Very Clear Ideas: The Short Version

Whatever you’re working on, it pays to know what you’re doing.
But how do you know if it’s the right thing?
How do you get it clearer if it’s not clear?

Identity Yoga: The Short Version

So, if this was the long version I’d gradually approach the question of identity by talking about advertising and personal branding and role-playing and improvisation. But this is the short version so I’ll cut to the chase.

How to know if you’re clear or unclear

Part one: action replays and scenario planning

My friend Kumaran recently asked me “How can you tell if you’re clear or not?” So, I wrote this as an answer.

Initiative Mapping: The Short Version

Whenever you are working with someone else, there are two things — above all — that you need to be clear about:

1. Who is helping who?
2. What is the helper helping with?

Clear Definitions #1: Authority

Where does authority come from? 
When you hear two people talk and one speaks with authority and one doesn’t, what’s the difference?

There’s a kind of pseudo-authority, which consists of talking loudly. And that works for…

Taking the initiative

A decade of working independently means I’m very familiar with those times where suddenly there’s no work, no leads, no clear direction, no motivation — all at once. And very familiar with that panicked feeling that I really should be doing something productive towards bringing in work and…

Four thoughts

Here are four thoughts I keep coming back to, again and again. Things I find myself repeating early in pretty much any conversation about work, and how work works.

1. There are two kinds of authority: formal and creative.
Formal authority is just job titles and stories and…

Clear Definitions #3: Initiative

What does it mean to take the initiative? 
And when you take the initiative, what is ‘the initiative’ that you take?

Work can be divided into three parts: feeling, thinking and doing. The first two parts are internal —…