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Effort and pressure
I’m on a brief break from travel, as well as juggling a bunch of projects and catching up on work I have fallen behind on, so the instinct to tighten up—grit my teeth, grind, exert more effort and control over my schedule—has been palpable. Perhaps that’s why one of my first pieces for Forge, “Why…
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Discipline and interest
Jonnie Park has recorded over 300 episodes of his podcast, Fun with Dumb. Even though it’s one of the most consistent, disciplined, parts of his practice, he still wonders if it’s worth the effort. He knows his podcast isn’t the most viral thing he could be doing; it doesn’t get the most reach. While the…
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Water polo and penicillin
When I was researching a new piece of work, I revisited Chase, Chance, and Creativity. Author and medical doctor James H. Austin puts forward the idea that there are four types of luck, which I covered at Lifehacker over a decade ago. Of all of these types, the one I wanted to dig deeper into…
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Ordinary inspiration, extraordinary work
As of March 2024, Pokémon had sold over 480 million copies of its game. That’s 28 years after the company released the first Pokémon games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green, in Japan. You’d think that there were high expectations, or a grand vision, that drove the movement that would earn the name Pokémania—but art director…
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Long & McQuade
Over a decade ago, my friends and I released the first episode of Prologue with a recording artist named Ryan Lewis. We drove from Toronto to Montreal, went backstage to Osheaga, recorded the interview, slept, and left early the next morning. That kicked off a series of other interviews with artists like Ty Dolla $ign,…
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Your city’s culture needs you
One of Toronto’s few magazine shops, Presse Internationale, is shutting down after nearly two decades of operation. A new landlord bought the building and is increasing rent for that storefront from $7,000 to $11,000. It’s difficult news, and there are a lot of things to feel upset about. What I think is missing from the…
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The infinite game of blogging: 1,000 posts later
On February 14, 2022, I started playing a game. I could win by writing a blog post every day for 100 days. Before the game, writing had felt like a chore on good days and torturous on bad days. I struggled to find my way out of the mindset of “content creation.” I started the…
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A podcast’s marketing foundation
Some websites estimate that there are six million different podcasts on Spotify. If you’re making one of these podcasts, one of the key challenges is to find people who will like your podcast, and make sure they can easily access your podcast’s latest episode. When Hamza and I first started working on our podcast, New…