Herbert Lui – Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

Creating the conditions for organic content growth

A month after I first started at Figma, I traveled from NYC to SF for its annual conference named Config. It was the first in-person one after the pandemic. My co-worker Jenny and I wrote a liveblog for it, and I also got to see a copy of Creative Doing on the bookshelf at Figma…

Herbert Lui

June 26, 2026

Contentions, Creator Confidential, Figma, Promotion, Turning Stories

A market fueled by purpose

There are a lot of dedicated entrepreneurs who have set up their own dog rescue agencies in South Korea. Each one has, effectively, created their own market. They rescue dogs in troubled circumstances, and match them up with people who want to have a dog in their life. It sounds simple enough, but logistics can…

Herbert Lui

June 25, 2026

Around the World, Expectations, Turning Stories

Don’t check your blog metrics yet

Here’s the latest edition of my newsletter for early-stage growth leaders, Leading Thinker, which I also shared at LinkedIn: TL;DR: When you start a new blog or publication, your metrics will disappoint you. That disappointment leads to doubt, and often kills a content practice before it has a proper chance to make an impact. A…

Herbert Lui

June 24, 2026

Contentions, Creator Confidential, Figma, Promotion

Creative contribution

Awards and sales performance are the easiest ways to measure creative work. They also frame the creative process as a competition. There are winners and losers in both, and it focuses on results. This isn’t a useful frame for actually making something you want to make, which is what being a creative person actually means.…

Herbert Lui

June 23, 2026

Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

Ownership requires energy and storage

A few years ago, my wife and I owned roughly over 500 books in paperback and hardcover. Here they were, in a condo in Toronto: When my wife and I moved to Hong Kong, I figured I’d be back in six months and we packed these books up. They were, by far, the most difficult…

Herbert Lui

June 22, 2026

Around the World, Creativity, Turning Stories

Developing a clearer business strategy helped unblock my writing

A few months ago, I wrote about my return to business writing as well as one way of framing the service. However, I still felt a block about promoting it to my friends and peers at LinkedIn: should I write about the Consistency Journal, or should I write about my business writing services? The immediate…

Herbert Lui

June 21, 2026

Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

Top 40,000,000 under 40

Every year, all sorts of organizations publish a list of upcoming leaders, called the Top 40 Under 40. Part of what makes it special is scarcity: it excludes everyone except 40 people. In Canada, where I live, there are just over 40 million people. 10 million of them are between 20 to 40 (let’s assume…

Herbert Lui

June 20, 2026

Creator Confidential, Promotion, Turning Stories

Introducing my business writing services at LinkedIn

Yesterday, I posted this at LinkedIn: A few months ago, I showed a friend an early sample of The Consistency Journal. As we caught up, he mentioned he’d been having trouble with a blog post at work. The technical writer they’d been working with couldn’t take the draft where it needed to be. “I don’t…

Herbert Lui

June 19, 2026

Creator Confidential, Promotion

Be the best in the world, for a few real people

There’s a local car service that specializes at taking customers to and from the airport. They serve customers based in a couple of local suburbs that don’t speak English. As far as I know, you can only call them by phone. They charge a consistent, flat rate and only accept cash when you get to…

Herbert Lui

June 18, 2026

Creator Confidential, Promotion, Turning Stories

Against reality distortion

One of the most intriguing qualities about Steve Jobs is described as his “reality distortion field.” It seemed like he was able to bend reality to his will. For example, with its influence, he occasionally made unrealistic deadlines happen like the original Apple Macintosh computer, or going public with the Pixar IPO right after Toy…

Herbert Lui

June 17, 2026

Expectations, Turning Stories