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Two articles I wrote very early in my career
A couple of years ago, I wrote about my gig writing for Techvibes while I was an undergrad university student. I was a self-taught writer, and these posts are part of my very early work. Techvibes was acquired in 2016, and most of the articles were stripped of author credentials. Some of them have all…
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Fans will always be fans, even if they come and go
During the first year of the pandemic, my wife and I spent a lot of time cooped up in our studio apartment in downtown Toronto. While we knew our travel options were very limited, and we didn’t know if a vaccine would be coming out, we found solace in a Korean variety show called Running…
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Imagining the future of The Path, after Cumberland Terrace
One of my favorite aspects of Toronto is the set of underground tunnels expanding out of the financial district known as The Path. Among its connections are a university, a mall, a stadium, a conference center, and a movie theater. The most northern point of the Path is the Atrium on Bay. Several blocks north…
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Figure out what’s working, and do more of it
When you start a new project, it’s useful to figure out what has worked for the team or company already. Most of this is a form of manual labor: setting meetings, asking questions, reading reports, proposing actual deliverables and completing them. It’s also a humbling exercise, to restrain the impulse to come up with answers…
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Learn about yourself by making something you’ll throw out right away
One useful way to take the pressure off making something—anything!—is to never show it to anyone else. It’s just you and your work. You can say whatever you want to say. Write down your deepest fears. Write down the ambition that’s too unrealistic to even whisper about to anyone else. Write what you’ve wished you…
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Simple questions to sense content marketing ROI
If you’re need a sense of how much ROI you’re getting on the writing and editing activities in your company, ask these simple questions: Does the content communicate how we see the world? What impact does it make if other people also buy into our perspective? Does the content add leverage to a launch moment?…
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Marketing readiness
A product’s features may be complete, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready for customers yet. Before they use the product, customers want to know: What does the product do? Who’s it for? What’s a good reason I should care? There are more questions you need to ask yourself: how can you get the customer’s interest?…
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Writing tired
In my ideal world, I’d wake up around 8am, eat breakfast and have a matcha latte, and write for 1-2 hours. In this state, the writing just flows out. 60–95%, I don’t write under these ideal conditions. Life is asking me to take care of other things. Instead, I keep my eyes peeled for openings…