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The Ultimate Guide to the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Setting goals sounds simple. When a person sets a goal, they probably come across the SMART methodology—Specific, Measurable, Assignable (changed into “Attainable”), Realistic, and Time-related. Yet the nuance that comes with this makes goal-setting extremely complicated. For example, the terms, “Attainable,” and “Realistic,” require not only judgment of the past and the future, as well…
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The Simple Truth Behind Successful Creative Projects: They Start Small
Sometime after the Tiger King frenzy, and long before the Squid Game one, I happily watched two seasons of Fleabag (amongst what feels like dozens of other shows). For me, experiencing art is only one half of the joy. Learning about the creative process is the other. In this case, I was excited to learn…
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Unlearning Is an Underrated Skill
Six years ago, product designer Andrei Herasimchuk wrote of an earlier time when he learned the wrong lesson during his career at Adobe. Early into his career as a designer, he had built a prototype over the weekend and a few days into his workweek. One of the product managers, who had worked at Adobe…
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You Become What You Write About
No matter how fast digital software evolves, there are some habits and objects ground in the physical world that draw me towards them. One of these is physical notebooks, usually a Moleskine. I’ve filled out three of them the past couple of years, and brought a fourth half-filled with me halfway across the world. It…
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How to Take Your Career to the Next Level with Notes
It was only yesterday when I needed to make a minor decision I had been stuck on for a week. The situation didn’t require a friend or advisor’s advice, precious time I’d prefer to save for something of greater gravity. Instead, I consulted a set of notes I’d taken on making decisions, which took me…
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Digital’s quieter half has been doing its work this whole time
While far from a successful case study, I’ll never forget stumbling across multiple copies of Airbnb’s discontinued Pineapple travel magazine in the back corner of Bouwerie Iconic Magazines in New York City. Of course, I recalled the powerful first impression Pineapple’s stories, layouts, and photography made on me—a jog through my inbox lets me know…
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A Founder’s Guide to Startup Branding Through Writing
The sun was setting as I wrapped up the workday, taking my final call with a former colleague who had recently raised seed funding and was the CEO of a new startup. We were both based in Toronto, known more for its biting cold winters and less for its booming technology scene. The conversation started…
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Content, Without the Marketing
I’ve kept my studio Wonder Shuttle mostly dormant for the past four months, as I got into the groove of a full-time editorial director assignment at WorkOS. Some more notable projects include launching a podcast, setting up the editorial calendar and hiring a technical editor, and editing and publishing (and even co-writing some) blog posts.…
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Great Writing Is an Extension of the Product
In 2008, designer Paul Armstrong launched web.without.words, a project where he eliminated words and turned popular websites into wireframes. For example, he covered what Apple’s website would look like without words, which frankly doesn’t look all too dissimilar from what one of its product pages looks like today. Armstrong wanted to, “visually represent [his] core…
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Big Ideas, Small Papers
One of the most painful things about writing in small amounts of time is the lack of time for re-working. It feels like writing on a scrap of paper that’s way too small. I would wish that I hadn’t spent so much space on that first sentence or doodle. Upon realizing I don’t have enough…