A year ago, I decided to lessen my reliance on Twitter. Here’s my progress so far…

This post was originally posted on January 3, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post pondering what would change in my workflow if Twitter disappeared. At the time, Twitter was actively looking for buyers and had just shut down Vine. I identified what I would miss without Twitter and decided to start looking for options to address some potential pain points.

In the last year, the narrative has shifted from Twitter’s possible sale to issues with abuse and hatred. Twitter increased the character count to 280 and that’s worked out fine,...

I’ve used this phrase for years to describe changing jobs. Maybe I was wrong…

This post was originally posted on May 8, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Every place we work has its own dysfunctional elements. And when you change jobs, you move from one group of challenges to another. Every job has challenges. You choose which challenges you’ll face.

I had coffee a couple of months ago with some friends and one of them was in the midst of a job search. I relayed my standard “choose your dysfunction” advice. One of our friends piped up:

“I don’t know. I think that sometimes, we bring our dysfunction with us."

I still haven’t been able to get that thought out of my head.

Yes, it’s true that each job brings unique challenges. But it’s equally true the...

What would happen if Twitter disappeared tomorrow?

This post was originally posted on November 9, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

I’ve been on Twitter since 2007. It’s part of my daily routine and probably my most vital social media channel for finding and sharing news. But Twitter has had some lingering financial issues and when they recently tried to sell the company, no one stepped up to make an appropriate offer.¹

Also, a couple of social media experiments have crashed and burned lately. Twitter announced that they were closing Vine.² Talkshow had a bunch of potential but didn’t make it six months. And while Twitter is much larger, it’s not...

This post was originally posted on September 12, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Real jobs have deadlines.

As a designer, I hear “As Soon As Possible” an awful lot. Most people are shocked to learn that ASAP is actually my lowest priority. Jobs with concrete deadlines are always in line ahead of jobs with no real deadline.

Understanding why the client needs something ASAP is the first step in understanding whether you are dealing with a crisis or a “crisis.” There are a couple of reasons why clients avoid giving you a real deadline:

When can you get it to me? If the client is asking you to set a deadline, the project probably doesn’t have a firm due date. It likely needs to...

This post was originally posted on March 23, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

All professionals need a personalized email address and a home on the web. And Gmail accounts and Facebook pages don’t count.

I saw a branding consultant recently without a branded email address. Who hires a brand consultant who doesn’t invest in their own brand? I saw a company trying to recruit managers… just email an AOL account. (In case you are wondering, the company wasn’t recruiting for AOL.) I was trying to find out information on a store in town and all they had was a Facebook page that hadn’t been updated in a couple of months. I don’t really care what your business is — from a home-based...

This post was originally posted on November 13, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

I get asked a lot what it’s like to have three kids. Mostly from people with two kids thinking about whether they want to have another. Sometimes, the question comes from younger couples who are thinking about having kids.¹ And I always struggle to answer.

My standard answer is that when you have three kids, you have to switch from man-to-man to zone. You lose a little control. You are outnumbered. And while that is completely accurate, it sounds scary and intimidating, which isn’t at all what I want to communicate. I love having three kids.

My other answer is that with three kids, how far apart they are really matters. I’ve had friends with three kids under...

This post was originally posted on September 29, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

A few years ago, I stopped at a fast food restaurant in rural, upstate South Carolina where a car was circling the drive thru over and over and over. She’d drive up to the ordering station and wait a second. Then the car would drive to the window, pause, and then drive around again. This happened a couple of times. It was very strange.

When I walked in, I nodded toward the car at the window and asked what was going on. The woman shrugged, obviously embarrassed, and said “Just improving the drive thru wait times…”

Lots of people wonder how something like the Volkswagen Continue Reading →