Couple of years ago, Timi Ajiboye and I started a “digital agency” called Helloworld. We made websites and apps for clients.

At first we enjoyed it, but we later came to detest it. I don’t remember how annoying those clients were, but past me wrote about it.

When we met, Timi and I had both worked with ignorant, sneaky and outright condescending bosses who make you do a lot of work for very little money, who had no appreciation for what we were trying to do or be.

So, with our studio, we wanted to be different. We didn’t hire…

My friend Saratu is helping me with legal stuff. Like, for free!

In return, I’m helping her with website stuff. Sometimes I hate money, so this barter gives me a lot of joy.

She’s trying to get Wuruwuru registered again, and of course CAC responded with “WTF” (third time now).

So, she’s drafted them a letter to appeal. I didn’t even know you could do that but heh, I’m excited to see what they respond with.

And if this doesn’t work, she has a backup plan. Fingers crossed.

Dear Sir,

I act as Solicitor to Mr. Opemipo Aikomo, the Proprietor…

I’m pairing with Daniel Orubo to publish a book. This is Experiment 5.

№ 1 was Hanky Panky the film, still ongoing.

№ 2 was Cover Bank, a visual database now with 5k images.

№ 3 was J Guide. We made two stories and started on a third.

№ 4 was Cover Stories, which I’ve now dropped. It’s a little more complicated because it involves logistics and other people. I couldn’t make the time to properly get it done and couldn’t find someone to delegate to either.

№ 5, Feel Good, is a physical book, an anthology of stories about…

I paid $50 to Medium just so they can bring back my “Write” button. For the longest time, it was “Resume membership”.

I’m sure there are other ways for me to start a new essay e.g. story.new, but this was familiar. I also didn’t enjoy being constantly prodded to resume my membership. It got really annoying.

I’ve convinced myself it’s because I like Medium, Ev, and appreciate the work that goes into making a good publishing tool, but I still feel swindled.

Anyway, congrats Medium. Yay one more subscriber.

I was on sabbatical for all of Q1 2021, and when I resumed, the overwhelming advice I got was to get back into it slowly. The team had run without me for months, there was no pressure.

My first task was to work with Stefan (my manager) to close out a hire. We’d been talking to Claire, a designer from SA, to join as Design Systems Lead so we picked up the conversation, agreed on terms and she joined!

With Claire, we’d brought on someone with a richer perspective of what it means to run a design team. …

Looking back, I typically did consulting work in three phases.

First, the early excitement. The idea is fresh, ginger is high, there’s plenty money and little distraction, so things move fast.

Up next, the dip. Tough problems and boredom slow you down. Money runs out, ginger dies and other things just become more important. Gradually, the project comes to a crawl.

Eventually, it gets so bad that an intervention has to happen, and this ushers the project into the final phase where things go at a decent pace until the end.

This is happening with the film as well. We…

The most defining trait of adulthood is fear — fear of the present and future, of actions and consequences, of expectations and disappointments, of discomfort and change, of success and failure, of people and power, of strange phenomenon and most importantly, the fear of all this randomness.

“But” is maybe the most counter-intuitive word to use when you’re trying to end an argument. Everything you said before just goes poof!

I’ve learnt to swallow my buts and let things slide to save time, but — won’t lie — it can be really disappointing not to get closure.

Nothing substitutes experience…

We met Donald on the Boulevard de France.

How we found ourselves on the highway is its own story, but let’s just say it involved a party, good looking women who gave the wrong address and not-the-sharpest taxi driver.

After getting satisfactorily lost and eventually learning the correct location, we headed back to the highway to get another cab to the party. And that’s how we met Donald.

The odds that we’d be picked up by a Calabar-raised, Accra-grown, English-speaking Uber driver on the highway at 11pm were really slim, but we weren’t prepared for how much luck we’d end…