I don’t like meetings. I do like meetings. I get bored in Zoom, I light up and have the best moment of my day in Google Meet. Context matters. When I say that I don’t like meetings, there’s a certain type of meeting I don’t like. 

When I see some espouse the virtues of meetings, it’s sometimes for different reasons than I personally appreciate. I don’t want meetings to project my thoughts on others. On my best days a great meeting is taking the chance to connect with someone else, to learn from them, to share something exciting that hopefully lights them up, and to use that time to make each person’s day a little better. 

Meetings are often most valuable when used with care, to connect, to share, to inspire. 

I’ve long followed the likes of other writers, and been in awe of their ability to charge a subscription, or generate ad revenue, from their writing. It’s something I’ve thought about for myself; and there may be a future there, but more importantly I believe writing for the sake of creating positive impact matters more. 

Life is so wonderfully amazingly hard and beautiful all the same time. Some days I feel the energy and passion to conquer the world; other days I feel overwhelmed and full of doubt. 

Both of these can be true at the same time. People are so full of conflicting emotions, thoughts, and abilities. Today I was reminded of a friend who, in running a startup, freely shared his uncertainties and shortcomings, while at the same time committing to learn and improve and become better.

The confidence that you have it in you to figure something out, combined with the humility of admitting you don’t know yet, are a powerful combination. I love meeting people who have both, and I strive each day to improve in both areas. 

On the topic of drawing on the iPad, It strikes me that I don’t use the Apple Notes quick draw feature. You tap on the iPad with the pencil and it instantly opens Apple Notes; that’s pretty sweet. I just wish that I could do it with Freeform instead. 

Update: Apparently you can do this with automation. Here’s to hoping someone has steps on how to actually accomplish this. 

Last night I got to test out the new Apple Pencil Pro for the first time. Though I’ve heard many writers and podcasters comment on the new iPads, I’ve been hoping for a review on how the Pencil works for designers.

More specifically, I’m a UI/UX designer and use an iPad Mini daily to sketch out flows and concepts for the apps I help create. 

For sketching I use Freeform, an iPad app from Apple; and 90% of what I use involves the pen tool and eraser. I wanted to see if there were any marked improvements. 

Coming from a Mini, I immediately noticed a speed improvement in using the app in general. It’s faster to load, and I’m hoping (although couldn’t test) it will handle larger file sizes. 

The next thing I wanted to test was the squeeze gesture on the Apple Pencil Pro. In the past I’ve disabled all tap functionality because of how distracting it is. With the squeeze gesture I initially found it didn’t fit well into my flow because I’m having to squeeze it so hard that it’s distracting my thought process of sketching. However, once I turned down the sensitivity I found it works quite well. 

The ideal for me is to be able to sketch without thinking about my tool, switch colors, change between pen and eraser, and generally let the tool get out of the way. Having the squeeze gesture feels like an improvement, where I can swap tools more quickly and stay in the flow of things. 

I need more time to test, to actually sit with it for an hour and sketch out a real app flow, but based on initial review I’m really excited about this. 

It’s making me question my iPad Mini choice; although the high cost is quite a bit more than I’d prefer to spend right now. 

Resumes set a baseline for what you did or did not do during your career. They are an outline to look at, but they don’t represent the true color and story of a person. People are so varied in their journeys. On paper a resume looks like a linear timeline of someone progressing forward to an inevitable end. 

In reality the journey of each person is so unique, with unexpected tangles, messy dead ends, and looping again and again through situations that weren’t planned. 

The older I get the more I’ve grown to appreciate that people have so many wonderful, intangible, fantastical, beautiful, abilities waiting to be discovered and appreciated. I’ve seen colleagues rise to the occasion when needed, I’ve seen others fall out of favor and be seen as unfit for the team; I’ve also been in both of those situations myself. 

There’s something more nuanced here that I’m only starting to uncover. There are so many reasons why someone does well on a team, and why they fall short. I hope I’ll have compassion for these differences and look at ways to support others through the crazy journey of life that we’re all on. 

For myself I try to take care of my health, be in a good mental state, and understand that there are rhythms to work. Some days I’ll have it and be full of creative energy, other days I’ll feel more empty and need to recharge. If I didn’t have the requirement of making money, I’d undoubtably want to create things for the sheer wonder of doing so, and for the joy I’ve seen them bring to others in giving my abilities toward a thing that will benefit others. 

In this life so many feel alone, feel like they are the one adrift among a sea of people, without an anchor or an understanding of someone to truly feel connected with. All of us have felt it at one time or another, and we crave the connection that comes with knowing others, with feeling understood, with being together. 

As I’ve met people in all walks of life I’m struck by this very human thread, that we want to belong and be known. I’ve felt loneliness, and I’ve also been incredibly blessed to feel love and connection. 

If you feel lonely, you’re not alone in that. Know that others feel it, probably more than you imagine, and try and take that moment to reach out and let someone know they’re being thought of. 

It’s crazy how much we’re affected by factors outside of us. We try to limit how much our emotions are modified by anything but ourselves, but often find it impossible. Have a rough night sleep? The next day may be harder. Have a challenging conversation with someone? It’s likely to change our outlook for hours. 

The thing I’ve often come back to is an understanding, at least implicitly, that after a rough day the next day is unlikely to be as hard. It will often be better. 

So take these things in stride. Some days are harder, other days are better; and in the midst of all that try to remember (and it’s ok if you occassionally fail) to hug your loved ones, and enjoy the beauty around you. 

What do you do when you’ve approached the point of frustration where everything seems like it’s about to boil over, where the smallest inconvenience turns into an insurmountable obstacle ready to overwhelm and disrupt your entire day?

What do you do when every part of your inward being is calling out to stop, to run, to get away from the situation, when you are brought to tears at an unexpected turn, when your plans for the day are undone by the simplest slight and you don’t know what you have to left to turn to?

What do you do when you hope for rest, hope for recovery, and see nothing but an unending line of requests and needs laid out in front of you without a hope of completing them all?

You breathe, you pause, you rest. You don’t keep pushing, you don’t keep forcing. You see that you need a moment to yourself, your mind needs to find a place to center, to see the reason for being, to understand that the thing in front of you that’s about to turn your thoughts into chaos is merely a moment in time, it doesn’t represent the whole, it represents a tiny fractional piece. 

So you get perspective, you get time apart from the thing that overwhelms, and you look to the things that bring peace and calm and recuperation. 

Anger and frustration and angst aren’t the problem, apathy and despair are the signals to look for, to recognize and treat. When you feel that there isn’t even a reason to keep pushing because it is meaningless, that the work and effort will amount to nothing, that’s when you need to pause and go back to what is lasting, what is affirming, what brings you those tiny moments of joy and delight. In finding that you’ll find your center.

It might be in seeing a beautiful flower bloom in the middle of a burnt out forest. It might be seeing a smile from your child, telling you that you are the best father in the world. It might be a note from a friend that your small amount of time given as a gift changed their day, changed their life. Find those moments, find those little bits that remind you why you have something wonderful to give to this world, something beautiful and joyful to share with others. 

When it feels that everything around you is going to overrun and destroy the precious light inside, take those moments to pause, to see the little reminders of beauty. They’re scattered, tossed about amongst the ever increasing flow of entropy. But they are there, ready to be found, to be enjoyed, to be understood. 

And lastly, be kind to yourself. It’s not easy, it’s ok that it’s not ok. You don’t have to pretend that you’re perfectly whole. We broken exist among the broken. Sometimes it feels like we’re the only ones with cracks, but we all have them. 

Sometimes we have to hide our cracks, but other times we can let them be shown, a little or a lot, to find healing with others. 

When you feel the breath building up, the pressure growing without release, that’s when—more than ever—you have to find a way to look for the peace, the beauty. And you will find it, I promise. It’s there, it might take a while to find, but you will. 

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 problems in front of me. On some days I had to use every trick in the book to push through the things in front of me. On other days a run in the woods, a meal, or even a few minutes washing dishes helped me.

I can’t brute force things, not anymore. But, I can ask questions, clarify, throw out tiny iterations, and keep pushing forward. These things work if I’m healthy, if my personal life is lined up well, and if the people I work with are motivated to make it safe to fail, test, and keep pushing forward. Last week, all that came together, and I’m incredibly grateful to the people I work with, and for health to be able to make it across the finish line. 

Then I disconnected on Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t log into Slack, I didn’t open Figma. I just stepped away from it all. Did I do it perfectly? No. I got stuck on my phone browsing Reddit more times than I care to admit, I wasn’t the Bandit version (from the show Bluey) of a perfect father. But, I was able to spend time with people I cared for, get away from the computers, get into nature, and laugh and hang out with people in the real world. That break was something so desperately needed. Without it a five day workweek would turn into a twelve day workweek.

So I came back on Monday, still a bit tired—a three hour nap the day before had somewhat helped—but ready, clear on what needed to be tackled, and with just enough energy to make it through the day.

Put another way, I’ve got a lot of stressors at work I’m pushing through; people counting on me, deadlines looming. But I know, from nearly two decades of experience now, that throwing hours at the problem cannot work. Instead I need to prep for the marathon; take walking breaks, use pomodors and always step away to clear my head; admit when I’m stuck and ask for help, and most of all; take care of my body to stay healthy. If all those pieces come together I’ll be able to make it to the end of the week for the next rest.

I say all this to share that it’s not easy. Some days, some weeks, feel incredibly hard. My body fails me and I get sick more often than I’d like. But to each thing there is a season of life, and often if I have a rough day or week it’s followed by a period of time that’s either not as bad, or downright amazing

So to you amazing reader, you’ve got this. It’s not easy, and I’m sorry. I wish it was. But know that forcing yourself through isn’t the answer, you’ve got this.  

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, making podcasts, designing apps, all of that can be a lot of fun; but at the end of the day I crave hearing from someone whether the work I did made an impact. 

As I get older I want to keep learning how to do this, so that I can continue to find the energy to keep moving forward. It’s possible to create for a while in a cave, I’ve done it plenty of times, but eventually ideas need to surface, get feedback from the world, and allow the creator time to tweak and modify. 

Here’s to getting things into the world sooner. 

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 organizations. This stuff is hard, and frankly most people get it wrong. I wanted to have Larry on because I’ve appreciated how he approaches management. If this kind of stuff gets your riled up, or you find yourself nodding along, then I’d highly recommend giving it a listen. 

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 Adobe Illustrator. That’s it. Well, that’s not 100% true. I fire open Affinity Photo or Photoshop 1x/month to crop an image or resize it. At least for my use case, even though I own a license for all of Serif’s products, I could never work them into how I design. I’ll be curious what this acquisition will do for the product line.