Leadership for Animators (and other creative people too)

I gave a talk on Leadership for Animators (and other creative people too) for the AniMAtic Boston group last week. You can find them on FaceBook on →

Gratitude

Rob Hope posted a nice note on Motivation. I fall on and off the wagon with what he’s mentioned in point 1 and 2 too much. I’m not doing enough of →

100 years

In 1992 or so, I took my first photography class at a community college in south Florida. My teacher at the time taught me two things that have →

I am not a minimalist

I’ve been interested in minimalism for several years. Although I am no Minimalist. A lot of the blogs and books I read on minimalism are about →

Don't compare your backstage to their onstage

I heard a great episode of the always solid Back to Work podcast recently. In which Merlin Mann relayed a phrase he heard from the novelist Patrick →

Ideas are cheap

I once told an animator that ideas are cheap. He was offended as he thought I said his ideas weren’t good. At the time, he was working with a →

Kid A, Owls, and perfect pens.

I’ve been thinking a lot about change, and building habits. Seems like the single thing that stops me from doing the work is fear. I wrote about →

I am uncomfortable, which is good.

In my quest to stop finding the perfect pen, I came across an interesting thought about making the time and space to practice. I’ve known for a →

The perfect pen

I spent time on learning and trying a new tool. This consisted of reading articles, downloading and figuring out trial software. I stopped, went →

Premortem

I’m a fan of Daniel Pink. His book Drive is one of my all time favorites, I talked a bit about it before. He’s recently started up some short →

Mini-disconnects

Derek Sivers wrote an interesting piece called Disconnect. In which, he discusses how he’s been the most productive when he spent months alone to →

Get to know a furnace.

This week has been depressing. In my opinion: We’re not talking about Race as we should be. We’re not talking about guns as we should be. Dave Pell →

Just the Facts

I had another Broken Record conversation with my son this evening. I was hasty and a little harsh. During our conversation, my son asked me a →

Bones

“I don’t have a creative bone in my body”, he said. “Sure you do, everyone does,” I thought. “Maybe you just haven’t been cut deep enough or broken →

Tsundoku

I am not sure where I first came across this word. Maybe I found it on Farnham Street or Barking up the Wrong Tree. But I love this word. Here’s a →

Broken Records

I came home the other night from work, and the house was a mess. Every day, in the morning, I remind my kids to take care of their lunch boxes right →

Squirrel

Recently, this post reminded me of this great book. I read The Laws of Simplicity a couple years ago. I noted then that this was a great (and fast) →

Right Now

I’ve been thinking a lot about Essentialism recently. What is really important to me? I’ve started a new job. I have more time in the day due to a →

I loved arguing with my son about doing his homework

One usually doesn’t hear a parent gush about the near yelling matches with their nine year old son. I got into an argument with my son the other →

Mr. Oldman stands up and expands

What do Gary Oldman, Scrum Standup meetings and odd at-first-glance technologies have in common? Maybe nothing, other than this post. I’ve gotten →

Sacrifices

Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. Then he is so anxious about the future that he →

My Leaf blower doesn’t have bluetooth

The best way to simplify is to reduce. I’ve been trying to keep the thought in the front of my mind lately. I was feeling anxious Friday night and →

Digital Portsmouth, The Art of Video Games

I was lucky enough to be asked to present at the most recent Digital Portsmouth event. This time around the topic was “The Art of the Video Game”. →

A call from out of the blue

Recently someone I didn’t know asked to connect with me on linkedin. My general rule is to use linkedin only for people I’ve worked with before. I →

Ask

​Date: April 20, 2015 Dana Loud, a co-worker of mine who’s an amazing artist tweeted this recently: As a leader, there is no better way to build →

Talk

A great way to share and build a following is to give a talk at a users group or conference. Maybe you don’t think you could do it because public →

UX for Technical Artists

I met James Christie at an event at Alpha Loft some time ago. He gave an interesting talk on sustainability of the internet. He’s interested in →

Cliques and Tribes

At various points in my career I’ve bounced between Cliques and Tribes and back. While Cliques can be good to get new people up and running and do →

Pay it Forward

If you’ve been making games for a while you’ve probably come across someone who aspires to do what you do. You’ve met these folks at user groups, or →

Trust

I was in a group conversation once where I believe someone was confusing autonomy with trust. His point was that someone had to earn autonomy so →

Four Distractions

The lizard brain is not merely a concept. It’s real, and it’s living on the top of your spine, fighting for your survival. But, of course, survival →

The three things we need at work

Dan Pink’s book Drive is great. I do believe there are three key factors to creating a productive and profitable workplace. • Autonomy: →