R/T 018 - A lesson from Donald Glover
This issue of Radical Things is about: Shaping your environment to remove friction and unleash your best work.
Happy New Year!
I know it’s nearly February but this is the first issue of Radical Things in 2024 so I wanted to make it formal.
Before I go into this issue, I wanted to touch on what’s been happening at Substack.
There’s recently been a lot of talk about Substack’s Nazi problem. Consequently some high-profile writers have left the platform. I’ve been pondering this a lot over the summer break. And for the moment I’m going to stick around.
All platforms have their problems. I’m sure Nazi’s are prevalent on them all. Twitter/X took several steps backwards under Elon. It reached a point where I couldn’t stick around anymore.
It appears that Substack are trying to improve their moderation approach. I don’t think moving to another platform is a better move. As an example, Ghost is completely unmoderated. But if the situation here gets worse I’ll reconsider my position.
So I’m sticking around for the moment. If you have any thoughts on what’s been happening on Substack, feel free to drop them below.
Now onto Donald. A good Donald.
When Donald Glover released ‘This is Amerikkka” I had to clarify for my wife that no, it wasn’t Danny Glover. And he wasn’t rising like a Phoenix from the flames to rekindle his career.
It was a moment of high comedy.
I love Donald Glover. If you’re not familiar he’s a creative polymath. Musician, rapper, producer, director, writer, actor.
He’s makes music under the name Childish Gambino. He wrote and starred in the hit series Atlanta. He was great in the comedy series Community.
He’s also been an iconic Star Wars character (Lando Calrissian) and killed the role.
And he’s writing the script for the upcoming Disney+ TV series.
Even Billy Dee Williams didn’t make Lando this cool.
The punchline for this issue is Donald Glover. But before that, I want to tell you about my lounge.
If you follow me on other social channels, you might know I’ve been renovating our lounge over the summer.
It’s the main reason for the recent writing hiatus.
It’s been a long journey of renovations. We bought our house nine years ago and we tackled the lounge last. It’s a big room by New Zealand standards. It has double height ceilings and many square metres of wall. It’s taken a lot of work. The renovations have touched every surface and even required the use of a scaffold.
I also had to paint the ceiling using a 3.5 metre pole! (Cue a mental picture of a slapstick comedy scenario)
One of the best things about the room is that it’s a live-work space. It’s an environment where I work during the day. We then use it as a family in the evenings and weekends.
I’ve worked from home for the past five years since starting We Create Futures. But this is the first time the lounge feels like a holistic space. I’ve invested in new furniture. I’ve also pulled together objects I’ve been collecting for the last two decades.
It’s a space where I can listen to music, work on a large screen, watch a movie, walk onto the deck and look at the sea, relax and work more formally.
I can even meet with clients.
I’m telling you this because it’s an exercise in shaping your environment to remove friction. Creating connections and flow to enable your best work to emerge.
In Jame’s Clear’s best selling book, Atomic Habits, he talks about the importance of removing friction. It’s his secret to enable good habits to emerge. This also means starting small. And creating situations that make your goals as easy as possible to achieve.
I’ll give you another example.
I love drawing. My background is in industrial design where drawing is a daily activity. Today my work is much more strategic. I don’t draw as much as I should do. And I on reflection I’m sure I use this as an excuse. Developing a sculpture practice has helped but I want to do more.
For a decade I’ve convinced myself that if I had an iPad and drawing app I’d draw every day.
Guess what?
I’ve never invested in an iPad as I can’t justify the expense. So I’ve not drawn as much as I want to. (Yes! I’ve tried having sketch books in my bag, etc.)
So I asked myself - what’s the easiest and cheapest way for me to draw?
The answer: Buy a box of HB pencils. A ream of paper. Place it where I work and think. And do a drawing a day.
Simple.
So what’s all this got to do with Donald Glover?
Well, I recently read about an inspiring example of shaping your environment to enable your creativity.
And of course, Donald created it.