Good. Better. Done. A blog about doing great work... and my mother.

“There is no great genius without some touch of madness.” — Seneca   So this is the part of the year where I lose touch with reality and start watching about 12 hours of college basketball a day. It has always been like this. I love college basketball. I cannot really explain why I love (…)

At this point in my life, I’m still learning how to produce good work. The quality of the work will change over time, but everything I do starts with a commitment to work. That work ethic started about the 1st of this year, actually. That’s when the schedule I have today — the hours, the (…)

I took my team up to Ha Ha Tonka last weekend. Ha Ha Tonka is a mid-Missouri park, and I could tell you about its rolling hills, or its castles, or its sinkholes, but all you’re going to remember is its name: Ha Ha Tonka. It has a funny name. But I digress: I took (…)

In 2009, I wrote something that I thought was clever. Turned out I was just being a dick. I had gone to a concert with my roommate, Nate, at the Blue Fugue in Columbia, MO. There were a couple of bands playing that night, and one of the openers was from Utah. They were called (…)

Today is my birthday. I haven’t wished for something on my birthday in a long time, but hell, I’m 25, and I’m feeling old. So here’s my wish. This wish is for you. Today, I wish that you’ll read this and do something that scares you. You’ll say something out loud that you’ve been afraid (…)

So it’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m in an almost empty TV studio in the middle of Springfield. I am sitting next to Leigh Moody, news anchor at the local ABC station. I am the guest for the 4 p.m. news “Close-Up” interview. The countdown goes “4.. 3… 2…,” and then Leigh turns to me and (…)

I was at the Stry.us HQ/apartment on Monday night, sitting on the floor, when I looked up and announced to my editor, Jordan: This is the furthest along this project has ever been. Stry.us — or versions of it, at least — had been on my mind since 2007 or so. But it really came (…)

These words I have heard over and over again: Oh, I’ve never seen anything like that before. As in the time I brought my cell phone to the AT&T store with a crack in the screen. They asked me, “Did you stab this phone with a knife?” I told them, No! What am I, a (…)

When I was three years old, I found a red pan in my preschool classroom. I used to walk around with this red pan and pretend to play guitar on it. There is a photo of me that my parents still hang onto. I have big, fat cheeks, and goofy, green overalls, and I’m soloing (…)

Tomorrow, I will speak at TEDxMU, the TED-approved event happening here at Mizzou. I’m enormously excited to be a part of the speaking list. Astronauts, businessmen, leaders and thinkers will be speaking. And me, somehow. Of course, I’m not content giving just any speech. I decided that if I was going to give a TED (…)