Writing
Writing, in the order it was written.
Essays on how to think, how to find things out, and how to talk about both honestly. Each piece shows its question, claim, reasoning and evidence.
The way we use computers will change forever
Chatbots answer prompts and leave the work to us. AI agents can own a problem and keep working until it is solved. Why I think that changes how we work.
Why You Take Notes But Never Get Smarter
Saving information isn't the same as learning it. Why a note-taking system built for storage keeps you collecting instead of thinking, and what to do with the notes you already have.
Trading on ideas and discovering that I'm a Quality Architect
Most people trade on resources: money, status, power and network. Reading The Innovator's DNA helped me see that I trade on ideas, and why that has made what I do so hard to describe.
Watch out, they're gaslighting you for attention
Why political conversations get tense, how an attention economy pushed the media towards outrage, and a handful of techniques to watch for.
If I'm going to spend the time doing it anyway, I might as well do it with impact
A short reflection on three ways to spend our time, why life is boring when we only do what's logical, and why it's worth being a force multiplier for the people around us.
Mentoring isn't about giving advice, it's about creating motion
Why the small tasks I set as a mentor so often go undone, why the point of them is the trying rather than the finishing, and how one reply to a tweet turned into a channel, a seminar and a book.
Where do new thoughts go while creating literature notes?
When an idea of your own turns up while you're writing literature notes, is it a literature note, a fleeting note or a permanent note? A short recap of the three note types and a simple rule for deciding.
Finding the right granularity in your Zettelkasten notes
How detailed should a permanent note be, and should you keep your fleeting notes? Why I break ideas into small, focused notes and keep the rough captures as an audit trail.
What they don't teach you about programming
The hidden skills that aren't mentioned when learning how to program: abstraction, seeing the system in your mind's eye, data structures, recalling how to build from scratch, and the obsession to tinker.
Everything, all at once
Why junior developers, and beginners in any craft, get overwhelmed by trying to learn everything at once, and why it helps to master the pieces before the masterpiece.
What you spend your time on
Reading The Millionaire Fastlane made me take stock of my time: wealth is less about money than about not having to trade your time for it.
Ask big questions
Big, open questions that start with “How do I…” give your thinking something to orient towards, and unlike a specific goal they don't run out the moment you reach them.
Systems over goals
Goals fade when motivation does, and stop when they are reached. Why I focus on the daily system, and on who I want to be, rather than on the goal itself.
Unlimited learning
Why learning feels so hard when it has no personal purpose, what my A-level maths taught me about that, and why I now start every subject with a why.
Hard work is the illusion
Between hustle culture and anti-hustle, I still believe in hard work: a challenge just out of reach, intense focus, consistency over years, and limits that leave room for family.
Discovering the missing piece to your why
A why doesn't tell you how to get where you want to go, but it makes you notice the pieces that fit. Here is how behavioural science turned out to be one of mine.
Self awareness before knowledge
Information is everywhere, yet knowing more rarely makes us change. Why self awareness, and giving ourselves permission to look honestly at our situation, may come before knowledge does any good.
Being a lifelong learner
Why we stop learning once formal education ends, the difference between learning a skill and studying a subject, and a six-week programme for setting your own curriculum.
Entropy is everywhere
Sandcastles erode and the wind never builds one back. A short reflection on how relationships drift apart without energy to maintain them, and on spotting the ones worth keeping.
The sasquatch and the architect
A personal reflection on the instinctive, emotional part of the mind I call my sasquatch, and how talking to it can change how I feel and act.
No more side quests
A seminar, a book and a product I care about most. What Nathan Barry's choice to go all in on ConvertKit made me ask about my own side quests, and whether I'm spreading my attention too thin.
The gravity of influence
On the responsibility that comes with having an audience, the quieter influence we all hold, and why it helps to know how easily our own minds are swayed.
A better question to unlock a more ambitious strategy
A list of target numbers is closer to a wish than a strategy. Reframe each goal as a “How can we…?” question, and ask it again at every objection, until you have concrete actions.
What's the score you're keeping?
If every result that falls short of your benchmark feels like lost points, you'll quit sooner. Measure your actions and what you learn instead, and use one question to decide when to pivot.
Is your fixed mindset preventing you from learning?
One study found that people who believe they can learn from mistakes show a stronger brain signal after an error, and do better on the next attempt. What that does and doesn't tell us about mindset and learning.
Embrace micro failures
We learn skills through trial and error, yet we avoid the small failures that learning needs. A short reflection on procrastination, drawing and being prepared to fail.
The truth makes us lie
Why people double down when the evidence says they're wrong, why we do it too, and what to do instead of arguing harder.
Why is everyone else doing better than me?
When everyone else seems to have their life together, remember that they too are presenting a version of themselves, and that many are covering up a struggle.
Do you get distracted by new ideas?
For years I flipped between programming, filmmaking, CG artwork, music and startups. What changed was not discipline but finding a calling.
Do your ideas get rejected by others?
Why arguing harder for your idea rarely works, how asking the right questions lets others reason their way to a better answer, and when it's easier simply to be honest about what you want.
Can you contradict yourself?
We all carry automatic beliefs we deploy without thinking. Notice them, then ask one question of each: when is this not true?
What role are you playing?
Do you want to be someone, or do you want to do something? Why the status and attention we receive belong to the roles we play, not to us, and how to design for a role instead of an ego.
You always gain something by beginning something
Waiting for the perfect moment to start never ends. Four things I started without expectations, and what each one gave me that I could not have planned.
Are you clear on your direction?
A vague why, like wanting to help people, tells you nothing about what to do today. Asking which skills your goal needs turns it into something you can practise now.
What even is happiness?
I suspect happiness isn't a state of things going well, but of things not going badly: feeling safe, surrounded by good relationships and in control of your life.
Become antifragile
Toughness and resilience still describe a breaking point. A short reflection on getting stronger from adversity by treating every challenge, criticism and failure as something to learn from.
Your self-esteem
Most of us judge ourselves against values we never chose. A short reflection on where those values come from, and the one value I think matters most: never judging yourself.
Do you have a growth mindset?
What separates a fixed mindset from a growth mindset, the beliefs that unblock growth, how to spot a false growth mindset, and how a manager can build a growth mindset programme for a team.
Do you have grit or will you quit?
Too many people give up on a good idea just when it gets hard. On grit as perseverance plus passion, the dip where most of us quit, and why passion is about endurance rather than enthusiasm.
Why this idea?
Before you build the project or business, ask what your why is. A why that serves only you is a weak one, and a real one is usually revealed over time rather than invented.
Evolve your thinking to have original ideas
If everything feels as if it has been said before, borrow two tricks from biology: combine ideas from different parents, and mutate them on purpose. Worked examples included.
How to make atomic literature notes using the Zettelkasten method
A walk-through of turning a book's highlights into single-idea literature notes, then into permanent notes, with worked examples and a trail back to the source.
Epiphany! What my ego really wants
My ego doesn't seem to want fame or money. It wants to know that my skills are wanted by others, and that explains both my best work and why I stayed a 'number 2' for so long.
Why do I get motivated, but never do anything?
A spark of motivation, a plan and an announcement can feel like progress, so we stop there. On motioning, intent that feels like action, and the small habits that turn it into doing.
You vs your future self
When we promise to change tomorrow, we hand the work to a different person: our future self. Why habit change has to start as though it has already happened.
Good startup idea vs bad startup idea: find your product market fit
Founders fall in love with their ideas. A set of honest tests for whether yours is a painkiller or a vitamin, whether early adopters actually use it, and whether the market will pay.
Is conjunction fallacy killing your personas?
A Twitter poll, the Linda problem and a checkout voucher box: how adding detail to a persona can make it feel more likely while making it less probable.
Fix your reports
Most team reports restate the numbers and leave everyone with a warm or cold feeling. A good report finds the cause behind the numbers and says what to do next.