Hey
Reader —
I just came off a week away from work, and the thing I keep coming back to is how boring the first two days of vacation were. Not bad-boring. Productive-boring. The kind where your brain finally stops solving problems long enough to remember what it's like to just... be somewhere. I spent a lot of time listening to music I hadn't queued up in months, reading things that had nothing to do with UX or content strategy, and generally being useless in the best possible way.
There's a version of this I used to feel in the radio studio, years ago. Those late shifts where nothing was happening and you'd just listen — really listen — to whatever was playing. Some of my best creative decisions came out of that kind of boredom. I think we've gotten too good at filling every quiet moment with productivity, and we're worse off for it.
3 Things I'm Thinking About
One Thing I Learned This Week
Boredom is a leading indicator. Every time I've forced myself to take real time off — no email, no "quick check-in" — the first worthwhile idea shows up around day three. Not because rest is some productivity hack (though people love framing it that way), but because your brain needs the space to stop reacting and start noticing. The best thing I did on vacation was absolutely nothing. The second-best thing was not feeling guilty about it.
Links That Made Me Stop Scrolling
On the Podcast
Marginally Better S01E15: The Transparency Tax
What happens when companies try to be transparent — and it backfires? This episode digs into the unintended consequences of radical transparency and when openness stops being a virtue and starts becoming a liability.
New on My Blog
What does it look like to build something real without drowning in tools? I wrote about the idea of starting lean — not because you can't afford complexity, but because simplicity is a feature, not a limitation.
Read more →Need a Thinking Partner?
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