Howard's Riffs
Putting your name on it
A small habit that twice came close to killing my company.
Creative Business
Building creative careers and ventures that actually work
Creative Business
Home Games
A touring DJ plays almost every night away from home. Andy C says the hardest gigs of his career were at his own club.
Creative Business
When everyone hates your best work
The people who made Walk This Way thought it was rubbish. Somebody had to be certain anyway - and outside music, that job has no name.
Creative Business
Utah to Vegas, via Norway
How one of the world's biggest bands got their first international gig: a tourist, a CD, and a festival in Norway.
Creative Business
Thirty Years of Hating Television
David Chase spent almost thirty years in network television wanting to be somewhere else. Then, at 53, he made The Sopranos.
Creative Business
Forget Quiet Quitting. We're Now in the Era of Quiet Compromising
Nobody planned their current setup. Most people have quietly made peace with it anyway.
Creative Business
Stephen J. Canell's memorable motif
At the end of every A-Team episode, after the credits, there's a mysterious motif. A writer, typing.
Creative Business
The Right Wrong Fix
Brian De Palma got notes to cut a scene. He did the opposite. The studio thanked him for making it shorter.
Creative Business
The Right Bakery
In France's most prestigious bread competition, the winners keep coming from somewhere unexpected.
Creative Business
The Merchant's Stall
Merchant.dev's shop looks like a Studio Ghibli market stall. Nothing's stopping anyone from building something that feels like a place.
Creative Business
The Jetpack That Doesn't Work
Citymapper lets you choose a jetpack, hoverboard, or catapult to get across town. None of them work. And that might be exactly the point.
Creative Business
The Garage
Most startup origin stories start where the founder wants them to. Ask what came before the garage. What's not in the story?
Creative Business
Boredom created Bond
Ian Fleming wrote his Bond novels at a villa with no hot water and no glass in the windows. I think I've found my equivalent.
Future Of Work
Futsal
Brazil's reputation for producing incredible footballers isn't just climate or culture. It's a smaller pitch and a ball that doesn't bounce.
Creative Business
There is no Goose
There's a lot of Clay Davis energy in AI right now. People selling the golden goose. But real results come from the unglamorous work nobody wants to talk about.
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
Creative Business
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it.
Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Creative Business
Intensity, not Tempo
What fabric's resident DJ can teach the rest of us about experience design