Hello readers,
I’m addicted to Claude Code. Whenever my 5-hour session restarts, I get it to work on as many things as possible to maximize my usage. This is perhaps fine if I’m only building things.
But I also want to write. It took me a while to admit that squeezing my writing in between Claude Code conversations was destroying my focus and affecting the quality of both my app and my writing. I needed better boundaries. So, this week, I adopted Craig Mod’s ritual and would only “let myself” build things after a morning of writing.
Trying to balance these two different crafts got me thinking about the different shapes of all our work.
The odd shapes of work
My parents have been running their small car accessories workshop for almost 40 years. I barely saw them growing up, and my 67-year-old father still has to kneel beside customers’ cars under the hot Singapore sun to install or fix car audio systems and video recorders. My parents worked so hard so that my siblings and I could have stable, comfy 9-5 office jobs—because, in their generation, that’s the ideal job. Running a small business is for those who “couldn’t make it”.
It’s easy to fixate on the most common shape of work around us. In Singapore, the typical and celebrated path is to go to university and get a corporate job. Then, the rest of our lives are moulded around that 9-5 schedule. We squeeze in a workout before first light and send kids to school by 7. We send them to after-school classes because it’s good for their education but also because we have to work in the office until sunset. But that isn’t the only shape of work.
I’m fortunate to have experienced different shapes of work. For seven years, I worked remotely at two startups. Then, for the following four years, I bootstrapped several startups with my high school friend SK. Instead of being a small cog in a large air-conditioned machine, I got to build software, produce videos, and even manage our accounting books. But I also had to take 6am or midnight calls, work on the weekends while my child napped, and sometimes take no salary.
I use the term “shape” because one type of work isn’t absolutely better than another. A circle isn’t necessarily better than a square. It depends on what the shape is for. Similarly, the ideal shape of work depends on what you want. I have a few acquaintances who raised millions from venture capitalists, worked pretty much 24/7 for a few years, and never had to work again after they sold their businesses. Is that good or bad? Again, it depends on what you want in life. A square is a terrible shape for a wheel, just as a venture-backed startup is a terrible shape for a father who wants to be hands-on with his three kids.
Just as shapes aren’t all regular, our work doesn’t have to be regular. Our brains like to simplify things, so we have preconceived notions about what each type of work should be like. Writers have to publish books; developers have to take a tech job; musicians have to get a recording label and make albums. But those notions are incorrect.
Essayist Henrik Karlsson wrote about a talented musician friend who did what someone who wants to be a musician “should” do:
His main calling in life is writing songs. To this end, he has signed with a record label, put out EPs and albums, and slept in cars behind concert venues—the full package of what “being a musician” means to him. It hasn’t worked. As in, he spent his twenties stressed and doing things he didn’t enjoy (like negotiating contracts and writing social media updates) at the expense of making songs. Looking back, at thirty, he felt a bit like he’d sold out, except he got no money for it. The accumulated stress came back to collect its debt in the form of anxiety and heart palpitations, and he was physically unable to write music for several years.
Instead, Karlsson tried to push him to consider what he actually likes (which is coming up with new songs and performing live) and how he could do more of those without “being a musician”. He could, for instance, write music for video games or work part-time and jam part-time, making a living while still doing what he likes.
The issue, though, is that most of us are not exposed to many different shapes of work. We have only seen a few shapes, or we don’t know the irregular shapes enough to think we can do them. We are biased for what we can see growing up: our parents’ jobs, our friends’ jobs, what our education system tells us. And that shape of work feels most achievable because the people we know are doing them.
So, it’s worth seeking as many odd shapes as possible, ideally those similar to the shape you want. For example, if you like to write, you don’t only have to write books. Ben Thompson writes a hugely popular publication on technology and strategy, Stratechery, and charges $15 per month for subscriber-only updates and interviews. Cedric Chin runs Commoncog, a membership for accelerating business expertise, where he writes business cases. He started it while running marketing part-time for a SaaS company. Henrik Karlsson writes full-time on his 65,000-subscriber Substack. For four years, before his Substack could pay his bills, he wrote his blog at 5 in the morning before work and late at night after his kids went to bed.
Even if you really want to write books, there are many different types of books. On one end, Walter Isaacson writes in-depth biographies and Haruki Murakami writes long novels. On the other end, Alice Munro wrote short stories and Austin Kleon writes short illustrated books. Munro wrote short stories because she didn’t have time to write a novel as a mother of three daughters. Her stories were short but no less impactful, eventually winning her the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.
Or if you like to code, you don’t only have to work as a software engineer at a tech company. Several of my developer friends run small dev shops to build little apps and automations for businesses. Herman Martinus works on Bear Blog and JustSketchMe, which allowed him to quit his job. An acquaintance has a PDF editing app that he grew to more than $50,000 monthly recurring revenue over five years while having a part-time consulting gig.
Taking this even further, you can also combine different interests to create even weirder shapes. Robin Sloan writes novels, produces extra virgin olive oil, and runs a print shop that sells physical stationery with digital capabilities (like a postcard with digital media, for which he wrote the software). Craig Mod publishes beautiful photography books about walking in Japan, supported by his $10/month “Special Projects” membership program. One of the perks is member-only apps that he built, like A Good Book (a Goodreads replacement) and The Good Place (a Twitter replacement).
How do we get exposed to more irregular shapes like these? For me, it was a series of lucky experiences and experiments:
To begin with, my parents are entrepreneurs, so I know working in an office isn’t the only option. Watching them at their workshop during my school holidays made me think running a small business is normal. After my National Service, I had almost a year of spare time before university started. On a friend’s recommendation, I got a contract job at a corporation. That made me realize I hate the office cubicle and pushed me more towards startups. I became “allergic” to the typical Singaporean lifestyle. I believed there had to be a different path.
For university, some friends persuaded me to study in the UK. Convincing me wasn’t that hard because I already didn’t like the pressure-cooker education system in Singapore and I wanted to see the world. There I met other Singaporeans who were working in London. While I knew it was possible to work overseas, knowing people who were actually doing that made it feel more plausible. I eventually got a startup internship in London, which confirmed my gut feeling that I could get a job outside of Singapore.
While using Twitter, I discovered Buffer, a fully remote startup before remote work was a thing. If I could get a job outside of Singapore, why not a remote job? After three applications, I got the job and worked there for six years. Buffer encouraged us to start side projects to learn. So, while I was there, I started a notebook ecommerce business (this made some revenue but lost money), a notetaking app (this is low cost but made no revenue), and a paid newsletter (this had high time commitment but made recurring revenue). Each gave me a little more confidence that I could make money online.
Then, when my super smart high school friend asked me about cofounding a tech startup, I was comfortable enough to take the leap (but not without hesitation). Most of our products failed. But it proved to me that I could make a living online (albeit with a friend). And while working on our last product, Booplet, I discovered Robin Sloan through his article, An app can be a home-cooked meal, and then Craig Mod through Sloan’s writing.
While taking a break from my startup and thinking about my next steps, I contemplated whether I should find a regular-shaped job. But instead, inspired by Robin Sloan’s and Craig Mod’s unique shapes, I took another step into the irregular unknown. I registered a business and drew up a plan to write and make software while parenting two children1.
My parents slogged at their workshop for decades so their children could have a more comfortable and stable life. The best way to honor their hard work isn’t by defaulting to a cubicle-shaped job. It’s to design a shape of work that fits the life I want—with the stability they provided. So I can give my children the same.
P.S. While my Asian dad would never say it, I suspect he is secretly happy that my sister and I became entrepreneurs.
From my commonplace book
2026 (new)
I have been setting annual goals for more than a decade now. I missed this year’s because it was going to be unpredictable. Since things are settling down, I finally got around to listing my 2026’s 1-year, 5-year, and lifetime goals. Better late than never! I’m keeping it private (sorry) but take this as a nudge to review your 2026 goals.
Eat Your Ice Cream (updated)
An unfulfilling life, no matter how long and healthy, is not the ideal. A long life is worthwhile only if it is filled with meaningful relationships and activities.
Here are my complete notes for the book. It doesn’t have anything particularly enlightening to me (only because I have been reading about health and fitness for many years) and is filled with too much research and too few engaging stories. But it has several good reminders. If you don’t need to be convinced of the importance of wellness and only want the key tips, start with my notes.
Pork burger patty, Sweet garlic pork ribs (new)
Every parent will understand this joy: When your children love what you cook. My wife and I tried these two new recipes this past week, and our son refused to share the dishes with us!
Around the web
Take your kid to work by Austin Kleon
Growing up, I spent my school holidays at my parents’ workshop. I used to complain about that because my friends were off playing while I was sweeping the floor and running errands. But I’m starting to appreciate it more now: I got to play with electronics and build little circuits (which I wish I kept doing). Also, my parents wanted to spend more time with me and could bring me there. Nowadays, many parents disappear for eight hours or more every day and their children have no concept of their work.
Some people love Basecamp. Some hate them—to the core. I respect them for being opinionated and creating unique websites (see their latest website) and software rather than simply following trends. Also, being profitable for more than two decades and helping nearly a million people with their work is so much better than raising VC money to fund an unprofitable business that closes down after only a handful of years. My parents have been running their small and profitable car workshop for almost 40 years now. Many customers are regulars who would sometimes come in just to chat and hang out. I’m coming around to the fact that this is the type of business I want to run.
What’s working for my health by Eric Nehrlich
I like reading about what’s working for other (normal) people, especially parents, on top of all the scientifically proven health and fitness tips. I wrote about my health routine two years ago but my life and work have changed since. Time for a refresh?
My kid was sick three times in the past three weeks. The last was kind of self-inflicted, from a vaccination we had postponed because of the previous bugs. At some point, I stopped fighting the disruption (because it’s outside my control) and accepted that my life is temporarily running on a different, much slower clock than the rest of the world. These weeks won’t matter much on a calendar years from now (my firstborn had a similar episode two years ago, which I have largely forgotten). But how I show up during them matters right now.
I hope you are giving yourself some slow days when you need them, too.
Warmly,
Alfred
Even parenting has different shapes. My dad has never changed a diaper, and my mum worked full-time. I spent more time than my wife looking after our children because of my flexible schedule but my wife still handles most of the logistics. Again, I don’t think there’s one right shape. Only the right shape for each family.