Life

The City Cycling Guide

Want to start cycling? Here’s how to choose your first bike, stay safe on the road, pick the right accessories, and most importantly, how to enjoy riding your bike :)...

Ups and Downs

60 days and counting — some thoughts on riding the coronacoaster

Coronavirus Lockdown Diary

If I come out of this with only one thing, it’s going to be that I got my writing habit back.

Caged Thinking

I’m sitting in a box, looking at a box, typing into a box.

The unexpected pleasures of returning to employment from freelance life

If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll know that in 2012 I had a personal meltdown, quit my full-time design job, went travelling, grew a project called CycleLove into a fairly...

The Problem with Being Productive

A few weeks back, I found myself in the unusual situation of my lunch urging me to be more productive.

The Fear

So you’ve got this idea. And you want it to be good so badly, that you’re scared to even start, in case the reality doesn’t match how it looks inside...

What if you approached your life like a client brief?

Sometimes when I’m in the middle of a really stressful project at work, I wonder what it would be like if I could organise my own life as efficiently as...

A bicycle for the mind

Daylight savings ain’t good for the soul. The one hour spring-forwards has messed with my body clock and I’ve felt groggy all week.

Fly solo or join the flock?

Yesterday I spent a few hours over coffee with a friend, brainstorming ideas for her next career steps.

Maybe it’s the hardest thing

I almost didn’t publish this article, because so far I’ve completely failed to follow the advice at the end of it. But that’s a pretty good reflection of where my...

The only yellow car in the village.

When I was a kid we lived in a patch of quintessentially English countryside known as the Cotswolds. It’s full of picturesque villages with dry stone walls, and huge stately...

Eating the menu instead of the dinner

I’m increasingly glad that the internet and social media wasn’t really a thing when I was growing up. Sure, we had email and newsgroups and chatrooms and simple search engines...

Self-care for the Creative Soul

Last month I was invited to speak at Creative Mornings in Edinburgh on the theme of “taboo”, and decided to talk about mental health and self-care for the creative soul....

Your ideas are holding you hostage

A few years ago, deep in my “I love Bill Cunningham” phase, I pitched a CycleLove x Vulpine French Worker’s jacket to my friend Nick, who runs a cycling clothing...

Trig points for the soul

When you climb a big hill in the Scottish Highlands, you’ll often find a waist-height concrete pillar waiting for you at the top, as well as the more-expected 360 degree...

If you can do it, do it now

Life is short, but the days are long, and it’s easy to justify putting things off.

We’re all kind of weird and twisted and drowning

You know all those thoughts and feelings you have, that you're not sure are normal? Here's the thing. Everyone else has them too...

Playing golf on the moon (and the problem with setting a finish line)

Why goals can make you unhappy, and what you should focus on instead.

The freakonomy needs you

Imagine that you found something you desperately wanted to be a part of, but it was happening on the other side of the world. Would you sit at home getting in...

Knowing when to quit

Three clues that it might be time to move onto something new (and why quitting doesn't make you a quitter).

A second-hand bicycle saved my life

What inspired me to start CycleLove? Why and how do we become so attached to our bikes? Does cycling have an image problem? All topics touched on in a short...

Why, the three letter word that could change your life

Feeling a little lost, lacking in direction, or unsure of what to do next with your career? Here are some ideas for finding your purpose.

Have you tried turning your brain off and on again?

On Friday, after several months of umming and ahhing, I published a 'Goodbye' post on my CycleLove blog. The tl;dr is that as much as I love bikes, writing here...

Tour de Cycle Hire — 3 friends riding 300km with 3 gears

When my friend Graham at Borough came up with the idea to ride Boris Bikes from London to Paris, I jumped at the chance to join him. The plan was to...

Reflections on the past, present and future of Glasgow’s art scene

Glasgow's appeal is visceral. A grey and often grim place which only becomes attractive once you experience its rough charm in person. I fell in love with the city when I...

15 things you probably don’t know about me yet

This article has been sitting in my drafts folder for months with just three words written: “SPILL GUTS HERE”. But I couldn’t find the guts to spill my guts, until...

On not using all the available space

Everyone knows that packing light makes travel easier, but we've all been that person lugging a suitcase full of never-needed things around a foreign city. What could you offload to lighten...

The art of the uncomfortable: how to hack your habits by running short experiments

Some of the biggest gains I've made since quitting my job have come from pushing myself into corners, into doing things I'm not sure I can handle, or just plain...

Make a “to don’t” list, and other ideas for working smarter not harder

The more I've read about the habits of inanely productive people (mostly writers), the more convinced I've become that routine making maketh the man. So this list of ways to...

The unspoken D word that eats you from the inside.

What happened the day that I realised I couldn't go to work any more.

Other people’s opinion of you are none of your business

It’s early morning as I write, and I can hear bird song in the garden outside. Last night I was listening to a different kind of music with my Dad...

Getting unstuck when you’re working on your own projects

The image above was created by a graphics bot called Pixel Sorter which got stuck in a duel with another bot on Twitter. I tweeted about it yesterday and they...

How to sidestep creative perfectionism by acting like a startup

Creative people, myself included, often get hung up on how things look. Here's how to stop polishing, and start shipping instead.

I’ve been having a staring match with my garden shed

Every time I’ve looked out of my bedroom window for the past few weeks, my shed has been there, unblinkingly transmitting this thought into my mind:  “You need somewhere to...

Keep going.

Humans don't come with an instruction manual, and our lives don't come with a map. How then can we find our way in life?

The false economy of boxes

I’ve just been hiking in the wide open spaces of the Scottish Highlands, where I was turning my head to see the full extent of the sunset instead of my...

How to fix Mondays

Opening up your inbox on a Monday can be a grim experience.  Ideally you'll have done a few hours work before even contemplating it. Let's be realistic though: inbox avoidance...

Why rock the boat?

The status quo is here for a reason. It's best left unquestioned, to follow the rules, to stay inside the lines, to do as you're told. The status quo is...

Snipers gonna snipe

If you make a statement of opinion, snipers gonna snipe. If you dare to stir things up a bit, snipers gonna snipe. If you do things differently, snipers gonna snipe....

Why the world needs more you

Whilst researching my last article, I discovered that someone's written a book about how to think like Steve Jobs. Which goes by the grand title of...What Would Steve Jobs Do?...

I never finish anyth

Why it's time to wake up and smell the hard work.

In conversation with designer-turned-writer Paul Jarvis

Writing doesn’t come easy — and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.  Canadian designer Paul Jarvis is one designer who has found a way with words, writing for the...

The thought experiment that changes the molecular composition of your body

I’ve written before about meditation and my attempts to build mindfulness into my daily habits, but often when talking about it with friends they dismiss it as something wishy-washy, or as something...

Start small.

Big is overrated. Big is a huge leap from nothing. Big is a mental road block that’s holding you back. And at the other end of the scale… Small is...

Don’t consume, create.

Often I find myself lying in bed first or last thing, in a repeating loop of checking various emails and apps. For some reason I think I'll find answers there,...

Left to right and repeat: what I read in 2013

When I was a kid we’d make regular trips to the library during school holidays and I’d pick up a stack of new reading material each time. Sometimes I would...

Why I skipped Christmas this year

I was scared to write this post before Christmas Day itself because I wasn’t sure I would follow through with my plan. Maybe I would turkey out at the last...

S O H N — “The Wheel”

When a track sends a shiver down your spine in the first few seconds of listening, it's generally a sign that you're onto something good.  But sharing discoveries on social...

Creativity is a habit, not a feeling

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2004-2005 There’s a profile question on an online dating service that I (hate to) use, asking how you want to spend your retirement. Amongst the crappy preset...

Sometimes I don’t want to…

Get up in the morning Go to work Tell the truth Tell a lie Talk to ANYONE Do what you think I should Do what I thought I would Let...

Don’t take advice from the side of cereal boxes

Cereal was much more fun when I was growing up in the 80s. You could collect tokens for a free stunt kite, or find bicarbonate of soda powered submarines buried...

Late night adventures in lifestyle design.

Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I turned the light back on and started leafing through one of the notebooks next to my bed. And then I realised why my...

Complaining is silly. Act or forget.

There’s usually an interval of a couple of minutes between me broadcasting a throwaway remark or snide comment on Twitter… and me deleting the tweet. I’ll see it nestled amongst...

Itching the scratch

On my walk around the park this afternoon a kid was throwing a temper tantrum at the side of the path. His mum asked him “Why are you choosing to behave...

A machine for dreaming

Sometimes when I wake in the morning, in that halfway state between sleep and being awake, I can see words scrolling in front of me as if a newspaper is...

10 things I’ve learned in 10 years working as a graphic designer

If I could write a letter to my 23-year-old self, the naive fresh-faced version of me who had just finished art school and was looking for his first job in...

4 tips for finding work you love

If you’re a TED talk fan, the chances are fairly high that you’re already familiar with a presentation on “The power of introverts” by the American writer Susan Cain. If...

I thought I was an alien

Seriously. Around the age of ten or so, I wasn't sure if I was human or not.  For some reason I had cooked up a theory that I was an...

I was really a failure… really, really, really, really a failure — an interview with James Murphy of DFA Records

Watch the video below first — it’s less than 10 minutes long — and then keep on reading for my thoughts on his thoughts…

Everything I know about Chinese food

I was sitting eating pot stickers in Chinatown on Sunday and suddenly realised I’d rather eat them over a traditional British roast dinner on any day of the week. (I’m...

Literally a shipment of fail dot com — how not to monetise a popular blog

The story of how I  created a hugely popular meme website and then failed (fail being the operative word throughout this article) to make any money from it. Warning: also includes...

Nothing to read here, please move along

It's Sunday night and it has just gone 11.01pm, which means I have less than an hour to write my 1,000 words for the day. (Reminder: you can view my...

Feeling lost? Relax. You’re probably headed in the right direction

School → University → Job → Mortgage → Marriage → Bigger mortgage → Kids → Work like a bitch until you are old and grey → Retirement If you were willing to follow the signposts which had been...

Removing the possibility of stopping

I’m becoming increasingly tired of girls’ online dating profiles quoting the “Here’s to the crazy ones” passage from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.  Seriously ladies, you need to dig a...

People at the end of their lives are incapable of bullshit

This thought and smile provoking TEDx talk is by a woman called Kathleen Taylor who (after spending twenty years working as a counselor and community engagement facilitator for the dying) realised...

That thing you want to do

That thing you wake up in the morning thinking about. That thing you keep waking up in the middle of the night thinking about too. That thing you always have...

Mr. Chicken

Almost as soon as I tweeted a link to an article entitled “I’m Thinking. Please. Be. Quiet” yesterday, the security alarm in my house started beeping loudly every sixty seconds. ...

Punks don’t ask permission. Neither should you.

For punks, gobbing on the band who were currently on stage was considered the ultimate form of respect:

The power of not thinking

Wake up. Roll over. Grab phone. Check emails. Check a load of other crap. Get up. Shower. Eat breakfast watching iPad. Cycle to work mulling over said emails. Stare at...

What I learnt about moving forwards by going on retreat

I switched Airbnb to map view, maxed the price at £50 per night, and panned hopefully right from London. 

You will never be ready

"I don't know enough about business to start my own company yet" my friend confessed to me over a beer. And then the conversation slid on to something else. Looking back,...

Building a daily practice, one habit at a time

I have a nasty habit of judging fat people. I look at them and wonder how they got like that, what the hell they are eating, if there was a...

Your mind is a jail built out of bullshit.

(And why honesty is the long-lost friend you need back in your life...) I sometimes wake early in the morning thinking about stupid stuff I've done and whether or not...

I keep falling off the edge of conversations

The people on my right are having one, as are the people on my left. I'm not involved in either. I fell off the edge of them both a few...

On not making cool shit for Bjork or working for minimal techno DJs in Berlin

When I was fresh out of art school and recovered from the shock that people weren’t physically lining up to employ me at my degree show, I went on the...

Thirteen variations on less.

I stopped reading the news on a daily basis over a year ago. Newspapers have become a luxury reserved for killing time on long journeys. My TV is also long...

Trust your internal bullshit detector

A generic business estate on the outskirts of town. A generic office building. Generic office spaces lined up neatly inside. (Are these places cloned somewhere? Maybe that's what Milton Keynes...

Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

The story of director Ang Lee's six year struggle to make it in the movie business serves as an inspirational reminder to any aspiring creative or startup founder of the importance...

Be kind to yourself

You are not a hypocrite. The world is a complicated place and you are doing your best to make sense of it. You haven't sold out, you're just being pragmatic.  All...

What do you want to *not* be afraid of?

“We’re in the richest, best educated, most spectacular moment in the history of the world and we’ve got nothing to be afraid of. There are no saber tooth tigers left....

How to have a year that matters

Let's cut the crap. Life is short, you have less time than you think, and there are no baby unicorns coming to save you. So rather than doling out craptastic...

There’s no need to be perfect to inspire others…

There's no need to be perfect to inspire others. Let people get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.— Erik Christian (@SimplyAfterDark) January 15, 2013 This struck a chord...

The opposite of a 4-hour workweek

In the past few weeks, work seems to have taken over, and the boundary between my professional and personal life has blurred to a mere smudge. Any freelance design projects...

The type of person who takes random things on the internet personally

Karol Gajda's lucid article on the benefits of emoting your emotions reminds me of a certain kind of television viewer... the kind who complains viciously about a program, as if...

Don’t make it perfect. Just make it, now.

The pursuit of perfection is an unnecessary 'designer' habit that I'm trying to unlearn.  I've found that asking "What's the fastest solution to this problem?" instead of "What's the best solution...

You should probably send more email than you do

Patrick McKenzie on why “email is the best broadcast channel ever invented for business purposes”.

Why I’ve capitulated on my “no resolutions” resolution

Last year I didn't set myself any goals, and achieved (almost) everything I put my mind to, so I figured that it's time to up the ante. This decision was...

Me, myself and I: Olivia Laing on loneliness in New York

This hauntingly beautiful article by Olivia Laing for Aeon Magazine stopped me dead in my tracks last night, and has forced a re-evaluation of the fortnight I spent alone, and similarly withdrawn, in Brooklyn...

You can still love someone, but not be able to live with them.

This has to be the most painful realisation of 2012 for me. What was yours? [Update: lots of eye-opening responses on Hacker News]

Take your rubber duck debugging up a notch: use it on someone you admire

Programmers sometimes use a technique called rubber duck debugging to fix problems in their code: “To use this process, a programmer explains code to an inanimate object, such as a...

Extreme program your life — do first, optimise last

Working as a digital designer (and amateur programmer) in Scotland I was briefly exposed (1) to the software development methodology of 'extreme programming', whose creator Kent Beck advocated coding first, and optimising...

It’s not just what you do, it’s what you don’t

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, I became a news junkie, compulsively devouring two or even three news websites on a daily basis. It was an itch I could...