I know the format of The Outlier could move on and evolve but when it’s time to dust off my quill and compose it each week, it’s a sweet, sweet relief to have a structure to refer to.
This week has been a little unstructured, taking in a road trip to Scotland for a Christening and much joyous sunny socialising. Returning from north of the wall, I’ve been left with much to ponder, but I’ve decided it’s time to test myself a little. Over the coming weeks I’ll look to learn and release a few new things.
First up in my release schedule will be on Saturday morning at 9am when I’ll be LIVE on Substack with Deputy Headteacher, Researcher and Boys’ Education expert, Deneen Kenchington.
Deneen roped me into the boys’ project at her school in Dorset and she has a wealth of experience and understanding of the challenges around getting books into boys’ hands. Luckily, she’s super talkative so I’m sure we’re going to get a whole host of insights into the matter. To join in on the day, get a reminder here!
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unscale
I visited Japan last year and it’s immediately striking how many bars or restaurants seat barely any people. You might walk in somewhere with 6 seats. I had a beautifully quiet experience at a teahouse in Hakone that seated maybe 8, 10 at the most.
Writer and walk in Japan man Craig Mod says,
They’re not opening these places because they want to get rich. They just want to do something they love, for a clientele of regulars who’ll appreciate what they do for years.
Some restaurants even remove their listings from Google Maps. They don’t want people who don’t know them to come. Scaling up doesn’t interest them. They want to do good work for a few people and that’s enough.
I could benefit from a similar mindset in work terms. Sometimes, and perhaps this relates to this week’s quote, if something isn’t doing big numbers or doesn’t at least have that potential, it can feel pointless. And some projects or products, like books, mostly do require scale to make them worthwhile pursuing, if money is what you need from them.
But not everything has to be like that so in a week or two, I’ll get on with a project I’ve wanted to do but have ignored for too long. Sometimes you just need to read the right thing at the right time and meet the right people to push you over the edge.
thinking shorts
Going to church
The sermon to which the Christening I attended was appended was delivered with aplomb, taking in Star Wars, C.S. Lewis and how to cultivate a relationship with God (apparently he does this not you). It was fascinating to be in a relatively full church, largely attended by regular parishioners and it had me thinking about its value and place here and now.
I spoke to the vicar afterwards and rather than a biography, he recommended me A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis. Lewis keeps cropping up around the place so I’m going to noodle around his work a little.
Intuition
Auralee designer Ryota Iwai eschews working from sets of references. Instead he lays out Pantone chips on the floor and ‘chooses colors by looking at colors, following the chromatic vibrations where they lead him’.
I’ve previously mentioned wearable devices as methods of improving your intuition and am interested in how to cultivate it more broadly, especially given how a lot of the things I do are much slower to emerge than they could be.
Back to the land vibe
This week I did something I’ve never done before – I dyed some of my old clothes. Not only that, I’m really pleased with the results! I wear a lot of white t-shirts that lose their sheen after a while so it’s fun to repurpose them as coloured tees down the track.
I would not call myself a hands-on creative person so it’s fun to do something quite tactile like this, even if it’s extremely basic. The real world is calling to me more and more right now and even if it’s just the improved weather, there’s something more for me both in hand and in the outdoors.
Mythology
Scotland’s ruins, stories of ancient history, sport and the idea of epic undertakings are all roiling around in my mind right now in a heady mythological brew. There’s an idea here and this week I might have found a way to explore it further. One to experiment with soon.
Yellowstone
Why didn’t I watch this before?!
a book
Nothing finished this week but the current list includes Traumaland by Josh Silver, A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, Universality by Natasha Brown and Dead Lions by Mick Herron.
a listen
Author of cult classic The Beach Alex Garland and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann talk storytelling across formats, encompassing books, comics, film, tv and games in this inspiringly broad conversation.
a quote
The problem with likes is it naturally draws your eye towards the most-liked stuff, instead of deciding for yourself what’s most interesting.
– Nadia Asparouhova
lastly
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I’ll see you next time.
That Japanese wisdom 🤌🏻
If you want some of CS Lewis’ work on Christianity I found Mere Christianity really thought provoking.