I ended the week exhausted. I’d pushed every bit of my energy to the last moment, gave everything I had, then shut it all down. Now; unlike in times past that did not mean pushing all nighters. It didn’t mean pushing forward every waking moment. However, it meant bringing everything I could to solve the […]

I like to make things, to tinker, to think, to create. However, I don’t think the things I make can really drive me to last very long if I don’t have some kind of external feedback loop. Maybe that’s the difference between something built for a marketplace and being an artist.  Writing books, blog posts, […]

This week we had the privilege of being joined by a fantastic guest, Larry Miller, on Fractional. Lance and I dove into talking about the challenges of being a maker and a manager, ala Paul Graham’s fantastic article.  We also talked about the challenges and loss of information with with leaders and individual contributors in […]

Canva is buying Affinity. I tried to like Affinity Designer, Publisher, and Photo. I tried so hard so many times. But maybe because I’m getting old I could never work them into how I think and design. These days I do all my design with hand drawing out on iPad (in Freeform), Figma, and occassionally […]

There’s too many books to read, too many movies to watch, too many things to do. And so now I write down what I hope I might do, then forget about it. The things I hope to consume often find a way of bubbling back up. Does that mean I miss out on something amazing? […]

As a teenager I was struck by the care of a friend when I didn’t deserve it. I’d used anger and been unkind, and in return this friend showed love. It turned my world around. This was someone outside my family, who owed me nothing, and chose in that moment to help me see a […]

Over the last two decades I’ve pushed myself in many ways in business; whether it’s writing seven novels, starting six podcasts, beginning several startups, building teams, honing my craft, reading voraciously, or testing out as many ideas as I could imagine to see what would stick. I’ve always felt the need to try something, to […]

Sometimes a call really does provide clarity. I’m used to working async and prefer it, but just today I had an example where a colleague and I were able to bust through something in a matter of minutes and didn’t have to spend days going back and forth async. It worked well because we don’t […]

When I read a book (and yes, I count listening as reading), I have different mental spaces for different reading times. Sometimes I want to learn, sometimes I want to relax, and sometimes I want to feel a specific emotion. When I’m re-reading a good novel I want to return a place I remembered before […]

First of all, I’ll never in my entire life be able to spell that word. Something inside of me refuses to get it right and I always Google the proper spelling.  Ok, with that out of the way, I am coming to the end of this week with an appreciation for the rhythms of work […]

For years I always sought new books, craved the hit from hearing a new story, an unexpected twist, a character I’d fall in love with. Then, a few months ago, something broke in me and I realized the core components of what I enjoy in a good book already exist in the books I’ve read. […]

Designers are such a wonderful group. They have so much emphathy, passion, care, and love for their craft. Often they’ve come to it because they were born with an itch to create, to breathe life into a thing, to see a vision come out of nothing.  Over the years I’ve struggled with my designer portfolio; […]

One thing I’ve sought in my digital life, whether dealing with Calendars, tasks, or notes, is the importance of having a single source of truth. I don’t want to have two places to check things, where the data could conflict. When I go to add a calendar event I want to know it will be […]

Todo lists, along with calendars, are a crucial part of how I manage my life. Over the years I’ve tried lists of all types. In my early twenties I decided digital was the answer, so I tried out every app I could find. None quite matched what I wanted. At one point I carried around […]

For a while I thought something was wrong with me. I wanted to make myself available for meeting with people everytime someone asked. The world is full of so many kind, interesting, challenging, wonderful, frustrating, curious, loving, people. So I’ve tried, tried to always accomodate people who wanted to connect. Why wouldn’t I? People are […]

On Friday I got to try Apple Vision Pro for the first time. For the rest of this post I will simply refer to it as the Vision Pro, because that is how I’ve been saying it with friends for months. I’ll be talking more about this in an upcoming podcast, but I wanted to […]

I’ve been a fan of technology my whole life. As a kid I dreamt of watches that allowed me to take notes. I had a small hardware Bible that allowed me to search any verse or word. I tinkered with computers, played around with my operating system, installed everything I could think of. I just […]

Last year saw a dirth of anything iPad related; unless you count a new pencil.  I’m excited to see what Apple comes out with this year, and I’m hoping that we get a spec bumped iPad mini. That’s all I want. The mini form factor is perfect, I just need one that’s faster.  After having […]

I quit Amazon Prime last month after a decade plus paying member. I might be back, granted, but I finally reached the breaking point with the price increase and (if you want it) ads on Prime Video. Curious to see how the coming years determine which subscription services stick.