Sam Radford

Husband, father, lover of books, writer, tech geek, sports fan, and pragmatic idealist from Sheffield, England. 
May 19, 2024

Writing struggles, work-life balance, top TV shows, and favourite books

It’s been a while! I always aim to blog at least once a month, but several months have now slipped by. The longer it goes, the harder it is to get going again. “I’ve got nothing to write about,” I convince myself. There’s one top tip that’s never failed me though. I just have to remind myself to do it. The tip? Start writing. Literally...
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February 10, 2024

This new iPhone app will change your life!

Don’t worry, this isn’t spam! Nor is it an ad. And you don’t need to be concerned that all my blog posts are now going to get horrible clickbait titles. But… it got you reading this, right? 😉 And I do genuinely want to highlight a new app I’ve been using this last week or so that has already replaced Safari on my iPhone as the browser ...
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January 30, 2024

Dead people goals

Ever wondered if being positive all the time is actually bad for us? I know I have. And Susan Cain’s new book ‘Bittersweet’ is reaffirming that viewpoint. The book is about turning ‘sorrow into creativity, beauty and love,’ and there are two phrases that have stuck with me from the pages I’ve read so far. 1. ‘The tyranny of positivity’...
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January 8, 2024

The bliss of not knowing

We have more access to stats, analytics, and data than ever. This is doing us more harm than good. We know how many people view or interact or engage with everything we post online. We then use that data to inform what we do next. At a business level, that may make sense (though, even there, I’m not so sure). But at the personal level,...
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January 2, 2024

Saving our social sharing for the people we know

I read a post on Threads recently that instantly rang true. Hank Green said, ‘If I could give any advice to young people on social media it would be “share with your friends, not with the world.”’ He then added: ‘If you want to be someone who consistently makes content for the world, that is not a social experience, it’s a job.’ I agre...
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December 24, 2023

Disassociating from Substack

I’ve deleted my Substack account – here’s why Long-term readers of my blog will perhaps be aware I have used Substack in the past to share my writing. I moved away from it earlier this year as it became too spammy for my liking. Any time someone wanted to subscribe to my writing, they suffered a barrage of other marketing that felt lik...
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December 23, 2023

My top three non-fiction books from 2023

Yesterday, I shared my three top fiction books from 2023. Today I turn to the non-fiction books that struck a chord and have stayed with me this year. 3. WRITING FOR BUSY READERS by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink I try and read a book about writing every year. Or re-read a book. One of my all-time favourite books is ON WRITING WELL...
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December 22, 2023

My top three fiction books from 2023

This is the first of two posts about the books I’ve read in 2023. Today, I am sharing my three favourite fictional books. Tomorrow, I will share my top three non-fiction books. Do let me know if you’ve enjoyed any of these yourself. And I’d love to hear what some of your favourite books have been this year. Let me know! 3. THE PARIS AP...
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December 21, 2023

Serendipity (and how I came to be writing a screenplay)

How a serendipitous moment triggered a 2024 goal I have a favourite app I like to use when I’m writing. It’s called iA Writer. I’m using it to write this now. Last week the makers announced the release of a new template. It is called Fountain and it is specifically for people writing screenplays in iA Writer. Curiosity led me to downlo...
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October 19, 2023

What success will never teach us

I wonder how good any of us are at accurately judging just how much we don’t know. I mean, who of us likes to admit the limits to our knowledge or understanding? And yet, what if the better we are at being aware about what we don’t know, the better shot we’ll have at making a lasting success of our lives and organisations? No matter wh...
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October 5, 2023

Embracing boredom

I came across a wonderful and provocative Bertrand Russell quote about the importance of boredom recently. Sarah Wilson highlighted it in her book ‘This One Wild and Precious Life’. “A generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation…in whom every vital impulse slowly withers, as though they were cut flowers in a vase.” I’m s...
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September 24, 2023

Readable writing

I’m reading ‘Writing for Busy People’ by Jessica Lasky-Fink and Todd Rogers at the moment. I recommend it if your life involves any amount of writing—whether texts, emails, documents, or even books. The paragraph below resonated in particular. “When you are balancing the trade-offs between readability and using longer, less common but ...
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September 5, 2023

Unable to meet the emotional needs of my poorly wife

Living with someone who is long-term sick is hard. It’s not as hard as it is for the one struggling with illness, but it’s hard none-the-less. Over the last twelve years, my wife, Rachel, has struggled with various health conditions that have left her home-bound, unable to work for significant stints of time. Ranging from Graves’ disea...
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September 2, 2023

Heard, Seen, Read #9

Welcome to the weekend 😊 Here’s issue #9 of the things I’ve been listening to, watching, and reading lately. As always, do drop me a note with any of your recommendations. 📚 Big Swiss by Jen Beagin I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel quite like this! It an odd, unlikely premise, but somehow it works and, like all good novels, sheds li...
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August 30, 2023

Never challenge someone from a place of ignorance

Hello 👋 It’s been a while. I went on holiday at the end of July and ended taking an extended summer break from my blog. It’s good to be back! How’s your summer been? (For those of you who are in parts of the world where it’s winter, feel free to share too!) You may also notice I’m back posting from HEY World rather than Substack. I rea...
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August 8, 2023

Love is a practice

Where does your mind go when your hear the word ‘love’? Is it to romance? To feelings? Or perhaps to passion? Maybe words like commitment, trust, attraction, or intimacy come to mind. There’s no right or wrong answer. Any conversation about what love is should only ever continue in the spirit of, ‘Yes, and…’. And in that spirit, I want...
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August 8, 2023

Reason is not enough

I came across this wonderful, provocative quote a week or so ago by Dostoevsky, in his book, Notes from Underground: “Reason is an excellent thing, there's no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man's nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole huma...
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August 8, 2023

The second step is easier

One of my intentions for 2023 has been to exercise more. It took until April for me to make a start, but I got there. Warmer, lighter mornings made all the difference for me! Having made a start, I quickly got into a rhythm of doing HIIT workouts several mornings a week. Then, a week away on holiday in May, followed by various family i...
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August 8, 2023

Stop!

Early this year, I read a powerful article by Rebekah Toh on the courage to stop, and stop properly. Here’s what she wrote: “…it’s good to stop. Not just taking in less, but taking in none. Even one day of stopping works wonders for the soul. Three days are better. A week even better. …When we stop consuming so much new information and...
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August 8, 2023

The most irrelevant commandment

If I was to ask you, ‘Which is the most irrelevant of the Ten Commandments?’, which would you pick? I suspect that the second commandment might win any poll. Here’s what it says: ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water un...
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August 8, 2023

Still me

Is it possible to change? Is transformation attainable? It’s tempting to want to be definitive in our answer. We are quick to default to dualistic, black or white thinking. We take sides; we’re either in the Yes or the No camp. But, like many things in life, the essence is found in the grey; in between the Yes or the No. There are plen...
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August 8, 2023

The desire line

We all ‘want it all’, right? At the very least, very few of us don’t want more. A bigger house. A better job. A fancier car. The latest smartphone. Nicer clothes. More glamorous holidays. That list may not be your more, but there’ll be something. And we convince ourselves that life will be better once we get that thing. We do this agai...
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August 8, 2023

Validate me

Who am I? It’s a question asked since the dawn of time. It’s a question every generation, every community, and every one of us wrestles with, both consciously and sub-consciously. Am I who my family says I am? Or my friends? Is it my community? Or maybe my boss or my colleagues? It’s hard to pretend that each of these people don’t have...
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May 15, 2023

The gift of undivided attention

Being fully present to the people we’re with and the moment we’re in Most of us know by now that there’s no such thing as multi-tasking. We’re simply fast-switching between tasks, often in detrimental ways to our well-being and productivity. I sit at my desk, with two screens, multiple apps open, constantly switching from one to anothe...
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February 9, 2023

Balancing MY work with OUR work

I’ve been thinking about productivity a lot lately. Both worries about my lack of it, and my dislike of the term. Let’s start with the latter. ‘Productivity’ feels like such a cold, heartless, transactional word. As if I’m a cog in a wheel, existing solely to be efficient and generate output (for somebody else). There’s a ruthlessness ...
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January 14, 2023

New year, same old me

I’ve long passed on setting New Year’s resolutions. Though a fresh start and a line in the sand can give some momentum to making changes, it’s never enough. One year passing into the next, by itself, isn’t sufficient. Sure, there can be benefit in grabbing the psychological benefit of a clean slate and a kick start, but much more needs...
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December 17, 2022

When there’s too much to do and not enough time

There is always more work I could be doing. I’m yet to come close to clearing my to do list. And there are some things I really should have done by now, but I haven’t. Why? Because work isn’t everything. Don’t misunderstand me, I enjoy my work. Well, mostly! But life is more than work. And long, unsustainable working hours is something...
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December 4, 2022

Are you energising or draining the people around you?

What is your impact on others? Are the people you interact with better off from their being around you, or worse? Do you elevate the people you interact with, or bring them down? When you’re with others do they end up being more-than they would or could have been, or less-than? Are those around you energised or drained by your presenc...
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November 3, 2022

Changing my mind more

“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. – George Bernard Shaw” I came across this quote in the daily The World in Brief email I get from The Economist. I appreciated the reminder. Politicians have given changing your mind a bad reputation. The moment a political opponent c...
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October 29, 2022

Figuring it out, or getting found out?

Adam Grant, in a recent newsletter wrote this: “Impostor syndrome: “I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s only a matter of time until everyone finds out." Growth mindset: “I don’t know what I’m doing yet. It’s only a matter of time until I figure it out.” The highest form of self-confidence is believing in your ability to learn.” As someon...
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