July 9, 2019

What am i doing differently?

Let’s face it, these days, it’s easy to be the same. To conform. To take a nice, comfy seat high up on the bell curve of what’s ‘on trend’. If I want to buy some new clothes, it’s easy for me to pull up a Pinterest board and see, in an instant, what the world is wearing. If I want to plan a picture-perfect wedding, the same is true. But, if we’re all looking at the same thing, reading the same information, looking at the same style, then we’re probably, eventually, going to think the same. If we’re thinking the same, we’re probably going to create the same things. That’s boring.

To think differently, we need to act differently. We need to ask ourselves, what am I doing differently to everyone else? If people are no longer letting boredom into their life, if they aren’t staring out the window, if they’re all listening to podcasts while they’re doing passive activities like cooking or vacuuming, if passive activities are now ‘wasting time’, and a thing to be avoided, then maybe I’ll ‘waste’ some time. Maybe I’ll stare out of a window for a while. Maybe I’ll shut off the incessant sound of podcasts in my ears. Maybe I’ll do exactly that, and see what happens.

Other observations
July 7, 2026

Polishing the rice

What can I learn from how brewers help or hinder the flavour profile of rice when they’re making sake?

June 30, 2026

14,500 days unnoticed

If I’ve only noticed the sunrise a handful of times out of tens of thousands of daily opportunities. What else have I missed?

June 23, 2026

Ready? Catch!

If we never know when the world will offer us a new idea, how can we best prepare for the moment when it inevitably comes?

June 16, 2026

Brain, Heart, Hips and Feet

If you feel like dancing, you probably wouldn’t book last minute tickets to a Chopin concert. So what’s bad music? And can bad books exist?

June 9, 2026

Exposure matters less and less

What changes in an art practice when the sharing of the work one makes becomes secondary to making the work in the first place?

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