A value clash is when your values clash. You value your creative work, no doubt, but you also value family, friends, work, leisure, entertainment. When these things clash, your creative output is most likely to lose the battle.

After a few months of following my routine, something terrible happened: a handyman was paid by my neighbor to remove all the concrete in their backyard. Right outside my window. Linked here is a video called 10 Hour Relaxing Jackhammer Sounds to help you imagine my experience.

As my friend stayed with this man, and heard about his one complaint a year, the next question he asked was a given: what was your complaint this year?

If reading is feeling too dense, or too heavy, then start jotting down notes, and doing a little thinking.

Sparkling beverage brand Mixwell is asking people to not buy their drinks. Well, not all people. They recently published a statement, a series of videos, and a collection of bus stop ads asking specific people, who hold a specific set of beliefs, not to buy their products. I’m here to break down why Mixwell’s campaign is actually unpersuasive and unethical–even while being genuinely impossible to ignore.

Happiness is in the middle. It’s somewhere between great expectations and full acceptance.

The season of creator merch is upon us. Over the course of this next week, we’ll see endless promotions of photoshop mockups for overpriced hoodies, leading up to Black Friday. And for what? A coarse Gildan tee with a half-baked design or slogan on it?

There is a way to do it. People less motivated and less intelligent and less educated than we are have figured this out in the past. There is a process that will work to scale this business, and even though these processes are moving targets to some degree, they’re still out there. They exist.

As a freelancer, no one will give you a raise. No client will come along and say, “Hey, you’ve been doing a great job the past few months, here’s 10% more money.” Why? Because their job is to keep projects under budget. So how do you give yourself a raise?

Customer personal are internal write ups on the kind of person your brand’s ideal customers are. It’s best to describe, in great detail, 3-5 different customer segments of who you are trying to reach.

The greatest asset we have is many, many days. We can try to accomplish our goals in a long, sustained work session. We can try to actualize our dreams in a flurry, chasing them as fast as possible. We can aim to achieve our ambitions through completely clear decision-making. But we don’t have what it takes to do any of this.

What is a “calling” anyway? Is that just a way for us to justify the sacrifices we have to make while chasing success? Tell me what your great grandfather did for a living. Do you know? Most people don’t.

My precursor to James Clear’s advice would be to start hiking. Don’t worry if you haven’t found your “calling” when you’re starting your career. Just work on things you find interesting.

You’re going to have to do the work before someone pays you. Plain and simple. In some cases, you have to pay to do the work you want to be doing before someone pays you.

Volume controls the overall noise that the amp puts out. Gain controls the level of distortion in the tone of that noise. All volume with no gain? You’ll get a clean tone that sounds pretty boring. All gain, with little volume? You’ll get a very distorted overdrive tone that sounds pretty ugly.

I’m terrible at Christmas shopping. It stresses me out so bad. I wait until the last minute, then I can’t think of any good ideas, then I run around the picked-over malls in my hometown, finding anything that could pass as thoughtful.

Sometimes, consistency can get in the way of quality. I feel that way sometimes about this blog. On the other hand, quality can get in the way of consistency. The need to create with the best gear, or solid lighting, a good concept can paralyze us, stifling our creativity entirely.

If you have an idea that you know you should pursue, your first step should be to call someone who you know can help you make that idea a reality.

More brands should partner with real life influencers, instead of celebrities. Polestar interviewed Karen Nyberg, an astronaut who spent 180 days in outer space, orbiting earth. They pulled sound bites from a long-form interview, and put together a compelling ad.

You can spend your whole career on secondary tasks. But you don’t get the infrastructure to focus on primary tasks without taking care of the little things too.