Posts on Tom Podevin: a blog for stuck creatives

Going to Random Gigs Makes Me More Creative

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:55:00 +0100

Lately I’ve been feeling happier and more creative! Ideas and projects have been popping up in my head, totally unanounced! I wish it was linked to some sort of breakthrough or method I’ve applied. But really I think it’s because I’ve been in contact with art every single week.

Today I want to share 3 things: some artists I discovered this year, excuses I used to stay in my shell, and how it helped me when I finally took the leap.

Building My 2026 Playlist

Over the past few months I have been reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. One direct consequence is that I have been going out more, feeding myself with creativity, music and experiences. I’ve been booking random gigs and musicals, going to the theatre, stationary shops, the Postal Museum, and painting with watercolour.

And somehow, it’s made me more open to new things, more curious about art out there, and hungry for more!

By wandering around London to see random gigs and musicals, and also by browsing online, I’ve come across new artists that make me excited. I wanted to share a few of them here:

Scout: Dancy, melancholic yet hopeful, emotional, half-organic half-electronic pop. I saw them at Colours Hoxton, and the show was so energising. It made me want to dance. I was smiling the whole time. Everyone there looked super happy. The little bonus that night was seeing Ellie Dixon (another artist that I like!) helping Scout with stage tech. London is such a small town! Some Links: [Linktree] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Instagram]
South Arcade: They remind me of when I used to wear Converse trainers, baggy jeans, and used to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 in high school. They sound so much like that early 2000s era, with their punchy alt-rock songs. Super fun, they make me want to jump around singing, and learn how to skateboard. They’re from Oxford apparently! I hope I can catch them live somewhere in London this year (they just opened for 5 Seconds of Summer at the O2!!). They remind me of when I used to listen to The Offspring, Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne. Some Links: [stone cold summer] [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Website]
Maimuna Memon: I discovered her when I went to see her musical “Manic Street Creature” at the Kiln Theatre in North West London - a musical about this woman who moves South to London to jumpstart her music career, and then falls in love and goes through gritty powerful feelings. She carries this almost-one-woman-show with so much energy and raw emotion, singing her internal monologue to us, making the story so relatable. I was touched, and shocked by the amount of talent. How is this musical only running for a few weeks??? I can see why she won an Olivier Award! Some Links: [Set This House On Fire - live] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Instagram]
Atmos Bloom: Ethereal luminous folk/pop. It’s like a bunch of Swedish forest fairies decided to play music in front of a hidden waterfall to celebrate spring. I discovered them because they were the support act for Scout, in Hoxton. Their drummer made me smile the whole time, he had so much energy and precision, cutting through the guitars bathed in delay and reverb like a sharp blade! What a legend! Some Links: [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Bandcamp]
Isaac Holmes: A guitarist who makes ambiant ethereal folk music. It sounds a bit like a long, distant memory, and kind of makes me feel nostalgic of an era I never lived. He uses an e-bow on his electric guitar, wired into layered effects pedals that create that sensation that you are floating in the clouds. I actually love making similar sounds, playing over the same slow loop for 20 minutes while I just enjoy the images it creates in my mind. Some Links: [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Website] [YouTube]
Roswell Road: They play nostalgic sounding Americana folk music. If you like The Corrs or the Cranberries, you’ll be at home! I went to their first album launch concert - Rebel Joy. Most people there seemed to know them personally! I loved their energy on stage, and how they blend instruments like a mandolin, violin and cello to their sound full of voice harmonies. It reminded me of summers driving along the coast of the English Channel, windows down, singing along 1990s americana music. Some Links: [Holy Moutain - Live Session] [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Website] [YouTube]

I am surprised by how many cool artists I discovered in such a short period of time - even more so that I saw most of them play live. I actually had help from the universe, here. All artists I discovered this year were through Instagram recommendations/ads, or because they were the support act for another artist at a gig, or at a Sofar Sounds¹ concert.

I kind of hate that Instagram was actually useful for once. But I take the win: I had a great time, and the platform helped me discover their music, which is exactly what I wish for artists. Don’t overthink it, Tom!

The Sensible Lies

I could have done this years ago. London is a cool place to live in, and there are so many ways I can expose myself to creativity and have fun.

But I had a lot of excuses for not going to gigs or not opening myself up to new artists. Here’s a list of (super negative but also real) examples:

This is a waste of time
I am going to feel jealous
I am going to feel depressed
I am going to compare myself to them
I am not going to like the artist
I am going to realise I am not good compared to them
I am going to feel scared or uncomfortable, feel alone
I am going to disappoint people I know by going to a gig on my own / liking this artist

Now that I’ve done it, I know none of those things were true. My brain was playing me! I thought this would drain me, but it’s the opposite: it’s feeding me with energy and positivity.

The Three Levers

I think I learned something from each of the artists I discovered recently. Or rather, I learned something from how I felt each time. They all made me want to create. I felt a newfound energy from each of them, like they pulled some levers inside me:

Your teenage loves aren’t dead: They are just asleep, somewhere inside. I used to listen to Y2K alt-rock and americana all the time. Maybe they weren’t the music the coolest kids were listening to, but now I remember how much I loved it. And turns out I still do! I even like new music of the same style! It’s not has-been, young people are reviving it, and writing a new chapter in its history. This is so cool!
Your weird sound experiments aren’t that weird: They are not boring. They are valid. In fact, they are someone else’s music style. Your long loops with tons of delay, they’re some band’s sonic universe, their song backdrop! They even put words on the emotions that their music conveys: nostalgia, hope, “like everything is going to be okay”, “like some distant memory”.
Being alone is not a showstopper: If someone wrote an entire musical and built a show where she’s almost on her own, you can do it too. If someone recorded an EP with lots of instruments and layers, and performs on stage with just an acoustic guitar and maybe some pre-recorded loops, you can do it too. If they hired a couple of musicians to play with them, then you can do it too.

These 3 levers pulled together opened a door inside me - a bit like when the treasure gets revealed in Indiana Jones - a voice in my head telling me: “You are not alone”. Other artists love what I love. Even better: they get up, show up, brave their fears, do the work, make me feel stuff. And they show me it’s possible.

On the way back to my flat, the voice whispers: “Now, let me out and play, and I promise we’ll have fun!”.

Is it about leaning into what you love? Into what you find fun? Is it about leaning into what makes you curious, happy, into what makes you feel like a mad scientist? Is it about feeling a sense of belonging?

No idea. Do I need to know? As Julia Cameron says: “You do not need to understand electricity to use it”.

Sofar Sounds is a website that organises small intimate concerts in somewhat unusual locations (they started with some people’s living rooms). When you book a concert, you only know the date, time, neighbourhood. They message you the exact location the day before, and the exact line-up just before the show begins. ↩︎

Why Do Art When I Can Worry Instead?

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:25:00 +0000

I cannot count the number of times I have put off doing art for what seemed to be sensible reasons.

Clean the kitchen. Put a wash on. Tidy my desk. Update my VST plugins. Change my guitar strings. Do some work. Call my parents (sorry, Mum).

“Do this thing first, then your head will be clear and you’ll have a great creative session”. That’s what I tell myself. In the meantime, I can keep thinking about doing the art. Make it even more perfect inside my head. I can keep worrying about how it’s not going to be good enough, how it’s not going to end up looking like how I imagined it.

Meet My Friend: Worry

Worrying is good. We know Worry. We know it well. We do it all the time. Worry is a good friend.

Worry is protecting us. From bad reviews, from bad comments. Worry is saving us from finding out we are not good enough. Worry is this voice telling us: “Don’t go out today. It might rain.”

If we pick up the pen, the guitar, the camera, we might discover all the nasty things the voice inside our head was saying were actually true. Our good friend Worry has our back. It will make it its mission to create those random (sensible) distracting tasks, and keep us busy so that we never learn if the monsters under the bed are real.

Crossroads

The other day, I read something in The Artist’s Way that made me do a double take. It said that blocked creatives were addicted to anxiety:

“You’ve cleared a morning to write or paint but then you realize that the clothes are dirty. ‘I’ll just think about what to paint and fine-tune it while I fold the clothes,’ you tell yourself. What you really mean is, ‘Instead of painting anything, I will worry about it some more’. Somehow, the laundry takes your whole morning.

Most blocked creatives have an active addiction to anxiety. We prefer the low-grade pain and occasional heart-stopping panic attack to the drudgery of small and simple daily steps in the right direction.”

- Julia Cameron

I was shocked. I had a few seconds of denial, before realising that I related so much to this. And then I couldn’t unsee it.

We’re at a crossroads. It’s a choice.

We can choose to create and maybe get confirmation that our worst fears were true, that we were never made to be an artist anyway. Or we can choose to worry instead. And keep living in a dream. The dream world of “One day, when I decide to put my mind to it, I will show everyone”.

Do Art (Why we avoid it)	Worry Instead (Why we choose it)
What if I am not good enough ?	I have to make it perfect. I should spend more time thinking about it.
What if my ideas aren’t original?	I don’t find out if my fears are real.
It’s so much work. I don’t have time.	I don’t have enough time right now. I shouldn’t start if I can’t finish.
What if people call me out? Make fun of me?	If I put my mind to it, one day I will show them.

One road leads to finding out and doing. Finding out that if it is not that (record an album), it will be something else (write a book).

The other road is a treadmill, a hamster wheel that only powers pain and anxiety.

So Why Do Art When I Can Worry Instead?

Because I am scared of finding out if I am right or wrong.
Because I am scared it might be hard.
Because I am scared people might make fun of me.
Because I am scared it might work.
Because I am scared of not knowing what to do if it doesn’t work.
Because I am scared I am not good enough.
Because I am scared.

So, what do I have to lose, really?

I could always try, time-box it, then go back to worrying if I don’t like it.

Let’s do that. Let’s try.

All I need is 30 minutes.

The Creativity Source Code: Drafting

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 16:15:00 +0000

I like a good cheat sheet.

Over the last few years, I have been talking about the benefits of drafting, as often as possible. I’ve sprinkled some tips and thoughts all over this blog, but I never formalised them into a single article about the art of the draft.

Instead of writing some sort of academic whitepaper, I decided to write it as code¹. I did this because code has a way of bringing clarity while removing fluff, keeping the why and the how. Also because it’s fun!

It combines two things I love: exploring the creative process, and writing readable code that solves a problem.

In a moment of humility, I decided to call this The Creativity Source Code. This snippet is about things I do when I draft, to set myself up for “success”. My definition of success here is:

I wrote some stuff.
I don’t feel horrible about it.

That’s it, really. I’ll use this piece of code as my cheat sheet whenever I struggle with a draft! I hope you’ll find it useful too.

// This function sets everything up so you can
// have a playful, enjoyable and "productive"
// draft session. It can apply to most
// creative acts.
func draft() []string {

    // Initialise the actual draft.
    // Assuming we're writing!
    var theDraft []string

    // Some Rules of the Road constants.
    const (
        // No one will see your draft.
        // Go nuts. Drafts are messy!
        draftIsPrivate = true
    )

    // Set up analog tools. Adjust to 
    // your craft!
    // I find stationery tools are useful
    // no matter my medium (music, video...).
    var tools []string
    tools = append(tools, "Fountain Pen")
    tools = append(tools, "Nice Notebook")
    tools = append(tools, "Sticky Notes")
    tools = append(tools, "Notecards")

    // Turn things off to save memory 
    // and avoid context-switch issues.
    shutdownComputer()        // Go analog. There is no backspace key on a notebook!
    phoneAirplaneMode := true // There are no notifications on a notebook!

    // Focus on quantity, not quality. 
    // It's like mining. Keep swinging that
    // pickaxe, some gold ore will show up
    // eventually.
    checkForQuality := false  

    // If these conditions are met,
    // your draft WILL crash.
    if drafting == true && editing == true {
        // drafting + editing in your head
        // = self-censorship.
        // Separate idea generation from
        // decision-making.
        panic("Don't edit while you draft!")
    }

    // Set up a timer to stay focused. Allow
    // yourself to only draft, or do nothing.
    timer := 30          // in minutes - adjust as necessary (I like 30 minutes increments)
    timeSpent := 0       // in minutes
    allowBoredom := true // if you're stuck, do nothing. Stare at the wall. Look around. Ideas will come.

    for timeSpent < timer {
        // You have one job. Just write.
        // It doesn't have to be good.
        // It just has to exist.
        write(theDraft)

        // HACK: Adding this section to deal with doubts.
        if idea == offTopic {
            // If you worry an idea doesn't
            // fit the rest of your draft,
            // write it anyway.
            writeAnyway(theDraft)
        }

        // HACK: Adding more checks (ran into more doubts)
        if idea == badIdea || idea == maybeBadIdea {
            // If you worry your idea is "not
            // good enough", write it anyway.
            writeAnyway(theDraft)
        }

        // HACK: This one kept crashing the draft early
        if idea == hasAlreadyBeenDoneBySomeoneElse {
            // A lot of people stop drafting
            // because they worry "This has 
            // been done before". Your version 
            // doesn't exist yet! Write!
            writeAnyway(theDraft)
        }

        timeSpent += 1
    }

    return theDraft
}

I find this “Creativity Source Code” applies to many crafts. It speaks to me the most when writing, but I’ve also been making music, and videos, and most of this stuff still applies, with a few tweaks. For example with music, I try to keep the computer (and recorder) off, and patch my PRO-800 synthesiser in my speakers, or plug my guitar into an amplifier.

This is in no way supposed to be “the one true way to make a great draft”. In fact, I don’t think there is such a thing as “a great draft”. There’s only what we write, and what we don’t.

Next time you draft, remember to only focus on quantity. Let the Muse focus on quality. Keep running the code. Keep mining, and eventually you will find gold, or coal, or copper, or adamantium!

Does this actually compile? In my head, it does! I call this “Creative Go” - it’s based on Go, a language designed at Google. ↩︎

The Sticker Syndrome: About Those Stickers I Never Used as a Child

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:30:00 +0000

When I was little, I had stickers.

I had sticker albums, where you collect Pokémon, or football players. But I also had cute or cool stickers of random things, like dinosaurs, or fish.

Back then, I was saving them. Storing them in a small tin box. I had to find the right opportunity, the right moment. The right thing to stick them on.

The sticker was unique! I only had one like that! I was scared of making a mistake - wasting it on something that wasn’t worth it - and ruining my one chance to use it right.

I probably still have them somewhere, at my parents’ house.

Read this again. I never used them. I never used the stickers. I was protecting them until the moment was right. Now, the moment is gone.

It’s too late. I missed the opportunity to have fun. To enjoy the stickers. Little Tom never got to play with his stickers. Instead, they are safe, in a box in the attic. Maybe when I die, we can stick them on my coffin???

Seriously though, I am writing this because a few weeks ago, I found some stickers hidden in the back cover of my notebook, this very notebook that I am writing my draft in.

A couple years ago, I went to the GOTO conference in Copenhagen. I got to hang out with Daniel North, and meet Martin Fowler. I learned so much, I had fun, and spent a few days in a city I love. It is a great memory. Before leaving TAP1 (where the event was hosted), I grabbed a few GOTO stickers.

What are these stickers still doing hidden in the back cover of my notebook?? I don’t know. I am waiting for the right opportunity. The right thing to stick them on. My notebook? My iPad? My phone case? Who knows.

I feel the same about my guitars, my trumpet, my flugelhorn, my camera… It’s like I’m saving them for a worthy project. The next video on my YouTube channel has to be a big hit. The next piece of music I release needs to be the proof I know what I am talking about.

If I never pick up the instrument, I keep the dream alive. But if I start playing or filming, and realise I am not that good, here is the definitive proof that I am not good enough and should give up.

But I am wrong. They’re tools, not a label to prove that I am “legitimate”. And tools are meant to be used. Otherwise, you blink, and thirty years later, your stickers are still in that tin box.

Meanwhile, my 4 year old nephew sticks his stickers everywhere. Anywhere. Tractors (his favourite) on a wall. A dinosaur on a piece of white paper. Actually, scratch that, he decided that was the wrong spot, so he removes it (aaaaah it starts to tear), puts it somewhere else (it’s now half torn and not sticking as well anymore - am I the only one stressed by this???).

He doesn’t think twice. Do I want to put the sticker there? Let’s go. Done. No voice that says “But what if it’s not the right place for it? What if my choice is not good enough?”

He is playing. And it makes him happy. I have a lot to learn from that little guy.

So I picked one of those GOTO stickers, and put it on the front cover of my notebook. Because two years was enough. I don’t want to let them sit another ten years in a tin box.

And guess what: seeing that sticker makes me happy. It reminds me of a great time in Copenhagen.

The 10 Things That Made 2025 the Year of Trust

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:45:00 +0000

2025 ends today. We’re 99.98% through the year.

A few months ago I started this practice of documenting what I paid attention to, borrowed from Austin Kleon. Today is a great opportunity to look back on the things that I paid attention to this year, and on some of the things I learned.

I think 2025 was about trust: trusting people, trusting myself, and trusting the process even when it felt like I wasn’t doing “enough”.

Tracking the input: I realised that how much I put in the process was more important than how much I “produce”. So instead of tracking how many blog posts I published, or how often I go for a run, I started tracking the time I spent on my writing, and the total distance I’ve run so far this year. It’s a great way to see the investment I make in the things that make my life better. And the more time I invest in those, the higher the chances of a positive outcome.
Using objects with an identity: I’ve been obsessing over using simple objects in my daily life. There is something quite rewarding and inspiring about using good quality, single purpose objects. They have a history. I’ve had them for years. For example, this year I’ve brought my moka pot with me on camping trips, and used my old Sony Cybershot compact digital camera from high school as a way to capture memories. I’ve given up my Garmin smart-watch for one of my analog watches - and I am eyeing the Casio F-91W, a timeless classic that meets cheap and functional. I am using my phone less, and it is intentional. How refreshing!
Reading novels: Over the last couple years I’ve built this practice of reading more non-fiction books, as a way to learn. I love it and I find it fulfilling, but I ended up feeling like I was never resting. In 2025 I picked up a few novels (Journey To The Centre Of The Earth by Jules Verne, La Gloire De Mon Père by Marcel Pagnol, Big Swiss by Jen Beagin and The Switch by Beth O’Leary). I’ve realised that not only did I enjoy it, I also needed it. It is a good way to rest the mind, and feed the artist inside me. I also forgot how fiction mirrored emotions and situations you run into in real life, which can be helpful with processing things.
Rail is a great way to travel: I’ve been enjoying taking the train more and more - across the United Kingdom, and France. It is such a relaxing way to travel (compared to driving or flying), on top of being a more sustainable public transport. It still amazes me that we have such infrastructure running across the country, and to other countries (even under the sea!!!). I just wish train ticket prices were not so much more expensive than plane tickets.
Concerts fill my battery: Sometimes I forget how much energy I get from going to gigs. Part of me feels like if I go I will feel down because I am comparing myself to the people on stage, but actually it’s the opposite. I am pumped and I come out of it wanting to do more! I loved seeing The Midnight at the O2 Academy in Brixton, and I discovered IDER for a “stripped down” gig with just a guitar and a keyboard at the Old Church in Stoke Newington. West End musicals also always put a smile on my face (Hamilton was awesome).
Building Lego is good for the soul: A few times this year I felt really down, and I got out of my flat to get myself a few Lego sets. I came back home, and started building them, while doing something else (like watching a movie or being on a video call with someone). It’s actually a great way to get your mind to focus on right here, right now, and get into a calm place. I highly recommend! I suspect there’s something about keeping your hands and brain busy, but also calling to your inner kid for some playtime.

Drawing simple stuff is good for you: I picked up my crayons to draw simplistic things like a penguin, or a Guinea pig, as a way to take a break and do something a little creative without the pressure of having to make something good. I was surprised to find it fun! I also enjoyed drawing cards for special occasions for people around me.
Playing for the sake of play: When I came back from midwest France in November, I found myself wanting to play music just to enjoy it, rather than as part of a project like releasing a YouTube video or an EP. It takes practice (I’m still not used to it), but it helped me meet a new side of me. I realised that having a nice and functional space would help me get into a creative state quicker, so I set up a dedicated table with my PRO-800 synthesiser, a patch bay (game changing!) and got myself some Genelec studio monitors. This is helping me reconnect with the playful Tom.
Advent of Code: Some people do crosswords to give their brain a workout. I have used writing code as a way to exercise. The Advent of Code is great for this: every day, you get a little Christmas story puzzle (usually parsing and manipulating data) and you have to solve it by writing some code that will give you the answer (like a number). You can do it in any language you want! It’s a fun little way to flex your brain and learn something new. And it’s free!
Building stuff: I’ve talked about it before¹; a highlight of this year is building things with my hands. Cutting and sanding wood, figuring out a solution to a physical problem… I find it meditative. And I guess it gives me a reason to buy power tools! Recently I made a very scrappy and wonky stand for my Behringer PRO-800 and pedals, and the most basic bookends you’ll ever find. As calming and grounding as it was, I think one thing I can try next year is making a plan ahead of time, rather than jumping into things head first… whether it’s for a woodworking project or booking a holiday more than two days in advance!

I find it so important to document what I am interested in, and what I focus on. I easily forget with time, and going back through my notes makes me realise that I’ve been accumulating material - scraps, ideas, inspirations - that is fuel for my creativity.

If 2025 was the Year of Trust, maybe next year I can lean into that trust and make more plans. Maybe 2026 can be the Year of Blueprint.

This post marks my 12th article in 12 months. This was a little challenge I gave myself this year. It’s far from my one-video-a-week era with my Metro Boulot Homestudio series (see @LesSondiers on YouTube), but I found it important to challenge myself. Turns out, when I look back at what I wrote, I’m happy with the outcome: not that it’s amazing stuff (it’s not meant to be), but that I showed up and built up material that I will tap into, next year.

And that gives me energy.

Many times, it seems! In It Is Not Necessary To Hope In Order To Undertake Something, but also 12 Ways I Get Unstuck, and Thoughts On Clearing Your Head. ↩︎

Nipping It in the Bud

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:40:00 +0000

There’s a British phrase called “to nip it in the bud”.

It means to stop something at an early stage before it becomes a bigger problem. It originally comes from gardening: “nipping” a flower bud means to cut it off before it can open and grow. It prevents the plant from growing further.

That’s what we do to ourselves, when we don’t do something because it might not be “good enough”.

We prevent our idea from growing further. We deny ourselves the space to grow further. In other words: it’s self-censorship.

There’s one powerful phrase that helps me fight this: “to know if you need to delete it, first you have to write it down”.

If You Try, You Might Fail

Many times, I’ve had an idea, started thinking about it, manipulated it in my head, but then killed it.

Booh, bad idea! Quick, I must hide it! It’s not good enough! Excuse me, everyone, don’t pay attention to it, don’t hold me accountable, don’t judge me. I promise I can do better!

If I try, I might fail. I might not do a good job. I might be disappointed. I might discover I’m a fraud. People might make fun of me.

Not trying is safe. I might be unhappy because I don’t make the art, but at least I know what that feels like. Surely, whatever catastrophe follows an imperfect idea must be worse. Right?

It’s as if I had knots¹ in my brain stopping me from moving forward:

Not good enough
Not enough time to finish
Not original
Not me
Not what it was like in my head

Ideas are like plants

Is anybody’s first draft always good to go? Like a masterpiece with nothing to change?

To figure out if it’s any good, first you have to write it down. You have to make it exist. If you keep it in your head, how do you hope to refine it? Imagine you want to sculpt your garden with bushes. First you have to let the bushes grow, so you can prune them later.

The problem with not giving space to an idea is that it might never show up again. Not giving it space means it won’t grow, and might starve and die.

Ideas are like plants. You need to water them. But over time. You don’t have to water them in one go. You just have to water them a little, regularly. Water them too intensely all at once and they might die too. For me, that might look like obsessing over one song for months, overthinking one paragraph in this blog post, or even burning out.

At the end of the day, we don’t create ideas. We have them. They go through us. Imagine random seeds flew into your garden - you’ve got no idea what’s in them. Your job is to be a good gardener, a good host. Allow them to grow. Give them a chance. Use your hands.

Build The Dreamhouse

So we have seeds, and we’ve agreed to give them space in our garden. Now, we’re going to need water.

Water is play.

When you were little and were playing with Lego, you weren’t letting any thoughts of self-doubt and premature judgement stop you. You built the castle. You built the dreamhouse. You told the story. And most times, no one was around. You played. And you enjoyed it. Just for what it was: play.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about how much you “produce” out of the process, it’s about how much you put in. If there’s no input, there’s no output. It’s as simple as that. Just play. Put yourself into it.

If you nip it in the bud, you stop your creative process before it starts. You tell the kid in you: You can’t build that Lego castle because it won’t look good enough, or because it looks too much like the one on the box.

Your poor inner child can’t come out and play. You might as well have slapped her in the face. Told her off. Do you think she’s going to want to play after that? Or is she going to be scared and stay hidden?

Let that plant grow. Water it every now and then. No need to overdo it. A little bit, regularly, that’s already plenty.

If you can’t engage with the idea right now, make a note somewhere, write about it. If it’s resistance talking - one of those knots - then give it five minutes. Give it ten minutes. Just play with it. Just play.

My Tool Shed

“I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits.”

- Kent Beck

I am now fully committed to this plant analogy. So we’ve got seeds, we’ve got water, now we’re going to need some gardening tools to help with our adventure.

What does this look like for me?

Keep a seed bank: Noting down scrappy ideas. Usually on paper first, then in a system² organised in categories, like blog post ideas, quotes and inspiration, books to read, presents ideas, etc. (I use Google Keep).
Trust the timer: Using a timer to allow myself to spend a block of time on a specific task, like freeform writing, or building a synth preset from scratch. I usually do 30 minutes sessions.
Have paper around: Having paper around when I am working, creating or “being bored” so I can capture ideas. It’s been great for catching fleeting ideas without picking up my phone (which will 100% distract me).
Separate growing from pruning: I try keeping design, play and writing separate as they require a different type of energy - but I sometimes shift between them when it makes sense, for example when I am super inspired. I find it really hard designing a synth sound while also writing a melody - but if I make a sound I really like, it might push me into play/writing mode.
The 5-minute rule: Just starting, ignoring the voice in my head saying “I don’t think it’s going to work!”. It helps me break through my negative self-talk every single time.
Reduce friction: I find starting much easier if my gear is ready to use, ready to play, ready to go. Having to look for tools tends to kill my creativity.

With these habits, I censor myself way less. Because I don’t stop myself from starting, I spend more time doing and crafting and playing. And the more I play, the higher the chances that it grows into something I can harvest and use.

Conclusion

Usually, when we say we’re going to “nip it in the bud”, it’s supposed to be a good thing - we’re trying to avoid a problem. The issue is that we do the same to creative ideas. Your inner critic thinks it’s protecting you by using premature judgement and stopping you - protecting you from the “not-something-enough” catastrophe scenarios.

If you don’t try, you can’t fail. If you don’t fail, you can’t get hurt. And so, you cancel play time.

But if you give space to your ideas, they will grow. If you encourage your inner artist, they will surprise you, and you’ll end up with a greenhouse filled with thriving experiments, full of ideas and stories to pick from.

All it takes is agreeing to let your inner artist get out. All it takes is a few habits.

Next time you’re tempted to nip it in the bud, think twice. What would happen if you let it grow for a bit?

It’s funny because they all start with not! ↩︎
I recommend reading the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. It really helped me find simple tools that help me feel less stressed which I can apply every day, for anything. Your system can be analog (files, notebook) or digital: whatever works for you. ↩︎

10 Lessons I Learned in 10 Years of Podcasting/YouTube: What Happens When You Keep On Going

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Mid November, I travelled to midwest France, to participate in show number 400 of Les Sondiers.

For more than 10 years now, we’ve been hosting this show to talk about audio technologies, sound engineering, and now electronic music and synthesisers.

It started as a podcast, which used to air every other week on the now defunct webradio Synopslive. Eventually it became a YouTube channel, and in 2020 the Monday show became a video livestream.

We started with a handful of listeners. Now, the channel has more than 74k subscribers, thanks to Knarf’s hard work - it’s now his job. I never made the jump like him, but throughout those 10 years, I’ve walked that fine line between passion project and professional amateurism that so many other creatives know well.

Achievements Unlocked

I am humbled by the cool stuff I had the opportunity to do during those ten years:

My own weekly YouTube video series: Called “Metro Boulot Homestudio”, I made about 30 episodes over a few months, giving tips and tricks in music production.
A documentary in a historic Parisian venue: I worked on a documentary and an interview of a sound engineer working on a symphonic orchestra concert at Le Grand Rex, a historic venue in Paris.
Covering major trade shows: We covered major music industry trade shows with a press accreditation: The NAMM show in Los Angeles (the biggest event of the year) and Musikmesse in Frankfurt. Musikmesse was a big catalyst for us, it allowed us to meet brands and grow our confidence and presence on YouTube.
Interacting with the industry: I interacted with brands like Arturia, Native Instruments, Roswell Pro Audio, and some French music shops. I even reviewed some products on YouTube!
Creative deadlines: Our yearly producing challenge around Christmas was a forcing factor to have fun making music, like my track We Don’t Need Roads.
Community and connection I hosted the Monday show a few times when it was still only a podcast (one of the funniest things I’ve ever done), and I met our community during an event we organised in Brussels.
Interviewing and meeting artists: As artists were invited to the show, I had the opportunity to ask questions and chat to folks like Airwave, Deep Forest, DeLaurentis, Hugo Paris, Joris Delacroix, Joachim Garraud, Rob Acid, The Toxic Avenger, etc.

Never Stop Learning

When you do something creative every single week, it’s hard to see how you’ve changed week in, week out. But looking back 10 years, so much has changed.

I learned so much by being on that show, by contributing to it, and to the YouTube channel. Technical skills, of course, but also things about myself:

Tools are props, story is the main character: I don’t care about technical stuff that much anymore. I used to. Now, I care much more about reducing barriers to creativity, and about what I am trying to accomplish, what I am trying to say.
Find your framework: To make one video a week, you need a system you can repeat and iterate on. You can’t make something from the ground up every 7 days, not with a full-time job. Find something that works for you and makes it easier. For me, it was: preparing an intro, an outro, a list of topics, and a consistent format for my series.
Iteration over perfection: By making one video a week, I improved my skills so much. So much more than if I had been working on the same one project for the same amount of time.
Just go for it: Audacity, entrepreneurship, confidence and hope will get you far. Applying to Musikmesse as bloggers/influencers was one of the most transformative things we’ve done. We acted the part, then we had a seat at the table. It was the same when approaching brands and distributors at first.
Challenge yourself: Giving yourself deadlines and making them visible really works. I had a weekly deadline with Metro Boulot Homestudio and it sure got results. We also challenged ourselves to make a music track for the Christmas show and explain what we did.
People come for the gear, they stay for the creative process: Talking about gear, reviewing products is a fast way to build an audience and connections. People type the gear name in the YouTube search bar. At some point, it becomes repetitive, and you feel like you’re part of a machine. Talking about creative process is what I find most fulfilling, but it’s harder to build an audience/community from that. Find a way to do both.
Tech vs workflow: Most people think they have technical problems. They don’t. They either have a workflow problem, or a creative process problem. Or a mindset problem.
Audio is easy, video is hard: When you start making videos, you realise that audio was actually not that hard.
Be human: Some people can be aggressive in the comments, but when you engage with them, or meet them in person, they become not so aggressive. When you realise the person you call out is human, it rings different.
Find kind people (they exist): People in the music industry are not as hard on each other as you think. Some folks are judgemental and talk about deserving, being worthy, “real music”, “real artists”. Distance yourself. You don’t have to be exposed to this. There are nicer people out there.

You Are Good Enough

During this weekend, we spent some time together. We played music. We nerded out on gear, and went through memories of these past 10 years of Les Sondiers. We talked about what changed in our setup and in the industry since we started.

After ten years of this adventure, here’s what stays with me.

Things kept changing. We kept learning. We kept trying new things. We kept learning about the industry. We kept learning about ourselves.

You don’t have to be an expert at what you do. You don’t have to be “worthy”. You don’t have to deserve it. No one will come and give you permission. So give yourself permission.

Whether it’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, photography, music, writing, or anything else, just start. Don’t wait till you’re ready. Don’t wait till you’ve figured it out. You won’t. Chances are that by the time you feel ready, things will have changed anyway!

12 Ways I Get Unstuck (Notes to Myself for a Rainy Day)

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 22:25:00 +0000

I feel a bit stuck right now.

I came across some notes to myself in my notebook that I find useful and motivating. I’d like to share them here:

Analog Is The Way

Use your hands, use pens and paper and your old calculator from school. Whenever you want to reach out for your phone for anything other than phoning, find an alternative physical object to perform the task.

Engineer Things in Your Life

Build useful things that solve your own problems. Like bookends out of pallet wood. It is a creative act, and it’s fulfilling to fix your own problems yourself, by hand.

Keep Paper Around

Scribble. Abuse sticky notes. Leave messages to yourself on big notecards. Colour them. It’s fun and it makes things stand out. Stick things on the wall. Move things around in space.

Write Letters

Send snail mail. To your friends. Your loved ones. To yourself. Write them by hand and post them.

Draw Cards

For your family and friends. Keep it simple, you don’t have to actually be good for them to be touching. Use crayons, or watercolour.

Write Documentation For Future You

Document all the places where you updated your address when you last moved. Write checklists for travel packing. Create a reference sheet about your flat, with name/contact/account ID for every provider you use, and all ways to contact the landlord. This will help make space in your head.

Don’t Look Down

Don’t look at your phone. Look around. Resist the temptation to use your phone. Set it on airplane mode for a while.

Get Bored

Just to see what happens. After a while, you will start getting ideas, and being more curious. Boredom is one of the most powerful ways to get inspired.

Be A Curator

An archivist. Walk inside your own museum. Look at the old pieces, the extinct species, the periods that are over. Don’t get too attached. Don’t torture yourself. Use this for learning.

Smile At Yourself

Be kind to yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror, and smile. Start with words and habits, and maybe the mind will follow.

Grow Plants

They are a good reminder that things take time to build, that things grow a little bit every day.

Get A Nice Pen

One you enjoy writing with. With paper that feels good to write on. Don’t protect them. Tools are meant to be used.

When I’m stuck, I focus on one of those things for a while. It usually helps me find clarity by making some space in my mind and allowing myself to do something else for a bit.

You don’t have to do all of them at the same time. Just start with one.

Deleting Stuff Is Hard

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 16:50:00 +0100

I’ve always found it hard to delete stuff.

What if I need it? What if it was good? What if this thing is me? What if it’s what makes me unique?

Does it mean I did that work for nothing? Did I waste my time?

If you’re an artist or if you make things, and any of these questions speak to you, this post is for you. And like many of my other posts, I am writing this as a way to speak to myself.

Examples From The Wild

The struggle to delete is a special type of creative block, and it can take many forms. Consider these scenarios:

A musician working on a song: The mix sounds muddy, but you’ve spent weeks on it. The guitar solo is almost a minute long, but you can’t bring yourself to trim it down. It feels like you.
A writer working on a blog post: Your draft is a 15-minute read, twice as long as it should be. You could cut a few metaphors, but they’re part of your unique voice. Would people understand your point without them? Would they relate?
A video maker: The b-roll sequence feels too long, but you spent so much time on it. You’re proud of how cinematic it looks, and you want people to see how serious you are about your craft.

All these problems have a technical solution. You have the skills to solve them. But it is not really a technical problem, it is an emotional one: the fear of losing your identity, your work, or your credibility.

The Problems (All Within Your Control)

Why is deleting stuff hard? When we find it difficult to remove something from a creation, it usually comes down to:

Making decisions is hard: It requires a special type of energy. We can run out of it (temporarily). It gets worse if you try deciding whether something is worth writing as you write it: you might end up not writing much, and censoring yourself.
Feeling like you are betraying yourself: You put so much work into it, if you delete a paragraph, it’s like you never spent the time. It’s like it never happened. To honour that work, that time spent, you must keep it. It’s similar to the sunk-cost fallacy, that voice that tells you “I’ve already invested so much, I can’t give up now”.
Feeling like you are compromising your voice: It feels like silencing yourself. Diluting yourself. These words, this solo, this scene in your video, they feel like you. It’s your voice. No one else’s. If you remove some of it, would it still be you? It might just look like anybody else’s work.
Getting emotionally attached to your stuff: You develop feelings for what you made. Obviously, creating things and making art can make you feel something! It can bring you joy, sadness, get you to work through anger or fear. What I am talking about here is getting attached to the point where you can’t throw it away if it’s not needed, or if it’s not good. You feel guilty if you remove it (I made a terrible mistake!!), You feel guilty if you don’t (I can’t make decisions!!).
Self-censorship: Deleting stuff before you write it. You edit yourself inside your head and end up not writing much because you’re too self-critical. It’s the final form of “deleting is hard”: not writing it in the first place.

Coming Back Is Not The Same As Never Leaving

Deleting stuff is not complicated, it is quite simple. There is a finite amount of steps to get there. But it is hard, because you have to make choices.

As someone who moved away from where I grew up, and even moved countries, I sometimes think about how it would feel to move back to Northern France. Would it feel like “regressing” to a previous state? I guess not. I am a different person now. The journey made me who I am, and moving back to my hometown would just be the next chapter in that journey.

I think the process of creating things is similar, and it’s often about making choices that feel hard. Removing something from my workbench isn’t the same as never putting it there in the first place. I learned from the process. I moved pieces around. I changed my perspective. I tried. And ultimately, I made a conscious decision to remove some of it.

How do I apply this to my creative process? I separate idea-generation from decision-making.

I like writing my drafts on a notebook with a fountain pen because once it’s on paper, it’s there to stay. It exists physically and there is no backspace key on a notebook. I started doing this after seeing an interview of writer Neil Gaiman by Tim Ferris, and it really changed my creative process.

The notebook and fountain pen force me to go through that drafting journey, with all its nooks and crannies and detours. Once I edit, I move to the computer, and I optimise: I don’t delete stuff, I leave it out on the side. It stays in the notebook. Even if I wasn’t sure it was a great idea, I wrote it down. This allowed my mind to wander free of judgement from my internal censor.

The draft (on the notebook) is my journey through thinking the idea, feeding it. The editing (on the computer) is making decisions from that journey, and making it a story.

Editing requires a lot of decision-making energy, that’s why it’s important to make it a separate step. As Cal Newport describes in Deep Work, it is like a battery. Once empty, you have to wait for it to recharge (for me, usually the next day).

Deleting Something Is Not Failure

There’s one powerful phrase that guides me: “To know if you need to delete it, first you have to write it down”¹.

Once you free yourself from self-censorship, you have to trust that deleting is part of the process. You didn’t waste time, you are saving yourself some work.

When you build a sculpture, you have to delete stuff. You don’t have a choice. Otherwise, your sculpture is just some big rock that you didn’t touch.

Your draft, that’s your block of granite. You have to sculpt it. Shape it. Scrap some stuff.

Unlike with sculpting, in most cases, if you remove too much you can always change it back. Or shape it into something else. Or better. Start over. With a different block of granite.

Ideas are like hair. If you cut them, they will grow back². Cutting your ideas is how you refine them.

This process of making decisions and deleting stuff can make you feel like you are compromising your voice. But it’s still you holding the pen. And remember that you are never creating in a vacuum: your voice is shaped by all the things and people that inspire you and it’s okay to acknowledge it - like Austin Kleon explains in Steal Like an Artist!.

If you are blocked on a project, deleting stuff might be what you need to make progress³.

Why don’t you want to delete that paragraph? Be honest with yourself. Then, ask: “Can I change it later?”. Then, delete it.

I was inspired from a quote from Ed Parnell, that I read in the article “17 tips for writing creative non-fiction” on the National Centre for Writing website. ↩︎
I am aware this analogy doesn’t work for everyone… :( ↩︎
I deleted tons of stuff from this blog post. It hurt. I’m okay now. ↩︎

It Is Not Necessary To Hope In Order To Undertake Something

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 11:45:00 +0100

In June, I got inspired by Austin Kleon and published a blog post called Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention To, in which I listed 9 things that caught my attention.

Since then, I’ve kept notes and screenshots of what piqued my interest. I’ve noticed that my brain keeps coming back to some of those ideas, and so now is a good time to document them. I find it fascinating to browse through what I was interested in (or obsessing over!) a few months ago.

Here are a few facts I learned recently or that I think are worth sharing:

On my recent camping trip, I read the classic French book La Gloire De Mon Père by Marcel Pagnol and came across this quote: “Il n’est pas besoin d’espérer pour entreprendre ni de réussir pour persévérer”. It translates to “It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake something, nor to succeed in order to persevere”. It really captures how I think about art and creativity at the moment: this maxim is simple yet powerful, but knowing it isn’t quite enough to scare the creative demons away. Reading it and repeating it to myself regularly seems to help.
There is a Tube line in London that only has one job: The Waterloo and City line runs between the Waterloo and Bank stations, with no other stops. Its purpose is to shuttle commuters between Waterloo (a big train station serving areas west of London) and the City, one of the big financial districts of the capital. I am a big fan of things that only have one purpose (and do it well), so I was super excited when I took this Tube line for the first time recently! It makes me think of the concept of Best Simple System for Now as described by Daniel Terhorst-North.

Learning by doing still is one of the greatest ways to learn. Inspired by Van Neistat, I decided to solve one of my problems with my own hands: Books were piling up on my shelf, so I built wooden bookends out of a fruit pallet I found in my building’s basement. It was more complicated than I thought, especially without clamps to hold things in place while you’re cutting or screwing them together, and in the end I learned a lot! For example, sanding even just a little bit of wood produces a lot of dust, so wear a mask! Now, onto the next project!

You can use a bulb syringe to clean a fountain pen! These great writing instruments collect a lot of gunk inside their feed, especially when you use an ink converter. I bought a bulb syringe off the internet, and flushing dried ink from inside the pen now takes me two minutes, instead of half an hour! It also means my ink converters piston mechanism will live longer, as I no longer use them to flush the pen.

The Guardian asks “Should We Embrace Boredom?”. My answer is yes, definitely (see my blog post “Be Bored, Create More”). They conclude by saying “The people who choose to embrace boredom, at least for a while, may paradoxically experience less of it. It could even be the first step towards a life that feels more stimulating overall: meaningful, creative and free”. If you don’t know where to start, I recommend you try practising Miranda Keeling’s “Stopping To Notice”.
Writing software is creative. I think solving problems with technology is a creative act. Just like writing or painting, you have to go through many iterations to find what works. You might also feel limited by the tools you use - and it might be just what you need to make you more creative. You also need to be prepared to discard your drafts: don’t get emotionally attached to your code! Even outside of work, my brain is fascinated by using code to solve problems, just like it obsesses on using power tools to shape wood into solutions. That’s why you’ll see me write about tech more. It’s one of the things I pay attention to!
Open source projects use a Makefile to automate running utility things like tests, linters, formatters, and type checkers. The sysadmin in me was surprised, as makefiles are used to build packages, not run arbitrary commands during development. But I have to say I find it fun. It is actually easier to get something useful running than with a bash script. What a creative way to hijack a tool to automate development tasks and abstract complexity!
Python stuctured logging fun: with the library structlog, you can’t use bind() to bind a key/value pair to all your log entries at the module or class level. It just won’t work (and obviously won’t tell you why!). Instead, you have to use initial_values in structlog.get_logger().
Python is weird, episode 937: There is a Python quirk around mutable default arguments in functions. Python caches the values of mutable default arguments. If you assign a list as a default value to a function argument, and add stuff to it, the list will still have those items in it, next time you run the function. What happened to local context staying local??

Looking back through these breadcrumbs of my summer, I see two themes intertwined.

The first is that I’m learning a lot and I’m super excited about it. Learning keeps me humble, and it fuels my creativity.

The second is about the value of noticing. I am less and less chasing this big creative breakthrough, and instead I am engaging more with little everyday, life moments.

As the quote I found in Marcel Pagnol’s book says, I don’t need to succeed to persevere. Consistency and discipline have been key to me writing and publishing more. That’s the great lesson I learned in the first half of 2025!

Thoughts on Clearing Your Head and Creativity

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 18:30:00 +0100

The moments where I was the most creative were moments where I had a clear head. As I’ve been navigating creative blocks over the past few years, it’s become more and more obvious.

Having a clear head is not having an empty head, with no ideas, or inspirations. Having a clear head is having space for new things, space to stretch.

If I have a clear head, there is space for play, and so my inner artist feels safe to come out. As she comes out, and expresses herself, it clears my head even more, like this magical vacuum cleaner robot for my mind.

Enemies of a Clear Head (Tom’s Version)

I need to regularly look at this list, to remind myself that they are getting in my way.

My phone
Social media
Demons
Worries
Comparison
Not journaling
Not exercising
Not going to therapy
Coffee???
Looking for perfection
Overthinking
Not socialising enough (isolating)
Worrying about what other people think
Keeping stuff inside my head

If you don’t have a clear head, barriers will look like mountains! So minimise the barriers! Just remember to be kind to yourself. It’s not a competition.

To Clear Your Head, Don’t Use Your Head

As counter-productive as it sounds, you have to think less, and do more, if you want to make space in your mind.

A list of ways to clear my head:

Do things with your hands, not your head
Read a book, not the news
Use your five senses
Go for a bike ride
Ask others questions about them, instead of asking yourself questions
Learn something new
Build something with wood: cut, sand, screw! It’s physical problem solving
Do grounding tasks: do the dishes, go camping for a weekend
Write. Draw. Scribble. Sketch.
Write things down instead of keeping them inside your head: make lists, set reminders
Play

These down-to-earth actions usually help me create initial space in my head.

It’s a Circle!

These activities are really important to help defragment your mind, but they’re not everything.

Clearing your head isn’t just something you need before you get creative. It actually happens because you’re creative! It’s a reinforcing feedback loop.

It’s tempting to wait until your head is clear before you start something creative. Remind yourself that playing helps clear your mind.

It’s a loop: Clear head → Space for play → Inner artist feels safe to come out and play → Making art → Clear head

Sometimes, all you need is to start anyway. It will help. Say yes now, figure it out later.

Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention To

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:55:00 +0100

In his book “Keep Going”, Austin Kleon said: “Pay attention to what you pay attention to”.

My phone’s camera roll is filled with screenshots and photos of random stuff. Things I want to remember, explore later, or just find interesting: books I might want to read one day, quotes, future events or conferences, artists I want to check out…

Then I completely forget I took those snapshots. They stay there on my phone, like some time capsule of what tingled my curiosity, and I eventually rediscover them several months later (if ever!).

Recently, I’ve compared the last few blog posts I wrote and those things I stashed for later. In hindsight, I realised that my inspiration comes from the stuff I pay attention to, in my every day life. Blog posts, YouTube videos, they’re made of those things I noticed, and sometimes obsessed over.

So, I’ve decided to go back through my camera roll and document what I decided to save, in the past couple of months. It feels a bit like a scene in a TV show where a detective is linking evidence to a suspect using pieces of red string and pins! I’d like to share some of them here:

Making stuff with your hands is therapeutic. I had so much fun hand-drawing a birthday card for one of my friends! I’ve also been obsessing over building stuff out of pallet wood, and been feeling inspired by Van Neistat’s work, his cinematography and storytelling as well as his builds.

I’ve been fascinated by free, community maintained book exchange shelves. I found one in Portslade station near Brighton, and one in Brussels called Point Stalingrad. Reading remains one of the key ways I learn and grow, as an adult.
Daniel Terhorst-North said: “The whole point of being a software developer is to solve problems you need software for. The less software you can do this with, the better. If you can solve the problem, say, by talking to people, or getting people to talk to each other, then you win at software”. This makes me think how sometimes we jump to engineering something complicated before we ask ourselves “why are we doing this, actually?”. The right conversation can save you days, weeks of work! (I like the talk Daniel gave at GOTO Amsterdam in 2024, “The Best Programmer I know”)
I finished another Morning Pages Notebook - Julia Cameron’s practise of sitting down to write down 3 pages of pure stream of consciousness every morning. I believe journaling is one of the best way for me to figure out what I pay attention to.

In his book “Show Your Work!”, Austin Kleon tells us we shouldn’t feel guilty of liking something. As Dave Grohl said, “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you f---ing like something, like it”.
When browsing at a bookshop, I take photos of book covers - ones I want to research later, ones that I think might be interesting, and ones that I just like the cover of! I’m then able to go through them later by searching for “books” in my camera roll app on my phone. A few covers I snapped recently: Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates, and Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking.
I saw on Threads.net some people discuss using standalone objects that perform one function, instead of their phone, as a way to avoid distractions. This resonated with me; I’ve been using a physical timer, notebooks and fountain pens, a film camera and even my old calculator from school (a Casio fx-92 College New +!) for that exact reason. Later in May, I accidentally ran into a vintage flea market in Bermondsey, and it reminded me of this. I was tempted to get myself (another) vintage film camera or a Royal typewriter. It was a good reminder of why these tools seem to be making a comeback.

I discovered Anna Steffey, a photographer who makes beautifully melancholic cinematic videos. They usually are short scenes without any talking, with a musical background (see “mystery of love”, “a life worth living”). She’s a great example of someone who just makes stuff. Inspiring!
For synthesiser and data nerds: Knarf shared in a recent Les Sondiers livestream a dataset with every synth, drum machine and sampler released between 1896 and 2024. It contains things like brand, type of device and synthesis, form factor, polyphony, oscillators, number of keys and how many years it was produced for, to name a few. A goldmine, for people who like stats! You can find it on GitHub. Have fun playing with the data!

That was an interesting exercise. I’d like to do this more often. Looking back at what made me curious recently, I can really see how my inspiration works. It has nothing to do with being struck by lightning (aka the lone genius myth), and everything to do with what I pay attention to.

If someone asked you “what have you been paying attention to, recently?”, do you know what you would answer?

The Timer Cheatcode: How to Find Focus, Remove Stress and Be More Creative

Mon, 26 May 2025 13:05:00 +0100

I used to think that 30 minutes was a huge commitment. That I couldn’t spare 30 minutes in my day.
I used to think that 60 minutes was not enough time to really create something, to make any real progress.

Now, I know 30 minutes is easy to slot in my daily routine. I know I can dedicate 30 minutes every day to reading, and realise I’ve spent hours reading and learning at the end of the month. Hours I didn’t think I had!

Now, I know I can write most of a blog post draft in 60 minutes. An outline, three or four pages of prose on a topic, with stories and analogies. I used to think I needed half a day of focus to do that.

Now I know that all I need to do is pick up a pen and write for an hour. Let myself get bored and eventually, ideas will flow.

All it takes is a simple timer.

I’ve been using a timer for my creative projects: writing, drafting, braindumps and mind mapping, editing… but also daily journaling. I’ve also started using it at work for a few things like learning sessions, or when I need to get into deep focus mode.

It has transformed the way I view my time, reduced my stress levels, and helped me do more. I’d like to share my experience with you.

How It Helps Me

Here’s a list of the benefits I get from using my timer:

It gets me started: When I feel blocked, demotivated or distracted, the timer helps me move to action. After 5 or 10 minutes I am usually fully engaged in what I am doing.
When I go off track, it helps me find my way back: I often get lost in mental chatter: my mind just goes down rabbit holes, and I lose track of time, sometimes for several minutes. When I look up and see the timer, it puts me back on the right track. A bit like when you get lost on a hike, and suddenly find the path again.
It holds me accountable: If I set the timer to 60 minutes, I commit to it. For that hour, my only focus is that task - or staring at the wall. Although doing nothing becomes boring after a few minutes, and eventually I start having ideas (see my previous blog post, Be Bored, Create More).
I am more focused. I go deeper: Setting a timer brings my brain clarity about what to focus on and for how long. It helps me reach flow state faster, and if I add up all my timer sessions, at the end of the year I now spend more actual minutes in deep concentration.

The Main Benefit: It Quiets My Phone Addiction

The major win I get from using a timer is how it helps me fight my phone addiction.

I make a pact with myself: I won’t look at my phone for the next 30 or 60 minutes.

It should make me stressed out, but not at all.

Why does this work? Because I know exactly when I’ll next check this little attention sucking demon. When the timer rings, I can take a break. And if I want to know how much time is left, I can look at the big numbers, counting down.

It’s not a constraint, it’s a rendez-vous. A reward.

This works best if (1) you don’t use your phone as the timer and (2) you put your phone on airplane mode.

The Upside Down: It’s About Allowing, Not Restricting

When I tell my friends and colleagues that using a timer helps me do more and be less stressed, they look a bit miffed. It sounds quite restrictive to them, and they ask me questions like:

“Isn’t it stressful or frustrating? This feels like a race, like being evaluated.”
“Isn’t this forcing yourself? That doesn’t sound fun.”
“What if you break the rules? Don’t you feel bad or guilty?”

I don’t see this exercise as forbidding myself. Instead I see it as allowing myself. To write. Edit. Journal.

For a limited time, I am guilt free.

I don’t feel guilty that I’m not cleaning the kitchen, or not checking messages on my phone. Because I decided to allow myself to write for 60 minutes.

Once the timer rings, I’m free. I can stop, check my phone, and do something else without feeling guilty about not creating. I just spent sixty minutes allowing myself to write!

I have no obligation of results. All I have to do is spend the time doing the one thing I set myself to do, and do my best.

I invest time. And every time I do, it adds up. Knowing how much time I’ve invested in doing something, at the end of the year, it’s meaningful.

What I Use It For, And How It Helps

In practice, I use a timer for different kinds of tasks, and the benefits tend to vary:

Journaling: I tend to get distracted and check my phone several times, when journaling. The timer helps me get it done in less time. My journaling also benefits from it as I don’t context switch every few minutes - it helps me think a thought through for more than a few seconds.
Reading: I try to read 30 minutes every day. The timer helps me realise it’s not a huge investment, and I feel good when I see all the days I’ve spent reading add up in the calendar.
Writing: The timer helps me get through the blank page. I press start and then I just write. It helps me realise that discipline beats inspiration, every single time. “Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating”¹ (see my previous blog post, Embrace The Blank Page).
Editing: I usually procrastinate editing, because it is all about making decisions. Sometimes these decisions are tough, like what to leave out, what to delete. The timer helps me be pragmatic. I spent an hour trying out some of those decisions knowing that when the time is up, I can revert all my changes. It helps me approach my editing in an iterative way, and it helps me realise that making decisions isn’t that scary.
Admin tasks at home: Come on, Tom. Emptying the dishwasher literally takes five minutes.
Brainstorming, mindmapping at work: Because these tasks are creative and open-ended, I end up either procrastinating them, or stretching them over a long period of time. Using a timer helps me timeboxing it, and once I’m done, I have something that I can use, and my head is much clearer.
Learning hour: I realised recently that as an adult, I stopped learning just for the sake of learning. I always put it off, thinking I need much more time than it actually requires. Recently I’ve been trialing dedicating one hour to learning every week. It only works because I use a timer. It helps me stay guilt free by timeboxing it. And at the end of the month, it means I’ve actually spent half a day learning new stuff.

Tips

If you want to try using a timer, here are a few tips that I would give to past me, if I could go back in time!

Keep notecards or scrap paper nearby: Your mind will fight hard to distract you. Write down the stuff that pops up in your head if you need to. It may be something you need to buy at the grocery shop, or it may be a cool idea for a new project! If you write it down, your brain will stop trying to remind you about it, and you can clarify and organise that later.
Don’t use your phone as your timer: If you can, use a separate physical timer. Otherwise you’ll be tempted to check your messages, social media and so on. If you don’t have a choice, put your phone on airplane mode. It will reduce the risk of distractions.

Conclusion

Remember this: if you feel stuck or overwhelmed, you are not alone, and simple tools can make a big difference.

Using a timer has been a game-changer for me. It helped me reduce stress and guilt, stay focused, and at the end of the day, get more creative work done. And it helped me see that my perception of time changes, depending what I am doing and how I feel.

Now, it might look very different for you. Explore, experiment, take the good stuff, and leave the rest. The experience I share in this post is what worked for me. If you can relate, or even better, if you discover a new way using a timer is helping you, let me know!

If you’re a stuck creative, try a timer. Start small, repeat, see how it feels.

Go make some stuff!

John Cleese said this (see a transcript of his speech “Creativity in Management”) ↩︎

4 Books for Stuck Creatives

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 17:15:00 +0100

Today, I want to write about some of the books that unlocked me, as an artist and creative person. I want to share with you four books that I would recommend to stuck creatives¹.

If you identify with any of these creative demons, I think those books will help you:

You are stuck with the blank page syndrome
Your inner critic tells you that you are not good enough
You have lost the energy to even start. Creating feels draining.
You feel like you never have the time
You never finish anything. Projects pile up, half-done.
You are scared of putting your imperfect work out there
You feel like you are not original - everything has already been done

Don’t worry if you don’t use paintbrushes or record music. If your work involves any kind of creative problem-solving (any tech folks in the room?), I really believe you’ll find value here.

Let’s dive in!

Steal Like an Artist - Austin Kleon

“If I’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started ‘being creative’, well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.

You’re ready. Start making stuff.”

- Austin Kleon (Steal Like an Artist)

This is one of my favourite creativity books, ever. It was a revelation, and changed my life.

I read it at least once a year, and I pick it up anytime I’m stuck.

Some of the things that this book taught me:

Don’t wait to know who you are to get started
Nobody is born with a style or a voice - we learn by copying
Write the book you want to read
Computers are good for editing, but not so good for generating ideas - there is a backspace key!
Go analog, it will make you more creative. Play. Use your hands.
Embrace boredom
Use constraints. The idea that you can do anything can be paralysing. You can get over the creative block by putting constraints on yourself.

Steal from others. Copy.

Really, it’s okay. That’s how we learn, that’s how we get inspiration. No art is born in a vacuum.

Steal like an artist, and acknowledge it - don’t plagiarise! Credit people. Transform, make things your own. Nothing is original.

This is the first book that made me feel seen. It normalised all the things I’ve been struggling with, the blockers in my head. You know, the voices that tell you that you’re not good enough, that you’re not original, that you shouldn’t bother because someone has already done it? If you’re reading this, I imagine you know what I am talking about :)

“Steal Like an Artist” helped me create my weekly YouTube series Metro Boulot Homestudio, and it helped me go through the recording of my first EP.

If you’re stuck, definitely get his book. It’s a super easy read, has some powerful messages and it will help with some of the guilt that comes with being an artist.

Show Your Work! - Austin Kleon

“Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance. Building a substantial body of work takes a long time - a lifetime, really - but thankfully, you don’t need that time all in one chunk.

So forget about decades, forget about years, and forget about months. Focus on days.”

- Austin Kleon (Show Your Work!)

I see this one as the companion book to “Steal Like an Artist”.

More than just tips to make yourself more visible, it explores some of the things that tend to lead to overthinking, as an artist.

It brought me clarity and helped me simplify how I think about my art, and trim shame and guilt from my process. It gave me energy to get back to my studio and hack away. It made me feel seen, understood: it’s natural to be scared of sharing work, and struggling with finishing is normal. It actually helped me redefine what finished means to me.

Show Your Work! helped me explore my personal YouTube channel, with projects like A Creative Experiment, and vlogs about the creative process. It was also a massive help for Metro Boulot Homestudio and, well, this blog!

This is another book that I read at least once a year.

Some of the things this book taught me:

The lone genius myth is just a myth (and is quite harmful)
You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it
Think process, not product: there’s painting, the noun, and painting, the verb
Become a documentarian of what you do. Send a daily dispatch.
Overnight success is a myth
Forget about decades, years, months. Focus on days. They add up.
There’s always something to share about what you do: influences, inspirations, methods, work in progress, finished product, behind the scenes, learnings, b-sides, how people use your work…
Stock vs Flow²: the little things, notes, blog posts, ideas, vlogs… they add up and can become the base material for your stock: a book, an album, a documentary, etc.

Whenever I read this book, I feel better afterwards. I feel energised.

Deep Work - Cal Newport

“The productivity equation is a non-linear one, in other words. This accounts for why I am a bad correspondent and why I very rarely accept speaking engagements.
If I organise my life in such a way that I get lots of long, consecutive, uninterrupted time-chunks, I can write novels. But as those chunks get separated and fragmented, my productivity as a novelist drops spectacularly.”

- Neal Stephenson (science fiction writer)

When I started reading this book, I knew it was going to help me with work. However, I had no idea it was going to unlock me in my creative life too. Another book that changed my life!

In this book, I learned that willpower was finite, like a battery or a muscle. You can run out, and you have to rest to recharge it.

It taught me how to best leverage the amount of willpower I have for a day, and what to do if I run out.

It taught me the difference between deep work (creative, ambiguous, lots of unknowns and decision making) and shallow work (procedured, not much hard decision making, not very involved, can dip in and out), and how to best use them to take advantage of that willpower battery.

It helped me match my energy levels and time slots with the right type of task.

It helped me feel less guilty, and made me feel seen. So many other people struggle with making decisions, getting distracted and losing steam (it’s not just me!), and Cal Newport gives actionable, down to earth, relatable tips based on real people’s process.

Some of the things this book taught me:

Switching from task A to task B leaves some attention residue
Working on a single hard task for a long time without switching allows you to go deeper, and minimises attention residue - it’s more effective
Checking your email or your phone every few minutes is really harmful to your ability to focus and go deep on a challenging task
We are what we pay attention to: Focus your attention on your worries and you will be unhappy. Focus your attention on this musical that you are attending with your friend in a few days, and you’ll be happier.
Good intentions are not enough: you have to add routines and rituals to your life, to reduce the amount of decision making energy you take from your willpower battery
Scheduling deep work + making it a routine = more deep work hours done at the end of the year = more stuff done (writing novels, recording videos or music albums, etc.)
Ignore inspiration: show up regularly even if you are not inspired. Pick up the pen and write.
Embrace boredom (see this blog post I wrote last year)
Quit social media

One of the best skills I developed after reading this book was the ability to figure out if a task is deep or shallow, and why. And that sometimes you can make a task that requires deep focus less hard by breaking it down and removing shallow bits from it if it’s possible.

What a game changer!

The Obstacle Is The Way - Ryan Holiday

“The first iPhone was revolutionary, but it still shipped without a copy-and-paste feature, or a handful of other features Apple would have liked to have included.
Steve Jobs, the supposed perfectionist, knew that at some point, you have to compromise. What mattered was that you got it done and it worked.”

- Ryan Holiday (The Obstacle Is The Way)

This punchy little book is a mindset shift book.

It delivers brutal common sense, based on Stoic philosophy, in a kind way. It can sometimes be a bit blunt, but it tells good stories that stick with you and are relatable.

About two thousand years ago, Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, kept a journal. In it, he wrote his thoughts, his worries, his struggles, his learnings about himself. This journal is known today as the book “Meditations”. What he wrote back then isn’t that different from what gets our minds stuck today, from what we would journal about. And he wrote that 2000 years ago, in a very different society, while being one of the most powerful people on the planet!

There is something humbling about that.

This book introduced me to Stoicism, and helped me see that I am not alone, that I am not special (sorry mum!). Every day, others go through obstacles too, others fight with their internal monologue too, and they might even have been the emperor of Rome!

Some of the things this book taught me:

Perception is something you can choose, and adapt
Two categories in life: externals you cannot control, and choices you make about them
If the emperor of Rome was journaling, then I can do it to
When in a spiral: look at the facts, check against your perception, do this in writing, on paper
Think progress, not perfection
The Process: decompose hard and complex things into manageable pieces. Finish the smallest task in front of you, then move on to the next one
Genius often really is just persistence in disguise
We often know what the problems are. But we fear taking action is too risky. It matters what you do with what happens and what you have been given
Helping others reduces our fears and anxieties. Random acts of kindness and conversations with strangers makes us feel better
If I can’t solve it for myself, can I at least make it better for others?
You learn and make progress by iterating, by trying and failing. You have to act now.

This is the kind of book that helps you with life.

I found myself with much less guilt after reading “The Obstacle is The Way”, and equipped with more tools to identify a way forward through obstacles.

Conclusion

Whenever you’re spiraling because of one of your creative demons, remember this: you are not alone!

That’s what these books showed me: validation, and a way forward. They helped me shake off some of the guilt that comes with the creative process. They taught me to act now, they encouraged me to be bored, and they reminded me that it’s okay to learn through iteration.

If you are a stuck creative, go and read one of those books. Take some notes.

And then, go make some stuff!

This post is not a replacement for reading the books. I am not trying to capture the message so that you don’t have to read them. Go read the books! ↩︎
See this blog post by Austin Kleon: A few notes on daily blogging ↩︎

Awe-Inspiring Moments

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 15:10:00 +0000

It struck me a few weeks ago that there is a special kind of moment that can really boost your wellbeing, and sometimes even shape who you are, in a positive way. They’re called awe-inspiring moments.

When this hit me, I started looking back over the recent months and wanted to list some of those moments, share them with you here, and chat about why they are important.

Woah, I’m So Tiny

As I am writing this blog post, it is 5.39pm Central European Time, and I am on a plane flying back from Chambery in France to London Stansted airport in the United Kingdom.

I peek outside the window, and I look at the Alps and their snowy tops, stretching for miles, like a barrier marking the entry to a distant Tolkien-like world. It is vast, old, magnificent.

This makes me reflect on the week I just spent in Belle Plagne with my parents, my sister and her cute 3-year-old son, snowboarding, snowshoeing, playing in the snow and gulping melted cheese.

I spent a week focusing on the present, and it felt pretty good.

But I then realised : I feel calmer because I also experienced awe-inspiring moments.

It’s the breathtaking sunset, the concert that gets you a bit teary, the massive cathedral that fills you with a sense of wonder. Or, in my case here, it’s that moment of anticipation before snowboarding down a mountain, surrounded by the Alps in the morning light.

The “woah, I am so tiny” moments.

During those, time slows down, it nearly stops. It feels a bit like gravity just changed.

What?

A few months ago, I read the book “Chatter” by Ethan Kross. He wrote that these magical, breathtaking moments had a way to quiet the voices in our heads, the ones that usually fuel feelings of anxiety. He calls those voices Chatter.

“Awe is the wonder we feel when we encounter something powerful that we can’t easily explain. We are often flooded by it in the natural world when we see an incredible sunset, mile-high mountain peak, or beautiful view.
Awe is a self-transcendent emotion in that it allows people to think and feel beyond their own needs and wants. […] The neural activity associated with self-immersion decreases, similar to how the brain responds when people meditate or take psychedelics like LSD.
Some people experience it when they see Bruce Springsteen in concert, read an Emily Dickinson poem, or take in the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, […] when they see something extraordinary in person, like a high-stakes sports event or a legendary object such as the U.S. Constitution, or witness something intimately monumental, like an infant taking its first steps.”

I’d like to share here a few moments that got me to do a double take.

6 Awe-inspiring moments in The Last 18 months

Harnessing Nature’s Power: The Wind Turbine Field Off The Coast of North Wales (Gwynt y Môr)

In August 2024, I was traveling back from Snowdonia National Park. The train I was on passed Gwynt y Môr, a 576-megawatt offshore wind farm located in the Irish Sea off the coast of North Wales. The farm has 160 wind turbines that rise 150 metres above mean sea level. That’s roughly the equivalent of 273,000 kettles¹!

I had seen wind farms before, but the sheer size of this one really struck me. It got me to think about how hard humankind had worked to design and build this way to generate power from wind, to then distribute across the country and power British homes. It’s a complex, large-scale undertaking that affects so many people’s lives!

Part of Something Bigger: Early Breakfast in The New Forest With Wild Horses

In August 2024, I went on a camping trip in the New Forest District. It is one of those rare places where animals roam freely, without any fences around the campsite. If you head to the shower block for a wee in the middle of the night, be prepared to run into a pony!

One morning, we sat in the field right on the edge of the campsite to have breakfast. It was one of those sunny and crisp mornings. Horses were chilling in the clearing, hundreds of meters away. It was a calm and beautiful moment.

I turned around for a couple of seconds, when a horse had decided to say hello and stand right in the middle of our little setup!

It was very funny (and only slightly tense), and a good reminder that there’s a whole world out there, living at its own pace.

The Magic of Live Theatre: Wicked The Musical

About 18 months ago, I took my parents to a musical on the West End, in London. I wanted them to experience the unique atmosphere of musicals here, which are far less popular in France.

So I took them to see Wicked.

Within the first five minutes, I knew it was the perfect choice: dynamic set, uplifting music, and the cast’s energy was palpable. West End musicals are so immersive: it really feels like it’s happening everywhere around you.

Then came the song “Defying Gravity”. Eventually the song reaches its climax: the super talented singer is on a broom, high above the stage, and sings the final notes with spotlights reflecting on her in every direction.

It was breathtaking. Time seemed to stop. These people were so talented! Humankind’s ingenuity and inspiration are remarkable. I felt so fortunate to have access to this kind of cultural experience. This is why I love London so much!

Century Old Memories: West Pier, Brighton

Whenever I’m in Brighton, I make time to see the West Pier at sunset.

West Pier is an old pleasure pier now in ruin. Opened in 1866, it closed in 1975, gradually deteriorating, until it was destroyed by two fires in 2003. It was popular in the early 20th century, it even had a concert hall!

I’m amazed at how they built such a massive pier in the 1860s. The metal remains still standing in the sea are like a snapshot of the past.

It’s is one of those sights that makes me feel small. It’s ancient, big, and although it barely survived its 150 years of existence, it still endures.

The passage of Time: Botanisk Have - Copenhagen’s Botanical Gardens

In August 2023, I visited Copenhagen for the first time, and it quickly became one of my favourite places in Europe.

I had never been to a botanical garden before, but I was really intrigued by the historical glasshouses at Botanisk Have, so I decided to go.

I was so impressed! I was especially moved by the old glasshouses, dating from 1872! It made me wonder how they were built with the technology of the time. I am fascinated by humankind’s ingenuity in the 19th century!

I pictured the early researchers bringing back plants from around the world. The garden has evolved so much in 150 years. There’s even a small glasshouse with lots of butterflies flying around freely. It’s something special.

This place really made me appreciate the passage of time.

Shared Experiences: The Eras Tour concert, Wembley Stadium

Between August 15th and 20th 2024 , Taylor Swift played five extra shows in Wembley Stadium in London, as part of her “Eras Tour” .

A friend managed to get last minute tickets (getting them is usually a nightmare, with complex queuing systems involved), so I jumped at the chance. I’ve been to plenty of concerts, but nothing on this scale.

The crowd was so united, so joyful, so friendly - I had never experienced anything like this before.

Towards the end of the show, Taylor Swift interrupted her song “Everything” after about a minute, saying “I’m not really doing it justice…”. The stadium then blew up in screams. My ears had never hurt that much! Turns out, everyone had guessed that Ed Sheeran was about to jump on stage to sing with her!

The joy, volume and sheer number of people around me, it was grounding.

Sometimes We Just Need to Exist For a While

This was a good exercise. It helped me notice how those simple moments really affected me, and made me feel more present.

So, every once in a while, stop and look around. Take it in. Be present. You’ll remember that moment.

a classic British unit of measurement for power usage, just like the price of a baguette is a classic French unit of measurement for cost of living. ↩︎

1am cruising at warp speed - I Made a Synthwave Mixtape for Late-Night Drives

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Today, I published a music playlist on Apple Music.

It is called 1am cruising at warp speed, and it’s a collection of chill retrowave / synthwave tracks.

Here’s what I was picturing when I was making it:

Someone flying an old spaceship like the Millenium Falcon, on their own, through the night. They’re flying through a nebula, it’s all calm and quiet, and absolutely beautiful outside. They put some music on, and keep drifting through this incredible scenery. They turn the volume up, slightly. Things feel right, but also melancholic. It doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow. It feels like one of those frozen in time moments. Like driving alone on the motorway, at night, but in space.

It has similar vibe to my track ‘Chewbacca Makes Synthwave’ (for more of my music, see this YouTube playlist).

Here’s the cover, kindly generated by Google’s AI overlord, Gemini:

For your entertainment, I also included one of the AI’s failed attempts at spelling the title, as a featured image for this blog post!

I Stopped Discovering New Music

I joined the music streaming service party quite late. I only subscribed to Apple Music about two years ago, in January 2023.

Before that, I was consuming music the old school way: I would buy an album, on iTunes¹ or as a vinyl, and I would listen to it from start to finish. I was really engaging with the music I owned, but I was rarely discovering anything new by accident.

And so I was stuck in an echo chamber of music I used to love, without any opportunities to get exposed to new stuff I might like.

As soon as I joined Apple Music, I started discovering new music. New artists, new styles I didn’t think I liked… The auto-play algorithm would start suggesting similar tracks once it reached the end of an album I knew, drifting further and further away from the original genre I had originally selected. The echo chamber became a vast open field with diverse musical biomes to explore.

And just like that, I started listening to music again.

A New Creative Outlet

I had two main inspirations² for doing this.

The first one is Asthenic, who makes mesmerising synthwave mixtapes. I discovered them on YouTube years ago, and I was immediately hooked by their cinematic vibes. I used some of them to fall asleep, for a while.

The second inspiration is writer-who-draws Austin Kleon. In 2024 he challenged himself to create an actual mixtape every month, recording over cassette tapes he bought for 99 cents at a record store. I think it’s such a cool side project! It’s creative, involves different mediums like music and crafting, and it gets you to use your hands!

This playlist started as a pinboard of new tracks and artists I stumbled upon, stuff I wanted to dig into later.

But it slowly turned into a curating exercise, a new form of creative outlet. Could I sequence the tracks to tell a story, evoke a specific mood, like a scene in a movie?

And so was born 1am cruising at warp speed, at the intersection of my love for synthwave, sci-fi shows like “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, cinematic photography, and a touch of melancholy.

Albeit iTunes isn’t exactly old school. What I mean is that I bought music one album at a time. ↩︎
I am trying to get into this habit of sharing what inspires me! ↩︎

I Streamed With a 9-Year-Old Setup (And It Worked!)

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:30:00 +0000

If you think you can’t start live streaming without having the best gear at your disposal, this article might be for you!

A week ago, I joined the weekly music production show Les Sondiers, straight from my parents’ house, and I had to use a portable setup.

Most of the gear I used was several years old, with a few items being in my possession for a decade or more.

Overall, the stream went smoothly, and I thought it would be useful to share my experience here. It may be good inspiration for some people.

It was quite satisfying to be able to join the livestream with this minimal setup. During the show, I had the feeling that my sound wasn’t amazing, but rewatching bits of the show on YouTube, it holds together quite well. My voice was clear, without much background noise or reverb from the room. This highlights it’s important to check our own perception. My tip: record a few seconds of audio before streaming to check quality.

Alright, let’s go through the list, now.

Laptop and Camera: Macbook Pro (Early 2015 Model)

My trusty (but slightly aged) early 2015 MacBook Pro handled the stream well - although it sweated bullets.

We use Restream.io (a web-based platform) so I only really needed to run Firefox. Still, the CPU struggled a bit (browsing was sluggish) so next time I might stream at 720p instead of 1080p, trading video quality for better user experience.

I ended up using my iPad Air to do web browsing during the show, dedicating my Macbook Pro to live streaming and responding to the YouTube live chat.

The integrated webcam needed a good light to avoid “potato quality” (my Logitech C920 back in London would be a good enough upgrade).

The laptop was probably the weakest link of my setup, but it did a decent job.

Audio Interface: Zoom H4n (March 2014)

A great feature of the Zoom H series (handheld audio recorders) is that they double as a USB audio interface. Perfect when I’m on the go and need to plug a microphone into my laptop.

It works out of the box without any special drivers. I plugged my headphones in the H4n, allowing me to monitor both my laptop’s audio and my microphone input with zero added latency. I simply needed an old USB-A to Mini USB-B cable—no power supply required.

The only downside was that my H4n is quite old, so the rubbery grip feels a bit grubby and sticky.

Microphone: Rode SmartLav+ (January 2017)

For the microphone, I decided to go for the Rode SmartLav+ lapel mic.

Its small size is perfect for traveling, and using a lavalier mic means I have my hands free for typing and browsing. This is a good alternative to dynamic mics like the Shure SM58, which also require a bulky XLR cable.

I was pleasantly surprised by this mic. My voice was clear and at a good level, with very little background noise or room reverb.

It needs plug-in power (which my Zoom H4n delivers) and an additional TRRS¹ to TRS adaptor to connect to the audio interface (I used the SC3).

I wasn’t too sure if it was going to fit the bill, so I had a backup plan: a Prodipe TT1 Pro dynamic microphone with an XLR cable. I was prepared to hold it for the whole show if necessary (although I’m sure there’s a mic stand somewhere in this house!).

Headphones: iPhone earbuds

Simplicity and portability were my main criteria, so I used the standard Apple iPhone earbuds for monitoring audio, rather than my larger Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones.

Sometimes, the best solution is the one that works!

Light: Aputure MC

This is one of the items in this list that I bought more recently (mid 2022).

While not strictly necessary, I did pack this little customisable RGBWW² light to make up for the potato quality of my Macbook webcam. You’d be surprised how much of a difference a small, well placed light source makes!

As a bonus, the Aputure MC lets you change the colour temperature to adapt to your room conditions; I used this to make it look a bit warmer.

A cool feature is the ability to save and recall presets via the Sidus app (though I didn’t need it this time). Also it’s magnetic, so you can stick it on some metal surfaces, and boom, you’ve got yourself a light stand!

Light Tripod: Joby Telepod

I used a small Joby tripod as a light stand; I think it’s the Telepod Mobile (now discontinued), but I wouldn’t swear to it.

It is light and sturdy, with a standard thread that fits cameras, small lights and audio recorders.

I didn’t really need it, but it was so light and compact I packed it anyway. I could also have used it as a video tripod if I’d decided to use my iPhone as a webcam.

Outro

It turns out that in 2024, you don’t need the latest and most expensive tech to be able to join a live stream.

I got perfectly good results with a core setup that was at least nine years old (bar the lighting³, which wasn’t essential)

The lesson here is: if your gear is a bit old, don’t let that stop you.

Just start. It’ll do just fine. You can always iterate on your setup.

TRRS being for smartphones. Remember when we used to have headphone jacks on phones? Those were the days! ↩︎
Light with adjustable colour temperature and white balance ↩︎
I could have used my older Aputure AL-M9 which I use every Monday, and bought in 2018. ↩︎

Lamy Safari - 5 Reasons Why It's the Best First Fountain Pen

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 15:00:00 +0000

It took me a while, but I finally caved and bought myself a Lamy Safari.

After more than six months of regular use, it has become one of my favourite writing instruments.

If you enjoy writing for pleasure or journaling, I highly recommend using a fountain pen. And I think this colourful German pen is a great place to start.

Here’s a list of the 5 reasons why the Lamy Safari is, in my opinion, the best first fountain pen.

It Feels Great to Use It

I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoy using this pen.

The ink¹ flow is good, the nib flies easily on my Leuchtturm1917 notebook. There is sometimes a slightly scratchy feel to it. This makes the physical experience even more satisfying.

I don’t have to press hard on the nib. It just works, and it is consistent.

I thought I was not going to like the grip at first. Unlike most pens, it is specially molded with two cuts where your fingers are supposed to go. It turns out I really like it now. It helps holding it in place, and I think it helps reduce hand fatigue after a long writing session.

I find this pen to be quite enjoyable to write with, especially considering its affordable price. I just wish it was a bit heavier!

It’s Cheap

The Safari typically costs between £15 and £25. It’s Lamy’s entry-level model, but I think it punches slightly above its weight in terms of quality and writing experience.

And it’s absolutely worth the extra few pounds over the cheapest brands.

For example, I love my Parker Vector, but the Safari is orders of magnitude more comfortable. I find it also far more consistent and reliable than my Parker Sonnet, that I bought for around £120.

It’s Widely Available

You can find it in high street shops like Ryman or Postmark, but also in good fountain pen shops like Choosing Keeping in Seven Dials.

It’s also widely available online.

Basically, the Lamy Safari is everywhere!

It Looks Cool

I love that it comes in pop colours, like this pretty yellow I picked for my own Safari. It gives a 70s feel to the contents of my pencil case! It’s a nice change from most fountain pens that come in dark colours, especially cheaper pens. Who said writing had to be so serious?

I like this simple, minimalist design with straight lines, the logo molded in the pen’s body, the opening that lets you see the ink inside, the big metal clip, and the top of the cap that looks like it could fit a Phillips head screwdriver.

I’m not a fan of the austere nib, but that’s the Lamy vibe. I got used to it after a while.

Oh, and it’s basically made out of Lego!

It’s Built Like a Tank

It’s super consistent, sturdy and reliable. I’ve had little issues with it, and it’s so easy to maintain. The nib pops right off without much effort, and replacement nibs are available online.

Lamy sells a converter, which allows you to pump fountain pen ink from a bottle, and use it like a cartridge.

Apart from its weight, it doesn’t feel fragile, and I know I can put my trust in it.

And it’s cheap, so I can get another one anyway!

Conclusion

If you want to start actually enjoying writing, the Lamy Safari can help! Whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out, this affordable and reliable pen can change the game. It’s a great way to slow down and enjoy the process of putting pen to paper.

I ended up loving this pen. Now, I can’t really do without it², and I make sure I alternate every few days, to make sure I get to write with it.

I regularly recommend it to anyone starting out with fountain pens. It’s a great first experience, and it’s fun!

What are your favourite things about this little German pen? Send me photos of your own Lamy Safari!

Inks I have used: Parker Quink (my every day black ink), Iroshizuku (by Pilot), Lamy black (which I’ve stopped using because I had problems with it). ↩︎
I should say that I do not own very high-end pens. I own a Lamy Safari, a Parker Sonnet, and a Parker Vector. ↩︎

Slowing Down by Writing

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

There are many ways through which I am trying to slow down in life. The biggest one has to be writing.

What Do I Mean by Slowing Down?

I am finding it hard to explain what “slowing down” means without using examples, but I worry examples make for an incomplete picture, and just sound gimmicky. Here’s me trying my best.

My brain is functioning at warp speed.

By that, I don’t mean that I am quicker and smarter than others. I mean that my mind is very fast at imagining worst case scenarios, or identifying problems via pattern-matching.
We all do it, to some extent. Our brain makes connections faster than our conscious mind can think. It’s constantly analysing the past, trying to predict the future, mainly to avoid danger - like getting eaten by a predator!

My emotions kick in faster than logic. By the time I start thinking, my reasoning has already been dipped in big feelings.

Slowing down helps me see that. It helps the logic in my mind catch up with the emotions triggered by those chemicals released by my brain.
It makes me more curious, it allows me to notice things around me.

I want to slow down so I can live in the present. So I can focus on what is happening right now, and really engage with it.

Being slow is being intentional. It’s choosing. Choosing to do only one thing at a time¹. Choosing to let all the other thoughts run their course.

This constant race in my head between logic and emotions is what I’m trying to slow down.

Introducing: Pen and Paper

“Writing by hand is thinking on paper.”
- Leuchtturm1917

Over the last couple of years, I have been exploring different routines based on physical writing, and they have all helped me in some way.

When I write with a pen and paper, it forces me to think at the speed of my handwriting.

For extra slowness, I write with a fountain pen², on a nice notebook. I like the physical sensations it brings, as the nib just flows effortlessly on paper, sometimes feeling a bit scratchy as I change the angle of my wrist. The ink takes longer to dry, and you have to write slower if you don’t want your handwriting to look messy³.
It is one of my favourite things, now, and has been for the past 18 months.

It’s not harder, just a bit slower, allowing you to dwell on the same thought a little bit longer.

Suddenly, I am thinking by hand on paper. My thoughts take physical form. They no longer exist only in my head.

There is No Backspace Key

If I was writing with a computer, it would be very easy to make any thought disappear, leaving no trace. I can just hit the backspace key.

With a fountain pen, It’s just harder to censor myself. I can scribble over a word, it is still there. There is a memory of the fact that I wrote it. It was work, it was a part of me, it existed, and there is a fossil to prove it.

My thought is gone, my opinion has changed. And there is still a trace of it.

And that’s okay.

Editing then becomes selecting from material, as if the words were scraps laid out on my table that I need to assemble into an outfit with my sewing machine.

Writing all of it down now, and leaving some of the stuff out later is much better than self-censoring in my head.

Writing is Seeing

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
- David Allen (Getting Things Done)

When I am stuck on a project, It helps me massively to write stuff on a whiteboard, or sticky notes.

To write stuff down, I have to decide what it is. I have to give it a name. I have to decide what it means, and oftentimes, as I am trying to write it down, I realise that I don’t quite understand what I am doing. It forces me to define it, clarify it.

This typically leads to a breakthrough, similarly to rubber duck debugging, where a software developer puts a rubber duck on their desk. When they are stuck, the duck serves as a reminder that they should try explaining their issue out loud, to better understand it themselves.

Once it is written down, I can look at it, move it around, rearrange it, leave it for a while, come back to it.
It leaves more space in my mind for problem-solving and creative thinking.

Imagine a fashion designer: their designing process doesn’t only involve thinking.

It involves sketching (several times), drawing a life-size pattern, pinning test material on a mannequin, trying different types of fabric, making different parts of the outfit at different times, rearranging them in various combinations… Once you see the sketch in real life, or the bits of fabric pinned together on the mannequin, it becomes easier to figure out what works well, and what doesn’t! You start identifying patterns.

My Writing Habits

Here are a few examples of how I use writing in my day to day life:

Journaling: slows down my thoughts and emotions, and doomsday thinking
Creative writing⁴: slows down my ideas, gives them space, slows down my impostor syndrome and the censor in my head
Capturing on whiteboard: slows down “it’s too big, too complicated, too much work” thinking, slows down my procrastination demon
Brainstorm / mindmap on paper, whiteboard, sticky notes: slows down the “I am never going to work it out” thinking
Writing down choices: slows down paralysis by analysis (for example I keep a list of coffee shops I like going to on a notecard stuck on my wardrobe)
Writing down a checklist: slows down “I forgot something” thoughts (they take a lot of compute space!)

Outro

There is so much power in sitting down, and spending an entire hour doing nothing but writing.

I highly recommend you try it. Put your phone on airplane mode, set a timer, and write. About anything.
If one hour seems scary, try 30 minutes. It’s only thirty times one minute. It goes very fast.

Try it. At least once. Tell me what happens. I’m curious.

Like that time I decided to get bored for 60 minutes. I was allowed to either write, or do nothing! ↩︎
Here’s a link to Tim Ferris’ interview of writer Neil Gaiman, who talks about writing with a fountain pen. This made me curious and got me to pick up my old Parker Vector. ↩︎
In France, we learn how to write by using a fountain pen. Is it because you have to hold the pen a certain way to write well? I found this interesting article from an American expat in Paris, whose daughter had to switch to using a fountain pen. ↩︎
See my blog post: Embrace the Blank Page ↩︎

When You Feel Bad About Not Making Progress

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 15:05:00 +0000

A few months ago, I had the privilege to chat with French electronic musician Joris Delacroix about mental health.

We were talking about our creative processes, the blank page syndrome, and how awful we can feel, when we don’t manage to “make progress”.

I found his advice so relatable, so inspiring, and Joris showed so much vulnerability that I decided to write this blog post. It is so rare to see representation of men struggling with their mental health in the creative space. I think it’s important to share this!

Thank you, Joris.

Visible artists can feel the same as you

During our conversation, the first thing that struck me was how someone as successful and accomplished as Joris could feel as stressed, anxious, and even as bad as I do, sometimes.

Here’s what he shared with us:

feeling discouraged, when not making progress on creative projects
showing up to the studio and not feeling motivated, or productive at all
feeling guilty, blaming himself

I asked him if he had any advice for people like me, who end up having strong emotions about not creating much, so much so that I can end up feeling paralysed, at times.

His answer was so kind, so full of empathy, and self-reflection!
Joris shared that he had been going to therapy, and worked on his relationship to his job, his music, his creative process.

It is so refreshing to hear a successful (male) artist like him open up and be vulnerable about his mental health like this, especially in relation to creating stuff.

I compiled a list of advice based on what he shared¹, from his personal experience:

Be realistic, be kind

If it’s not today, it’s not today

“It often happens that on Monday I show up to the studio, and I’m not very productive.
But where before I blamed myself, where I was stuck on the blank page, thinking ‘F**k, you haven’t done anything today’, now I really have the reflex of thinking ‘Okay well it’s not happening today, it’s not happening today. It isn’t a big deal, and it will happen tomorrow’.”
- Joris Delacroix

We all have days where we’re not motivated, where ideas just don’t flow, where we cannot focus. Sometimes, there is little you can do about it.
What we can do, though, is choose how we react. We can feel guilty and annoyed, or we can accept the situation for what it is, and try again tomorrow.

Any kind of output is output

“And there are other times, you know I wake up and I tell myself ‘yeah I know I’m going to go [to the studio] but not right away’. I’m going to clean my house, I’m going to do my invoices, my taxes, and once it’s done, I tell myself ‘ok now I’m going’. For example today I said I was going [to the studio], but then I had other things to manage, and then I was a little tired from the weekend… and in the end I got to the studio it was 5:30 p.m. But it doesn’t matter, I did other things.”
- Joris Delacroix

Remember this. Work:

recording guitar tracks for a song
finishing mixing a track
editing and releasing a video
writing this blog post on my computer and clicking “publish”

Also work:

sorting video files from a shooting day
doing backups
admin and paperwork
writing a draft on a notebook with a fountain pen that I will never use
cleaning my desk
brainstorming ideas for my next 3 posts
reading a book about productivity or that relates to the stuff I am doing
doing research

Rest the mind

Sometimes, you have to allow yourself some downtime. You have to recharge your batteries.
You know what? When you don’t actively think about this thing you’re working on, when you’re spending time with friends, when you’re watching a movie, when you’re asleep… your brain keeps computing in the background. Let it do its thing, and get some rest.

“In fact I realized that there was no point in pushing through, because when you push through, you don’t rest your mind. And so you push through one day but inspiration doesn’t come, or it comes a little bit and since you pushed, the next day you have to push even harder.
Whereas sometimes if you call it, and you just say ’no, you know what, today f**k it, I’m not going to do anything, I’m just going to have a good time’ and then, okay you may have lost a day, but the next day you are twice as productive.
I had a lot of phases like that, so that’s what allows me to accept the fact that yeah, sometimes there is no inspiration but it doesn’t matter, if there is no inspiration there are other things to do.”
- Joris Delacroix

Another thing that can help rest your mind is good times with people, or making connections with others. It can be having a drink with a friend, or it can be having a casual 30 second conversation with the barrista at the coffee shop. Random acts of kindness to strangers also feel very good!
We’re not robots, we are social beings :)

“What allowed me to put things into perspective was realizing, once again with experience, that in fact there were times, like a studio was booked, an entire team that showed up and everything, and you get there and… inspiration isn’t there, and in fact no one wants to produce. It happened to me, and when that happens, well what do we do? Well then we do something else, we chat or we have a little aperitif, we make ourselves something to eat, or we play a game of PES² or whatever…
And in fact the thing is that in those moments, you create a connection that you don’t create when you are in work mode, well not necessarily anyway. And from there, you had a bit of fun with a group of friends where you had a good time and it freed your mind a bit, and afterwards you’re more productive.”
- Joris Delacroix

Remember the big picture, remember the journey

Think years, not days

I regularly get stuck because when I look at how little I accomplish when I work on a project. Joris’ technique is to focus on wider timescales. Think years, not days.

“I think it’s trying to see things as a whole. You know, rather than telling yourself ‘ah, today I wasn’t productive!’, ask yourself ‘well, this year, what did I do?’.
I’ve had years where I didn’t do anything, you know. But when I was thinking ‘this year I didn’t do anything’ then I asked myself ‘but what did I do the previous years?’. And tell myself ‘well, I managed to do this or that - well f**k I put together a live show’.”
- Joris Delacroix

When I’m on a walk, I sometimes stop to look at a big tree, or a floor covered in moss (I’m in my moss phase). It must have taken decades to get to that point. It moves every single day, just very slowly!

Remember the love

When you feel down, it’s easy to spiral into thinking that no one cares about your art, that it doesn’t matter.

Take some time to remember what you have done in the past. Remember how it was celebrated, how people showed you their love for your stuff. When you focus on raw numbers and statistics, it’s hard to remember that it’s human beings at the other end!

“At one point I told myself ‘I do DJ sets that people like, I do live shows that people like… I released tracks and people come to see me and tell me they got married to this track and everything’”.
- Joris Delacroix

It’s not easy for everyone. Not everyone has an audience, big or small. Yet there will still be people who resonate with your stuff, even if just a few.

“I’m lucky to have this kind of feedback too. But you know, to think back to all this stuff… I know it’s on the scale of my career, I know that it’s not everyone’s scale, I know that there are also a lot of producers who have a more modest situation, and who are confronted with that too.”
- Joris Delacroix

This reminds me of this piece of advice from Jack Conte, CEO of Patreon, and musician in Pomplamoose and Scary Pockets. He says you should have a “love” file, where you keep records of nice things people said about your art.

I have one. A while back, I was feeling down, and I took his advice. I took screenshots of nice YouTube comments on some of my videos. The ones that said it inspired them to make music, especially.
And you know what? It pumps me up. It feels good to look at it, every once in a while. It helps me remember why I do this: I get a lot of energy when I can inspire someone to create stuff. It fills my bucket.

Remember the facts, celebrate your achievements

“But the thing that I’m really proud of is… You know, nobody taught me, I taught myself just with passion, and I put a lot of energy into it, and I realise that I’m capable of doing things that when I was a kid I didn’t think I would be capable of, and just fueled by passion, today I’m capable of doing these things. And there are days when [I’m feeling stuck, I’m not producing anything], but overall I tell myself ‘well f**k I managed to get where I am today’. And that puts me at peace with myself.”
- Joris Delacroix

Memory is a funny system. It’s quite unreliable. We think we remember something vividly, and it turns out it didn’t happen that way at all. Keep a journal and you will find out: just re-read about an event from a year before.

When you feel stuck, when you feel like you’re not moving forward, be factual. Look at what you’ve been doing, really.
What this might look like:

I wrote, produced, mixed and released an EP
I released a video a week for about 21 weeks (on top of my full time job)³
I covered the NAMM show in Los Angeles, one of the biggest events in the music and audio industry⁴
I learned how to make sounds I really enjoy with a synthesizer
Over the years, I accumulated all the gear I need to produce an music album, or a video documentary
I made 2 videos that got more than 100 000 views⁵

Appreciate what you have

It’s easy to worry about what could’ve, what should’ve, the stuff we don’t have that we wish we had. And what about that witty comeback that you thought of two days after that conversation?

One way to ground yourself in the present is to look at what you have, and engage with it. Forget what you don’t have. Make it a game, an exercise.

“You know my mother always tells me something, it’s a stupid sentence, she always tells me ‘you have to learn how to appreciate what you have’.
And you know sometimes you’re in your studio with your gear and everything, you’re going to say ‘yeah f**k, I suck, I have loads of gear and I can’t make music’.
Yeah but well, you know, at some point you made sure that in your life [you were able to acquire] that gear.

Again, I try to talk about these things with sincerity, at the same time I know that I have a relatively privileged position because I have an artistic career and everything, so I get access to things that I know everyone doesn’t get access to… But I don’t know, you have to appreciate what you have, it’s a stupid sentence but when you manage to really apply it… It allows us to forgive ourselves, and to say, ‘well, sometimes I can’t do it but it doesn’t matter, I can’t do it today but I’ll do it tomorrow’, you know. It’s okay.”
- Joris Delacroix

Take a beat. You managed to get where you are today!

Have routines, but forgive yourself if you break them

Contrary to popular opinion, the “Lone Genius Myth” is what it is, just a myth. You can wait to be struck by lightning or inspiration exactly during your writing session on Saturday morning between 10am and 11am. Or you can set up routines, and put yourself in a position where you’re holding the pen more often.

“I need to apply discipline to be consistent, to put a healthy lifestyle around it and everything, to be able to be productive on a regular basis…
But it’s also important that I keep some freedom, you know, that I don’t have feel much pressure or tell myself ‘ah f**k I said I’d be [at the studio] at 9am and now it’s 9:30am, I suck!’ you know. No, I need to be able to tell myself [when thinking about going to the studio]: ‘well, it’s now’ or ’not now’ you see. It works much better.”
- Joris Delacroix

Routines are super helpful, but it’s also really easy to feel guilty when we are not consistent with them. Be kind to yourself, they are a tool, a stick to lean on, not to beat yourself up with!

Outro

I loved this conversation. Finally, I had found someone like me! A creative, who had been struggling emotionally with his process, and who wasn’t afraid of talking about it, in public. Someone I can learn from!

I found Joris very open, when answering questions. He wasn’t trying to shine, or to save face. He was genuinely trying to help. This wasn’t in private confidence, this was live, on Youtube, with at least hundreds of people watching. I find that quite special.

What a humble and kind guy. I felt seen, supported, and my hope is that people watching the livestream felt the same. I related to him, a successful musician. I loved how open and vulnerable he was with me, with the audience. That’s priceless. People will talk about the gear they use, about what frustrates them. But this? Emotions, impostor syndrome… that’s rare.

Thank you Joris!

all blockquotes in this blog post are quotes from Joris Delacroix, during the show Les Sondiers, streamed live on 24/06/2024. The conversation was in French, so bear in mind that I translated it myself in English. I sometimes reworded slightly to improve flow, and I am definitely not a professionnal interpreter or translator. ↩︎
Pro Evolution Soccer, a football simulation video game ↩︎
Metro Boulot Homestudio, a series of videos about tips and tricks on music making, audio recording and mixing, that I released on the French YouTube channel Les Sondiers. I only took a couple of breaks when I was travelling or preparing my relocation to London. ↩︎
With the French YouTube Channel Les Sondiers - it was super fun! A few links: NAMM 2020 Interviews and News (like the Novation Launchpad Pro MK3), NAMM 2018 VLOG and Interviews and News ↩︎
PAS D’AMPLI GUITARE? J’essaie GUITAR RIG 5 PRO ! | Comment brancher sa guitare dans GUITAR RIG / son ordinateur ↩︎

Stopping to Notice

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 22:08:00 +0100

A while ago, I stumbled upon Miranda Keeling’s social media account, on Threads.

Here were these tiny posts, these pocket-sized snapshots of everyday life – overheard conversations, lonely moments on the London Tube and so on. Nothing earth-shattering, but oddly captivating. They all have one thing in common: they describe a scene that Miranda witnessed, as she was getting on with her day.

I’ve been finding these little nuggets of daily life contemplation quite funny, cute, wholesome, and super grounding. In my quest to slow down in life, I subscribed to her account.

“A woman letting herself into her flat from the street turns to offer me a wink, as she tucks her door key into her bra.”
- Miranda Keeling, 05/10/2024 on Threads

And that’s when it hit me: I am rushing through my own life, lost in my thoughts half the time, and I am completely missing the little details. Suddenly, slowing down and actually being present seemed like something I had to (re)learn.

Down the rabbit hole of her posts I went, and guess what? Miranda has a podcast too! “Stopping To Notice” takes you on immersive walks with her, and her binaural microphone. For five minutes, you’re transported through parks, bustling streets, even an Ikea (I know, right???). It’s a sensory overload in the best possible way, forcing you to pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells, the whole thing.

“A woman on the train puts her laptop onto the table. She places a notebook with an orange cover on top of it. On top of that, she rests a rainbow-striped pen. She takes out a thermos. She pours some tea into the lid-cup. She takes a sip. She sighs. She stares out of the window.”
- Miranda Keeling, 26/09/2024 on Threads

At first, it felt a little strange. Is it really that hard to just… notice my surroundings? Apparently, for autopilot-me, it is. But Miranda’s gentle nudges (and those binaural recordings, let’s be honest) were enough to pull me back to the present. It snaps me right out of ruminating and other kinds of vague, absent thinking that I might be distracted with.

Remember that time I dedicated an entire hour to looking around me, with a notebook and a fountain pen? That day, I was surprised to notice new details - a slushy machine’s mesmerizing motion, those green hexagonal tiles on the floor… These were things I’d completely missed before, hidden in plain sight. And this forced boredom fueled my creativity, by setting my mind free from notifications and other smartphone cravings!

“Cat at the vet’s: Meow.
Man: Yeah, mate.
Cat: Meow.
Man: Yeah mate, I know.
Cat: Meow.
Man: I hear you mate, but it’s for your own good.”
- Miranda Keeling, 29/08/2024 on Threads

Now, I regularly dedicate time to stop and look around. I do this because:

It grounds me in the present
It helps me notice things I haven’t seen before
It makes me curious, it creates opportunities for me to learn
It’s less time spent on my phone
It can be inspiring!
It’s one more opportunity for me to write

It’s so simple, and yet holds so much power. It grounds me, opens my eyes to a whole new world, and fuels my creativity (bonus points!).

Maybe you’ll find inspiration in the ordinary too. Try it out, and let me know what you notice!

Thank you, Miranda, for reminding me that there is a world around me.

Be Bored, Create More

Sun, 07 Jul 2024 19:04:00 +0100

I was reflecting on my relationship with boredom the other day. And I realised that I was pretty much running away from it!

I can’t let two minutes of idleness pass by without grabbing my smartphone. When I don’t reach in my pocket subconsciously, almost as a reflex, my attention gets derailed by a notification.

On average, I have picked up my phone 138 times a day, over the last three weeks. This means I pick up my phone roughly every 7 minutes (granted that I sleep 8 hours a day).

It feels like the only place where I can actually get bored now is my shower, because that’s the only place I don’t have my phone!

Being bored, trully bored, completely idle has become a conscious choice, in my life ¹.

I Decided to Get Bored for 60 Minutes

📌 This section is an excerpt from my notebook that I wrote during this 60 minutes experiment.

As an exercise, I have set a timer of 60 minutes on my phone. I am allowed to either write, or do nothing. That’s one trick that Neil Gaiman, writer of Stardust, American Gods and co-writer of Good Omens, applies to fuel his creativity (watch this snippet from Tim Ferriss’ interview of Neil Gaiman).

I am sat at a high table, at a pub in skyscraper-covered Canary Wharf, in London. All Too Well by Taylor Swift is playing on the loudspeakers. I am sipping a non-alcoholic beer, while scribbling in my notebook, with my Parker fountain pen, with the firm intention to get bored.

Looking Around and Paying Attention

Three people from the staff are chatting behind the bar. Things are pretty quiet right now. It’s Sunday, 6.40pm, in one of the financial and corporate districs of London. Every now and then, a couple of clients come to the bar, asking for a taster of one of the several beers they have on tap.

I decided to stop writing and do nothing for five whole minutes. It went faster than what I anticipated. I was mesmerized by the spinning cylinder of what seems to be a slushy machine. I noticed that the floor was made of green hexagonal tiles. I had never paid attention to this before.

My phone is on airplane mode, right now, so I know I won’t get disrupted by notifications. Every now and then, I reach for it, and then realise that it’s moot: I will have nothing new to check until I disable airplane mode.
Still, I can tell this behaviour is automatic. I don’t even think about grabbing my phone. I realise what’s happening once it’s already in my hand, unlocked.

Starting to Think About What Else I Could Be Doing

I am starting to think about what else I could be doing, right now.

For example, I could be looking for new songs for this new music playlist I started. I would also like to find some cool cover art for it. What would it look like? I begin brainstorming ideas in my mind.
I want to explore making public music playlists. Like mixtapes. It’s a creative act, it prompts me to refine my music taste, and it will help me (and others) find music matching a specific mood, or emotion.

It’s funny how my mind wanders off and starts picturing all the things I could be doing right now, if I wasn’t getting bored on purpose.

Boredom is uncomfortable. But it also sparks a bit of creativity. It makes me curious. About myself. About others. Why are they here? How do they feel? It makes me curious about my surroundings. It helps me notice things.

Time’s Up!

It’s been an hour, now. I wrote about two pages on my notebook. I have been asking myself questions. It fuelled mental images of things I would like to do. It got me excited, it helped me project.
Not once did I spiral about stuff that worry me. That’s good!

Leveraging Boredom Is a Choice

These days, leveraging boredom is a choice. When bored, I will reach for my smartphone, sort of shutting down the creative part of my brain.
When I scroll on my phone, I don’t really think that much. Sometimes I will come across something inspiring, but most of the time, I am just occupying my mind.

I want to let my thoughts roam free. Let the creative side of my mind problem-solve this boredom for me.

I might come up with a cool creative project. Mentally picture my next hiking trip. Or build a list of groceries to buy on the way home.
Worst case scenario, I will have noticed something I hadn’t paid attention to before.

Be more curious!

I live in London, in the United Kingdom, in 2024, and can afford modern technology. ↩︎

Embrace the Blank Page

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000

I’ve always been stressed out by the blank page - whether I am making music, recording a video or writing for a project.

So much so that it’s completely paralysed me and stopped me from creating several times, sometimes over multiple months.

I’ve discovered a few things that have helped me get out of this creative block and I have been practicing them recently. I am writing this post to share what I have learned.

The Lone Genius Myth Is Just a Myth

Over the past few days, I have been going through a book I read a while back: “Deep Work” by Cal Newport.

I’ve highlighted quotes that spoke to me and marked the pages, and now I am going through them and putting them on 6x4" notecards, sometimes editing and summarising my thoughts on the way.
If you are interested by this “notecard system”, I stole it from Ryan Holiday (who I think stole it from someone else!).

I came across a quote that broke some fourth wall in my brain:

“Men of genius themselves were great only by bringing all their power to bear on the point on which they had decided to show their full measure.”
- Antonin-Dalmace Sertillanges, in “The Intellectual Life”

Basically, one of the greatest qualities of these “past geniuses” was their ability to focus on their one goal, and put in the time and work.
It’s not as much about talent as it is about how often you show up. How much effort you put in. Yes, for some people, it’s easy. But I can guarantee you that if I don’t pick up my pen, there is a 0% chance I will write.

This reminded me of another quote, this time from writer-who-draws Austin Kleon, in his book “Show Your Work!”:

“There are a lot of destructive myths about creativity, but one of the most dangerous is the ’lone genius’ myth:

An individual with superhuman talents appears out of nowhere at certain points in history, free of influences or precedent, with a direct connection to God or The Muse.
When inspiration comes, it strikes like a lightning bolt, a lightbulb switches on in his head, and then he spends the rest of his time toiling away in his studio, shaping this idea into a finished masterpiece that he releases into the world to great fanfare.”

He then carries on with depicting the idea of a “scenius”, a term used by musician Brian Eno to describe an “ecology of talent”, a creative scene:

“If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of ‘a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas’
Scenius doesn’t take away from the achievements of those great individuals, it just acknowledges that good work isn’t created in a vacuum.”

This is one of the most difficult things I’ve encountered as a creative person: battling with the lone genius myth. It all comes down to comparing yourself with others. We all know we shouldn’t be doing that, but somehow we do anyway.
It completely changed my view of the world to realise that all these incredibly talended creative minds were not on their own. Suddenly, the weight on my shoulders seems a bit less heavy! I don’t have to come up with amazing stuff, locked down in a room :)

Lessons:

Great artists from the past didn’t come up with things in a vacuum. Don’t beat yourself up, go out and talk to people!
Great artists from the past weren’t waiting to be struck by genius ideas. They were spending a lot of time actually making stuff, learning, experimenting!

Don’t Worry About the Blank Page, Just Write. Then It’s Not Blank Anymore

Overthinking

In the past, whenever I dedicated some time to “creative projects”, I would take my notebook, and prompt myself: “What do I want to talk about today? What do I want to create? What’s my message?”

Do I need a topic to start creating? Historically, I’ve always thought that yes, in fact, I do.
But I am starting to wonder if this has been hidering me: thinking I have to conform to a mould, or evolve within certain parameters. Like writing about topic X, or making music of style Y.

Limitations are great for boosting your creativity. I am fully behind that idea. But maybe I am just looking at the wrong parameters. Maybe the parameters are not what I do or why or how. Maybe the parameters are when, how often, and with what.

Trusting My Process

I remember that woman who once asked me: “Why are you messing with your creative process?”

I was telling her about the fact I was trying to give myself themes, objectives, and limitations so I could iterate on some small projects more easily and get more music out there. My whole mindset was: If I have less decisions to make, I’ll have more space in my head for ideas and execution.
She called me out, basically saying “What if it’s not how your creative process works? Why are you doing this to yourself?”

That’s one of the best pieces of advice I have ever been given.

In the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with a new approach: I just open my notebook, pick up my fountain pen, and write. I don’t think very hard about what I want to say. I just start, and I trust the process.
And you know what?

It works!

Usually, something is on my mind. It’s not on the surface, but after a few minutes of writing, it becomes clear, and I start writing about that.
What surprises me the most is that I start without a path, and the path just reveals itself to me. Something interesting comes out of it, and quite easily, on top of that. I end up feeling excited!

Yes, the blank page is scary. Start writing, then it won’t be blank anymore. Don’t stop, just keep writing, keep talking to yourself. Someone will respond.

Lessons:

Start now, figure it out later. If you think too hard, your mind will try to stop you.
What works well for execution (like adding structure) doesn’t necessarily work well for drafting and idea dump (which might need less or no structure). That’s okay.
Don’t stand in front of a blank page, waiting for lightning to strike, waiting for a good idea to come. Start writing.
Talk about your creative process with others. Allow them to question it. Keep an open mind. Try something new.

Writing Every Day Means More Opportunities To Be Struck by Lightning

“Creative people organize their lives according to repetitive, disciplined routines. They think like artists but work like accountants.”
- David Brooks (in the New York Times)

A year ago, I started journaling every day. I have been following Julia Cameron’s method, which is basically writing 3 pages of “pure stream of consciousness”.

My notebooks, stacked

This created an interesting side effect: ideas have been popping up in my head about creative process stuff I want to talk about, so much so that I started recording them on Google Keep. I ended up building up a list of topics that could end up being blog posts, or videos, even.
It’s like the more I write, the more I expose myself to these random ideas that show up, unannounced.

And for the past year, I’ve been writing an awful lot! For the most part, I have journaled about what’s on my mind, how I feel, that sort of stuff. But out of it, I got a few blog post ideas I’m excited about.

And I was able to capture them because when they hit me, I was holding a pen in my hand. The more time I dedicate to writing, the more chances I got to be writing while an idea manifests itself. And the more I write, the more I trigger these brain circuits that lead me to be creative. It’s a virtuous circle. It’s like a muscle, it you keep flexing it, eventually it will get easier to use it.

This reminds me of one of Julia Cameron’s principles: we are a vector. We are just “a tool to the creative gods”. They feed us with the ideas and we are just holding the pen, so we better be holding it as often as possible!

Lessons:

Don’t write only when you feel creative. Dedicate regular, long chuncks of time to writing. This gives more space for ideas to show up.
Allow yourself to write bad stuff. It’s okay. I swear.

Conclusion

The creative block, also known as the blank page syndrome to some people, is probably one the major struggles of creative minds.

I’ve always thought it was because I was lacking ideas. It turns out that 90% of the time, in my case, it seems more related to feelings of anxiety and worries. I tend to overthink things, and I know that!

It’s okay to use tools and techniques, frameworks and limitations as a creative boost. If that’s your thing, then please, do it!
But also, remember to:

Put yourself at your creative station regularly, with discipline, and just start, just do something, anything. You will figure out what it is later.
Listen to yourself. If you don’t feel like doing something specific, maybe that’s fine. You don’t have deadlines (hopefully). Just create about something else.

Give yourself permission to create. Or do nothing. Like Neil Gaiman said.

Markdown is limited and here's why it's good for you

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 16:00:00 +0000

I like Markdown.

It’s easy to write, easy to read, easy to interpret - should you wish to transform it with code.
It’s weird how much I like it. I find myself writing to write stuff in Markdown, for no specific reason other than wanting to use it.

Markdown is a good example of what technology can be, or rather, should be. It gets the job done, and it’s dead easy to understand.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

There are many things that Markdown cannot do.

For example, aligning text or changing colours - which are basic features that a rich format text editor would provide. Some people have even created their own flavour of Markdown, implementing the features they think are missing.

I am a big fan of limitations as a boost for creativity. This is something I have come across in other disciplines, like making music, or videos. For example, artists like Marc Rebillet or Casey Neistat are able to produce so much stuff, thanks to a simple set of limitations (I see them more like a toolbox, or a framework - I talked about this in a previous video I made).

I like the simplicity of Markdown because when I am trying to do something it cannot support, it forces me to think: do I really need to do this that way? Or do I just want to?
Would my content actually benefit from that extra thing, and if so, how? Could I do it without that feature, and how would it affect my content?

I could find a way to hack that feature in, but the cost of doing that would be pretty clear: adding complexity in the writing process, but also making it harder to read.

Is it worth it?

I think that most of the time, it isn’t worth it.

And I think that’s a good lesson.

Why would I be adding complexity everywhere, when it is only needed for 20% of the cases? I think it’s okay to build something a bit more complex for the edge cases, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of everything else. If it makes everything else complicated to read or edit, then I am not gaining much.

All the time I save by making 80% of my “code” easy to navigate, I could invest into solving problems that are specific to me and what I do. Things that give me an edge, or things that I enjoy.

Keeping things simple is hard

This takes discipline.

This means calling myself out when I am trying to be too clever.
This means resisting the urge to make something just because “it could be useful, one day”.

It makes me think of this drawer in my flat where I keep all the random stuff that I am “keeping just in case”.
How often do I actually need what’s in there? And what is the average time I spend trying to find something in that mess? Far too much.

Imagine if I kept my keys in that drawer. How much time would I spend looking for them, every single day?
Make the stuff you need all the time easy to find and easy to use. It’s okay if the “once in a blue moon” stuff is a bit more complicated, as long as you are exposed to it only occasionally.

YOLO. I don’t have time for this. Keep it simple.

Addendum: an example of Markdown

Here’s the previous paragraph, written in Markdown (following this basic syntax guide):

## Keeping things simple is hard

This takes discipline.

This means calling myself out when I am trying to be too clever.  
This means resisting the urge to make something just because "it could be useful, one day".

It makes me think of this drawer in my flat, where I keep all the random stuff that "I might need one day".  
How often do I actually need what's in there? And what is the average time I spend trying to find something in that mess? **Far too much**.

Imagine if I kept my keys in that drawer. How much time would I spend looking for them, every single day?  
**Make the stuff you need all the time easy to find and easy to use**. It's okay if the "once in a blue moon" stuff is a bit more complicated, *as long as you are exposed to it only occasionally*.

YOLO. I don't have time for this. *Keep it simple*.

I'm learning Go and it's boosting my creativity

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 12:58:00 +0000

I recently decided to start learning Go.

(Before you keep reading this, you should know: I am not a programming expert!)

A few people at work kept telling me about it, and after my initial grumpy phase (“new things are bad”, “it’s just a trend”, “no I won’t go see the Oppenheimer movie because everyone says it’s amazing”), I started getting curious.

Learning a new programming language isn’t usually something I’d do for fun. In fact, it can quickly become frustrating.
Imagine you’ve learned how to ride a bike. It was hard work, and you got hurt multiple times in the process! Now, you want to enjoy riding your bike, and what it unlocks for you. For example, going places, spending a Sunday afternoon cruising through a park, exploring the woods nearby and crossing a stream – splashing water all over yourself in the process.

Now, you could do most of these things with a longboard too. You wouldn’t be as fast but you would look pretty cool. Sensations would be different. It would be a lot of work though, and probably even more painful than learning how to ride a bike. You could also feel a bit humiliated, if you were to learn in a public place and fall over a lot.

I don’t want to get the scratches and the bruises all over again. I want to enjoy myself!

But why, then??

Yet I have decided to do it with Go, and here’s why:

It’s learning something new while being able to apply it straight away
I’m seeing it like some people see crosswords: it flexes my brain
It forces me to look at things from a different perspective. I can’t solve a problem the same way I would do it in Python, I have to come up with a different approach. It forces me to be creative
I practice thinking “How can I do this?” instead of “It can’t be done“
I like how you can deploy code without worrying about dependencies too much
It might be useful at work, one day

I secretly hope that it will help create new neural pathways in my brain. Maybe it will make it easier for me to see new challenges as a puzzle to solve, instead of an obstacle – not only with code but in life too.

I am seeing this the way a photographer who only shoots with DSLRs would pick up a film camera. It makes me slower. I have to stop and look at familiar situations in a novel way. The craft feels different.

Learning about myself

So far, I am having fun. It’s a practical language. Easy to read and, for the most part, easy to write.
I caught the bug, and I practice trying to solve old problems, while having to take new avenues. First I make something that works, then I try to make it faster, and easier to read. I am taking notes: what I like, what frustrates me, and questions I have. The latter two are opportunities to learn how to do things a different way.
It’s funny because it also uncovers what’s important to me, day to day. In short, it’s not how fast I can write complicated code. It’s things like:

how fast I can get an idea tested
how easily I can deploy it
how quickly I can assess its version and dependencies
how I can find out about what data it’s using
how it’s configured
why it’s crashing

I’ve been stuck in one way of seeing things, and this is shaking me up. As Abraham Maslow wrote, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail”. Maybe I avoid challenging myself by always using the same tools. I stopped learning. Sometimes, it’s time to mix it up a bit!

This is good reminder that I am, in fact, a curious person 🙂

A few links

Go By Example: easy to follow website that goes through the basics of the language (especially useful if you know a few languages already)
Go packages documentation: super useful to explore all the things a package can do (example here with the standard library)
3 dots in 4 places: where the three dots ... can be used in Go

Focusing too much on the outcome instead of enjoying the process

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 12:12:00 +0000

Over the past few years, I’ve set some goals for myself, when it comes to creative projects.

My number one objective is to get some happiness from creating again.

I look at my desk, my camera, my instruments, and it’s just too much. I already know I won’t be able to make something as good as I want it to be. I have no idea when it started. I don’t know why. I think I’ve always been a perfectionist. But I feel like it’s reached the next level. The level where I stop myself from creating anything. And I’ve been thinking: do I focus too much on the outcome? It feels like everything we do, as artists, has to be amazing. That’s how I feel, and that’s how I usually get stuck.

It’s like I don’t even enjoy the process anymore. What only seems to matter is the outcome. The process is what’s supposed to be fun! That’s where I get to be creative, scrappy and allow myself to explore things.

Yes, I want to create something that has meaning, that looks great and well thought. I want the shots to look purposeful, with beautiful lighting. I want the music to speak to me, I want it to have the right rhythm and help deliver the story. I want to be proud of the outcome. But right now, all of that is getting in the way. My pursuit of a great outcome is stopping me from starting anything.

I lost my sense of play.

I want it back.

Writing every day, looking back every month

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 00:24:00 +0000

In the past few weeks, I’ve picked up journaling. I’m trying to do it every day. It’s not always easy, but it feels good. I find it freeing.

Even though I am writing the analog way, in a Moleskine notebook, I like typing on a keyboard. I’ve finally decided to buy a mechanical keyboard to go with my Mac Mini (with an M2 Pro!). I picked a Keychron K2 v2, with brown switches.

It just feels nice to type on a nice keyboard. I know it’s not going to make me write more video scripts, or more blog posts, but it just makes it an enjoyable experience. And I want to focus on nice things a bit more, the little bits that make you happier during the week.

So while I’m attempting to keep up with journaling every day, I want to look back once a month, on how that month felt, what happened, what I’ve tried, what I am looking forward to. I think it’s a good exercise.

Chewbacca Makes Synthwave

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 01:37:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I have released music, or a video, let alone be both!

I’ve been working on something for a while now, trying to get back into creating more regularly – starting by iterating on something I like: synthwave / retrowave music 🙂

I put on my Chewbacca onesie and started playing some music. What I had in mind was something like:

Sitting in the cockpit of a spaceship, just cruising through a nebula. It’s the middle of the night, it’s nice and quiet, but so pretty outside. Feels like flying through mellow, lush, chill dreams

Here’s the video:

Some inspirations:

Audiotool Day 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKo7FARMQY
Será https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkK6Rbxfxv0

Made with:

Maschine MK3
Native Instruments Monark
Arturia JUN-6 V
Arturia DX-7 V
Arturia Analog Lab
Retro Machines MKII
Super8
Arturia Tape Mello-Fi

Posts on Tom Podevin: a blog for stuck creatives

Going to Random Gigs Makes Me More Creative

Building My 2026 Playlist

The Sensible Lies

The Three Levers

Why Do Art When I Can Worry Instead?

Meet My Friend: Worry

Crossroads

So Why Do Art When I Can Worry Instead?

The Creativity Source Code: Drafting

The Sticker Syndrome: About Those Stickers I Never Used as a Child

The 10 Things That Made 2025 the Year of Trust

Nipping It in the Bud

If You Try, You Might Fail

Ideas are like plants

Build The Dreamhouse

My Tool Shed

Conclusion

10 Lessons I Learned in 10 Years of Podcasting/YouTube: What Happens When You Keep On Going

Achievements Unlocked

Never Stop Learning

You Are Good Enough

12 Ways I Get Unstuck (Notes to Myself for a Rainy Day)

Analog Is The Way

Engineer Things in Your Life

Keep Paper Around

Write Letters

Draw Cards

Write Documentation For Future You

Don’t Look Down

Get Bored

Be A Curator

Smile At Yourself

Grow Plants

Get A Nice Pen

Deleting Stuff Is Hard

Examples From The Wild

The Problems (All Within Your Control)

Coming Back Is Not The Same As Never Leaving

Deleting Something Is Not Failure

It Is Not Necessary To Hope In Order To Undertake Something

Thoughts on Clearing Your Head and Creativity

Enemies of a Clear Head (Tom’s Version)

To Clear Your Head, Don’t Use Your Head

It’s a Circle!

Further Reading

Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention To

The Timer Cheatcode: How to Find Focus, Remove Stress and Be More Creative

How It Helps Me

The Main Benefit: It Quiets My Phone Addiction

The Upside Down: It’s About Allowing, Not Restricting

What I Use It For, And How It Helps

Tips

Conclusion

4 Books for Stuck Creatives

Steal Like an Artist - Austin Kleon

Show Your Work! - Austin Kleon

Deep Work - Cal Newport

The Obstacle Is The Way - Ryan Holiday

Conclusion

Awe-Inspiring Moments

Woah, I’m So Tiny

What?

6 Awe-inspiring moments in The Last 18 months

Harnessing Nature’s Power: The Wind Turbine Field Off The Coast of North Wales (Gwynt y Môr)

Part of Something Bigger: Early Breakfast in The New Forest With Wild Horses

The Magic of Live Theatre: Wicked The Musical

Century Old Memories: West Pier, Brighton

The passage of Time: Botanisk Have - Copenhagen’s Botanical Gardens

Shared Experiences: The Eras Tour concert, Wembley Stadium

Sometimes We Just Need to Exist For a While

1am cruising at warp speed - I Made a Synthwave Mixtape for Late-Night Drives

I Stopped Discovering New Music

A New Creative Outlet

I Streamed With a 9-Year-Old Setup (And It Worked!)

Laptop and Camera: Macbook Pro (Early 2015 Model)

Audio Interface: Zoom H4n (March 2014)

Microphone: Rode SmartLav+ (January 2017)

Headphones: iPhone earbuds

Light: Aputure MC