Three types of record producers and how this relates to writing and editing — My favourite podcast at the moment is ‘Gear Club’ by Stuart Lerman and John Agnello, two veterans of the New York City recording scene. I love listening to them talk to their guests about the art of making records. In fact, the title of the podcast is a complete misnomer…

The story of Neal Stephenson’s typewriter — So we all know the story of William Gibson’s typewriter, right? The legend of how he wrote Neuromancer on a manual typewriter, before he’d even used a personal computer? The concept of cyberspace was invented on a Hermes 2000. Neal Stephenson also has a great typewriter story in his past. …

Good business writing focuses on what the reader needs — What is ‘good writing’ in a work context? Is there a formula you can use? A benchmark you can apply? Sadly, there’s no universal standard for what makes good professional writing. Instead, it’s entirely about the context of your intended audience. For example, we’re often told to avoid jargon. But…

Review of Scott Tennent’s Slint’s Spiderland Spiderland is one of those records that blew the lid off what I thought was possible within rock music. It also hit me at a time and place where I was ripe for its influence, a post-adolescent pupae still forming an identity and an…

The Tao of Doom — Working without effort I recently started dipping in to the Tao Te Ching again. I first encountered it in my 20s, and it had a really powerful effect on me. All those seeming paradoxes somehow speak to the truth of being an effective human. One paradox in particular that puzzled me the first…

What I’ve learned so far Productivity geek that I am, I’ve been aware of bullet journalling for a few years now, but I’ve never jumped in to try it. I started journalling this week, and I’m really liking it. It’s providing something that’s been missing from my system. Currently, I…

Feeling homesick even though you’re already at home — Diving in Tasmania The weather was good yesterday, so I went for a dive off my local beach. We’re still in the Derwent estuary here, and the visibility varies from reasonable to pretty poor. On Saturday, it was a bit murky. There’s plenty of life down there, though. I saw a couple of…

The daylight is so fleeting these days. Sometimes it feels as if I’ll miss the day entirely if I blink. The sun rides low in the northern sky. The frosts turn the ground white and colour leeches out of everything. But in those still moments when the light returns briefly…

Work on the most important thing first — One of the recurring themes in the personal finance books I’ve read is: Pay yourself first. This means that you set aside 10 per cent of every pay for yourself. Before you pay anyone else, put that 10 per cent into a savings account. Scott Pape in the Barefoot Investor…