Just a quick reminder - I'm Tom Critchlow. A strategy consultant, blogger, art/tech weirdo and lover of the color green. You probably signed up for this on tomcritchlow.com
A few updates on what's going on - some interesting links and more. Let's dive in.
Portals
My latest writing in The Strategic Independent series is all about workshops - but actually it's not about the kind of workshop you're probably familiar with. Instead it's about creating a portal inside a client's organiztion so that you can bridge the outside/inside problem of consulting.Workshops as portals - and how to create clarity in consulting work
I've had some great responses to this post so I hope you enjoy it. And - if you're digging the consulting writing I do I've collected all the posts into an Are.na channel here: the strategic independent.
Podcasts
Do you know Mark Pollard and his podcast Sweathead? You should! Mark is one of the best podcast interviewers around - I especially love how every episode just launches into it. Usually you're hearing the conversation in under 10 seconds. Contrast that to so many podcasts with the long meandering intro, the music, the about, the, the, the.... Ugh. Just get to it. Mark doesn't mess around. Love it.Mark was kind enough to invite me on the show and we talk about bouncing around, making leaps, finding work and how confusing being an independent consultant can be sometimes.
Ok - but if you like podcasts you should also check out The Tension from my good friend Howard. They're playful, 4-5min episodes that are fun, weird and make you think.
Punk
Did you catch my post from a little while back on Blogpunk? This idea of keeping it weird and letting your personality shine through in your writing continues to excite and interest me. This is another little doodle from a recent chat with my friend Howard (the same from the podcast above):
What is this image all about? It's a 2x2 on blog vs book / fiction vs non-fiction. It maps the spectrum of writing choices you have (loosely, weirdly). I'll explain later in a post soon.I hope you're finding ways to let your blogging be a little punk?
To that end - two things that I'm doing that are a little weird but very fun:
Little Futures is three issues in:
- Business Time - every company has a clock
- Learning - every company needs to learn
- Language - language is a problem
- Brendan: weaving a public web
- Tom: blogging as a social act
- Brendan: sidewalk spaces & positive gatekeeping
Links
Few more interesting things I saw recently:A zine all about sharing your work:
In my opinion writing is a public act, we must learn (even the most introverted of us) to share our work with a readership. See our work as worth sharing, our voices as worth hearing. It doesn't have to be a huge public gesture; it could be 10 copies among friends. Share.
This super weird essay on the computer mouse (best on desktop)
a scrolling lecture on the computer mouse
Counting the future - a weird thing that's hard to describe but worth the click.....
Counting the Future is a visual history of prediction; a collection of attempts to predict the future from data. It focuses specifically on the diagrammatic nature of statistical prediction and puts predictive diagrams in relation with each other through time, across disciplines and domains. The resulting epic meta-diagram aims to provide a new way to access the history of prediction: a subjective and incomplete map which invites multiple readings.
A sewists statement -from Nozlee Samadzadeh an artist's statement about sewing, nothing and everything:
It just turns out that MAYBE my artistic practice isn’t simply the production of clothing, it’s a long-term performance piece about labor that happens to produce clothing as artifacts of the performance. I’m kidding—kind of—
That's all I've got for now.
The next post in my strategy writing is all about "the jigsaw of independence" - it's about managing time, managing energy and staying sane as an independent. Ping me if you have thoughts or ideas here.
Much love.
Tom