August 15, 2023

Crunchy or Smooth

Some people prefer crunchy peanut butter, other people prefer smooth. It’s not that one is better than the other, they’re just different. And, no matter how compelling-a-case I could put together for why crunchy is better, I will never win over devotees of the smooth variety.

Same goes for art. While some types/styles of art may appeal to a bigger audience than others, there will always be a smaller audience for a type of art – some like crunchy, some like smooth.

So, when we’re judging ourselves and our work based on quantitative metrics like how many sales, how many followers, how many likes, and so on, we’re looking at the wrong metrics. If you’re trying to sell smooth peanut butter to crunchy fanatics (and no one is buying it), it easy to think your smooth recipe sucks rather than what’s really going on, you just haven’t found your people, yet.

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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