For the past twenty years, I've dedicated myself to the ephemeral pursuit of curious creativity. It has taken me from dive bars to boardrooms and everywhere else in between.
Throughout this time, I've invested thousands of hours in personal and professional development with one goal in mind – to be a little bit better than the day before.
What came from necessity to make ends meet, soon became a superpower. I've designed and launched tech products used by millions, sang to audiences in Thai beach bars and wrote a best-selling memoir that shifted the dial in how we perceive the stigma of mental health in men for the better.
When I looked back, I was immensely proud of the things I had achieved yet something still rankled.
In all that time, my approach to learning had remained the same: pig-headed stubbornness and a resolve to not stop until everything made sense or drove me mad (sometimes both).
With Japanese I hit a wall. So out came my trusty sledgehammer once again: more hours, more tutorials, more brute force. And it worked – until it didn't and I ended up in hospital for an emergency brain scan. Bloody Kanji!
In the months that followed, I realised that if I wanted to reach my goals, regardless of the subject, I needed to find a way to study smarter not harder but had no idea where to begin.
That's when I knew that learning to learn would become my greatest project yet. And in true Hunter S. Thompson style, I needed to be the one to document every single step.
I love languages but I'm no polyglot. While I've dabbled in European staples, I'm naturally drawn to the languages of East Asia.
I studied Taekwondo for many years before transitioning to Thai Boxing. I took a very short break of twenty years before discovering the absolute joy of Jiu-Jitsu and now split my time training almost daily in both Japanese and Brazilian flavours.
If the first phase of my adult life was to visit as many countries as possible, this phase is about returning often to the ones I love the most. Next on my list: Japan. Korea. Thailand.
My big break in tech began after failing to make it as a rock star (a not uncommon path). I still occasionally help companies solve complex problems through elegant design.
My first book, The Middle is a mental health memoir about falling apart and learning to stitch yourself back together. It has been praised by readers for being "brutally and beautifully honest", "inspiring" and "the most honest account of depression and the search for hope in life, that I've ever read".
A (mostly) weekly dispatch on learning, creativity and the secrets to staying curious.
A best-selling mental health memoir about falling apart and learning how to stitch yourself back together.
Want to collaborate, chat, or invite me to speak?
Reach me at [email protected].