Friday Five: Five Unrelated Thoughts This Month
I admittedly stole these from my own Twitter feed, but maybe I should consider posting them to Substack Notes instead. It’s quieter here.
Apple’s recently unveiled new software interface aesthetic Liquid Glass seems like a dry run for interfaces on top of the world around us. You think accessibility matters for a music app UI on top of a static photo? Wait until it’s an entire personal operating system on top of Literally Everything Near You. HUD for living. Everyone gets to be Tony Stark with their own personal Jarvis1.
There’s an unintuitive relationship between “when in doubt, simplify” and Blaise Pascal’s “I apologize that this letter is so long. I did not have the time to make it short.” Simplicity is one of the hardest things, precisely because it often flows from clarity, and clarity takes time. Clarity of thought, clarity of approach — these are worthy pursuits in a noisy world.
I wonder if the traditional role of Creative Director is going to exist for much longer (outside of the traditional agency model, which I definitely don’t think will exist much longer without major changes). Probably something someone who calls themselves a Creative Director should think about with more clarity.
“Discipline is when your identity is so clear, you stop negotiating with your feelings.” — Leikar Lam, who is apparently some sort of Instagram influencer.
Discipline is remembering what you want. Discipline is in a deep, symbiotic relationship with identity. If we don’t know who we are, we’ll keep trying new strategies because things don’t “feel” right. We won’t stop to do the work to truly understand ourselves, and it’ll be evident in how we show up in the world.No one is paying attention to you, so you might as well be as unapologetically, weirdly yourself as possible. If you find success and a wider audience, you did it in a way that’s joyfully repeatable and sustainable. If it’s toiling in obscurity, at least you like what you’re doing.
I will be singing “Your own… personal… Jarvis” to the tune of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus for the rest of the weekend.