Now
This page is inspired by Derek Sivers'
Now project.
14th March 2025
Creativity
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Completely rethinking the Dawson Andrews brand to position it as the
technical studio that it truly is. Spent some time in Barcelona last
week with the team to get some headspace on this plus general
company strategy stuff. Reading
The Value Flywheel Effect off the back of those
chats.
-
Heavily into synths at the moment and making music on the M4 iPad
Pro (which is a beast of a device). Paired it up with a KORG Nanokey
Studio MIDI controller and having lots of fun with that.
Books
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Really, really enjoyed The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin
Hoff. Currently reading the follow-up,
The Te of Piglet.
Company Building
-
Secret new company is soft launching with a select group of beta
users. Scary and exciting all at the same time - it's strange
because we've spun this product out from a product with half a
million users and this smaller scale one (initially) feels scarier
than that. Maybe just because it hasn't become familiar yet.
Other
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Running the St Patrick's Day 10K in Belfast on Monday. I think I've
just about managed to get "match fit" for the race after a very slow
start to the year in terms of running and general fitness. Hopefully
it'll spur me on to keep running beyond the race. I have one eye on
the Belfast half marathon in September as a stretch goal, but that
requires a lot of discipline between now and then versus the last
minute cramming for the 10K event.
5th October 2024
Creativity
-
I have been exploring something I call "knowledge slicing" quite
deeply, which is a poor attempt at throwing language around a
process of trying to understand something backwards to its
fundamental parts, then forwards again to fill as many gaps in
knowledge as possible. I hope to write about it soon because I have
tried finding similar approaches elsewhere and failed to find
anything useful. It's not quite first principles thinking, it's not
quite the Minto Pyramid Principle, it seems to be its own thing that
we do subconsciously when forming opinions, understanding problems
etc.
-
Having lots of fun using Obsidian's canvas for visually linking my
thinking. It helps me understand the shape and "path" of books a
little better and seems to fit my spatial sequence synesthesia-ass
brain.
Books
-
Lots of books in flight at the moment, most recently
The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are from Alan
Watts, re-reading Alchemy by Rory Sutherland (and
utterly destroying my copy with highlights and notes), and
Liberation Beyond Imagination from the late
Peter Brown.
Company Building
-
Huge progress on the secret new company since the last update. On
track for a beta launch of our product to our first set of approx
300 users at the end of November this year.
9th August 2024
Creativity
-
Still obsessed with my Pocket Operator KO (PO-33). I'm falling into
similar creation patterns though as I did with making guitar music
where I can only describe it as getting entrenched in similar paths,
shapes, and patterns along with the struggle to break out of them.
Going to do more learning by watching people hunt and chop samples.
Books
-
Reading
Thinking in Bets
by Annie Duke. It's been in my library for a long time and I've
jumped right into it after finishing A Guide to the Good Life: The
Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine. My brain needs a bit
of a philosophy detox.
Company Building
-
Week one of product development for our new venture. That untethered
sense of "where are we going?" is very exciting and terrifying at
the same time but we're all bought in to the idea that it'll feel
like that for the first couple of weeks. We have approx 2 years of
runway to make it work.
Other
-
Fitness/running has gone by the wayside since my holiday to the US
last month. I've ran twice in as many weeks, both stupidly throwing
myself into 10Ks where I'm feeling it for days afterwards. Need to
strategically build up some smaller runs even if they don't feel as
rewarding.
-
Eating some humble pie and embracing Obsidian as my PKM of choice.
I've waited a few weeks to decide on that just to make sure with
continued daily usage. Previous frame: Obsidian is an ugly, bloated
piece of software doomed to fail, and people probably spend more
time tweaking it than actually doing anything with it. Current
frame: with discipline, a couple of up-front tweaks makes Obsidian a
beautiful, fast piece of software with a thriving community of
passionate users that make it impossible to fail.
25th June 2024
Creativity
-
I'm spending an obscene amount of time with my Pocket Operator KO
(PO-33). Might start sharing some creations but very well aware that
early experiments with a new creative tool are often terrible so I
may leave it a while.
-
I'm obsessed with this thing, to the point where I want to
buy the whole collection of Pocket Operators. The Sub and
Synth versions are next on my hit list.
Books
-
Reading
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
by William B. Irvine, which is perhaps the clearest pointer in Stoic
philosophy that I've come across. Ryan Holiday does a great job of
making Stoicism accessible, but I feel that Irvine manages to stay
closer to the source materials and origins without letting some of
the harder to read bits creeping in.
Company Building
-
We have acquired customer number 1 for our new company. It feels
surreal with that happening so soon in the new journey. It'll be as
much of a test for our professional services company, Dawson
Andrews, in regards to how it fares with a new product company
fighting for our time and attention at the same time.
Other
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A company-wide steps challenge is keeping my running on track. I
think I topped out around 125km last month, I'm set to pass that
over the next couple of days before I break for two weeks for a
family holiday where I hope to binge eat quite heavily, then
struggle to get back into form on return.
-
I have started an impromptu collection of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
games. What started as a hobby in rebuilding my old original Xbox
collection has turned into a gotta-catch-em-all thing with any THPS
game going. P.S: If anyone has a copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x
on Xbox, let me know :)
21st May 2024
Books
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I'm currently reading First Things First by Stephen R. Covey after devouring The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I
always feel the need to give two disclaimers about 7 Habits: #1 it's
almost a cliché-level book in that I assume everyone has read it
cover to cover but me, and #2 if you haven't, yet know about it,
it's not the type of book you think it is. The title does it a
massive disservice. I can only describe it as an operating manual
for life. A truly paradigm-shifting book that has benefitted me more
outside the world of work. First Things First is a deeper dive into one of the habits that I'm currently
living out.
-
Sigh, I probably shouldn't admit this as a United season ticket
holder, but I'm reading Pep Confidential: the Inside Story of Pep Guardiola's First
Season at Bayern Munich by Marti Perarnau. I am reluctantly facinated about how Pep Guardiola manages to
define a philosophy that seems to trancend his teams and when key
people are moved in and out of positions and games, the philosophy
doesn't flinch. I want to figure out how he does that.
Creativity
-
I think I'm outgrowing Koala Sampler, but I'm not quite at the stage
to move up to a Roland SP404-MK II, so in the meantime I'm going to
play around with some of Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operators and get creative with my hands away from screens.
-
An increase in screen time has been an unfortunate side
effect of using Koala Sampler which has made pursuing
digital minimalism tricky.
Company Building
-
I'm starting a new company with my fellow directors at Dawson
Andrews, Andrew Fulton and Shaun Murphy, and I'm navigating that
tricky crossroads of trying to fire myself from DA to give the new
company a chance of working rather than trying to start it as a
side-project, which just won't work. If 7 years of building Dawson
Andrews has taught us anything, it's that these things need 100%
focus.
Other
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I'm back on the running wagon, which is
nice. I'm turning 40 next year and starting to think any form of
fitness was behind me, but I'm on track for over 100km in May
(should finish around 125km) which will eclipse anything I managed
during lockdown (my previous big running spree).
-
Last time I reached 100km in a month was October 2021 and I
bust both knees and injured my right foot in the process,
all for a stupid badge on Nike Run Club. This time, I'm at
74.4km, completely pain-free somehow.