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Three lessons from Peter Yang
I recently worked on a post with Peter Yang for the Figma blog. While the post is about 10 rules for making products that customers love, I learned a lot about Peter’s work as a creator while doing research for the post. Peter works a full-time job as a product lead at Roblox, and writes…
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The 90% tax on your creative work
Mahershala Ali says: You really only actually act between action and cut. 10% of the time. The rest of it is prepping for [it]—the wardrobe, the costume elements of it, the building the psychology and getting ready for the piece itself. Actually getting to act is such a miniscule part of the experience that you…
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The 50 best 50 Cent quotes
During the commute to work, I find myself returning to the audiobook of 50 Cent’s Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter. While he’s best known for his music and TV productions, 50 Cent’s quotes, opinions, and ideas have resonated with me more than I’d expected (like here and here). In this post, I’ve put together a list…
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It’s not real feedback until it hurts
If you want to learn, you need feedback. There’s a reason that Marshall Goldsmith’s method involves interviewing the people around his clients; because he interviews them and takes in their feedback about his client. Without someone like Marshall, it’s a bit more difficult to take in real feedback from people. Cate Hall suggests one way,…
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“I should have done this earlier”
Or, celebrate—because it’s great that you’re doing it now, and you’ve figured it out for the next time.
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Three things I learned about execution as an employee (that I didn’t as an entrepreneur)
1. There is always a surplus of work that needs to be done. As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to “deprioritize” this stuff and drop the ball, and not feel the effects until later. As an employee, that’s not possible, because your team will hold you accountable. You need to manage all of these things well;…
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Demos need details
In Creative Selection, Ken Kocienda describes a backlot scene from Singin’ in the Rain, set on a Hollywood backlot intended to look like a city street. Immediately before Kelly dunks himself under a gushing downspout draining water from the roofs of the “buildings” he is dancing past, he skips past La Valle Millinery Shop, an…
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Run with it
From Figma’s careers page: Building Figma is about taking initiative, being bold and charting a new course, not running a playbook. Figmates are building the future of design by tackling big, scary, exciting challenges like Figma’s future depends on it. Because it does.
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Friendship and creative work
Rebecca Morrison asks, “What do you do when your family doesn’t believe in or even understand your writing dreams?” It’s natural for you to express your frustrations, angst, and fears with your family and friends. They’ll do the same to you, because you’re close. You can let your guard down around them and be yourself,…
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Tell people what you want to do, and it just might happen
Tom Critchlow recently published his list of dream clients, and how he believed he could add value to them. (The post started as a thread, which itself was a response to this prompt.) It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of these came to fruition. (In fact, I’m expecting that to happen.) Tom’s thoughtfulness,…