I’m Francis. I write (posts here & a newsletter), podcast, and make videos about:
- Books
- Creative habits
- Making things with an iPad
My favorite…
- …podcast episode: The 5 Ms — Connecting some Rounders quotes to the ways that Brian Koppelman talks about staying creative.
- …blog post: What I’ve learned by reading Bill Simmons’s writing — This post doesn’t get a lot of views but it was one I worked on a bunch and enjoyed the process of most. (Similarly, this journal of the first 8 weeks podcasting was fun too.)
- …video: This one with thoughts about the iPad Pro, or this one about how I’ve been using my iPad Pro, and these Book Notes on “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin
I’m also a designer at Google—I used to write about UX on Medium.
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I wrote this guest post for Visualize Value: Verbalizing Value — making visuals capturing ideas from a conversation between Jack Butcher and David Perell. (Both have courses that I enjoyed a ton.)
Latest podcast episode
A video example
Where does the name come from?
The name came from a Cal Newport interview with Pat Flynn. For a few minutes, they talk about one of Cal’s earlier books, How to Be a Straight-A Student. Pat asks for one takeaway for students trying to be better students, better at studying, and better at learning. Cal’s response?
Active recall is the whole ballgame.
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