How many books did you read last year? More than 10? More than 20? Less than 5? Chances are, it’s probably less than 5. I think I read 7–8 max last year, and that’s coming from someone who hoards books and buys at least 10 a year. …

For reasons I can barely articulate myself, I decided on December 30th 2020 that I was going to write and publish a blog post every single day. Sure, I could have chosen a more “normal” new years resolution — perhaps getting a 4-pack (keeping it somewhat realistic), cutting down on…

It’s easy to whip together a really bad strategy for a business function, program of work or product proposition. With little research, little input from stakeholders and lack of traceability across a business’ value chain, a strategy becomes flimsy. Eventually, all it becomes is a powerpoint metaphorically collecting dust. …

One of the first jobs I had was in telemarketing for a commercial cleaning company. After that, I conducted cold call surveys for a university’s research department. They were brutal entry-level jobs. Nobody likes a random stranger intruding into their lives requesting for time and information, in exchange for…a free…

I’ve written a lot about generalists and deep work, but have often struggled to reconcile the paradoxical nature of these concepts. Depth is important for explanations. Breadth is important for identifying emerging properties. Depth and breadth. There’s NO WAY we can have it all right? For a long time, many…

I recently wrote a piece about “slow” and “quick” work. The extreme comparison of different speeds of work does the job in highlighting the point that “slow” work leads to the greatest impact and insight. However, I now think this model is far too simplistic. In reality, we need to…

There’s an inherent sensuality with ‘slow work’. Both doing the slow work itself and consuming the slow work of others. Slow work is work that requires hours, days and weeks of research, thinking, synthesis and finally, a point of view. Slow work is personal, persistent and ambiguous. Slow work demands…

I recently ‘surveyed’ 20 people (i.e. badgered 20 friends, family and co-workers) to choose from a set of 6 ad designs for a creative assignment. You’d think from 20 people, there’d be at least one or two popular designs which stood out from the rest. Evidently not (see graph above)…

It’s ridiculous how much crap enters our inbox. From tools we downloaded once, some retail store we became a member at just to get 10% off once, or some daily/weekly blog you thought you’d ACTUALLY read on a regular basis. …