Rules of the Game 🎲 #185

Hi subscribers,

Hope you’re all doing well. It’s a good Friday here. For one, it’s my wife Steph’s birthday today and we started it in an uncharacteristic way (for her!), by seeing the sunrise at the local beach.

This is also the last working day (albeit on leave) before starting my new challenge as Head of Design at obodo. There’s not much to see right now, but you’ll hear more about what that’s all about in the near-future - I’ve got to judge what’s IP and what’s just great content!

I’ve also got some other things cooking up with some visual collaboration tools which I’ll also share.

I’m traditionally not very good at being “on leave.” I co-led a webinar with IBM’s virtual design sprint chapter earlier this week (thanks Lee!), have had a few calls, but probably eclipsing all of that was the trip I took with my son.

Over three days, we cycled across the South Downs Way (a 100 mile off road tour). The weather was incredibly hot, the terrain challenging. A true bonding experience. It’s funny - Steph mentioned the word “holiday” and I had to correct her immediately! It’s hard to describe it like that because it’s relentless suffering, but so much joy out of having completed it with my son. He’s 10 and across this, we had very similar fitness levels. See more on my Insta.

Linked to this issue’s title: After the first day, I was convincing myself we should abandon the challenge. It was hard, I was putting my son through too much and it was only going to get harder. After talking about it, we decided to go on (his reason: He had told everyone at school he was doing it - so quitting was not going to be an option!).

I think the triumph of completing something unimaginable outweighs the regret of not, don’t you?

Anyway, better get back to Steph’s birthday. Brunch won’t make itself!

thanks, Ross