshop a thing.

Fast food companies are renowned for being in the former category.

And you’re welcome to join them, if you’d prefer to make a many sale today in exchange for many disappointed customers.

Or you can be the second kind, disappointing yourself today in exchange for making many happy sales tomorrow.

Both types exist. You can choose which you’d like to be.

One: People who love reading about notebooks, buying notebooks, comparing paper quality, deliberating about the brands that make them.

Two: People who write and sketch liberally into their notebooks.

The first kind loves the thing. The second kind loves what they make with the thing.

No right or wrong. But it’s worth noticing which you’re being.

Some see this as “A race to the bottom gone wild.” I get it.

But I see this as “A keen photographer committed to starting their portfolio and photographer career, in a climate where such jobs are far from guaranteed, so are thinking outside the box to make it happen.”

I fully support that kind of mindset.

Nevermind the naysayers. Go get it, bud.

Data. Databases. Everything is data, in databases. Methodical, organized, controllable.. Who controls the database controls everything. Yada-yada.

But software brain is a choice. Organizing things that way is a choice. A popular choice, but a choice.

On the flip side, you could (for instance):

• Think on paper, not in apps. It’s messy, unstructured, hard to recall. The mess is the point.
• Plan less. It’s counterintuitive, unproductive. The spontaneity is the point.
• Have fewer opinions. The discourse is friendlier, and algorithms have less power over your heartstrings.
• Make your coffee differently every time. The randomness is the point.
• Enjoy wrong turns or getting lost. GPS databases are based on the opposite.
• Act on feeling, not just on logic. We do anyway, logic is often just a story we tell ourselves.

The list could go on and on.

The point is this: if we live in ways that wouldn’t suit a database, we don’t get software brain, and tech doesn’t consume our world, or our worldview.

That’s rare. A place where new, unexpected ideas show up. We need more of that: ChatGPT already covered the rest.

When AI can generate an image that looks like what’s in your head…
Like what you’ve seen before and want to see again…

We get a choice:

1. Choose to engage a creative who will bring a new perspective, a new idea, a new take on an old theme
2. Just take the generated image, advance nothing, and not care one bit

But it’s not so simple.

Creatives will worry about people choosing Option 2…
But the problem isn’t necessarily Option 2.

The problem is that fewer and fewer creatives want to show up fully to Option 1.

Many creatives are phoning in their creativity to inspiration galleries or prompting-in-secret.

The solution isn’t to whine about Option 2…
The solution is to show what Option 1 is capable of.

Now’s not the time to be fearful, nor lazy.
Now’s the time to be more creative than ever before.

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?

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 a story sold as a fact

Sometimes, new-and-improved has a place.

But oftentimes, it’s a distraction.

There are already enough distractions.

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 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 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.