Over the half year I wrote six articles, published two and judged one actually worth sharing. Poor show. You see, I write to answer my own questions—in Talent is Overrated, I was simply trying to figure out how I got good at anything. In Good Ideas I desperately wanted to justify my annoying questions at the outset of projects. I find this method of writing incredibly insightful, but it often produces essays my mother won’t even read.

This entry is no different: I’m trying to figure out why I didn’t write more. The existence of video games looms as an easy answer, but the armchair psychologist in me is unconvinced that Modern Warfare 2 is the true culprit.

About a month into my tenure at HUGE, something happened. Something epic. Something necessary. And it forced me to put my nose firmly to the grindstone.

He was perfectly political about it, but my boss told me to stop being an asshole. Not just a design asshole—an asshole asshole.

Funny thing about assholes is that they usually don’t like being called out, especially when office hierarchy prevents them from responding as an asshole should. But this was different. I honestly didn’t know I was being a jerk. In hindsight, I suppose that just makes me jerkier.

I was close to being fired and it was great. I loved it. It was fantastic. I was given a chance to grow a pair and change, or else. This was the type of task that would challenge all of my skills—not just design or usability or coding, but everything that makes a good human being. Fuck HTML5, this was the type of challenge I signed up for.