I got my first real start writing on the web about Field Notes books and fountain pens. I had the opportunity to talk with both Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley on The Pen Addict podcast a long while back, which turned into an opportunity to work with Shawn Blanc on Tools and Toys and eventually The Sweet Setup. It’s been a ton of fun and I’m so honoured to have walked the path.

I continue to walk the path, for what it’s worth. And I have no intention of shutting it off, as long as Shawn and crew will have me. I love talking tech, Apple, workflows, apps, cameras, and lenses, and I likely always will. I want to continue discussing those interests on those appropriate channels.

Interests do wane, change, and grow, though.

I am absorbing as much business-related stuff as possible these days. Less the “Personal MBA”, self-help stuff and more the anecdotal commentary from professionals in the industry. The “I’m a partner at a Big 4 firm and here’s what works well and what doesn’t” sort of thing. I can’t get enough of that stuff.

Unfortunately, finding this kind of material is difficult at best. You might find a thread on Reddit somewhere, or a few tweets from some random individual online whom you have to assume is a practicing professional, or you have to sit down and have lunch with someone. It’s not readily available — and likely so for a variety of reasons.

There are other professionals in the Mac-centric writing industry who either left their profession to write or who always felt uncomfortable sharing too much about their practice for fear of breaking confidentiality. It could be that anyone who attempts to uncover these professional workflows runs into the same issue.

For at least a little while, I’m going to do my best though.

This isn’t to say that every blog post going forward is going to be a professional, enterprise-y workflow. Nah, I’m not that dry. Nor am I high enough up the ladder to truly know what works and what doesn’t. I also want to discuss fatherhood — something I feel isn’t discussed enough. Fatherhood is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, so there has to be some value in learning out in the open.

I have this cool career trait where I’ve never worked inside a Big Professional Firm. This is “Cool”, in the sense that I have zero idea what makes the Big Professional Firms amazing and what makes them dumpster fires. It’s also “Unfortunate” in the sense that there are many workflows and aspects out there that are likely worked through and experienced and I’ll have to learn the hard way as I experiment.

So it goes.

That experimentation could work well on a blog though. I could run down this path or that path and let people know what’s great and what sucks.

Like using a Mac in a Windows-heavy environment. It takes some serious workflow adaptation to make this sort of thing work. But it works. And I’m convinced it works better than if you are Windows-only or Mac-only. There is just about no file or document you can throw at me that I can’t open in one of the operating systems on my computer.

Whether others are interested in this, well, I don’t much care. I’m interested in it. And I want to write what I want to read.

The reality is that there is a massive segment of online readers who aren’t truly served. “Creativity” seems to be only applicable to those who make art, or photos, or videos, or apps, or self-help courses. There are so many people inside stereotypically non-creative industries who are completely unserved by current content creators.

I won’t pretend to be on the hunt to fix this problem. My life has become so focused on work and family that this humble little blog has fallen down the priority ladder.

But I’m going to try, at least for a little bit.

Maybe something written helps someone out one day. Or takes a new firm down a new path. Or quickly uncovers why my proposed idea was complete trash to start with.

Experiment out in the open. Let’s see how this goes.

There’s something about this time of the year. Maybe it’s something in the water. Perhaps it’s the fresh food in the garden. Or the combine dust in the air.

Whatever it is, it’s the creative time of the year.

All my domains renew around this time of the year. My font subscription renews around this time of the year. A whole host of annual app subscriptions renew at this time of year.

Year in, year out, August to October is my creative time of year. So many stereotypically creative ideas burst onto the scenes right now — new blogs, new photography, new ideas. It always happens this time of year.

I look at this with some disenchantment and some melancholy. The entire “creativity” and “productivity” world feels more exclusive than ever before. Only those with predetermined careers or occupations are allowed to participate in the conversation.

What are those occupations? My understanding is they are occupations which produce something interesting for others to consume. This could be a YouTube video, or a self-help course, or photography on Instagram, or a new website design. One talented video-maker creates a video for another talented video-maker to watch.

(I sense the irony. Likely only a few other bloggers will read this blog post!)

Lawyers don’t produce YouTube videos. Healthcare workers don’t sell self-help courses. Bricklayers don’t build new websites. These aren’t “creative” occupations. In order for these folks to be “creative”, they need to hate their jobs and have sideline gigs that unlock their creative potential! And if they just take that sideline gig seriously enough, they’ll be able to quit their boring day job!

I get it — this is a generalization. Generalizations are rarely helpful.

But I’ve grown tired of the notion that classic occupations and classic ways to get the job done don’t fit inside the modern creativity and productivity bubble. That keeping a scratchpad with numbers and contact information isn’t good enough — that you have to keep that stuff inside Obsidian so you can connect those phone numbers with who-knows-what and be a proper knowledge worker.

I’m quite proud of the level of creativity I went through to mould my Mac into a powerhouse hybrid Mac-and-Windows notebook. All on an M1 Mac to boot, which comes with all the intricacies of an ARM processor in a Windows world. I use this M1 Pro MacBook Pro every day to run and work inside a small accounting office, to complete some sideline writing work, to run our growing real estate business, and to contribute as much charitably as possible in the community. There was a time when a Mac was simply impossible to incorporate into all these different worlds.

I help build business deals throughout the year. I help clients with effective tax planning. I’ve always felt incredibly creative when putting these sorts of services together for a client, but there’s no way this would be considered creative in the “creativity” or “productivity” world.

I’m currently experimenting with Loom as a way to add a personal touch to emails, to standardize the creation of standard operating procedure manuals, and to eliminate some meetings. I’ve used Notion to build out an entire client relationship management solution that tracks time, doubles as a cloud storage service, and tracks all projects across the office. Are either of these creative ventures? Or is this just the type of work I’m ultimately supposed to hate to harness the true potential of my creative brain?