Hi! My name is Josh.
Welcome to my Substack. The general themes are business, creativity, and community. Here’s a list of specific things I think about a lot.
Other than that, I find it hard to describe what this newsletter is about. I write for accountability, to think out loud, to vent, and to update my friends on what I’m up to.
So, I’ll tell you some things about me. Here’s a table of contents (linked so you can jump around):
The struggles that have defined my life so far
Connecting with and understanding my feelings. Growing up, my emotional vocabulary wasn’t much more extensive than “I feel good” or “I feel bad”. My intuition about what kinds of events and activities I would enjoy used to be terrible. When I was, for example, anxious or upset, people would frequently notice before I did.
→ As a result, I’ve found a lot of value in writing to narrow down exactly what I’m thinking and feeling.
Being consistent. I’ve started and abandoned numerous projects, courses, etc. I’ve tried learning to draw 5 times. I’ve never been able to maintain a consistent working out habit for more than ~4 months. I’ve had 3 careers so far, and more jobs than I can count on my fingers and toes.
→ As a result, I’ve become interested in sustainable habits and drilling in on the “why” behind things. Why am I actually doing this? Is it a whimsical feeling? A fad? Or does this solve an actual problem?
Project management. Things always take longer or shorter than I think they will. I frequently get in the weeds when it comes to little details. If I’m not careful, I’ll fixate on the more interesting parts of the project and forget the overall goal. I’m not great at rapidly switching between different goals.
→ As a result, project logistics, planning processes, and note-taking philosophies are interesting to me.
Attention. While talking to people, I spend a lot of deliberate effort not getting distracted by my own thoughts. I play a lot of games with myself to keep my attention on the conversation, like trying to predict what word they’re going to say next.
Working jobs that required a lot of creative or cognitive effort was difficult for me. Not because of the work itself, but because I’d frequently wake up excited about my own project or idea, and that pulled attention away from my day job. I needed that attention and creativity for my day job, but I was excited to do my own project instead.
→ As a result, I’m interested in techniques for either increasing my attention span or making things more interesting.
Learning. My memory kinda sucks. With some exceptions, if I haven’t seen a movie in 4 or more years, I can watch it again and it’s like a new movie. Also, learning tends to be feast or famine for me. Either I totally get it, or I don’t get it at all. No in-between.
→ As a result, I’m interested in tools for remembering things better and making learning more fun and predictable. I love taxonomies, flow charts, Venn diagrams, spectrums, and other tools that make things more legible.
Socializing. I had a lot of trouble enforcing boundaries growing up. Specifically, telling people no and/or disappointing them. Even now, it still sucks and I hate doing it.
It took me a long time to learn and understand the utility of small talk. My reply game used to be terrible. It was not my first instinct to understand and tailor my response to the other person. It took having people reply to me in annoying ways before I understood the importance of reply game.
→ As a result, I’m interested in being a great leader and making people feel seen and understood.
Creativity. I never thought I was a creative person, growing up. I figured since I was good at math, I was therefore not an artsy person. I also erroneously thought that “art” was the only domain where creativity applied. It took a long time to not judge my own creations too harshly, and even nowadays I still find myself being too critical.
→ As a result, I’m passionate about helping others unlock their creativity and feel the same joy I felt doing things like writing, drawing, and animating. I also enjoy helping people see themselves objectively and stop being so hard on themselves.
The purpose that feels right to me
Based on my own struggles and experiences solving them, if I had to articulate what I feel called to do in one sentence, it’d be this:
I want to help people solve problems in a non-coercive, positive sum way and facilitate scenes where people can learn things, make friends, share art, and lift up others.
(High level) What does fulfilling that purpose look like?
I started out trying to find the intersection between these 4 things (i.e. Ikigai):
what I love,
what the world needs,
what I can be paid for,
what I'm good at
I think what I’m good at is irrelevant because if I love it I’ll become good at it (eventually).
I think what I can be paid for is irrelevant since, if the world needs it, I can probably get paid for it.
So really, I’m trying to find the intersection between what I love and what the world needs.
I love making things clear and engaging. I’m not married to any particular medium: writing, drawings, diagrams, videos, motion graphics, etc.
Out of all of those, motion graphics seems to be the skill that is the hardest to learn but, when done well, can make things very clear and engaging.
I think there will always be a market for making things clear and engaging. Plus, motion graphics is also a good outlet for making art. So, it makes the most sense to me to specialize in motion graphics design.
(Low level) What does fulfilling that purpose look like?
In the long term, I want to have a youtube channel where I explain things I’m interested in with motion graphics.
In the medium term, to make money, I want to make animated videos explaining things for clients.
I’m not totally sure about what my offer (logo animation? ad creatives? explainer videos?) or market (small biz’s? youtubers?) will be, yet.
But for now, I’ll be networking with anyone I think might need animated videos and see what happens. When I have ideas for people, I’ll make the video and tag them it it as a little “hey I could do this for you too!” wink.
Along the way, I’ll also be trying to hit these skills goals:
Get really good at illustration. I can use Adobe Illustrator to create a picture of pretty much anything in a few minutes and have it look “right”.
Get really good at marketing. I can make titles, thumbnails, hooks, etc that effectively capture what's interesting about my content. I either know or can quickly intuit the desires and motivations of a given audience.
Get really good at motion graphics. I'm well-practiced in all the common techniques used in Adobe After Effects. I can identify when they're used correctly and incorrectly. For any feeling, mood, or message, I know how I'd use animation to create it. And I'm proficient: I can work very quickly.
Get really good at project and knowledge management. I can find anything I've read, watched, created, or referenced very quickly. For any new resource I come across, I always have a place to put it. For any goal I have, I know how to break it down and prioritize it.
Get really good at script writing. If I'm making an educational video, I'm aware of what order to introduce what content. I have a great feel for what would be boring, what would be overwhelming, and what would be just right.
Grow my Twitter, YouTube, and Substack followings. I'm good at jumping into miscellaneous conversations and providing value. I'm good at identifying where and when to plug my work in a tasteful way. I'm good at creating content that gets attention without selling my soul.
Get really good at managing my psychology and prioritizing my happiness. I'm laser sharp at identifying when I'm not being fair to myself, when I'm tunnel visioning, or when I'm being biased. If I've identified something not helpful to me, I have a process for deconstructing it and clearing it out.
In the short term, the priority list for those skills is roughly
motion graphics > illustration > marketing > following > project management > script writing > psychology management
Although there is a lot of overlap (the last 3 I expect to be emergent as I work on the first 4).
What I can do for you
Professionally, I can edit videos, do infographic animations, and build websites.
Some of my work:
some instructional videos for OpenCV.
infographic animations (my part starts at 2:46) for YouTube videos.
YouTube videos explaining Computer Science and Finance topics.
a playlist of random animations I’ve made (I tried to commit to making one every day for 100 days before I realized how much work they took 😅)
In the future, I want to offer some form of Done-For-You videos as a service. So, I’m currently learning the marketing and scriptwriting side of things.
Here’s a tweet with my 90 day plan (from Feb 3 to May 3) to get there.
Anytime I complete a deliverable, I’ll add to that thread. I also report on my progress every Friday in this newsletter.
So, yeah! If you want cool animated videos made for you.. maybe to
build your personal brand,
for a course you’re making, or
to demo or launch your product,
I’ll be available in a few months!
My open questions (stuff I think about a lot)
I’m fascinated by and always up for discussions about these subjects
Business
What differentiates sleazy marketing from “tasteful” marketing?
How does one scale a business and become more efficient without losing uniqueness, humanity, a personal touch, etc?
How is it possible to make money by following one’s curiosity down rabbit holes and documenting what one finds?
What does it look like to make money in a win-win, intrinsically motivated way?
How can we overcome coordination headwinds?
Creativity
How can one capture moments, feelings, stories, etc in as high resolution as possible?
How does one decide when to take audience feedback vs stick with one’s creative vision?
What is “good” work?
How does one put in effort without “trying too hard”?
Community
What’s the best way to support people who don’t currently have a creative hobby but would flourish in their creativity if they got past the gap?
When should we give up on someone?
To what extent can you engineer connections? When does being deliberate help and hurt?
How do we get our needs met in a way that doesn’t create a bad experience for others?
How does one become confident?
Why do we do things? What desires are we pursuing?
What I do for fun
things i'm good at
writing (what's in the infinite box of chocolates this time!?)
talking about hopes, dreams, plans, motivations
learning things with legible progress indicators
creating scenes: good banter, memery, jokes, roasts
things that feel like solving a puzzle towards a productive goal
taxonomizing things
thrills, but within a narrow, controllable band lol. For example, a bad habit I’m getting over is paying just a little bit too little attention to the road while driving to make it slightly dangerous
taking personality tests
making things, manifesting my abstract ideas into reality
testing out hypotheses (what happens if I do THIS?)
analyzing what makes things “good” (why is this funny/not funny? why is this unclear? why is this persuasive?)
Things I find annoying
doing things a certain way when I perceive that a better way exists
being in un-fragmentable groups above ~6 people (it’s harder to get a word in, it’s unlikely everyone is engaged and getting a lot out of the convo)
reading documentation, research papers, textbooks (I get too nerd-sniped / too in the weeds)
losing (especially if I don’t see a way to do better next time)
having to mask my feelings and facial expressions
people who type in all lowercase (but i secretly admire it so i emulate it)
most company websites (they’re unapologetically vague - how dare they be that vague)
when people argue just to argue, especially if others are trying to have a productive convo
bad conversational hygiene in general (monopolizing the convo, interrupting, etc)
having to learn and fulfill an obligation at the same time (i don’t like feigning confidence e.g. saying “yeah I can handle it” and then figuring it out along the way)
the “i got mine” mentality - people who don’t care to play positive sum games
the “I had to go through this so you should have to” mentality
Miscellaneous things I believe
Changing mediums (talking to writing to drawing to whatever) is a superpower
Shitposting is the highest form of consciousness
Learning should be fun
