Journaling — how and why I keep a daily diary

Whether you call it journaling or reflection or writing a diary, I think of them in the same way: making time to reflect on your day, and keeping a record of what you did and how you felt.

I’ve been keeping a daily diary for years, and it’s one of the habits I’m most pleased to have maintained.

Journaling for memory

I can point to almost any day in the last few years and learn what I did, how I felt, and understand what was on my mind.

Every now and then, I’ll compare my current day to the same day one or two years ago. I’m frequently amazed at how issues and challenges that seemed insurmountable rapidly fade away into distant memories, or are completely forgotten until purposefully being resurfaced.

It’s a good reminder to keep my current fears in check.

Journaling for self-awareness

Journaling has enabled me to become considerably more self-aware.

I can see patterns of behaviour, consistency in what causes me to have a good or a bad day, and an awareness of what makes me excited or anxious.

I have learned how exercise, diet, and weather affect my mood. I’ve learned how creativity and socialising and alone-time affect me in different, and unexpected ways.

Journaling for thought development

Something I often need to remind myself is that journaling can be an incredible way to process my thoughts.

When I’m overwhelmed or stressed, it can sometimes feel like there is no good path forward. I could become frustrated or waste hours in an unproductive state fretting over my next move.

Journaling can sometimes feel like a cheat code for escaping this sense of overwhelm. If I can detect the feeling then I’ll try to find a quiet moment to write what’s on my mind in my journal.

Sometimes, just writing out all of the things worrying me is an incredible shortcut to clarify what’s bothering me, and can help me prioritise what’s most critical.

If I’m really stressed about a situation, I’ll attempt to answer some templated questions that will pull more thoughts from my mind. Often, framing a difficult decision with the question of “What’s the worst possible outcome?” can be enough to make progress.

Resources for journaling

Apps and resources that have helped me over the years:

  • Apple Notes — one of the most underrated apps on the iPhone. I used Notes to maintain a daily journal for over a year. It’s often the fastest way to jot a thought down.
  • Apple’s Journal app — for over a year Apple has offered a Journal app, with helpful hints and automatic suggestions. I love that it’s “moment” based rather than day based.
  • State of Mind on iOS — at a similar time to rolling out Journal, Apple introduced a method for logging your state of mind to Apple Health. You can set up reminders and a widget on your Lock

Ultraprocessed food and how to avoid it

I recently read a book called Ultraprocessed People and I’ve been telling almost everyone I know about it ever since.

Ultraprocessed Food, or “UPF”, has been in the news for some time, and it may induce a yawn for you to hear more about it.

But reading the book has enabled me to go deeper on the topic than the news headlines. I’m no longer just curious about UPF, I have genuinely changed my outlook and approach to nutrition as a result of what I’ve learned.

A short summary of ultraprocessed food

Over the last 100 years, we have grown to become inundated with “food” that is made up of stuff nothing like the raw ingredients we would find in our kitchens.

The situation has reached a point where it’s hard to go a single meal without consuming something that’s the output of a system focused on mass production, high profit margins, aggressive marketing, and crucially, of low nutritional value.

Most UPF is not truly “food” in the sense that our bodies can’t always fully understand it. UPF is often engineered to give a quick hit of taste, appealing to our senses thus encouraging us to crave that hit time and time again (see: Pringles, and their tagline “once you pop you just can’t stop).

It’s this way because most companies prioritise profit and growth over everything else. Why does shop-bought ice cream have bacterial slime in it? To help it keep its structure and stop melting so easily during transit between distribution centres, supermarkets, and our own homes. I.e. to optimise the supply chain.

The book is pretty clear: UPF is bad for you! But if you want, you can find ways to disprove that. And there are many vested interests (every large name in food manufacturing) to seed as much doubt as possible into this notion.

If you want a healthy diet, eat a variety of lots of plants, cook your own meals from scratch, and minimise eating Ultraprocessed food.

As far as I’m concerned, there are few things more important for health than what we choose to consume. Changing your diet (not just going on a diet) can have tremendous consequences for your health.

Beyond ourselves, though, the consequences of us reducing UPF consumption seem to be extensive: healthier diets, reduced demand on our health service, less packaging, less litter, a more sustainable approach to farming, and more.

Here are a few other takeaways from the book.

Cooking at home

If you’ve been following my recent posts, you might remember I’ve also been paying closer attention to my spending habits.

UPF can be cheaper than “proper food” sometimes, but the tradeoffs generally aren’t worth it. All in all I’ve found it hard to eat more cheaply and healthily than eating at home and cooking your own food.

Fortunately I love cooking. I haven’t always been into cooking, but I’ve

I don’t want an iPhone 16

If you know me, you know I like a good Apple product.

In fact, you could say, I’m a little obsessed.

On Monday of this week, Apple held its annual event for releasing their most crucial products: iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods.

Before I share a summary of the event, I must answer an important question that I am often asked by my friends and relatives the moment they realise a new iPhone is on the shelves:

Are you buying the new iPhone this year?

My answer is No.

It’s not because of my focus on personal finances.

And it's not because these updates are the most minor year-over-year improvements in memory.

It's because I'm finding ever more enjoyment from making things last.

I'll admit, it feels easy to say this when both my devices are barely one year old. Let's see where my mind is at next year.

More than ever, though, I see the cost of a new iPhone or any gadget beyond the price tag. The materials, the processes, the energy, the shipping.

Even if Apple is pushing for a more sustainable supply chain, and reducing their emissions as fast as they can, there's nothing more sustainable than using your devices for longer.

So, my purchasing decision aside... what did Apple release?

iPhone 16 and 16 Pro

Don't get too excited.

The iPhone 16 has some beautiful new colours, a new camera bump (similar to iPhone X but with larger lenses), and gets the new Camera Button. This is a clever button with a touchpad to make it easy to snap, zoom, and focus the camera.

iPhone 16 Pro got a shiny titanium bezel, the new camera button, and an assortment of other camera upgrades. It also now comes in a delightful gold colour.

One of the most controversial aspects of the launch of the new iPhones is Apple touting their ability to run Apple Intelligence.

Apple's own AI features make it easier to write and edit text, edit photos, and speak to Siri.

The small detail is that Apple Intelligence features aren't ready yet — so a lot of the great new functionality isn't on these new phones from day one.

If you've been holding off getting a new iPhone for many years, then these new devices are just great. As Apple always likes to say — they're the best iPhones they've ever made. Thank goodness for that!

If you have one of last year's models, these are only small updates — this is to be expected in the 16th generation of any product, so you won't miss out on much if you only have an iPhone 15.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch reached a milestone: Series 10.

I remember my original "Series 0" Apple Watch and recall how much I enjoyed its introduction as a hugely anticipated product.

The Apple Watch persuaded me to wear a watch for the first time since school, and has been a sidekick for making me a healthier, fitter human. I also

Strict evenings, early mornings

After acquiring an old-school alarm clock, this week I’ve been paying close attention to my routine.

I’ve never truly been a morning person.

But lately, due in part to having more on my plate (a dog to walk, a partner to look after, and a lack of hot water) I’ve been finding I desperately need more hours in the day.

What I was forgetting was that my evening hours were not well spent. After a long day I’m often tired and lacking motivation. All I really want to do is chill, put my feet up, and watch Slow Horses (or some sort of TV show that is far more trashy!)

My routine was stacked against me: hope (and fail) to do productive, valuable tasks at the end of the day, end up spending too long watching nonsense (aside from Slow Horses — it’s anything but), and then look at my phone and realise I should be in bed… Then end up getting drawn into my phone and realising I should have been in bed an hour ago.

Strict evenings

So I’ve made my evenings stricter. Earlier dinner, less TV, and then as little screen time as possible.

What’s really helped is deliberately putting my phone in another room to where I sleep. I completely removed my charger from the bedroom to avoid having any excuse for bringing my phone to bed.

Bedtime is now a deliberate cut off from screen time.

It’s just me and my alarm clock. And my partner too, I guess!

Calm mornings

What I’ve started to find, after a few weeks, is nothing short of a miracle: I’m actually starting to wake up earlier!

What I love about my mornings now is the tranquility of being awake when no one else is.

No sounds, no chaos, no tasks, no emails.

Just me and my thoughts.

I’m finding I have an hour or more most mornings where I can think, review, reflect, and ponder. I can wander aimlessly in my mind. I can wonder, too.

I’m realising how desperately my mind needed this space to breathe.

Here’s to a calm week ahead.

Other things

  • Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the south of France discussing their careers.
  • What is Founder Mode? Paul Graham of Y Combinator shared an essay outlining how the founder of AirBnB runs differently to most conventional organisations led by managers.
  • After the elation of achieving a milestone with my running last week, I was in awe of someone else this Saturday. I witnessed a blind runner with a guide, and saw how they sped around 5km at the same time as me. There are no limits but those we set ourselves.
  • Perhaps soon your emails might have an expiry date?

Quote

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up." — Paul Valery (a French poet)

Personal finances and the 8th wonder of the world

This week I have been working on my personal finances.

Personal finance is a topic I haven’t spent much time on, and I haven’t spoken about much.

Most of what I know about personal finance I have learned from books, business, and making mistakes.

For the most part I feel fortunate with my current circumstances, but the ambition within me causes me to rarely stay satisfied for long.

I‘ve noticed myself fall into a common trap: lifestyle creep. As one earns more over the years, it’s easy for spend to increase in line with any increase in earnings.

I don’t think I’m extreme here — I am not buying yachts, or even cars, but it’s all relative. A rare treats becomes a regular treat. Which becomes a habit. Which becomes hard to remove from your life. In my reflections this week I could see several instances of treats that had become hard-to-remove habits. It was a wake-up call.

Learning to budget

I’ve never been very good at budgeting, but I thought a good place to start would be to adopt a simple high level goal: spend less than I make.

Spend less than I make.

That sounds pretty simple, right?!

Except… in today’s world, I haven’t found this easy at all — to even know how much you are spending is hard.

There is so much to juggle and understand: get a credit card, get a current account, get a joint account with a partner, get a savings account, pay a mortgage / rent, pay recurring payments, bills, subscriptions, direct debits, transfers, donate to charity, pay tax, and maybe even go on holiday and spend money in a different currency once in a while.

Even with great tools to track my spending (I’m a huge fan of Monzo here in the UK), I still find it hard to truly know what I’m spending during a month.

Not only have I found it difficult to understand and get a baseline of my spending, but I have also found life getting more expensive. “Inflation” has been mentioned a lot in the UK news cycle for as long as I can remember, but I never fully understood its implications.

Taking action on my spending

I won’t bore you with everything I‘ve learned, but I will jump to a few realisations and actions and I have taken since drawing my attention to my finances more intently:

  • Plan my meals at the weekend for the week ahead.
  • Don’t get a coffee out every morning. Make one at home and bring it on my dog walk.
  • Make avoiding spending fun — set a budget goal for the month in Monzo and try to stick to it.
  • Buy good quality ingredients at local shops on Saturdays. Combine this with a meal plan and I have no excuse for getting a takeaway mid-week.
  • Question everything I spend on. Do I need to eat there? Drink then?

Gratitude for normality — Weekly Review

My partner had an operation on her foot this week and it means she can’t walk on it for a few weeks. She’s on crutches and resting up, and otherwise doing well.

It’s incredibly easy to take one’s regular routine, limbs, and life for granted.

I’m often curious and hungry for the next thing, to do more, explore more, achieve more. But this week has been a good reminder to reflect on what I have, and what bliss normality looks like.

It’s easy to forget how helpful two working legs and feet are until you see a loved one suddenly having to operate normal life without them.

My partner and I, to a lesser extent, have experienced a change to our routines. Because my partner has been less mobile, her parents visited for the week to help us both out.

Having in-laws stay has been helpful for many reasons, but it has also been a good reminder of how much I appreciate my own space. It’s also been an insight into how different people have different habits, lifestyles, schedules, and more.

There’s an old joke that I was reminded of: What’s the difference between in-laws and outlaws? Outlaws are wanted!

But, joking aside, I have been feeling very fortunate this week to be surrounded by such a wonderful group of people in my life — family, friends, and colleagues.

Here's to normality resuming soon.

A few other notes

  • We got the team together on a boat in London for our summer social. It was so much fun, even if it was windy and not-at-all like summer.
  • Fred Again at Reading — really cool, fun DJ set with a huge crowd having a great time.
  • How did Roman aqueducts work? I stumbled upon this explainer and it's incredible how precise the engineering was.
  • I bought an alarm clock to discourage me from bringing my phone to bed with me. Let’s see how I fair with my evening and morning routine now…

Quote

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Pablo Picasso

A week in Scotland, climbing mountains, and what it takes to make it as a comedian — Weekly Roundup

I’ve been in Scotland this week and, despite having a few days away from my laptop, it’s been busy.

I climbed a Munro — a Scottish mountain that’s at least 3,000 feet high.

I’d never have dreamt of tackling this just a few years ago — why climb a steep hill just to come back down the other side?

It’s a question I was pondering while stumbling up, plodding one foot after the other, being battered by high winds and chilling rain.

The rationale hit me after we reached the top and made our way back to the base. It feels great to accomplish something difficult.

Knowing I had managed to climb to the top of Ben Lawers, the 10th highest Munro, and knowing I had exerted all my energy to get there… it felt good.

Sometimes, doing something hard, no matter how useful, is a reward in itself.

A few other things from the week:

  • A wonderfully practical article on how to grow a newsletter from zero.
  • I spent some time at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Here are a few jokes from this year to keep you entertained.
  • Every time I go to the Fringe I’m reminded of how hard it is for anyone to break into the comedy world. You need to be funny, and confident in front of a crowd, you need to be a marketer, a sales person, and you need to invest huge amounts of time and money to have a shot at building an audience.
  • We’re already wrapping up series 5 of the EcoSend Podcast. I loved this episode with Michelle Miles on how to make weddings more sustainable.
  • I’ve posted a bunch more of the back catalogue of episodes of Lost + Founder on YouTube.

A quote for the week ahead

“Often it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the little pebble in your shoe.” — Muhammad Ali

GoSquared on iOS, coincidences, and medieval beats — Weekly Roundup

This week we released our first major integration for GoSquared in a long time: Numerics.

You can now get your GoSquared analytics data on all Apple platforms (iOS, Apple Watch, and even on Vision Pro) for the first time ever. I’m so excited for this — we’ve wanted to bring GoSquared to the iPhone since… well, the beginning of the App Store.

Numerics integration for GoSquared

Other notes from the week

  • On a walk in my local high street I stumbled on a plaque on the side of a shop. By some incredible coincidence, I noticed it on the exact day, 80 years on from the event it marks. Dulwich Society Plaque and August 5th 1944.
  • I’ve gone back and forth on my belief in AB tests. They can be helpful but they can also be a lazy, if not misleading way to make decisions. The team at Equals put forward a strong case for why startups shouldn’t bother with AB testing.
  • Do you like medieval music? Ever wanted a beautifully designed piece of audio equipment dedicated to generating medieval beats? I thought so! The weirdest gadget I’ve seen in years, designed by Teenage Engineering. I love it.
  • I posted a few more episodes of Lost & Founder on YouTube.
  • I’m in Edinburgh for a few days for the Fringe. A beautiful city bursting with incredible talent and buzz, a melting pot of creativity, laughter, and culture.
  • The Paris 2024 Olympics is now over. It’s been incredible, and has had me reliving moments from London 2012. As usual, the BBC put together a beautiful montage of Team GB’s incredible games.

A quote for the week ahead

“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things.” — Grace Hopper (a US Naval officer and an early computer programmer)

Olympic precision, and advice from Sam Altman — weekly roundup

Last week I shared a post summarising what I had learned in the week.

I found it helpful for myself, and hopefully it may be at least mildly interesting for others too.

Here’s a few things I found interesting this week.

An incredibly densely packed set of wisdom from Sam Altman. I found this very motivating to read:

7 frameworks Sam Altman wishes someone told him earlier

I found this via Joel Hansen of Napkin Notes.

  • Getting an idea off the ground: “Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get started.”
  • Thinking long term: “Cohesive teams, the right combination of calmness and urgency, and unreasonable commitment are how things get finished. Long-term orientation is in short supply; try not to worry about what people think in the short term, which will get easier over time.”
  • Hiring: “Spend more time recruiting. Take risks on high-potential people with a fastrate of improvement. Look for evidence of getting stuff done in addition to intelligence.”
  • Coworkers: “Working with great people is one of the best parts of life.”
  • Making bets: “Concentrate your resources on a small number of high-conviction bets; this is easy to say but evidently hard to do. You can delete more stuff than you think.”
  • Wasting time: “Fight b*llshit and bureaucracy every time you see it and get other people to fight it too. Do not let the org chart get in the way of people working productively together.”
  • Time: “Fast iteration can make up for a lot; it's usually ok to be wrong if you iterate quickly. Plans should be measured in decades, execution should be measured in weeks.”

Other things this week

  • The first week of the Olympics in Paris has been incredible. Beautiful venues, Paris at its best.
  • I’m blown away by how little separates Olympic athletes between a gold medal and no medal. The men’s 100m final separated gold from silver by just 0.005 of a second.
  • We wrapped up July at EcoSend and it was a busy month.
  • I figured out how to add the Lost and Founder to YouTube. A while ago I started sharing my deepest darkest thoughts as a founder. I haven’t published in a while but I’m hoping to change that. I’ve just started posting old episodes to YouTube to give them a new lease of life. Stay tuned to YouTube for more.
  • I’m excited for something new for GoSquared next week. Stay tuned!

A quote for the week ahead

"The ultimate form of preparation is not planning for a specific scenario, but a mindset that can handle uncertainty." — James Clear

P.S. If you’re receiving this via email, you might notice it’s not sent from EcoSend. I’ll be changing that soon!

What happened at EcoSend in July 2024?

Chris has put together another video showing what we've been up to at EcoSend in the last month.

Almost always, I am stunned by how much our little team can achieve in just one month.

July featured a bunch of new features and product improvements, a slew of helpful and inspiring new videos published, 5 episodes of our podcast, and a whole lot of volunteering and doing good.

Do check this out if you're interested to learn more!

A few things I learned this week

A handful of things I learned in the last week:

  • Carpetright was taken (back) over by its original founder, Lord Philip Harris who grew up in Peckham near where I live. He started with a market stall in Peckham, and built it up over time to become the most successful carpet retailer in the U.K. The story of the takeover and Lord Harris’s empire is outlined in The Times. It’s also available to Apple News+ subscribers.
  • By switching to using a compostable toilet you can save 27,000 litres of fresh clean drinking water per year.
  • I was on the “Can marketing save the world?” Podcast talking about EcoSend and responsible email marketing.
  • Nestle built a supermarket on a barge to sell confectionary to communities along the Amazon river. Years on, these local communities have experienced greater rates of obesity as locals began to prefer processed foods over their native diet. I learned this while reading the truly life-changing book: Ultraprocessed.
  • The Olympic opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 games happened on Friday. Despite many dismissive reports of the ceremony, I thought it was full of incredible moments. The Eiffel Tower looked stunning, and I have no idea how they have achieved the floating balloon for the Olympic cauldron!

A quote for the week ahead

"If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it."

— Charles Kettering (an American inventor and the holder of 186 patents)

What sells? Climate or ROI?

Climate vs ROI

What sells? 🌍 Climate, or 💰 ROI?

In the world of sustainability, what *actually* sells?

Is it a friendly, climate-focused tagline?

Or is it cold, hard business return-on-investment?

As someone who’s been leading with a sustainability focused message for over a year, just asking that question makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

When selling a product in a crowded market, you always need to stand out from the rest of the industry. And it’s hard to dislike a more sustainable alternative.

Standing out from the industry tends to mean leading with a proposition that is different. If everyone else leads with a pitch around ROI, then how do you lead with a pitch on ROI and still maintain differentiation?

I recently had an inspiring conversation with Tim Schumacher who put the question to me: do people buy based on environmental benefits or business benefits?

What gets you in the door might not be what gets you bought.

From what we’ve seen at EcoSend, leading with a pitch around climate is a fantastic way to drive awareness and attention, and it expresses our values in building the most environmentally conscious email marketing platform in the world.

However, leading with an environmental pitch doesn’t always drive business.

In fact it’s a challenge I’ve heard many times from other founders in the climate space — people love the idea of changing the world for the better, but when push comes to shove the business decision almost always wins out.

That business decision might be:

  • Switching will take time, so we’ll stick with our current tool.
  • We will go with the most trusted brand, to avoid unnecessary risk.
  • There’s a specific feature we need that your product doesn’t have.
  • We can get this cheaper elsewhere.

Fortunately with many environmental focused products and propositions the trade-off of climate vs ROI doesn’t necessarily need to exist.

Often what is better for the environment is also the more effective, more impactful decision for the business.

The challenge is finding the right balance between communicating your climate focus while driving awareness of business impact.

It’s something we’re going to experiment with more at EcoSend — by focusing on sustainability, we’re building a highly optimised, efficient platform where your emails are much more likely to get delivered, opened, read, and actioned.

Can we ultimately drive more people to a climate conscious solution by leading with a business focused pitch?

We’ll find out.

The Apple Watch Ultra: a review after 9 months

I’ve owned an Apple Watch since day one.

I started with the Apple Watch stainless steel model, now known as “Series 0” because it was before they started referring to the models with this convention.

I have loved my Apple Watch ever since, with a borderline obsession for my activity rings, and admiration for the quality of the overall ecosystem, from iPhone and Mac interconnectivity, to beautifully crafted bands, to an elegant charger.

Over time, my desire to work out with Apple Watch has grown, to the point where I purchased an Apple Watch Sport to help me with training for long distance running. I always felt conflicted with the Sport — compared to my original Apple Watch it was far less of a fashion item, eschewing polished stainless steel for aluminium. Yet the Sport was great for running and workouts. I used it until the battery started to struggle to get through a full day.

I held off buying a new Apple Watch until last year, when Apple unveiled its new round of devices. Last year was undeniably a very minor upgrade in the history of incremental upgrades across all models. For the Ultra, aside from the new double-tap gesture (supposedly enabled by the new chip inside), and a new watch face, the 2023 model was identical in terms of functionality to the original model released the year prior.

Ultra or not?

I knew it was time for a new Apple Watch, but which one? I missed the stainless steel beauty of my original, but I had no intention of cutting down on my exercise. If anything, I wanted to be increasing my physical fitness with new, tougher workouts.

Apple Watch Studio at Apple Battersea

I went to one of the many local Apple Stores in London — the Battersea store, and was thrilled to find they have an Apple Watch Studio. It’s an area of the store dedicated to trying on different models and bands, with staff available to help walk through the different options. It’s more like going into a high end jewellery store than a gadget shop.

I had looked online at the different options for hours on end. But it was only when I got to the store that it hit me — the stainless steel Watch was no match for the Ultra. The steel model looked more like a piece of jewellery, especially the smaller model that I had been accustom to. The Ultra, on the other hand, felt like a tool. A beautifully crafted tool of course, but it had a tactility that reinforced my intentions for the device — to help me get things done and push myself. Just looking at it made me want to go climb up a mountain!

What made the Ultra even easier to decide on was the surrounding body of the watch. It had a glint in the light, a slight shine, around the bezel of the display, which I hadn’t noticed before. It struck

An interview on the Misfit Founders podcast

The incredibly generous and supportive Biro Florin recently invited me on his show Misfit Founders.

The show was filmed in his beautiful house in Brighton, UK, and we chatted about building a SaaS business, and a whole lot more.

It's the first time I've spoken at length about our work on EcoSend and how GoSquared fits into a bigger picture more than ever.

It's a very long show (the best part of two hours!) so if you have the time, I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you Biro, for inviting me on, and helping to set my life goals for a podcasting setup like yours!

Designing the LoveFrom, Serif typeface

If you're into design, and especially typography, you're going to love this.

With a brief introduction from Sir Jony Ive, this talk dives deep into the design of the LoveFrom, Serif typeface.

I found it fascinating to learn how the team took inspiration from the original works of Baskerville, even finding the original hand-made steel plates that measure just a few millimetres, made hundreds of years ago.

Where do you find inspiration to write?

Every so often, I feel at a loss when trying to figure out what to write about.

I frequently feel uninspired and lacking in ideas, so I will go weeks, possibly months without writing.

But there’s a great source of material I haven’t turned to enough: questions.

Whenever I speak at an event, or meet another founder, or really, anyone, I’m usually thrown a question of some sort.

I’ve started to note these questions down, as they’re the perfect starting point for topics to write about.

I’ve found that writing answers to questions I’ve been asked has three valuable advantages:

1. Writing addresses my frustration

If I had more time, I’d have written a shorter letter. — Blaise Pascal

When I’m asked a question, typically I must think on my feet.

Occasionally, that works OK. But sometimes, about 2 minutes after I’ve answered the question, I’ll realise I had something better to say on the topic.

There’s no rewind, or “edit” button for live conversation.

It can be incredibly frustrating!

By retrospectively writing an answer to questions I’m asked, I can address my frustration by giving a better answer.

2. Writing helps form better answers

I find writing to be a fantastic way to clarify my thoughts.

It forces me to consider something on a deeper level. The act of writing can crystallise a topic for me.

It’s correlated to the way I like to learn: if I must teach someone about something, it will absolutely force me to learn more about that thing.

I’ve often found that teaching others is the best way to teach myself, but it always feels like cheating!

3. Writing multiplies my impact

I’d like to think another benefit of turning these questions into written articles shared here, is that I can be more helpful to you, the reader of this blog.

When I have a chat with a friend, or when I am fortunate enough to speak at an event, I often think “gosh I wish that was recorded, the conversation could have been very helpful for more people.”

A wonderful thing about writing is it tends to last a lot longer than audio or video. It’s easier to find via search, and can more easily be edited to bring it up to date.

Some questions I have written answers to

Some questions I need to write answers to

  • Why are you building an email marketing tool, when it’s one of the most crowded markets you could possibly enter?
  • What’s driving you after so many years to keep doing GoSquared?
  • How have your values influenced your decisions and lifestyle recently?
  • What advice do you have for someone starting out on their own startup journey?

Do you have a question for me? Please

Measurement, goals, and instinct

“Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can be counted.” — Albert Einstein

A friend shared a fantastic podcast episode with me today: Brian Chesky of Airbnb on Steven Bartlett’s show, “Diary of a CEO.”

Brian shares his journey building Airbnb and covers many of the low points and personal challenges of being a founder, grappling with balancing work and friendships, and a lot more. I highly recommend giving the episode a listen.

Something Brian also talked about creativity, instinct, and measuring success.

He highlighted that Airbnb is one of the few companies in the Fortune 500 with a designer and creative talent in the boardroom.

The world of business has come to praise measurement and financials more than creativity. Yet, the world is changing faster than ever, requiring ever more creative thinking to adapt and change.

I’ve always struggled with balancing instinct, creative ideas, and doing bold but immeasurable work against the “proper” way to do things: small, measurable experiments, data-driven decision-making, and focusing on ROI.

It reminded me of a quote I read a while ago from David Ogilvy:

“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.”

Why put craft into anything if you can’t prove it makes a difference?

Why go the extra mile to make things “just right” if no one seems to care?

Brian’s suggestion is to not try to measure it.

As soon as someone passionate about their craft has to justify making their work as good as it can possibly be, they should probably move on.

Craft and creativity must be baked into your company’s culture. As a leader, you are the one that sets and reinforces that culture in every action you take.

The whole conversation inspired me. Speak up for what you believe in a little more.

Consistency is boring

"It looks almost the same as the last one!"
"It's surely not worth upgrading from last year's model!"
"Apple has really lost its ability to innovate lately."

Another year, another iPhone.

But this is how Apple rolls.

People remember the exciting moments. People get excited for the shiniest things.

But often, success comes from the boring: being consistent, executing relentlessly, not letting things slip.

Apple may not be able to hang on to their success forever, but since 2007 they have shipped at least one new, successful model of iPhone every single year. They didn't even let a global pandemic get in their way.

They’ve never once slipped up — no exploding batteries, no massively unpopular designs, no unexpected huge delays.

That’s boring, but that’s a big part of what has turned the iPhone into a business that generates $200 billion per year.

Most of us aren't running a global consumer electronics business, but I think there's something to take away for all of us — whether you're a founder, an employee, or just trying to improve in your personal life.

Often the success comes not from a single moment of genius, but from the compounding effects of showing up consistently and not giving up.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle

Thready or not, here I come

As you’ve probably seen, Meta launched their newest app today, Threads.

It’s like Twitter, only considerably slimmed down.

For day one, it seems it couldn’t have gone better for the makers of Instagram.

As someone who geeks out on tech products all the time, I find the Threads launch fascinating, so I jotted a few notes and observations down about it.

Timing is everything

It’s no coincidence that Threads is launching in the same week that sentiment towards Twitter is at an all-time low.

Elon Musk decided to enforce aggressive rate limiting for all users, made Tweeetdeck redundant for many, and obliterated the value of public URLs by preventing tweet embeds for non-logged-in users.

It’s clear Threads could be better.

It could have more features.

It’s not quite ready when you compare the feature checklist.

But launching this week while Twitter is in the dumps (more than usual) may just give it the strong gust of goodwill that helps this spark of a product turn into a full-blown, roaring fire of a platform.

Ship early, iterate

Many “critical” features aren’t in at launch, but is the app and experience solid? Is it easy for new users to onboard? Is the experience reaching a threshold that the majority of users will enjoy and trust? Yes.

You want the ability to filter your feed, you want better search, you want to have more clarity on who’s following you. You want an API. You want the app if you’re in the EU!

But all of those are trade-offs between shipping now or shipping later.

Someone had to make that call. The easy option is always to wait. Waiting always feels safer.

Shipping this week looks like it was the right call. The rest can come later.

Aside: If you’re interested, a while ago I wrote about the importance of shipping early, and often.

Nothing to lose

What I’ve enjoyed most so far as an observer of the Threads launch today has been seeing Meta operate like they have nothing to lose.

Launch today. Move fast. Share the numbers. Integrate with the open standards (eventually).

It seems unlike many of Meta’s most significant big launches: Instagram Stories was a bolt-on to not lose out to Snapchat, Reels is another tab to avoid losing out to TikTok, and Instagram itself was an acquisition.

Threads, though, is a joy to see: Zuck and the team building something that doesn’t just compete, but that could genuinely be better than Twitter. Making something people want. With a beautiful blank slate.

Maybe I am just relieved to not have another tab, view, or swipe in the Instagram app. Or perhaps it’s that my trust in Twitter has dwindled.

Whatever the reason, I’m rooting for Threads. If you’re on it, join me!

Sign up for your own product

"You don't get a second chance to make a first impression."

If you work at a gym, you know where the changing rooms are.

If you’re joining a gym for the first time, and you’re heading in for your first session, everything is alien.

You don’t know where the changing rooms are, and if the signs don’t point you in the right direction, you’re lost.

When I signed up for a gym session recently, I felt totally lost and a little foolish, wandering around trying to find somewhere to get changed into my kit. I almost left out of sheer embarrassment before I plucked up the courage to return to the reception desk and ask.

Whether you build software, build physical products, own a restaurant, or run a gym, nothing beats using your service as a first-time user to find out how you can improve it.

It’s always great to get feedback from customers but sometimes they don’t tell you everything. Sometimes they may not even care as much as you do about the experience.

It’s easy to even get frustrated that customers don’t “get” the thing you’ve built. You’re so proud of certain elements you can easily get blinded from the areas you’ve overlooked.

A while ago, I gave a talk on user onboarding, and one of the recommendations was to sign up for your own product every week. I even paused to encourage the audience to put a recurring event in their calendars!

Several years on, I feel that suggestion is as relevant as ever, and it’s advice that’s easy for me to give and seemingly hard to follow.

When did you last sign up for your own product?

Why would Apple make a VR headset?

A quick sketch of my dream Apple headset

The silence is deafening — Apple is going to announce a VR headset imminently.

The very fact Apple hasn’t denied any rumours, and the increasing nods towards a big launch, are evidence enough. If they weren’t, then we’d know by now.

The feeling is very reminiscent of the run-up to the launch of both the original iPhone and Apple Watch — both products were widely expected to be unveiled, but the knowledge of exactly what they would entail was almost entirely unknown.

We’ve been here before

My sketches of the proposed Apple Watch ahead of its announcement.

While I never wrote about that feeling before the iPhone launch, I wrote a piece just before the Apple Watch was announced: “Why would Apple make a Watch?” in which I tried to get into the mind of the decision makers at Apple and understand why they would enter the watch market and what the device might enable.

Looking back at that piece, I feel quite proud. While I was not the only person pondering such concepts, I proposed the Apple Watch (or iWatch as I believed it’d be called at the time!) would:

  • Enable you to pay on the Subway, and allow for contactless payments — before Apple Pay came along.
  • Have easily detachable / swappable straps.
  • Become a key health companion, continuously monitoring your activity and heart rate.
  • Enable you to sleep better and wake up at the optimum time.
  • It’d prioritise telling the time at all costs, despite its smart features.

I got many things wrong too — I thought the Watch would:

  • Have incredible, unbelievable battery technology.
  • Rethink the concept of a display: “I will eat my metaphorical hat if we see a full colour backlit Retina display on the device”.
  • Be the “magic wand” remote to your Apple TV.
  • As you can see from my sketches — the physical appearance of the Watch I believed Apple would make was more akin to a Fitbit activity band.

I love reflecting on that post because it’s what makes following a secretive company like Apple so fun — you can dream and imagine, and you get to find out eventually if you were right. You get to decide if you felt Apple lived up to, exceeded, or missed your expectations.

So with an entirely new device and category just around the corner, what do we hope to see from the Californian giant?

Let’s dig in…

What will it be called?

I don’t believe Apple will call this a “headset” at all. Apple has never referred to the iPhone as a “handset” even though it’s how carriers and many consumers referred to phones before the iPhone.

Normal people don’t buy “headsets”. Headsets are for gamers and geeks.

Apple makes products for people who want the best, and they, of course, charge prices aligned with that approach.

There are numerous rumours and trademark filings, and even supposed confirmations in various code

The British firm perfectly producing hundreds of military uniforms for the Coronation

If you’re interested in tailoring, if you’re interested in British manufacturing, if you’re interested in military uniforms(?!), if you’re interested in the royal family, or if you’re interested in family run businesses, this is something to watch.

Patrick Grant (who owns a tailors on Savile Row, presents the Great British Sewing Bee, and frequently stands up for British manufacturing) presents a one-hour show about the family run business, Kashket & Partners. They’re responsible for producing the hundreds of military uniforms for the Coronation of King Charles.

This program hits a certain sweet spot for me in the Venn diagram of my interests. I am in total awe of the level of detail, care, and craft that goes into something of this scale.

Watch Coronation tailors: fit for a king on BBC iPlayer

BBC Website for the show with clips

Feeling sorry for AI

You may know how to suggest 10 helpful recipes from nothing more than a blurry photo of some ingredients.

You may know how to create a dramatic photograph from nothing more than a few sentences.

You may know how to write a witty one line joke that entertains the reader.

You may even know how to suggest a gift for Mother’s Day.

But you will never know the deep joy of tasting that first bite after cooking a meal for five hours.

You will never know the tingle on the back of one’s neck when a picture takes the viewer back to a heartwarming moment in time.

You will never laugh your belly off at a witty line delivered by a hilarious actor.

You will never experience the unparalleled love that a parent can have for their child.

AI is the star of the show right now — a daily headline around the world. It’s smarter than anything we’ve seen before.

But what does it mean for our future to have a force that is so intelligent, without feeling or true, deep emotion?

Reflect, recharge, and go

By the end of 2022 I was feeling exhausted. I desperately needed a break.

I'm uncertain if I really got a considerable break over Christmas — we hosted Christmas at our house for the first time, I cooked for eight people, and we headed up to Scotland for New Year celebrations.

It was fun, but it wasn’t entirely relaxing.

It was different, though — different to the usual schedule of work, the usual stress and the usual ups and downs of a working week.

Critically, I managed to reflect on 2022, and I spent some time thinking about 2023.

I’ve started January of this year with a few intentions:

  • Don’t eat meat (at least for January)
  • Exercise daily
  • Get to bed by 10pm
  • Wake up before 7am

We’ll have to check in on these as February rolls around, let alone January 2024. But I have intentions and I am feeling positive about all of them so far.

Upon further reflection though, I know I am guilty of a cycle — every January, I feel re-energised, I start afresh, I have great intentions, and I carry them out. I’ve even written on this blog about them (often I write when my energy is highest, too):

Perhaps my more profound realisation heading into 2023 is that even the greatest of intentions can be weighed down and held back — by external forces, by lack of energy, by drifting without realising.

Why don't I have any intentions as September rolls around? Why did my writing, my exercise, my routine fall off mid-to-late last year? Why does that happen almost every year?

In 2023, my most important intention is to not wait until December to reflect, recharge, and reassess myself.

There is too much I want to achieve in this life to let a month slip by.

I will take more time to check in with myself, to reflect on how I’m feeling, how I’m spending my time, and to recharge my batteries to make every day count.

Here’s to a fulfilling 2023.

A week in London like no other

I have never thought of myself as much of a royalist...

But when the news broke that the Queen had passed away on Thursday 8th September 2022, it hit me harder than I expected.

I know people have many thoughts and feelings about the royal family, but regardless of what they might be, the week following her passing was remarkable for so many reasons.

I hope, regardless of your views, these notes might give a little glimpse into London for those who weren’t there.

The announcement came like a full-stop in the middle of a sentence you were enjoying reading. The national anthem interupted whatever was on TV.

Everything stopped.

Over the week, I felt a sense of emptiness, one that perhaps is shared by many. The nation has lost a key ingredient that we can never replace.

From singing along to a Queen medley in Covent Garden to witnessing the impeccable processions from the military, here are a few of my highlights.

A higher order

We live in a world where corporations are often considered the new religions. To some, queuing for trainers or a new phone may be the equivalent of visiting church on a Sunday.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, but the last week was the antithesis of capitalism as religion.

The normal experience of daily city life — the bombardment of advertising, hunger for the latest tech gadget, and the desire to stand out and grab attention faded for a brief moment.

It was a week for people to come together, not purely to mourn, but to celebrate a life. It was a week where total strangers from all over the world shared in a piece of history.

It was as heartwarming as it was historical.

The centre of the world

The world's media surrounding Buckingham Palace

On the Friday evening after the news broke I wandered around London to soak up the atmosphere.

I strolled down the Mall to see members of the public laying flowers, quietly staring up at the gates of Buckingham Palace. Many thinking "we'll never see the Queen stand on that balcony again."

It was only when I reached the palace that I realised how significant this news was to the world, not just the UK.

I was taken aback to find the world's media hunched up in countless marquees surrounding the palace, each with lights on and cameras out, late into the evening, communicating back to newsrooms throughout around the planet about what was happening.

It felt like I was at the centre of the world.

Singing along to Queen in Covent Garden

Crowds gathered in Covent Garden singing along to Queen

I wandered into Covent Garden on that Friday evening.

Street performers are here every day — some juggle swords, some walk on tightropes, some eat fire. Some do all of those at once.

As someone who’s lived in or near London all my life I tend to breeze through — I've been there and seen that many times!

But something was different on that Friday evening. Initially I thought it